The duplicate


Juliet could see James, and she was so close she could touch him. She wanted so badly to be in those safe, strong arms again. But something told her that this wasn't right. Should she follow her gut? Or follow him on a whim? She chose instead to follow on a whim. He now took her hand ever so lightly and led her into the blinding darkness and hot air of the night. She sighed as she watched him lead her into the heart of the jungle, never mind that it was the middle of the night and her ankles were about to explode with so much water retention. He was still the handsome man with the adorable dimples who'd asked her to marry him.

"James, where are we going?"

James only put his index finger of his left free hand to his lips as a sign for her to stay quiet.

"Shh."

This was strange, James was always one to let her know all the details of something he was planning but he always saved the special surprise for last. Nonetheless Juliet still followed James, her torch lit the way. It was another twenty minutes before she finally tugged on James hand to stop him.

"James. STOP. I want to know where your taking me."

He only turned to face her with a strange smile on his face. Then he disappeared right before her eyes.

"James?"

Moving the torch from side to side Juliet looked for James all around her. She felt a sob coming on but stifled it when she began to hear a familiar roar and clicking coming in her direction. At first her entire body froze, unable to move.

This was only the second time she'd seen the Black Smoke Monster. Suddenly, she found herself able to move and she ran as fast as her swollen feet could carry her. In her haste, she'd dropped her torch and was now blindly running through the jungle with no way to know which direction she was going.

The darkness and the heat were threatening to swallow her whole. Her entire body slammed into a tree quite suddenly and she forced her hands to find the roots. She could see the silhouette of the strange looking tree even in the darkness.

"This is a really creepy tree."

Managing to squeeze herself under it, she held her breath for a moment while the roaring sound of the Black Smoke came ever closer. A sharp pain seized her and a cry of pain escaped her mouth, alerting the Black Smoke of where her hiding place was. Using the tree roots as support, she bit her lip to try and curb the pain. The tree felt as if it were beginning to rock from side to side, but she dug her bare feet into the earth below her. The roaring soon disappeared and she waited a minute or two before she stepped out from under the strange tree. Her mind was screaming at her to find some water. I'm so thirsty. But in the back of her mind, she knew that wasn't the reason she needed to find some water.

Again, blindly stumbling in the dark, Juliet began to feel the ground change, from soft earth below her feet, to something very hard. Rock perhaps? She could now hear running water and she let out a sigh of relief. Something was slippery and wet under her feet and she felt them come out from under her, her head connecting with a very large boulder on the way down. Darkness swallowed her whole, she didn't know where she was exactly, just that there was a very loud waterfall.