Authors ponderous for the day: What is scarier, when Art imitates life, or when life decides to imitate art? Think on that the next time you watch a scary movie.
For now though on with the show.
Sufficed to say Randy caught me, it was neither elegant nor totally successful though. As I dropped the few feet into his waiting arms I miss calculated how far I needed to swing my legs and they connected with Randy's knees sending us both to the floor. Luckily though Randy broke my fall and I was fine. Randy however hand a pair of pretty bruised knees.
"Great. I think I will only give that one a 2.5 for effort." He said brushing off his dust covered trunks and looking over at me. I was supressing a small laugh and he knew it.
"Maybe we should be grateful no one else was around to see it." I said then immediately regretting my words. I would have traded a thousand mocking calls to have all of my friends back right now, Randy however said nothing. He walked over to where he had left our haul and picked up the bird, leaving the eggs for me to carry.
"Dinner?" he offered holding out the dead animal and all of a sudden I had lost my appetite.
"Maybe later, we should get somewhere safe for now the sun is almost up." I said walking over to the eggs and picking them up carefully and placing them in the side pocket of the water bag.
"Ok but you know we need to eat this now, before it goes off." He said as he followed me down the rest of the hill as I headed towards the beach we had spotted when we had been up on the ridge.
"I know it's just the thought of it, you know looking at me before." I said not wishing to clarify what I meant, I didn't even know if I could. Randy said nothing and merely followed me through the trees, I could hear him just behind me and I had to admit I didn't like the feeling. Pausing so he caught up with me I held out my hand once more and he took it without hesitation. I gave him quick smile and we continued until the dawn broke and the sand was once again below our feet.
Deciding that if we were going to start a fire to cook our wears we had better do it where we were not likely to cause a total forest fire we moved down the beach a little and found sheltered spot .
"I will go look for wood, you stay here and keep watch." Randy said leaving me with the bag and the bird and I stood quickly.
"No way, we go together, if we have learnt anything by now it's that we need to stick together." I said rising but leaving our supplies behind. Randy nodded at me, I got the impression he was not looking forward to going off alone, any more than I wanted him to. Walking the forest perimeter together we soon gathered enough kindling together to get a fire going.
"We only have four matches left." I said as we piled the wood up and I dug around in the bag for Ted's matches. The box was in the bottom of the bag and I was having to be careful not to break the eggs in the side pocket as I looked for them.
"Ok so we get this lit quickly, if we can't do it after two matches we give up and try again another time." Randy said holding out a good piece of dried moss for me to set light to. I struck the match and quickly lit the moss, it caught fire immediately and Randy dropped it into the middle of our pile. Wanting to make the best use of the match I dropped the in too amongst some more moss and it caught fire quickly.
We ate the bird, and I have to say once it was plucked and cooked, both I might add by Randy it tasted like chicken, I kept well away from the head end wanting to avoid any glimpse of the eyes. It was good and for the first time in a long time I actually felt full. I guess it was because it was proper food, not just fruit and cake, there was substance to it and by the time we had finished there was not a scrap of meat left on the carcass.
"You know when they say finger licking good." Randy said placing a long digit into his mouth and licking it clean. I couldn't help but stare at the finger disappear into his slightly greasy lips. my eyes locked on to that finger and I barely registered the fact that Randy was talking to me.
"Beth, Beth are you ok?" he said finally waving the hand complete with finger in front of my face and I had to snap out of my current line of thinking.
"Sorry I was day dreaming, what were you saying?" I asked him trying to cover up my own embarrassment. I could tell he wasn't buying it however as a smirk appeared on his face and he lent in my direction slightly.
"Miss Phoenix I do believe you are blushing." He said not losing the smirk and I sat upright and moved away from him.
"Yeah I am pretty tired and its hot out here, maybe we should think about getting some sleep." I replied quickly knowing I had to get out of this awkward situation quickly before it got out of hand. He also knew I was right, we did need sleep. Neither of us had any yesterday, and we had been up all night slaying birds and stealing their eggs.
"I guess so, I think one of these trees will be ok, as long as we stay together." Randy said as he picked up the water bag and placed it carefully on his shoulder. We had decided to save three of the eggs, only eating one each with our bird and it was important that we didn't waste them. We had no idea when we would next be able to replenish our supplies so everything we had was precious.
I agreed that the trees circling the beach would be good enough, there were plenty of them to choose from, we just made sure we found one with a high enough branch that would support us both. It didn't take long to find one, Randy went up first and I passed him the bag when he was on the first branch, we then repeated the exercise again. This time I was on the lowest branch and Randy had moved higher. We did this twice more until we had to have been thirty feet from the ground and the tree still rose high above us.
"You know I think we have chosen the biggest tree on the island." I said and I lay down next to Randy on what was a pretty substantial branch.
"Maybe we could climb it later and take a real good look around." Randy said his eyes already half closed and I could tell he really did need the sleep. I made myself comfortable, snuggling myself in along his side and burying my nose in my own arms which were keeping my head from having to rest on the actual tree. I could hear the sound of Randy breathing, a steady in and out so unlike Ted's shallow panting from last night and again a small pang of regret ran though me as I tried to bury myself further into Randy's side, as though his presence alone to stave of my internal demons. When I felt him move I almost backed away from him. I don't know what made me remain still but I did. Allowing him to pull me in against his chest, almost face to face, touching from shoulder to knee cap. I bowed my head and placed it into the crook of his neck, willing my eyes closed and my heart rate to slow down. I was expecting Randy to say something at that moment, I don't know why I just thought maybe he would feel the need to say something. He did not, he just held me tight as I finally managed to fall asleep.
DAY FIFTEEN- THE HOUSE THAT BILLY BUILT
Waking up it was still light but barely, I woke to a cool breeze against my chest and I felt a shiver run though me. It was never truly cold on the island, even during the storm it had been warm, a humid wet warm, but still warm none the less. I was cold now, and sitting up quickly apparently alone.
"No." I whispered thinking that Randy had been taken like Maryse during my slumber. Getting to my feet slightly unsteadily I clasped hold of the main trunk and looked down. Searching the floor for any sign of Randy. There was none, and the water bag was still there hanging on a nearby tree limb. Wanting to yell for him, but knowing that doing so could be dangerous I almost screamed when something landed on my head.
"Sorry!" I heard coming from above me and I snapped my head upwards at Randy who was climbing across the tree obviously trying to get a look at our surroundings.
"Randy you scared the hell out of me!" I called to him, still brushing imaginary twigs from my hair and he paused and looked down at me.
"Sorry I didn't want to wake you, you looked so peaceful." His smile was evident even from this distance and I decided that I was going to join him.
"Wait there, I will be up in a moment." I said grabbing hold of the next branch and swinging upwards. Walking along the limb slightly I caught hold of the next branch up and made my way towards Randy. I could see him sitting on a slightly thinner branch not ten feet above me, he was watching me climb and from the look on his face he was enjoying it.
For the first time in my life I realised without the help of a makeup artist, or some cleverly designed photos I must have looked like a real amazon. Dirty, bloodied, sweaty and wearing a bikini I must have looked an interesting sight. As my had finally came down on the branch Randy was sitting on I felt his hand wrap around my wrist and help me up.
"Nice of you to join me." He said moving his arm to show me the surrounding view. I had to admit it was beautiful. The sun was setting on the ocean to our right and the trees below us almost made my breath catch in my throat at their beauty.
"I wish the others were here to see this." I said scanning the island once more until my eyes fell on something odd.
"I know me too, maybe when this is all over we can.." I cut him off grabbing his arm and pointing to what I had seen.
"Look, smoke" I said as Randy silenced himself and watched as a steady plume of smoke rose from deep within the forest tree line. It was about half a mile from where we were. If we had been lower, we would never have seen it. As the smoke rose it dissipated and became part of the ever darkening sky.
"Let's go." Was all Randy said, but I didn't need the encouragement. Already starting to make my way down the tree we paused only to grab our bag and then we were on the floor once more. Eyes focused on the sky trying to get a clue to where we were going. From here though we could see nothing, we could only head in the direction we thought was correct.
"At least we know we are close." I said as we made our way through the trees as quietly as possible. If we were getting close to Billy's camp there was far more chance of being caught. The fire suggested he was in the area, probably cooking dinner and god knows what to my friends.
"I can't wait to make this bastard pay." Randy hissed at me and I could see the change in his demeanour immediately. Gone were the playful jokes, the ease of banter between us. Now all that was left was silence and the focus on the next tree in front of us. As we rounded the bend and the tree line seemed to thin we were not ready for what we saw next.
The house was set into the hill side, a small path ran to it though a small gap in the trees, we couldn't see much from our position but we could see enough. The house was huge, two stories high, and I could count four rooms across counting the upstairs windows alone. It was painted in dark grey, the window frames a kind off white and the chimney that rose above the roof was the cause of the smoke we had seen from the tree. I clutched hold of Randy's arm as he went o move forward towards the house.
"No we need to be careful, he could have any manner of weapons in there, or any kind of surveillance, this changes things Randy. This is no simple campsite where our friends have been tied up in the corner, this is far worse." I said crouching down as I heard a noise and Randy froze next to me.
"I know, it's just, I really just want to get this over with." He said and I understood exactly what he meant. The urge to go running in there all guns blazing so to speak was very tempting. We both wanted to know if Mickie and Maryse were ok as well as give this Billy exactly what he had coming to him.
"Me too, but we have no idea what he has in there, or where he is. We could be walking into a trap." I said not knowing anything at this point, but one thing I was sure about was that Billy was home.
Moving back though the forest until we could no longer see the house Randy and I regrouped, we decided that we had to go in with some kind of plan. It was quite clear that Billy lived on this island full time, he probably had a boat or something to get supplies from the main land and this gave us more hope.
"We could escape, for real." Randy said looking excited and I had to admit I was as well. It was one thing to kill Billy and get rid of the immediate threat, but we still would have been marooned here. Still with little food and not much prospect of someone finding us. Now it looked like we could get off this island and live again. We only had one problem. William O'Conner.
"I think we should wait until he is asleep and find out exactly what the lay out of this place is." I said as we sat on the floor behind a large out cropping of rocks and kept glancing in the direction of the house. Both of us couldn't shale the feeling that Billy might just come out and kill us before we got a chance to make our move. We also knew that going to soon before we were ready could ruin our chances as well.
"As I see it we only have one weapon, and that is surprise, if he is asleep in bed we are far more likely to be able to kill him and get away. I mean we don't need him to tell us where Mickie and Maryse are any more." Randy whispered as I turned back towards him and I studied his face in the moonlight.
"Oh no? they could be locked away somewhere, we may need keys or a combination to a lock, I think we should find out where they are before we do anything drastic." I replied and Randy nodded, his shoulders sagging slightly as he looked at me and bit his lower lip.
"You're right. So we find the girls, then we go after Billy." He said as I nodded slightly, thinking that it just wasn't going to be that simple, nothing ever was, especially around here.
"You think they are in the house somewhere?" he asked me as I checked again over the bush and saw that the smoke was still rising from the chimney in a steady rhythm and so the fire underneath must still be lit.
"I don't know, probably, but until we have checked the perimeter I am ruling nothing out." I said sitting down once more and I felt Randy's hand fall on top of my own.
"We search together, no splitting up, not now." He said and I couldn't agree more, this was not the time to play hero. Hero's always seemed to die in the end and I had no intention of doing that just yet.
"Ok but for now we wait." I said not dropping his hand as it sat on top of mine in the small space between us. I watched as his fingers ran between mine and I couldn't help but think they fitted together so perfectly.
"I guess we have no option, but as soon as that evil bastard is asleep we go in." Randy said his hand moving to my chin and forcing me to look at him. My eyes met his and I tried to shield my fear from him. It didn't work.
"We will be ok, I won't let anything happen to us I promise." He said and I wanted to tell him that I believed him, but I couldn't. Randy couldn't guarantee our safety any more than I could, but in the end it wouldn't change anything.
"I am going to get this all down in my dairy. Just in case I don't get another chance." I said getting out my diary and opening it at my last page. I had written about leaving Ted and I skimmed it choosing not to read about that particular chapter of our saga so far. Randy told me that it was ok and he would keep watch. We have been sitting here for well over an hour now and I have pretty much caught up. Well totally caught up actually, as I write this Randy is kneeling beside me watching the path to the house and I am trying to angel the page into the moonlight to see what I am doing. I know as soon as I have finished here we are going to move. Randy told me a few minutes ago the smoke had stopped and we have heard nothing from the house. I just hope I can finish this diary, and it has a happy ending.
Happy ending not withstanding please tune in next time for what happens next. I don't want to give too much away, but let's just say what Beth and Randy find is far worse than what they could have ever imagined.
Please review and let me know how I am doing and if you want that next chapter. Thanks for reading XxX