Day 2

"The Delusional Prophecies"

After an uncomfortable night sleeping on the beach, Cherry stretched languorously. A smile immediately came to her lips and she sprung up to catch a bite of breakfast and set her plan into action. She began warily with a large gentlemen whom she'd heard called Hurley. He was jovial and funny, and Cherry decided right away that she liked him immensely, and he was just about the furthest thing from dangerous on the face of the planet. So, as much as she regretted, she took her leave of him to move onto the next potential threat.

Forty four may be a small number on paper, but around twenty, Cherry realized just how many names and faces it was. She ran through them all in her head, trying to remember the ones she'd red flagged as maybe's and to return to later. She found it near impossible. Her memory was never very good. Especially now, under all this stress.

So, she sighed and decided it was alright to quit for today. It was already past noon, and she felt like she'd done a great job with her day. There was always tomorrow to pick up where she'd left off. So, she sat on the beach and watched the waves for a while, but found it boring. Her feet were wiggling uncontrollably, and her body was energetic. She stood, and was immediately taken to the edge of the jungle. The beach held the same view. Sand and waves. Big deal. The forest was so diverse. The plants and animals.

Monsters. The little voice in the back of her mind whispered, but she squashed it immediately. There was no monster. If she was careful, she'd be able to avoid any threat. She wouldn't go that far, anyway.

She grinned when she crossed the definite border from the beach into the jungle. She felt like a rebel. It was an unspoken rule for no one to go into the jungle. The beach dwellers were terrified of the invisible monster that lurked there. Cherry scoffed inwardly. Cowards. The jungle was so beautiful, how could it be dangerous? Flowers and vines hung from the trees, and the leaves were so green in the golden light of the setting sun.

Wait, the setting sun? It hadn't been that low when she'd entered. Had she really spent that much time here? Oh well, at least she wasn't sitting on the beach, bored to death. As much as she loved the jungle scenery, and truly believed it was beautiful, there was no monster, she desperately did not want to be stuck there in the dark. So, she turned to return to the beach. But a movement in front of her stopped her dead in her tracks. There, two feet from where she stood was a snake. It slithered once more toward her, and she jumped back. It was completely black, but for a white underbelly that was exposed when it lifted its upper body in position to strike.

Cherry's breath was still, her mouth and eyes wide, as a dozen more identical snakes slithered into her presence, covering the jungle floor. She turned around, but they were there, too. All of them, showing her their white underbellies, tongues flicking. Her breath became ragged, and she panicked. She had to get out of there. As stupid of a thing as it was, she ran, right through the sea of snakes. Through her panic, she noted how she did not have to weave through them, and she did not set her sneakers on one of them. It was as if they moved for her to pass through.

She ran frenzied through the trees, a random branch whipped her in the face, and she stopped to clutch her hand to her cheek. Blood reddened her fingers, and she continued to the beach.

"Snakes, you say?" Jack repeated skeptically as he doled out a dose of medicine to some guy named Scott. Or maybe it was Steve, Cherry couldn't remember. But it didn't matter.

"Yeah, hundreds of them." She confirmed

"Look, Sam…err…Cherry, whatever your name is…I've been meaning to ask you about that, anyway-"

"That's not important." She cut him off, not wishing to go into the subject of her personal life. "This island is snake infested. I am not kidding. What if they're poisonous? They could slither onto the beach and bite someone in their sleep. And then they'd die!"

"What do you want me to do about it? Honestly." Jack asked, stopping his rounds through the beach dwellers to face her.

"I don't know. I just figured…you know, you've kind of got all the answers." She admitted, realizing maybe putting this on his shoulders was a mistake. He did have a lot to deal with. Jack scoffed.

"Far from it."

"You coulda fooled me. You've done a good job of taking care of us so far."

"Well, I think if the snakes wanted to come and bite someone on the beach, they'd have done it by now. They're probably more scared of us than we are of them, anyway."

"That's what my mom said about spiders when I was five, and then I got bit."

"You probably deserved it." Jack quipped, with a hint of a grin tugging at his lips as he took her face in his hands to clean the cut he'd noticed on her face. Cherry's jaw dropped.

"I did not! It made a nest in my Barbie's hair, what was I supposed to do?"

Jack just shook his head with a smile and a shrug, as he stood close to her, holding her face still.

Cherry clenched her jaw, feigning anger. "Fine. You win. But if someone gets bit by a snake and dies, you can't say I didn't warn you."

"Noted." Jack chuckled as she left his presence.

Cherry huffed as she lay down beneath her blanket, fully aware of Eva sitting nearby, her knitting coming along nicely, laid on her knee. Her presence was comforting. She reminded Cherry a lot of her mother. That may be why she trusted Eva with so much. That may be why she chose to station herself near her, and took to talking with her, sharing with her so much. Cherry stared at the crystal clear sky. The stars twinkled, standing out against the deep blackness of space. Sleep was hard to come by of late. There was a lot going on in her mind when she lay down and was given a moment's silence to think deeply.

The drive to Midland was rough. It was hard keeping her mind from wandering on all the possibilities. Of course, all of them were grim and terrible in her mind. She glanced up at the T.V, which was set on the animal planet channel, with a special on pretty black and white snakes, and chewed absentmindedly on her nails, until her mother playfully socked her arm and gave her a glare. Cherry smiled momentarily, but the sound of the door opening on the far side of the room sent her heart into her throat.

"Samantha Harker." The nurse called, and Cherry swallowed hard before she and her mother entered the examination room. She was laid on the table in a gown and slowly moved into the large metal tube. It was a feeling she'd carry with her forever. The most hated feeling. To be helpless. To be poked and prodded, and told what was wrong with you. That there was a chance you would die. The sounds of the machine working and taking pictures rang in her ears. She squeezed her eyes shut, and tears drizzled from the corners of her eyes into her ears.

"I saw the way you looked at him. After he saved you." Kate's voice was heard from behind her, but Cherry chose to ignore her, since she knew who the other woman was referring to. "He's bad news. I don't want to see you getting hurt. Because it's inevitable if you get involved with him." Kate was becoming impatient. She did not take well to being ignored. "Cherry!" As soon as the exclamation left her mouth, Cherry spun around, instantly furious.

"What did you call me?" She snapped. Kate raised her eyebrows in momentary surprise, all irritation gone. She opened her mouth to answer, but Cherry interrupted. "Don't ever call me that again. EVER." She demanded, over pronouncing. The anger that burned in her eyes was no surprise to Kate, considering the tone of her voice, but the sadness was.

"Someone must have called you that a lot, for you to give it as your name without thinking." Kate said after a moment of considering the angry woman staring at her, waiting for her to leave. Cherry had leaned forward, and now she stepped back, her anger replaced by an uncaring façade. She crossed her arms over her chest and looked away.

"Why can't you leave well enough alone? It's just a name."

"Exactly. It's just a name. So why not tell me why you gave Sawyer a different name than you gave the rest of us."

Cherry looked into her eyes. Kate's breath was taken away by what she saw there. A pain so deep Kate couldn't help but completely forget the angry confusion and felt only sympathy. Though she was not yet aware of the reason for her sympathy, it did not lessen the feeling, for she knew there had to have been a tragic incident to cause such a scar on her soul.

"It's not something I enjoy talking about." Cherry said shortly.

'If I wasn't allowed to keep my secret from Jack, you can't keep your secret from me.'

Cherry scoffed. "What goes on between you and Jack is none of my business. I'm not going to give in to you. And keep asking all you want, but some things are better left unsaid."

Kate furrowed her brow. "What goes on between me and Jack?" She repeated, confused.

"I don't know how he got you to tell him your secret, but I won't cave to you. Try all you want, I won't cave to you or anybody else for that matter." Cherry turned to walk away.

"Sam!" Kate called after her. There was an urgency in her voice that was uncharacteristic of her, and it made Cherry suspicious. She turned slowly back to her. "I didn't say that."

"Say what?" Cherry spat.

"About Jack. I never said that." Kate continued, unfazed by Cherry's disdain.

"But I heard you." Cherry breathed, trying to smile in the face of the confusion that Kate was slowly making her realize.

Kate shook her head slowly, a painful understanding painting absolute and utter speechlessness on her face.

Thanks reviewers! You don't know how encouraging it is to know people actually read the stuff that comes out of my head. I appreciate you all! Review again!

Eclypse, Lillywriter, Orlando's Hot Chick, FluteMarcher

Believe me, there will be some major Jack/Kate interaction soon.

I still miss Boone.

As ever
Austin B.