Day 6
"Something Strange"

The alienation had grown worse during the day. They stole sideways glances at her, but refused to make eye contact. Whispered to each other about her, but never spoke to her. Kept as big of a distance between themselves and her as possible when she passed by. The only ones who didn't seem to fear her were the four that were with her the very first day she blacked out and had a vision. Jack, Kate, Sayid, and Sawyer. The first three made a point to talk to her to make her feel like part of the group, still, and accepted. The latter, talked to her because he knew she was the only one who wouldn't shy away from his company. She needed conversation with people too much to push him away just because he was an ass.

"Hey there, Cherry Pie." He quipped, coming to stand next to her. She didn't need to see the crooked smile to know it was there, putting dimples onto his cheeks. A vision of a waterfall suddenly jumped into her mind as she felt his warmth near her side.

"Do you really think I haven't heard that a million times?" She asked with a chuckle.

"No, but you hadn't heard it from me." His cologne curled around her, and for a moment she heard the roar of water rushing past her head.

"Something tells me it won't be the last time, either."

"You got that right." The sly grin quickly dissipated from his features, however. After a pause, he asked, "What do you know about me? What did you see in my eyes that day on the beach?" His voice sounded so intent, it caused Cherry to turn and look at him. She took a moment to decide whether she should tell him or not. When he heard what she knew about him, would he push her away? Would he be embarrassed to have unwittingly shared all his secrets with her?

It didn't matter. She was sick of lying. She didn't like having secrets of her own, there was too much of that going on, and if she held back another secret from everyone, she'd burst.

"I saw you writing that letter. The one you carry in your pocket. You were crying. I saw you pulling a job, I saw you walking away. Because of the boy. Because you saw yourself in him. And no matter how much you tell yourself you don't care, you didn't want what happened to you to happen to anyone else."

Sawyer furrowed his brow, looking almost angry with her. Then the expression suddenly dissolved into one of indifference. "Well gee, I guess you really got me figured out." He began after a stunned pause, with a slightly malicious undertone. Cherry knew what he was going to say next, and she stopped him.

"No, I don't. Not in the least as a matter of fact. I don't know nearly a sliver of what makes you who you are. I only know what I see, I only feel what I feel. I can't understand why you became him. He embodied everything you despised. Everything you swore was evil. Tell me why." She begged the last in a whisper.

"How did this turn into an interrogation? I'm not the one on trial here." Sawyer barked.

"And I am? We should call this island Salem!"

"You have to admit, the things you're claiming aren't exactly easily believable."

"How else could I know about you the things that I do? You want more proof? Okay, your first girlfriend's name was Alison Gaines. The husky your family owned was fifteen years old when it got hit by a truck in front of your house. Your bedroom was wallpapered in baseball cards, and the very last time the words 'I love you' left your mouth was to your mother, the last time you hugged her that day."

"I…" He breathed, wide eyes staring at her. He'd never been the kind to believe in ghosts, or anything of the sort. He was a realist. Only what he could see with his eyes. But this…was something completely different. He knew how closely he held his secrets. There was only a handful of people in the world who knew him so completely as Cherry seemed to now. And he hadn't even explained any of these things to her. That was the scary part. She just knew. He didn't have to admit he was wrong, he didn't have to tell her he cheated on his biology test. She already knew. He wouldn't have to get up the strength to hurt his pride and hear the words out loud.

Sawyer let out a drawn breath as he plopped onto the sand, running a hand through his hair.

"This kind of thing is pretty hard to take in."

"I know." Cherry replied softly as she sat beside him. Sawyer looked to her, with her gentle smile, and understanding eyes. She was the one being alienated, and was comforting him. How does one become so selfless?

"I'm sorry." He said, before he had even realized it.

"It's okay. I'm used to you being a jerk." She chuckled, but Sawyer only smiled and shook his head, quickly becoming serious again.

"No, I mean…I'm sorry. For all of this. This thing that came to you, the people being afraid. And me being a jerk, of course." He added the last part just to see her pretty smile.

Surprisingly, Cherry sat and talked with Sawyer for another hour or so, until the sun began to set. She knew he didn't want to leave her. He only made up that lame excuse because he didn't want her to think he liked her too much. And she chose not to remind him of her ability to hear his thoughts. It would've been too embarrassing for him. So, as the silence came, the voices slowly became more and more clear. Cherry meandered down the beach. The good mood Sawyer had put her in was wearing off as she realized the distance did not change the volume of the voices.

Cherry sat in the sand, as far away from camp as she was willing to go in the dark. It was there, with the breeze to help clear her mind, that she realized just how scared she really was. It had always been there, in the back of her mind, but only after Sawyer left her could she recognize the fear returning. There was a vulnerability to her situation, one she did not like. Anything could happen to her. She could die, she could go into a coma, become a vegetable. But no matter what, something was going to happen. And it wouldn't be pretty.

Somehow, lying close to the ocean lulled her into a fitful sleep, to escape the harsh reality and pain throbbing in her head.

She woke with a jerk, and recalled the sensation of utter helplessness, of falling into the abyss. Her eyes would not focus in the dark when she opened them. The pain immediately crashed upon her twice as intense as before she'd fallen into what she thought would be a healing sleep.

The noise…it was all deafening. Some of it was static. A terrible, scratchy white noise that filled her head. Though it drowned out everyone else's thoughts, it also was ten times as distracting, and painful. The distance she put between herself and camp during the day didn't seem to matter. The noise seemed slowly to follow her. Like an incoming tide, ebbing closer and closer. No matter how far she went, it would catch up with her.

Frustrated, pained, confused and angry, Cherry did something unexpected even to her. Without a thought to direction, or consequences of it, she stood and ran. Like she'd never run before. Like she felt like doing when the doctor informed her and her mother of Cherry's inoperable brain tumor.

When she collapsed, somewhere in the jungle, she cried, like she hadn't done since the first time she was diagnosed. Like she wanted to when the doctor told her the chance of her surviving it this time was slim.

And she felt cold. A cold that matched the hopelessness and death she felt when she first realized what was causing the heaviness in her body, and the headaches and dizziness. Her body shivered.

She knelt, sitting back onto her heels, with her hands braced on her things, head hung as she caught her breath. Biting back tears, her body shook from the force of the fear and anger. Suddenly, her breath stilled. A curious sensation touched her soul. No fear, sadness or anger. She was unsure why, but knew only that the answer lie somewhere…up. So, she slowly tilted her head up to the sky, to see a single, white flake floating carelessly down. It passed in front of her face, and she followed it with her eyes, as it landed on her knee. There, it sat for a moment, before the heat of her body melted it into a small wet dot on her blue jeans. Her eyes were narrow as she stared at it. She reached out to it with her finger to see if it was real. Her fingertip ran across the drop of water on her pants. Cherry furrowed her brow, and began to ponder on how it was possible.

Then, the coldness blew over her again with increased ferocity, and her heart felt frozen in her chest. She gasped for breath, clutching her chest and leaning backward. She shifted her feet out from under her and lay back onto the ground, looking up at the patch of early morning sky through the rising trees around her.

Why was He doing this to her? What had she done in her life that was so terrible? To be punished by a slow, agonizing death, riddled with voices in your head and imaginations of snakes and snowflakes. To be alienated, discriminated, judged by those who didn't know her or the confusion and torment running through her.

Was Jack right? Was she imagining this cold? Was she creating the voices in her own head, and the images of Sawyer, Sayid, and the man who collapsed? Was it a coincidence that her visions of Sayid and the man's allergies were true? She willed her body to be warm again, to ignore the tricks her mind was playing on her. But she still felt it biting her skin, as real as the ground she lay on.

Her brow stitched painfully. The pain of confusion and frustration, and the frostbite that seemed to be nipping at her extremities, and icing her bones.

Someone shouted her name, but it was fuzzy and far away. Then she heard it again, the same voice, shouting her name, but clearer and closer. His face was above her, eyes beseeching and worrisome. His hair hanging like blonde icicles above her.

"James." She wasn't sure why she whispered that name at first. But as his eyes widened, she remembered. Like pinpointing the reason for de ja vu. Like waking up and remembering the dream you just had.

The thought was pushed to the back of her mind, however, as the frost blew over her again. "James." She said again, as if to urge him to help her. But what could he do? He touched her face, but pulled away quickly as if her skin had hurt him. But, warily, he reached for her hands, which were clutching the clothing at her chest. His hands were so warm. He pulled her up to a sitting position, and sat beside her, his arms wrapped around her. It was like she was surrounded in an atmosphere of her own. An ozone layer eighty degrees colder than the tropical climate of the island. When he held her, he invaded her atmosphere, and felt the air around her get cold.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"Something strange is happening." He heard her teeth chattering as she replied calmly, the warmth of her breath causing steam to curl from her lips as if she was in the middle of a harsh winter and it was ten below.

"Why is this happening?" She whispered to her empty hotel room, staring at her packed bags in the corner from her position, sitting on the bed. She didn't want to leave. She didn't want to go back home, and see the worry and fright in her mothers eyes, face the needles, the cameras, the bad news she knew would surely come. As if her mind had no control over her body, she rose. Gathered her bags, and was at the airport before she knew it.

The people pushed past her. They were so oblivious to everyone around them. Their rushing figures blurred by. A moment of clarity suddenly dawned on her. Everything seemed so simple in that moment. What happens, happens. The world is cruel. Coincidences, random acts of genetics. Everyone was in this terminal by pure chance. She would never be here in this moment again. She shouldn't go back home. She should live her life and her dreams free of the chains of treatment and the burdens that came with it.

But somehow, she was on the plane. Her mother was drawing her home. Something was drawing her. Cherry breathed a long breath. Utter despair clamped her heart. She knew she shouldn't be on this plane. A man ushered his son past her, and apologized as he bumped her with his luggage. She smiled hollowly, and had to clamp her hand over her mouth to repress the sudden burst of nausea that rose in her. The cabin was hot and close, though no one else felt it. She was about to stand and rush off the plane, but they had begun to roll down the runway. Fear gripped her. This was the moment that would ruin her, she felt it in her very bones. If she did not leave the plane, if she went back to America, she would not be happy. She would live in misery. She would die. But, she dug her nails into the armrests, telling herself she shouldn't be here, but knowing all the while, she wouldn't get off the plane. Even if she had the chance.

"I'm telling you, Jack, it's true. I saw it! She's not hallucinating!"

"There is no feasible explanation."

"And that means it didn't happen?"

"It means maybe you thought you saw or felt something that really wasn't there."

Sawyer scoffed. "I imagined a temperature drop of eighty degrees? I imagined the fog from her breath? And I suppose she imagined Sayid getting rolled over by the boulder before it happened?"

"Now, boys, no need to fight over little old me." Her voice came from the tent flap, where she was supposed to be resting. Both were a bit speechless.

"Tell him, Cherry. Tell him something you couldn't know. Prove it to him." Sawyer egged, stepping quickly to her side.

"Don't be juvenile, Sawyer. Come into the tent, and we'll talk about this." She said diplomatically, and Sawyer huffily followed Jack inside. "I know it's hard to wrap your mind around, but what's happening to me is real."

"I don't doubt that. It's your explanation of it that is so outlandish. You may have a condition that makes you cold, I don't know. Here, we don't have the instruments to tell."

"Nothing's outlandish about it, Jack! If you would just open your mind a little and not be such a hard ass all the time, maybe you'd have enough trust to believe me." She growled, suddenly angrily.

"Look, Sam," he started softly, "the sooner we rule out as many possibilities as we can, the sooner we can find out what is really causing these hallucinations."

"They're not hallucinations!" She shouted immediately, then grit her teeth. To hell with being juvenile. "Fine. You want proof? I'll give you some." Cherry growled. She wasn't sure how it really worked, but had a feeling proximity had something to do with it. So, she breathed to steady herself, and stepped into Jack, so there was only an inch of distance between them. Sawyer furrowed his brow for a moment. Cherry took his hands in hers, hanging at his side. Her eyes closed involuntarily, as images flashed brightly before her eyes.

Against the backdrop of a blue sky, Jack looked down, screaming something to her, concern and fear in his face. In a flash of white, an image of him as a boy came into clear view. He was being scolded by his father. Another flash. He spoke with the board of the hospital. Another flash. Jack was crying over his father's body in the morgue.

Her eyes flew open, and Jack held her shoulders, his face so close, eyes so searching. Though her eyes were open, another white flash blinded her, and a few random memories from Jack assaulted her. She held her hands to the sides of her face, and stepped back, overwhelmed. The smell of fires on the beach became suddenly powerful.

She saw Sawyer advancing on her, and he pushed himself between her and the doctor, obviously concerned. But when she looked at his eyes, she was flashed with his memories. The waterfall. Roaring, rushing water. She glanced from Jack to Sawyer, each demanding to know if she was okay, and what was going on. Back and forth, memories from both the men alternated in painful flashes.

An involuntary scream of frustration escaped her, and she pushed them both away. She took a step back, and stumbled onto the ground.

"No! Stay away! Leave me alone!" She screamed, as they advanced upon her to help her stand again. They complied, and hung back warily. Her breathing was labored from journeying through both their pasts, though she didn't leave the tent.

"I'm sorry, Jack." She sobbed. "For what you had to do. No one should have to do that."

"Do what?" He breathed. Her eyes held too much pity, too much depth of knowledge for comfort.

"Search for him. Only to find him like that."

Jack just narrowed his eyes, lips slightly apart, trying to understand. After a moment of stunned silence, he turned and left.

Cherry had gulped down her second bottle of water and tossed the empty bottle aside, dejected. Her throat was still dry.

The sun was halfway set. Jack hadn't spoke to her since she saw him in the tent, only a few hours ago. She squinted down the beach, shielding her eyes from the sun. In truth, it wasn't that bright. Someone was coming toward her.

"Howdy stranger." He called, and she smiled.

"Hey."

"What're you doin all the way down here?"

"Trying to get some quiet."

"Ah, I see. Sorry, am I too loud?" He asked, gesturing to his skull.

"No. You're perfectly silent."

He scowled at her, and gently socked her in the arm with a grin before sitting down next to her.

"What do you think's going to happen?" He asked, curiously. With concern, she noted with a faint smile.

"I don't know. But I can't help thinking, it's not going to be happening for very long."

"What do you mean?"

"I was in Australia because I was running away. I needed a vacation before going back for treatment." She paused to find words.

"Treatment?" He repeated, not understanding. "For what?"

"I-" She began, but her breath caught in her throat as her heart was gripped by an icy hand. "Oh no." She whispered, recognizing the feeling. He was thinking of her.

Her emotions. Frazzled, though she covered it well to the outside world. Sawyer's concern, so blatantly obvious to her, with her unique ability, though he attempted to cover it. Jack's intense desire to heal and help everyone, his curiosity and concern for her. Kate's secrets, Sayid's past, Charlie's pain…it was all there. Jack's thoughts had turned to her, and she felt it. And, as if a dam had been broken, her concentration on shutting everyone's thoughts out was shattered, and they all flooded in.

She couldn't breathe. She couldn't think. The white flashes before her. The water falling over the cliff into the void. Kate, Charlie, Hurley, Sayid, Jack, Sawyer, Sun…everyone was there. A scene of their lives flew by one at a time, and she knew it all.

It was too much. She was strong, but the events of the past days weakened her, and even at her best, at the best of the best person in the world, no one would've withstood it. It swept her away, and she just let go. Stopped trying to control it. Stopped worrying about what would happen to her. She was too overwhelmed and too pained to mind if anyone would take care of it for her.

"Cherry!" Sawyer's voice was muffled and far away. "Someone help! Jack get over here!"

She had stiffened where she sat, and it seemed her chest didn't move to intake a breath for a long time. Her eyes rolled back in her head, as they had the day she blacked out on the beach. But this time, she fell back onto the sand, and her body convulsed violently.

He called for help, and frantically attempted to hold her still. It seemed hours until Jack arrived. Though the doctor would later confess it was only a matter of seconds.

"Turn her on her side and hold her arms." Jack instructed, and Sawyer complied. Jack himself held her head steady, and tied a strip of his shirt around her bottom jaw, to keep her from biting her tongue.

Kate satin the doorwaythe tent, biting her nails, staring into space. Jack kept the cloth onCherry's forehead cool, and looked at her pupils again and again. Sawyer hung back, in a corner of the tent. Hands folded across his chest, watching her. Willing her to wake and be okay.

But no such relief would come to pass. Not for several, tense hours. Kate didn't move from her post. Neither did Sawyer. In sort of a sentinel brotherhood, an understanding rose between them as they watched over the woman that held their hearts. Jack came and went, keeping busy to hide his worry and his confusion,until finally retiring to the caves late in the evening. All three practically held baited breaths, minds mulling over the even more impossible events that had surrounded them since knowing Cherry. After debating to themselves each, the same thoughts of optimism finallyran through their heads.

Maybe the next rising sun would bring some answers.

So I had just about the worst day of my life today. AP Government test, boyfriend troubles, and... that's about it, but it was definitely enough to ruin my day. -sighs in self pity- Don't you worry about me, though. I'll befine. I'll just go hook up with Orlando Bloom. He called me last night, but I denied him because I had a boyfriend. Looks like that's been taken care of, hey? ha, i wish.

The glass is half full, the glass is half full, the glass is half full...

Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong. - Lord Byron

Freckles-101, Solitary Fan, Moon's Tear, Starshollow108

Eclypse - Did you see tonight's episode? I don't want to ruin it for you yet if you didn't, because of your stupid swim practice, so I'll talk to you later about it. But turns out, I think I might be psychic. Ja, mata

Dark Angel206 - Every time Charlie says Turnip Head I just lose it. And his song called 'Monster ate the Pilot' I pretty much lost it when he said that, too. Charlie's just an all around funny guy.

Austin B.