A/N:
Whaddup y'all?
Another week has passed and another Thursday has arrived!
A few new things have happened in my life lately, like I added a blog to my website and I do recommend that you check it out 'cause there will be exclusive site news on there!
I also got fired from my job, and I now know that it all came down to the feelings of 1/5 of the managers at the place, but I'm trying to not be bitter … this might be what is supposed to happen in my life so that I can continue forward and do something new with my life, who knows?
Title: The Mystery of El Jardín
Author: MarieCarro
Beta: SarcasticBimbo
Genre: Mystery/Adventure/Action/Romance
Rating: NC-17
Summary: A group of college students with clashing personalities wins an all-expenses-paid weeklong vacation at a luxury resort in the Caribbean, thinking it will be spent on the beach in the glorious sunshine. However, after landing it becomes very apparent that all is not as it should when the students find themselves alone on the island with only their pilot and one guide. Or are they..?
Disclaimer: Plot is derived from the Choices story Endless Summer and is the property of Pixelberry Studios. All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended. Names and places have been changed for the purpose of Fanfiction.
{CHAPTER 4}
We were all frozen as the massive, fanged tiger-beast stalked toward us. No one dared to speak in case the sound would trigger the tiger to lunge.
Alistair stared at it with wide eyes brimming with disbelief and denial. "This can't be happening," he breathed out. "It makes no logical sense!"
"Yeah?" Benji glared at him from the corner of his eye. "You wanna tell it that?"
I felt the timid little fox climbing up my back, hiding inside my hair, and how it shivered in fear. The menacing beast focused on me, its eyes alight, almost as if it remembered me. I swallowed thickly. Maybe it did.
Victoria involuntarily let out a frightened whimper, and the tiger turned on her, baring its teeth.
Without a thought, I stepped between them to protect her. "Vicky, get behind me!" I'd barely gotten the full sentence out before the tiger lashed out with its giant paw, claws out, and gashed my side.
"Bella!" Everyone yelled simultaneously.
I staggered back into Victoria's arms and lightly placed my hand on my side. My fingers came back stained with blood, but at least the wound wasn't gushing. "I'm okay, it's not deep," I said to reassure everyone.
The beast, while still mostly focused on me and the trembling fox, paced angrily in front of us, blocking the exit.
"We have to get around it somehow," Alice said, but Edward scoffed at the idea.
"Yeah, good luck with that. No way we're getting past it."
"Look! There's another door over there!" Benji gestured toward a massive blast door on the far side of the shelter, leading to a dimly lit hallway.
Alistair looked between the door and the beast and clenched his jaw in determination. "I say we make a run for it while we can. Seal ourselves inside."
Edward stared at him like he was crazy. "You really think we can outrun this thing?!"
Alistair glared back. "I really think we don't have a choice!"
The beast drew closer, five hundred pounds of pure muscle, and I knew the next time it attacked, I wouldn't be so lucky as to only escape with a shallow slash. Slowly, I backed up and bumped into the wall, nearly knocking over a fire extinguisher mounted there. I was cornered, and the beast knew it.
The bright red container next to me gave me an idea, and I acted before I could question my decision. I grabbed the fire extinguisher and sprayed it at the beast. The freezing cold gas blasted it in the face, blinding it. "Go! Now!" I exclaimed, and sprinted toward the blast doors, and the others weren't slow to follow. The fox leaped from my shoulders and scampered ahead.
Behind us, the beast frantically pawed at its face and shaking its head to recover. Once it had cleared its vision, it glared at us from across the chamber and tensed its hind legs to give chase.
We darted into the hallway beyond the blast doors and pulled on them to get them to close, but I saw Alice had fallen behind.
"Alice, hurry!" I cried for her.
The beast pounced and would reach her in a few quick leaps, but she slipped through just before we sealed the doors. There was a loud slam on the other side of the thick steel as the tiger rammed it, but it was to no effect.
Scattered around the hallway, we all did our best to catch our breaths.
"Hff… hff… Thanks, Bella," Alice said. "If you hadn't blinded it, that thing would've got me."
"Yeah. Way to not get us all shish-kebabed on those teeth," Edward said humorously to lighten the mood.
I opened my mouth, intending on playing along and lift everyone's spirits, but as the adrenaline in my body faded, my wounded side started burning, and I winced from the pain. As I slid down the wall to sit down, I also noticed I was bleeding more than I'd first thought.
The little fox nudged me with its cold, damp nose.
"Oh, Bella, you're hurt!" Victoria tore off a piece of her shirt and used it as a compress. Edward crouched down next to me as well and offered her his belt to secure it. "Thank you for protecting me back there," she said.
"Of course, I—" I started, but she silenced me by taking my hand.
"But please don't risk yourself for me again," she urged, her eyes wide and serious. "I'm… I'm not worth it."
Before I could protest, Benji spoke.
"Someone wanna tell me what the hell that thing was?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Alistair rolled his eyes when everyone looked at him in question. "That was a Smilodon fatalis."
"A what in the who now?" Edward asked bitingly while making sure that I wasn't bleeding too badly.
Alistair sighed. "A saber-toothed tiger."
Edward glared up at him from his position. "Oh yeah, totally obvious. I must've forgotten my spear and loincloth in my cave because apparently, it's 10,000 BC!"
"Sabertooths have been extinct forever, though, so was that one… cloned?" Victoria asked with a trembling voice.
Benji raked his hands through his hair and grabbed it by the roots. "I'm sorry, but I don't think the brochure mentioned Jurassic Park is Carlisle Cullen's favorite movie or that he inspires to be like John Hammond!"
Alistair crossed his arms, his mouth set in an unimpressed line. "Of course not. Cullen International dabbles in dozens of different industries, but cloning is not one of them. Furthermore, sabertooths would make this Pleistocene Park, not Jurassic. Congratulations, you're only 140 million years off."
Edward dropped his head toward the ground and groaned. "Jesus, Malfoy, who cares?"
It was possible my injury put me in a sour mood because my patience for Alistair and his patronizing behavior was wearing thin quickly. "Could we perhaps focus on the real problem here?" My tone was mean and biting as I was starting to freak out, and I felt quite entitled to my mental state since a prehistoric animal had attacked us not even minutes earlier. "What the fuck does it matter what era it's from or if it's a look-alike, a clone, or a fucking zombie tiger?!"
During my outburst, I tensed up, and it disturbed my wound, causing it to sting sharply. I hissed in pain and leaned back against the wall again. Edward gently brushed a few sweaty hair strands out of my face, and his touch calmed me down.
I looked at the others, who barely dared to meet my eyes. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled. But what I meant to say is that what matters is that the tiger is here now, and it's hunting us."
Alistair stared at the ground with tightly pursed lips. "I was merely suggesting we use our intellects to figure this out instead of running like your new friend here." He shifted his eyes to the little fox snuggled close to my uninjured side.
"And I'm suggesting we use it to get ourselves out of here instead of bickering," I quipped back, ignoring his eye-roll and mumbling as he turned his back to the rest of us.
"I'm with Princess," Edward said. "I should have enough fuel left to get us back to the mainland."
Alistair looked back at us over his shoulder. "The mainland? What are you talking about?"
He looked into my eyes and spoke gently, as if he was only talking to me. "I'm not waiting around to become that tiger's dinner. We've known there's something freaky going on here since even before we landed, and we should leave while we still have the chance. This is eons above our paygrade."
"Let's not overreact, Edward," Alice said, and let out an uncertain laugh. "We'll be perfectly safe as soon as we get back to The Ethereal. You guys don't want to miss out on your entire vacation, do you?"
She tried to remain chipper, but Edward wasn't having it. He stood up and because he was taller than her; he had to bend his neck to look her in the eye.
"This ain't a vacation anymore, and you know it."
Alice's wide eyes swam with uncertainty, but she held on to her stance despite the words trembling as she uttered them. "I'm positive that everything will be back to normal as soon as—"
"As soon as everyone magically reappears?" Edward angrily interjected before she could finish. "As soon as your staff can round up the prehistoric predators chasing after the guests? These kids were supposed to be under your supervision, but it ain't going very well. Bella's side's slashed open, and we're stuck in this building with no way out. I dunno what kinda circus you're running here, but it ain't safe."
"And flying with you is?" Alistair rebutted. "You nearly crashed in that weird storm on the way in! What if that happens again?"
Edward gritted his teeth as he turned his attention to him. "I'll take my chances."
"What about your money? They haven't paid you yet," I said. I didn't know why I even attempted to get him to stay, because, so far, he was the only one who made sense.
His expression softened as he looked at me. "Princess, I've gambled enough to know when it's time to cut and run."
With quite some difficulty, and with Benji's help, I stood up and looked around at the others. "He's right. We've gotta get back home. This place is too crazy."
"Bella, please, I'm sure everything will be fine once we get back to The Ethereal," Alice pushed, but Edward silenced her with a tight glare.
"At least Bella has her head screwed on straight. What about the rest of you?"
Benji, Victoria, and Alistair exchanged looks before they all conceded and nodded.
"No, Edward, I have a responsibility to my superiors—"
Edward's eyes lit up with enraged fire. "Who? To Carlisle fuckin' Cullen?"
"Mr. Cullen isn't here, Alice," I said, but Alice remained staring at Edward. "He's not the one sticking his neck out as his paradise falls apart. It's you. This isn't your job anymore."
Alice shifted in her spot, visibly uncomfortable as the truth sank in, and then met my eyes. "Okay."
"Alright, the plan is to get out of here, grab the others from the resort, and head back to the airstrip," Edward said, warily keeping an eye on me as I pushed away from the wall.
I winced involuntarily as the movement made my wound burn. "We'd better hope there's another exit because that sabertooth isn't giving up."
Benji looked deeper down the hall. "There's gotta be one somewhere. And this place can't be that big, right?"
Unfortunately, Benji was wrong. Together, we headed down the hall, and at the end, two long, identical corridors split off to the left and right, ending in their own intersections. We chanced going to the left and continued on, but every hall only ended in more halls.
"How will we ever get out of here?" Victoria asked as we turned the corner into yet another hallway. "These corridors could run across the entire island for all we know."
The little fox happily scampered alongside me, and Edward watched it warily.
"Is this thing gonna just follow us around now?" he asked.
He'd barely finished the sentence when the fox stopped in its tracks and sat down on its hind-legs while yipping for attention.
"What's that, little guy?" I asked, and the fox stood up to paw the wall. Following its line of sight, I saw a carving in eye-level height, and ran my fingers through the grooves. "Why is there a chameleon carved into the wall?" I asked, turning to Alice in hope she had the answer.
"Could just be a bored employee's drawing," she theorized, then walked closer to examine it.
The fox yipped again and rocked back to stand on two legs only to lean forward to resume its position with its paws pushing on the wall.
"Is it trying to say something?" Edward asked, and when the fox seemingly replied with another yap, his eyes widened in concern. "Can it understand us?"
The fox repeated its movement, and experimentally, I mimicked it. A mechanic sound came from inside the wall as the section I pushed shifted and revealed the outline of a door.
"Whoa!"
Alistair gaped. "There could be a passage through there!"
Edward joined me and attempted to push harder on it, but the wall didn't budge another inch. "No use. Gotta be another way to open it."
A chained wheel valve next to the door caught my attention, and I looked closer at it. It didn't seem to be attached to a pipe, and upon further investigation, I saw a tiny chameleon carving on it, identical to the one on the wall.
"I think this opens the door," I told the others and gestured toward the carving.
Edward touched the chain and huffed in displeasure. "That chain's too sturdy to pull apart. Anyone got any ideas?"
"I do," Alistair said, and stepped forward. "Hand me that extinguisher." With the bright red container in hand, Alistair used it to coat the chain with the spray, and the metal instantly froze. When he noticed our looks, he exasperatedly explained. "It's basic physics. CO2 extinguishers release gas below a temperature of minus sixty celsius. Steel becomes brittle when frozen, and then you can…"—he smashed the bottom of the tank down on the chain, which shattered and freed the valve—"destroy it with little force."
I spun the wheel valve and heard gears moving deep within the wall. The hidden door slid aside and revealed a small office-like room with monitors and boxes upon boxes with documents and files.
"That computer might have a way out for us," Alice said enthusiastically, and sat down in the chair in front of the monitor. The screen flickered on and showed security camera footage of a large room.
Benji looked at the monitors uneasily. "Does that look familiar to anyone else?"
As soon as he pointed it out, I realized we were looking at The Ethereal's lobby, but it wasn't the only room with a camera in it. With a heavy sinking feeling in my stomach, my eyes locked onto the monitor that displayed my room amongst several others.
Alice scrambled for an excuse, but her smile was stiff as her eyes jumped between the small, grainy feeds. "I guess this is so they can monitor if it's safe to return to the resort?"
Edward shook his head with a look of disgust. "You sure about that? Is that why they have cameras in half the suites?"
She didn't know how to answer that and stayed silent.
With an annoyed sigh, Edward dropped the subject. "Forget it. Do you think that phone has a direct line to the front desk?"
"It should," Alice said, and picked up the receiver. "It's working!" She pushed a button for speaker mode and laid the phone back down as the dial tone sounded through the room.
"Great. Then let's see if we can find a map of this place so we can get outta here," Edward said, and started rummaging through the closest box of documents.
The phone rang and rang, and after a long wait, Emmett appeared on the screen and carefully lifted the front desk phone.
"Hello?"
"Emmett!" I exclaimed, and I saw him startle on the screen. "Emmett, it's Bella. Could you get the others? There's something you all need to know."
"Uh, yeah, sure," he said, uncertain, but did as I asked, anyway. When they were all gathered and their phone was also on speaker, I quickly explained what had happened and what we planned on doing, but it wasn't well-received.
"Is this a prank?" Rosalie asked. "'Cause it's not funny if it is."
Edward leaned over my shoulder toward the phone. "It's all true. We're heading straight for the airstrip from here."
Peter crossed his arms and fiercely shook his head. "Forget that! I'm not leaving. We just got here, and I need this vacation."
"Peter, I need you to trust me," I said, hoping he would understand.
"Trust you? I don't know you, and you don't know me. Why are you trying to ruin everything?" Peter lumbered off angrily and vanished from view.
Garrett looked after his best friend. "Don't worry, Bella. I'll talk to him. We'll all meet at the airstrip soon."
"Keep an eye out," Edward cautioned. "That sabertooth is somewhere out there. We'll meet you on the plane as soon as we find a way out of here."
Benji spoke up behind us. "Yeah, about that..."
Alistair threw a few of the files in the trash bin angrily. "We've found absolutely nothing so far. And it will take hours to examine the rest of them."
"Wait, look!" Victoria pointed up to where the fox had climbed onto a top shelf.
"The hell's he doing?" Edward asked, not taking his eyes off the fox.
The fox grabbed the edge of a large binder with his teeth and pulled. It toppled out, hitting the floor with a splat and fell open, revealing a schematic of the tunnels.
"Holy shit," I whispered, and then dropped to my knees in front of the fox when it was back down on the floor. "You do understand us, don't you?" The fox purred happily as I scratched its head.
Following the schematic, we easily found our way to another set of heavy blast doors, which we dragged open using some considerable effort.
But behind them was nothing but total darkness; so deep and empty, it felt like I was standing at the edge of the universe.
"This is absolutely absurd," Alistair exclaimed. "...absurd … absurd … absurd..."
"An echo. Must be some kinda cave," I said. "Does anyone have a lighter or a flashlight?"
Edward reached for his belt and cursed. "Fuck. Lost it. Must've fallen off when we ran from the tiger. We've gotta push forward, anyway."
Benji shook his head. "Yeah, that's gonna be a hard pass. We have no idea what could be lurking in there, or if there's even a way out."
"We don't have a choice," Edward said. "The others are going to the airstrip, and if we're not there to meet them, they're sitting ducks. We have to push forward." He stepped further into the darkness, but the rest of us remained hesitant. "Everybody, link up. Grab each other's hands so we don't lose each other in the dark," Edward instructed, but I was still unsure.
"I don't know, Edward."
"Do you trust me?" He reached out a hand.
"A little," I admitted through clenched teeth.
"Good enough for me," he said with a smirk, reminding me of our climb earlier that day.
I begrudgingly took his hand and stepped forward into the dark.
A/N:
Would you guys trust Edward enough to follow him into a pitch black cavern? A sabertoothed tiger? Like, what the hell? And they're gonna get off the island now, right? Right? And those security cameras that are placed in the suites?! What creepy ass people used to work at that resort?
Tell me all of your thoughts, and as last week, all of you who review or pm will get a teaser from next week's chapter!
Until next time, Stay awesome ;-)
