A/N:

Hey lookie here! Another Thu—no wait, it's not Thursday! It's freaking Wednesday so why is this story being updated today?

Well, I'll tell you!

You see, I'm going to London tomorrow, and I'm not taking my computer with me, so that's why you get this update a day earlier. I hope that doesn't ruin your schedule too much ;-)

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 5}

Darkness smothered me, and my heart thumped violently against my ribcage.

As Edward led the group hand-in-hand through the cave, I tried to calm myself by only focusing on the touch of the fingers laced with mine; Edward's, rough and strong; Victoria's, soft and small.

A quick clicking sound to my right freaked me and I froze, causing the entire group to stop.

"You still with us, Princess?" Edward's voice echoed in the darkness.

A soft yip helped me identify the mystery sound as the fox's clawed feet against the stone, and I took a deep, calming breath to slow my heart rate. "I'm fine. Don't worry about me. I can handle it," I said with false bravado, but my shaking voice easily revealed my true state. My mind was in an absolute frenzy about everything that could be hiding in the dark.

"Y'all know this is the part of the movie where the audience yells, 'What are you doing? Turn back! How are you guys so stupid?'" Benji said down the line, and I had to agree with him.

"Relax," Edward said. "Let's just keep moving forward. The schematic said this is the only way out."

I looked back over my shoulder, past where Victoria and the rest of the group followed but all I could see was more darkness. The light from the halls of the emergency shelter was long gone as we ventured deeper into the cave.

Suddenly, the fox scampered ahead, and the sound of his paws faded away.

"Where's he going?" Alice asked.

"He's leaving us to die. Can't say I blame him," Benji said as if our imminent demise was inevitable.

"Wait, listen!" I said, and we all strained to hear the echoing sound of the fox's encouraging yapping. "I think he wants us to follow him. Maybe he can see in the dark."

Tracking the fox's call, Edward led the line around a tight corner toward an alcove glowing with a strange greenish-blue light.

Victoria let go of my hand and with the new glow, I could see her silhouette walking over to examine the source of the light. "Looks like some sort of crystal or gemstone. It's mounted in the wall of the cave somehow."

Alistair joined her. "Certainly not natural. It's smoothly polished like a globe." He leaned even closer to the glow. "Why did the fox lead us here? To use this as a light source? It's far from bright enough," he concluded.

"Better than nothing," I said. "I wonder if we can get it out of the wall." I pulled on the crystal orb, and it unexpectedly popped out of the socket into my hands. I turned it over and noticed a pair of strange engravings in the shape of alien-like fingers.

"Are those... handprints?" Benji asked.

Alice glanced at the orb hesitantly. "I don't know about you, but my hands don't exactly look like that."

"They gotta be there for a reason," Edward said. "Try putting your hands in the markings."

Benji shook his head. "I wouldn't, Bell. I've seen enough mystery adventure movies to know that never works out in a good way."

"It's not possible, anyway," I said and pointed at the markings. "Both are right-handed. It's for two people."

"Two of us should try it and see what it does," Victoria said, but stepped back at the same time to show that she was not about to volunteer.

I held the orb out and waited for a second volunteer, and I wasn't surprised when it was Edward. But the instant his fingers touched the orb we were both blinded by a sudden light. I had to put my hand up to shield my face, and slowly allow my eyes to adjust.

The cavern had inexplicably been lit up with candles and torches along the walls. A mine cart track ran the course of the tunnel in front of us. Edward and I shared an awed glance, and I turned to the others, but the cave behind us was empty.

"Where'd they all go?" I asked Edward as if he had the answer.

"Maybe the lights startled them, and they ran up ahead?" he said in an attempt to reassure me, but a feeling in my stomach didn't agree with him. He marched forward, but when he noticed that I wasn't following, he turned back around. "Come on. Let's find our way outta here, now that we can actually see."

I hurried to catch up with him while making sure I had a good grip on the still-glowing crystal in my hand.

We approached a rickety mine cart, and Edward peered inside it.

"Holy—Princess, take a look at this!" His eyes were wide with shock over the find.

I almost choked at the sight of the shining metal. "Is that—?"

"Yeah. Gold. This is a literal gold mine." He lifted his eyes to look around. "Damn, this island gets weirder by the minute." He gave me a mischievous smile. "How much do you think you can fit in your pockets?"

"Are you seriously suggesting we steal gold from a random mine cart?" I asked, but he was completely unbothered by it.

"Are you seriously suggesting we shouldn't?"

It was dangerously tempting with the large amount of gold just sitting there unguarded, but I remained hesitant. "I don't know. It feels wrong."

Edward smile grew into a grin. "Doing a little bad here and there is what makes life fun." He winked and scooped up a handful of the lumps, then shrugged as he shoved it in his pockets. "It's Cullen's mine, he owes me money for the flight. I say this makes us even."

I reached out and touched a single nugget, then quickly put it in my pocket before I lost my nerve. Edward continued to smile at me, and I tried to play it off. "What's that worth, a couple hundred at most? Cullen's a billionaire, he won't miss it."

"That's my Princess," he said proudly. "I'm slowly corrupting you, aren't I?"

I was too focused on how he called me "his princess" to answer him, so I cleared my throat and changed the subject. "Seriously though," I said and took another look around. "This feels pretty sketchy. Where is everyone? This mine doesn't look abandoned."

"No idea. Whatever's going on, though, it might not be on the up-and-up."

"What do you mean?"

Edward touched the metal mine cart and examined the quality of it. "This equipment is ancient. Definitely not stuff you'd find at a Cullen International site. When I was in the military, I served near a lot of mining operations, including a couple of Cullen's. Massive machines that dwarf skyscrapers. The kind that rob the earth blind … and leave it barren."

"Huh... never took you for an environmentalist," I said, intrigued to have a small piece of the puzzle that was Edward.

He chuckled. "I wouldn't go as far as calling me that. I just think you reap what you sow."

"So you believe in karma?" I pushed playfully, hoping that as long as I kept my tone light, he'd want to share and not clam up as he had the day before by the control tower. Unfortunately, it backfired on me.

"Doesn't matter what I believe. Karma's made it damn clear it believes in me," he said and refused to offer more than that.

We stood quietly and just looked at each other for a moment. I wanted to know what had happened in his life to make him so cynical, but he showed me time and time again he wasn't going to make it easy for me to get to know him.

"We should keep going," he said when the silence became suffocating and started to walk away from me, but an idea popped into my head, and I stopped him.

"Wait. Why walk … when we can ride?" I jerked my head toward a nearby empty mine cart and grinned.

"You're serious?" he asked as if I'd gone insane. I nodded, and his serious expression broke with an incredulous laugh.

"Alright then." We climbed into the cart together, and he reached over the rim and disengaged the brake. "Here we go!"

The cart creaked as it began to roll down the slope, and the rusty wheels swiftly picked up speed. The flames of the candles and torches blurred as we sped by, and the thrill caused me to let out a loud laugh.

"Not a bad way to travel, Princess," Edward said, and I was just about to agree with him when I saw something that caused my heart to jump up in my throat.

"You might wanna take that back," I yelled and pointed ahead.

The cart barreled toward a wooden barricade too fast for us to do anything but take cover.

"Get down!"

He covered me with his body as the cart shattered the barricade and came to a violent stop. We tumbled onto each other in the cart, and I was just barely able to hold onto the crystal orb. My injured side ached, but I couldn't check it because I was completely pinned underneath Edward.

"Sorry," he said, his face only a couple inches from mine, and I could almost feel the heat of his blush.

The pain in my side quickly subsided, so I knew I was fine, and I simply couldn't let the opportunity to tease him a bit pass me by. "I could get used to this view," I said and felt a giggle bubble up in my throat.

He composed himself from the shock of our unexpected proximity and laughed along with me. "Hah, you should be so lucky." He pushed himself off me and then helped me out of the cart. "Are you okay, though?"

"I'm perfect," I reassured and looked around the new part of the tunnel. Down one pathway, a pale, white light illuminated one of the walls. "Hey, Top Gun, that over there looks like—"

"Daylight. That's gotta be our way out!" He grabbed my hand and pulled me along around the bend. A blackened human skull appeared before us, grinning from atop a pike planted in the dirt.

I screamed in shock at the sight and accidentally dropped the crystal. We were instantly plunged back into darkness.

"Bella! What happened?" Edward asked and tightened his hold on my hand.

"I dropped the crystal and now I can't find it," I said and went down on my hands and knees to search for it.

"Bella! Edward!"

Several pairs of footsteps ran up behind us.

Benji was breathing heavily when he reached us. "There you guys are! Where'd you go?"

"What are you talking about? Where did you go?" Edward asked angrily. "We just followed the torches down this path."

"What the devil are you talking about? What torches?" Alistair replied with equal amounts of anger and frustration.

"Forget it," I said to disperse the building tension. "We found a way out. Edward and I saw daylight this way."

The group linked hands again and followed me down the path I held in my memory, but the darkness just continued with no sight of daylight anywhere.

"It was right here!" I insisted and turned to the others. "It was here, I swear."

"Bella, I don't see anything," Victoria said carefully.

"It feels like this part of the tunnel has collapsed," Alice said as she walked along the wall.

"How is that possible? We just saw daylight coming from over here," Edward echoed me.

"Let's just keep looking. Maybe we're close," Victoria encouraged even as the feeling of hopelessness slowly grabbed a hold of all of us.

We linked hands again and ventured farther into the darkness when, suddenly, I heard splashing underfoot. "Are we standing in water?"

"Fucking hell, cave's flooded," Edward said and kicked at the water. "Dead end."

"Maybe not." Victoria pointed at a spot in the water that was slightly brighter than the area around it. "See that?"

"It looks like daylight, coming up through the water," Alice said, her voice once again filled with chipper hope.

"I bet that underwater tunnel leads outside. We can swim through," I said and felt around with my foot for the opening and to determine how wide it was.

"Swim?" Alistair shook his head vehemently. "You may leave me here, thank you very much. Let my family know I hated them."

Edward grabbed his arm. "Come here, Malfoy, I'll drag you out myself."

I could hear the splashing as Edward dived under, pulling a protesting Alistair with him. Benji dove after and I took a deep breath and followed him. The refracting sunlight gave vague shape to the underwater cavern. Just before I ran out of air, I cleared the tunnel and kicked my way to the surface.

My lungs almost cried with relief when I filled them with air again, and I looked around to find my bearings. I was in the mouth of an ocean cave, and I could see the beach ahead so I swam toward it. The others were already there, drying off.

Edward shook the water out of his hair, and the little blue fox, who was watching him with fascination, started to shake out its fur.

"Copycat... er, fox. Whatever," Edward muttered, but the corners of his mouth twitched as if he was fighting a smile. The fox yipped happily.

I counted us off to check that everyone was there, and my veins filled up with ice. "Guys? Where's Vicky?"

Alice ran to the edge of the water. "She didn't come up? She was right behind me!"

I scanned the placid surface with wide eyes, hoping to spot any sign of Victoria. "I don't see her!" I cried out and felt the panic creep up on me. "What if she got trapped or lost down there!"

"I'll find her. Stay here." Edward sprinted back to the water and dove in, vanishing beneath the waves.

The rest of us remained on the beach while watching the surface.

My heart fluttered in my throat and my nails were digging into my arms with such force it wouldn't surprise me if I drew blood. "Come on, Edward. Find her," I wished under my breath.

The seconds seemed to pass like hours. Benji put his arm around my shoulder, and we shared an uneasy look.

"Please..." I whimpered.

Alistair pointed far out at the water. "There! Look!"

My eyes zeroed in on where he was pointing and I saw Edward's dark-haired head. Against his chest, he held an unconscious Victoria as he kicked back to shore.

All of us rushed into the tide simultaneously to help him pull her onto dry land.

Benji crouched down next to Victoria's motionless body and tilted his ear close to her mouth. "She's not breathing, Edward!"

"This can't happen! You have to bring her back!" Alice cried out, but it only earned her a glare from Edward.

"The hell do you think I'm doing?! Give her space!" Everyone took a step back as he leaned over Victoria and began giving her chest compressions. "Come on, Ariel, don't quit on us now." He tilted her head back to clear her airways, then leaned in and pressed his mouth to hers. His lungs filled hers, and I watched her chest rise lifelessly.

"C'mon, Vicky," I whispered. I felt useless as Edward started the second round of chest compressions, but I knew it was better if I didn't involve myself since I didn't know CPR.

Victoria suddenly convulsed and water gurgled from her mouth. Her eyes flew open in shock and Edward rolled her onto her side so she'd cough the rest up more easily. He sighed in relief and sat back on his heels when she started drawing a couple shaky breaths.

"You're fine," he mumbled repeatedly. "You'll be fine."

Victoria turned her head and met Edward's gaze. "Edward... you..."

"All better?" he asked and smiled gently.

Victoria coughed a couple more times, but then nodded. "Better."

I sat down next to Edward and took her small, cold hand in mine. "What happened down there, Vicky?"

She looked at me with frightened eyes. "Something... I felt something take me."

"I saw it," Edward confirmed. "These vines, like seaweed. They were wrapped around her ankles."

"She got stuck?" I asked, but he shook his head.

"No, they... they were pulling her down. Like they had a mind of their own."

Victoria tried to get up on shaky feet, but I kept her down. "Maybe you should rest."

"I'm okay. We have to keep going if we want to get off this island. The others are meeting us at the airstrip, remember? We can't leave them waiting around there. Not with that sabertooth tiger on the loose." Victoria pushed my hands away, got up and marched forward across the sand, to the edge of the rainforest. "Come on. The airstrip should be this way."

We caught up with her and started through the jungle, making our way toward the airstrip.

"Keep it down. The sabertooth could be anywhere," Edward warned and took up the tail of our group, making sure our backs were free.

I was pushing through a dense mess of foliage when I saw the ferns in front of me stir. A pair of eyes suddenly appeared in front of me, and after everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours, my first and only instinct was to fight. I whipped my fist forward before I could even think.

"Ow! What the hell, you just punched me!" Kate exclaimed, holding on to her nose.

"Sorry," I said sheepishly. "Thought you were a sabertooth."

She removed her hand and checked to make sure she wasn't bleeding. Then she glared at me. "Lucky for you that it's not broken."

Rosalie appeared behind Kate. "The airstrip's just up ahead. What are we all waiting for? To become cat food?" She pressed past us all, and we slowly trickled behind.

I found myself walking next to Leah. "Good, we're all here," I said in an attempt to start a conversation. "I was beginning to worry we wouldn't be able to convince everyone to leave the island—"

"I'm not leaving."

I stopped in my tracks. "Wait, what?" Leah continued forward, and I had to jog to get back in step with her. "Why?"

"Unfinished business."

I placed my hand on her arm to stop her from walking further. "If it's something worth risking being eaten by a tiger over, you shouldn't have to do it alone. Tell me what it is, and I'll help you."

She stared at me for a long moment. "You really mean that, don't you?"

"Of course I do," I said honestly.

Leah violently removed my hand from her arm. "Fucking hell, you're stupid. Trust me, you don't want to get involved. Once you're in, there's no way out. So for your own good, go back to your nice college bubble, live your dreams, and be happy. It's what you're meant for." She started walking again, but I refused to be deterred.

"You have no idea what I'm meant for."

She didn't even break her stride. "I know more than you think. Now keep your voice down. There's a sabertooth after us, remember?"

"You don't seem very surprised about that," I said, a small voice in the back of my head pushing me to find out what it was she knew.

"Nothing surprises me anymore," she replied coldly.

Edward held aside a large fern so the group could pass through onto the airstrip, but at the far side of the area, noxious black smoke billowed out of the windows of the shuttered hangar. "My plane!" he exclaimed and started running toward the doors.

I ran after him and called for the others. "C'mon, we have to put the fire out!"

We reached the closed hangar doors, and I could immediately feel the heat emanating from within.

"Garrett! Help me get these doors open!" Edward called out over the roaring sound of the fire and together they tugged at the colossal doors but they were too heavy. Everyone else joined in, and slowly the doors parted.

A wall of acrid smoke the color of death plumed from the opening and quickly rose into the sky like a storm cloud. I coughed while waving the smoke away from my face and squinted through to see the extent of the damage.

It was bad.

"Edward... your plane, it's..."

"It's gone," he finished with a devastated expression marring his face.

The plane sat exactly where he'd left it, but it was engulfed in flames. The raging fire consumed it, through and through.

"There goes our ride," Rosalie said bitterly and sat down on the ground with a huff.

Through the oppressive smoke, I saw a round piece of gleaming metal on the floor just inside the hangar. "I see something in there," I said and started toward it.

"No, Bella, stop! You won't be able to breathe in there!" Garrett reached out to stop me, but I didn't let him.

"I think I can reach it!" I insisted and shielded my eyes against the thick smoke as I fought my way forward to pick up the small metal disk. As soon as my fingers closed around it, I knew what it was.

Just then, the world around me glowed a little brighter. As if in slow-motion, I turned to see a trail of flame racing toward the plane as the gasoline line caught fire.

"Bella!"

Edward dove for me and tackled me out of the way, just as the flame reached the plane's gas tank. It detonated with an ear-shattering boom in a hail of steel.

Everyone was blown back onto the dirt. Edward shielded me with his body until it was over. When it had passed, he tilted his head up, and his eyes met mine. "You still with me?" he asked and looked at my face for injuries.

"Edward..." I was almost rendered speechless over his heroic act. "You could've gotten yourself killed. Why'd you save me?"

He looked me straight in the eye. "Think you can leave me alone with this crowd? Guess again, Princess." He helped me up and held me tightly against his chest. "I ain't leaving this godforsaken island without you, understand?"

Slowly, I wrapped my arms around him as well, and he tightened the embrace even further and looked wistfully at the smoldering plane over my shoulder. When he let me go, I could see the heartbreak in his eyes.

"How could this happen?" he asked no one. "I don't understand..."

"I found this." I showed Edward the small metal device I'd picked up in the hangar.

Edward stared at it in confusion. "The padlock to the doors?"

"Yeah. You locked up the hangar before you left, remember? And this padlock is unbroken." His eyes lit up with realization. "Edward… someone unlocked the hangar."

"But who? There's no one on this damn island except… except us."

Everyone eyed each other, suddenly suspicious and uneasy.

Kate immediately began defending herself. "Well, don't look at me. I didn't do anything. It was probably Alistair. He looks creepy."

Tanya stepped up to her. "Back off, Kate. He didn't do this."

"Whoa, guys, we are not doing this now!" Garrett separated the two girls before they started scratching each other's eyes out. "We can handle this back at the resort! All that matters now is that everyone is in one piece."

"Yeah, and, uh… that might not be for long."

I followed Benji's gaze across the airstrip to the edge of the jungle. The ferns parted and a powerful, lithe creature of muscle and sinew slithered out, its fangs gleaming in the sun.

Peter started to back away. "You've gotta be kidding me!"

It prowled closer and cornered us against the blazing furnace of the hangar. A quick, stabbing pain in my side reminded me of our last encounter with the tiger and how we almost didn't get away. Victoria and I shared a look, and we knew that this time there was no escape.

The sabertooth coiled to strike when something small and blue darted out in front of it. The fox yapped at the tiger and let out a small growl in warning. The tiger drew itself to its full height, dwarfing the fox. It swung back a paw to slash at it when the fox took a deep breath and blew.

Snow crystals materialized and flitted through the air at the tiger, instantly freezing its paw in ice.

All of us gaped and blinked in disbelief.

"No … way..."

The tiger yelped in surprise. It leaped back, but another breath from the fox froze its back foot to the ground. The larger animal panicked and thrashed, broke free from the ice and galloped off into the rainforest.

The little fox turned around to the group, clearly pleased with itself, before it leaped toward me and into my arms.

Next to me, Kate fainted, barely caught by Emmett.

Everyone looked around, dumbstruck, from the charred, broken plane to the ice-breathing fox to the fleeing saber-toothed tiger.

"What the fuck is this place?"

Seventy-two hours earlier…

The calm waves of the Caribbean ebbed beneath the yacht, the deck rising and falling under a pair of polished Oxfords.

A man stood at the bow, scanning the infinite blue horizon through a pair of binoculars. "Where are you, my friend?" he mumbled to himself. "She can't have gone far."

Something colorful flitted by the binoculars' lenses, and Carlisle Cullen looked up to see a breathtaking creature: a winged seahorse of phosphorescent colors.

He smiled. "Well, isn't that lovely?" he said.

A servant emerged from below deck and arrived with an encrypted satellite phone placed on a silver platter. It rang impatiently.

Cullen snatched it up. "Hello, darling."

The female voice on the other end had a soothing, sophisticated British accent.

"There is a situation at the resort, Carlisle. The wedding party is quite alarmed. The bride has gone missing."

"'Bride'? What bride are you talking about? There's no wedding at The Ethereal this week—"

For a split-second, the world flashed out, and Cullen fell silent. He looked back over the length of his yacht and gazed upon his crowning achievement, the isle of El Jardín.

"So it begins," he said to himself as if something he had been waiting for had just happened.

Even from a distance, he could see the island trembling. Dazzling colors of red and blue danced across the jungle. The gentle white smoke billowing from the peak of Mount Suerte turned black.

Around the yacht, waves began to kick up. The voice on the phone tried to remain calm but couldn't mask its anxiety.

"Carlisle, tachyon readings have spiked. It appears the Event is cascading."

"A bit ahead of schedule. Appropriate, wouldn't you say?" he replied with a pleased grin. "No matter. Proceed with the operation as planned. I'm excited, aren't you, darling?"

"What about the guests?"

"Ah. Right. Them." Cullen sighed. "I presume we should evacuate the resort. I leave that business to you, dear."

"You should get to safety as well, Carlisle. Please."

He clicked his tongue. "Come now. You know I must be returning to my office. That is where the fun really begins…"

"Are you sure that—"

Cullen didn't hear the rest of the question. A shuddering roar from the ocean deafened him. He turned in time to see the glittering seahorse vanish inside the mouth of a colossal creature breaching the surface.

"There you are! You know it's rude to keep someone waiting," he exclaimed excitedly.

The creature slammed back down beneath the water with a stupendous splash, drenching Cullen, but he appeared unbothered by the state of his clothes.

"Unfortunately, I must be going. But I shall be seeing you soon, no doubt," he told the creature. Cullen headed back into the bridge of the yacht, where he began typing on a large touchscreen.

"Carlisle … Carlisle, can you hear me? Does this postpone the timeline of the project?"

"It accelerates it." His eyes scanned over a file on-screen. "Don't fret, darling. Our new arrivals will be in excellent hands. Proceed as planned. This island is their destiny, one way or another. They're the key to everything."

Cullen hung up the phone and tossed it back to the servant.

As the servant headed below deck, he glanced at Cullen's screen and saw several names flicker on it.

Edward Masen

Unknown Redacted (S?)

Victoria Johnson

Garrett Gayle

Jane Doe (Who is she?)


A/N:

What the hell was that crystal? Where did Edward and Bella go when touching it? And did that seaweed that pulled Victoria down have a life of its own? Who set Edward's plane on fire? And who is the little blue fox animal?

Tell me all your thoughts in a review or pm!

I'm afraid that I can't provide you with a teaser this week since I'll be gone until Tuesday, and I feel that a Teaser on Tuesday for the next chapter that will be out next Thursday is kind of unnecessary, but I might be wrong about that!

You know what? Let me know what you think about that as well in either a review or pm, kay?

Until next time!

Xoxo

MarieCarro