"Get up," the witch in Aqua's dream uttered. "Get up, I said!" Aqua opened her hazel eyes, and the witch was standing there, yellow-haired and angry. "Richard said it's time for you to leave," said Ellie, left the tray she was carrying on the floor and exited the room. Aqua ate hurriedly, not wanting to miss a moment of the search.
Outside the tent, Richard was waiting for her, a big backpack on his back, and a smaller one in his outstretched hand, which he gave to Aqua.
"You ready?" he asked her. Aqua took a deep breath and nodded enthusiastically. "Let's go, then," and he set course towards the jungle. She looked around, waiting for the rest of the search party to join in, but nobody did.
"Wait, is it just you and me?" she asked Richard, catching up to him and intercepting his path.
"Yes," he dryly answered. That's when she noticed the rifle on his shoulder.
"What's that for?" she inquired, pointing at the gun.
"In case we encounter something undesirable," Aqua gave him a suspicious look, making a mental note, as Richard walked past her, to stay at a reasonable distance from him, no matter how attractive she found him.
The day went by uneventful, without any sign of the Lindstrom family anywhere. At night – Aqua calculated it to be around 9 pm – they settled on a beach; Richard produced a fire skillfully in a matter of minutes. In the backpack Richard had handed her, Aqua found her clothes and a couple of blankets to sleep in. During the day, they had only exchanged a few polite sentences, but now that they were going to sleep close to each other, Aqua didn't want things to be even more awkward, so she broke the ice.
"I don't know your last name," she called to Richard, as he fed the bonfire; she was sitting on a blanket, eating and watching him work.
"Alpert," he replied and kept working.
"And how old are you, Richard Alpert?" The man chuckled, like he had before when they met. Aqua couldn't understand why everything she asked him seemed to be so amusing.
"I'm 36," he answered and didn't ask back. Only thirteen years older than herself, thought Aqua, perhaps a little too cheery.
"Are you their leader?" she tried to keep the conversation flowing.
"In a way," Richard said after pondering it for a few seconds. It was clear that he wasn't going to elaborate much on his answers or ask something back, so Aqua stopped insisting. Then she realized what a strange answer he had given her. In a way? What was that supposed to mean? You either are or aren't the leader, she thought.
Throughout the day, Aqua had contemplated over and over the events occurred the previous afternoon: a couple of teenagers had enough power to be the only ones allowed to bear rifles; not everyone in the camp wore uniform; their leader had introduced himself by his first name, not by rank or surname. She summed up all these details until she came to a conclusion.
"So, Richard, what did you do to the U.S. Army?" she quipped. This immediately caught Richard's attention, who stopped his task completely and stared at her, an indecipherable look in his face. "I know you're not military, any of you. I'm not stupid. You couldn't care less about Fitzgerald being dead and me stealing his clothes. So… What happened to them?" Richard only looked at her for a few seconds before nodding and raising his eyebrows to himself, slightly impressed by Aqua's deducting capabilities. He dropped the last log in the fire and sat next to her.
"You're one smart girl." Aqua beamed at the compliment. "I killed them all," Richard confessed, matter-of-factly, and the smile in Aqua's face quickly dropped. For the first time, she was afraid of him. Richard took notice of this. "They wouldn't leave peacefully," he began explaining. "They put my people and our island in danger. I couldn't allow that. They brought it upon themselves, left me no other choice." Aqua was in a stunned silence. She couldn't say she wasn't expecting that answer, but Richard's coldness scared her. She suddenly became very aware that she was a day's walk away from other people, alone with an armed man who had murdered a military platoon with no remorse. "I'm not going to hurt you," he broke the silence, startling Aqua. In a kinder voice, he continued, "I sincerely wish to help you. You're lost and scared and miss your family. I know what that's like."
"Why didn't you bring anyone else?" Aqua asked in a whisper. Richard took a deep breath before answering.
"They have another, very important task to complete. The Army left a major problem in our hands, and they're trying to get rid of it," he smiled after this enigmatic response, trying to calm Aqua's nerves. It almost worked.
She was very tired, but she refused to fall asleep before Richard, still wary of him; she lay on her side, with his back to him and the fire, waiting. A half an hour later she heard the faintest snore coming his way, so she turned over to feel the warmth on her face. Richard was sleeping on his back, with one arm under his head. He looked so at peace and so very handsome, that Aqua's heart started beating faster, and she couldn't understand why. Musing over her feelings for Richard, she slowly drifted away, engulfed by the darkness, asleep and dreaming in a heartbeat.
Aqua is walking through the island with Richard. Except it isn't Richard. It is Fitzgerald, redheaded and scared. They are running. He is only wearing one boot. She is only wearing one boot. It starts raining. A dark shadow is following them, so close so close so close. Her mother in the distance, on the other side a clearing. Then her sister and her sister. She almost reaches the clearing, she is so close! It is so close. She runs and runs and Fitzgerald is gone. The clearing! She is running across it, but the ground turns to sand and the sand turns to water. She is running on water, sinking more and more and more with every step. She can almost touch them. But they jump into the water, one by one. Why why why. The dark shadow is here, the dark shadow is taking her. Don't please don't. They're waving, they're underwater. She stretches, but she can't reach them. Gone gone gone. They smile, she smiles, she wakes up, she's underwater, she drowns. Gone gone gone.
Her eyes shot open; she was heaving. Richard had woken up a few minutes before, when he heard her whimpering. He was concerned, for Aqua was shaking, crying, and grasping for air. It took her a few minutes to calm down, and when she finally did, she didn't have the energy to look over at Richard, whose gaze she could feel intensely fixated on her. She remained still for a few more minutes, looking at the stars above her, tears streaming down each side of her face.
"Are you alright?" Richard's worried voice reached her from the other side of the crackling fire. She slowly nodded, avoiding his eyes. Richard didn't believe her, but he didn't know how to help her. Aqua wanted his help, but she didn't know how to ask for it. They let the silence fall between them, aware of what they wanted, but unable to express it.
"Can you…" Aqua was finally able to whisper. She swallowed. "Can you talk to me?"
"What do you want me to tell you?" Richard asked softly, eager to make her feel better.
"Anything. Just…talk to me. Please," it was almost a plea, and she broke Richard's heart.
"Do you see that constellation up there?" he said after a couple of minutes. The sky was clear and full of stars. He had learned the celestial map after countless sleepless nights on the island. "That's Centaurus, the centaur. The brightest star at the bottom is Alpha Centauri. And that small one…" he kept going, talking about stars with passion. Aqua forgot why she had been wary of him, and she promptly fell asleep to Richard's soothing voice.