Chapter 23

Realizzazioni

"The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today."

Kate leaned against the side of her tent, looking at the ground. Maybe she should just go back to sleep again. But she'd slept so much already. But sleep was supposed to be good for you when you're sick. But she had so many nightmares. She rubbed her head, closing her eyes for a moment. Maybe she should just stand there and continue to argue with herself. At least it gave her something to do. She sighed and shook her head.

There was a slight noise outside. It sounded like footsteps on the sand, and they seemed to be getting closer to her tent. Kate held her breath, standing up straight. She grabbed the gun and took it off safety, holding it tightly. The footsteps suddenly stopped, but she knew that whoever or whatever it was was still there. They had stopped, but they hadn't gone away. She drew in a deep breath and held it for a moment, then nervously let it out, trying to calm herself. Why had the footsteps stopped? Was someone or something trying to taunt her?

She knew she shouldn't, but she took a hesitant step forward, causing Vincent to lift his head and look at her. She looked down at the dog, then quickly back up as she saw a shadow pass by her tent. She began trembling and took a step backwards, changing her mind about seeing who or what was out there. Instead of hoping to find out what it was, for now she just hoped that it didn't come and get her. Maybe as it started to leave, she'd peek out and find out. But not until it started to leave.

It seemed like she stood there forever, just waiting to see it leave. But finally it did begin to walk away. And as it did, Kate went slowly towards the opening of her tent. Slowly pushed the flap back and peeked outside, looking around in the direction it had went. Her brows furrowed in confusion as she once again saw Jack. So it was yet another hallucination? If it was a hallucination, then it couldn't hurt her, right? And if it was really Jack, then he wouldn't hurt her either. So either way, she figured she'd be safe.

Glancing back at Vincent, she tried to decide whether or not to take him with her. She finally decided against it, figuring it would be too much trouble to drag a lazy dog along if there was a good chance she was going to be safe. So turning once more, she headed out onto the beach.

The hot sun had dried the wet sand quite a bit. The blood red color had left, but some spots still had a pinkish tint to them. Kate tried not to look at those spots. She continued towards the jungle, heading in the direction where she had last seen Jack go. She was going to get some answers.

The sun had not quite dried the jungle as well as it had the sand. The thick canopy of trees blocked it out quite a bit, leaving the dirt still wet and muddy. Mud normally wasn't something that bothered her, but at the fast pace she was walking it did, causing her to accidentally almost slip a few times. At least the mud kept Jack's footprints though. That way she knew which way he was going.

It didn't take long before she realized that she was heading in the direction of the caves. She slowly slightly for a moment, becoming unsure. She didn't want to go back to the caves. It was just to hard to do it. She wanted answers though. She wanted to stop seeing things so maybe she wouldn't be quite as scared.

The footprints stopped at the cave entrance, and Kate looked up, glancing around. Where had he gone? She took a hesitant step in, noticing him in the infirmary. "Jack…" she tried quietly and nervously, slowly heading over towards him. "Jack, what's going on?" she asked.

Jack stood with his back to her, leaning over, looking through something. He stood up straight and turned, walking right through the wall of the cave.

Kate stared wide eyed. Okay. So now she knew that she was hallucinating. Jack didn't walk through walls. She glanced around nervously, then looked over to where he had been recently standing. She began to head over there, trying to figure out what he had be looking at. She glanced down, tilting her head to the side when here eyes landed on a small wooden box. She gently reached down and picked it up, looking it over. Deciding she didn't want to be at the caves anymore, and she could wait until she got back to the beach to see what was in the box, she turned around and headed back towards the beach again.