Hi all! Another chapter :) Hope everyone enjoys!
Disclaimer: I own nothing but Finn and Elliot.
Chapter Four:
She set out in the morning down the shoreline, sun barely peeping up, faint light rippling the water. She didn't venture into the jungle until midday, and by the time she sensed the very wrongness of the stillness of the trees and animals, her foot had already caught in the jagged teeth of some trap.
White pain seared her vision, and her world became shaky, vision blurring. She remembered, suddenly and with horror, a previous pain that she thought had been forgotten.
A pained whimper escaped her lips, and she fell to her knees, ankle twisting awkwardly as she tried to steady herself on her hands. She could see blood, red and sticky and hot, seeping from between the edges of the trap.
She thought she was going to die.
She heard a rustle, whipped her head around, and for the second time in two days, everything disappeared from her vision.
...
"I could let you go, you know," he whispered, hot, heavy breath caressing her ear.
She let herself feel a sliver of hope, fingers curling around the chains that held her in place. Maybe, this time, he'd mean it. Maybe he'd take the key and unlock the chains and she could crawl out of here, hurt but alive.
"I could let you go, but I won't," he pulled away, a sickly grin coating his grimy face, yellow teeth cracking his jaw, and she cried and cried and cried, and he laughed and laughed and laughed.
...
She awoke to the stale air of the earth and chains at her hands.
She could still feel the shooting pain in her ankle, and as her head cleared she realized that she is completely trapped to a bed, locked in tight.
She gasped out a breath, pulled at the chains until her wrists are raw, but it is no use. Tears stream from her eyes as panic takes over, enveloping her brain with the pumping, pulsing thread of adrenaline and survival that's engrained into every animal with a living, beating heart.
"If you do not struggle so much, it will not hurt," a woman's voice tinged with a heavy french accent filtered through her panic.
She still gasps in those great breaths, keeps pulling, eyes searching blindly for the source of the voice. A woman, dirty and wild, comes into view by the foot of the bed.
"Please, s'il vous plaît, please," Elliot tries her native language but just breaks down into sobs again.
Inside, in a place where he hadn't gotten to, she is ashamed. She is ashamed at the blubbering mess of feelings and fear she has become, because she knows that she is stronger than this. She survived that horrible place for seven months. She can survive this.
"Do you know where my Alex is? Do you?" the woman hisses, striding closer and gazing down, eyes harsh and untamed.
"No! Please, please, I was on a plane crash, I'll give you whatever you want, please," Elliot gasps, pulling harder and harsher and please, she has to get out, she can't do this again, she won't survive it this time, she knows deep down in her gut.
"Fine," the woman relents, backing up.
Relief spills through Elliot. The woman is going to get keys. She is going to be okay.
Instead pain sears through her whole body again, and she is pushed back into her dreams with a heavy shout.
When she awakes again, she has gained more control over her reaction to the chains. She keeps her eyes closed, teeth firmly snapped together. Her brain has cleared some, and she can hear a familiar voice in the background, accent mixing with the french woman's.
Sayid. She caught him too.
The french woman is murmuring a low reply to whatever Sayid had just said, when she stops, and a heavy silence falls across the room.
"Ah. So she finally awakens. Est-ce que vous veulent parler maintenant, petite fille? Do you want to talk now, little girl?" the woman's voice cuts her ears like glass, and Elliot's eyes snap open to glare at her.
She says not a word. She will not let the woman have the satisfaction.
Just as the woman opens her mouth again, a creaking noise sounds from above, followed by the heavy rustling of many trees being disturbed. The woman freezes, looking up for a minute that seems endless in Elliot's head, before rushing to grab a gun.
Elliot tenses but the woman is gone through a door in the ceiling in seconds, bamboo slamming down behind her.
Elliot lets out a hard breath and finally lets her body relax. "Any chance you can get me out of here?" she shoots towards Sayid.
There is a pause before she hears footsteps, and she finally takes in his dark, hovering form, like some avenging angel above her. He doesn't meet her eyes and goes right to work picking the lock to her chains, skin brushing hers, and she resists the urge to clench her fingers on his wrist. She needs contact, she finds with a frown and a feeling of disgust. Elliot doesn't like to need anything.
He finally gets her free and she shoots up, letting her feet plant down hard on the dirt floor. Her breath is finally returning to normal, even as she rubs her wrists, red and aching.
"We need to go," he turns, perusing the selection of guns that lines one wall.
She pushes off the bed, a small whimper escaping her lips before she falls right back down. She bites her lip and slips out of her trainer and sock, eyes widening at the sight of her bloody ankle.
Sayid turns, gun in hand, impatience painting his face. "What's-oh. Are you alright?" he asks, kneeling by the bed and grabbing her ankle.
Her breath hisses out through clenched teeth, both at the pain and his hands on her skin. She didn't like to be touched without warning, and he seemed extremely apt to do that.
"My foot was caught in one of her traps," Elliot explained without looking at him.
"Can you walk?" he asked, looking up. For once she can sense sympathy in his tone, and she hates it.
"I'll be fine. Let's just go before she gets back," Elliot mutters, rocking forward again, and this time she remains standing, face stony.
Sayid nods and moves to open the bamboo door, climbing out. She follows, limping heavily once they reach muddy ground.
The noise grows louder as they headed towards what Elliot assumes to be the beach. She is a bit too disoriented to find her way, and trusts Sayid with the directions enough.
She swallowed hard as she stumbles, but doesn't let out a sound. She cannot show weakness, she learned that at a very young age.
It happens unexpectedly, suddenly.
The island finds them.