She awoke to yelling. Edward and Jim both sounded pissed.
"That's all we have for who knows how long." Edward ground out through his teeth.
"I was hungry." Bella looked around till she saw a pile of wrappers next to Jim. He'd had to have eaten half their supply. She didn't even have words for how disappointed she was. Jim liked pointing out how much older he was, a whopping 5 years, but he was acting like a child. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and tried to think of how to solve this problem. The solution appeared before her very eyes.
"Look!" The men's eyes followed her finger to land on the horizon. It looked so close, but it wasn't till nighttime of the 3rd day that they washed up on shore. Jim jumped out of the raft and kissed the rocks that made up the ground. Edward secured the raft to the rocks and helped her out. Jim may have been ecstatic, but she felt wary. Land had seemed like a godsend, but up close it was just rock face. She'd seen green from a far, but who knew how far it was from where they were on the island.
"It's going to be dark soon. We can explore in the morning."
"Well, I'm not going back on that raft." Jim glared at the raft like it had offended him. "The ground can't be that much harder than the raft. I'm going to catch some z's."
Bella wasn't sure she agreed with him, but she found a rock with some moss on one side and tried to settle for the night. It was another night of racing thoughts, but exhaustion won out.
If she thought waking was bad the past days on the raft, it was nothing like this. Instead of being awakened by the sun, she saw the moon above when she opened her eyes. A horrible pressure suffocated her, followed by a hand over her mouth. She attempted to scream, but the sound was muffled. Jim's face came into view. The pressure was his body atop hers. The hand that wasn't on her mouth was moving over her body, groping at her breast. She tried to fight, but all she managed to do was bang her body against the rocks.
Tears streamed down her face as he yanked at her shorts. He was pulling at his own shorts when he suddenly screamed. His hand moved off her mouth, and she joined in screaming.
"Don't move." She felt a moment of relief at hearing Edward's voice. "Bella, stay absolutely still."
"Get it off me" Jim screeched. She couldn't figure out what was happening, but Jim was not staying still. He was writhing atop her. Another scream from him filled the air.
"Jim, stop moving. The snake is attracted to the movement." The next moments seemed to happen in a flash. Jim jumped off her and attempted to run. He promptly tripped over his shorts. He'd pulled them down in his attempt to rape her. That's when she saw the snake. It dove back at him, biting him in the butt. He fell headfirst into the rock face and collapsed. Her eyes moved from Jim to Edward when she felt her hand is his. "Pull your pants up very slowly and come with me."
Edward guided her at a snail's pace back to the raft and helped her in. She glanced back briefly to look for Jim. He was face down and not moving. Her view disappeared as Edward zipped the canopy closed. She didn't realize she was shaking till he took her hand in hers.
"Did it get you?"
"The snake? No."
"Jim?"
"The snake stopped him before he-" A sob broke forth as it all began to sink in. He offered his arms, and she fell into them. He held her as she bawled. Her tears wouldn't stop. How could they? They were a culmination of everything that had happened since she boarded that plane.
Sleep took her again. This time when she awoke it was to warm arms wrapped around her waist. She turned her head and saw Edward was holding her in his sleep. It was incredibly sweet and soothing. She'd never been held like that before.
She eased out from under him and peaked out the canopy. Jim was in the exact position he'd been in yesterday, but his butt where he'd been bitten was black and appeared as if it had deflated. A hand reached out and pulled the zipper back down.
"We don't need to look at that."