Stacey grunts as she carries Lila on her shoulders. She had tried to simply support or help her friend lean on something, but it became glaringly obvious that was not going to work. Unfortunately, neither of them was exactly a weightlifting champion.
"Ouch!" Lila slides smoothly off her back, straight towards the floor, before Stacey throws herself under her, accepting the crushing and maiming of the half-conscious girl.
"Lila please"
"yEs" Lila says, eyes drooping and hazy.
"Lila"
"yEs StAcEy"
"LILA!" Stacey shouts then grimaces when she remembers where they are. Dropping her voice into a whisper, Stacey huffs.
"Lila, look do you see where we are. Where are we. Tell me. Come on answer me." But she only gets a blabber in return.
"Can you tell me where we are?"
"Blaahhe"
"What is my name? Who are you?"
"Ahhgee"
Stacey goes rigid. Did Lila lose her ability to talk. Was it a brain eating ameba. What happened to her? She quickly grabs her chin and.... SLAP. No response. Then on the other cheek. SLAP. Without a warning or even another thought, Stacey drags her friend two whole miles into a tiny hut and places her gently on the bed. Black curls surround Lila as Stacey bends down and feed her something. Goes away. Rummages through something. Back again with plants. 'Natural medicine' she says. The next two days go by in a blur for Lila, like she's in a coma but all her senses remained with her.
But on the third day, she feels something shift. Like a presence crowding up the small hut. That very same night, she has a dream. In it, she's a shadow, a ghost, swimming through the jungle. She cannot change where she is going. Something is leading here. Then suddenly, huge rocks appear in front of Lila with a tiny opening. Lila tries to scream but nothing comes out. Just as she's about to collide with the rocks.... her body goes right through them. But Lila didn't have time to think about what just happened, because right in front of her was something that made her heart stop. In a cave with a stench strong enough to burn the nose and grim slopped all over the walls and floor, lied Camrin, tied up, clinging to life, covered in blood and dirt.
"CAMRIN!" It takes a moment for Lila to see that she's awake. Stacey, cranky from being woken up so early, comes storming over.
"Lills why are you shouting so early in the morning. While we're basically just packaged food for everything out there by the way."
"Cam, I saw Camrin."
Stacey's face instantly softens. "Lila, Cam is not here"
"But I saw her-"
"SHE'S NOT HERE" The silence that follows has a horrible tone to it. Ragged breathing and quiet tears become the only thing that occupy it.
"How can you do that. This forest is so large, she can be anywhere, alive, waiting for help-"
"Lills please. There is nowhere for her to hide. No where. Mourn for her early because in this environment you'll probably never find her remains. In here we're safe. We have everything we need"
"How did you just adapt to this.... jungle life-
"There are no humans out there! None! Don't you understand. This place is differen-"
"But we're still the same. How did you just except that, you could be wrong-"
"We have a reliable source of food, shelter, and protection here-
"You never went outside. Where did the food come from. And who's protecting us?"
Stacey freezes, her eyes suddenly going hard.
"If you don't want my help, then leave." Stacey says as she opens the door, voice as cold and harsh as the wind she lets in. Lila stares at her friend, the one that made her feel loved, the one that made her feel like her life was hers, the one she thought would stand behind her no matter what, the one that promised her a friendship deeper than skin, and didn't shed a single tear, didn't even break her gaze. Maybe she was wrong. Maybe this new strange place they're in is much more serious and less dependent on others and maybe loyalty is a risk and maybe Stacey had changed and it was smart even if sudden. A week in this place would make anyone go into full survival mode. She starts to doubt herself for a second but then she remembers that she has the right to change as well. Without breaking eye contact, Lila gets up from under the blankets.
"You slapped me"
"What"
"You slapped me twice on the face and you didn't care that you deformed it. You didn't care that you disfigured my face further."
"I did it to try and snap you out of your trance! I did it because I was worried for you!"
"You were worried and you still didn't care. That's why you're kicking me out to the outside world you're too afraid to die in. Because deep down, anyone can die but you."
In a split second and with inhumane speed, Stacey crosses the little room, crabs Lila by the hair, smashes her face into the wall, then throws her out the hut, into the cold dark forest. Stunned, Lila looks down at her fingers and sees the skin there peeled off. How ironic. Without time to fully register the physical pain let alone the emotional one, Lila walks off with nothing on her back but the very clothes she almost died in, and the strength that comes from heartache and pain, until she no longer sees the hut, covered in metaphorical red and black. As the tears she promised herself wouldn't fall start to freeze on her face, Lila thinks on how sudden and unmannered change is. Just barging in whenever it wanted. Pulling her arms tight around herself, and for the first time in years, Lila prays. She begs whatever helped her back at the beast attack to stay with her now, and warns whatever is helping sustain Stacey to stay far away from her. No matter how confused and hurt she is with Stacey, what was done could never be taken back. And Stacey had just willingly sent Lila to her death. That could never be forgiven. But then why did Lila run to save her, why did she drag her back to the hunt. She destroyed her face yes, but she fed her and comforted her. Then suddenly her eyes went as cool and dark as this forest, and Lila saw the person she befriended slip away like an old skin that didn't suit the snake anymore.
Hours later, floating around in her thoughts and in the forest, Lila finally notices the forest has entered winter when just a week ago it was covered in greens and trees. That was not even possible for a jungle, but then again this is like no place she has ever seen. Maybe everything in this place is different. But what is this place? Nothing answers her, and Lila realizes she asked that out loud. Still, she follows the tug in her chest, the instinct she has relied on after getting kicked out of the hut. Just as she starts getting frustrated, doubting her intuition, a large set of rocks appear, the opening exactly where she remembers it. She's running before she even notices, screaming and shouting and crying into the wind, Camrin Camrin Camrin.