A War Within Two Worlds

Breathe

Yasmini's POV

I grunted in frustration and grinded my teeth. It's been 5 days since I've arrived, and I can't even move a damn quarter!
"Don't get so frustrated." I saw Victor with his arms crossed leaning against my doorway.
"Easy for you to say. Besides, it works better when I'm angry." I focused back on the quarter.
Move. Move. Move.
Nothing.
"Damnit!" I yelled as I fell back on the bed. Victor started to laugh.
"Is there something funny about this to you?" I snapped.
"C'mon, let's take a walk." Victor waved at the door.
"I don't want to take a walk. I want to be better."
I didn't tell him that I wanted to get better so I could kill the mam who killed Eliza. I don't even know how to find him, but if I could get better at whatever this is, I'd be unstoppable.
"Well you won't get any better if you don't take a break. I'm not taking 'no' for an answer."
"Fine." I put my hands in the pockets of my overall shorts and followed Victor.

"Why are we here?" I asked looking out at the white sand beach.
"To relax."
"I don't want to relax." I was irritated and angry, but instead of backing down like everyone else, Victor laughed.
"You didn't want to come with me either, but yet you're here."
He was right and I hated it.
"Well you can at least tell me why we're here."
"Like I said, to relax."
Victor opened the wicker picnic box he brought with him and pulled out a blanket.
"Help me set this down, would you?"
I grabbed the edges of the blanket and patted it smooth. It felt soft yet cool against my skin, much better than the sand that was baked in the harsh sun. Victor then grabbed two cups and a bottle of apple juice. He poured us a cup each and then set strawberries and chocolates in the middle of us.
"I like chocolate." I said softly.
"Chocolate gets made in Brazil, you know."
I snorted, "I'm aware." I saw Victor frown lightly.
"Thank you, though." Victor's dark brown eyes shone into mine.
"So," he said laying on his back, "tell me about your life before here."
I laid back as a nibbled on a strawberry, trying not to choke and die. Wouldn't that be such a lame way to die?
"I lived in a village by the water. I had a family. They died. The end."
"Come on, you know my darkest secret, tell me something more." Victor prodded.
"I had a best friend, her name was Eliza."
"Eliza? That's an unusual name." I propped myself on my elbows and stared into the glistening sea, "that's why she loved it. Her mom wanted her to be named after someone powerful. Eliza was Napoleon's sisters name." I smiled as I remembered her telling the story, "she said that her namesake was known to have a sharp tongue and lionlike courage."
"Where is she now?"
"Dead." I said falling back on my back.
"Who was your best friend?" I asked trying to change the subject.
"Enoch."
"I mean before you got here."
"Never had one, I was homeschooled with Wyn."
"School's not that great anyways."
Victor scoffed, "that's what everyone says."
"Eliza and I used to get in trouble all the time, we used to pass notes in class. It was summer when she died, she lived for summer." I sighed.
"What happened to her and your family?" Victor asked siting you. I sat up to and looked at him. "You can tell me."

I was coming home from the beach. Eliza was supposed to meet me, but for some reason she didn't. My house was closest to the beach, which was lucky for me because I forgot my sun hat. I walked down the juggle path and looked at all the birds and lizards that passed me. A lizard stuck his tongue out at me, so I stopped to do the same thing back. I laughed but stopped again when I saw my door unlocked and ajar. I dropped my swim bag and stepped inside. Suddenly the world was silent and dark. I looked around and saw blood. I heard my father yell upstairs.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
I ran out of my house and tripped as I tried to cross the ditch. I slammed my back into the wall and tried not to cry.

"I was swimming at the beach. Eliza was supposed to come too, but she was late. I realized I forgot my sun hat and went home, but then I saw the door unlocked." Victor's face was soft and sweet, like the chocolate chip cookies Eliza's father made.
"I went inside and everyone was already dead, except from my dad, but then I heard them shoot him. So then he was dead too."
"Where do you go?"
"I hid in a ditch near my house. I waited there for hours, I never heard anything."
"Then you ran away?"
I shook my head, "No, I was too stupid to run away," I felt my heart tighten, it wasn't stupid to go back to Eliza, I'd do it again. Was it the most tactical move? No, but she was my family too.
"I went back into the village, passed all the dead children and mothers who spent their last moments trying to hold their children tight." I gulped, I almost forgot about the fear frozen on their faces.
"I went into Eliza's."
"And you saw her body?"
"Since you know it so well why don't you tell the story?" I said annoyed. Victor silently put up his hands in defeat.
"Like I said, I was back at Eliza's. Her dad was dead on the floor. I heard the floorboard squeak and there she was."
"Dead?"
I laughed, "alive."
"We ran into the jungle. We got ambushed and I ran, I thought she was behind me but...." I trailed off as I tried to hold in my tears, "she just froze there," I lost the battle against my tears and they were now flowing freely down my face, "I tried to reach for her, but they shot her!" I sobbed. "Then they came for me, and all of the sudden I got so mad and they just flew back, like Charlotte." I remembered the odd angle their neck was at. "I killed five men that night in the jungle. But there were six."
Victor looked at me confused, "the man who killed Eliza ran, and I was too shocked to chase him."
"We can go back to where she died, find her body, and burry her here." Victor said sweetly. I threw my head back and laughed dryly as I wiped my tears, Victor looked genuinely afraid.
"That was two years ago. The animals probably ate her corpse within days, if not hours."
"So where were you the past two years?"
"The trees. I used to spend my days picking fruits or cocoa for my parents to sell, so I was a good climber."
"And you lived there? Alone?"
I nodded, "I tried to do something like I did that night, but I couldn't."
"Until Charlotte."
I laughed dryly again,
"Until Charlotte."

It was well after dark when we decided to walk home. Victor said he left Miss Peregrine a note so I wasn't too worried. On the way back, Victor told me of his fondest memories before he entered the loop. He started with Bronwyn beating every man in town in an arm wrestle, and then ended talking about his mom used to dump buckets of water on them from the upstairs window on hot days.
"She was the best mother you could have gotten." He smiled.
"She sounds lovely."
"She died, too."
"I'm sorry."
I reached over and bend Victor's hand. I don't why I did it, but it seemed fitting at the time. I squeezed it. I heard Victor sniffle and wipe a few tears away.
"Mini?"
"Yes?"
I stopped and faced Victor. The house was ahead and the yellow glow gave him a warm and inviting look.
"You can't stay mad, it won't help."
I scoffed and tried to pull my hand away, but he held on and grabbed the other one too.
"The basket-" I said as it crunched on the floor.
"The basket doesn't matter right now. What matters is you stopping being angry. If you stay angry forever, you'll be just like those men."
My blood boiled, "I'll never be anything like them!" I yelled.
"Then breathe and pick up the basket."
I took up a deep breath and bent down.
"Not like that."
I stomped my foot, "I can't ok? I bloody can't!"
"Breathe, try again."
I looked intently at the basket while trying to stay calm. To my surprise, it moved closer to me by a couple of centimeters. I smiled at Victor.
"I told you, just breathe."
Victor took my hand and kissed it gently, and for some reason, I didn't completely hate it.

4/27/21