LOST

Chapter 8: Confidence Man

Isabella sat under her tent. It'd been 9 days since the plane crashed. 9 days, and no one was any closer to rescue. Someone had attacked Sayid and destroyed the transceiver, Jack was tending to him up in the caves. Kate had been the one to tell her. Isabella wasn't really sure what to do. There wasn't really anything to do.

She took the necklace off from around her neck and opened the clasp. Inside were two pictures. The one on the right was that of three people. It was a small cutout of a Christmas card image that Isabella had printed out. She stood in the middle. Isabella smiled a little as tears formed in her eyes, remembering her parents. She was 15 in the picture. She was wearing the red satin dress that Sawyer had bought her for her 8th grade formal, but it fit the nicety that Noel had wanted her to wear. Isabella's blonde hair was in a french braid Noel had done. To her left, with a hand on her shoulder, stood Daniel -- Isabella's adoptive father, dressed in a black tux with a red undershirt poking through the blazer. Noel, Isabella's adoptive mother, stood on Isabella's other side. She had one hand around Daniel, the other on Isabella's other shoulder. Her dress was much more reminiscent of Mrs. Claus, but she'd just been supervising some children before they got their pictures taken.

The other picture in her locket was only of two young children. Both of them had bright smiles and blue eyes shining with pure joy. Her brother had bought a Polaroid and insisted he take their picture. He took two, one right after each other. Isabella kept one, and he kept the other. When she got the locket, she cut out a portion of the polaroid image to fit into the locket. It only had their faces, as that was all that would fit, but it was all she'd needed.

Isabella's eyes went back to the Christmas photo. 15 years old felt like a long time ago. A lot longer than 13 years.

***

Isabella, 18 years old, was sitting on her bed reading a book for school when she heard the gunshot go off on the floor above her. She ran upstairs, not entirely sure what she'd find. She dreaded what she assumed.

The first thing she noticed was the blood. It was all over the wall and on the floor. Then she noticed the bloody rifle on the floor, just beneath an unmoving hand. Then she saw Noel, sitting in a chair. Unmistakably dead. The first person she called wasn't the police; it was Daniel. Isabella picked up a letter, splattered with wet blood, and read it. She was apologizing for stealing the money -- Isabella was only dimly aware of what she was talking about, she'd overheard a conversation -- and apologized for giving it to a 'selfish low-life named Sawyer.' Isabella dropped it, and she was only halfway through. She called the police, but Daniel arrived sooner than they did. Isabella had gone back down to her room after leading Daniel to where Noel sat, when a second gunshot rang out, presumably after he'd read the letter.

Isabella wrote a letter of her own on the back of some lined paper. She slipped it under the hotel door where she knew her brother had been staying. She called her boyfriend, Gabriel, told him what happened, and that she needed to leave.

He said that he'd originally been planning to treat her to dinner but they could do something else.

Isabella said that she didn't care what they did as long as he took her away from where she was. She was inside Gabriel's car when the regret kicked in, but she was too far gone and he likely already read her letter. She told Gabe to pull over at a local park, not explaining why, and got out.

Isabella walked to the park, trying hard to ignore the tears streaming down her face.

***

Isabella shut the locket hard. The sudden sound startled her, but she put it back on and trekked up to the caves. She wondered if she'd see if Jack needed any help with anything. At the very least, her excuse would be to fill up her water bottle.