ISLAND ILLUSIONS (#2 PARADISE ISLAND duology)

--eleven--

Miles regretted waiting until nighttime to read Ms. Moreno's notes. The usual nightmares he'd been getting used to... got worse. Instead of seeing glowing power descending from the sky to smite them all, he saw ogling yellow eyes from behind thick red clouds, and ominous cackles coming from beyond the atmosphere's layer around the earth. He saw metallic spaceships hovering over the island, blasting purple beams down to sear in two those who dared to disobey the ruler. Half-invisible creatures hidden in bushes to press buttons that would activate sharpened logs, creepy vines, and turn on the sparkly barrier at will. Funnily enough, he didn't envision little green men invading—but instead human-like beings with immense abilities and with purple eyes and veins.

He tossed and turned for hours before falling into a brief but eventful slumber that had him waking half-screaming, half-crying. And Miles didn't cry, not if he could help it. Stereotypical or not, he wasn't one to weaken, to let any fear or pain show, not even when he was alone. But this—all this went beyond any fear or pain he'd ever endured.

He felt ever more alone to face it all.

After a quick shower that he hoped would restore some of his senses, he pulled on a shirt and pants, and put the coffee pot on. Coffee, what a delight—it pleased him that these alien gods at least acknowledged that regardless of beliefs and doubts, most young adults his age were hooked on the java, and wouldn't function properly without it.

Unless you're Jessa, and possessed by the ruler, in which case you likely need nothing at all.

He snickered as he opened his front door and sat on the top stoop, breathing in the forest freshness. No one else was awake, or if they were, they hadn't emerged from their cabins yet. He took advantage of the silence—human silence, at least, because birds were chirping all around him—and leaned against the side railing, closing his eyes.

How had Milla done it? Gathered so much knowledge and compiled it all in one, tattered notebook? How had no one else known about it? Sure, she'd sounded resourceful when he'd eavesdropped on her conversation with Kera, but how had she accessed so much information, and in so little time? She must have been watched constantly by dickheads like Mr. Reynolds. She must have had her own version of him in the school she worked in. Miles made a side-note to ask Patrek about that; which of the monster professors who'd come on this trip was Ms. Moreno's boss?

Miles regretted not taking the time to talk to Milla. He'd had the chance several times, during the first few days of brainwashing classes they were to attend. But then he'd run off, following blindly after Jessa, thinking she actually knew what she was doing. She'd had no clue; it wasn't altogether impossible that the ruler had already been reaching out to her mind, drawing her into the forbidden side. With what he now knew about these supposed gods, it wouldn't have surprised him.

But had Miles not been such a skeptic, such a coward, he'd have spoken with Milla before going after Jessa. He'd been wary of Ms. Moreno because of how she'd intercepted him and Kera on the plane, how she'd listened in on their conversation. And that wariness had worsened after he'd trespassed, when she stood by silently while Mr. Reynolds told them all they'd be stuck on the island forever. At that exact moment, she was there, she held so much knowledge, and she'd kept quiet. She might have helped them, guided them, but she'd walked away.

"Dammit," he growled.

She'd been the coward, Miles decided.

A breeze blew over his cheeks, and he shook his head. As a fellow science geek like him, he'd have expected Milla to do something, sooner than when she'd come somewhat clean with Kera. She'd had to watch two students die brutally before opting to react, and even then... it had taken her a long time, too long of a time. By then Kera was already doomed, and Jessa was already losing herself.