PANIC ROOM • KENJI KON

IX. Eva (Surprisingly) Saves Her Mortal Enemy From Certain Death

Chapter Nine: Eva (Surprisingly) Saves Her Mortal Enemy From Certain Death

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Her first thought came to her in a frantic panic, and the words, "Ich bin keine Enttäuschung, Opa!," tumbled out of her mouth before she could get her bearings. As she opened her eyes, the first thing Eva noticed was that her bones felt weak, her thoughts in a blurry daze as she sat up. She was sitting in the grass in the middle of the jungle. Sunlight filtered through the treetops and dotted the grass in warm splotches. All around her, the trees had broken branches, clearly where everyone fell through. Eva spotted Kenji passed out in a tree. That had to hurt.

"Was that German?" Brooklynn asked from somewhere nearby.

"I don't even know German," Eva mumbled as she checked her knee, taking notice of the small stream of blood running down it. She wiped at it gingerly with the corner of her sleeve, hissing in pain.

Brooklynn appeared in front of her, offering her a hand. Eva graciously accepted.

"Apparently your brain knows more German than you give it credit for," She chuckled.

Eva laughed, ignoring the pain in her chest as she did so. "My two years of Duolingo beg to differ, unfortunately. What did I even say?"

They made eye contact, the two girls bursting into laughter. A distant roar caused them to go quiet.

Eva slipped out of her harness, leaving it discarded on the jungle floor.

Yasmina was helping Sammy and Darius to their feet, and Kenji was finally awake and climbing down the tree. Her and Kenji made eye contact and Eva raised her eyebrows, as if to ask, are you okay? She may have hated the guy, but that didn't mean she would subject him to free fall fifty feet and be doomed to be chased by a terrifying, carnivorous dinosaur, if she could help it.

Kenji shrugged.

Eva looked down at her wrist, gasping.

"What? What is it?" Brooklynn panicked.

She pulled her wrist closer, inspecting the watch, inches from her face. "I cracked my watch!"

"Well, that's not terrible," Sammy commented.

Yaz shook her head, "Didn't you say it was a Vacuum Constant or something? Sounded expensive..."

Kenji gasped, "Vacheron Constantin? You're wearing a Vacheron Constantin?" He moved to Eva's side and quickly pulled her wrist to his face. "Evangeline, this is a thirty thousand dollar watch."

She chuckled nervously and smiled. "You're lying. You're lying, you're actually a stone cold liar."

"I'm not lying, Eva."

"No, no, no. Why the hell would he give me a thirty-K watch? What the fuck? You're actually lying." She reached her wrist away from her body, as if the watch was poisonous. "Oh my god, I don't want the responsibility of this thing! I already cracked it! He's going to kill me!"

"Shh!" Yasmina shushed her.

Eva's eyes widened, suddenly remembering they were out in the open with a killer dinosaur.

Ben cowered against the tree Kenji had just climbed down as another, horrifying roar echoed throughout the jungle. "It's coming! It's coming!"

"Shut up," Eva snapped at the same time Yasmina said lowly,