Jungle Fever

Stranded . . . With Mace

Stranded . . . With Mace

That night Mace and I slept in the airplane, though the front was completely wrecked and some of the windows were shattered it was more comfortable then the outdoors could have been. When Mace thought I was asleep he went into the pilot's cabin. What could he possibly want from inside of there? The pilots are without a doubt as dead as this plane. I stayed quiet and facing the door waiting for him to come out because there was no way I was going back in there.

He poked his head out the door, "Odessa. Desi, you awake?"

I rolled over hoping he'd take that as a no. He chuckled, "You're cute and you can pose, but don't ever go out for acting."

I sat up, "Dream crusher! How'd you know my acting can't be that bad?"

"Let's just say I've been around enough actor types to know you're not even close to one of them," Mace said.

"Whatever," I said throwing the covers off of my body, "Mace, what are you doing in the pilot's cabin?"

"Oh nothing special just chilling."

"Chilling, huh? Who's the bad actor now," I said standing up and walking towards Mace.

"I promise you, you really don't want to know what I'm doing in here."

Ignoring his warning I went straight to the pilot's cabin and opened the door. Mace stood absolutely still as if hoping he would disappear if he didn't move long enough. As my gaze moved down from his face I noticed he was covered in blood and seeing as he was joking with me a few seconds ago I completely doubted it was his.

"Mace, what are you doing? Where'd did all this blood come from," I said faintly knowing he heard me.

"I promise it's nothing bad. I was just trying to move the bodies. I wanted to bury them I was hoping you wouldn't have to see them again," Mace said looking at me for an answer.

"Are you crazy? You can't do that at night! We don't even know what's out there! Are you trying to get yourself killed," I practically screamed at him.

"Ok mom I'll fix it in the morning," he said with a devious smile.

Once I was back in my 'bed' he started to strip. "Whoa, Mace what exactly are you doing?"

"Undressing," he said as if I should have known already.

"Yea, I kind of got that I'm just not sure as to why."

"I'm drenched in blood I can't sleep covered in other people's blood."

I nodded then turned the other way to give him privacy. "What's wrong too young to feast your eyes on my sexiness?" Ignoring his last comment I closed my

eyes and thought happy.

That night I dreamt again of the boy, who was king here. He stood casually leaning against the plane as if just hanging out at the mall. He looked towards me and for some reason I didn't need to hear his words to understand their meaning. He wanted me to follow him into the jungle. He said I'd be better off without Mace to worry about. I shook my head he couldn't be serious. How could he possibly want me a complete stranger to run off with him? Why did he care so much? It just didn't add up.

Sensing my indecision he moved the two steps it took to get from where he stood to where I stood and shook me, drawing my attention away from my thoughts and into his eyes. I was falling. Falling hard and falling fast, but to where and from where I had no idea. But soon enough I would find out.

When everything stopped spinning, I was in a castle that appeared to be still on this island. It was surrounded by the sand and had a beautiful ocean view. I stood up from my spot by the vanity and walked to the door and out of the room. As I passed the castle workers I noticed none of them would look me in the eye, was I some type of monster in this world? I kept walking knowing that if I walked long enough I'd find what I was looking for. I stopped before a door that was painted black with red stripes. How peculiar? I turned the knob and in the door was a caramel woman standing at about 5'11 with curly brown tendrils up messily on top her head. She felt me enter the room and turned around as soon as the door locked shut. She was me. Slightly older and covered in red smudges but still me. Behind her laid the body of Mace Maxwell, savagely beaten and bleeding.

"I tried to stop," she said. I backed up into the door in fear.

"I tried to stop loving him, but I couldn't. Odessa, do you see how much my love hurt him," she whispered.

"Do you see," she shouted while reaching for me, "Odessa do you see why you can't love his kind? They're too different and it will always end in tragedy.

Always."

She turned her attention from me back to the pained Mace Maxwell. She sat cradling him. "It's ok. It's ok," she repeated over and over not sure if she was comforting herself or him.

"Wakey Wakey, Desi, it has to be noon by now," Mace said shattering my dream, but not soon enough to prevent tears from falling at the thought. The smile fell off his face. "What's wrong?"

"Oh nothing. I'll be fine just give me a minute to gather myself," I said. When I saw he wasn't leaving, I tried to reassure him, "It's just a bad dream I'll be up in a minute."

He left shortly after, not truly believing me but not wanting to hassle me, when I obviously had so much else on my mind. I got up stretched and wiped the sleep out my eyes then stepped off the plane.

"So Mace did you get a hold of our luggage," I asked hoping he didn't see straight through my façade.

"Sooner or later you're gonna have to tell me what's up," He said while handing me my red suitcase.

I took my suitcase and went back into the plane. After doing my best to brush my teeth with room temperature bottled water, I changed into some denim capris and a white lose tee and some black converses. Then I wrapped my hair in a messy bun and went back outside of the plane to see what Mace was you to.

When I stepped outside, I saw Mace waist deep in the clear blue ocean water. We don't have things like that in New York. He was standing completely still and staring hard into the water.

"Mace, what are you doing," I whispered loud enough for him to hear me.

He gave me a signal to be quiet. Well I wasn't going to get an answer out of him for a long time. I turned facing the opposite direction of Mace and started walking. We couldn't actually be stranded just on the wrong side of a highly civilized island. Hopefully.

I started toward the side of the jungle where I saw those clear blue eyes that suddenly disappeared. There was no sign of anyone ever being here not even a path. I kept walking and tried to go as straight as I could while dodging trees. After about 20 minutes, I found myself in the middle of a clearing, and still there was no sign of any kind of life, not even birds.

The wind swept through my lose curls something about it felt wrong. I turned around in the clearing trying to figure out which way I had come from. To my left there was a path that definitely wasn't it, to my right was a bushel of what looked like purple roses striped with black. Odd. In front of me was the outline of a castle in the distance. They all looked wrong but the feeling I was getting wasn't making me any more rational. I chose the path.

It wasn't exactly brightly lit but it was bright enough for me to see. And still there were no animals. I walked faster and faster as I felt the fear consume me. Until I hit a wall. It was made of grey brick and had to be about 80 ft high. Who was this wall made for? What was it keeping out? I heard a footstep. Or in?