Vicious Memories

Chapter 6 - Alice

I couldn't decide, and that, in itself, made me dislike Oliver. I'd never been unable to decide before.

It was almost morning already. A half-full moon floated lazily over my head, bathing the village in ghostly light. The stars were too numerous to count; with just the naked eye I could see the way they combined to form constellations and galaxies across this vast universe, an endless expanse that continued on forever.

And down here, beneath all that, was our small village. This island. A group of people.

It was frightening.

Cooper had come and gone some hours ago. I'd sent him back to his cave to get some more sleep; I wouldn't be able to fall asleep tonight anyway, not after all this. Standing watch outside the cabin door was as good a place as any for me. A place where I could protect the others without getting too close, because... well, because of a few things. Things I'd rather not think about.

Oliver - Ollie, Cooper had told me to call him - was still asleep.

He had a good spirit. I felt it like a vibration through my bones. Gabriel had decided to trust him, but he and I looked after the village in different ways. He was outwardly nice, but he was also dangerous. That was something else my bones told me.

Big green eyes, messy brown hair, a proud nose that had a kink in it from being broken, maybe more than once. He carried a little extra weight but had powerful shoulders, like a boxer or gymnast who had retired a few years back. In the brief minute I'd spent in the cabin while he was awake he'd fidgeted constantly, cracking his knuckles even with his hands tied, dry washing them, stretching his neck, shuffling his feet.

Who would he be? A leader? A farmer? Fisherman, hunter, chef? Mender, doctor, builder? A strong personality, no matter where he ended up.

The breeze whipped my hair across my face, tickling my cheeks, making the grass at my feet sway lazily. It whistled sharply through the gaps in the tents and cabins. I took a long blink, savoring the cacophony of sounds around me, all conducted by the wind, a master musician leading an orchestra of instruments played by the ghosts of this place.

A soft cry rolled out of the nearby caves, where the rest of the villagers slept. I perked up, alert.

Sometimes people cried out in their sleep. Nightmares were common. Sometimes people got scared, forgot where they were for a moment. I closed my eyes, straining to hear anything else. The caves warped sound strangely, causing echoes to jump in odd directions.

Something shuffled far away - a person going back to sleep?

I should have gone to investigate, but something held me back. As always, I told myself that it was just my duty; I was supposed to guard our prisoner through the night, and leaving him would be a betrayal of that responsibility. But another part of me, a quieter part that evoked a feeling of shame, whispered that it was because I was afraid. Not of the night, but of the very people I wanted so badly to protect. The reverberation of my single retained memory haunted me still.

It was something I was working on.

So I stayed at my post instead, promising that if the sound came again I would go and check it out. The breeze brushed against my shoulders and I shivered. I'd washed the mud from my hair and face before coming to stand watch, and without its extra layer of protectn I felt naked. Exposed.

I thought again of the sound from the caves, convinced it was just the wind.