Vicious Memories

Chapter 28

Alice's nightmare troubled me deeply. I couldn't place the why of it. Answers danced just out of reach, laughing as they twirled around me, and no matter how hard I tried to catch up they continued to slip like silk through my fingers.

I was so frustrated with trying and failing to understand what I was feeling that I forgot to pay attention to my surroundings.

Something crashed against my head.

Shit.

A fissure opened up in my skull, pain pouring out in thick waves. Light exploded in my vision before everything went back. I crumpled to the floor.

"Roll him over."

The voice was fuzzy.

"Good. Now help me get him up."

I recognized it now.

My head disintegrated as someone hoisted me up and slung me over their shoulders.

Thoughts were few and far between as we bounced along. My vision came back slowly. I could barely feel my limbs. It was barely raining outside, and the soft hiss of the water droplets was loud in my hearts. The smell of flowers draped everything.

Flowers.

I managed to turn my head a fraction of an inch to the right. We were walking north, past the monkeypod tree, and a minute later we plunged into the dark jungle. My assailant dumped me on the muddy floor. The pain that lanced through my shoulder when I fell helped bring a few of my senses back.

Only a coward snuck up behind a man and hit him in the back of the head, I seethed. Anger bubbled forth, scalding water from a burning spring, clearing my thoughts further.

I got to unsteady legs. A shadowy canopy covered half the night sky, blocking the moon, shielding us from most of the rain. Two figures faced me from a few feet away.

"What. The. Fuck?" I spat..

A flash of pain greeted me as I gingerly felt the back of my head. My hand came away slick.

"Leave our village. Don't come back," Arun said.

My eyes were starting to adjust to the darkness of the jungle. I could pick out individual features now. "What happened to your duty? I thought I was part of the village. I thought you had to protect me, too."

"Sometimes you have to put the needs of the many above the few. My duty lies with the people I've been with for the last two years. You're putting them in danger, and you have to leave."

"I'm putting them in danger?"

"Yes." Arun stepped closer, his face blank again. "You showed up the day before Jessica was murdered. You coincidentally were the one to find Sirus's body. You interviewed Mads the day before she disappeared. I don't know what role you're playing, exactly, but I know you have something to do with this."

"I have nothing to do with any of it. I swear."

"You do. I know you do. It's not a chance I'm willing to take."

He stepped slightly away from Scott, circling behind me. My pulse picked up speed, rushing energy into my previously tired limbs.

"We were fine before you came," Arun said, "and we'll be fine again after you're gone."

A note in his voice stuck with me, the barest tinge of fright hiding behind all the anger and madness. It made me pause. Pieces from the last few days started falling into place, and I thought I was finally starting to grasp why he hated me so much. I took a half step back. In the far distance a night owl hooted loudly over the steady sound of rain again the leafy canopy.