Vicious Memories

Chapter 61

Urgency thrummed through the group as dusk spread smoky fingers across the island.

Lukas had been moved to a second, smaller cabin to make room for Felix. It seemed like an eternity ago that I had been imprisoned in the structure looming before us, but we had yet to break even the two week mark since my arrival. The village's premier prison stretched higher tonight, a specter made larger by the malevolence emanating from its doorway.

Earlier that afternoon, right after we'd gotten back to the village with Felix in tow and tied him to the central post, I had found myself alone with him for a few minutes. Arun had still been giving orders outside, and the dusty cabin had pressed in around us.

"Did you write the note?"

He'd looked up, resigned but curious.

"Did you?" I pressed.

"Write what?"

"The note, asshole. The one carved in the tree."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"I know you do, so you can stop playing dumb. You carved it in the bark. 'Ollie, It's your fault, You know, don't you?' Sound familiar?"

"No. And you sound crazy."

"I'm the crazy one? Why did you write that in the tree, Felix? Tell me. It's over now."

"Ollie." He'd turned his head toward me fully, his eyes flat and dead. "I honestly don't know what you're talking about. I didn't write anything."

"Why lie about this?" I'd hissed. "Why the charade? Just tell me. What is my fault?"

"I have no idea. Truly."

Now, back at the cabin, Salvador and Christopher stood attentively at the doorway. My exhaustion was beginning to get the better of me again, and the lines of reality started to blur.

"We need to speak to him," Arun said. "Anything happen?"

"Nothing." Salvador gestured up toward the clearing. "A few shouts from the rest of the villagers in the clearing, but totally silent in the cabin."

"Totally silent?" I asked. A tarp blocked my view into the interior of the building.

"Yep."

"No crying? No sobs? No requests for food or water? Not even a sneeze?"

"I don't think so?" They shared a look. "Not a peep."

I took two panicked strides forward and ripped the tarp aside. The nylon tore completely free of the nails that held it to the top of the doorframe. It caught in the air as it flew to my right, transforming for a glorious moment into a makeshift kite. Then the wind died and it fell in a heap.

I don't know what I expected to find inside, but it was not this.

"Inside, now!" I turned and grabbed Bev.

She jumped, startled. Her blue eyes gleamed with momentary confusion as I pulled her into the cabin after me. Then she gasped. Her hands flew to her mouth as if pulled by magnets.

Sitting before us in the dirt, his hands free from the ropes that had secured him to the pillar, Felix looked up at us with half-open eyes.

He smiled with both contentment and grief, and the expression pierced my heart. His arms lay limply next to him as if the nerves had been severed. A single large gash ran vertically from each wrist to a point halfway up his forearms. Blood spilled to the ground like red wine from a fountain, flowing so quickly that he couldn't have made the cuts more than a few seconds ago, when he had heard our voices approaching. The razor that had effectively ended his life gleamed wickedly, a tiny sliver of bright silver in the dirt.

People crowded through the doorway, blocking the light, throwing us into darkness. The blood pooling around Felix became black portals to hell.

Bev stood frozen, her hands still over her mouth.

"Bev," I said, shaking her, "do something."

But in my heart I knew there was nothing to be done. We couldn't save him.