Vicious Memories

Chapter 88

Bev's shoulders began to shake slightly, and her mouth quivered. I watched in confusion as a close-lipped smile fought its way up her cheeks inch by inch.

She laughed louder than the thunder rolling in from the approaching storm. The pity and superiority on her face was plain, and it awakened a something harsh and acidic within me.

"I never thought I'd have to explain it to you, of all people," she mused. "How can I explain your own history to you? I never practiced for this."

The grass swayed all around us and Bev swayed with it. She stood easily, perched on a cliff one hundred feet over churning waves that could break her against the rocks without a second thought. Her feet were planted shoulder-width apart, the pistol firmly in hand, completely confident in her competence.

She cocked her head at me. "This isn't our first time on the island."

Alice jerked in surprise and my chest shivered with unease. All the strange things I'd felt since waking up, the feelings stirred to life by different sights, the déjà vu that assaulted me after exploring each new section of the island - it all came rushing back. The humidity in the air thickened, an atmospheric straight-jacket. The rapidly growing storm moaned chaotically.

"Of course this is the first time I've been here."

Bev shrugged. "Is it? How would you know?"

"I would..." I was about to say 'remember'. I shook my head in disgust.

"We've done this exact same song and dance," Bev continued. "You saw the aftermath of it on your way up here."

"The abandoned village?"

"Our abandoned village."

I looked at Alice desperately. This was not the type of conversation I had expected when I ran across the island to save her. I had expected demands, a reason for the murders, maybe. My jaw worked up and down like a machine press, but no words came.

"Do you remember that night around the bonfire?" Bev asked. "The night we shared our memories."

I nodded. What else could I do?

Bev's stare retreated somewhere far away. "That wasn't my only memory, clearly, but it wasn't made up, either. It was as real as any of yours. I just changed a few details. And that man I told you all about? The one who betrayed me? That was you, Ollie. You betrayed me. You have to have put that together by now. I know how quick that mind of yours works. A long camping trip? An unforgiving forest? Things ending far differently than we thought they would?" She shook her head. "Then, years later, betrayal. To tell the truth I almost had a panic attack trying to sleep after sharing that story. I thought I'd blown it by blurting everything out. It was all about us. The first trial we ran. Eight months of hell. A group of savages in the jungle, fighting among themselves constantly, the two of us trying to hold everything together while pretending to be one of them, the heartbreak of knowing that the failing trial meant the failing of our work. That was where we finally came together. We found solidarity and love in each other. Found the strength to keep going. Sound familiar?"

Her words struck like steel-tipped arrows. She glanced down at Alice with distain. The whipping wind swept her braid off her shoulder and made it dance in the air behind her.

"You lost your nerve," Bev spat, "and I had to come back here by myself to live with these people. And near the end, when we were so close to success, to everything being worth it, you stabbed me in the back and tried to blow the whole thing up."

Even the swirling leaves and swaying grass paused in their tracks for a moment. My mind churned. I tried and failed to come up with a proper response. Eventually my brain seized on a single word that stood out.