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Chapter thirty-five

Bower

O ne moment Zee is looking at Kingsley, her eyes filled with heat and excitement, the next, she’s curled in a ball, her hands covering her ears as she whimpers and cries out in pain.

“Please, stop!” she cries out, fear filling her voice. Seeing her like this causes a literal pain in my chest and when my eyes meet King’s, I see the same heartache reflected back at me.

We already managed to get her clothes back on her, hoping that would help calm her from whatever memory she’s trapped in, but it hasn’t helped one way or the other.

“Let’s lie her down so we can hold her between two of us,” West says softly, easing them into a lying position without letting go of her.

I quickly move in front of her and wrap my arms around her as well, holding her close.

King settles beside me, reaching over to gently rub her side, his touch comforting and steady.

I watch her face. Even though her eyes are tightly shut, I can see an array of emotions move through her, none of them good.

A few tears start to trail down her cheeks, and I use my thumbs to quickly wipe them away, wanting to see no sign of sadness on her skin .

She whimpers again, and the sound twists deep in my chest, pulling at something raw and helpless inside me. Watching her in pain feels unbearable.

“Come on, Tink, come back to us.”

West kisses the back of her head. “Baby, you’re safe now, we’ve got you.”

King starts humming a tune. It takes me a minute to figure out what it is, Lean on Me . The same song we sang during the last storm. I quickly join in, hoping it will bring her out of this faster, and West joins us a moment later.

We sing the song through several times before I finally see the tension in her face start to fade, easing a bit of my own.

A few minutes later, she blinks her big green eyes open and as soon as they connect with mine, her confusion turns to relief. She whimpers as she lurches forward, throwing herself against me, her head against my chest, her fingers digging into my shirt and a choked cry in her throat.

I hug her tightly to me, slightly swaying us as I promise, “You’re safe, Tink. I’ve got you. We’ve all got you.”

I kiss her temple as the other two rub their hands up and down her back and side in a soothing motion while she cries against me. I hate to see her cry, but it’s a step up from her being stuck in a memory like she was.

I start singing again, and soon her cries turn to sniffles before they stop completely.

I pull back a little so I can see her tear-stained face, her eyes are red and puffy and she looks so lost and broken, it damn near kills me .

“You feeling a little better now, Tink?” I ask, cupping the side of her face. She gives me a little nod and I attempt a smile for her, but it’s difficult after witnessing that.

“Do you want to talk about it?” King asks from behind me. “It was a flashback, about them, right?” he asks carefully.

Her eyes drop and her fingers play with the front of my shirt. “It was a flashback, but it wasn’t about them, not exactly. I—”

She cuts herself off, pressing her forehead against me. “I don’t think I can ever talk about it.”

I frown, looking up at West to see the same confused expression on his face. If it wasn’t about the men that raped her, what else had happened to her? If she didn't want to talk about it, we couldn’t force her too, even if it was likely the best way to help her get past it.

“We’ll just have to figure out better ways to spend time during the storms,” King says, clearly thinking along the same line of thought as myself.

“Tink, do you know any songs?”

“Umm, yeah, I know a lot of ACDC.”

“Why don’t we sing one? How about Thunderstruck?”

“Really, Bower?” West asks with a raised eyebrow.

“What? It’s perfect!”

“I don’t think she—”

“No, it’s fine, we can sing that one,” she whispers, pulling back to give me a small smile.

I start us off, and we all try to sing together. It’s terrible. It’s clearly not a good karaoke song, and even worse without music. But it has its desired effect. Zee starts chuckling whenever a part sounds particularly bad or we try to sing different parts at the same time .

And when the next boom of thunder crashes above us, she only freezes for a few seconds before she continues singing.

And that’s how we spend the next two hours; singing poor renditions of all the ACDC songs we can think of. By the end, our throats are a little hoarse, but since Zee didn’t slip back into any panic attacks, it was well worth it.

Although the storm’s stopped, the rain hasn’t, but some things can’t wait. So we decide now is as good a time as any to take a bathroom break and gather some more fruit and water.

We go off in pairs, West refusing to let Zee go with anyone but him, so King and I collect the fruit together, going as fast as we can.

By the time we make it back to the hut, we’re drenched, but I’m pleased to see West and Zee have already made it here and she’s back in her dry clothes, having gone out in her island outfit.

Instead of playing a game, we take turns telling her stories about our past until we all drift off to sleep.

We were stuck in that damn hut through three days of rain. But as we wake up on the fourth morning, with the sound of birds chirping, I jump up and race to open the treehouse door.

I take a deep breath, the scent of damp earth still lingering. The sun hasn’t reached my face yet, but I can feel its presence above, warm and steady, with no sign of rain in the air .

“Fucking finally!” I stretch my arms over my head and yawn, then bend side to side to stretch out my body.

“It stopped?” Zee asks, scrambling out after me and turning in a circle as she surveys the jungle.

“Looks like it.”

“We should go check the beach first,” West says as he and King exit the hut to join us. “All of us,” he says, eyeing Zee as if he doesn’t quite trust her not to go running off somewhere again.

“Okay, I’m gonna get changed first,” she says, running back inside to put on her island wear.

The rest of us follow and get our boots on and as the four of us exit the hut, Zee laughs as she yells, “Let’s go!” and before any of us can stop her, she leaps off the skywalk.

“Zee!” We all scream, trying and failing to reach for her. All we can do is watch as her hands grab onto a vine, then she wraps her body around it as she swings through the clearing.

My heart pounds wildly. I press a hand to my chest as if I can keep it from breaking free.

“Fuck, that girl is gonna give me a heart attack!” I exclaim as West stomps down the ladder angrily.

“Me, too,” King says, climbing down next.

I can hear West and Zee arguing below, and I shake my head as I join them.

“I’ve been doing it for years, I can’t just stop!” Zee says, like asking her not to leap from the skywalk is the craziest thing she’s ever heard.

“Zee, sweetheart. You scared us,” King explains, always the voice of reason .

That gives her pause. She glances around at each of our faces before her shoulders slump in defeat. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you worry. I’ll try not to do it… when you’re watching,” she says with a bite of her lip.

“I’d rather you didn’t do it at all ,” West grumbles down at her. He looks like he doesn’t know what to do with her right now.

I step up behind him, my boots squelching in the mud as I look at her over his shoulder and a mimic giving him a hug then point to her.

Her eyes flick back to his, then her expression softens instantly.

She bats her long eyelashes at him then steps forward, slowly wrapping her arms around his waist, as far as she’s able to reach.

The tension leaves his body as he hugs her back. “I just want you to be safe, baby.”

“I know, big guy. I’m trying.”

“Thank you.”

“Should we go check out the beach now?” King asks, making them pull back from their embrace. She takes his hand and West’s and I lead us down the path.

The jungle floor is particularly muddy today, making the trek more difficult than usual, and by the time we get to the beach, Zee is covered in mud up to her calves.

“I’m gonna wash off in the ocean,” she says as she walks through the sand.

I tilt my head up to the sky, letting the sun warm my face for the first time in days.

“Didn’t think I’d miss the sun,” I murmur as I untie my hair and comb my fingers through it, before retying it again .

“Tell me about it. I’m sure we’ll be boiling again within a couple hours, though,” King says as the three of us head to our large SOS sign in the sand.

It’s still in pretty good shape. It must not have been very windy because nothing has moved too much. We shake the sand off a few pieces and make sure our large burn pile is still in good shape.

Zee joins us, a smile on her face and hands on her hips. “Well, boys. What are we doing now?”

“Ever since you told us you thought you saw a pineapple here, it’s all I’ve been able to think about,” King says, surprising me.

While we were stuck in the hut the past few days, Zee told us how she came across what she thought was a young pineapple plant, her first year here, but hasn’t seen it since.

“But I don’t know where it is,” she says with a frown.

“But you have an idea?”

“Sort of, I guess. I think it’s closer to the northern edge, which is where Fang lives, so I stay away.”

“He’s that big snake?” I ask, and she nods in reply. “It’s four against one now, and hopefully we don’t have to go that far.”

“I don’t know if this is a smart idea,” West says with a frown. “We shouldn’t go looking for trouble.”

“Where is your sense of adventure, huh? Zee has handed everything to us so far. This time, we can help explore and find something new. We’ll all stick together, what’s the worst that could happen? We see the snake, we’ll turn around straight away.”

He gives me that intense stare of his, eyes sharp and searching, as if he’s trying to unravel every layer of the situation.

“We should vote on it,” King suggests .