I contemplate leaving her alone. The guilt of murdering her—or whoever that was—in cold blood still coils around my stomach.
What if I do it again?
The need for more information is much stronger than my impulse to follow her request. Unsure of what she might do, I slowly move toward the window again.
“I’m not going to hurt you.” I try to keep my voice calm and reassuring.
My hand grips the edge of the window, and I press my toes into the divots, securing my position. She hasn’t moved, but she’s not shaking anymore. Her knees are close to her body. Thick hair completely hides her face.
The shift between the girl who fought me on the beach and the one who’s sitting inside is striking. Though, if she had choked me to death, I probably wouldn’t want to be near her either.
“How did you get in here?” I ask. “I watched you float out to sea.”
“Leave me alone,” she says, her voice cracking. She’s still not looking at me.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” I repeat. “I just want to talk. I’m as confused as you.”
She glances up at me. Her eyes well with tears. “I don’t believe you.”
“How about I stay out here?” I suggest in a steady voice.
She shoves her hair out of her face and stands, unmoving.
“I don’t understand anything that happened before,” I continue. I need her to know we’re in the same position, even though now she has the upper hand. “I swam over from another island. The moment I saw you, I wanted to harm you. Why is that?”
“I don’t know,” she says. “Same thing happened to me. When I saw you from the window, something inside of me snapped. You were the enemy.”
Hearing her mirror my thoughts eases the tension in my core. If we had the same feelings once before, would they crop up again?
“The last thing I remember is passing out when you crushed my throat.” She doesn’t hide the venom in her voice.
“Do you remember how you got here the first time?” I ask, veering away from the fact that I killed this girl once before.
“No,” she says.
“I don’t have any memories of before this place, too.”
She sighs, almost sounding relieved. “Me neither.”
“Do you know your name?” It seems like the simplest idea: a name. Yet I don’t know mine.
She shakes her head.
I rest my chin against the edge of the window. “What’s going on here? Who are we?”
She shrugs. “I—I just don’t know.” The girl pulls her hair and twists it behind her shoulder. A slight shimmer on her chest catches my attention.
“What’s that?” I ask.
She freezes and whips her head around. “What’s what?”
I squint to get a better look. “Right there.”
She eyes me as if I’m trying to trick her, then she pulls her shirt away from her body and reads the digital inscription. “M-Y-C-O.”
“Myco?” I ask.
“Do you have one?”
I look down at my chest and realize I do. The display isn’t as bright in the full sun. Why didn’t I see it before?
“Mine says E-S-A.”
“What does it mean?” she asks.
“They must be identifiers,” I say to myself. The words don’t register in my mind as anything important. “Esa.” Saying the word aloud doesn’t help either.
“My—co,” the girl says slowly. “Can we call each other by these names for now? It makes me feel as if we’ve accomplished something.”
“Sure,” I say, even though I’m not convinced these are our names. Shouldn’t they bring some memory along with them? She’s right, though. It is something for us to hold onto.
Myco moves closer to me—well, one step closer. I hope she realizes I’m not going to hurt her. All I want to do now is get some answers for the both of us. Continuing to talk about herself might help ease her mind about me.
“So you were alive when you floated away?” I ask.
“No. I mean, I don’t know,” she says, her eyebrows furrowing. “I remember feeling so weak near the end of our fight. My body felt as if this entire building fell on top of it. When I came to, I was here again, and not hurt.”
I wonder if that happened to me before I woke in my silo. I don’t recall seeing anyone on the beach, though the bars on the windows restricted my view of the island. Myco remembers the fight. It seems to be the only thing she does remember.
“I woke up in a silo like this one, too. I had to climb out of mine through a hatch.”
Myco looks up. “Hmm. I didn’t see that before. Why didn’t you just climb out the window?”
I shook my head. “Mine was a little different. There were bars.”
“Was?” she asks.
“It disappeared while I swam over to this island.”
“Disappeared how?”
“I have no idea,” I insist. “That’s why I came here. There’s no other place for me to go.”
“Before we… um… met, I woke up confused, just like you,” Myco says. “With no memory at all.” Her shoulders relax as if she’s starting to trust me. “Then I saw you coming and I just felt this need to get out and protect this place.”
“That’s crazy,” I say. “The moment I saw you, I had a crazy urge to take you down for some reason. When you woke, did it feel like someone was with you?”
“Yes. I was scared at first, and then I understood what I needed to do. I thought it was because I saw you.”
“It wasn’t,” I say, truly believing that. “I felt the same when I woke. Then that calming sensation came over me and I just knew what to do.”
She shook her head. “This is insane.”
I peer into the room, wondering if there are cameras or peepholes for someone to watch us. Our situations are so similar that they couldn’t be a coincidence. If there’s another person or people watching us, is there any way they could force us to fight each other for no reason?
“What should we do now?” Myco asks.
“We can both sit here and wait for someone to rescue us, or we can take the situation into our own hands.”
“I don’t want to be here forever.”
I glance at the ground below. “I’m going to climb down. When you’re ready, come down, and we can try and figure out something together.”
She tilts her head to the side, her eyes narrowing. “I don’t know.”
“I don’t want to hurt you,” I remind her. At least I don’t at this moment.
She doesn’t move from her spot. I’d feel the same way if I were in her shoes, so I don’t push her. Instead, I start my descent, hoping that Myco decides to follow.
I’m not sure I’ll be able to figure this world out on my own. As far as I understand, there’s no other place for me to go. If our murderous feelings return and Myco defeats me, will I disappear from existence and reappear inside a silo? What if that island isn’t anywhere near Myco’s? I’ll be back to square one.
Chills roll down my arms. Once I reach the warm sand, I rub my arms, attempting to bring some semblance of feeling back to them. I can’t focus on the terror that still seeps into my bones. That won’t get me anywhere.
Looking up at the window, I don’t see Myco. But staring at the window won’t make her come down. I can’t even begin to imagine how terrified she must be of me. As long as this silo doesn’t disappear like the other ones, I’ll give her all the time she needs to process. It’s not as if I have anywhere else to go.
I walk toward the water, careful to keep one eye on the silo. As much as I want to trust Myco, I need to be sure her intentions are as good as mine.
The crashing waves don’t comfort my nerves. While I’m glad I’m no longer alone, my brain can’t handle the questions I still have. It’s enough to make my stomach churn.
I see her before I hear her. Myco’s lithe body scales down the silo much faster than I had. With her black hair and thin arms and legs, she looks
more like a spider than a person. Though, to be fair, she already climbed down once before, so she already knew the quickest and quietest way down.
I turn back to the water and wait for her to come to me. I don’t want any confusion about my intentions. She’s a few feet behind me when she says, “What’s the plan?”
“I’m waiting for inspiration to strike.” When I left my island, I had a destination in mind. If we took a chance out in the ocean and this island disappeared, I’m not sure how long we’d last if another island didn’t pop up.
“What about over there?” she asks.
I whip my head in the direction of her pointed finger. I dart around the beach to get a better view of what appears to be another block of land in the distance. My heart races in my chest. “That wasn’t there before.”
“You said the other islands disappeared. Maybe they reappear, too.”
I’m unable to keep the silly grin from my face. There isn’t a silo on that island, and it appears much bigger. What if there are more people like us?
“Do you think you can swim?” I ask Myco.
“I think so.”
“I swam quite a ways to get here,” I say. Could I leave her behind? If there were others there who were as bloodthirsty as both Myco and me, then I’d have a problem if I went on my own.
“I’m strong enough,” she says with a smirk. “I almost kicked your butt, too.”
She’s right. We’re both skilled athletes, even though we have no recollection of why or how.
“Let’s take the chance. At least, if there are others like us, we might be able to figure out what’s going on.”
“I’m in,” she says.
“Tell me if you need to slow down. On the way over here, I didn’t need to stop.”
“I’ll keep up,” she says. “You let me know if you need to stop.” She trudges through the sand and into the ocean.
I’m right behind her. The water is up to my knees when I stop. I crane my neck around and take one last look at the silo before I dive in.
CHAPTER 5
THE SWIM OVER to the bigger island is at least twice as long as the trip over to Myco’s. Neither of us stop. I know it’s because we don’t want to admit defeat.
As we glide through the water, the island we swim to seems to get farther and farther away from us. A tense glare tightens my brow. An idea that our destination was just a mirage and we’re now swimming to our doom consumes me. I submerge my face in the water and swim harder, tearing through the distance. The island comes more into focus every time I lift my head to breathe. The slope of the shore filters through the clear, warm water. We made it.
When my feet connect with the bottom of the shore, I scramble up the beach, digging my hands into the warm white sand. Myco and I gasp for breath as we flop onto the beach, totally spent.
My legs are too weak to move much, but I’m still aware of my surroundings. Myco’s and my footprints are the only ones in the sand. The rest of the beach looks as though Mother Nature herself groomed the island before we arrived here. Sand stretches on either side of us as far as the eye can see. Edging the beach is a thick forest. It’s perfect.
A little too perfect.
I don’t think about that for too long. I’m not about to go looking for trouble when we’re recovering from the long swim over to this island. Regaining stamina is my first priority. The fatigue I feel right now is surprising.
I rub my hands on my pants, brushing off most of the sand. “We should stay here for a little while.”
“Yeah,” Myco says, tossing her hair over her shoulders. The dark strands plaster to her back. “I’m surprised you were able to fight and beat me after swimming to my island.”
“It wasn’t as far as this one,” I admit.
She leans back, digging her hands into the sand. “Do you think there are more like us here?”
“It’s possible. Maybe not in the direct vicinity, but we can explore later.”
“I hope it doesn’t turn into the same kind of meeting as we had.”
I smile. “Well, at least we have each other.”
Her lips quirk up into a smile, but she doesn’t say anything. I have no intention of sitting around a campfire singing songs together, but it makes sense that we have each other’s back.
“I still don’t understand why I can’t remember anything,” Myco says after a while.
The muscles in my arms and legs aren’t tense anymore, and they’ve lost the numbing edge to them. Recalling our fight, the skirmish did seem to go on far longer than it should have. After her kick to my spine, I should have been down for the count. Our healing abilities are something else. Inspired by that thought, I stand up and walk around, keeping an eye out for any signs of life.
“What if someone’s drugging us?” I ask. The idea sounds preposterous as I say it, but Myco dying and then appearing in a silo doesn’t seem possible either. Yet, it happened.
Her eyes dart around the area. “You think someone’s really manipulating us?”
“I honestly don’t know. There doesn’t seem to be any other explanation for any of this.”
“Maybe aliens have taken over the planet.”
I sit back down and look at her, and it takes me a moment to realize she’s kidding. The slight lift of her lips gives her away.
“That’s dumb,” I say. “It’s probably ghosts.”
“Even better.” She smiles and lays down against the sand. Though the sun quickly descends in the distance, the sand is remains warm. Another odd thing about this entire situation. “I bet those silos were haunted.”
I draw in a big breath. “Yes! That must be why we wanted to kill each other. An evil ghost wanted us to relive his fight to the death.”
Myco flinches, and I know my jokes have gone too far. The pain of death still lingers with her.
“Sorry.”
She shrugs one shoulder. “Don’t worry about it.”
“I don’t want to fight like that again,” I say, laying down next to her. I’m far enough away that she would have to reach over to hit me.
“I don’t either.” She stares up at the orange and red sky.
I roll my cheek on the sand to face her. “If I lose control, will you stop me?”
Myco takes in a deep breath. “Yes. As long as you do the same for me. Just try not to kill me. Tie me up or whatever, but I’m not sure if I could handle dying again.”
“Deal,” I say. If we were closer, I’d offer to shake her hand. But, deep down, I worry that any physical contact with her might trigger something. It’s better we keep our distance for now.
My thoughts sink into the sand’s warmth and I allow my lids to close shut. Within a few seconds, my mind relaxes.
“I wonder what we did to get here,” Myco says.
I jolt at the sound of her voice. The crash of ocean waves had lulled me to the place between waking and sleeping. “I imagine we did something terrible.”
“Do you really?”
It’s my turn to shrug. “Why else would we be stranded on deserted islands and be compelled to murder each other?”
“I’m still alive,” she says quietly. “How about you get some rest. I’ll keep an eye out.”
I yawn, the weight of the entire day settles on my eyelids. “Just for a little while. Wake me if you hear anything. I mean anything. Even if it’s a bird or a fish.”
Myco smirks. “I’ll be sure to warn you about any killer fish.”
***
“Esa!” a voice echoes in the distance, snapping me awake. I sit up to find myself no longer on the beach, but standing inside a small room. My breathing picks up. My body feels stiff. I study the setting. The walls are lined with old wooden planks, the paint flecking from every joint. I’m not sure how I know, but this is an old farmhouse.
A steady breeze caresses my face, forcing me to turn. It’s hard to move, and I’m a bit dazed, but I manage to pivot. An older woman stands near the door and smiles at me. Startled, I stumble
back a step, and then steady myself. Her crimson hair, streaked with shiny white strands, dangles past her shoulders. She’s somehow familiar, but I can’t put my finger on why. I want to study her, but my vision fades and suddenly goes black.
My eyes pop open again. I stare straight up at the blue, crystal clear sky. Confusion consumes me. What just happened? Where was I? Who was that woman?
Clear-headed, I roll over to face Myco. The outline of her body remains in the sand, but she’s gone.
I jump up and circle the area. I don’t dare call out for her in case something sinister has happened. But there’s no sign of her on the horizon.
Footprints in the sand catch my eye. They lead from Myco’s spot toward the forest in the distance. I sigh. She was supposed to keep an eye out while I slept. If she were going to wander off, she should have remained nearby. Or, at the very least, woke me up.
I trudge off in the direction the footsteps lead and come up with several choice words to relay once I find her. Sticking with the idea that she had wandered off on her own, I swallow through the tightness in my throat. She’s fine. I repeat the words in my head over and over.
Traveling into the forest along the beach’s edge, the footsteps disappear. I cautiously step over undergrowth and duck below low-hanging limbs. Twigs snap under my feet as I push farther into the woods. The light trickling through the dense jungle above provides enough illumination to see my next step, but not too far up ahead.
A few times, I glance behind me, wondering if I should go back. Myco’s footsteps led me to the woods, but she could have easily doubled back. What if she returns to the beach and I’m not there?
I’m about to turn back when my ears perk up. I hear voices coming from up ahead. The need for answers propels me forward, and I jog toward the voices. I’m careful not to traipse through the woods like a bear though I move swiftly. If Myco does return to the beach, she can wait. She was the one who ran away, after all.
Avatars Rising: SILOS I Page 3
