Siobhan Curham - Dark of the Moon

Cruz laughs. ‘But it is the truth.’

‘Cruz!’

‘Okay, already.’

I squeeze his hand tight and we make our way back to the others.

‘What happened, Gracie?’ the Flea says as soon as we get back. ‘Why’d you run off like that?’

He and Dan look up at me, Belle looks blindly from side to side.

‘I’m sorry,’ I mumble. ‘I guess I just flipped out.’

Dan gets to his feet and comes and gives me a hug. ‘Been a crazy few days, huh?’

I nod. Just the fact that Dan Charles is hugging me proves how crazy it’s been – we barely said a word to each other back in our old lives at the dance academy. I guess I’d always been a bit wary, given all the rumours about his brother and gangs. But that seems really stupid now. I suppose one good thing about being stuck on this lousy island has been realising that when you judge someone without actually knowing them, you could really be missing out. I look at the Flea stroking Belle’s hair. Another case in point.

Cruz goes over to one of the boxes of food we found on the boat and pulls out a couple of cans. ‘How about we have something to eat since we are awake? We’ll need all our strength for when we set sail.’

‘Good plan.’ The Flea grins. ‘What do you say, m’lady?’ he says to Belle in his fake British accent. ‘Would you care for a hotdog surprise?’

Belle frowns. ‘What’s the surprise?’

‘That it’s not a frickin’ coconut!’ the Flea says, reverting to his native New York twang.

We all laugh and Belle nods and smiles weakly.

The Flea puts his arm round her and hugs her to him.‘We’ll be getting out of here real soon, sweetie-pie. And then you can go straight to hospital and they’ll figure out what’s happened to you and have you right in no time.’

Belle nods again, but I can see tears shining on her face in the moonlight.

As Cruz passes round a can of hotdogs I can’t help thinking about the man whose boat we found and whose food we’re eating – and it pretty much kills my appetite stone dead. So many horrible things have happened since we got here, but seeing the man throw himself into the canyon right in front of us is almost too dreadful to comprehend. He’d written in his journal that he’d come to the island to see if the legend of Hortense was true – to see if she really did exist. I think of Hortense stumbling after us in the rainforest, her breath rasping like a bitter wind. What had she done to the man to make him so terrified of her – to make him jump to his death rather than face her? I shudder and look up to the sky, willing it to get light.

‘I wonder how the others are doing,’ the Flea says, staring down the beach at the sea.

I shiver as I follow his gaze. In the darkness the ocean seems to stretch on forever.

‘At least there haven’t been any more storms,’ the Flea says. ‘They’ll have had a calm night. If they haven’t been rescued already.’

My body relaxes a little. If the others have been found then the coast-guard might be on their way to get us right now.

‘I still can’t believe those guys left without us,’ Dan mutters.

Cruz grunts in agreement, no doubt still furious that they took his boat.

‘Well, hey, we’ll all be gone soon too,’ I say, my voice all fake cheery, like I’m doing the voice-over for a commercial.

Nobody replies.

A bird suddenly takes flight from the forest and swoops down over the beach toward the sea. If only I was a bird too. If only I could fly all the way back to LA – back to my mom and dad, and my cat, Tigger. I feel a lump growing in my throat. Cruz puts his arm round me and kisses the top of my head. I take a deep breath and make myself smile up at him. I can’t fall apart now, not when we’re so close to getting out of here.

‘Should we start getting ready?’ the Flea says. ‘So we can leave as soon as the sun comes up?’

Cruz nods and he and Dan get to their feet and head over to the boat. After giving Belle a quick hug, the Flea jumps up and goes to pack his things.

‘I’ll sit with you, Belle,’ I say, noticing that she’s starting to look freaked out again. I shuffle up and put my arm round her. Her shoulder blades feel bony beneath her T-shirt. I think back to the digs Jenna and Cariss made about her being overweight before we left and it makes me feel sick.

‘Why did you run off just now?’ Belle whispers to me.

I try to think of an answer that won’t make me sound like a fruit loop, and won’t totally freak Belle out. ‘I don’t know. Frustration, I guess. I just wanted to find the person who’s behind all the weird stuff that’s happened here.’

Belle looks at me, but her eyes are blank. ‘The person who took me?’

‘Uh-huh.’

‘Do you know who it is?’

My face instantly flushes. ‘No, of course not.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Sure I’m sure.’

Belle looks so stressed. Maybe I ought to tell her what I know – or at least, what I think I know about Hortense. But then I see Belle’s mom’s broken necklace glinting in her hand. And I remember what the Flea told us about her mom being diagnosed with cancer right before we left. I can’t tell her anything. It’ll just make her even more upset.

‘We don’t know any more than you,’ I tell her. ‘When we found you in the volcano whoever had taken you there had gone.’

Belle frowns. She doesn’t look all that convinced.

‘I’m just going down to the water to wash the sand out of my trainers,’ the Flea says, coming over to us. ‘You okay, Beau-Belle?’

Belle nods.

‘Cool. I won’t be long and then I’ll help you get your stuff together, ’kay?’

‘Okay.’ As soon as he’s gone, Belle turns back to me. ‘Hold my hand, Grace,’ she whispers.

Still keeping my arm round her, I take hold of her hand and squeeze it tightly. Despite the humidity it’s as cold as ice. ‘You’re gonna be okay,’ I tell her, softly.

She closes her eyes and leans into me.‘Thank you,’ she sighs.

I glance over at Cruz. He and Dan are engrossed in checking out the sail on the boat.

I’m about to tell Belle what they’re doing when I see the Flea racing back toward us, a look of horror on his face.

‘What is it? What’s wrong?’ I call out to him.

‘What’s happening?’ Belle says, gripping my hand tightly.

‘It’s okay, it’s the Flea,’ I tell her as he gets back to us, gasping for breath. ‘What’s the matter?’

The Flea just stands there, his mouth hanging open, but no words coming out.

‘Hey, what’s up?’ Dan says, coming over with Cruz right behind him.

‘Th-the boat,’ the Flea stammers.

‘It’s okay, Dan and I just checked it again,’ Cruz says.

‘No, not that boat. The boat. Our boat. Your boat – the one the others took,’ the Flea says, looking straight at Cruz.

Cruz instantly looks alarmed. ‘What about it?’

The Flea gulps. ‘It – it’s been washed up on the beach. It’s totally trashed.’

As we run down the beach all I can think of is Jenna. And all I can hear is her voice, soft and scared, when we were trapped in the hold during the storm when this nightmare all began.

‘ Grace, what’s happening? Are we going to die? ’

I can see a dark shape at the water’s edge. It looks like a beached whale. But as I get closer I see it’s the hull of the boat. There’s a huge jagged hole in the side, like something took a great bite out of it.