There wasn’t even a ripple in the water to prove he had ever been there.
That was it. He wasn’t there. All the logic pointed to me having a medical emergency.
I ran over to where Shannon was asleep, and I shook her harder than I intended too.
“What?” She groaned.
“Something is wrong,” I whispered too loudly, glancing back at the water, expecting glowing red eyes to stare back at me. “I must have…”
What? Where had I gone wrong?
She didn’t need me to finish, she sat up using a pen light on my eyes. “Holy fuck. Your pupils. You’re having a pharmaceutical response.”
“Help me. I’m losing my mind.” Giant ripples moved across the water behind her, so I leaned forward to rest my head on her knees, so I couldn’t see anymore.
She slid out from under me and dug around in her bags. She grinded something in a mortar and pestle, and the strange familiarity of it anchored me back into a small sense of normalcy. They called Shannon the herb master, cause she had one for everything. “I didn’t see any psychedelics in the nest, but you must have walked through something.”
She seeped and pressed some herbs into a cup. It tasted like the death of the forest, but I listened when she insisted I drink all of it. If I wasn’t in the right mind, Shannon would kick me back to reality. I could always trust that.
“I saw a huge man with a reptile face and skin. And a tail!”
“Shut up.” She guided me gently back to my hammock. As I laid down, her eyes filled with worry, directly conflicting with her irritated words.
My heart rate slowed down
“What did you give me?” I asked too late.
“It will ease your anxiety. I can’t flush the drugs out, especially not hours later. But I can take the edge off the hallucinations. I’m sorry, I should have listened closer earlier and noticed that you weren’t well.”
She started that grumbling thing she does when she’s pissed off at herself. I didn’t know why that made me laugh. “You’re always so hard on yourself. Be kinder. You’re already perfect.”
She blinked at me, caught off guard.
“I hate that about you.” My eyelids grew heavy. “You’re always fucking right, but you work so hard you kinda deserve the audacity.”
I was too tired to be embarrassed that I’d said that out loud. She didn’t even get a chance to respond before everything went black.
Chapter 8:
Iwokeupwell-restedwith a heat nestled along my side. My mind immediately went to the monster from my dreams, and my eyes snapped open to find Shannon beside me.
“What the fuck are you doing in my bed?” I asked slowly.
She grinned without opening her eyes. “Oh good, you made it through the night without being violated by a monster.”
I scoffed at myself. “I made you sleep here.”
She opened her eyes, and they sparkled with amusement. “That way if he came back, I was the closest to the water, and he’d kidnap me first.”
I snorted at the logic and fought to keep the smirk off my face. She rolled out of the hammock and walked barefoot back over to her side of the camp.
“Thank you.”
She could have told me to go fuck myself. She could have let me suffer all night. Instead, she took care of me. I wasn’t so blinded by ego that I didn’t see that.
“Don’t mention it.” She didn’t glance back, but I could hear the lilt in her voice. “Like ever.”
I gathered supplies and found that the makeshift changing areas were full. So, I went several feet away from the general camp.
