Page 67 of Delirium

“You sure?” I wanted to have the same kind of faith she had in Nash, but it was hard.

“I don’t think we have a choice to think anything else.”

“Fair.” I paused, toying with a strand of her hair. “Did you find anything of interest in that diary?”

Scarlett shook her head. “Nothing that would help us figure out where they might’ve gone. It’s mostly just a log of what they worked on that day, what terrible rations they ate, so on and so forth.”

“Disappointing, then.”

“There was one interesting entry.” She spun around to look at me again, a crease between her brows I fought the urge to smooth away. “He spoke about a curse. I only found it interesting because I heard someone else at the market say that the city was cursed, too.”

I stroked her forehead with a smile. “Don’t tell me you believe in curses now.”

“No. I mean. I don’t know.” She sighed. “I know logically, curses don’t exist. But I also know how I felt standing in that city wasn’t natural. My brain feels like it’s trying to hold too much information at once. I don’t know how to process it, or make sense of it, or evenlabelit. So thinking it might be a curse…”

“Makes it easier,” I finished, nodding. “I get it. There’s a reason that past civilizations believed in gods and goddesses. Sometimes things don’t make sense at first glance. It’s easier to chalk it up to an immortal being pissed at you than thinking the corn just didn’t grow that season.”

“Maybe.” She sighed again, twisting around in my arms once more.

She didn’t like my explanation. I wanted to talk more, to explain it didn’t sit right with me either, but I didn’t like the way that made me feel. I wanted to say all this to her, but I found myself exhausted in more ways than one.

The heat must have been getting to me. It was hard to breathe, the thickness making me drowsy.

Scarlett was quiet. She must have been getting tired, too.

Luckily, we had an afternoon to kill, and nothing better to do than sleep. “I’m just going to close my eyes for a bit. Don’t go.”

“Never.” Her words were a promise, her voice a dream, and I found myself drifting off easily, clinging to her waist, a lifeline I’d never thought possible.

My dreams were bright,brighter than the rainforest that surrounded us. The four of us trekked the path to the city. I wanted to scream ahead of me, beg the other three to turn back, tell them not to go down there. It was safer on the boat. Safer at home.

Safer far, far away from whatever energy surrounded this place.

But my feet kept walking toward them, never stopping. I looked to my side, and the once green foliage was a bright purple, shimmering in the light. I reached out my hand to touch it, only for the leaf to turn to ash, crumbling beneath my fingers.

Scarlett was just ahead, swirling orange and pink. She spoke to me, but I couldn’t make out her words. Still we marched on, unable to stop time, the path to the city set in neon stone. Ahead of both of us, Nash glowed a deep red, almost maroon. I knew what happened from here on out. I knew James would run ahead, and Scarlett would follow. I knew I would keep back, some unseen force preventing me from stepping inside.

Except that didn’t happen. James ran through, and Scarlett followed, and I went to follow her, tripping and tumbling down the small dirt hill, the brightly-colored world spinning around me as I fell, farther and farther. The hill hadn’t been this tall, but I didn’t stop falling. I called out for Scarlett, the words drifting away from me, only for her to turn around, the only still thing as everything else spiraled.

Just like everything else, she was her and not her. I opened my mouth to scream but nothing came out.

Two sides. I could see Scarlett in front of me, yet I couldn’t do anything about the black jaguar stalking her from behind.

I bolted upright in bed,patting my hammering chest, making sure I was on the boat, in my bed, and not in the rainforest, back in the city from hell. I was still here, in one piece, but Scarlett was gone. Looking out the window, the bright light of the day was fading toward sundown, and I realized I had been sleeping for far longer than I planned. Scarlett was likely checking on Nash. The boat was probably almost ready to go.

I swung my legs out of bed, nearly falling to my knees. My legs weighed a hundred more pounds than they had before I fell asleep, or at least they felt like they did. I pressed my hand into the wall, steadying myself before I lost balance entirely.

What the fuck?I knew I’d slept for longer than I should’ve but I’d never experienced something like this before.

I didn’t feel well. Not at all. And it wasn’t only because of the weird dream I’d woken up from, still lingering in the back of my mind. I shook my head trying to rid myself of the images of the slick, black jaguar, stalking Scarlett, leaving me with no way to warn her. It was just a dream. It meant nothing.

I’d get outside, see her whole and healthy, Nash would tell me he fixed the boat, and we’d be off. All good. Then we’d be on our way home, hopefully Scarlett would still like me back in civilization, where I’d make her the banana rum cake of her dreams.

Raised voices echoed from the hall. I dropped all of my thoughts and raced to the noise. But when I yanked on the knob, my door was fucking jammed. The heat must have made it swell, because no matter how hard I wrenched on it, it didn’t budge.

“Fuck’s sake,” I muttered.

The voices were getting louder. I could make out James and Nash’s angry words, but couldn’t hear Scarlett’s at all. Maybe she wasn’t there, but the men were arguing about something. Little surprise there.

---