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“Noah’s gone.”
That’s all Cody could muster. It was obvious there was so much more he wanted to say, but it was clear that he couldn’t. He’s never looked so.. dissociated. Even after the other deaths, he’d try to keep a positive attitude. This was his breaking point. A part of that boy died and would never be coming back.
As per routine, there’d be a few people who’d start to cry, but most people at this point had no more tears left to cry. Some never cried even at the first death and have been holding it together this whole time.
One of those people were Eva. She wasn’t ever much of a crier through her life. Even now, she felt sad, of course, as any human would. But mostly, she just felt angry, and each death that happened added to her anger. She’d never been that great at keeping her temper in check, and that was really no secret at all, but she knew that losing control wouldn’t make anything better in this scenario.
Not that she’d let anyone know it, but as soon as the first death happened, Eva made it her goal to protect everyone to her best abilities. She didn’t want to toot her own horn, but she knew she was the strongest person there and assumed she’d probably be able to take the killer one-on-one.
It wasn’t in her plan to make any friends through this. In fact, she wanted to stay distant from the others so she wouldn’t get attached. People were dropping like flies, and she needed to stay strong. However, she found herself gravitated towards two other “competitors”.
The first was a ginger girl named Izzy with wild hair and an even more wild personality. When they first came to the island, it was clear as day that she had a few screws loose. It was something that Eva found a bit annoying and off-putting, so she kept her distance at first, but the two began to bond. Eva found solace in being seen as more than hotheaded and strong. Izzy saw her as a person. It was nice.
The other was a scrawny boy named Noah who had the most sarcastic sense of humor Eva’s ever seen. To Eva, it felt like Noah was one of the only other people who had common sense in this group. And if they did have common sense, they either didn’t like to use it or were way too controlling about it. Noah was a good balance. He wasn’t as cocky as the others about it, even though he could get irritated sometimes.
Eva was convinced that since both of them were on her side, that they’d be fine.
But in the blink of an eye, one of the best friends she’s ever made was gone and she had no idea how it happened.
“What the fuck did you do, Duncan?” A high pitched voice that Eva recognized as Courtney snapped her back to reality, bringing her attention back to the group.
“Ohh no. No. Do NOT put this on me, man. He CHOSE to walk off!” Duncan retorted, his voice trembling even though he was trying to hide it.
For all the time Eva has held it together, that sentence made something in her snap. A cold anger seared through her core, her vision blurring as she took a step forward.
“And you fucking let him?” She spat, venom dripping from each word.
Duncan scoffed. “What did you want me to do? Beg on my fucking knees for him to come back? He made up his mind! Noah killed HIMSELF!” He yelled, a shake still apparent in his voice. Eva knew he was just trying to convince himself, but that was no excuse.
Eva tightened every muscle in her body, fighting tooth and nail for any bit of control she had left.
“Don’t. Talk about him like that.”
Duncan got up in her face, sweat beading on his forehead.
“Do something about it,” Duncan snapped back.
A crack echoed through the forest as Duncan stumbled backwards, holding his nose as blood began to trickle into his hands, dripping onto the grass. Before he could react, another blow was delivered to his head, rattling his skull and knocking him onto the ground, only to be caught by Courtney and Gwen.
Before Eva knew it, she was being restrained by Leshawna, Owen and Geoff, struggling against them to get to Duncan. She wanted- no,
needed
- to finish Duncan.
“LET GO OF ME!” Eva barked, tears beginning to stream down her face. “HE KILLED NOAH! HE’S A MURDERER!! HE’S NO BETTER THAN THAT GOD DAMNED KILLER!!”
She expected to hear cries of protest for what she’s done, but there were none. Some looked displeased, but there wasn’t a single soul who didn’t understand her rage.
“Believe me, we’re not happy with him either and probably will never be again, but if you kill him that makes you a killer too. I know you don’t want that.” Leshawna spoke.
Hearing that slightly shook Eva from her frenzy, stopping her from struggling until she had nothing left to do but silently cry, not letting out any noises but tears blurring her vision and staining her cheeks. She sunk to the ground, holding her knees in a fetal position. For the first time ever in her life, she felt weak. Pathetic. Helpless.
“I was- I was supposed to save him.. I was supposed to save them all. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I wasn’t.. I wasn’t strong enough.”
She wasn’t talking to anyone in particular, just everyone. It unnerved a lot of people to see her break down like this, which was the exact opposite she wanted to do. It was her intention to be the rock for everyone, to never let the situation get the better of her. But she failed.
Izzy came over to Eva, her expression betraying nothing of how she was feeling. Why was it so easy for her? Why could Izzy hold it together and she couldn’t?
“Come on, Evs. Let’s go back to the cabins.” Izzy spoke in an uncharacteristically soft tone, soothing Eva enough to be able to calm her crying. A soft “okay” was all Eva could choke out as she let Izzy help her up, her arm around Eva’s waist.
From the corner of her eye, she noticed Courtney and Gwen hoisting Duncan up as he began to blink awake, but he didn’t say a word. A part of Eva wanted to apologize, but if she did say sorry she’d be lying.
She had nothing to apologize for.