Chapter Two ~ Discord

Walking.

It seemed like the only thing I could do. I didn’t get hungry or weak.. I was dead, obviously. But the nights were freezing, and the days were long and hot.

I expected to run into tons of people, but it had already been two days and I hadn’t even come across a sign that others were here at all.

Maybe this island was bigger than I thought.

As I walked farther and farther through the shade, I began to hear something that awakened memories from my life on Earth:

The sound of rushing water.

These were pleasant memories, though. Of my childhood, before it fell apart.

When my family first moved to the town my decaying body currently resided in, we would take hikes through the state park, and picnic by the creek. I would waddle into the shallows on pudgy toddler legs, while my dad taught me how to skip rocks, and mom would be fretting good-naturedly on the bank with a cigarette in one hand and a cheap romance novel in the other.

I quickly scampered across the clearing towards the waterfall, I didn’t like being out in the open, even if nobody was around, I always felt like I was being watched.

I stood for what must have been several minutes, just staring at the water. In it I saw that my childhood was reflected, so pure and innocent, oblivious to my parents’ failing relationship. I felt a pain in my heart; It had been there ever since Eve had shown me the place I assumed was Heaven, but it was a little worse now.

I willed myself not to cry. I was irritated at how easily my emotions surfaced here. I guess dying had taken a larger toll on me than I had originally thought.

You’re stronger than this, Mira. You know that.

I was jolted out of my thoughts by a sudden noise; barely audible, but to a girl who had spent practically her whole life looking over her shoulder in case of a fight, I heard it loud and clear.

I whirled around and crept slowly towards the noise.

I was undoubtedly terrified, but I would never back down. I didn’t when I was alive, and I wouldn’t now.

Of course, the stakes were much higher now.

I combed through the underbrush with my eyes, looking for any sign of movement. I knew without a doubt that if attacked, I would kill whoever it was without a second thought.

I was not going to lose.

“If you had been a blue, I woulda killed you by now.”

I jumped at the voice and, even though I internally scolded myself, screamed quite loudly.

The voice snickered, and as I turned around, I saw it belonged to a girl about my age, wearing a deerskin dress similar to mine.

She looked surly and stuck-up, like the type of person at school I would get into a nasty fight with.

“If I had been a.. What?”

She huffed impatiently, and smirked.

“You’re new here obviously. But I haven’t run into anybody for days, so you caught me in a good mood. I’ll let you off easy.” She raised an eyebrow and pursed her lips, which infuriated me.

“You don’t talk to me like that and maybe I won’t pretend that you’re not on my side. Got it?” I snarled. I was reminded strongly of my old school, full of  gangs and druggies just dying to start a fight with anything that moved. Being naturally strong-willed, I’d never had much of a problem with them, mostly because I never lost a fight, and people stopped trying to beat me.

I didn’t like being threatened, and I’d won against way bigger people than this self-entitled bitch. I gave her a firm shove to emphasize my point.

She looked taken aback at first, probably thinking that I was some middle-class suburban barbie; An easy target.

Then she broke into a sly grin.

“I stand corrected. I like you, girl. You’ve got guts.” She smiled, and so did I. This was what I was used to: Impressing others with my ability to push back. That’s how it worked at my old school. If you earned respect, it was through your physical strength.

Needless to say I had earned a lot of respect back in school.

“So what did you mean when you said ‘If you had been a blue?'” I asked

She pointed down to my left hand. “Once you’ve been out here for a while, you’ll get really good at being able to tell which ring somebody is wearing. Eventually, it’s the first thing you’ll see on a person. You’re wearing a red ring, Eve’s ring, not Adam’s, so you’re a red, and obviously not a blue.” She huffed. “I’m a red too. Understand? It’s just how everybody out here says things.”

“Oh uh, yeah. Thanks I guess. I’m Mira.”

“Carmen. Hey, you wanna stay with me tonight? I know a great little place that’ll keep you warm after dark.” She smiled and pointed in the opposite direction of where we were currently standing. “It’s kind of a long hike, but we have time, right?” Carmen snickered.

“I thought we weren’t supposed to stay together?” I remembered what Eve had told me right before disappearing.

“Nah, only when somebody is making a kill..” Carmen’s voice took on a more serious edge “It’s like, something that they just have to do alone, you know? It’s like our one unspoken rule here. If you’re about to.. You know.. attack, you do it by yourself. One on one.”

She shook her head, chocolate curls bouncing around her face, and smiled her cocky grin again.

“But anyways come on, I guarantee you that you won’t be disappointed.”

.

.

.

Carmen was right, by the time we reached our destination, the sun had sunk well below the horizon.

We came upon a cluster of willow trees, and Carmen pushed her way through the tendrils without hesitating.

We sat down and continued talking through the night, our breath visible; Dancing through the frigid air.

“So, how’d you die?” Carmen eventually asked. She wasn’t inquisitive, mocking or smug, just solemn.

“Ehh.. Car crash. I was drunk though.” I said to the ground “What about you?”

She smiled faintly, a bitter smile, which quickly turned into a scowl.

“I lived Juarez with my Papi and little brother. You’ve heard of the wars going on there right? My father was being targeted by some drug dealers.. He owed money. They killed me and my brother to scare him into finding that money. He cared about his drugs more than us, so it really didn’t work. But whatever.” She huffed

“Wait.. You’re from Juarez, but how are you speaking English?” I asked

“We all speak the same language here.” She said “What sounds like English to you might be Spanish to me, or Chinese to another.”

“Wow.. That’s actually really coo-” Carmen cut me off with a forceful shush

She slowly got up looking into the trees, and whispered “Did you hear that?”

“No.. Why? Is somebody out there?” She shushed me again, and crept a few feet towards the noise she heard

I looked in the direction she was heading towards, and words died in my mouth as I caught sight of a skinny pair of legs in the moonlight.

Then a face.

Then a blue ring, glinting like a chip of ice on her pale finger.

“She’s mine!” Carmen snarled. She took off after the girl, who darted through the trees with ease.

“Carmen, WAIT!” I screamed, but she had already disappeared, driven by a burning desire to kill and be rewarded.

I watched her receding form, and realized that I wouldn’t see her again unless the girl managed to get away. But remembering how quickly she had given chase, I knew that it would end with one of them being killed. Escape was not an option.

I wondered if Adam’s soldiers were rewarded for killing one of us.

Not knowing what to do with myself, I curled up on the ground, and tried to fall asleep. But the girl’s calculating eyes kept swimming through my head, and I suspected that maybe Carmen had been the one to perish.

Eventually I was able to slip into a light doze.

However I was jarred awake by rough hands yanking me up and attempting to throw me over their shoulder.

My instincts kicked in, and suddenly I was in another schoolyard brawl. I swung my fist around and caught him on the jaw, and next in the nose. He cursed and kicked my feet out from under me, then swung his foot at my temple while I was on the ground.

I screamed as it struck me, my vision exploding like a firework into different sparks of red, white and yellow. I threw a few choice-swears at him, and managed to claw a fairly nasty gash in his leg. He brought his foot back to kick me again. Teeth gritted, I watched in slow motion as it got closer to my head.

Everything went black.