The Desert Island Survival Was Just A Scheme For My Long-Lost Sister Chapter 06
Ethan’s face went white. “What do you mean, gone?”
The actor stammered, desperate to absolve himself. “She cut the rope. She fell into the pot. I couldn’t move it, and there was nothing to put the fire out. I ran to get you, but…”
Derek let out a breath of relief. “It’s fine. The pot had a specific low-boiling liquid. It wasn’t boiling. It was like forty or fifty degrees. A warm bath.”
He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Now get back there before she notices you’re gone.”
The actor blinked, baffled. “But she screamed like she was…”
“Keep talking and I’ll keep your pay.”
The actor shut up. He didn’t dare say she knew everything.
He shuffled back into the jungle. Five minutes later, he came screaming out again. This time his face wasn’t just pale, it was gray.
Before Ethan could speak, the actor blurted out, “I don’t want my money. I don’t want anything. Just let me leave!”
Ethan and Derek exchanged a glance. They started running.
The radio crackled. My parents. “What’s taking so long? We have to take Jenna to a hospital! She won’t wake up!”
Ethan hurled the radio into the dirt and sprinted.
They reached the clearing. The pot was still bubbling. The fire still
—
blazed. But I was gone.
“Nat!” Ethan spun in circles. “Where are you?”
Neither dared approach the pot. “You’re sure about that liquid?” Ethan asked.
Derek nodded hard. “I bought it myself. I tested it!”
He steeled himself and walked over.
One look. He vomited. All the fettuccine he’d eaten that day came gushing out.
Ethan’s face went pale. He staggered to the pot, looked in, and howled, “Natalie!”
Ethan thrust both arms into the water, heedless of the searing heat, trying to scoop my ravaged body out.
The liquid splashed, burning him, but he didn’t stop.
On the sixth attempt, he pulled me out, a ruined, pulpy thing cradled in his blistered, swollen hands.
He collapsed, sobbing. “Nat… Nat… No…”
He grabbed a rock and hurled it at Derek. “You said it was safe! You killed her! You killed her for Jenna!”
He started hurting anything he could find, sharp-edged stones and branches, leaving welts of blood.
Derek didn’t fight back. He stared at me, unblinking.
Finally, a rock struck him square in the eye. He clutched his face on
—
instinct, blood seeping between his fingers, and whispered through the pain:
“I should never have helped you keep this from Nat… I should’ve told her from the very beginning.”
Just then, a team of security guards pushed through the brush to find them. My parents emerged from behind the guards’ shoulders.
“What… what is that?”
They didn’t even have the courage to step closer. One look at the ruin in Ethan’s arms, and both of them crumpled to the ground, unconscious.
I floated above them, watching. The more they hurt, the lighter I felt. The Interface said I was getting closer to going home.