My pace was just shy of a jog to get out of the hotel lobby.

The fresh air was a godsend and I swayed my hips to tug up the pin and rearrange it. The deceptively simple piece didn’t come loose or take a lot of adjustment to fix it as I liked. “Now, to find a notice board with activities.”

I found it not far from the lobby and leaned back to scan the long list of Dir’dir Isles activities available for us tourists. Shuffleboard and all that boring stuff were listed, then other land activities. Snorkelling caught my eye but I'd just come back from the water not an hour ago. Maybe I could join a class in dancing, get some soft exercise depending on the pace the locals set.

The little blurb by the bullet point said the class was held on the shore of the Black Lagoon in half an hour, then another tomorrow. I had time and they said clothing for the dancing was provided if requested.

I skipped back to the bungalow, throwing open the doors when I'd successfully swiped my card down. "Honeys, I'm home!" I shouted.

Morgan stumbled out of her room and yawned widely, body slumped and arms cradling a huge body pillow. “Waz with duh racket?” She demanded in her typically grouchy voice. I should know it well; I'd often come and wake her up from her 'beauty naps'.

“Get dressed. The first day here should be spent having fun and we're going to a dance class tomorrow,” I demanded, leaving her no room to argue. She cussed under her breath stomping back into her room. Miles’ had draped his body over the couch and lifted his head from the couch to squint up at me when I skipped over. I pushed his glasses back up his nose so he could get a good look at my new attire.

“Where did you get the clothes?” He asked, phone in hand and an encyclopedia page on polynesian fish loaded.

I did a spin, showing off the trim and colours. “It's provided for VIP's. Atlas had a stylist help me and I get to keep it. We get to wear these for the dancing so I'm already set!" I jumped around in excitement. “And you won't believe the morning I had! I met the cutest creature ever!”

“Did you bump your head again?” Miles asked, nodding to his head to an unheard beat. I flopped down at his side, pouting up to him. “Geez, okay. You two will have fun.”

“Oh no, Mister! You're coming with us,” I said and jumped onto his stomach, hands on his chest as I mussed up his hair. He shouted this time in offense. “You can't deny me, can you?” I pouted comically and he rolled his eyes.

“I'm not joining in,” He grumped.

“So you say,” I smirked and got off him. “I know, I know, I'm heavy. Get up or I’ll flop onto you again and stay like that until food comes.”

“You are, as always, the most confusing creature known to man. If you weren't so harmless, I'd call you one of the unholy signs of an impending apocalypse,” Miles remarked in his dull tone.

“I don't know if I should take offense to that,” I said as I crossed over to my room and opened the door. “For that, you're dancing tomorrow or I’ll drown your baby!”

He made a genuine sound of distress and clutched his phone to his chest.

My malevolent cackles didn't help ease his anxiety.

A quiet, relaxing evening in with more crab than humanly possible and seaweed wrapped bits of vegetables and fish came around.

Josh joined us for an evening swim, ignoring Jane until she stomped off in the direction of the bustling beachside bonfire. She could have whatever whisky dick she could get but Josh had somehow lost all care for her.

He stayed quiet and swam around Miles and I until late in the night.

Jane had been left to sulk the entire time. That made for a testy, vicious bitch the next morning.

Either karma hit hard or something in Josh changed. Granted, he’d never been a manwhore or an absolute bastard until he cheated. We’d been so close, us four and it hurt us all deep inside when he did what he did with Jane. So then, why was she here?

It stewed in my mind for a while, through to the next morning. I sat on one of the outdoor lounging chairs, Morgan laid out next to me with sunscreen already applied. Josh had been dragged out of bed by Jane, her neck littered with hickeys and her shirt inside out. She made a new friend the night before.

Josh didn’t even twitch, asking if she had fun.

Somehow, that seemed like the wrong choice of words with how she exploded.

Miles pretended not to listen but I could tell he paid attention to every word spewing from Jane’s mouth.

A lot of bad words not for polite company. We wrapped up our second evening out in the water, Josh watching from the bungalow deck. Morgan left the water before us to go say hello to the roaming Qeha.

I had come out of my deep sleep to a tense bungalow and Jane’s stormy attitude.

I would be the first to admit I could be cruel. I enjoyed vengeance, no matter how I tried to shy away from that dark part of me. I didn’t mask it like Jane tried to under batted eyes and a delicate nibble on her bottom lip. 

So, when Josh was being slapped by a furiously hysterical Jane, I sat there on the porch and watched the shit show go down. Even Morgan looked to pity Josh but no. I enjoyed the chaos as Jane ranted on in her unholy screeching. I couldn't make many words but her emotional whirlwind of anger, spite and desperation could be seen and heard a mile away. A few other guests watched the spectacle from further down the boardwalk and five along the beach.

Jane had loved attention but I didn't think this type would count.

Josh barely avoided her sharp nails swiping at his face, another unprovoked attack.

I leaned forward, smothering the acidic urge to go break her arm. Josh turned his head sharp, blinking at me. With his attention, Jane caught on too. She turned blazing eyes on me when I snorted at a particularly vulgar hand gesture Josh catch.

"You!" She hissed and stalked closer. I watched her approach, body thrumming with lava-hot blood. “This wouldn't have happened if you hadn't come along!”

“You mean the tip I got a personal invitation for? When you weren't even referenced and only got invited because you leeched off your newest conquest?” I took my time getting to my feet, ready to catch any stray hands and crush the bones to dust. “Did I make you fuck whatever recipient of your STDs last night? If it wasn't for that idiot you're wailing on, you'd still be stuck in your parent's house leeching off them like you do any available man's dick," I drawled and she flinched back. This was me and I rarely got to let it loose.

I circled her, taking in the stray hairs from her midnight tryst to the smattering of hickeys and a sand- crusted shirt. No standards. “Correct me if I am wrong but you're angry at the man you cheated on me with because you cheated on him? You hypocritical bitch. Whores like you give females a bad name. Keep your peroxide fumes away from me and go add another layer of red before I stain the ground with something else crimson.”

I stopped in front of her, eyeing her trembling body and glossy glower. She took a few involuntary steps back before steeling herself. Her fist lashed out and tapped my jaw. My head didn't budge but she did.

We all heard a sharp snap and gut wrenching shrieks of agony a few beats after.

She collapsed inwards, cradling her rapidly swelling knuckles to her heaving chest. “What?” I asked, revelling in her pain and smirking as Jane sobbed and screamed. “You barely tapped me. Would you like to try the other hand? Second time's the charm.”

Through red rimmed eyes, she pulled her lips away from her teeth. “You broke my hand, you bitch!” She sobbed and everyone around us blinked as she wobbled back a step. Then two. Her hip bumped against the railing. Pain made her clumsy, top heavy when she flipped back screaming and down into the water.

She went under for a few harrowing seconds and I leaned over to blink where she'd fallen in.

She flailed one handed to the surface and took desperate gulps of air. The water blossomed with brownish red and a pang of hunger shot through my gut. I swung myself up and over the wooden railing after her, landing in the water and diving deep, fluttering sensation in my throat. Her agony and fear saturated the waters. So delicious...

The gnawing hunger needed to be filled.

I circled her deep in the grey, then the other two bodies that hit the water and went to assist MY prey. I wanted to rip, shred and thrash her about until she couldn't scream any longer. To claw Josh, batter our eardrums with her hissy fit. She'd always been sharp, bitchy and spoiled but that was before she became an enemy. Fire in my limbs, ice in my veins, I got closer, every joint in my hands as hot as my blood.

Rip, tear, be rid of this stain on humanity.

Another body sliced through the water and ventured down, closer to me. I gnashed my jaw, still taking in mouthfuls of water. Arms cinched around my waist and I thrashed against the unyielding, unwelcome interloper. They dragged me underneath the boardwalk while two assholes helped Jane up to the planks again. They took my prey.

I lurched after them and snarled, gripping the hands and trying to tear them from my body. The asshole somehow held firm, clicking his tongue. The sound bouncing off my fevered skin made it worse. My head breached the water abruptly and he held me there, out of the lagoon and suffocating. I scrambled to get back under the water.

“Calm,” Atlas whispered, breath icy against my neck and tickling the shell of my ear. Red hot revulsion suffocated me when I felt something brush along my neck, a suggestion. “She's not good enough to sate your hunger. You must let the instincts take a back seat, now.”

“Fuck... you,” I croaked, legs kicking him and teeth trying to bite empty air. “C-can't b...bre-breathe!”

“Okay, we're going to go back under and you're going to calm down, deal?” Atlas bargained, voice tender as he tightened a hold on my waist. The only reason I didn't tear his throat out with my teeth was his ironclad grasp around my waist. “Hold on.”

The moment we sank back into the water, I shut my eyes and let out a long breath. I floated there and let my mind wander. Past the sandy bottom, through the lapping waves and out for my new friend. A distant sparkle prickled along my skin. Where could he be now?

“Breathe,” I felt the words more than heard them under here, distortion wreaking havoc. “You need to find your centre and control.”

Centre? Control over what? I asked myself in my head before I froze in my languid in and out. Oh gods... what had I done?

“Good. Stay under a little longer. We're going to take you up to the hotel and you can soak as long as you need. Can you hold onto me?”

My arms and legs curled around him and his soaked suit as he moved until our heads were out of the water. He paddled over to the steps up onto the boardwalk and his arm around my back tightened while the other kept my head tucked against his neck.

“What the hell are you doing to her?!” Joshua shouted, his heavy stomps getting closer. “Let me have her!”

The moment his fingers skimmed my back a gravelly snarl ripped itself from my throat. Atlas pulled us back and away from Josh's disgustingly dry skin. “I think it best if you tend to your girlfriend. Miss Jane is lucky I do not press charges,” Atlas said with all the assurance of a big boss man. “Another offence like this and you will be taking an early boat back to the mainland. Miss.”

Jane flinched back under his glower, I'd assume. I caught it out the corner of my eye where she had a blanket wrapped around her shaking shoulders. Her ugly sobbing got louder. “Shut up, woman!” Morgan bellowed in her face. “Your own fault for being a little bitch and pushing your luck. I may not know what happened, but I know you had it coming. Fuck off out of here before I break the other hand!”

“A medic will visit... soon,” Atlas drawled. “May have to wait half an hour. For now, I will tend to your friend.”

“What do you mean? Is she alright?” Morgan asked, half jogging over to flutte r her hands uselessly over my shoulder.

“For now. Her body is experiencing some kind of shock, I'd guess,” Atlas answered. “The Black Lagoon will be closed for the next few hours. We have a little animal problem. The native boars have been sighted and they can get confrontational if they come across strangers.”

“Right. If she's going up to the hotel, can I come with you?” Morgan asked.

Yes! Absolutely, join us so I didn't get dropped into a completely alien place with only Atlas as an anchor.

The world wasn't on my side when Atlas’ arms tightened a fraction. “An employee will bring you up to the hospital wing in a few minutes. I need to get your friend seen to immediately,” Atlas stated, unyielding as he left her behind.

I hissed at a painful tearing in my ribs, beneath the wet skin. “Can't I go to the Lagoon?” I almost demanded, breathing rough as I slapped a hand against the flapping gills working overtime in my neck.

“No. It is not safe,” He gruffly stated and pasted a strained smile on his lips. “But hey, you get to have your own private room and I'll be there to keep you company.”

I held back the budding snarl at that. I hated people, especially outside my (chosen) family, trying to run my life and make decisions for me. “Let me down. I can walk,” I huffed.

“No can do,” He grinned, looking happy with himself.

His happiness stirred up the stifling anger bubble in my gut. The resort and its noise got closer so I made the effort to lean further away from him, hoping to drop as the opportunity presented itself. I didn't like the full brunt of his scent under the water dripping from our bodies.

“You will not feel a thing.”

I growled under my breath at this audacious man. “I don't need words, I need the lagoon,” I shot back and turned my cheek, ignoring his stupid face.

I caught his long sigh, then a faint rustling. I turned to track the noise but froze up. A cap pressed against the bare shin at my throat, a threat if ever there was one. “What... are you do…”

A sharp sting cut me off, ice spreading like fractals through my veins. I slumped, fighting to keep my eyelids open. Hold out, don't let the drugs leave me at the mercy of strangers. ‘Don't you fucking dare sleep now!’ I screamed when my lips were as numb as the rest of me.

Bone deep heaviness dragged me down, into the darkness.