by Sara Saedi
“Why are you doing this?” Joshua called to her the next morning, after Phinn had left and they’d finished their breakfast. “Why can’t you just forgive him and put us all out of our misery?”
“What he did was unforgivable!” Wylie yelled back. “He’s going to let us go home eventually. He can’t keep us here forever.” Maybe if she kept telling herself that, she’d eventually believe it.
“I don’t care if Phinn brought us here because of Dad. I’m not going back to New York just so I can rot in jail.”
“We’re already rotting in jail,” Wylie mumbled to herself.
Over the course of the past few days, Micah had been so quiet that Wylie had to call his name just to make sure he was still alive. She had contemplated not telling him about Tinka’s past with their dad, but she worried someone else on the island might taunt him with it. He was better off learning about the secret from his sister, even if she wouldn’t be able to hug and comfort him from the confines of her cage. He didn’t say much when he heard the truth, and though it was probably disturbing, Wylie suspected what hurt him even more was the way Tinka ignored him now. She didn’t ask if he was okay or try to sneak him art supplies. Cooperating with Phinn had put her back in his good graces, and that was exactly how she wanted it.
“Micah!” Wylie called out.
“I’m alive,” he managed to say.
The nights were long and scary. Any sudden sound or noise kept them on edge. This was, after all, where Hopper had kidnapped the lost kids. Lola’s journal had said Phinn was just as much to blame for their disappearance, and now Wylie knew what she’d meant. The lost kids were never camping out on the Forbidden Side. They must have been prisoners, too, when they went missing. Each of them had done something to offend their fearless leader, and they had been punished for it. She tried to imagine the look on Phinn’s face as he entered the prison camp to feed the delinquents, only to find the entire place empty.
The crunch of leaves startled Wylie from her near slumber. It was probably a bird or a small, harmless animal, she told herself. There was nothing to be afraid of. If Hopper did show up, someone on the other side of the island was bound to hear them scream. And then she heard footsteps.
“Micah,” she said as loudly as she could without yelling, “Do you hear something?”
No response. The sound got closer and closer, and then she heard the faintest whisper of a girl’s voice.
“Wylie. It’s me. Don’t scream.”
“Lola?” Wylie asked, her heart in her throat.
“No, you idiot. It’s Tinka. Don’t make a sound. I’ve come to help you.”
This was obviously a trap, and Wylie was not going to step into it.
“Go away. You’re just going to get us killed.”
“We don’t have much time. Most of the island’s been hit with a bad case of dysentery, thanks to a little something I snuck into the food. Phinn’s stomach is apparently made of steel, but a medical emergency was the only way I could get rid of Patrick and guard the gate by myself.”
“And you came to set us free,” Wylie said sarcastically. “How dumb do you think we are?”
“Who are you talking to?” Micah asked.
Tinka felt her way through the dark to his cage. “Micah, it’s me. I want to help you guys go home.”
“Why? So you can get rid of us and walk into the sunset with Phinn?” Micah snapped. It was the most her brother had said since they’d been taken captive.
“I expected more from you, Dalton. Did you learn nothing about me during those hours we spent in my bungalow? Phinn trusts me. I have to keep up my loyal façade for as long as necessary to help you guys. If I stand up to him like your crazy sister, I’ll be locked up in here with all of you. So I’m here to help you, on one condition.”
“Of course there’s a catch,” Wylie groaned. Are there any good people on this island?
“I want to go with you,” Tinka replied.
“What?” Micah asked.
“I want to go with you. I want to start over on the mainland.”
Phinn had betrayed them both. Wylie had wasted months of her life on him, but Tinka had wasted years. It made complete sense that she would want a different future for herself. Who were they to deprive her of that chance?
“Don’t you think my dad’s too old for you now?” Micah blurted.
“I don’t care about your dad,” Tinka replied. “I care you about you.”
“Guys, how about we table this discussion for when we’re not held prisoner on the part of the island where a bunch of people were kidnapped, never to be heard from again,” Wylie said. “Tinka, we’ve got a deal. If you get us out of here, we’ll take you with us.”
The keys to the cages were never out of Phinn’s possession, so Tinka had to pick the lock to Wylie’s cell with her knife.
“Come on,” she mumbled as she lodged the blade into the keyhole. “I’ve been practicing for three days to get this right.” Her hands trembled and she dropped the knife. She fell to her knees and fumbled through the sand to find it. She picked it up and tried again.
“Slow down,” Wylie advised.
Tinka gingerly placed the knife back in the hole. She calmly adjusted it until she heard a click and the lock opened.
“Do you still have that pepper spray?” Tinka asked.
Wylie nodded. So Tinka had let her hold on to it on purpose.
“Good,” Tinka replied. “You were smart not to try to use it sooner.”
Tinka picked the lock for Micah’s cell next. The keys to the handcuffs were kept in the wooden box with Hopper’s calling card written on it. Tinka freed Wylie and Micah from their cuffs, and the three of them ran across the way to Joshua’s cell.
“Are you coming with us?” Wylie asked her brother.
“What’s the point? I’ll just be going from one jail cell to another.”
“It might be a few years of hell, but then you have the rest of your life to look forward to. There’s Abigail. There’s college. There’s maybe even the White House. Please. I won’t leave you here,” Wylie said.
Joshua fought off a lump in his throat as he considered his options.
“Okay. Let me out. I want to go home,” he replied.
“How do we know we can trust him?” Tinka asked. “How do we know he’s not gonna go running to Phinn the second we leave?”
Wylie looked at her brother in the moonlight. His face was covered in dirt and grime. He looked like he’d lost a few pounds. A lot had gone wrong between them, but she didn’t think he’d sell them out to Phinn. She squeezed the compass to remind herself of the days when the Daltons were a package deal.
“We can trust him,” she said.
The four of them stayed in step with each other as they ran to the fence. Tinka thought they had a better chance of reaching the docks on foot, since they’d be much easier to spot while flying.
“Phinn’s got his little army of insomniacs on guard in the sky. We need to get a head start before they see us. Once they do, that’s when we fly. We should take separate routes and meet at the docks,” she said, handing them each a parvaz.
Tinka held open the fence and they all quietly crept through. Running was no easy task after being in a cell for three days with no opportunity to exercise.
“Let’s go!” Tinka said, tearing down the dark trail as quickly as she could. Wylie and her brothers turned to follow, but they were all startled by a scream.
“Phinn!”
They looked up to find Patrick hovering above them.
“Phinn! They’re running away!” he shouted.
Wylie could see the spark of flashlights and candles flicker in the bungalows. Patrick had screamed loud enough to wake up the entire island.
“Run!” Tinka yelled.
No matter how fast their legs could carr
y them, they couldn’t outrun someone amped up on parvaz. Micah and Tinka each popped a flower and Wylie moved to do the same, but it slipped through her fingers and fell on the ground. She would have had to crawl on her hands and knees to find it, so she kept running. Patrick flew inches above her and tugged at Wylie’s shirt, but she pried free of his grip and kept moving. Joshua was a few feet ahead of her.
“Take the parvaz!” Wylie called to her brother, not wanting him to know she’d lost hers. Joshua swallowed the flower and careened above her. The wind picked up around them and Wylie knew that meant there were more people flying after them. She glanced over her shoulder as she kept sprinting and noticed Nadia holding Patrick back, trying to give Wylie a head start. It was about a three-mile run from the Forbidden Side to the beach. About half the distance she ran on the basketball court during a game. She could make it there. Wylie looked up at the sky to see if she could spot Tinka or her brothers, but instead she saw Phinn speeding through the air, his focus locked on her. He grasped at her hair, just inches away from catching her, but Wylie ran off the trail into the trees and bamboo. The thick of the jungle would slow her down, but it would also make it harder for Phinn to grab her.
“You can’t outrun me, Wylie!” Phinn yelled above her.
I can try, she told herself. Phinn followed her into the brush and yanked her shirt, causing her to fall. Just as he landed behind her, she remembered the parvaz flowers she’d kept in her pocket. They were long dead, but maybe they could help her fly for a few yards. Phinn grabbed her leg and she kicked him hard in the stomach. He keeled over in pain as she popped a handful of dried-up petals into her mouth and swallowed them whole. She floated slowly at first, then picked up speed. This would be her last flight, she realized.
As she flew through the sky, she tried to find her brothers, but they were nowhere in sight. She arrived at the docks, but if she landed on a boat and tried to sail away, Phinn would easily capture her. The effects of the parvaz carried her well past the dock and into the middle of the ocean.
“Wylie! Stop flying away!” Phinn yelled. He grasped at her feet in midair and managed to hold on to her ankle. He pulled her toward him, and for a brief moment they were floating in the sky, face to face. Wylie dug into her pocket for the pepper spray. Her palms were sweating and she worried if she didn’t move quickly, Phinn would wrestle it from her grip.
“Let me go!” she screamed as she pointed the canister at his face and sprayed the liquid straight in his eyes.
Phinn howled in agony, clasping his hands over his eyes. Free from his grip, Wylie kept flying into the night, but she suddenly felt her stomach lurch. She was falling. The dried flower had lasted only a few minutes. The water splashed loudly as she plunged into the ocean. The waves were rough, but she kept her head above the water. Phinn called out to her from above.
“You’ll drown!” he shouted.
“No, I won’t. I know how to swim,” Wylie called back.
Wylie gulped air and immersed herself in the water. She swam under the surface as long as she could, then came up for a breath. Phinn was still wheeling around in the air, trying to find her through his blind haze. She dipped beneath the waves and kept swimming till her lungs felt like they were going to burst. Phinn’s voice was fainter now as he called out her name. He would have to give up eventually before the effects of the flower wore off and he plummeted into open water and drowned. Wylie was a strong swimmer. By the time he could get on a boat to find her, it would be like searching for a grain of salt in a sandbox. She kept swimming and coming up for air till she could barely make out the island anymore.
The only light came from the moon and the stars. The water looked black, and Wylie didn’t know if there were sharks or any other sea creatures she had to worry about. She couldn’t see Phinn anywhere, but now he was the least of her problems. She was in the middle of the ocean with no life raft or vest. It would be at least six hours before the sun came up, and there was no way she could tread water for that long. Her eyelids drooped as she fought to stay awake. The water seemed to get colder and colder as she swam away from the island, and she didn’t know how long she had before hypothermia would set in. She had thought Minor Island would extend her life by decades, and here she was about to die at the age of seventeen. Please let my brothers fare better than I did tonight, she thought. Please let them be safe.
Though her arms and legs were exhausted and it was nearly impossible to catch her breath, Wylie kept swimming. The movement helped keep her awake and would only take her farther away from Phinn and everyone else on the island. With the light of the moon, her eyes focused on what looked like a rock a few yards away. Or maybe a few miles. The ocean could be deceptive when it came to distance, and it was very likely her vision was playing tricks on her. She kicked and plowed her arms through the waves, but swallowed a mouthful of water. Wylie choked as her nose and eyes stung from the salt. It was hard to tread water and cough it up at the same time, but Wylie was now close enough to see the rock wasn’t a figment of her imagination. It was high enough to protect her from the tide. A few more strokes and she could finally get some rest.
As soon as her fingertips met cold stone, Wylie let out a cry. It took all the strength she had left to lift her body out of the water and climb to the top of the rock. She could rest here until morning, and with any luck, wouldn’t freeze to death. She tried to catch her breath, but the thought of her brothers still trapped on the island made her hyperventilate.
A sharp pain sprang from her thigh and Wylie reached into her pocket to find the source. She pulled out the compass Joshua had given her on her birthday only to discover the glass was now broken and had cut into her flesh. Her body shook with heavy sobs as she thought of the words to her dad’s favorite Simon and Garfunkel song. The melody slowed down her heart rate like a lullaby. She was a rock, she told herself. She was an island.
“ARE YOU ALIVE? CAN YOU HEAR ME?”
Wylie’s eyes blinked open. A thick fog covered the horizon as the night sky gave way to gray. A boat was floating a few feet from where she’d fallen asleep. This had to be a dream. All she could think was how sad and alone she would feel once she woke up from it and remembered she was in the middle of a vast ocean, all by herself.
“Grab on to the rope. I’ll pull you up,” a voice said.
Wylie looked up to find a man’s face staring down at her. He had a mane of thick curly hair and a beard that was long enough to be braided.
“I’m not dreaming?” she asked.
“No. I’m going to help you.” She dipped herself into the cold water and floated toward the rope. Every muscle screamed in pain as she tried to climb up it.
“I can’t,” she yelled to him.
“I’ve got you,” he said, using all his strength to pull her up. She was halfway up the boat when she noticed his hands. The nails were grimy and overgrown, but that wasn’t what horrified her. On his right hand, there were three small stumps where his fingers should have been.
Hopper.
“Get away from me!” Wylie cried. She let go of the rope and flung herself into the ocean. The water smacked her limbs, and the salt in her open wounds felt like a thousand tiny needles pricking her skin.
“What are you doing?” Hopper yelled. He jumped over the side of the boat and into the water. Wylie tried to swim away, but her aching muscles betrayed her. Hopper grabbed her arm and Wylie flailed and kicked as hard as she could. She got in one good punch, but it wasn’t enough to knock him out.
Then Wylie felt her head strike the rock that had briefly saved her life.
“Now you’ve done it,” was the last thing she heard Hopper say as she lost consciousness.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
lost and found
all Wylie could see when she opened her eyes was white. For a moment she thought she was crawling toward the pearly gates, but if this was heaven, she wouldn’t be in
such excruciating pain. Her vision slowly came into focus and she realized she was staring at the white baseboards of a boat. Her clothes were dripping from spending the night in the ocean. She tried to use her hands to stand up, but she couldn’t move them. They were tied with a rope behind her back. A drop of blood fell from her head and splattered on the wood floor. A hand rested on her shoulder as someone placed a washcloth against her temple.
A guy’s voice reverberated through her head, but she couldn’t make out exactly what he was saying over the ringing in her eardrums.
Wylie tried to lift her head and look up. The tears that were forming made it difficult to focus. She blinked a few times, but it wasn’t helping. She knew she had to get away. Hopper was dangerous. He had practically knocked her out in the water, and now he’d tied her up. The longer she stayed here, the less chance she had of surviving.
“Wylie, it’s okay,” a girl’s voice said. A few more blinks and then Wylie’s eyes finally focused.
Lola was kneeling in front of her.
Hopper lingered next to Lola, his mutilated hand on her shoulder. Behind them, Wylie saw multiple new faces staring back at her with concern. She was too disoriented to count, but somehow she knew the number would add up to twelve. A girl stood next to Lola, her wrists decked out in friendship bracelets. She had to be Charlotte.
All the kids staring back at her held weapons in their hands: arrows, daggers, and spears. The smell of kelp and fish was so strong, it made her queasy. The waves rocked the boat back and forth violently, only worsening the nausea.
“We’re not going to hurt you,” Lola promised.
“Why am I tied up?” Wylie asked, her voice raspy.
“We didn’t want you to run away.”
“If you hadn’t freaked out on me, then you wouldn’t have hurt yourself,” Hopper said without an ounce of sympathy.
“She was scared,” Lola reminded him. “Phinn’s got a talent for keeping people terrified.”