The Island: The addictive new YA thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author of STRANGERS

by C. L. Taylor

  ‘Wouldn’t you? Are you sure?’ Meg says. And she’s right. We would have treated her differently if she’d turned up one summer and told us about the bullying. We’d have seen a different side to her, a more vulnerable Meg. We’d have overcompensated to make her feel better.

  ‘Anyway,’ she continues, ‘I haven’t got much of a life outside of these holidays. Our parents are stricter with me than Milo. They’d deny it but they’ll happily let him go out whenever he wants whereas, for me, I’ve got to text to say where I am and make sure I’m back by a certain time. Not that,’ she adds quickly, ‘I’ve got anyone to go out with. Apart from Bella. Well, I had Bella.’

  Milo drops his head into his hands and sighs deeply.

  ‘Yep,’ Meg says. ‘Bella. My only real friend back at home. And Milo decided to hook up with her. So then I had no one. Because all of a sudden my best friend wanted to hang out with my brother rather than me. I knew it wouldn’t last. Milo’s fickle.’ She looks at me. ‘He doesn’t mean to hurt people but he does and—’

  ‘Meg.’ Milo looks up from his hands. ‘You know I didn’t mean to hurt Bella. It just… it just ran its course.’

  ‘And then I had to pick up the pieces. At school, because obviously she wasn’t going to come anywhere near our house again.’

  ‘Yeah, but…’

  ‘And now you’ve decided you want Jessie.’ She tips a hand towards me. ‘Jessie who’s lost her brother and is just about as vulnerable as someone can get. What happens when that runs its course eh, Milo? Who’s going to be there for her?’

  ‘It’s not the same,’ Milo objects, ‘I don’t think—’

  ‘No,’ she snaps. ‘You don’t think, do you? Not about anyone else? And that’s the issue. There’s one person – one – in our whole group who takes the time to talk to me, properly talk to me, and that’s Honor. And she’s probably dead.’

  She turns away, hot angry tears spilling onto her cheeks.

  ‘Meg.’ I touch her on the shoulder but she shrugs me off, scrambles to her feet and runs off down the beach.

  There’s an awkward pause as the rest of us glance at each other, unsure what to do, then Milo sighs.

  ‘I’ll go after her. She’s right, this is my fault.’

  The air is thick with tension as we head into the jungle, flaming torches held aloft. Milo and Meg have paired up but they’re not speaking, other than to bicker about which direction they should head in. I’m with Jeffers and Danny, who are also having a power struggle about where we search.

  ‘I think we should go that way.’ Jeffers points beyond the waterfall, to the other side of the island. ‘The vegetation is thicker there so she’s more likely to get lost.’

  ‘She wouldn’t go through that,’ Danny says, ‘and if someone took her, surely it would be a lot more battered. I think we should go that way.’ He points to the right.

  ‘But that leads up to the clearing and you’ve already checked there, haven’t you?’

  ‘Yes, but we didn’t explore the jungle at the base. Look, Jeffers, you’re the survival expert but Honor’s my girlfriend. She wouldn’t have gone deeper into the island Unless…’ The muscles in his jaw pulse. ‘Unless she was forced.’

  ‘All right then.’ Jefferson shrugs. ‘Right it is.’

  ‘For now,’ he adds under his breath.

  An hour or two later, when Jefferson suggests we give up for the night, I wearily agree. My throat is red raw from shouting Honor’s name, my feet are aching and my skin is on fire from being bitten so many times. Even Danny, who’s become more and more fraught and short-tempered the longer we’ve been searching, begrudgingly agrees.

  ‘We did our best,’ Jeffers says as we trudge back to our camp, a note of despair in his voice. ‘It’s so dark now that we could end up injuring ourselves or getting lost too if we keep looking. With any luck Milo and Meg have found her or she’s back at the camp, wondering where the hell we all are.’

  As we step through the trees I look hopefully towards the roaring fire, but there’s no one sitting beside it. There’s no one in the shelter either, or on the beach. Honor hasn’t come back.

  Danny hugs himself as he shifts his weight from foot to foot. I’ve never seen him so agitated. ‘I can’t. I can’t just sit and do nothing.’ He moves to step back into the jungle but Jefferson grabs his arm.

  ‘At least wait until Meg and Milo get back. They might have found her.’

  Danny shrugs but he doesn’t join us as we settle down by the fire, swigging at our water bottles. Instead he paces up and down the beach, his eyes never leaving the jungle.

  ‘Do you think she’ll be OK?’ I ask Jefferson.

  I wait for his reassurance, for the swift Yes, of course that will lift the weight from my chest but, instead of nodding reassuringly, he sighs.

  ‘If she’s got water and a safe spot, raised off the ground, she should be fine.’

  ‘And if she didn’t wander off…’

  ‘I’m not convinced someone’s taken her. There are other reasons why she might not have responded when we shouted her name.’

  ‘You think she could be hurt?’

  He sighs again. ‘I don’t know. I just hope she’s OK.’

  We lapse into silence but Jefferson’s comments have unsettled me and now all I can think about is Honor, lying unconscious somewhere.

  One of you will die.

  I can’t – won’t – imagine her dead.

  After an age the sound of footsteps, snapping twigs and low voices drifts towards us. I turn, hopefully, but only two people step from between the trees and onto the beach. One look at Milo and my heart sinks deeper in my chest.

  ‘We looked everywhere.’ He digs his torch into the sand and runs his hands over his face. He looks as tired and as broken as I feel.

  ‘We shouted and we shouted,’ Meg says, looking at her brother. There’s a softness to her gaze that suggests that they’ve sorted out their issues. ‘We couldn’t find her.’

  Danny comes running over, sweaty and pale in the light of the fire. ‘What is it? What’s happened?’

  ‘Nothing.’ Milo gives him a look. ‘I’m sorry, Dan. We didn’t find her.’

  Danny crumples into himself, sinking to his knees, his hands in his hair, his arms covering his face. In an instant Meg is at his side, her arm hooked over his shoulders. Danny flinches as she touches him and pulls away.

  ‘It’s OK,’ she says soothingly. ‘We’ll find her. As soon as the sun comes up we’ll set out again and this time we’ll find her.’

  ‘It’ll be OK, Dan. We’ll find her,’ the rest of us chorus. ‘Don’t worry. I’m sure she’s fine.’

  But there’s a hollow ring to our voices that wasn’t there when we set out to search.

  Chapter 30

  DANNY

  Day six on the island

  Danny lies very still on the sand, his cheek hot and clammy against the palm of his hand. Over in the shelter, where the other four are sleeping, someone just moaned softly and shifted position. The sun has finally risen, peering above the horizon, streaking the sky with warm oranges and deep reds. Danny shifts onto one elbow and listens for sounds of wakefulness in the shelter, then silently gets to his feet. If anyone wakes up it’s game over. They won’t let him go back into the jungle on his own. They’ll insist on coming with him.

  A noise, a strangled cry, makes him freeze and he listens intently, barely daring to breathe. Is it an animal, a bird or… something else?

  Adrenaline surges through him as he steps away from the shelter. He moves lightly, a bottle of water in one hand and a knife in the other, stepping slowly and carefully until he’s deep enough in the jungle that the others won’t hear the snapping branches and breaking twigs. Then he starts to run. He hasn’t slept and his mind is a dark whirl of fear and anxiety, one phrase going round and round his head:

  One of you will die.

  He’d never seen anyone go as white as Jessie did when he told her about it. It was
a good job she was holding on to him at the time because she looked like she was about to collapse. Milo wasn’t any steadier on his feet, but the shock wore off faster and the questions came thick and fast. Where exactly had he seen the message? At what time? Was it before or after they set off for their swim?

  Danny told them everything (although he kept his real phobia to himself). He even crouched down and scratched the earth with a stick to show them the shape of the letters. He’d assumed it was down to Jack and Josh, he told them, a final warning message before they left, to freak everyone out.

  Who else could have written the message? Meg? One of the others? Or someone else? Someone hiding in the depths of the jungle, watching every move they make.

  Danny had never felt as scared and as panicked as he did combing the jungle with Milo and Jessie, searching for any trace of Honor. Nor when he’d headed back in the dark with Jeffers and Meg joining the search party.

  One of you will die.

  Only two people’s phobias hadn’t come true. Meg’s fear of blood and his phobia, his real one – of someone he loves dying.

  He speeds up, jumping over tree roots and leaping over tangled foliage, his heart thundering in his chest and sweat dripping off his face. What if Honor’s become so dehydrated she’s passed out? What if something, or someone, attacked her and she couldn’t fight back? What if she’s dead? No… no… he pushes the thought out of his head. He loves her and that love will keep her safe. It will wrap her like a blanket and protect her. He won’t let Meg kill her. Because he’s certain now. Meg’s the only one who hasn’t had to face her phobia yet. She has to be the one behind all this.

  When Danny returns to the camp the others greet him like a long-lost son.

  ‘You’re back! Oh my God!’ Meg throws herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck. ‘We thought you’d disappeared too.’

  Danny’s skin crawls as she buries her face into his chest and he fights the urge to shake her off. He thought Honor was a good actress but Meg is next level. He can’t believe none of the others can see through the act. All that stuff earlier about her being bullied at school, feeling left out in their group and her crocodile tears about Honor. She may as well have jumped up and down waving a sign saying, I’m making your phobias come true because I hate you all.

  ‘We thought something had happened to you!’ Meg says as she pulls away and her eyes search his face. ‘Where’ve you been? What happened?’

  Danny shakes his head as Milo and Jessie congregate by him, their faces tight with worry. There’s no sign of Jefferson.

  ‘Any sign of Honor?’ Milo asks.

  ‘No, I um…’ Danny clears his throat. ‘I thought I heard something. Someone… crying but it… it must have been an animal. I went into the jungle, I looked everywhere but there’s no sign of her. She’s just…’ He looks Meg straight in the eye. ‘She’s vanished.’

  ‘We’ll search again,’ Milo says. ‘Now you’re back. We’ve made a plan. We split into two groups again and we comb every inch of the island. We’ll take Jefferson’s food supplies and as much water as we can carry and we will find her.’

  ‘We’ll go in two groups again, but me, Jefferson and Danny in one group and Jessie and Meg are the other. Everyone OK with that?’

  Jessie nods towards Meg and smiles. ‘’Course.’

  Danny stares at her in disbelief. What the hell is she doing? Yesterday he pretty much told her that Meg was behind the phobias coming true and yet here she is, smiling and nodding as though nothing has happened and all is good with the world.

  Meg tried to burn you alive, Jessie! he wants to shout. She’s not your friend!

  Maybe he should confront Meg now before they go and look for Honor again. But what if no one backs him up? After her little sob story earlier, Jessie’s treating her like they’re besties and Milo’s stupidly contrite. And besides, Meg’s clever, she’d find a way of blaming Jack and Josh or pretend there’s someone else hiding out in the jungle.

  He feels frozen by indecision. Should he say something or not?

  ‘There you are!’ Jefferson strolls out from between the trees with what looks like a large lizard slung over one shoulder. ‘Where’ve you been?’

  As Danny repeats his story about hearing a noise in the jungle Jefferson slings the lizard over the roof of the shelter then rummages in his bag, looking for something.

  ‘Only one trap worked,’ he says. ‘The second one was triggered but there wasn’t anything in it. Must have escaped.’ He looks up. ‘Meg, have you got my knife?’

  ‘No.’ She shakes her head lightly. ‘I washed it and gave it back to you, after I gutted the fish last night.’

  Jefferson frowns. ‘Are you sure? It’s not in your day pack?’

  ‘A hundred per cent,’ Meg says.

  ‘Milo?’ Jeffers asks. ‘You haven’t got it, have you?’

  ‘As if! You never let that thing out of your sight.’

  ‘And I haven’t got it,’ Jessie says before Jefferson can ask her. She pulls the blanket tighter around her shoulders. ‘You must have lost it.’

  ‘I never lose anything.’ Jefferson gives her a pointed look. ‘One of the rules of survival is…’ he tails off. ‘Anyway, Dan? Have you seen it?’

  Danny runs his hands over the deep pockets of his cargo shorts. ‘Nope!’

  ‘Meg, are you sure you didn’t put it in your bag?’ Jefferson asks.

  ‘You can check it if you want.’

  ‘I’d rather you did that. It’s your stuff. I just want to get this monitor lizard gutted before it goes on the turn.’

  ‘OK. No worries.’

  Danny watches, his arms folded over his chest as Meg reaches for her day pack. Unlike everyone else who packed waterproof bags in shades of grey, black or navy, Meg’s got a canvas bag she bought on a Bangkok market stall, embroidered with flowers and birds. As she pulls it towards her Jefferson sighs audibly. He’ll make them turn the camp upside down to find that knife, Danny thinks with a stab of irritation. He won’t let it lie if he thinks one of his prized possessions is lost.

  As Meg opens her bag Danny’s pulse pounds in his ears. Meg seems to freeze, so do the others. Even the sea seems to pause its gentle lapping of the shore. But Danny’s heart hasn’t stopped. It’s thumping in his chest, every beat a weighty punch that makes him feel sick. Lying just inside Meg’s bag, with its eyes closed and mouth stretched wide in a silent scream, is a monkey head. And it’s swimming in blood.

  Meg doesn’t scream. She’s doesn’t tremble or cry. As she stares down into the bag her eyes don’t betray the fact that her phobia has just come true, but Danny spots something else – a grin – the smallest of smiles that plucks at her lips.

  And that makes him run.

  Chapter 31

  HONOR

  It’s damp, dark and cold inside the cave but it’s far less scary than what lies beyond the jagged, rocky mouth. As darkness fell Honor shuffled as far inside as she could, frantically checking the moss-lined walls and leaf-strewn ground for spiders as she inched her way backwards. She kept on moving until her back hit a cold, rocky wall, then she gathered her knees to her chest and burst into tears. She didn’t cry for long. She couldn’t risk her nose becoming so stuffy she couldn’t breathe. Instead she channelled her fear and her frustration into anger and, using all the strength she had, she tried to pull her bound wrists apart. The tape held firm. And it didn’t budge from her ankles when she frantically wiggled her feet back and forth in an effort to loosen it.

  She hadn’t planned on spending the night in the cave. After her kidnapper left her there, she tried to escape. She shuffled out of the cave on her bum, the fabric of her shorts catching on rough bits of stone, her breath coming in short, sharp, terrified bursts.

  When she finally made it to the entrance of the cave she stared out at the small clearing and the wall of trees behind it, trying to get her bearings. If she could just find her way to her friends – even if she had to bum-shuffle or h
op the whole way in her bare feet – her nightmare would be over. They’d pull the tape from her lips and the gauze from her mouth. She’d tell them what had happened and they’d help her, they’d protect her. They’d make sure she was safe until her mum turned up to rescue her. The thought of her mum, sipping cocktails by the pool with the other parents, totally oblivious to what her daughter was going through, brought fresh tears to Honor’s eyes. It had just been the two of them – Thea and Honor against the world – for so long. They had a brilliant relationship, the best, and her mum was happy, finally, for the first time in years. It was almost a relief when Adrian, Honor’s dad, moved out five years earlier and the rows finally stopped. Her dad’s bellowing voice and her mum’s desperate, screechy retorts had had a big impact on twelve-year-old Honor. She swore she’d never have a relationship like her parents’. She wouldn’t put a child, or herself, through that kind of hell. She crept into herself, hiding bubbly, exuberant Honor away, only bringing her out when she stepped out on stage. Danny was there for her when she went on her first group holiday without her dad and she was so grateful. She stopped seeing him as a loud, annoying boy. Instead she viewed him as a kindred spirit. Someone who understood how lost she felt. They grew closer on the next holiday, and the one after that, and when he asked her to be his girlfriend on his fifteenth birthday she felt like the happiest girl in the world. That was two years ago and she’s been playing the part of the perfect girlfriend ever since.

  Exhausted and trembling, she sat in the mouth of the cave and tried to work out which way to go. Was the beach to her left or to her right? She couldn’t hear the sea or feel a breeze on her cheeks. The air she drew into her nostrils was thick, cloying, hot. Where was she? It was as though she’d fallen asleep on the beach and had woken up in the heart of the jungle. Even if she hadn’t been utterly terrified when she’d been led through the jungle, there was no way she could have memorized the route. Other than the beach, the waterfall and the clearing at the top of the cliffs, there were no other distinctive features on the island, no way of orientating herself. As she looked from left to right, searching for footprints, for trampled vegetation, for something, anything to tell her which way to go, movement at the base of a palm tree made her turn sharply. She watched, heart pounding, as a grey-black monitor lizard slowly emerged from between the fronds of a shrub. It moved slowly on short stubby legs and scaly clawed feet. It was huge, maybe a metre and a half long. Honor held herself very, very still as its head swung slowly from left to right and its snake-like tongue flickered in and out of its mouth. It was tasting the air, she realized with horror, and picked up on her scent. Were monitor lizards dangerous to humans? Was it venomous? Jeffers would know. Why hadn’t she listened to him? Why had she laughed along with the others when he’d tried to share what he knew?