Night fell, and with it Lydia's spirits. Although the day had been refreshing and encouraging, she still felt terribly tired from having so little rest the night before, and it seemed to affect her mood. She had been silent during the cooking of the water, drinking from the cans that were passed to her in silence; as well as during the meager dinner they had, as the plane's food was running out and that was an unavoidable fact.

Just thinking that in no time they would be left with nothing to eat made her mood go down. The fact that no one was looking for them, that no one was going to rescue them as if by magic, seemed increasingly firm, and the simple fact of staying there forever wasn't appealing to her in the least. On the other hand, however, she wasn't dying to get home, either, as Rachel had often whined.

Lydia wasn't comfortable there, but only because they were about to starve to death. In other circumstances, Lydia was sure she should have even thanked her parents for obligingly bringing her here. She was surrounded by wonderful girls, all with their problems and insecurities, sure, but people she could have grown to love as good friends. If the setting had been a relaxing spa with daily massages instead of a howling desert island with no food reserves, Lydia would have enjoyed it like a little girl.

Even so, most of the time she had found the silver lining in this situation. Yes, there was little food and they had found water by chance, they would probably be surrounded by living beings —perhaps some dangerous ones— in their natural habitat; and yes, the chances of them coming out of there mentally stable were still low. But Lydia had to work hard to stay sane, to fight the demons in her head, because she had to keep going and giving up was not an option.

Things got worse when Dot suggested that they should dig up Jeanette's body, as predators could approach at any moment and the young woman's corpse was too close to them. Lydia felt that she was literally sick at the thought of touching that girl's cold skin, moving her away after a week rotting in that place.

"Predators ain't no joke, man," Dot had declared to justify lifting the body.

The nine of them had stayed around Jeanette's makeshift grave, the sand around her removed and the earth wet, so the sea would probably have taken its toll on the girl's body. The girls, led by Rachel, bent down and began to remove the sand to remove the girl's body. Lydia stared at them, stunned that they had the guts to do something so horrible. But finally she had no other option, so she removed the least amount of sand she could so that her fingers would not meet any limb of her body.

She jerked back, a gasp in her chest. They had dug as little as Dot had recommended, and Jeanette's body was no longer there. Lydia's heart raced that same instant, bile rising through her stomach: if there was anything worse than desecrating the body in a grave, it was that the body was not found in the grave. She paled noticeably, despite the dim lighting, and she wasn't the only one to notice that the blood had drained from her face.

"You look like you've seen a ghost," Dot frowned. "Are you okay?"

"This is weird as fuck," Lydia panted. "Her body wouldn't just disappear."

"Maybe she got taken out by the tide," Shelby offered to comfort Lydia, as the other girls failed to give a credible explanation.

"The marker was gone," Dot reasoned. "The ground's wet, the elevation of the sand is shifted."

"Tide can take a body?" Leah's voice sounded skeptical, and honestly, Lydia could see why.

"Tides can take anything out," Nora explained. "Cars, entire houses. The ocean is incredibly powerful."

However, Leah didn't seem too convinced. The sea had been calm, except on the day of the storm —it hadn't been rough enough to wash away a body, Lydia thought— so the odds that the tide would have washed away a body for the British were between 0 and 1, but she didn't want to say it out loud in case she sounded too loony.

"So Jeanette's just out there on the waves floating alone," Martha said sadly, and everyone seems to get the girl's behavior.

"Hey, it's kind of beautiful, though," Shelby chimed in. "Mother Nature holding her arms around Jeanette, carrying her away."

They all remained silent after that, deep in thought. Lydia's brain couldn't stop thinking about how many ways there was to dig up a body, move it to another place and let no one know. It was clear that none of them had moved the body, but did it really have to be believed that the body had been moved by the tide? She was sounding too lunatic for her liking, and while part of her told her it was the only possibility, another part told her to be wary of everything.

"Adiós, J," Dot said softly, and the other girls stayed silent once again, remembering Jeanette one last time, dedicating that silence to her. But Dot broke it again, nodding at Lydia. "Dude, your nose is bleeding. Are you sure you're okay?"

Lydia put her hand to her nose, and saw that what the Texan said was true. She felt a warm liquid in her nose, and she tilted her head back to prevent the bleeding from continuing. "Yeah... This happens when... my brain works too fast," Lydia explained choppily with a nasal voice.

"Do you need anything? Some water maybe?" Nora offered, concerned.

"No, no. I just need a moment. It'll... stop," the Brit responded as kindly as she could. She glanced at Dot still with her head bowed. "Dot, am I granted five minutes alone just to freak out? I promise I won't go far."

"Um, sure," Dot frowned, not sure if she should allow the girl to leave alone or if she was right by doing so, as the situation was overwhelming.

"I swear I'm not crazy," muttered Lydia as soon as she got up and took off running.

Fatin sneered. "There goes being composed!"

"Fuck you!"

Fatin bit her lip, trying to avoid a laugh, and Shelby frowned. She knew Fatin was only kidding; she and Lydia had hit it off after all, but she couldn't help but think that the cellist was laughing at her. She shook her head and looked in the direction Lydia had gone. She was torn between going after her and comforting her, or, on the contrary, giving her the space she clearly needed. She decided on the second even though she knew she would regret it, because Lydia, the girl who never broke down, was now the one who needed to lean on.

"I can wait for her," Leah chimed in in a small voice. "Make sure she doesn't run for too long."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. You guys can get some rest and keep the fire burning."

With a dubious nod, the other girls slowly left. Fatin glanced back as Shelby did the same, and this time she managed to avoid the smirk that'd spread over her lips because she understood that the circumstances weren't the most appropriate. Instead, she simply tapped the Texan's shoulder to pull her gaze away. As an answer, Shelby looked at the ground and nodded.

Not far from there, Lydia was cleaning the remains of blood with water. She splashed water on her face to clear her mind, but without success. She took several deep breaths, and soon returned to the clearing where Jeanette had been dug up —or well, where she hadn't been dug up. She was a little surprised to see Leah there, her gaze fixed somewhere on the horizon. Lydia frowned.

"What are you still doing here?"

"Waiting for you," Leah said softly, her eyes still gone. "Do you buy this whole tide thing?"

Lydia gulped. She felt a little better now that she knew she wasn't the only one who thought there was something strange there, but that this person was Leah didn't comfort her much —at least, not after the fits of anger she'd had with other girls.

"I don't know. I'll admit it's odd, but what's the explanation then? One of us dug the body back and threw it in the sea or buried it in another place? I doubt any of us is capable of doing such thing, much less if alone."

"What if we're not alone?" Leah turned her head quickly, as if the words she had just said were the answer to everything.

The young girl's blank stare made Lydia shiver. "What do you mean? We've been here for a whole week. Don't you think we would've already seen somebody? We haven't been exactly subtle on our way around here," Lydia chuckled lightly, trying to soften the mood. However, Leah didn't seem so convinced. "I'm going to go back. You should, too. So they don't think it's me who's taking care of you, and not vice versa."

Leah drew a small smile on her face, so small Lydia thought she imagined it, but she still took her hand and thanked her for helping her up. They circled Jeanette's non-grave in silence, both girls giving it one last glance, as if they'd never remember this place again —and, honestly, Lydia didn't want to. There were too many strange things in that darkness, so they walked a short distance from each other despite doing so in silence.

However, Leah broke it. "You think I'm going mental, right?"

Lydia turned around. "No, I don't think so. If it's in your nature to be skeptical, then so be it. It doesn't necessarily mean it's a nothing. You observe, you question things, you want to figure things out. I don't think you're mental, this is just weird as hell. Just... try not to think about it too much, okay? It's going to be hard to find things out here, so don't lose yourself in the process. We are here to talk if you need anything."

Against all odds, Leah snapped out of her slumber and snorted. "You sound like my psychologist."

"Shit, just what I tried to achieve," Lydia cursed ironically, just as they arrived to the camp.

"Try to get some sleep," Leah tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and sat by the fire, keeping her hands warm. She didn't speak very loudly because the other girls were already resting. "Fatin told me you stayed up all night last night, and tonight's been really weird, so you must be exhausted."

"Don't tell me twice," Lydia yawned. She went into the shelter, right next to Toni, who opened her eyes in alarm when she felt a presence near her.

"Okay?" Toni rasped. Lydia sent her a tired wink and Toni raised her thumb as an answer.

The next morning, against all odds, there was a more pleasant atmosphere, more charged with optimism. As if losing sight of Jeanette had been the turning point, the fine line between misery and relaxation. Upon awakening, Lydia had felt a bit guilty for feeling so much better now than she had the night before, but when she saw the sun shine, the gentle breeze whipping her face, and the contagious smiles of her companions, it seemed that the weight of her shoulders evaporated.

Between all of them, making good use of democracy at last —without excluding the opinion of any, as had happened before— they had agreed on a schedule of tasks. They had decided it was best to get down to business for real, since the food had finished the night before, and anything was palatable, Lydia thought she could even eat broccoli as long as she could put something in her mouth.

They had prepared a nice table of tasks, made exclusively by Fatin, since they had all agreed that she was the one who had the best taste and, at the same time, could do something practical —since they had concluded that they could not simply ask Fatin to go snorkelling with Rachel or to get food with Dot and Shelby.

Each of the girls had a stone assigned, their name painted with nail polish to distinguish them. In the same way, she had painted on a piece of the plane the names of the tasks, and each day, the little stones with their names were on a different task. Luckily, they had specified that one of them would have a day off, because the conditions on the island were not the best to be working every day.

That morning, Lydia went with Rachel to the forest for wood so Fatin could continue fanning the flames. They didn't talk much, as usual, but at least the athlete wasn't as grumpy as the first few days. She was getting used to the idea that her stay there would be longer than she would have liked, but she no longer had the permanent snarl on her face or hostile words for everyone. Lydia thought that she had become used to her presence on the island, and that perhaps, far from disturbing her, they made her stay mentally stable.

Lydia dropped all the logs she and Rachel had collected near the campground, and when the logs hit the ground, she gasped, exhausted. The athlete had left a while ago with the excuse of discovering a little more of the forest, and had left her alone with the task of transporting all that back to the beach. She rubbed her hands to remove the resin residue, and inevitably looked at all the scratches on her hands and knuckles with the wound healing.

The blonde approached where Fatin was, sitting on a log in front of the schedule, and abruptly picked up her stone to place it in the 'do jack shit!' area, like Leah's, who, with the excuse of having the day off, had disappeared all day.

"You carried all of it?" Fatin questioned, her eyes widening at the mountain of wood Lydia had left behind.

"I feel like my arms have been cut off," Lydia whimpered, lying on the sand.

"Where's Rachel?" Dot asked approaching the two girls, Shelby following close behind.

Lydia shrugged. "I dunno. She said she wanted to go for a walk around the forest."

"And you let her go alone?" Surprisingly, it was Shelby who scolded Lydia, who raised an eyebrow at such audacity.

"It's Rachel we're taking about, not Fatin," Lydia smiled, and as an answer, a handful of sand reached her mouth. "Ugh, you bitg!"

Lydia's cry still with the sand in her mouth alarmed Martha, who was resting next to the Marcus doll Toni had found days ago, and she laughed softly when she saw the scene in which Fatin and Lydia were busy.

"Hey, party people!" The five present heard Rachel's voice atop a hill, waving a bag in the air. "Who's ready to fucking feast?" She kept showing the bag, and everyone's eyes widened when they realized that this would be food.

Rachel ran down the hill, a huge proud smile on her face, and opened the bag in front of everyone. There was even more cheering when they realized that they were mussels, something that was not very easy to achieve in a normal situation, and, according to Fatin's face, a delicatessen for her. They cooked them with laughter, everyone's mood rising considerably after that find.

"Hell yeah," Dot murmured with one of the mussels in her mouth. "You know, I can already feel my health meter climbing back to 100."

"You fucking geek," Fatin scoffed. "Please tell me that it wasn't a gaming reference."

Dot clicked her tongue. "Can't do that."

"I know these are little animals and all," Martha chimed in. "But they're so good and I can't stop eating them. What's wrong with me?"

"You should give yourself a pass," Nora answered, nodding to herself. "Like, for invertebrates."

"And starvation situations," Lydia contributed to the situation, earning an approving hum from Toni.

"You're not eating any mussels, Shelby?"

They all turned to the Texan, who was looking at the mollusk with some revulsion. She shook her head with an awkward smile. "No, no, I'm good."

"Why not?" Leah asked quickly, earning a glare from Lydia. Why was she questioning her with such a look in her eyes?

"Oh, I'm beyond allergic to shellfish. I had a single popcorn shrimp in my cousin's birthday party, my windpipe shut like a trap."

"Well, you're missing out," Fatin stated, clearly enjoying her meal. "I mean, ideally this would be eating them with garlic butter and crispy fries on a terrace in Barcelona, ​​but... Salud!"

"Fucking one per centers," Toni sneered.

"Damn, Toni, you're stuffing your face," Lydia spoke up almost for the first time, winking at Toni.

"Just trying to stay on brand, you know?" Toni answered, and immediately afterwards they all stared at the show she was putting on. She put the mollusk in her mouth, mimicking a gesture that, Lydia thought, she would never make in front of her parents.

Everyone except Shelby started laughing at her facial expressions and her oral sex mimicry, not believing that Toni was doing that in front of everyone. However, the girls' expressions weren't disgusted or reviled, just surprised.

"You gotta admit it, alright! The shape of these things," Toni laughed, and it seemed to Lydia that it was the first time she had seen her in such a good mood.

"The shape and the texture," Leah added, a smile creeping in her face.

"I mean, it's kinda like a...," Toni trailed off, looking at a mussel.

"Like a pussy!" Nora screamed, and once again they laughed uncontrollably, again not Shelby on the list of those laughs.

Lydia turned to her, the smile still on her face given Nora's recently discovered attitude, and the smile froze on her face when she saw the disgusted expression of the Texan, who looked away from the scene.

"If you want to know how to eat this soft, beautiful treasure, I can show you, but it does not take garlic butter, all it takes is finesse," Toni said directly to Fatin, and immediately after started to lick the mussel again, earning hollers from the other girls. Lydia clapped and cheered on Toni, knowing she needed this break.

"This is the most action any of us have gotten!"

"Go off, girl!"

"Would you STOP?" Shelby's scream made everyone stop laughing and admiring the scene and turn towards her, smiles quickly fading from their faces as they didn't understand the Texan's need to stop the only laugh they could have.

Yet Shelby's face was still pale and cold like the first time Lydia had looked at her, despite not paying much attention to the girl's feelings. Toni looked at her, still not really understanding what was happening, but little by little she understood the girl's comment, although she seemed to be the only one.

"Okay," Rachel muttered, the change of the scene making her bit her lip to suppress a laugh.

"That was hilarious and Shelby has no chill," Dot chimed in, trying to calm things down, still a hint of a smile on her lips.

"Excuse me, I have chill. I guess I just— I don't see the humor in that sort of thing."

"What do you mean' that sort of thing'?" Toni asked, fighting not to lose her cool.

"You know. Pornographic gestures. I'm a Christian, alright? From a very Christian home, so I'm allowed to be a little skeeved out."

"Get the cross outta your ass," Fatin recommended, still jokingly. "It's fun to be filthy!"

"That's not all that's going on here," Toni spoke up. "Don't bullshit me, Shelby, because the vibe that's coming off you right now I felt it of you too many times to know what it is."

Lydia frowned, not wanting to confirm the suspicions on her mind. Yes, the comments might have been too out of tune under other circumstances, but there they were alone, there was no one to scold them, they just wanted to have fun. Lydia remembered Fatin's words days ago, about how Shelby supposedly had a crush on her, but now she understood very well that this was not the case, that Shelby took her Christian beliefs seriously and she didn't see her as more than a friend.

"What are you saying, Toni?" Lydia asked.

"She can't stand that I'm gay, Lydia. That's what fucking skeeves her out."

"That's not true," Martha scoffed, sharing a look between Toni and Shelby.

"Look, I'll be as honest as possible because y'all deserve that. I do believe that way of life's a sin."

"I can't fucking believe it," Toni was pissed off.

"I'm sorry, but everything that I've ever known has taught me that. Hey, look, there is no hate in my heart. I just feel sorry—"

"Fuck you!" Toni snapped at her and left, not bearing the thought of it.

At that point, the others were silent. None of them had such hideous thoughts as Shelby, that could be gleaned from their disheveled faces. They were all somewhat disappointed, because they thought that living together on the island had united them a bit more than they expected, but especially Lydia, who thought she had found in Shelby a friend, a confidant, but she simply couldn't be friends with someone with opinions against the rights of any person.

The British woman looked away from Toni to settle on Shelby, who seemed to be asking for some support, but Lydia abruptly denied it, not believing what had just happened. She decided, once again, that Toni wanted to be alone, but this time it wasn't because of something she had caused, and Lydia hoped Toni would be able to understand that, that it wasn't her fault.

They all looked reproachfully at Shelby as Toni disappeared over the hill. "What? Am I not allowed to have my own beliefs?"

"Not those ones," Lydia deadpanned, clearly annoyed.