CORINNE

The voices stopped the moment Corinne touched the ocean. The soothing of the water unnerved her. Those sculptures stared at the water, waves crashing against them. She noticed them on the other side of the beach as well; they looked like the guards of the gateway.

She knew the island wasn't uninhabited. Someone put those statues there. The distorted, rocky faces held a secret, probably terrifying and haunting. There was so much power in their stony stillness; more than humans held in their constant movement.

The statues were captured in a moment; unable to escape. Corinne was stuck, too, in a way. Maybe in the moment her mother finally died.

Maybe in the moment she realised she could only count on herself. No one would help her, no matter how much she needed it. Just like no one would help them now. They had to rely on themselves and Corinne feared she would have to carry this entire group on her shoulders.

She glanced across the beach, where Olivia hugged Tyler. Corinne could assume there were tears involved in the conversation. Did she pity Olivia? Perhaps. Corinne found her weak and incapable of taking care of herself. The girl constantly waited for others to solve her problems.

Did she envy her? Perhaps.

Olivia trusted people. And there was something incredibly freeing about trust. To simply let oneself believe someone else would be there to break one's fall. No one ever broke Corinne's fall. She had to learn how to fly to save herself.

She took care of herself since she's been 10 years old. She cooked for herself, she cleaned for herself, she bought her own books. No one cheered on her when she won all those Math competitions; no one held her hand when she needed comfort.

She did not need anyone else to survive this wretched island. All people ever brought to her was pain.

"Hey." Greg's voice reached her ears and she turned to him, standing over her. "How are you?" He lowered himself on the sand, his figure blocking the sunset.

"Hungry and thirsty." Corinne sighed. "Pissed off, mostly." Maybe she overreacted, she had a tendency to do so when she didn't get what she wanted.

"No, I mean, usually? We haven't talked since-"

"The funeral." Corinne said. "Yeah, I guess I ignored the entire world after that."

"I wanted to talk to you, but I didn't want to bother you." Greg said. "I guessed you didn't need everyone jumping around you, telling you how sorry they are."

"No one was even sorry." Corinne interrupted. "They all said they were sorry, but truthfully, they were glad. My mom caused a lot of trouble for everyone we knew, for our entire family. Still, they came to the funeral and claimed they were sorry, but they were all relieved."

"Were you? Relieved." Greg asked and Corinne felt a small pang grip her heart. "You can be relieved, it doesn't make you a bad person."

"Doesn't it?" She grabbed the sand and let it seep through her fingers. "Isn't that the most awful feeling in the world? Being relieved that someone you were supposed to love was dead."

"She wasn't easy to handle." Greg said. "I remember all the times she promised to pick you up from school, but never showed up. I remember all the times I walked you home while you were crying-"

"I don't wanna talk about that." Corinne pushed all the emotions to the back of her mind, just like she did for the past few years.

"I'm not trying to dig out the graves you prefer left buried, Cor." Greg shook his head. "I'm sincerely asking you how you're doing."

"I'm fine, Greg." Corinne grimaced. "Fortunately for me, my mom failed to shoot all our money in her veins."

"It's not just about money, Corinne." Greg sighed. "You haven't talk to any of us since the funeral, we were all worried."

"I talked to Olivia." Corinne shrugged.

"You didn't ignore Olivia, because it's impossible to ignore her. She would show up at your house and cry until you came outside." Greg smiled. "But you didn't talk to her, not really."

"There was nothing to talk about. My mother finally managed to inject the deadly dose, ridding me of collecting her off sidewalks and dark alleys." Corinne shook her head, pushing away the memories that threatened to overwhelm her.

"She was still your mom." Greg whispered. "You still loved her."

"She was a burden." Corinne said. "I stopped loving her the moment she decided a needle was more important than making sure her daughter had something to eat."

"What I'm trying to say is that whatever you're feeling is normal." Greg said.

"What about hatred?" Corinne let out a bitter laugh.

"That's normal, too." Greg sighed. "But, not everyone will be like your mother. There are good people in this world, Corinne. I know it's hard to believe that from your perspective, but-"

"I never said people weren't good. But being good doesn't necessarily mean you won't miserably fail the moment someone counts on you." Corinne cut him off, not liking the path this conversation was heading.

"Not everyone will let you down." Greg's jaw tensed as he stared at the pink-red ocean.

"Sooner or later, everyone disappoints you." Corinne shrugged.

"It's really sad that you think like that." Greg said.

"You knew this." Corinne reminded him. "This isn't the first time I said it."

"It's just..." Greg bit his lip. "I trust you. Tyler can tell me I'm an idiot for doing so a million times, but I still trust you. I know that underneath this cold exterior, there's a fierce soul that would fight for the people she loves. And don't even try to tell me you don't love anyone. You can't fool me."

"I'd choose the four of us over Andrew." Corinne admitted. "I'd try to save him, but if I realised there was a bigger threat out there, I'd leave him."

"You're trying to scare me away." Greg turned his head towards her, the ocean reflecting in his huge brown eyes. "You did that all through high school, but I never left. Because I remember the real Corinne."

"People change, Greg." Corinne sighed, not really understanding why he so desperately tried to stay by her side.

"Some things don't." Greg mumbled. "You say you hated your mother and I believe you, but you still searched for her during all those nights when she relapsed."

"Well, she carried my name, I couldn't just let her die on the streets. What would the neighbours think?" Corinne forced a smile her face, trying to keep Greg away.

Maybe he was right, maybe she tried to scare him away. She had no capacities to care anymore; all caring brought her was complete misery. And she was determined not to feel that again.

"Listen, Cor..." Greg's eyes darted to the sand as he played with the shoelaces of his sneakers. Corinne's heart hammered as she realised what was about to happen. They hadn't seen each other in years, but he hasn't moved on.

"Don't." She said through her teeth.

"I have to." Greg murmured. "Because I know you'll do the right thing. I trust you, Corinne. I am counting on you to save us. You can hate it all you want, but I don't care."

"You're a fool." Corinne laughed hoarsely, but the lump in her throat was getting harder and harder to contain. "You think you can bribe me into caring, but you can't. If it were you in Andrew's place, I would do nothing differently. I'd leave you to die if it meant I would save others."

"No, you wouldn't." Greg shook his head. "You'd save me. You'd save me a thousand times over and you know it."

"No." Corinne shook him off; pain spreading through her body, slowly taking control over her prefrontal cortex. "I'm only saving you because it's convenient."

"This is convenient." Greg insisted. "Think about it; we don't know where we are. But there are people here. Sure, they might have bad intentions, but you're used to dealing with people who have bad intentions. There's something else they might know. How to get off the island."

"What makes you think they'd tell us?" Corinne asked.

"Nothing." Greg shrugged. "But you can get the information someone's trying to hide from you."

"How would I do that?" Corinne asked, but she considered the proposition. If they were blatantly honest with each other, they would have to admit something wasn't just off. Something was different.

The voice in her head, the strange lady over the phone, the weird trees and weird people that refused to say who they were.

"By playing the game, as you always do." Greg said. "We can use them to help Andrew and to gather some useful information. All we have to do is pretend we're none the wiser."

"What if they're dangerous?" Corinne asked.

"Luckily for us, you can smell danger from miles away." Greg smiled.

"Which would suggest I already smelled danger and you're all trying to convince me otherwise." Corinne pointed out.

"Sure, but these people might know some things we don't." Greg shrugged. "And finding out what they know might be worth the risk."

"You're doing a good job convincing me." Corinne admitted. Not a lot of people were capable of doing that, but maybe she had a soft spot for Greg after all.

"I know how to deal with you, Corinne." Greg grinned. "It's because you think I'm dumb so you never see me coming."

"I don't think you're dumb." Corinne said, but she knew it was mostly a lie. He wasn't the smartest person in the universe.

"That's okay, we need dumb people, too." Greg's smile turned into a frown gradually. "Besides, only an idiot like me would still love you after all this time."

The words hit Corinne like a truck and she glanced away from him, unable to face the reality of their relationship. She got up, deciding she didn't want to spend any more time regretting everything she's done to Greg. Truthfully, she thought he was a good guy and she didn't want to hurt him.

"You should stop loving me, for your own good." She said and watched pain grip his face only for a moment, then, he shook his head.

"I get to ruin my life any way I want." Greg said.

"You're wasting your time." Corinne walked away, burying all the feelings deep within the lower parts of her brain, hoping they wouldn't emerge again any time soon.

She walked across the beach, enjoying the soft sand on her bare legs. The sun was setting rapidly and if they wanted to catch Marhos and Maris by nightfall, they had to hurry. Tyler was still on the other side of the beach, talking to Olivia with a concerned expression on his face. They probably realised what an awful couple they were.

"Get up." She informed them, catching their confused glances and smiling. "Greg convinced me, we're going to help Andrew."

"How?" Olivia's eyes widened.

"By being smarter than you, for once." Corinne gestured for them to get up, but Tyler frowned deeply before he did what she requested.

"I didn't expect a change of heart so soon." He said.

"Well, I didn't expect you to be such a pain in my ass, but here we are." Corinne countered.

"What now?" Olivia asked.

"Now, we meet the inhabitants of this absurd island."