CORINNE

There was a prison in the farthest end of the city. Corinne and Tyler have been brought there, separated from Jeremy along the way without an explanation. The cell was made of stone and moss crawled up the moist and muddy walls. It smelled of blood and suffering, as well as mold.

Corinne watched the blue bug climb the walls, the only thing of colour in the entire cell. What a strange little bug, she thought while Tyler shouted through the iron bars.

Maybe the fever finally took its toll because Corinne felt like she was on the verge of collapsing. The water she was submerged in a few minutes ago didn't help her situation.

"Let us out of here!" He's repeated that line at least ten times. "We did nothing wrong!"

She stared at him, the grey sweatpants he wore were the same ones he had on the cruise. His dark hair cupped his face, longer than it used to be. Corinne watched his muscles tense under the black shirt, realising all the working made him bulkier. He was handsome; in that unruly, messy kind of way. She understood why Olivia loved him; she thought she could fix him, get him on the right path.

Corinne could never fix anything.

"You're wasting your breath." Corinne took the blue bug and put it in her palm. The bug was interesting to touch, smooth like velvet. "They are not going to let us out until they see what happened. And since Jeremy was the one in charge, they'll probably let us go. We're newcomers after all. We don't know the rules."

"Is that... is that why you used Jeremy? So, you'd have someone to blame if you got caught?" Tyler turned from the iron bars, a look of disgust crossing over his face. 

"Don't give me that look." Corinne frowned. "If you had bothered to check, you would have read what the law of this place says about leaving the walls if you're not the soldier on guard. The guards on duty are responsible for anyone that crosses the wall. Which means, Ty, you're no better than me." Corinne patted the small, caterpillar-like bug and put it back on the moss-covered wall.

A sense of doubt crept through her for a moment; Tyler was better than her. The things he did wrong - they were nothing in comparison with Corinne's intentional destruction causing.

"If I had known..." Tyler began but stopped himself. Corinne knew what bothered him, she understood that he tried to do right by everyone. But, in order to do good for the most, one had to do someone dirty.

"Well, you didn't." Corinne shrugged. "And there's absolutely nothing we can do about it now."

"What's going to happen to Jeremy?" Tyler asked and Corinne sighed, feeling just a tiny bit bad.

Not because of Jeremy, she didn't feel bad for anything that might happen to Jeremy. It was about Tyler. He believed there was a way to make everything better for everyone. That belief, that naivety was enough to turn Corinne reluctant when breaking down the hard truth.

"He's not going to be a soldier anymore." Corinne said finally. "Nothing worse than that, since nothing happened to us. But, hey, you're gonna have one more farmer friend."

"You really don't care, do you?" Tyler asked suddenly.

"About Jeremy? No." Corinne shrugged.

"What were you doing in the water?" Tyler narrowed his eyes and Corinne felt goose bumps crawl under her skin. That was something she didn't want to remember. But she was well aware that would not be the last time she saw those... creatures.

"Searching for answers." Corinne said. "Found some interesting things."

"What did you find?" Tyler came closer to her. Corinne debated how much she should tell him, how much would compromise her mission. The creatures said nothing about this being a secret. Maybe because they knew no one in their right mind would brag with what Corinne has agreed to.

"They are..." Corinne said. "They aren't like us. All the stories are true, Ty. There's something else with us on this island and they-they don't want us here. I don't know what they are, or who they are, but-"

"Did you find out anything useful?" He asked.

"The sickness..." Corinne began and Tyler's eyes fixated on her. Whether she admitted it or not, she liked his murky, grey eyes on her. "It's not contagious, not in the human way. It spreads through the mind. If you start hearing voices, be concerned."

"Thanks for the warning, I wouldn't have been concerned otherwise." Tyler arched his eyebrow.

"But this place," Corinne gestured around them, at the entire town, "it's warded against it. That's why people only got sick when they went outside. That's why no one caught it from the people within the walls."

"So, it's not really a sickness." Tyler murmured and Corinne nodded. The conversation made her queasy and it felt a lot like regret. But she shoved it down.

"More of a curse." Corinne said. There were things she could not tell him yet, things she could not tell anyone yet about everything she agreed to.

Tyler kept quiet for a while and she saw the wheels turning in his head. His eyes darted across the floor and to her face and somehow, she sensed she had mere moments before he figured it out. And she wanted to use these moments. Some forgotten part of her heart ached and clawed, begging her to use this opportunity.

"Tyler..." she interrupted his thoughts and he raised his head, "you... you can do it." Corinne swallowed her heartbeat, surprised at the intensity. "I know I don't usually support any sort of wild ideas, but I think you can change this place. Or any place. You can do it."

"Where's this coming from?" The squint of his eyes quickly disappeared as she came closer. "Corinne..."

"No, listen to me." She said, letting go of everything that kept her in check. Corinne put her hands on Tyler's chest, feeling him stare down at her as she looked at her own pale hands. Her breath was hot and her mind foggy. Maybe the fever made her weak, maybe it pushed away the chains she had placed on herself. "You're smart and you're capable. And kind... you're kind. No matter what others might say, no matter what you might think."

"Corinne," Tyler put his hands on her shoulders, warm to the touch, "are you okay?"

A hoarse laugh escaped her lips.

"I tell you one good thing and you immediately ask me if I'm okay." Her vision blurred as the pounding in her head became louder. She needed to sit down, she needed to sleep. But not before she felt what it was like to be... better.

"I'm not used to it." Tyler whispered and Corinne heard the want that laced his words. "But you don't look so good. You've been inside water for a while-"

"I don't wanna talk about it." Corinne shook her head, the movement making her dizzy.

Tyler's hands moved to her neck and cheeks; a subtle, but dangerous movement. The rational part of Corinne's brain fought hard against it, but the fever took its power away. All that was left was need and desire and pain. Such tremendous pain.

She looked into his eyes, surprised at how many colours they carried at once. Grey and blue and green stared at her through those thick lashes. Worry was etched to his face and she wondered why. She did not deserve worry.

"Ty," they were so close, too close, "don't look at me like that."

"Like what?"

"Like I deserve to be wanted beyond reason." Corinne felt relief the moment she said the words, the moment she spoke anything truthful.

"You don't." Tyler brushed her cheek with his thumb. "But I still do."

And he kissed her.

Corinne's heart soared at the warm, gentle touch, threatening to give out as she grabbed his neck and pulled him closer. Tyler's hands found their way around her waist, gluing their bodies together. Their teeth clashed and Corinne savoured the warmth of his mouth compared to the coldness of the stone around them. Her senses blurred until she became nothing but fever and desire. The need to let go overwhelmed her and she almost did.

Except, she remembered what it was like to stand at the edge of that cliff. At the edge of destruction. Where everything threatened to fall apart unless she took it in her hands. Unless she reclaimed control.

The things she had done, all the love she gambled away...

It took all willpower Corinne had to break apart that raw, earth-shattering kiss.

"Ty..." she moved away, her legs becoming unstable. "Tyler, I screwed up."

Maybe she had manipulated him into obliviousness, but the moment she moved away, his eyes cleared and fixated on her arm. Where her sleeve had rolled up, revealing the fresh tattoo in the shape of a star.

"What's that?" Tyler asked, narrowing his eyes at the tattoo.

"I-I fucked up." Corinne rolled her sleeve down, but the realisation in his eyes was already too stable to ignore. She regained control, rebuilding the walls around her, around her heart.

"How..." Tyler's eyes widened and his mouth parted. "Why did they let you go?" A touch of panic crossed over his expression. "Why did they let you go, Corinne?!"

His voice hit her like a tornado, sending her into the spiral it took so many years to climb out of. But this was not the time to fall apart.

"I..." Corinne felt the coldness grip her again. "I told them I would let them in." That icy numbness had turned into her quiet companion over the years, sheltering her in the peaceful, painless place where no one would touch her; where no one could break her.

Tyler's expression relaxed to the point his lips fell down. All the undeserved desire disappeared from his face, replaced by anguish and rage and pain.

"What?" His voice was barely a whisper and Corinne knew the sound would have destroyed her if she let it. But she embraced the silence, the nothingness, she grew so fond of.

"I let them in." She repeated, her soul disappearing under the mask. "The tattoo," she looked at her covered arm, "it breaks the runes that ward this place."

Disappointment flashed on Tyler's face, so deep and brutal that Corinne knew he would never forgive her. Not in a million years. She needed that, she needed the inability to be excused, to be forgiven. It made her stronger. And there was nothing else in this world, nothing but strength against the overwhelming pain.

"Which means that..." Tyler took in a deep breath and Corinne noticed his hand snapping to his lips. The same lips that had kissed her. He would regret that for the rest of his life.

"The sickness can come in now." Corinne shrugged. "The protection is gone."

Tyler fell down on the muddy floor, his mouth wide open, his eyes staring at the ground. He breathed in as if he was about to say something, but no sound came out. His eyes closed for a moment and when he opened them, there was nothing but hatred inside.

He had never looked at her with hatred, not even when he said he hated her. But now, now...

"You're going to need us one day, Corinne." He spoke, his voice colder than her heart. "You will need me when everything else is gone."

"I doubt it." Corinne fought the recoiling in her stomach. "We're alone in our pain and we're alone in our growth. And beyond that, there isn't much."

"Why?" Tyler asked and Corinne tried to shrug as casually as she could.

"Because... just like the universe tends towards entropy, Tyler, I tend towards chaos."