"You're being funny," Shelby commented with a skeptical smile dancing on her lips. She only looked away to continue dodging the fallen branches of a few trees.

Lydia's senses sharpened at that precise moment. Her face changed completely as she turned to meet Shelby's warm gaze, taking on a naive and innocent tinge. "Funny? Funny how?" Lydia let out a small laugh at the end of the sentence, frowning.

"I don't know, you just are," the Texan replied, shrugging her shoulders. Despite her quizzical words, her countenance was close, receptive, as if she herself didn't give too much credence to her own words.

Lydia arched an eyebrow, expecting a more elaborate explanation, but was met only with silence all around her. Well, it wasn't all silence. The camp the girls had set up wasn't too far from there, for they hadn't moved far enough away from the beach that they couldn't hear them chattering from their position. Birds chirped all around them, and Lydia looked up, wondering why she hadn't seen any up close if she often heard them.

The Brit knew exactly what Shelby was referring to. Things hadn't been the same for two days now, specifically since Lydia had unveiled to Leah that there were more things there hidden from their eyes than they thought. Of course, Leah's response had been as expected. Her eyes had widened in surprise, but also in realization and recognition that someone finally seemed to be on the side of her follies. Lydia had vowed to tell her everything she knew, but had begged that she try to keep it quiet, that they were already under too much pressure for the girl to sink back into that spiral of despair and madness.

Telling her the truth had been difficult for two reasons, although Lydia thought there was a common factor in both: they didn't seem to have time or reason to be alone for a moment, and Nora didn't seem to take her eye off the ball. Lydia had come to think that it was Nora herself who was watching them so that they wouldn't be left alone, as if she might suspect that the blonde suddenly remembered what had happened the other night had gone off the deep end. Paranoia sometimes took over her head, but if she could be implicated in all that, what else could happen?

Lydia realized then what exactly Shelby meant by her "being funny": the blonde was easily distracted, thinking too much about what was going to happen now, or whether she had been right to relate everything she knew to Leah, the least stable person she had known in seventeen years. On whether she was being paranoid and difficult, on whether what she had done had been making the situation better and taking a weight off her shoulders, or whether her words had only made everything worse.

So she shook her head gently, wrinkling her nose a little at the incipient headache that was beginning to take over her temples. Shelby noticed this, frowning a little, because Lydia's headaches had been more frequent and intense since she'd had the accident in the woods, and leaving her alone could mean that, again, Lydia would get hurt and she wouldn't be there to help her.

The Texan moved toward her to try to ease the pain, but Lydia wrapped her arms around her waist and forced her to walk toward her, lifting her up and spinning her in the air, inciting a chuckle from Shelby's throat. "Am I being funny now?" her slender fingers dug into the sides of Shelby's laughing body.

"Stop it! I mean it!" Shelby shouted with laughter. Lydia quickly pulled her hands away from her stomach to direct them to her cheeks and draw her face towards herself and leaving a long kiss on her lips. The sigh from Shelby's lips when Lydia pulled away was inevitable. "That's better."

"We better come back before they start looking for us. Gathering branches is not that hard of a task," Lydia smirked a bit. It was amazing to Shelby how Lydia's mood swings, whether good or bad, affected her so directly.

"Okay. One more, though."

Shelby's lips sought Lydia's mouth quickly and somewhat awkwardly, so she clutched at her dirty and somewhat frayed t-shirt to pull it closer to herself, mimicking the Englishwoman's previous gesture. The latter felt brave enough to let the pads of her thumbs brush against the uncovered skin of Shelby's waist, who flinched again at the sudden contact. "As tempting as it is to be here with you, we really should come back. I can see Fatin looking for us, and she might not be happy with what she finds," Lydia whispered, her lips brushing dangerously against Shelby's neck. Lydia pulled away from her, and with an innocent smile held out her hand. "Let's go?"

"Y— Yeah," Shelby murmured as all response. She bent down to gather up the fallen branches they had managed to gather to keep the fire alive through the night.

"I can grab some, you know. I'm not suddenly disabled," Lydia commented wryly as she removed some branches from Shelby's arms, who sighed at the less weight on her body but also at the frustration she felt at not being able to take care of Lydia as she deserved. "Let's just go back, okay?" Lydia, who almost could see the smoke coming out of Shelby's ears, gave her a kiss on the cheek to calm her down.

The sun was shining brightly in the sky, and even the lush forest couldn't keep the rays from directly hitting Lydia's skin, which was already more than affected. Her grandmother always used to say that the British had an uncanny knack of getting sunburned, and although she didn't have a mirror to corroborate this, she could feel the skin peeling off on her forehead, cheeks and nose. Her arms were completely red with scratches caused by the itching from the sun, and there was nothing to soothe her pain, for the relief from the fresh water was momentary and short-lived.

It seemed ironic, because it was bitterly cold at night. I had no idea what date they were at —perhaps approaching July— but it was strangely unusually warm in the mornings and cold at night. They frequently huddled with each other in the clothes Fatin had managed to salvage, or else they took turns sleeping inside the camp or near the campfire to quell the chill in their bones. Either way, every day was the same experience.

"Finally," Dot commented as she saw the couple approaching through the brush. The two blondes dropped their arm branches in the sand, and retreated to a sandy part where it was shaded by trees. "I was gonna come out and look for you guys. Set up a search party, you know?"

"I don't know about searching, but it could definitely be a party," Lydia replied mockingly, blowing imaginary kisses into the air, and Dot wrinkled her nose at the giggles of the other girls as she detected the false flirtation in her voice. "I'd like to keep moving, if you don't mind," she added after a few moments, when the laughter had died down, and as she knew that anything she said now would be seen in a different light —a convalescent person could get away with anything if it was out of pity, she was convinced— she didn't endeavor to explain much further. "I can go and get some fresh water."

None of the girls objected to the idea, but neither did any of them —except for a fleeting glance from Shelby— offer to accompany her. That was until Fatin tugged lightly on the fabric of her shorts to pull her closer. "Why don't you take Leah with you? She might need a distraction," Fatin lifted her chin to point to Leah, who was lying on the sand, face up and staring at a point in the sky.

Lydia seemed to have Nora's gaze on her, but thought nothing more of it: she couldn't behave suspiciously. Lydia disguised a smile; it seemed that fate itself had made Fatin, without knowing it, help Lydia and Leah in their mission to discover the truth.

So, the British woman approached Leah, covering the sun with her own body to prevent Leah from continuing to draw imaginary figures with her hands in the air. Leah narrowed her eyes as the blonde offered her hands to help her up. "Come on. Let's go get some water. You look like you need it. No offence," Lydia added. Yes, she had decided to tell it like it was, but Leah's volatility knew no bounds, and she didn't want to be fighting with her again.

"None taken," Leah muttered, wrinkling her nose but accepting Lydia's hands.

The brunette brushed the sand off her shirt and shorts, and began to move around in front of Lydia, barely waiting for her. The blonde sent a glance at the rest of the girls, catching the attention of only Fatin and Shelby, who were the only ones really paying attention to their interaction. Lydia averted her gaze for a moment to check on Toni, only to find her gaze already locked on hers.

Things with Toni were weird, too. Lydia was amazed at how warmly and carefully Toni had taken care to heal her wounds, and how quickly her mood had changed once her relationship with Shelby had seen the light of day. She hadn't dared confront her about it, because every time she thought about it the idea seemed stupid. No, Toni couldn't be jealous of Shelby. It was impossible.

Finally Lydia hurried to catch up with Leah, who was walking regretfully, dodging dry leaves. Lydia stepped in front of her, leading the way, and Leah narrowed her eyes when she realized they weren't heading for the waterfall and the small lake it culminated in. The blonde gave her a sidelong glance, holding a finger to her lips to feign silence. Leah understood instantly, and it didn't take any words for the brunette to understand that Lydia had finally found the moment to tell her what had happened that night.

Leah watched intently as Lydia seemed to look around for the scene of the crime. She was sniffing through the bushes, as if looking for something in particular, and would perch on large fallen branches and search the higher ones. It took about ten minutes following this strange route when Lydia clicked her tongue, imitating a triumphant sound.

Then she began to speak.

"You already know what happened, but I want to show you how I experienced it. Maybe that way, between the two of us, we'll be able to come to some conclusion that isn't so far-fetched," Lydia proposed. "I woke up purely by chance in the night. I was cold, so I guess I woke up to try to find some warmth, but when I snuggled up to the campfire, I realized that one of us was missing. I didn't want to wake anyone up because it was easy that Nora had simply wandered off into the woods to pee, I didn't want to worry anyone until I knew something for sure. There was no point in waking you all up if there was a chance that Nora would show up in five minutes. The sea breeze made me want to relieve myself too, so I wandered a bit into the woods, trying to find a place where I wouldn't disturb anyone," Lydia recounted, walking through the dry leaves and trying to make as little noise as possible, mimicking her trajectory that night. "I admit I was half asleep, but I didn't want to step on anything strange so as not to draw more attention to myself, so I walked carefully. It wasn't until shortly after that I noticed there was a soft voice moving on the wind, as if it was nearby but trying to speak at a low volume. I figured there was no reason why there would be someone talking alone in the middle of the woods, so I moved closer to the voice. I hid behind this tree," Lydia pointed out, hiding behind it and showing it to Leah, who was watching carefully.

"It looks like the ground is different," Leah pointed out, crouching down. "It's wet here, but there's sand, like you've got it stuck to your clothes and you've been leaving it behind along the way."

Lydia nodded, finding one more clue in her favor. "I hid here and listened quietly. She was talking to someone, of that I have no doubt. I was trying to keep my noise levels low, but I managed to hear things. She mentioned you, and then me. She said you were a danger, and that you had put Rachel in danger, so she couldn't trust you. She referred to me as dangerous, too, as if she was trying to convince someone that we suspected something, and that we had better get out of the way somehow. She told that someone that we couldn't be here."

Leah's throat faltered. Her eyes scanned the scene intently, as if trying to find some other evidence. Getting no response other than silence, Lydia continued.

"When I heard our names and saw that it was Nora talking, I came out of hiding. I thought I had her cornered, that she couldn't escape and that she would have no choice but to explain to me what the hell she was doing. I didn't even stop to think that maybe, somehow, the dangerous one could be her. She tried to convince me that I was still dreaming. She tried to divert my attention back to camp, as if I was daydreaming or in some sort of somnambulistic state, but I had begun to suspect a few days ago that things weren't going as well as they seemed, and your ideas were getting less and less crazy if I took into account what I had just heard," Lydia continued, planting herself in front of the tree where Nora had tried to communicate with someone that night. "I remember saying out loud that you were right. Having found the suitcases, the food... I was convinced it had been her doing, or the doing of people she was working with. Even I had no idea what I was thinking. It was all too crazy, but at the same time things were starting to make sense. It was all so coherent that I started to get scared."

"What did she do to you?" Leah asked in a breathy whisper.

"I wanted to leave," Lydia recalled aloud, her voice wavering. Remembering that wasn't exactly pleasant. "She kept trying to tell me I was dreaming, but I was becoming more and more convinced that it was all real, so I decided to leave once and for all. I didn't know if leaving meant telling all of you, especially considering that Nora had her sister here, so the chances of believing me would be minimal, but it was clear to me that I had to go back. I was not feeling good about the situation. The conviction with which she said we shouldn't be here... It was too strange. So I turned around. It was pitch black and I was still a little confused, so I didn't see what was about to happen coming. She caught my attention, telling me she was sorry, so I decided to give her a chance to listen to it and have her explain herself, but nothing could be further from the truth. As I turned to look at her, a branch rushed at me," Lydia grabbed one of the branches, mimicking the gesture as if Leah was her that night. The wood gently brushed Leah's forehead. "I don't remember anything else," Lydia shrugged regretfully. "Shelby has told me many times how Dot found me around this area with blood on my head and face, but it's impossible for me to remember anything beyond that."

Leah clenched her fists. The feeling that Nora was hiding something was getting progressively stronger, but this was the straw that broke the camel's back. "She hit you? Nora picked up a branch and fucking hit you with it. She left you here for hours, bleeding, to your fate, not knowing what was going to become of you, not helping you or warning the rest of us with any excuse for fear of being discovered. She participated in your search that morning, pretended to be as worried as the others, and she knew all the time where you were. Is that it?" Leah ventured, imagining how things had gone.

Lydia only nodded, feeling somewhat embarrassed, not quite sure why.

"You could have died! You could have bled to death here, alone, without anyone discovering you, and she knew all along what had happened. She almost killed you herself!" Leah's voice was full of anger in a way Lydia had never heard in the girl. Leah raised her head, her ice blue eyes boring into Lydia's gaze. "Why did you decide to tell this precisely to me?"

"Because precisely you deserved to know the truth. You tried to warn us, Fatin and me most of all, and neither of us believed you. You're not crazy, Leah. I believe you."

And something triggered inside Leah, quick and instantaneous like a spring, as if Lydia's words had been enough to make Leah go mad with rage and run out of there. Lydia's voice rushed out behind her, desperate for Leah to slow down and share what was going on in her head, but the brunette was being quicker. A sense of belonging bound her that day to Lydia so tightly that even today it has not managed to break. And she wasn't going to stand idly by when someone had tried to kill her.

"Leah, stop! Please stop," Lydia repeated over and over behind her, but all Leah managed to see was red, as if the damage Nora had inflicted on Lydia had been brought upon herself. "You know that's not the first reaction she would have had. She didn't mean to hurt me, I'm sure. She would be afraid that I was about to expose her, and she was so overcome by the situation that she accidentally tried to push me out of the way. She didn't mean to hurt me...," Lydia's voice trailed off behind her.

They reached the camp, Lydia hot on Leah's heels, and that's when chaos broke out.

"Nora!" Leah bellowed, completely out of her mind.

The girl turned, as did the rest of the girls in the camp, frowning when they saw Leah heading towards them with Lydia stalking her with a worried look on her face. Nora stood up, closing the notebook and instantly knowing what had happened between the two girls in the woods, and what was about to happen on the shore of the beach.

If Lydia thought that was chaos she didn't know what was about to loom over them.

She doesn't know who, but one of the girls looked at the beach and shouted, "Shark! There's a shark!"

She thought it had been Fatin, and since it was something they didn't joke about, all their gazes momentarily strayed to the water, where Rachel was resting on her back, enjoying the cool water. Leah watched as well, forgetting for a moment about Nora, who opened her eyes in surprise, dropping all her belongings and running into the water. The shark was closing in on Rachel and it was only a matter of time before it caught up to her.

They all, including Leah, put Nora's business aside and started screaming for Rachel to hear them, but her head was slightly submerged in the ocean, and it was impossible for her to hear them with the sound of the sea flooding her ears.

Nora wasted no time, running over the sand towards her sister, and even though Lydia knew she would regret it, she did the same. This time it was Leah who was chasing her, her voice forcing her back to camp. Lydia, ignoring, shared a glance with Nora, who looked at her: an implicit truce was agreed between the two girls, because it was already more than obvious that Lydia remembered everything that happened that night, and that meant that Nora was the executioner.

The water soaked the fabric of her pants and shirt shortly thereafter. Lydia never knew where this protective instinct towards Rachel came from, because she saw the shark's fin on the horizon and it scared her deeply. The waves dragged them both along, making it difficult for them to move towards Rachel, who remained oblivious to everything.

The shark attacked soon after, prompting screams from Nora and Lydia and a dead silence in the camp. Leah had waded ankle-deep in the water, realizing that it would be impossible to slow Lydia down, but wanting to be on hand in case something happened. Lydia didn't see it, but the way Fatin and Shelby held each other's arms would have endeared her on any other occasion.

The waves were merciless. They lashed them back and forth as they tried to pull Rachel toward the shore, who cried out in pain and bewilderment, holding her healthy hand to her injured arm, realizing with a deep fear that that arm no longer had a hand. The shark had disappeared from the sight of the three girls, but the tide was relentless and there was no indication that the shark had left permanently. Lydia remembered with horror how she had momentarily submerged in the water and swallowed some salt and blood, and wanted to vomit.

The last time she had seen Nora, her look was one of deep disconsolation, and Lydia felt it would have been easier to let the tide take her away.