[017] dread

                                Suki was in and out of dreams, waking up at random times to Courtney taking care of her.

                                She still didn't know what happened to her. One minute, she was perfectly fine. And the next, she couldn't keep food down. Not that that was an issue since there was hardly any food around. With Natalie and Travis neglecting to bring back any food from their hunt and the animals nowhere in sight, the group was quickly starting to feel the effects of hunger. And the tensions were only getting higher the longer they went without food.

                               Weak and exhausted, Suki was lying in her makeshift bed while Courtney sat by her side. Ever since she had gotten sick, Courtney had been there for her. Suki was grateful, realizing just how much she needed Courtney. Misty probably would've taken care of her, but Suki wasn't Misty's biggest fan. There was just something about the girl that truly rubbed Suki the wrong way. The fact that Courtney was even cordial with Misty in the first place also rubbed her the wrong way.

                               But for now, Courtney was taking care of Suki and she had to try to rest as much as possible so she could be better.

                               "How are you feeling, Suki?" Courtney asks, her big blue eyes scanning Suki's pale and sickly features.

                               She continued to poison Suki but with little doses, just enough to keep her sick. There wasn't a whole lot left for Courtney to keep going. But Courtney felt confident that Suki realized exactly how good Courtney was for her. She was coming around again and soon; Courtney wouldn't need to keep making her sick.

                               "Like shit," Suki answers.

                                Courtney chuckles. "No offense but you look like shit. You know... you were talking in your sleep again."

                                "I was?" Suki asked.

                                "You kept talking about the wilderness wanting something. But you never finished your sentence. I was almost convinced you were awake and just playing some sort of trick on me," Courtney responded.

                                 Suki shakes her head, looking away from Courtney. "I'm sorry."

                                 "Sorry for what?" Courtney questioned.

                                 "Everything that's happening, the lack of food. There's nothing I can do to change it. It's what the wilderness wants," Suki insisted.

                                "So you mean to tell me that the wilderness or whatever wants us to starve?" Courtney raised a brow.

                                "Not exactly," Suki corrects her. "It wants us to eat. Just... not the deer."

                                Courtney feels a shiver go down her spine. There weren't a lot of things that scared her but Suki's words were chilling, to say the very least.

                                "Are you two alright over here?" Misty asked, causing the two of them to look up at the girl.

                                "We're fine, Misty. But... you can take this and put it away somewhere. I'll call you when I need your help," Courtney orders, practically shooing her way at this point.

                                Misty's face falls but she does as she's told, gingerly taking the cup away from Courtney and walking away. Suki's gaze follows Misty, waiting until she leaves before she turns to look at Courtney.

                                "You shouldn't trust Misty," Suki immediately warns the blonde.

                                "Who says I trust her?" Courtney scoffed.

                                "The night we crashed; I saw her breaking something by the plane. I don't know what it was, but it might've been important," Suki admitted, shaking her head.

                                Courtney raised a brow. "Why are you just telling me this now?"

                               "I forgot about it until now. Being sick like this, it gave me a lot of time to think," Suki admits. "I think there's something off about her."

                               "Interesting," is all Courtney says.

                               "Are you going to say anything to the others?" Suki questioned.

                               "No. In case you haven't noticed, I'm not exactly friends with the other girls. Don't worry about it, Suki. Just focus on getting better, and I'll take care of the rest," Courtney assures. Besides, with this information, Courtney could use it as something to hang over Misty's head and really ensure that she wouldn't talk to the others about what she had done in the woods that day.

                               It was truly genius.

                               Suki parts her lips open to speak but Courtney quickly shushes her, running her fingers through her hair afterwards to try and comfort her.

                              "I - I love you, Court," Suki says, grabbing a hold of Courtney's free hand and pulling it close to her.

                            "I love you too, Suki," Courtney smiles, feeling her heart do backflips from joy. She kisses Suki's forehead and Suki grows warm from the tenderness. As much as Courtney hurt her, it almost felt worth it when Courtney would be so tender and caring with her like this.

                               When Nat and Travis came back from the hunt with their latest catch, everyone was feeling pretty ecstatic. They were hopeful to have food to eat, even if it'd be for a couple of days. Since Suki couldn't exactly get up and see what they had potentially brought back, Courtney went on her behalf. She was hoping that Suki's words were just that of a girl delusional from sickness and hunger. But when Courtney sees the deer they had brought back, she wondered if there was some validity to it.

                               Blood and skin happened to be wrapped around its antlers and it looked absolutely sickly. It almost reminded Courtney of Suki who was still lying there inside of the cabin.

                             "Wow, that thing is gnarly," Van spoke up first.

                             "It's like Freddy Kreuger and Bambi had a baby," Akilah adds.

                             "I'm not eating that," Javi states in pure horror.

                             "Me neither. I'd sooner eat one of you guys," Courtney replied, earning looks from the others. "Jesus, I'm kidding!"

                            "Relax, guys," Coach Scott remarked, trying to calm the others down before they panicked too much, "Deers shed their antlers every season. This is normal. Shauna, do the honors."

                            Shauna pulls out the hunting knife from her pocket (the very same knife Courtney had used days before) and she used it to slice the deer's throat, just as she had casually done many times before. Courtney almost wondered if she and Shauna shared some similarities.

                            Courtney watches as Shauna cut the deer open and instead of the normal sight blood and guts that they had been expecting, they saw maggots festering inside. There were hundreds of them all over and it was enough to even make Courtney's stomach turn. She had only seen maggots once before when Courtney had forgotten to properly dispose of one of the cats she killed. She'd see a swarm of them all over the cat and Courtney ended up vomiting her lunch.

                            "That normal too, Coach?" Jackie snaps while Shauna shakes the maggots off of her fingers.

                             Obviously, this meant that they were absolutely screwed and there was no way they were going to be eating anytime soon.

                            "Suki was right," Courtney chuckles to herself. "I hate to say it but Suki was right."

                            Coach Scott was also stunned, unable to say anything that could comfort them. Nothing would work anyway. But Lottie and Laura Lee knelt by the deer, much to Valerie's confusion. They were talking to each other, seemingly amazed by what they were seeing. They weren't even scared.

                           "We cannot keep fucking doing this, you guys. What happens when winter gets here? We fucking starve here to death or freeze?" Taissa spoke up, gathering everyone's attention. "We can't count on getting rescued anymore. All of us know that is not going to happen - we have to save us. That's why I'm gonna go find help. I'm leaving in the morning, come with me if you want to get out of this fucking hellhole."

                         Taissa storms off, more determined to get ready for her journey. Courtney looks over her shoulder to watch Taissa before she turned back around to look at the maggot infested deer. She wasn't sure what was terrifying: how bleak and dire their situation was or how a part of Courtney didn't really want to leave anymore.

(🌲🔪🦌)

                                   Taissa, Van, Valerie, Akilah, and Mari were the ones going out to try and find help or even better, a way out of the wilderness. Everyone else was going to stay behind and wait for the others to hopefully come back with good news. Courtney wasn't feeling too hopeful about it and Suki hadn't said much of anything but there were others who were hopeful

                                 Suki had been haunted by night terrors again but it had been a flash of images, none of which made any senses. She saw a stream of water which had turned red and then she saw darkness, followed by a pack of ravenous wolves. She even saw someone climbing up a tree but she couldn't tell who it was. All she knew was that it probably had something to do with the girls' upcoming trip.

                                  Lottie seemed to be troubled too because she'd go and talk to Van about it. Suki wished she could be there to see what they were saying and what was going on. But for now, she still had to keep resting. Slowly, Suki was beginning to feel a little better. She was really just tired and weak, but Suki was expected to make a full recovery.

                                  Courtney, on the other hand, was determined to get down to business and talk to Misty. But Misty was getting ready to leave, much to her shock.

                                  "Where are you going?" Courtney asks, folding her arms across her chest.

                                  "Oh, I was thinking about joining the other girls. I want to help them," Misty answered, making Courtney laugh. She was trying to hold it in as best she could but she just couldn't help herself.

                                  "How noble of you, Misty. You do plan on keeping quiet about our little deal, right? Because it'd be such a shame if someone found out the truth about you because you broke your word," Courtney replied.

                                   "The truth?" Misty blinks, confused (and a little worried) about what Courtney could possibly be talking about.

                                   "Suki saw you on the night of the crash. You were breaking something by the plane while theh others were asleep. if I had to take a guess, it was probably something big, right? Like the... emergency transponder. Am I close?"

                                   "I - I can explain," Misty stammered.

                                   "I'm sure you can try. I don't care why you did it. But obviously, the other girls will. I mean, you're basically the reason why we aren't back home. Can you imagine how angry they'd be if they found out? You'd be done for," Courtney continued.

                                    Misty swallows hard, unable to say anything.

                                    "So now that we understand each other completely, I expect you to keep your mouth shut while you're playing Girl Scout on your adventure. Got it?" Courtney raised a brow.

                                    "Got it," Misty says through gritted teeth. She actually looked... angry which was a first for Courtney. She had never seen the loser upset before and it was actually interesting.

                                    Courtney leans forward, smirking. "Aw, did I make Misty mad? I thought we were two friends having a nice little chat. Turn that frown upside down, Quigley. You wouldn't want people to see you for the little psycho you are."

                                     "You're crazy too. You poisoned your best friend. You kill animals for sport. You're nuts," Misty argued.

                                     "Which is exactly why you shouldn't test me. Fuck with me and I promise... you'll wish you were dead," Courtney warned.

                                     Misty frowns, pushing her glasses further up her nose. "I won't say or do anything. Just... don't tell the others about that."

                                   "Deal," Courtney beamed, patting Misty a little too roughly on the shoulder. "It was nice talking to you, Misty."

                                     And with that, she left Misty to go and finish packing. Soon enough, Misty would go and join the others as they prepared to leave - much to everyone's confusion.

                                  "Wait!" Misty exclaims, just as the group prepared to leave. She was already out of breath, rushing out of the cabin with her bookbag so she could join them. "I'm coming!"

                                  Courtney just watches the scene from a distance away, her eyes shining with amusement and her arms folded across her chest as she leaned against a doorway.

                                 "Ben - uh, Coach, um, please don't try to talk me out of this, okay? I've given it a lot of thought, and I just... I feel like my team really needs me now," Misty explains to Coach Scott who looked more relieved than anything else. But he tried to play it off as best as he could, even underneath everyone's confused and awkward stares in his direction.

                                 "Oh, wow. You know what? That's really brave, Misty. I'll do the best I can without you," Coach Scott responded.

                                "I'll come back for you, I promise," Misty assures him, hugging the coach shortly after.

                               And then after Misty's little spectacle, the group left the others behind at the cabin. Courtney headed back inside to where Suki was, the girl quiet. That wasn't too unusual since she was always quiet but something was different. There was a dread in her eyes that Courtney couldn't quite figure out.

                              "Hey, are you worried about the others?" Courtney asked, causing Suki to look at her. "I'm sure they'll be fine. I doubt they'll find anything and they'll come back in no time."

                              "Have you ever gotten that feeling... like something bad is going to happen? You don't know what it is or when it'll happen... but you can feel it approaching. And then that dread kicks in because you know there's absolutely nothing you can do about it. All you can do is wait," Suki suddenly says.

                              Courtney softly shakes her head.

                              "That's what I feel right now," Suki continued.

                             "You think something's coming for you?" Courtney asked.

                             "It's coming for us all. All we have to do is to try and survive it," Suki admitted.

                             And Suki was afraid they wouldn't be able to.

(🌲🔪🦌)

word count: 2373
notes: when in doubt, poison your girlfriend so she'll never be able to leave you - courtney morrison, 1996

no but seriously this is so fucked up and the fact that suki has no clue is even worse. you'd think the wilderness would hook suki up and let her know the deal but the wilderness lowkey doesn't mind suki being poisoned. it'll just keep her alive regardless. a little suffering's necessary for the cause. not only does courtney poison ppl but she's also out here blackmailing bitches, she really does it all 🤣

and peep the new cover made by -starsgalore, it is so gorgeous and i cannot stop looking at it OMG