Page 8 of Eat Me Alive
She gasps in horror. “Absolutely not! Datu, not all of them are bad. They are much like us. There are cruel ones, there are good ones.” She is defending the humans.
Sateva had always been so sympathetic from the start. It is the reason why she has lost herself before I did. I cannot trust her in this.
“Any other condition but this.” She pleads.
“The land demands an offering.”Idemand an offering.
“Youcan always change your mind! You are not a stagnantthing! You do not have to be so set in your ways.”
“You mistake me for someone who cares forhumans.”
I know she’s glaring at the heaviness I feel. I despise how I am antagonizing her, but she needs to learn her place. She cannot overrulemydecisions on my island.
“I will prove to you they are not the same.”
My lips tug into a dry smile. She is stubborn, much like I am.“You can try.”
“I will prove you wrong.”
“And if I am right?”
“You can offer them to the land.”
I should feel relieved, but uneasiness stirs in me. She is so determined in this that I cannot help but feel a twinge of doubt in me.
No, humans are evil. They only bring destruction upon everything they touch.Iknowthis.
With her promise, I force myself to open my jaws, welcoming the disease.
Xiaoyu
“Shoot everything that tries to eat you.” Is his simple response as he pulls a gun off the wall. It’s made of something I can’t make sense of. It’s black but swirling with purple light.
“E-excuse me?” I squeak, my terror doubling.
“It’s an island filled with carnivorous plants. The bullets are meant to sedate, not harm them.” Ingar gives me a stony look that makes people afraid of him.
I stare at the larger-than-normal pistol he placed in my hands. Plants…flora… “How big are these plants, Ingar?”
He just shrugs, tightens all his belts and snaps his helmet off. I realize he’s not bald at all. He has a tuft of blond hair that blends too well with his skin color. It’s cushioned by sweat and when he runs his gloved fingers over them, the hairs magically scatter throughout his head.
“You’d benefit from looking over your papers again, Professor.”
The missing page.My breath stops. My worries aren’t unfounded at all. How many times do I have to tell myself to trust my instincts? Instincts over rational thinking? God damn it.
He opens a cabinet with my satchel inside and tosses it to me. I quickly flipped through my contract, to that missing page. I rubbed my forefinger and thumb over the two “misprint” pages. To my utter disbelief, it split and there came the hidden page six.
I hate being right. He has already walked out on me and I strode toward him, incensed. I slip into his path and put my hands on his chest. I’m aware of how aggressive I’m coming off, but I don’t care.
“Listen here, you giant freak, you just fucking scammed me into helping you. The least you can do is give me answers.”
I’m beginning to choke on my panic. Everybody around me feels the tension, and another woman digs through her bag. I have the sinking feeling Moriarty kept us apart for a certain reason. We were probably all duped. The women are stirring, uncomfortable. My heart drops as I realize just how many women there are.
Where are they taking us?
“Umm, hey,” someone from behind me calls.
My head whips toward a woman who is holding up her own contract. It splits into more pages like mine. I can feel the blood slowly leaving my face as the others scramble for their own contracts.
