Only an Illusion of Peace

Chapter 2

"I told you," Jett said, smirking, "They would never accept you like that," he looked me up and down.

My head snapped in his direction and I stumbled back.

"Stop just appearing like that. It's starting to get a bit concerning," Jett just rolled his eyes at my statement.

"If you stop running, maybe we could actually talk about the problem at hand," Jett glared at me.

"Maybe if you stopped appearing out of nowhere, I could actually trust you," I snapped back. "And what do you mean by the 'problem at hand?' The only problem here is you."

Jett looked about ready to hit me. I could probably take a punch from him.

I paused for a moment, "Why did you even help me? I don't even know you! You just appeared next to me and said 'Hey, I'm just going to have you come follow me, a total stranger, to a creepy cabin in the middle of the woods!'"

He rolled his eyes and started walking away.

I stood stuck in place, refusing to move.

Jett stopped and looked over his shoulder at me, "Are you going to come?" he asked.

The sky started to grow darker as clouds littered the sky. Of course. Rain has started to become a regular thing here in Eshita, the tropic sector. We never go a week without at least one day of rain. The most we have ever gone without rain is a month, and everyone was going crazy. When it finally started raining again, there was nothing but flooding. At least we were never low on water to drink like the desert.

I could no longer hear the songs of songbirds or the pecks of woodpeckers. I could now hear the hoots of a nearby owl. The sky wasn't only getting dark from the clouds, but the sun seemed to be setting too. The two moons started rising from the east and the sky grew a dark purple.

"Why would I?" I folded my arms over each other, "I never asked for you to help me. I never asked for you to bring me to your house. I never asked for you to talk to me. Why should I trust you and follow you back to a creepy cabin when I just met you a few hours ago?" I answered. Something felt off with him. He wasn't telling me something, and it seemed very obvious. He wasn't trying to hide it, either.

Jett seemed to hesitate before speaking. He thought about what he was going to say for a quick second and quickly answered my statement. "You're right. You shouldn't trust me," I was stunned. He just admitted that I couldn't trust him, "Maybe you should just go back to your little town where no one will accept you for who you are now."

I scowled. Jett was just trying to either get rid of me, or try to trick me into following him. It was pretty obvious which one it was.

Jett just turned around and started walking the opposite direction.

I ran up to his side, "Changed your mind?" Jett scoffed.

"Do you know what is going on with me? You keep talking to me when no one else will, so you have to know something. I won't believe you if you say anything else," Jett shook his head and smiled.

Well, that's something new.

I stepped over a fallen tree, looking down to make sure I didn't trip.

"Well," he started, "I have some theories."

"And what is that supposed to mean exactly?" I asked mockingly.

"You know, you would be in better shape if you ran as much as you talked," Jett laughed.

"UGH, you're just like my mom," I rolled my eyes. My mind then brought back the scene in the house. I ignored it and tried to think of something else.

Since I wasn't looking down at the ground, distracted by my thoughts, I tripped over a large rock and landed on my side.

"Oww," I whined, clutching my arm.

"Stop acting like a two-year-old and get back up. We're heading back to my cabin," Jett didn't even look back to help me, he just kept walking through the mud.

I stood up and brushed all the mud off my arms.

"Answer my question. For real this time. No 'I have theories' nonsense," I ordered.

Jett sighed, "I'll do it when we get back," he kept his gaze stuck in front of him.

When we were inside the cabin, I sat down onto the stool that I had sat on earlier. Wind blew through the walls making me shiver. The fire wasn't lit and Jett refused to light it.

Jett leaned against the wood wall and stared at me. He then started to answer my question.

"You ran into 'The Monster' didn't you?" He asked, his eyes glaring down onto me. I nodded in response, "And then it touched you? And when it touched you, you couldn't breathe at all? Like all the air had been sucked out of you? And when you finally got up and could breathe again, everyone started dying?" Jett pressured me into answering.

"Y-yes?" I stuttered. I was nervous and didn't want to answer anything else.

Jett just kept his gaze stuck on me. He didn't say anything else until I finally spoke up.

"Okay, I answered your questions. Now answer mine. What happened to me?" My serious tone quickly changed into sob. I didn't want to cry. It felt restraining, like I was stuck in that state until the tears were fully over. I tried to hold the tears back for as long as I could.

Jett didn't answer immediately. He just pondered. He just looked at me, his black eyes staring into my soul.

I wanted to leave. Yes, I chose to follow Jett back to his cabin. But I didn't have a choice. There was nowhere else for me to go. Nowhere. No one would accept me, yet Jett still chose to treat me just a little bit like a human being, not just a Monster that people hated. He was acting almost like a sibling. Someone that was always there for you no matter what. Although his attitude was just never in that headspace.

"It was the Monster," That was all Jett said before he turned away from me to make the fire blaze up again.

I didn't want to take that for an answer. I needed him to explain more. "What about it?" I asked.

Jett whipped around to face me again, "You really want to know, don't you?" His face showed a very clear sign of annoyance. "All you need to know is that it was the Monster. The Monster made you like this, and there is no way to reverse it," Jett was almost yelling at this point. He didn't like this conversation at all, even though he was the one that agreed to telling me.

"Why are you so angry? You agreed to tell me why I was like this!" I snapped back.

Jett just made his face emotionless again and turned away. He only said one more thing, "You now kill to survive. You can try as much as you like, but you will never be normal."

"What do you mean?" Jett just stared at the burning fire, the light radiating off it shining in his eyes. "Jett, answer my question!" I shook his shoulders to try to get him to look at me, "I don't want to kill to live. I don't want to be like this!" He just ignored me some more.

Jett just sighed in response, "Just get some sleep. Please," I didn't want to argue anymore. But it kept bugging me that he wouldn't tell me.

There was no couch in the house so I grabbed a blanket and sat in the corner. I laid my head on the wall and drifted off to sleep.

That night I replayed the scene of my mother dying over and over again, trying to understand what was happening. It wasn't exactly comfortable, but it felt like it had to be done.

...

Sometime in the middle of the night, while I was partially awake, I heard Jett whisper, "Oh Isla. Please forgive me."