Andre continued without any sign of slowing, until Katie stopped. Her head spun and she felt sick again. She was too tired to continue. The phantom appeared before her, pointing. She shook her head and slumped against a tree.
“You may have endless energy as a dead man, but I don’t,” she told him. “I need a break, Andre.”
The phantom shook his head in silent objection. Katie ignored him and cradled her forehead in her hands. She ate another food cube and sighed. When she looked up, Andre was gone. Since they’d left the demon-Gabriel, Andre had disappeared twice before, but not for long. She rested her head against the tree behind her and waited.
The moons appeared through the branches in the jungle, almost alone in the dark sky except for a wisp of clouds floating beneath them. She watched the clouds pass. More came, quickly blocking the moons and stealing most of the light from the jungle. Katie sat up and blinked until her eyes adjusted to the new level of darkness. The sky took on an eerie silver glow, like it did in Maryland the night before a hard snow.
Andre didn’t return. Katie waited longer, until the chill of the night dried the sweat that’d covered her since they began running earlier.
“Andre?” she whispered into the darkness.
He didn’t appear. Unease filled her, and she wondered if the phantom would leave her there alone, even knowing she was helpless without it. Katie ate a water cube and rose, starting off in the direction Andre had been headed. She walked for half an hour, until rain began to trickle through the jungle overhead. Andre didn’t reappear.
He’d left her there. She cursed herself for insisting on resting and paused, looking up at the cloudy sky visible through the overhead canopy.
The rain was cold, and she was alone without as much as a jacket. Katie shivered and tried to quell the panic within her. She wore the same clothes she’d been wearing several days ago, when she walked into the ocean. Before that, she didn’t think it was possible for her life to get worse. Then she’s come here.
Pain streaked through her, the kind of pain with no physical source. Katie began to cry, unable to see an end to her ordeal that would mean she – or her baby – lived. She hugged her stomach and sobbed for the loss of Rhyn, her own life, their child’s.