Uncharted (37 page)

The slender opening was probably no more than six inches wide, so they huddled close as they peered into the dark space beyond. For an instant Karyn saw nothing; then the darkness rippled, and what looked like velvet night was replaced by the vibrant greens and blues of a waterfall. Her heart lurched upward, but before she could speak, she saw
movement
in the water; she saw herself and Kevin splashing in the natural pool at the base of the rocks.

She closed her eyes. Either her imagination had switched into hyperdrive, or Kevin’s nearness had awakened memories and feelings she’d thought long dead. She couldn’t let him know what her subconscious had concocted; she wouldn’t tell him that her imagination had led her back to a happier, more romantic time—

“The Bahamas,” Kevin said, his voice subdued and flat. “Our vacation, remember? Sarah was only four, so we left her with the hotel nanny for an afternoon so we could get away together.”

His words were a rock dropped into the pool of her heart, sending ripples of fear in all directions.

“You”—she turned to stare at him—“you’re seeing the waterfall?”

His mouth changed just enough to bristle the stubble on his cheek. “If my eyes can be trusted, I am.”

“So . . . what I’m seeing
isn’t
my imagination, not if you’re seeing it too. It’s something else. If we’re seeing this together, it’s real.”

She turned back to the opening, horribly fascinated by the chapter replaying beyond the chasm. Her memories awoke as the scene rolled on. She and Kevin were standing in the waist-deep pool, two people enjoying the scenery—then another couple waded into the water. The woman was lovely, her long blond hair slicked away from a perfect face, her bikini barely there. The man was no less attractive, with a muscled chest, strong legs, and brown hair that magnified his dark brows and deep eyes.

What a leading man he’d make.

She didn’t speak, but her voice echoed from the cavern in tones rich with desire. Karyn’s face burned as forgotten details rose on a surge of memory. The spark had gone out of their marriage by that summer, and though she’d been glad to get away, she’d found herself watching the other couple and wondering how it would feel to embrace the other woman’s husband . . .

As if he’d read her thoughts, the man in the waterfall moved toward the other Karyn, smiling at her as if they were long-lost lovers. She left Kevin and strode through the water, stepping into his wet arms and lifting her face for his kiss—

She tore her eyes away. “It didn’t happen like that.”

“No.” Kevin’s voice was husky. “But this is the way we wanted it.”

She glanced at him, noticed the rise of color in his face, and peered again through the crack in the rocks. Now two couples were kissing, Karyn and the dark-haired man, Kevin and the blond . . .

She closed her eyes and leaned against a rock. “Mark is dead wrong,” she said, her voice cracking. “This isn’t a trick of our subconscious minds. If we are both seeing this, it’s real.”

Kevin turned away, too, and she saw thought working in his eyes. “It
can’t
be real. What we’re seeing never happened.”

“What is it, then? What is all of this? This place can’t be one big dream; it hurts too much. I’m too thirsty, I’m hungry, we’re bleeding and suffering—”

She caught her breath at the sound of sobbing. A woman’s weeping echoed from the tunnel, a susurrant sound like whispering in the walls.

Kevin lifted a brow. “Is
that
real?”

“Could it be Lisa?”

After an instant of hesitation, Karyn hurried toward the sound, Kevin following. They found Susan huddling before another cavern where a living-color reenactment flickered upon an invisible screen. In the surreal theater, a much-younger Susan, her face livid with rage, was sitting on a young woman’s chest, ripping fistfuls of hair from her victim’s head with one hand while she stabbed a knife into the woman’s arms and neck with the other.

“It didn’t happen like that,” the real Susan cried, her words broken and jagged. “I hated her, yes, and I said some awful things about her, but I never touched the girl. We were in the Miss Junior Texas pageant, and I knew she was going to win. So I told one of the judges she’d been—she’d been—”

“Shh, it’s not real.” Karyn drew Susan into her arms, stifling her frantic protests while she peered over Susan’s shoulder and watched the images in the cavern. The movie continued, revealing a bloody but triumphant Susan who stepped over her competitor’s battered body and strutted toward a glittering crown on a velvet pillow.

Unable to face the realization this image evoked, Karyn turned away and wondered if any of them truly knew the others.

When the wind stopped pitching debris across the beach, Lisa emerged from her makeshift shelter and found Mark by the fire pit. The wind had blown most of the fuel away, but he had managed to unearth a few glowing embers. He looked up at her, grunted, and extended his hand. “You wanna toss me those palm fronds over there?”

Gee, the man must have been an
extremely
attentive husband.

Shaking her head, she gathered an armful of the scattered green fans and dropped them at Mark’s feet. She crouched, watching him coax the embers into flame, and relaxed when the fire began to billow smoke again.

“Now”—he brushed his hands together—“let’s see how much progress we’ve made on the raft.”

Lisa unwrapped the smelly bundle at her side. “I’ve gathered a lot of seaweed. Enough, I think, to connect the poles you guys have cut so far.”

Mark’s mouth curled in a one-sided smile as he peered at the pile of rank vegetation. “Good work, girl. You and I make quite a team.”

Lisa found the very idea repulsive, but she turned to the mound of sand covering the bamboo poles. As Mark used a cracked dustpan to dig them out, he joked that it was easier to unbury bamboo than to cut it down.

She twisted a slimy strand of seaweed between her thumb and forefinger. “I’m not quite sure how to braid the pieces so they’ll be strong enough to hold, but I thought I might reinforce this stuff with strips of fabric. That should make a pretty secure binding.”

Without looking up, Mark nodded. “If you have trouble, remember I have duct tape. Not enough to bind the entire raft, but enough to help out if you need it.”

“How could I forget? Duct tape is good for everything.”

“Got that right, sister.”

“I’ll get busy, then,” she said, wishing Kevin were here instead of Mark. She glanced over her shoulder. “Where is everyone else?”

Mark kept digging. “In the cave, I guess. Kevin and Karyn said something about wanting privacy, then Susan went after them.”

“That hardly sounds private.”

Mark looked up this time, his eyes glinting as he smirked. “I think Karyn was looking for you.”

She glanced toward the cave again. “How long have they been gone?”

Mark shrugged. “Long enough. Maybe they got sidetracked.”

“So they’ve been gone awhile?”

Mark stopped digging and straightened, one hand at his back. “How can I tell anything about time in this place?”

“So . . . should we go look for them?”

Mark smiled, and this time his eyes were bright with speculation, his smile half sly with knowing. “Why don’t we leave them alone and take advantage of our time together?” Before she could move, he reached out and gripped her ankle. “We haven’t had much time to catch up, have we? And we used to be sweethearts.”

Something in his look made her skin crawl, but she swallowed her repulsion and tried to give him a pleasant smile. “Honestly, Mark, forget it. By the time we get back to civilization, you’re going to be sick of me.”

“I don’t think I could ever be sick of you.” He returned to his digging with dogged determination. “I liked you in college, and you haven’t changed. I’ve had a lot of women since those days, but none of them compare”—he squinted up at her—“to you.”

She closed her eyes, wishing she could drop all pretense and scream. Mark had been odd in college, but he’d become odder in the intervening years. She found it hard to believe any woman would take him seriously, so the five women he’d married must have been
really
desperate . . .

She stood and looked pointedly toward the skull cave. “I’m worried about the others. I think I’ll go check things out in the—”

She halted as Susan limped out of the cavern, followed by Kevin and Karyn. The trio approached in silence, their faces drawn and tense. Lisa said nothing as they made their way over the beach, but she counted the occasions Kevin reached out to steady Karyn’s uneven steps: five, no, six times.

Susan dropped to the sand when she reached the smoldering fire. Kevin stood beside Mark and nodded at the bamboo. “Did the wind do much damage?”

“Nothing a little hard work won’t undo.” Mark threw him a grim smile. “Ready to cut some more?”

Kevin blew out his cheeks. “Let’s get to it.”

Karyn sat beside Lisa, her eyes troubled, her mouth closed. A conspiracy of silence covered whatever had upset the trio; apparently none of them wanted to talk about it.

Lisa sank to the ground and pulled the bundle of seaweed closer. She wasn’t going to ask what happened in the cave. If they wanted to keep secrets, fine. She had a few secrets of her own.

She was about to start braiding the first three strands when Susan lifted her veiled head and propped her arms on her bent knees. “I’m not going home.”

Lisa turned, seeing Susan’s hand as if for the first time. In the gray light of the hidden sun, the skin was dry and serried, like earth parched by drought. An elderly woman’s hand.

Kevin, who was helping Mark lift the chrome bumper, reacted first. “What do you mean, you’re not going home?”

Susan kept her eyes lowered. “Even if you build the raft, I’m not going. I’m staying here.”

Lisa looked at Karyn, who rolled her eyes in amused disbelief before squeezing Susan’s arm. “Come on, hon, of course you’re going home. We’re all going.”

“I’m not. You can’t force me.”

“Sweetheart.” Kevin bent his head and tried to catch Susan’s eye. “Whatever happened in the accident can be fixed. You’ll feel better about everything when we get you back to the U.S. of A.”

“You think a doctor can fix
this
?” Her hand rose to her scarred cheek. “You think a shrink can fix
that
?” She pointed to the cave. “You saw. You know. You know
me
.” She spoke these final words in a hoarse whisper, as if they were too awful to utter in her normal voice.

Lisa leaned toward Karyn. “Has she totally lost it?”

Karyn said nothing for a long moment, then she sighed. “I don’t know. I’m not sure I know her at all.”

Mark stepped back to examine the raft as Kevin worked at the last knots. The edges were uneven, and more than one leafy stem protruded from the surface. But by working nearly nonstop, they’d managed to lash together enough bamboo to form an eight-by-ten platform. Not large enough to live on for any length of time, but big enough to carry them off the beach and into the current.

Once again, he had mastered an impossible situation.

Karyn was wearing a smile the size of Texas, and even Lisa seemed impressed. Kevin was tightening knots like he meant business, and Mark couldn’t help but feel that his old college pal was secretly pleased with himself. This sort of thing was a far cry from the boardrooms to which Kevin was accustomed, but it’d been good for him to realize that real men always rose to a challenge.