[Class Unlocked: Medium lv1]

[Ability unlocked: Minor Mana Pool]

[Ability unlocked: Sense Presence]

Emily bolted upright, nearly head-butting Vicky, who was watching her with a close eye. Only the vague impression that there was someone hovering allowed her to move sideways before their heads connected. Once the cloud lifted from her brain, agony came a second later, like a hot lance straight into her skull. She winced, groaning as it hit her all at once.

From the feel, she had wet herself, and only the experience of having gone through the same thing many times before prevented the shame. She knew it wasn’t something that she could control, so she wouldn’t allow herself to be embarrassed.

What concerned her more was that she had been off her medication for years and had never so much as experienced warning signals since puberty. That her epilepsy could be back and without warning would affect her in more ways than she wanted to think about.

“You gave us all quite the scare.” Vicky handed her a bottle of water. Though she didn’t take it, too busy vainly rubbing the pain out of her skull with eyes pinched shut. If anything, the action made it worse, but with the overwhelming need to do something didn’t stop.

“Yeah, that was scary, are you ok now?” guilt pooled in her as Liam spoke, but she wasn’t ready to talk yet. As her hand brushed against her nose, she hissed in surprise. She had no relocation of receiving the injury, but that was no new experience and accepted that’s where she must have landed that time.

Unsurprised by the boy’s voice, she realised she was aware of someone’s presence all along, and that there was another next to him who had yet to say anything. On the fringes of her range, roughly ten feet away, stood another. Braving the light intensity, Emily checked to see if her intuition was failing her. Only to see Alice at her side, and Steven at the rails. Exactly where her senses told her someone would be.

Besides steven, in haphazardly made piles were coconuts in various stages of development. The colour drained from her face as the sight brought memories of the vision in the mist. Her contorting expression caused a spike of pain to travel across her nose.

“What’s wrong?” She dodged Vicky’s hand that was on its way to brushing the hair from her eyes.

“Where are the others?”

“The captains below deck, and the boys are exploring. We’re somehow on a tropical island.” Vicky winced at her sheepishly, as if she didn’t quite believe it herself and was expecting to be called out on her bullshit.

Adrenaline pumped through Emily’s body, causing her limbs to shake as she reached out to the older woman and grabbed onto her orange sleeved jacket. Vicky looked at her with far too much softness, and with absolute certainty knew she would not be taken seriously, but hiding what she had seen wasn’t an option. If she did anything that happened to those three would forever be on her head.

“They’re in danger. There are creatures in there and they’re going to be ambushed.”

Trying to stand, Vicky stopped her. The grip that started off gentle had become vice-like to more she fought the attempt to push her down. It guided her down forcefully while she struggled in the hold. Alice hugged her doll to her chest and took a step back.

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“You just had a seizure and hit your head. Everything’s fine. We’re safe. There are no creatures. Just relax, everything’s fine.”

“No, you don’t understand! I saw it! I saw it happen in the fog. They’re in danger!

Miles! Miles is in danger!”

The harder Emily struggled, the more force Vicky needed to hold her still. The lives of her fellow passengers were more important to her than her social standing within the group, and as the only one who knew the existing threat, it was her responsibility to take matters into her own hands.

With that thought in mind, when she could not break free, Emily kicked the woman off of her with as much power as she could muster. Vicky skidded three feet away, the hit landed directly on her solar plexus and winded her, she dry heaved into the deck.

“Mum!” The scared cry of a child worried for his mother stabbed a stake of guilt into Emily like nothing she had felt before. Still, she didn’t let it stop her from acting. She had already gone through with the attack. She had better make it worth something.

“Victoria!” Steven jerked in surprise. Running towards his wife with a glare in Emily’s direction. He went to help her up, but she only brushed him off and pointed at Emily, who was now on her unsteady feet and moving to get off the ferry, one hand clutched to her pounding head.

“I’m sorry, but I need to stop them!”

“What the bloody hell are you on about? You, you crazy girl.”

Emily nearly answered, but looking between the cowering children, Vicky recovering on the ground and Steven angrily marching towards her knew there was no point wasting words on people that wouldn’t listen and had no reason to.

Turning tail to run away, she noticed the presence behind her too late and slammed into the captain face first, much to her nose’s discontent. He caught and held her steady, and she tried to tear away from him, only to be pulled back.

“No! No! You need to let go! Let go!”

For all his previous bumbling, Captain Williams held onto her, unmoved. As she kicked and scratched, Steven soon aided him and between the two of them, there was no chance of Emily wandering onto the island and getting lost, or worse. As she grew more hysterical, the two men looked at each other.

“Now what?”

“It’s not like the ferry’s equipped with a brig.”

“The car.” Vicky stated, wincing as she climbed to her feet. “Lock her in our car.”

“Our car!? Why our car?”

“It’s the only one we have the keys to.”

“But-” Emily cut him off with a loud scream as she clawed at him. It occurred to him then that the alternative was detaining her themselves “Very well.”

“You can’t do this. They’re in danger!”

It took a while and a lot of effort, but eventually the three dragged her kicking and screaming into their seven seater. A slammed door and the press of a button later, the beep confirmed it locked tight. Emily crossed her arms, chest heaving, and scowled until the pain in her face became unbearable and she had to calm down.

On the other side of the window, her audience looked back with various states of pity, anger, and concern. Emily had expected them to not take her seriously, but underestimated the lengths they would go to keeping her on her ferry. The determination to do what they thought was the right thing would be admirable in normal circumstances, but in that moment, she wanted nothing more than to beat some sense into them.

“You’re making a mistake!”

“Give it a rest, will you, girl.”

Satisfied that the young woman wouldn’t be able to escape the makeshift prison, the captain went back below deck with an arm full of coconuts and the couple distracted the children from Emily’s unignorable tantrum still loud in the background by watching the beach, and awaiting the exploration group’s return. Once they settled, he turned to his wife, pointing towards his car over his shoulder with his thumb.

“A few sandwiches shy of a picnic, that one.”