Blurred Horizons

Scarlett couldn't believe what had happened. It was a strange feeling, being completely aware of her surroundings and where her body was, but not being able to move a muscle. It was almost like being disconnected from the real world, like a ghost. And then she kissed a fish. A slimy, smelly fish. Doc seemed utterly fascinated by women kissing other women, but Scarlett didn't care for kissing a fish in the least.

She walked with most of her weight on Ben, nodding to Ivanna as she watched the four go towards the shortcut she'd mentioned. The mermaid grinned wide and waved to them as they left.

"Good luck, Benny!" she called. "Come visit me, Adrian!"

Doc had a sort of goofy grin on his face as she blew him a kiss and he waved back at her. Scarlett glared at him and weakly punched his arm as she walked by. He rolled his eyes and followed as the group headed towards thick jungle, where a very faint trail was marked by stones. The more Scarlett moved, the harder it was to physically lift her legs and walk. They felt weak and heavy, like she hadn't walked in ten years. Her eyelids felt heavy as well, just barely awake.

"Are you alright?" Ben muttered. "Can you walk?"

"I'm fine," she said.

He clearly hadn't been convinced. He picked her up again, now carrying her through the thick jungle behind Doc and Thomas. She didn't say much more, closing her eyes and resting her head on Ben's shoulder.

"You're going to get hurt too, carrying me like this," she said.

"You're light. I can manage."

"Cook says I've gotten chubby again," Scarlett pouted, opening her eyes to look up at him.

"You're perfect," he promised her. "Do you remember when you were six years old, and you were angry with me because I wouldn't let you ride that wild new horse who had a habit of bucking people off? It's a good story, but I don't remember it."

Scarlett was confused at first by his random reminiscing, but quickly realized that he was only trying to get her to talk, so she wouldn't go to sleep. If she went to sleep, she may not have ever woken up.

"He was a black horse," she said softly, with a half smile. "He was beautiful. Much prettier than the other ones. But you kept telling me he was too dangerous and unpredictable, and that he'd kill me if I was bucked off. I could handle it, but you still wouldn't let me ride him. And when I threatened to tell Bartimus that you were being mean to me, you threatened me right back, saying you'd tell my father that I'd been a brat. And I didn't like that."

"So what did you do?"

"I released a frog at the dinner table and told everyone it was yours. And that was just a warning not to cross my path."

"And I wasn't allowed to leave my bedroom for a week," he told her with a slight smirk. "No one believed that sweet little Madeline Triggs could have possibly done something like that. She was 'far too young to know what extortion is', as they said."

"I'm sorry," Scarlett poured.

"Nearly twenty years later, she's sorry," Ben chuckled, kissing her forehead. "Thank goodness for that."

She smiled back at him, but the scratches on her back started to sting, making her grimace.

"Ben, it hurts," she whimpered.

"I know," he sighed, resting his forehead against hers. "It'll all be better soon, I promise."

"I want to hold my baby."

"You'll be back with her soon," he assured her. "Now, tell me more about being a child extortionist."

Like Ben asked, Scarlett continued to talk to him until everyone stopped talking, at the mouth of a tunnel that lead underground. Doc and Thomas stared down into it before Thomas bravely took the first steps inside and Ben followed, adjusting his grip on Scarlett. She could tell he was getting tired, but there was no use in arguing with him. She could barely feel her legs, and he wasn't going to put her down until she was perfectly healthy again. She patted Ben's shoulder to stop him when she saw Doc hesitating at the mouth of the cave, brow furrowed.

"Aren't you coming?" Ben asked him.

"I have a very bad feeling about this place," he muttered.

"Oh, do you now?" Ben raised an eyebrow. "Only now you have a bad feeling about this place? Those green Tigers were perfectly normal then, weren't they?"

"I'm talking about the tunnel," Doc snapped, glaring at Ben. "Something isn't right about it."

"And since you're a doctor, you must know everything," Ben said sarcastically.

"I'm a human being who knows when his life is in danger," Doc snapped.

"Well, Ivanna said it was the fastest way, and I trust her," Ben said, heading back in.

"Oh, you trust the mermaid?" Scarlett asked him.

"Do not start this conversation right now," he warned her.

Reluctantly, Doc followed them into the tunnel. They walked for a while, but the more they went, the darker the tunnel seemed to get. Eventually, it was so pitch black and silent that if Scarlett wasn't being carried by Ben, she wouldn't have been sure he was there at all.

"Now what?" Doc piped up from somewhere behind them. "I can't see anything."

"Hold hands," Scarlett instructed.

Ben shifted so Scarlett was now on his back like a little monkey, blindly reaching out and grabbing a hand.

"Ben, is that you?" Thomas asked.

"Yes, it's me," he answered. "So this must be-"

"OW!"

"Yes, that's Doc."

Scarlett rolled her eyes, though no one could see it. She could hear the amused smile in Ben's voice.

"Hold on now," Doc said. "Scarlett, are you standing on your own?"

"I wish," she sighed.

"So this slender, feminine hand on my right side must be Ben," he said, though the comment was followed by yet another yelp of pain from whatever Ben did to him before he got a chance to continue. "So if Ben is on my right side and his other hand is holding Thomas... Who's holding my left hand?"

The four of them went dead silent as cold chills ran up their spine. Scarlett heard Doc fumbling through his things before he finally found a match, striking and lighting it. For a few moments, the single match filled the room with a dim light. All four of them were there, but so were a hundred other faces there too, watching them with pitch black faces, red eyes, and jagged toothed twisted smiles. No one could say anything. The match burnt out just moments later, and they were once again in complete darkness.