Charlotte and Hendrix stumbled over their feet, trying to shake off their drunken stupor as they arrived at the origin of the scream.
"What is that?!" Amora screamed from her room.
"What's wrong…?" Charlotte peeked into the room, blinking slowly at the scene in front of her.
Amora stood atop her mattress, her back pressing against the wall while she shook in fear.
Her eyes were trained on a large, inhuman silhouette in the middle of the room.
"What happened-" Chase charged into his girlfriend's room, pushing past the drunken duo as they both tumbled onto the ground like weak twigs.
He paused, following Amora's eyes to the shadow in the middle of the room.
It was hard to make out the details, since the only available light was the dim moonlight peeking through the porthole-like window to the side of where Amora trembled.
"What the fuck?!" Chase exclaimed, running to the other side of the room to grab his girlfriend.
One by one, all of Hendrix's friends poured out of their rooms, attracted to the noise with concerned curiosity.
"Finally! Some action!" Biggie came barreling down the hallway.
Slim sprinted behind him as he tried to stop the single-minded fighter.
Biggie turned into the room as two mallets manifested in his hands, looking around the room before catching the silhouette in the middle of the bedroom.
Clank
Biggie hit his mallets against each other with an excited grin on his face.
He took a step forward before feeling a tug on his arm.
Before the teen could even react, something had hooked his arm and he was airborne, hurling towards the metal floor below him.
Thud
He hit the ground hard, both of his arms stuck against his back as he looked around in painful confusion.
"Don't you dare." A female voice whispered, a certain cold aggression to the tone of it.
The other teens looked on with uncertain caution as a female figure stood up from above Biggie.
She turned around, flipping on the light switch as the room filled with a fluorescent yellow.
"Nala, here." The woman snapped her fingers and pointed to the floor beside her feet as her eyes trained on the creature in the middle of the room.
The woman's brown skin matched the rugged earth tones of her camo jacket, the same colors as her loosely fitted camo pants.
She stomped one of her black boots against the metal floor, making a low Clank.
Her outfit looked as though she was hunting something, a look supported by the faded black stripes below her eyes.
The woman's hair was twisted into two braids that rested tightly against her scalp.
Even though she couldn't be older than twenty, her eyes read the stress of someone who has seen more than anyone else in that room.
The woman with the braids stared into the middle of the room as the teen's gazes followed hers.
A giant lizard turned towards the woman, flicking its tongue into the air as its black eyes seemed to dart between the woman and Amora.
"Now!" The woman demanded, stomping her foot once again.
With no hesitation, the lizard turned around, its large claws scraping against the metal floor to make its way towards the woman.
As the reptile turned around, it flicked its tail back to adjust its stance.
Whoosh
The large tail struck one of the wooden legs of Amora's bed, knocking it out from underneath the bedframe as Amora tumbled into the fallen corner of the mattress.
Chase caught her, both of their eyes fixated on the living dragon now circling the strange woman's feet.
The rest of the kids looked at each other, their faces not able to express the level of confusion they were experiencing.
"Ratu, will please keep Nala in your room?" Charlotte pointed to the lizard as she rested her head against the doorframe of Amora's room.
"No." Ratu responded, cold and quick.
She knelt down to the lizard's level, rubbing the reptile's head as it flicked its forked tongue into the air around the woman's head.
"Are we just gonna ignore the fucking kaiju in the middle of the room?!" Chase said, helping Amora to her feet.
"Is that… A Komodo Dragon…?" Akilah rubbed her eyes under her glasses, still half asleep.
"Yeah. Ratu's best friend." Charlotte muttered.
"Only friend." Ratu interjected.
"What about me?" Charlotte stood up straight, slurring her words. "I'm not your friend? Do you remember when we first met on Komodo island? You were so small! You were cute back then, now… Not so much. You're so serious all the time…"
Charlotte continued to rant, her sentences getting more and more incoherent.
Ratu stood up, taking a step towards Charlotte before sniffing the air with a disgusted look on her face.
"You reek of alcohol." Ratu stated. "And so does he."
Ratu pointed to Hendrix, who had been fixated on Nala, the Komodo Dragon, since the lights were turned on.
"No, no. Hendrix doesn't drink." Vida smiled and chuckled, waving away the idea.
"What happened?" Hendrix looked to Vida, his eyes glossed over.
"Oh my god. Did you drink?" Vida asked, leaning in with a shocked expression.
She examined his eyes, turning his head with her hands to see if his eyes would follow her.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to." Hendrix whined like a child in trouble.
"Jeez, Hendrix." Vida grabbed Hendrix's hand, turning towards his room. "Let's get you to bed."
"I'm sorry." Hendrix muttered, repeating it under his breath a couple more times before going silent.
The two of them made their way down the hall, leaving the reptilian mess behind as Vida led the two of them towards Hendrix's room.
"I like holding your hand." Hendrix spoke under his breath, not even registering that he spoke out loud.
Vida stopped, looking at Hendrix as she felt her face heating up.
"I didn't even notice I was holding his hand." Vida thought, her grip on the boy's hand loosening slightly.
Hendrix, his eyes fully closed now, held on to his friend's hand with the consciousness he had left.
Vida sighed as she tried to calm herself down.
Eventually, they arrived at Hendrix's room, the boy stumbling onto his bed.
Vida watched him roll over onto his stomach before he sat up slowly.
"What's wrong-" Vida stopped herself as Hendrix began to take off his shirt, getting ready for bed as he usually did.
Vida's eyes widened as she ran out of the room.
She had caught a glimpse of his abdomen, various scars and bruises from his ventures covering his body.
The girl's mind was filled with flustered, bothered thoughts, but she felt a creeping thought in the back of her mind.
"Those must've hurt." Vida thought. It seemed like an obvious conclusion, but, for some reason, it was painful to admit.
Back in Amora's room, the group had finally calmed down.
"How many days?" Ratu asked in her usual cold tone.
"Eight days 'til Sydney." Charlotte grabbed her head to quiet the headache surging through it.
"We'll stop at Komodo." Ratu said with a surprising assertion for someone who looked half the age of Charlotte.
"Okay, I guess." Charlotte groaned, turning towards the hallway. "I'm going to bed."
"Really?!" Biggie grunted. "Why do we have to make a pit stop?!"
"To win." Ratu answered. "You will understand."
Ratu made her way out of the room, patting her thigh as Nala followed her with the scraping of her dragon-like claws.
The teens looked at each other and shrugged.
Chase peeked into the hallway, making sure Ratu was gone.
"You're telling me we're going to the home of those things?!" Chase whispered.
"Yes." Ratu spoke from down the hall, startling everyone into an awkward silence.