Day 19: Heat Stroke
It was supposed to be fun. Just a hike, as if that was supposed to help Avery get over her brother’s death. Of course, no one had accounted for the mind games that the forest was playing on them. Avery should have known. She was the ghost hunter, after all. She shouldn’t have let Elijah and Maelynn drag her into going someplace she hadn’t thoroughly researched beforehand.
Well, that didn’t matter now. Avery wasn’t even thinking about all the things she should have done, because she was too busy trying to keep her mind blank. An empty head made her feel on the verge of blacking out, but any thoughts in this state always ended up with her brother, and thinking about him made her pounding headache worse.
“It’s a forest, how is it this hot?” Elijah stared up at the sky, where the sun beat down on them.
“Tropics are a thing, you know,” Maelynn muttered, not fully paying attention to him. She was more concerned about Avery, who had tripped over her feet three times in the past five minutes. “You doing okay, Avery?”
Somewhere in the fuzziness and the ringing in her head, Avery heard her name being called. “Wh- oh yeah, ‘m fine, I’m fi-“ She stubbed her toe on a pebble and pitched forward, a wordless gasp leaving her mouth as the ground rushed up to meet her.
“Woah, okay, sit down.” Maelynn caught her right before she smacked her head on a rather large rock, maneuvering her to sit on it instead.
“Black probably wasn’t the best color to wear, huh?” Elijah reached forward and passed her a bottle of water, but she never took it. Avery slumped forward, falling unconscious.