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The crying of seagulls woke her. Noodle opened her eyes to a bright patch of sunlight glinting off a dented toaster, a grimy tire and a twisted jump rope among other things in the "wall" of garbage on the other side of the "room." Morning. She tried not to groan from the various aches and pain she'd gotten from sleeping on a hard uneven surface and stretched slightly to work out the kinks in her muscles. She felt a strange combination of hungry and nauseous, and her mouth felt bone dry, as if she'd slept with it open all night. She thought of the pack across the room, and the water bottles it contained, and as she tried to get up the gumption to brave the aches and pains in her body and get up and go get something to drink, she became aware of a sound that was in the room with her. Breathing. Loud and hissing, and yet, at the same time, relaxed and even.

Suppressing a groan at the stiffness in her muscles, she turned over onto her other side and found a wide-eyed, staring face inches from her own.

She screamed at the top of her lungs, the noise echoing metallically in her makeshift shelter, and threw herself backwards, bonking into the wall and jabbing herself in the small of the back with the leg of a broken desk chair. "OW!"

The Boogieman stirred at the sound of her commotion and put its hands over its nonexistent ears. It turned over in one quick, fluid motion to face away from her. Putting it squarely facing the huge window and the rising, watery sun. Its hands left its ears to pull its cape over its face instead.

"Sorry, sorry," Noodle muttered in apology, putting her hands over her own face. She had a headache, and the bright morning light coming in directly in her eyes wasn't helping things. "Yikes, we need curtains in here." She chuckled in spite of herself. "And maybe some beanbag chairs and blacklight posters. I'm thinking about going for a retro look. What do you think?" she asked the masked creature's back.

There was no response from it. Of course. Still chuckling a bit, she raised her eyes from it and looked out the window at the beach. The hazy sun was still fairly low over the water, which meant it was still quite early, but there were hundreds of seagulls crowded together down on the beach, sifting through the refuse for the edible bits, and just as many if not more were wheeling through the sky above, waiting their turn at the rancid buffet table. The noise was tremendous.

"Kinda puts the racket I made in perspective, doesn't it?" she said to the Boogieman as she crawled over to its side. She was honestly surprised to find it was still alive, but even more surprisingly, she thought it seemed to be doing better than it had been last night. Certainly its breathing sounded easier, and its quick movements when she had screamed had had a bit of strength to them, at least, more than its feeble movements last night had had. She honestly didn't think that a few stitches could have helped that much. Speaking of which…

"Hey," she said softly, touching the creature's shoulder. "I want to take a look at your wounds again. Can you turn over so I can see?

No response. It didn't even raise its head. It was almost like it was ignoring her.

Sighing to herself, she tried to roll it over onto its back herself. Its hand came back and pushed her backwards, and she landed painfully on her rump. "Ouch! Stop it!" she snapped. "You stop this and let me see, or I'll…I'll…leave you to rot. I'll leave you out on the beach and let the seagulls eat you."

It finally raised its head, looking back over its shoulder at her. Then, maddeningly, it laid its head back down without acknowledging her or what she'd said in the slightest.

Noodle had had enough. "Oh fine, be a baby about it then! See if I care! I don't know why I bothered helping you in the first place. You're awfully ungrateful." And she was getting QUITE tired of hanging around ingrates. Turning her back on the monster, she crawled over to her pack. She was still terribly thirsty, and the water was still in there waiting for her.

She opened the pack, and grabbed one of the bottles. The cap hissed slightly as she broke the seal and spun it free. She raised it to her lips, and although her body was crying out for liquid, she forced herself to take small slow sips. It wouldn't be good to aggravate her already upset stomach, or to go overboard and drink too much of her water ration in one sitting. She needed to conserve it. Regretfully, she took one more small sip of the tepid water and then recapped it. That would do for now. As she turned to put it back in the pack, she saw out of the corner of her eye that the Boogieman had its head up and was watching her.

She turned toward it and met its blank eyes. It looked back at her. "What?" she said.

No response.

Annoyed, she moved to put the water back in the pack. The creature's head moved slightly to follow her movement.

Noodle paused. She lifted the water bottle back up. The Boogieman's head moved up slightly.

She held out the water bottle. "Do you want water? Can you drink water?"

She expected another poker-faced stare followed by it putting its head back down and ignoring her, but to her surprise, it nodded its head slightly.

Still annoyed with it, she considered denying it the water, but decided she couldn't make herself do such a cruel thing. Instead, she had a better idea. "All right, I'll give you some water," she said to it. "But only if you let me look at your wounds first. Understand?"

It cocked its head to the side slightly as if considering, then slowly laid down on its back. It turned its head to face out the window, away from her. Then quickly turned it back to face the other way. The sun was still coming in in full force.

At least the light will be better than last night, thought Noodle as she moved to sit beside it. She pulled open its still damp cape to expose its strange bony torso again. In the bright sunlight, she could see that the skin on its torso was a dark, greenish black as opposed to the lighter, pea-green skin on its arms and neck and head. It was tougher looking too. Noodle ran a finger along one of its ribs, feeling its strange, dry, leathery flesh. What kind of a creature ARE you exactly? Are you really THE Boogieman? Or are you a demon or a monster or an alien or something else? I've never seen a creature like you before…

She caught movement out of the corner of her eye. She turned her head and saw that the monster had raised its own head up and was looking at her. Or rather, at her hands. Given that her hands weren't anywhere near any of its wounds, it was probably wondering why she was poking at it.

She quickly moved her hand away from its ribs, trying to ignore the slight blush that was creeping onto her cheeks. She supposed that that HAD been rude. After all, if the tables had been turned, she was sure she wouldn't appreciate the creature sitting over her and poking at her own chest without permission.

Concentrating instead on her doctoring, she took a look at its side wound. The gauze was stained black with its dark blood, and she knew she should probably change the bandage. Gently, she worked at peeling it back, trying not to hurt the monster as she worked it free. The Boogieman's breath hissed slightly, but it did not fight her this time. Eventually, she pulled the bandage free and took a look at the stitches below. All of them had held, and the flesh underneath had already begun to knit. There was no blood seeping through anywhere, and the wound looked clean and free of infection. "You heal fast," she muttered as she took out the disinfectant and some more gauze from her first aid kit. She re-cleaned the wound, just to be on the safe side, then put a fresh bandage over it.

She had the creature turn over, then looked over the wound on its back. It was much the same, although it wasn't as far along in the healing process as the entry wound had been. Probably because it was larger. She gave it the same treatment as the entry wound, then tapped the creature on the shoulder. "Both of them look like they are healing well," she told it. "You were very lucky. Now, turn back over and let me look at your head."

It did as she asked. The bandage at the top of its head was completely soaked with blood and stuck fast when she tried to pull it free. She felt the Boogieman shudder beneath her and saw its huge clawed hands ball into fists as though it wanted to strike out at her and was trying to force itself not to. It must have really wanted that water badly. She hoped that that desire would continue to outweigh its desire to gut her like a fish, especially since she'd gotten an even better look at the size of its hands in the daylight. They were almost as long as her forearm.

She began to try and remove the bandage with all the delicate skill and precision and gentleness of a fine Swiss watchmaker, and eventually she worked it free. Underneath was still a dark, bloody mess, with a huge, oozing scab covering most of the wound. Looking at the damage more closely, she saw that the bullet graze had cut right across one of those thick black veins, which would explain all the bleeding. Though the wound had clotted, it looked like it might take a bit longer to heal than the others.

"I'm afraid you might end up with a scar here," she told the Boogieman as she cleaned the wound and covered it with a fresh bandage. "I'm sorry." Yeah, there goes your dream of someday winning the Mr. Universe competition, Handsome. Biting back another giggle, she finished affixing the bandage, then said: "There! All done. Thank you for holding still." She smiled down at the creature.

To her surprise, it stared back up at her, head cocked to the side again, as though confused. Startled, she looked back at it, a silent question in her gaze. It looked back. She thought it almost seemed to be straining, as though it was trying to see something that was not clear, but might become so if it only looked hard enough. Suddenly self-conscious, Noodle turned away and put her medical supplies back in the first aid kit. "I'll uh, get you that water now," she said quietly once she had finished.

Crawling back to the pack, she put her first aid kit away and picked up the water bottle. By the time she had returned to the creature's side, it had sat back up and was waiting for her.

"Here," she said, handing it the water. "But don't drink too much. There's only one more bottle left after this one, and after that, I don't know what we're going to drink. I'm going to go looking for supplies on the beach but…" She wasn't hopeful, and her tone showed it.

The Boogieman took the bottle from her and then simply held it in its hand, looking at it as if it didn't know what to do with it.

"Well, go on," said Noodle.

It looked up at her, then back down at the bottle.

"What?" said Noodle. She was beginning to feel exasperated. "What's wrong with it?"

It lifted the capped bottle to the snout of its mask and rattled the bottle's neck against the inside of the snout's rim.

"Oh!" said Noodle, finally understanding. "You can't drink it with that mask on! Do you need me to turn around so you can take it off?"

It shook its head at her.

"What then?" she asked.

It set down the bottle, then put its hands together, to make a U-shape.

"A cup?" she guessed.

It moved its hands outward a bit, making a broader, shallower U-shape.

"A bowl?"

It nodded.

"Uh…" It might as well have asked her for hang glider. She didn't have a bowl with her. Nor anything she could use as one "Hmmm…" She pondered, wondering what they were going to do. Could she let it drink out of her cupped hands? No, that would spill too much water, and they needed to conserve it. Tip its head back and pour the water down its hollow snout like a funnel? No, that would spill too much water as well, and what water did go in would be more likely to end up in its lungs. Pin it down, rip the damn mask off and tell it to get over its "modesty" and just drink the blasted water? No, she'd really rather keep her innards inside her body. She glanced out the window at the seagulls still fighting with one another on the foul beach. She could always go out there and try to find something that would work as a suitable container. It would probably be gross and dirty, but then again, this was a nasty, green, skeletal monster she was taking care of. Maybe hygiene wasn't its biggest priority.

"I don't have a bowl," she told it. "I'm going to go outside and see if I can find something that we can use as one. It'll probably be dirty though. I'll try to clean it out, but…" She shrugged. "Do you mind?"

It shook its head.

"All right then," she said, taking the water bottle back and putting it in the pack. The pack itself she hoisted up on her shoulders so she could take it with her. She certainly didn't trust the monster enough to leave it alone with her rations. They had, after all, been enemies yesterday, and just because she was helping it today didn't mean that it would suddenly be friendly and trustworthy toward her. She slipped the pack on, then got up. "I'll be right back," she told it as she slipped out the "door" of the shelter.

She searched among the refuse for a few minutes until she found an empty Cool Whip container that she could use as a bowl. It was quite grimy inside, but she didn't see any cracks or holes in the plastic that would let the water leak out, so she thought it would work. Grimacing, she wiped it out with the hem of her dress. So much for these clothes, she thought, looking at them with regret. Not only were they stained with dirt and the Boogieman's blood, but she was sure that the garbage stench would never come out of them. Well, there were more important things to worry about than clothes anyway. She could certainly buy more, when she got off the island. IF she got off the island...

Determined not to let last night's doubts creep back in, she shook herself and went back to the shelter. "Found one," she told the monster, holding up the container for it to see. "Hope it's all right." Without waiting for a response, she knelt down and took out the water bottle from the pack. Opening it back up, she poured a moderate amount into the container, feeling almost like she was filling a pet's water dish. "Here," she said, recapping the water and then holding the "dish" out to the creature.

It took the container from her and raised it to its face. Bowing its head slightly, it lowered the snout of its mask into the container. A moment later, there was a soft slurping sound, and she saw that it was sucking the liquid through the mask's snout as though it were a giant straw.

"I didn't know you could do that," she said, interested in spite of herself. "That must be a very…versatile gasmask. Maybe you should market your technology to the military if we ever get off this island. It might be a more lucrative business than pirating." She mugged at it slightly.

It ignored her and her feeble attempt at a joke, concentrating on slurping up the last of the water in the bowl, its slender green throat working as it swallowed the liquid. Some conversationalist you are, she grumped to herself. If I wanted something to talk to while I was stranded here, I should have just found a volleyball and painted a face on it. It would probably be better company. She opened her pack back up and pulled out the apple. Her stomach had settled somewhat, and she thought she could keep some breakfast down now. But she would be careful. Only eat a bit now, and save the rest…

As soon as her teeth broke through the skin of the apple and the tangy juice flooded her mouth, that was the end of being careful. Her body quickly reminded her that she hadn't eaten anything since breakfast yesterday, and that it was crying out for nourishment. She quickly gobbled the rest of the apple up, concentrating on nothing more than the rhythmic biting, chewing and swallowing of the sweet, juicy fruit.

I needed that, she reminded herself when she had finished and was looking down at the scant core. And it wouldn't have kept anyway. Better to eat it all now than risk the part I didn't finish going bad. Besides, I still have the cheese and the granola bar. And hopefully, I'll find something when I go exploring today. She tossed the core out the door of the shelter to join the rest of the refuse out there.

The Boogieman's head whipped around to follow the movement of the core as it sailed out the door.

"Don't tell me you wanted half of that too," said Noodle. "If you can eat an apple through a gasmask, then I'm taking you and joining a sideshow when we get out of here."

It stared at her pack.

She sighed. "I suppose you're trying to tell me that you want breakfast too?"

It looked at her, then back down at the pack.

"All right," she said, trying to hide her reluctance. The food wasn't going to last much longer than the water if she had to share it too. She took out two of the pieces of cheese and unwrapped them. "Here," she said, handing them to the monster.

It took them from her, held one up to its face and considered it for a moment. Then it delicately lifted one of the slender pieces of mozzarella cheese up to its snout and began to thread it through the hole inside. As Noodle's eyes practically bugged out of their sockets, it pushed the cheese into the snout of the mask. A second later there was a loud slurp, and then it jerked its head back slightly and swallowed convulsively, as though it were a seabird gulping down a fish.

"Uh…" said Noodle. She saw that it was preparing to eat the second piece. She had to get out of there before it did so. "I'm, uh, glad you liked it. I'm going to go out and explore the beach now you lie down and rest for a while and I'll be back to check on you around noonokaybye!" She got to her feet, putting the pack back on as she went, and practically ran out of the shelter. She only just managed to get out of earshot before she started giggling hysterically.

Just when she thought her life couldn't get any stranger, fate found a way to surprise her.