Chapter Text
“I was in love with Brooklynn”.
It felt like a sick joke every time he thought about it. Every time he said it to himself or in this case out loud. It always felt like a sick joke. Everything in his life was a sick joke. Darius who had never expected to be stuck on island filled with dinosaurs, Darius who never expected to become leader, Darius who never expected to fall in love for fucks sake. He thought he couldn’t, and then when he did he failed. He failed Brooklynn. He wasn’t there the night she died. All because he was too damn afraid to face his own feelings. Now he layed in a tub sinking in his own guilt facing Kenji.
“I didn't even start feeling that way until after you broke up with her. I didn’t even think I could feel that way.”
Sometimes it felt like there was a reason he never could feel that way. Maybe, he was poisonous somehow. Because it was wrong. He felt wrong. He had heard of different accounts of how people did feel when in love, but he never felt it for himself and when he did. It was just fucking miserable. The first love of his life died. How was he ever gonna recover from that?! So yes, it all felt like a sick joke. Could he even be in love again after that? Revisiting the guilt was more painful when Kenji was next to him asking him questions he always avoids. Maybe he should have just told Kenji sooner. But he doubted that would make a difference.
Kenji placed Brooklynn’s phone in Darius’ hands before joining Darius in the dirty abandoned tub. He sighed before he spoke again. This was when Darius glanced at the phone A Video. Brooklyn had an unsent message. She left a video of that night. In the moment he was focusing on the video, he didn’t bother to answer Kenji’s question. Asking if Brooklynn loved him back. His name ‘Darius’ repeated twice with desperate enthusiasm.
“Brooklynn called me the day she died. Left a couple voicemails, but there’s an unsent message here. It’s a video.”
The video did a good job of making Darius feel more shit. Ever since Brooklynn died everything served as a constant reminder of how much he messed up. If only he could have been there for her that night. He should have been there that night. And if his thoughts weren’t a constant reminder then the words that left Kenji’s mouth sure as anything were. He was back in the dark place he always was, and always has been. Funny, he has been here before even on the island. Except last time. Ben came back to them. He was alive. He knew no matter how much guilt he felt. No matter how much he wished, longed for another chance. A redo. Brooklyn would never fucking come back. She was dead. And Darius was alive in a small abandoned worn out cabin wishing he didn’t have to feel the truth in the stinging words Kenji was throwing at him. Of course he didn’t know how to love someone, love Brooklynn, it cost her her fucking life.
What was he even gonna answer? What excuse could he possibly tell Kenji about that night, and why he wasn’t there? That he was selfish. Embarrassed to face the fact that Brooklynn didn’t feel the same way for him. That he so selfishly couldn’t dare look Brooklynn in the eyes again. Now he never will. And maybe it really was his fault that she was dead rotting in the stomach of the allosaurus. Even before he could say a quarter of all that, repeat it to Kenji, a light was shining outside. Someone was right outside the cabin. Probably the people who were hunting them for blood. Their lives could never just be easy. The truth Ben told them about, that he refused to believe at this point was undeniable really. Living should never have been so hard on the Nublar Six. But it was. And that was somehow more killing.
Darius and Kenji both peeked through the rusting wood and saw two dinosaur transporting tracks stop. Two people came out of them. A man with a bag similar to the one they previously found in Brooklynn’s secret apartment which had been filled with cash. The one in the man’s hand probably was too seeing as he had exchanged the bag giving it to the woman for the dinosaur she had brought in her track. On his other hand he had a long gun-like taser that was used on the dinosaur to make sure it went straight into the other track with no funny business or injuries or even deaths. Clearly they had been doing this for a long time because it simply looked like a routine. Illegally get dinosaurs and sell them off to shady people for fuck stacks of money only people could dream of. The question was why would anyone need so many dinosaurs? What were they gonna use them for?
Kenji threw a helmet at Darius. A signal that he was ready to follow this track. They rushed outside quietly so as to not alert anyone of what they were doing. They quickly wore their helmets, and jumped on Darius’ Motorcycle following after the man with the dinosaur. The question of ‘who was making the purchase’ lingering in their hearts. This was their only option of figuring it out, going after this shady man in the darkness. Unaware that their friends Ben, Sammy, and Yaz were on their way to where they’d end up too.