Section Break 36
- Gemma has now been in the Land of Ty for 18 days. She wakes up to find a bunch of birds circling around the backyard and the Separates.
Section Break 37
- The next day, Ty takes Gemma to the outbuilding and says he has something to show her. After the semi-traumatic experience with the painting the last time, Gemma isn't psyched about this but goes anyway.
- Inside, Ty goes to a pile of rocks in a corner and pours liquid out of a flask onto them. He tells Gemma he's making paint; he uses leaves, berries, and flowers to make a thick, red paste.
- Once he's finished, things get kind of crazy—not that they weren't in the first place—and Ty starts painting tree bark-like designs on his legs.
- He asks Gemma if she really doesn't remember the first time they met, telling her it was on Easter at a park in London and she was with her parents.
- Gemma's parents brought a scooter for her to play with, but she discarded it and was instead talking to the imaginary families she believed lived inside the flowers.
- This really freaks Gemma out—she's never told anyone about the flower games.
- Then, she wandered into a bush and found Ty curled up drunk with a bottle of alcohol. He'd been listening to her stories and liked them.
- Gemma remembers all of this but refuses to believe that the tramp in the bushes was Ty. She says he looked old and crazy—still, though, part of her knows it's true.
- Ty says he gave Gemma a robin's egg. The next day, he found the nest the egg came from and left it outside her window.
- Gemma, too, remembers this and is terrified at having the pieces of where the mysterious bird's nest came from finally come together.
- She tells Ty he's a sick freak for being obsessed with a 10-year-old. When she tries to get away, though, Ty holds onto her and says she needs to hear the whole story.
- So, wait a minute—there's a part of the story that doesn't involve this guy being a major creep? We can't imagine what that could be.
- Ty tells Gemma that as he watched her grow up, he could tell her parents were pushing her into a traditional, bland life like theirs. He'd watched from the tree outside her window and various other places.
- Gemma freaks out and punches him in the gut. He keeps asking her if she was really happy there in the city with her parents and if she ever actually had the perfect life she imagines she did.
- He continues to paint, telling her that her parents were more interested in status symbols like art than they were about her.
- He tells her he knows a bunch of stuff she doesn't. Like, how he overheard her parents talking about how they wanted to move away and send Gemma to boarding school, and how Anna knew Gemma had a crush on Ben and didn't trust her.
- What really nails it, though, is that he knows about Josh Holmes—a creepy guy at school who was stalking Gemma. Ty tells her he knows how Josh felt about her and that if he ever tried anything, he'd kill him.
- Gemma freaks out again and starts telling Ty he needs to let her go because her parents know important people. Instead, though, he orders her to paint herself. Gemma responds by knocking over the paint.
- For a moment, Ty looks like he's going to attack her, but then he asks if she wants to go for a drive the next day and try to catch a camel. He leaves her alone in the outbuilding and goes back inside. A long time later, she comes in with him.
Section Break 38
- The next day, Ty makes good on his promise to go on a drive and catch a camel. Gemma has mixed feelings about it—if things work out right, this trip could be a chance to escape, but on the other hand, it could also turn out the way things usually do in horror movies.
- Gemma tries to con Ty into letting her stay behind, but he won't have any of it. He realizes that she still thinks he's going to try to kill her and tries again to convince her otherwise.
- Eventually, she gives in and gets in the car. When it starts, she finds herself covered with dust.
Section Break 39
- We probably don't need to tell you this, but driving in the car in the desert with Ty pretty much stinks. Every orifice of Gemma's body is full of dust, she has a headache, and—worst of all—the radio is broken. There's nothing worse than a road trip without tunes.
- Gemma asks Ty how long she's been there and says she thinks it's her 21st day. She soon regrets this, though, because Ty gets it into his head that they should celebrate.
- He starts driving through the desert like a maniac. Then, he tells Gemma to pull the hand brake, and the car goes up on its two back wheels while he laughs like crazy.
Section Break 40
- Two hours later, they're still driving, though Ty has calmed down a little and isn't driving like a madman. They pass more Australian vegetation and even see some kangaroos. Ty says he wants to eat one.
- Finally, Ty spots a group of camels in the distance and shows Gemma through binoculars. He tells Gemma they were originally brought over to build the railway but have since been abandoned.
- Ty decides to camp out where they are and see what the camels decide to do so they can continue with their plan to catch one. He gets out of the car, and Gemma notices the key still in the ignition.
- She begins thinking about what it would take for her to drive off and leave him there; she is about to try it when she sees a snake out the window looking at her.
- Ty is holding the snake. He says he found it by the tire and it's lucky they didn't run it over. Um, this guy has a really whack definition of luck. But we probably already knew that.
- Then, he suggests that Gemma keep it as a pet and take it home. Yeah, no way.
- Ty apologizes for scaring her with the snake, and they continue on their way.