forever and always, merridew ~ lord of the flies (1990)

friendships

that night there was a horrendous storm outside. we all crammed in two shelters, shivering as it was so cold. simon was trying to sleep but then woke up with a start "are you alright, it's only a storm" there was then a huge thud as a tree fell down. i clung onto ralph out of instinct. a few of the little 'uns screamed.

"where's your brother?" ralph asked one of the twins. it's so bad i still can't tell them apart.
"i don't know" "he must be in the other shelter" the wind started picking up badly. i got worried about the others in the other shelter so i shouted to them "quick get out of there" all of a sudden a tree above the shelter started shaking, ralph stuck his head out too "that trees gonna go" they began filing out but then the tree fell on top of the shelter, a couple screamed.

"ralph it's not safe here for everyone, we need to move somewhere with better shelter" i suggested taking hold of a few of the little 'uns hands. he nodded and we moved out of the shelter all following after one another.  as we were walking i looked back to make sure everyone was there. i could hear cries coming from afar and i got worried.

"where's peter?" i said with a panicked tone "RILEY" i hear him call out and i rush over to some secluded area and find him curled up and scared "hey it's ok, i'm here now" i pick him up and run to the others. i found them on another beach, all huddled up together. we stayed there for the night and just hoped that the weather didn't get worse.

THE NEXT DAY

i woke up to the sound of piggy calling out ralphs name. i stood up and followed him to where all the others were, eating some kind of fruit.

"do you think the other guys are ok?" one of the twins asked "who cares" the other says "ok dork. i was just asking" while they were talking it made me think about the others, but more importantly jack. i really hoped he was ok. i had a plan to sneak off later on to go find them, but as for now i'll just help out here.

"we should relight the fire" ralph says. we made a plan to go to castle rock, which more specifically is where we think jacks camp is. we made our way and eventually came to the stones which lead up to the top. there was a dead pig to greet us when we arrived which made us all gag in disgust "gross"

we looked around and couldn't see any of the others anywhere "where are they?" one of the boys asked "their probably hunting" piggy jumps in "well what good will that do, they can't cook pigs without a fire, they'll get trichinosis"

"what's that?" one of the twins asks "it's bugs that live in pigs" we all have disgusted expressions on our faces "we knew that" the twins reply.

later on, me and a few of the others were chilling on the beach. there was barely any of us left at this camp, and what made it worse was peter and the little 'uns basically all left to be at jacks camp. my stomach churned at the thought of them turning into cruel monsters like half the guys at jacks camp but i kept myself together and hoped that it would be ok.

the boys who were on fire watch then came down to the camp, weary looks on their faces, they started explaining to us everything that jack had said to them "you mean there's no one on fire watch?" ralph says "why can't we have the fire down here?" one of them said, looking down "if we want anybody to see the smoke it's gotta be up there" i say, taking the boys hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze, the other one then speaks up "nobody wants to be up there alone anymore, there's something loose on this island" he pauses "a monster"

"there's no monster" piggy exclaims "there's something" the boy says back.

we all head to bed, but before i go to sleep i talk to ralph "ralph?" he opens his eyes to look at me "yeah?"
"what if there is some kind of monster on this island? i mean we have nothing to use to protect ourselves properly and who knows what it might be capable of" he notices the fear in my eyes and puts his hand on my arm "it'll be ok riley, for all we know jack could just be plotting some plan to scare the little 'uns to make him feel tougher" he says "just try not to worry, if something happens then we all stick together as a team, ok?"

all i do is nod my head and lay down. i think about jack and how i don't think he could ever do something as cruel as that to us, but who am i to say what he's capable of.

i'm awoken to hearing several voices which don't sound too familiar and i get excited thinking that jack and the boys have changed their minds and came back to main camp, but my mood dampened when i saw a few of the older boys holding spears, there were quite a few of them, but none the person i wanted to see most. they stormed away, looking rather angry about something but i never questioned the others what it was.

during the day i was taking a little stroll along the beach front when i saw simon sitting and overlooking the water. i felt terrible as i hadn't spoken to him in a while with everything else going on. i took a seat beside him and he smiled at me as i sat "hi simon" "hello riley" i missed hearing him talk, it always felt like i was speaking to an adult, which gave me a sense of comfort in a way "how have you been doing, i haven't talked to you in a while and i just wanted to check in and make sure things were ok" i told him. he turned to me "there going ok, i just can't help but wonder what's out there now" he said referring to the ocean "i know it's only been a few weeks we've been here but things will have changed, a lot"

he's right. but i don't want him to feel like there's nothing out there left to hope for "simon, i'm sure things haven't changed drastically. i'm sure our families have tried looking for us and are still hopefully doing so. you have nothing to worry about ok? you're safe on this island with us, and don't ever feel like you're an element of the past" he then looks at me and nods with a smile "thank you so much" his blue orbs look into mine "you know, you're the only friend i've ever had riley"

my heart swells at his comment and i pull him in for a big hug. i felt that he needed one. we pull away and talk for a little more before heading to bed.

even though island life was hard, i felt that my bonds with everyone were just getting stronger by the day. there was only one bond that i knew had to be fixed soon otherwise something bad was going to happen. i could feel it. but this was going to be hard. the same question kept running through my head.

how do i talk to jack?

𝟷𝟸𝟾𝟺 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚍𝚜

𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚐𝚞𝚢𝚜. 𝚒𝚝'𝚜 𝚋𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚜𝚘𝚘 𝚕𝚘𝚗𝚐 𝚜𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝚒 𝚕𝚊𝚜𝚝 𝚞𝚙𝚍𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚒 𝚊𝚙𝚘𝚕𝚘𝚐𝚒𝚜𝚎 𝚐𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚕𝚢. 𝚒 𝚓𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚗𝚎𝚎𝚍𝚎𝚍 𝚊 𝚠𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚜 𝚋𝚕𝚘𝚌𝚔 𝚝𝚘 𝚐𝚎𝚝 𝚜𝚌𝚑𝚘𝚘𝚕 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚕𝚒𝚏𝚎 𝚝𝚘𝚐𝚎𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛. 𝚑𝚘𝚙𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚐𝚞𝚢𝚜 𝚑𝚊𝚍 𝚊 𝚐𝚘𝚘𝚍 𝚡𝚖𝚊𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚊 𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚢 𝚗𝚎𝚠 𝚢𝚎𝚊𝚛. 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚑𝚊𝚜 𝚐𝚛𝚘𝚠𝚗 𝚜𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝚒 𝚕𝚊𝚜𝚝 𝚞𝚙𝚍𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚒𝚝 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚒'𝚖 𝚜𝚘 𝚐𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚏𝚞𝚕 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚞𝚙𝚙𝚘𝚛𝚝, 𝚜𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚔 𝚢𝚘𝚞 🫶🏻