We all called a few family members while we sat up on the hilltop. Everyone called and left voicemails because nobody was picking up due to how late it was. My mother wasn't answering, which struck me at odd because he was always by the phone. Kimberly didn't have anyone to call because of the plane incident, and neither did the boys because all of their numbers have changed. Every number, except for Craig's. Jacob, Chresanto, and Rayan's parents died in the crash as well, but Craig's grandfather was the only one who died in the accident. He wasn't with his parents at the time of the crash.
But when Craig called his father, he got an answer. When his father said hello, Craig froze up and immediately began to cry extremely hard. He hadn't heard his fathers voice in over 8 years.
"Hello? Is someone there?" His father repeated in a calm tone.
"Dad...it's.....it's me......." Craig wept as we all sat around, and listened in silence.
"Is this some sort of prank?" His father snapped. "My son died in a crash almost a decade ago so whoever this is, don't use my line for some sick joke!"
"Dad it's me! It's Craig!" Craig said as tears streamed down his face. "It's me!"
Craig's father sat silent on the phone, but he still wasn't moved. After not seeing Craig since he was 10 years old, and now that Craig has blossomed from a boy into a man, his father didn't recognize his voice.
"I don't believe you.." His father said, denying him.
"Your name is Craig Crippen Sr, and you're married to my mother Wanda." Craig said as he listened to him. "Before I left, my room had toy story all over it. My blankets were polka dotted, and I had every single set of the toy story action figures. Mom always bought them for me."
"Oh my.....are you really my son?" His father said in a shaky tone as he started to cry.
"Yes. It's me, Dad. It's me." Craig nodded as he covered his mouth. "How are you?"
"You sound like a grown ass man!" His father wailed over the phone. "I've never stopped thinking about you. Never. Never out of the 9 years you've been gone."
"I never stopped thinking of you, neither."
"Where are you?" His father asked as Craig heard him rustle a few things around in the background. "I'll come get you right now!"
"We're on an island near Aruba!" Craig said as he looked around. "I don't know specifically where we are, but we have help on the way! One of the my peers have left on a boat, and she said that she'll be back in a few hours!"
"Craig if you don't come back soon then i'm gonna alert the police."
"That's not going to help, Dad. We've already tried.." Craig moped. "However, we're not giving up on hope."
"I'm gonna make a trip out there and look for you anyway." His father said. "I'm not going to let you stay out there longer."
"Okay." Craig nodded. "Hey, can I speak to mom?"
His father didn't respond. Craig sat there and waited for what he would say, but he didn't say anything.
"Hello?"
"I'm here."
"Can I speak to mom?" Craig repeated.
"Mom isn't.......she um..."
"Did something happen to her?" Craig said loudly as his eyes widened. He started shaking really bad as we all looked at him in shock.
"She.....she committed suicide when she found out you were possibly dead.." His father said in a lower tone.
"Wha.......what?" Craig said as his eyes reflooded with tears.
"Your mother hung herself. She's no longer here anymore." His father said in a low tone.
Craig froze as his dad's comment set into his head. He slowly dropped the phone as Chresanto placed his arm around him, indicating that he knew what happened. Craig crashed his face into Chresanto shoulders, and began to bawl. His cries were so loud that it echoed off out of the sky. Chresanto held him tighter to comfort him as Craig went crazy in his arms. We all sat around in agony as we watched Craig suffer through that horrible amount of pain. Adrianne, Nina, and Janyra all had the tips of their fingers on their mouths as they shook from Craig's demeanor.
"Nooooo ho hoooooo!" Craig wailed as he inhaled violently from his crying. "NOO! MY MOTHER! My mother my mother! Not my mother! Not my mother! My mother!"
"Craig.."
"NOO! NOOOOO! NOO. NOOO." Craig wailed out as he shook his head, and settled down in Chresanto's arms. Chresanto rubbed his arm and rubbed his shoulder as placed his head up against Craig's.
"Life is hard, man...life is hard. And when we lost our parents, it wasn't easy for us. Me, Jacob, and Rayan know exactly what you're going through." Chresanto said as he continued to rub his shoulders. "As a whole, we're all family on this island. We're all gonna make it through this together. We're all going to stick it out and hold it out for each other. We're family, man. We're family."
When we all got back to Kimberly's house, nobody said a word. Chresanto comforted Craig until he fell asleep from his own tears. Even though half and half slept in the same room, in the room I slept in, we all sat up and looked at the ceiling as everything that happened registered on this island. Death, after death, after death. It never bothered me much, but when I saw someone crying over a death, I was more than moved. I felt more sorry for that person then all of us even though we were all in the same position.
Upstairs, Adrianne and Jacob were sitting in their beds, facing opposite ways. They hadn't talked to each other since the confrontation, and they sat there and acted like they didn't exist. Adrianne twiddled and played with her fingers for a bit, before finally cutting off the lantern and settling into bed. She slowly turned over to Jacob's way, and he was staring directly at her. She stared back at him also, and both of them could tell in each others eyes that they both wanted to talk to each other. Gia was asleep along with Lilyana, so this was the perfect time.
"I watched my mother....burn to death.' Jacob whispered as he looked at Adrianne. Adrianne kept her same blank expression, but that confession got to her a little.
"How?"
"When the plane crashed, the other half was still in good condition. Thats why Kimberly has a lot of these things that you can only get at a kitchen store." Jacob joked as he placed his forehead against Adrianne's. "Anyway when I uh....when I landed out of the plane, I seen my mother screaming and begging for help. As a ten year old, there wasn't much I could do since my mother was surrounded in flames. I literally sat down and cried as I watched her turn to black. I'll never forget that image."
"Wow. Are you serious?" Adrianne whispered in shock as she looked at him.
"Yeah....."
"My mother kicked me out when I was pregnant with Lilyana." Adrianne said lowly as she kept her eyes on Jacob's brown eyes. "I was looked at as nothing but a slut and only a slut. I didn't care though. I just wanted my baby."
"Adrianne, i'm sorry for how upset I got earlier." Jacob said. "I just....I just thought of Gia leaving and me never seeing her again. I got so fired up that at that point I didn't want her to go anywhere."
"I'm sorry too. I just....I just wanted Gia to be safe."
"You know that if i'm here, nothing is going to happen to her or Lilyana." Jacob nodded. "I damn near froze to death for Gia, and I wouldn't hesitate to do it again. They come first."
"Jacob, you'll never hate me no matter what, right?" Adrianne asked, shifting the mood.
"Of course not. Why did you say that?" Jacob whispered.
"Because I........I got an abortion.." Adrianne said as she looked at him. "I killed our third child."
Jacob's calm demeanor soon turn into an angry one as he lifted up in the bed, and glanced at her in disgust. He looked ahead and covered up his face as Adrianne teared up, lifted up, and placed her hand on his back.
"Jacob.."
"No don't 'Jacob' me!" Jacob shouted as he smacked her hand off of his shoulder.
"Jacob stop! You're going to wake the girls!" Adrianne whispered loudly as she looked at him in a worried tone.
"I told you that I would take care of that child by myself and you still went against me anyway?" Jacob shouted even louder. "I asked you to do the simplest things and you never listen to shit, Adrianne!"
"Simplest things? Have you ever gave birth without medication?" Adrianne said loudly as she looked at him. "You're not the one who has to recover from pelvic pains from naturally giving birth! You're not the one who have to even give birth itself! Quit looking at this shit from a boys point of view just because you only have to let go of a load of sperm, and watch it cook in my stomach!"
"What you're not getting is that you lied to me!" Jacob shouted again as his curls flipped from him turning hard her way. "You sit here and look me in my fucking eyes by saying "Oh Jacob. I'll have the child." and then you wind up doing it anyway? Why? Because you're kniving and sneaky! I put up with so much of your shit when i'm only doing it for Gia and Lily!"
Adrianne looked at him and stared at him in shock. Shock of the fact that what he's saying, was correct.
"Jacob.."
"Adrianne shut your fucking mouth. I've had enough!" Jacob said as he placed the covers over him. "Oh and I wanted you to know that I hate you! And yes, I do mean that shit. We're done. Take your ass to bed."
"You hate me? Really Jacob?" Adrianne asked as she teared up.
"Yeah. Go to sleep."
"Well I still love you even though you admitted that you hated me. Asshole." Adrianne said as she turned the other way, and slumped under the covers.
Jacob immediately felt bad for what he said, but his anger quickly wiped that guilt away. In reality, he still didn't hate Adrianne. He still loved her just as much as she loved him.
On day 496, Adrianne and Jacob winded up acting like they didn't know each other again. Me and the rest of the girls along with Rayan and Chresanto sat with us as we enjoyed a warm day on the beach. All of us sat on the end of the beach as we all kicked our feet in the water, when we seen Craig dragging two large tigers and two sticks out of the woods. He dragged the dead tigers onto the sand, and smiled at us as we all looked at him. He was definitely in a better mood than yesterday, and it almost seemed like as if nothing happened.
"Woah, Craig!" I smiled as I looked at it. He kneeled down and quickly started a fire.
"So. Are you guys ready for an early feast?" Craig smiled at all of us.
"Craig, you don't have to do this." Chresanto smiled as he looked at us.
"No, I want to." Craig nodded in a cheerful tone. "I want all of you to feel extremely pampered today. Just to show my appreciation for you guys. I love you guys."
"Awh Craig! We love you too!" We all cheered as he smiled at us.
"I'll split up the portions, and cook them myself." Craig nodded. "Just for you guys."
Craig cut up the two tigers and divided them between everyone on the beach. He hand cooked them all one by one, made sure that we were all nice and fed. As we ate, Craig rinsed his hands off in the water and began to massage all of our feet one by one. He had a hot towel, and he was cleaning our feet thoroughly without hesitation. It was weird, but we were all enjoying being pampered like this. As he moved onto my feet, I asked him a question that we were all wondering about.
"Why are you doing this, Craig?" I smiled.
"Yeah, Craig. Why?" Rayan nodded. "We should be pampering you. Making sure that you're alright."
"Oh no i'm fine." Craig smiled. "You guys will see why tonight."
"Tell us now, Craig. We won't get mad." Nina nodded.
"Oh trust me. You'll see." Craig cheered. "It'll all make sense. Even when we leave this island."
And with that, we left it alone.
All day, Craig did nothing but gave us comforting massages, hunted a bucket full of snails for us, and played games with us. He was having a good time, and so was he. We all offered to pamper him in return, but he continuously shut us down. After spending a long day on the beach and swimming in the waterfall, we all came into the house and prepared to go to bed to prepare for day 497. Adrianne and Jacob still weren't on good terms, but they were having a better time away from each other and spending time with the kids. Nina woke up in the middle of the night, and noticed that Craig wasn't in bed. She walked into the kitchen and prepared to get some water, when she seen a 2 small pieces of cloth from one of his clothing.
On the first cloth, it said: "My Suicide Note." Nina gasped as she looked out of the window, and seen Craig walking up the mountain alone.
"No. No no no no no no no!" Nina said to herself as she sprang out of the house.
Nina sprinted through the beach, and into the woods to follow Craig there. She ran through trees after trees when she finally came to the hill. Craig seen her, and began to run a little higher up the hill as Nina chased after him and followed him. Nina slowly ran up to the top because she was so tired of running, when she seen Craig standing right at the edge.
"Don't step close to me or i'll jump off right now!" Craig said as tears filtered her face.
"Craig, dont!" Nina said with a worried tone as she put her hand out. "Be careful! You're going to fall!"
"That's why I came up here!" Craig wailed out.
"Why? Why are you doing this?" Nina asked as she looked at him.
"Because we're never going to leave here!" Craig shouted. "Khamil left us on this island and she still hasn't came back! All of our parents are dead, my mother is dead, i'm tired of being here! This is a place of pure hell! Nothing but hell!"
"Craig, we can fix this. We're all going to get through this together!" Nina said in a comforting tone. "We're still alive which proves that God has us here for a reason! We're in this together! It's not too late!"
"8 years is already too late.." Craig said as he stepped back, and let himself fall off of the cliff.
"NOOO!" Nina screamed as she ran to the edge to try to save him.
Nina heard his yelling quickly fade away as he landed at the bottom of the cliff. She walked over to the edge and looked over to see if he even came close to making it. Even though it was extremely small, she could see Craig sprawled out on the ground with a small pool of blood around his head, with his legs and his arms sprawled out.
Craig died instantly the minute he hit the ground. He had no chance of surviving that fall.