Crimson

Disclaimer: Look at screen name. Griffin. Not JJ Abrams. Okay?
Summary: Kate meets the monster in the jungle, and only just survives – but now she's injured, alone, and Cerberus is very, very, mad.
Rating: I'll put it as Teen, because I don't think there'll be anything really explicit... though it could get dark. You've been warned.

A/N – Please review, and if you like it I'll keep going with it. And read the first two chapters before you make up you mind... the first isn't the greatest. Just an idea...

Chapter one

Kate stood rooted to the spot. The noise came again, which was enough to make her lose the frightened-rabbit eyes and run. She ran faster than she'd ever run before – it had come so close! Her sides heaving, she settled now into an unsteady jog. The monster was gone. But she couldn't forget the fear – forget how hideously close it had come. For a few moments, it had been right behind her.

She had dropped the mangoes she'd been picking. She wasn't really interested in going back for them. She just wanted to get back to the beach. She didn't know why it didn't like the beach, but so far it had never come onto it.

Crashing a plane was bad – landing on mystery island was about the only way to make it worse. Apart from dying. Maybe.

She scrunched up her face, concentrating. How long had it been? Five months? Six? She could ask Rose, who was unofficially in charge of keeping track of the days, so that they could continue to celebrate all the important dates. She smiled at that – because the crashees had come from so many different parts of the world, everyone had their own holidays, national and religious. They took note of as many of them as possible. It was the easiest way to keep spirits up and hopes alive (at least now they'd run out of alcohol).

Her pulse already calming, Kate slowed her pace. Odd. You always imagined monsters as fast, but this one, despite being a flying cloud of black smoke, couldn't keep up with a running person.

She had the thought a moment too soon – there was a sound like a car going through a mincer, and then the tree beside her exploded, knocking her sideways. She shrieked, and as she hit the ground the wind whooshed out of her.

Struggling to breath, Kate lifted herself to her knees, preparing to run – and froze. It was right in front of her. Staring. She thought it was staring, at least. It didn't have any eyes that she could see. It drifted closer, and Kate fancied she saw flashes of light... pictures of people she'd known and places she'd been.

She was trembling. It inched closer – well, it didn't really inch. Caterpillars inch. They have legs. Smoke clouds don't. So really, it kind of... wafted. In a bad way.

"Go away!" Kate shouted suddenly. The wafting stopped. "I mean it!" she yelled now, standing up. "Piss off!"

Now it wafted some more... in a good way. It was wafting away from her. She smirked.

"That's it, you bastard. Go away. I let you off light this time," she said. It felt good. The only person she could recall coming this close to the thing was Eko, and why it hadn't killed him no-one knew. It had, however, killed him at a later date, so it wasn't that much of a victory. And Juliet's sonar fence worked pretty well.

As if it could sense her thoughts, could read her mind, the good wafting stopped. The bad sort started again. And now, the flashes were showing her other things – bits of its life. There was a rage, a hatred at being so entrapped. Kate could feel the pain it had felt as it threw itself against thick concrete walls, again and again. It didn't work.

Then, that glorious day. It had been released – on one condition. Protect the island, Kate thought, and the flashes suddenly shifted. Their plane had crashed in its territory. They had defied it. Escaped it.

What are you? Kate wondered.

Cerberus. Once again, the word came from nowhere. Kate felt a dizzying feeling – she was actually communicating with the dreaded monster! After months of running, she was standing up to it... and winning!

Or not.

With a roar, the monster charged (or, maybe, super-wafted?) forward, and this time didn't stop. It hit Kate with the force of a runaway horse, and knocked her backwards. She stumbled and hit a tree, and then felt it lift her up, holding her chest in its... teeth? I'm sorry! She tried to apologise, for whatever she'd thought that had offended it.

It roared again. She had no idea how a creature like that made such a noise – how a smoke cloud could sound like a horrible machine. But it did, and it scared her to her core. Because it was undoubtedly a cry of rage.

There was one final flash, hidden deep within the folds of black smoke. Kate watched, from the monster's point of view, as it saw her and Juliet running, handcuffed together. It knew it had them. They couldn't get away. Nowhere to hide.

Then the fence. It hit the fence mindlessly, then reeled back in pain. Incredible pain. And the only thing it could see that could cause the pain were the two humans in front of it...

"It wasn't me," Kate whispered, as the pressure on her chest changed, and there was a hideous pain, so like the pain the monster had felt when it had hit that fence. One arm was already losing feeling. Kate couldn't be sure why. The other flailed around desperately, for a stick, or some sort of weapon.

"Need a light?" he asked. She nodded gratefully.

She pulled the lighter out and let the flame lick at the side of the monster. There was a moment when nothing happened, and she realised all was lost – after so long, she'd be monster mincemeat. Then there was a sound, like a train derailing, or a person getting sucked into a blender. A horrible, ripping sound, a noise of intense pain.

The monster, Cerberus, screamed again and again. Kate watched in horror. The tiny flame had caught, and spread. She'd never realised smoke monsters were so... flammable. It dropped her, and she hit the ground hard, but forgot her own pain at the spectacle before her.

The entire black cloud had turned into a fireball. The screeching continued, and Kate tried to pretend it was the horrible noise that made her cover her ears as best she could with one hand.

Then the sound stopped. Kate blinked. Cerberus had gone.

And so she let herself cry, from pain and relief and fear and guilt.