Hello. If you haven't noticed yet, I've deleted a few of my hiatus/older stories that I have no desire to update and/or aren't any good. I plan on putting them back up as soon as I edit and improve them...so, don't worry if it's one that you liked! It'll come back eventually. As for my hiatus, it's over for all of the other stories I haven't deleted! They will be updated tonight!
Yay! *Does happy dance*
I decided, since my other short story, Clue and Note, has only one more chapter, that I would post this short story as well, or at least start on it. Tell me what you guys think of all these short stories in the reviews! I rather enjoy them...cough cough.
Anyway, thanks for reading and putting up with me! This will always be my favorite fandom...There's so much you can do with the characters. Especially Bill. I have to say, he's probably one of my favorites simply because you really can do anything with him and it will still be in character...hehehe.
Roger's best character, though. Always best character...
Katherine Esther Kora proudly presents:
The Lovely Little Monsters.
A Lord Of the Flies Fanfiction.
Chapter One: Beasts
I cannot remember how or when I got here. I cannot remember much of anything, honestly. But I do remember all of them. The beautiful little monsters. And I remember how badly I wanted them to be safe. All I wanted was to protect them.
So that's what I did.
My name is Ralph, at least that's what I tell myself. It's written on a yellow wristband around my arm. Every day, when I awake, I take several minutes just to remind and convince myself. My name is Ralph, and I must protect the little monsters.
They are silent most of the time, but I know that they are there. They're always there. Where else is there to go? We're confined to our cells day in and day out, lights-on and lights-off time, never let out or able to see the outside. Yet, for some reason I know what that looks like too. I wrap my pale fingers around the bars for a moment and close my eyes, pressing my forehead to the cold metal. I feel my favorite one reaching out to me. Not physically, but mentally. There's a push at the taut line of my mind's inner being.
"Simon." I whisper, "You okay?"
"Yes." He answers aloud. "I just wanted to know what you were thinking."
"Okay. Just making sure."
"Me too."
We are all monsters here. Disfigured on the inside, and rejected from normal society. Savage beasts that know no home. I'm not sure why I'm here, but there must be a reason. Because I wouldn't be here for nothing, would I? I must be a monster too.
That's what I think when I press my head against the bars. I must be a monster. I must be special. I just don't know it yet.
At night, I sing them all the song I made up. The one that, for some reason, just came to my mind one time and never got out.
"Lovely little monsters," The chorus goes, "we are right here for just a little while, so carry this away, and sing no more, there they are, see them? watch them go...Lovely little monsters, we were right here now and will we ever see this again or sing anymore? There they are, see them? There we are, running, there they are. All gunned down, in a row."
I always hear someone whimpering in their sleep if I sing that last part. I can't be sure which one of them it is, but I'm pretty good at guessing.
"Roger, you're crying again." I raise my voice so that it will reach him, all the way in the last cell down.
"No." He always answers, sniffling, "I'm not. I just had that dream. The one about the water and the white room."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be." He shoots back, "I'm not a baby, Ralph, I can handle myself."
"Are you thirsty?"
"No. I'm never thirsty here."
"Was there ever not a here? Can you remember it?" I ask hopefully.
"No." He responds, "I cannot. But I know it's there."
"Me too."
"I bet there's a lot of blood to drink out there, huh?"
"All that you want, Roger." I answer him, pressing myself further into the bars, as if that alone would carry my voice to him and give them all some glean of hope, however dim it was. "All you want."
Jack is a demon. I don't mean that in a mean way. It's just what he is. He can't help it.
There's nobody else in his cell but him. He's the one before Roger's. Most days, I pity him. Jack Merridew, he told me once, was his name and continues to be his name now. Roger refers to him as the chief for some reason. I don't know why, and I've never questioned it.
He's always so quiet.
"Jack, are you there?" I plead, "Talk?"
"Shut up." He mumbles. Just barely audible. But it assures me that he's still alive, and that's enough for the moment.
I know all of their names by heart and by instinct. There's Simon, and Roger, and Bill and Jack Merridew and Maurice and Samneric and a ghost named Piggy who hangs around some days. They tend to be the days when I'm feeling the saddest, the days when not even thinking help me recover from the depths of depression. These are the days when not even Simon can pull me back. I don't want to let anyone see this side of me. I want to be the strong one, the one that is perfect and can comfort them. But I'm not perfect. And, truth be told, sometimes I need comforting too.
Bill and Maurice share a cell next to mine. They are very close, nearly brothers. Maurice helps me a lot with his outgoing personality.
Bill rarely says a word.
He can turn invisible from time to time. Not on his own accord, but whenever his powers feel like glitching out. This is another reason why I'm thankful for Maurice; he can always see Bill.
Samneric are the twins. They can communicate telepathically and use telekinesis. Roger is a blood-drinker, which isn't really a power, but it does make him a monster, I suppose. A sadist, Jack called it once, a bloody sadist. Simon can hook into other people's minds selectively, draining or lending them power, reading their thoughts and such. He doesn't like to do that, though. Only with permission. I've already granted him mine.
I may not be perfect, but the monsters are always perfect. Always.
At least, to me.
My name is Ralph. My name is Ralph. My name is Ralph...
This is where I always trail off, leaving myself with nothing else to say or think. If I say it too many times, I'm afraid that my name will become meaningless; nothing more than a jumble of indiscriminate symbols and sounds. I cannot let that happen. Because, truthfully, it's one of the few things left I have to hold on to.
One day something changed. It was a switch in the mood, in the air around us. All of a sudden, we started to talk to each other. For the first time, I felt like I actually knew each and every one of them. I felt like we all had a chance of being friends, even here, in our separate cells.
"Man, I hate this place." Jack laughed, "It's so boring, you know?"
"Yup." Maurice agreed, grinning through his voice. I saw his hands through the bars of my own cell, wrapping themselves together in worry. "Got that right. I wish they'd at least give us something to do. Like arts and crafts or something."
"Pfft." Roger stifled laughter from the way end of the hall, "Are you insane, kid? Arts and crafts? What do you think we'd do with those? Hang ourselves with pipe cleaners?"
"It might be fun." Simon piped up nervously.
"Hm." Bill put in.
"Do you think we'll ever be-"
"-Let out of here?" Samneric asked in their broken, strange way of talking. I could swear that it must've sounded a lot better in their heads when they finished each-other's sentences like that, but aloud it just sounded plain weird. It was still okay though. It made them unique.
"I don't think so." Maurice whimpered. Somewhere in the back of his cage, Roger growled. This shut the twins up. They were scared to death of Roger for some reason. Maybe he was deformed or something. I'd forgotten what they all looked like, if I'd even ever seen them before, so I wouldn't know. But I also wouldn't be one to judge. I didn't know what I looked like myself. There were no mirrors in a place like this, only damp puddles. And even then, they were all very murky and shallow, inhabited by dark and feeble, tiny creatures that swirled about their mysterious waters. Like a little ocean, with its own little sea-giants.
They were giant enough to fit in the puddle, at least.
"We could." I spoke up, "I bet we could."
"How?" Jack scoffed, "Us?"
"Yeah." I affirmed, "How do we know we can't? We've never tried, have we? I mean, I've never even seen anyone else here besides us."
"He's got a point." Simon agreed quietly.
"I suppose." Jack grumbled, "But I think it's a little dangerous. Even if I do really want to get out…where would we go?"
I thought about this for a moment. Where could I take them all so that they could live peacefully? Was there even a place for things such as us? What was the big, wide world like? I remember, it had oceans as big as you could hope to see, and trees and something called wind that pushed against your face like an invisible curtain, like a soft wall. I closed my bright blue eyes and thought deeply about all these things. How much I wanted them to actually be true, and not just something I thought up in my unlimited spare time.
"We could go…anywhere." I responded, distant, "Anywhere we wanted. Does it really matter? As long as it's not here, who cares?"
"How would we escape? Aren't we—" Sam started on his own. Eric picked up the sentence for him, and finished with:
"—worthless."
"They're right." Maurice sighed. I imagined him hanging his head a bit as he spoke. I turned and smashed myself up to the bars again, trying to get a glimpse of someone. Simon reached a hand through his cell bars and I took it instinctively in my own. It was very warm. Not like anything I was used to. "We can't do anything useful…"
"Well…" I began, hesitantly, "Maurice, you can…can't you go through walls or something?"
"Yeah, but they put that cuff on me."
"Oh…" I stopped, but then went on again, talking with whatever words my mind brought forth, speaking without reason, but with hope. "But, you can cheer people up, and you can keep track of Bill. And Bill, you can disappear. I think that's pretty useful."
"For what?"
"For tricking the enemy!" I fervently said. "And Jack and Roger, you guys are good fighters! Jack, you're strong, and Roger, you're smart if you put your mind to something!"
"Really?" Roger asked. Jack huffed something under his breath, but I ignored them both and continued listing everyone off.
"Samneric, you two can control things from far away with your mind! That's very useful!"
"You really—"
"—think that?"
"Absolutely!" I practically shouted. I gave Simon's hand a squeeze and went on to him. "Simon, you can lend us strength. You can help us that way, right?"
"Yes, Ralph." He responded.
"Your speech won't open the cage doors." Roger scoffed, "This is getting us nowhere."
Jack took up Roger's side of things with: "He's right. But, we might be able to escape, if we had a plan…"
"Let's make a plan, then." I breathily told everyone.
"...We can—" Sam offered
"—unlock the doors." Eric completed.
"See, you're not worthless." I smiled, triumphant at last. They were thinking for themselves now.
"I'll take some guards out." Roger offered, not one to be out-done by the younger boys, "I could go for a good fight. How about you, jack?"
"Yeah." The other boy chuckled, "I'm itching for some blood too, Rog."
"Cool." Roger answered darkly. They both started to laugh excitedly. It sounded…fresh. New. Very childlike and innocent, just two friends about to have some fun.
"Now?" Simon asked in a whisper.
"No." I shook my head, as if he could see that.
"Tonight." Jack offered.
"That sounds good." I responded, "That sounds good."
For those of you wondering, this fic will be kind of like Only If For a Night, except from Ralph's perspective this time around. It's gonna be about that length, and I think give the same general feeling...I think. I'm not sure how many chapters I'll need yet, but it's no more than ten, no less than five. If any of you liked OIFAN and want me to do more with other characters from LOTF (I know I got a request for a Piggy one...), then feel free to tell me! I like writing them...meep.
Just now right now. lol. I kind of have a lot of irons going, if you haven't noticed...That's my fault. I apologize if it bothers any of you, but once I have an idea I just have to write it down...
Anyway, hope you'll continue reading!
WRITE YA LATER!