{{ Hey, Fyre here with a short one-shot. We're reading Lord of the Flies for a short literature at the end of the year, and we had to do a creative assignment based of it. One of the choices was a short -under two page- story from one of the character's POV! So this is it! R&R, Read and Enjoy! }}
It felt… different the first couple of days. Being a ghost I mean. Well, I guess I didn't really know the proper term –spirit perhaps? Soul?—but I did know that while I was most defiantly dead, I was still able to contact the real world. See, where you're no longer a form of matter, all the laws of science don't apply anymore. That's why I came to be flying over the island where the boys still were stranded.
I heard the loud cry of the conch shell and looked down to the land where I could see all the boys scurrying onto the beach like ants. I smiled in my specter-y form, remembering the times when I would be one of them coming out of the forest from the fruit trees to heed the call of the conch. But now I was free. I realized I had… left while I was on the island. My body had been there, but Simon wasn't; not the boy who I knew. The one that had loved his collie Max more than anything in the world, the one who used to read stupid comics under his blankets when he thought his parents weren't looking. The wild had taken all that away from me. And while Jack and the other boys were able to find new purpose, I just… couldn't. I was empty.
When I died, it was like someone released me and gave me that purpose. I realized most spirits were sent away the moment their host died, but I hadn't. I had a mission. The sun was hovering just above the horizon now, as if it were straining to light the night until the meeting was over before it gave way to the moon. For a second they were both visible in the sky, but then the sun let go and slid into the ocean. As if on cue, the boys all stood up and made their way to the shelters. Pride settled in my chest as I watched Ralph, Piggy and Samneric settle down into the last hut: the one Ralph and I built together. I knew I would remember that hut as the last thing I did while I was still completely sane.
I felt a tug in my mind, a slight warning telling me that it was time to complete my job, but I resisted, content in this moment, watching the moon start its lazy circle across the sky. Looking like falling stars far away, I could see the streaks of light of the fighter jets from the war zooming right over the island, but still many miles away. It amused me, seeing humankind so close to the island, yet the boys were still far from being found. The mental pull grew urgent and I rolled my eyes, but complied and let myself float down to the huts on the beach.
I knew what I had been sent to do: I needed to walk in Ralph and Jack's dreams. They knew they needed to work together, and whatever higher being was looking after them sent me here as messenger, probably in hopes that my death would convince them into acting. Ralph felt guilt in my death –anyone could see that—and although he didn't show it, Jack felt responsible too. I drifted inside the flimsy hut and stopped beside Ralph. Feeling what I should do, I closed my eyes and touched his arm…
Then we were on top of the mountain. It was night, but somehow all fear of the beast that lived here was gone, replaced by a calm sense of beauty and serenity. A small fire had been built up where the old one used to be, radiating a soft light onto the clearing. The two boys stood outlined and though I couldn't see their faces from where they stood, I could easily tell them apart: Ralph was the south, near the beach, while Jack was the north towards his castle. Both looked utterly surprised at the events taking place that night.
Ralph was the first one to find his voice, "S-Simon?"
Instead of responding, I reached an arm out into the fire and drew it back to show it unscathed by the frothing flames. Ralph gasped and I let one corner of my mouth twitch up in an awkward smile. "I used to be," was all I said. I could see guilt digging its foul claws into both boys. I wished to tell them that I was okay, but I knew that wouldn't help my cause nor would it ease the feeling that they caused my death, so I stood quietly as the words sunk in.
The silence grew awkward as neither boy offered another word. I stepped up to Jack first, knowing he would be harder to convince of my mission. "You need to work together!" I pleaded, "You both know this; neither of you are stupid. But yet, you continue to work against each other. You both want the same thing: to stay alive—"
Jack snapped, his eyes narrowed and hard. "Ralph's way isn't living, it's surviving! At least my way we aren't wasting energy keeping a fire that no one will ever even see! My boys are fit and strong; his are weak on fruit and worked like slaves."
Ralph opened his mouth, looking as if he was about to counter Jack's rebukes on his views, but I stopped him with a glance. They were not here to argue.
"Yes, you have your differences. But would Ralph's group be weak if you provided them meat, Jack? And would your boys ever get off the island without Ralph's fire? And would either of your groups have to work so hard to survive if they were all one?" Jack grunted and turned away, but I knew he knew I talked sense. Well, the voice that went through me was rational. The words had popped into my mind like raindrops and I had just repeated them.
I felt more words heavy on my tongue, weighty and powerful. But I knew with ever fiber of my body that once they were uttered, I would be sent away. I didn't want to leave yet and a powerful yearning to stay almost clamped my jaw shut. But then I saw. I saw what would happen if I didn't say the words. All of it fire and blood, red haze and black flames. Letting out a breath I never knew I was holding, I said the words; barely a whisper, yet loud enough to resonate around the forest like the conch shell's song.
You must join together, Ralph and Jack. Two tribes must become one or else the island will be stained with more than pig's blood.
Then darkness slammed down on me and I left. Forever.