Be Brave for Him
Lord of the Flies: Sam and Eric
The distant sound of the screams of children faded as the two boys stood still. They gazed past the green creepers with indifferent auburn pupils. The two's hands held each other in tight comfort, yet one ripped their sweaty palm from the other's.
Sam jumped back from his brother with an intense hatred flustering in auburn. He clenched his teeth tightly before lashing out.
"Why didn't you listen to me!? We could have told Jack a different spot; not the real one! Ralph could be dead right now because of us!" He shook his head angrily.
Even with the close proximity to one another, Eric acted as though he had heard not a word. He continued with his cold and distant stare in the direction the kids had run off towards. He moved only his slowly closing eyelids.
His silence only seemed to add in Sam's apparent anger. The twin approached his mirror, grabbing him by the shoulders and digging his nails into the exposed skin.
"We killed him, Eric. We killed Ralph. Is all you can do is stare ahead like a piece of rock!? Why did you do it!? Eric!" He was nearly moved to tears by his own emotion, but all his mirror could do was turn away. The indifference stained on Eric's face melted to raw feeling as the weight of Sam's words hit him.
Sam grabbed the arm leaving his brother's side just as his voice pierced the jungle wood turning hot and crimson.
"Eric-"
"I did it for you!" Eric's sudden shout shook the tears he smeared across his cheeks. He shook his head, hand turning limp in Sam's grasp. He turned back with wide auburn eyes and a guilt burning in the blackness that now consumed his pupils.
"Did you want Roger to hurt us again!? Do you want the humiliation he put us through while a smile was on his face!? Call me selfish or self-centered, but I can't let another person live when I'll have to see you suffer because of it! I'm the oldest; it's my job to protect you!" The words rang out in the smokey atmosphere as something the boy himself had never said before, but the previous actions to portray it had always been there.
Always.
It was for several smokey minutes that these boys stared to one another in the darkening forest of skin-pulling creepers. Their eyes locking with one another shared in a painful guilt that cut deep into them. How could they ever overcome the burden of knowing they had caused their friend's death? They betrayed him. They killed him.
Finally, Eric shook off his brother's hand. He stared down to the grass becoming ashen with the incoming fire's intensity. He narrowed his eyes in annoyance.
"I 'pose it doesn't matter now... I've failed. I was supposed to keep you safe. Mom always said... She always said that me being the oldest meant I was 'posed to be in charge and make sure nothing happened to you."
The various bruises and cuts on their skin told of another tale. He had failed in one of the only jobs that he had inherited. With no one else in their lives, Sam could always be sure that his older brother could protect him. Perhaps this was the exception.
Eric fell to his knees, pointed bones digging into the ground. He kept a stare to a certain strain of grass, not daring to lift his auburn from it.
"And even if I did do it to save you, it still hurts. I killed someone. I am the reason someone is dead." He turned back, a rather maniacal smile now to his face.
"How could I ever atone for that?" Eric simply chuckled, shaking his head. His pupils drifted from the horrified look on his brother's face and to that of the sky. A light blue peeked through vines strewn across the jungle trees, but a thick black quickly rushed in to cover anyone's view of such a serene and light blue.
Sam looked away from his brother. Any strength he had seen in the boy dissolved in so little time. The crazy smile and slight chuckling Eric emitted every so often was proof enough. Just how had they fallen so off track in this short amount of time?
Even worse, a thick heat hotter than that of the island was approaching the two. It swelled into embers and black smoke, devouring any green and replacing it with a thick grey ash. If the twins didn't get going, they, too, could get swallowed. Why would they give up on life after surviving for so long?
Eric felt a slight tug at his shoulder. His eyes shifted over, head rolling as though the boy was exhausted.
"Oh, hey." He spoke as though the presence of his brother was a new one and not that the boy had been staring at him for god knows how long.
Sam once again tugged on his brother's ripped shirt.
"C'mon. Let's go." He urged him along, aware of the advancing fire in the distance. Despite his tug, the brother brushed him off. Eric smiled, shaking his head.
"Why? Sheesh, calm down. Mom will get angry if you're so mean to her. You wouldn't want her to become disappointed in you, would you?" He asked, nearly laughing.
This statement stopped Sam cold. He stared down with wide eyes to the boy who was so out of the situation. Eric continued with aimless chatter, directing his attention away from his brother and towards an unseen person.
Sam clenched his teeth, uttering the words he would never have thought he needed to say.
"Mom's not there. She's dead, remember?" To him, this sentence was a world-shattering statement. It crushed him so much when it had first been uttered, and it crushed him just as much now. It was a pain burning so deep that years of time wouldn't be enough to heal it. Perhaps with enough memories added on top, the event itself could eventually be forgotten or pushed off to the side.
Eric laughed.
"What are you talking about, Sam? Mom's right there." He pointed off in the slight distance, eyes still fixed to the point.
"Why are you being so silly-"
"I'm not being silly! She's dead! Dead!" Sam lashed out. He approached his brother in quick strides, reaching out to the boy's hand. He tugged hard to the fingers, rocking Eric on his knees.
"She died when I was at school! You were the one to tell me! Didn't it happen right in front of your eyes!?" It was mean to make him remember such a moment, but with the approaching fire, Sam only cared about snapping his brother back into the moment so the two could escape. Guilt didn't matter quite so much in that moment as survival did. He would make sure Eric would get out of this too.
Who knew that Ralph was dead? Maybe when they got to the beach they would find the boy alive and well. Maybe a resolution to the situation had been made.
It was worth thinking, wasn't it?
Eric's smile started to dissolve as a confused stare turned towards his brother.
"She didn't... What are you..."
But she did. Of course she did.
Bathed in a bright light was a woman the two had depended on for so long. She sat alone to a chair, simply reading. Her light smile grew slightly with each turn of a page as the plot thickened in her novel. She kept a close eye on her sick son all times of the day except when she sat to the chair positioned directly in front of the front door. This was her time to skim the pages of her favorite novel and wonder what life would be like if she were in one of them.
The breaking of the door behind her shattered any peaceful and lax thoughts, sending her auburn eyes wide and heart to quicken.
Even quicker was her reaction to grab her son and run from the men storming the house. Her delicate fingers that would often brush through Sam's hair shook as they switched the lock to the bathroom. She fumbled hopelessly with it, pink lips exhaling a sigh before her attention was ultimately turned to her young son.
The woman so small and soft spoken was even quieter as she stuffed the boy to the nearby broom closet. She hushed his worries with a forced smile. Her words were as sweet as usual, but a harsh gasp jumped her body as a pounding on the door began. This action from the men only quickened her pace. Only four words came from her crying face as she locked her sick son into the broom closet.
"Be brave for him."
Eric's eyes widened at the memories trickling in by the words of a soft-spoken mother. His pupils dotted up, trying to pin-point the woman he had seen so many minutes ago. Only thick creepers and billowing smoke met the boy. Eric stood up, eyes searching for the answer he could never find. But four words found such an answer that had been engrained into him for so many years.
Be Brave for Him.
And in his remembering of this order, Eric turned towards his brother. The two found each other's hand, tightening the grip with the strength that could crush a building. And with this, the two smiled to one another.
"Let's get out of here." Sam said, sniffing.
Eric nodded.
"Yeah."