It was getting dark. After witnessing the bloody corpse, I felt like throwing up. I glanced at myself in a rock pool. I looked sick, so sick. I felt myself trembling. In the distance, I could hear chanting. It sounded so bloody and violent, but I couldn't stay away. The temptation of human voices. The temptation of community. I stumbled through the leaves, and suddenly I was surrounded by boys, their spears hitting me, cutting me, injuring me. I yelled out.

"The man... the man on the hill...!"

"Kill the beast... cut its throat... spill its blood..."

I had never felt such a piercing, scarring pain. Blood trickled down my neck. I saw the cruel, jeering face of Jack. Did he know that it was me, or was he caught up in the dance? Piggy sat far back, hidden. He didn't seem to have noticed me. I cried out his name, but he couldn't hear. I was overwhelmed by roaring and whispering and yelling. My throat became hoarse. "Ralph... RALPH... can you hear me...?" my voice trailed off. I could see him, he was in the crowd. He was holding a spear to my neck. No...

My world became darkness. Pitch black. Crimson liquid oozed out of my nose, my mouth, even my eye sockets as I tried to lift myself up. I fell down a small cliff, and thudded to the ground, hearing loud cheers rise. What cruel voices... I thought back to the pig's head on a stick. I could see it again, floating in mid air within my dreams. Bitter frustration caught hold of me.

"I'M NOT GIVING UP..." I cried silently. It leered. It had once been a kind sow, taking caring of her young, with soft eyes and delicate features. Now it stared with such venom. I was losing it. I was becoming mad and insane. The light of life began to flicker out. "PLEASE NO... DON'T, PLEASE..." I begged, I pleaded, the tears slid down my cheeks. Mum... Dad... Please save me... PLEASE...

I fell against the shore line, feeling my body being carried out. The moon brought the tide in. Small creatures gathered in bundles around me, inspecting the strange body that had intruded on their private space.

I struggled to hold on.

"Ralph... why..."

My grip loosened.

"Why did you...?"

I held on, trembling, sliding backwards.

"I trusted you..."

I could not stand it anymore.

I let go, and let nature give me the most private and silent of funerals. I was washed away forever.