What happens when they go back to England? How do their families react, how many of them manage to survive to adulthood unaided? That's what this is about, it's not a story for people who wanted a happy ending.

The End

Chapter 1 – Ralph

Ralph loved his room at The Hospital. It was clean, a sterile shade of white. He also loved the clock, always loudly ticking. The Hospital gave him everything he had lost on The Island. He was clean, there was no dirt in his room, it was easily kept tidy and he often helped the nurses do so. The food was good too; they never served pork or fruit. Ralph loved it there, it kept him sane. He could almost entirely forget The Island, or at least banish it from his conscious mind. Whenever the memories were too much, Ralph simply focused on the clock. Ticking clock, there had never been ticking on The Island, it was foreign to that place and he would be able to see that he was safe in his clean room.

Young Ralph had few visitors, these days only his parents came. At first the police had come often, asking him questions about The Island. He answered them, but he was easily upset and the nurses would soon come with a shot to calm him down. After Ralph had regained his health and the police had stopped coming his parents took him home. It went badly; he often forgot himself and thought of The Island. His parents didn't know what to do; the strangeness of their son was all the rage in village gossip. They found a nice children's hospital and paid for the best keeping money could buy. Ralph seemed content, giving the nurses no problems, but still haunted by The Island in his dreams.

There Ralph stayed, in his white hospital room. Sitting quietly, he listened to the ticking of the clock and thought about what needed cleaning. Ralph died of a drug overdose at the age of 25 in the adults hospital when a doctor gave him too strong a dose to calm him after a nightmare. He was laid to rest in the cemetery near his parent's house. Little money was left after paying medical expenses and so Ralph's grave was at the back of the lot and his headstone only read his name and the dates of his birth and death.

Author Note: Please review with something constructive, I'd appreciate it if you did.