A/N: Hello dears, wonderful to talk to you. There's some more adult language in this chapter, but nothing that would even come near to an R rating. Just thought I'd warn you first so that you're not surprised when it comes up. Sorry for the wait. I really hope you like it!
When Annie woke up the next day she was surprised to find that she had been sleeping with her head on Jack's shoulder. His arm was thrown, almost possessively, across her hip, and he was still in a deep slumber. Ralph was close on her other side, gently pressed up against her, and he was also sleeping.
As she woke up more she could hear a very quiet crying outside of the shelter, and, as carefully as she could she got up without waking the boys. She left the shelter and walked out into the hot sun. It was probably about nine in the morning and after staying up late last night everybody but her and the source of the crying seemed to be asleep.
It was Piggy. She didn't have to ask to see what was wrong. Robert was lying dead, in a pool of his own blood. "How?" Was all that she could make herself say as her eyes went wide with shock and she became completely breathless.
"He just…" Piggy blubbered, "He just wouldn't… wouldn't stop bleeding!" He removed his glasses and furiously wiped his eyes, then drew the back of his palm across his runny nose. "There was nothing I could do!"
"There has to be some reason why he didn't stop!" She said in near hysterics. "I mean… you knew what you were doing, it's not like he wasn't being taken care of." She began to walk away.
"Where are you going?" He blubbered.
"I have to get Ralph and Jack!" She gasped out as she began to cry.
"No! Don't get Jack!" He sobbed. "I was supposed to take care of him, Jack will say it's my fault."
"He… he won't!" She said harshly and through tears. She began running and entered the shelter quickly. "Jack! Ralph!" She whispered as she dropped to her knees between them and began shaking them to wake them up.
"Who the hell…" Jack said gruffly as he rubbed his eyes to wake up. "Oh, hey Annie."
"What's wrong?" Ralph and Jack asked in unison as they realized that she was crying.
"Robert's dead!" She cried out in a whisper, trying to keep the other boys from waking up just yet.
"What do you mean, he's dead?" Jack asked as he got up and rushed past her and into the blazing sun. Annie and Ralph ran after him and got to the body only a second after he did. "Piggy, I thought you said that you could take care of him." Jack said dangerously while staring at Piggy, his eyes cold as stone.
"I tried!" Piggy wailed. There was silence for a few moments and then the other boys began emerging from the shelters.
"Damn it!" Ralph whispered fiercely when he saw that the littleuns were also coming. "Everyone go and eat!" He yelled. Although the littleuns seeing Robert was the least of the problems that needed to be dealt with, he thought it was important to keep them from seeing this and creating more chaos.
"But why, Ralph, what's going on?" Maurice asked as he came out of the shelter. He couldn't see Robert because Annie, Jack, and Ralph were blocking him from their sight.
"Just do it!" Jack yelled back. "And don't come back until I say so!" Nobody said anything else and they all went into the woods, all except for Roger.
"What's wrong, Jack?" Roger asked. Jack looked at the sky for a second, set his jaw, and stepped aside. Annie and Ralph also did and Roger came closer.
"What the fuck! What did you do to him!" Roger screamed in rage, staring at sniveling Piggy.
"It's not his fault." Annie said.
"Then who's fault is it!" He yelled at her.
"I just meant that he did what he could and it's not… it's not his fault that we don't have medical supplies!" She said through tears.
Jack and Ralph both put their hands comfortingly on her shoulder at the same time, which only worked because they were on different side of her. They looked at each other behind her back, coldly staring into each other's eyes. Jack let his hand drop to the small of her back, where he made small comforting circles, and unflinchingly stared at Ralph. Ralph gently squeezed her shoulder and stared back. Through this, Roger's wicked glare at Piggy went unnoticed by all except the recipient of the death stare.
"What happened to his bracelet?" Roger asked, only a little of the rage gone from his voice. He was now kneeling as close as he could to Robert without kneeling in blood, and he was craning his neck and inspecting the boy. His comment has caused both Jack and Ralph to stop their attempt at staring the other down, and they both removed the hands from the girl.
"Robbie never wore a bracelet." Jack said while looking at Roger like he was crazy.
"He hid it around you, Jack, he said you'd think it was girly." Roger said. "He wanted you to think he was cool."
"What did it look like?" Piggy asked quickly.
"Why, did you want to wear it?" Roger answered coldly and sarcastically. "I never got a close look at it, he never let me." He said pointedly to Jack. "What's the big deal anyway, it's just a stupid bracelet?"
"Did he wear it all the time?" Ralph asked.
"Yeah, he never took it off." Roger answered. Right after he said this Piggy, Jack and Ralph practically dove at Robert. As gently and carefully as they could they looked in his short-pockets.
"I got it!" Piggy said as he pulled the silver bracelet out of Robert's pocket. "It is." He said quietly.
"It is what?" Roger and Annie said in unison.
"A medical bracelet." Jack answered.
"What does it say, Piggy?" Ralph asked.
"He had hemophilia." Piggy said slowly. "No wonder he bled out… his blood doesn't clot!"
"It really wasn't your fault." Annie said as she sat down in the sand beside Piggy. There was silence fora long time and they all stared at Robert.
"We have to have a funeral." Jack finally said, breaking the silence.
"Right." Ralph said decisively. "Roger and Jack, will you carry Robert to the other side of the island where Kevin's buried?" They nodded in consent. "Does anybody not mind cleaning up the blood so that the littleuns don't see it?" Annie and Piggy hesitantly volunteered. "I guess I'll go and get most of the hunters to come to the funeral."
Jack and Roger carried the bloody body down the beach a ways and then entered the woods to go straight through to the other side. "Why are we doing what Ralph says, Jack?" Roger asked.
"Because we're outnumbered by idiots that elected him chief." Jack answered in a very matter-of-fact way.
"Like fat-ass Piggy…"
"He's only in the tribe because he Ralph needs someone to suck him off." Jack answered.
"You mean that little whore isn't doing him?" Roger joked.
"No!" Jack said indignantly. "She wouldn't touch him, and she's not a whore."
"Why are you being all nice to her, anyway?"
"I don't know." Jack answered. Roger looked around him at the trees.
"Think there is a beast, Jack?" He asked thoughtfully.
"Nah, there's no such thing as monsters."
Annie and Piggy had finished cleaning up the blood, Ralph had gotten most of the hunters, and Simon had been called. They were currently walking through the woods on their way to the gravesite. Some of the hunters had cried when they found out. They had lied to the littleuns about the nature of Robert's death, but all of the older kids knew the whole truth.
When they got to the gravesite Jack and Roger were already starting to dig a hole. They buried Robert, and Simon lead the "service" just as he had with Kevin's funeral. Jack also said a few words about the deceased member of his choir, followed by some of the other hunters recounting things that Robert had once done or said. Some of the hunters and Annie cried silent tears for the poor boy.
The choir sang softlythe,Jack's adult-like voice soloing and perfecting the angelic sound. Swing low, sweet chariot, They walked solemnly through the woods, some of them still crying. Comin' forth to carry me home.They saw no animals in their path, thebutterflies wereelsewhere.Swing low, sweet sweet chariot...
The group disbandedwhen they got to the beach, everybody acting as if it were a normal day, and they had not just buried a boy.
Comin' forth to carry me home!
A/N: There's chapter 10! I know it's unlikely, practically impossible Robert would have hemophilia, much less have kept it hidden from his friends his whole life. Hope you don't mind that I killed off another character. I know it was kind of like, "boom, Robert's dead, end of story" but Golding had about one paragraph explaining Piggy's death and that was pretty much it. I am in the process of thinking of ideas for chapter 11, and you can hopefully expect it by this Sunday. Please review!