The roaring pierced the air, and Claire froze next to me, clinging to my shoulder. I waited for the monster to appear- after all, running never seemed to help anyone on the show. The smoke monster came up behind us, rushing around us. The sound was awful, the feeling of being utterly surrounded terrifying beyond belief. Even my obsession with the show couldn't have possible prepared me for this. I shut my eyes tightly and prayed that he would leave us alone. That was when I realized: I knew everyone's fate but my own. All it takes is one misstep, one desperate person with a gun, and it would all be over, life would continue the way it always had planned, and all of the people I now considered my friends would die.
Suddenly, the monster retreated, one final burst of sound before the silence. I took a moment before forcing myself to open my eyes, making eye contact with Claire and trying to send a reassuring smile her way. She breathed out a huge sigh. "Lets hurry back to the beach". We made quick work of the rest of the path, rushing out to the beach.
"Britney!" Brian shrieked, running towards me, "Are you okay? We heard the monster and thought you had been attacked!'
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Charlie worrying over Claire, and my heart warmed a bit. Terrifying as the encounter had been, it was also bringing Charlie and Claire closer together.
"I'm fine, it just went around us… We should talk later, just the two of us, when it won't look weird".
"Yeah ok I'll come get you in the morning".
FLASHBACK
"Babe, what is this?"
"What is what?"
"You got a letter from a modeling agency?"
"Where did you get that?
"Why were you hiding it from me?"
END FLASHBACK
I started walking to my tent quickly, eyes down at the ground. Of course, when you don't want to be seen everyone's eyes are on you. I had barely moved forward when a voice cut through the crowd.
"Britney!" In the time it took me to sigh and turn around, Boone was in front of me. "Britney, I'm sorry".
I just blinked at him.
"It wasn't fair of Shannon to call you out like that".
"Yeah well Shannon's a bitch"
His eyes widened a bit before he shrugged and huffed out a tiny laugh. "Well…"
"That's not your fault though".
"Yeah but she's my sister".
"That she is". With that, I turned around, leaving Boone behind me as I headed to my shelter. As much as I had loved Boone's earnest personality during the show, on the Island it was actually a bit irritating. I was too tired and my stomach hurt too much for me to deal with him right now.
BRIAN POV
I could see my sister asleep in her tent, Charlie and Claire sitting outside and watching the sunset so as not to disturb her. Hearing the monster rage in the jungle and knowing that she had been there had shaken me- we both knew when everyone else would die but not what would happen to us.
Looking across the beach, I noticed that Sayid was missing. Had he really gone already? Time seemed to be flying, and we needed a strategy fast. Would changing the storyline by saving people cause a snowball effect to the point where we wouldn't be able to save anyone?