"Waiting for you is like waiting for rain in this drought: useless and disappointing." - Samantha Montgomery, "A Cinderella Story"

.........

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: THE RIFT DEEPENS

Jack and two hunters were on the hillside, somewhat interrogating two littluns who were tending the signal fire.

"You should have seen it," Jack was telling them. "He was scared shitless." He held a stick to the flame, trying to create a makeshift torch.

"You think there actually was something in there?" one of the littluns asked. "Some sort of wild animal or something?"

"I know it," Jack answered. "We heard it growl."

"Is it close?" the other littlun asked.

"Just over the big rise behind our camp. Real close," Jack said, feeling a swell of pride when he said "our camp". He had a camp. He was the leader.

In your face, Ralph.

"Holy shit," the second littlun muttered.

"Just thought you'd otta know," Jack said, standing up with the smoking stick. "Thanks for the fire."

He and his hunters walked away, leaving two scared littluns behind.

.........

"You mean no one's on fire watch?!" Ralph exclaimed.

"Why can't we have it down here? By the camp?" a littlun asked.

"Because, stupid," Jessica said, "if we want someone to see it, it's gotta be up there!"

"Well…no one wants to be up there alone anymore. There's something loose on this island."

"A monster!" another said.

"Or something," a third threw in.

They stopped walking. In front of them were two hunters. Ralph couldn't see her, but he could feel Jessica tense up behind him.

"What the hell do you losers want?" she asked.

"Jack wants the survival knife!" one hunter announced.

"It's not his!" Piggy said. "It's belongs to our camp!"

"Oh, yeah?" the hunter named Roger challenged. "There's a new camp now, and he wants it!"

"Yeah! And Tony wants his shoes and all his other junk."

"Boo-frickin-woo, wimps," Jessica mock cried. "We all can't get what we want, can we?"

"Take Tony's stuff, but you can't have the knife," Ralph said.

"Tony's a defector!" Piggy said. "Just another damn defector!"

"Because of the monster," someone piped up.

"I told you there's no monster!" Ralph was mad now. "Tony knows there's no monster, but he just wants to be a hunter and all and he's too chicken to come down here and get his damn junk himself!"

"But what if there is some kind of big animal?" someone asked skeptically.

There was silence after that. The hunters started to leave, two little boys following them.

"Oh, great, two more traitors," Piggy observed.

"Sorry, Ralph," one said as he walked away.

"Good riddance," Jessica called. "Bastards."

Ralph sadly looked on, then went into the shade of a fallen tree and hugged his knees. He didn't mind if anyone saw him cry. Things were too hard right now to hold it all in.

He suddenly felt arms around him, and let whomever it was hug him. He realized it was Jessica, and started crying on her shoulder.

"Stix…what do we do?"

.........

Most of the boys were now down to their underwear. Piggy dawned his wife beater and uniform pants. Ralph wore his oversized red boxer shorts.

Jessica, personally, hated her own clothing. The choir pants were now more like choir shorts, revealing her knobby knees. Her blue shirt was virtually destroyed, the collar completely gone and only two strings hanging where the sleeves had been. She was forced to tie them around her neck, embarrassed that the shirt was now exposing her midriff.

And she didn't even want to think about her hair. It was getting a bit unruly, so she had to take her school tie and pull it back in a ponytail. She'd never been fond of wearing her hair up.

Why am I even thinking about this? she questioned herself. I should be sleeping right now.But she couldn't. Every time she tried to close her eyes, she saw her brother and his war paint. This had been happening for a few nights now, and she knew her eyes were close to bloodshot.

A twig snapped. She sat up. Something was stalking the tent…

"Ralph? Piggy?" She shook them awake. "Something's out there."

"Stix, there's no--"

The shelter came crashing down. Screaming boys surrounded them for a second before running off. Jessica saw that it was the hunters, and in her brother's hand was the knife.

"Bring that back!" Ralph shouted. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

They heard a whimpering behind them. Piggy held his glasses--and one lens had a huge crack on it.

"Oh, Piggy…" Jessica said.

"They broke my glasses," he wailed, crying and drooling at the same time. Although it was a bit unsightly, Jessica immediately put her arm around him.

"Shh…it's okay, Piggy…it's okay…" she said.

But with every word, doubt clouded her mind more and more.

.........

The next day, Simon walked up the rocks to the "new camp". If anyone knew about the monster, it was the hunters.

"Anyone who wants to come up has to ask!" a littlun said when he reached a few boys.

"Where are the others?" Simon asked.

"They're hunting. What else? Getting their asses kicked by Miss-Sugary-Goodness?"

The boys started to giggle. Simon knew they were trying to get the better of him, but he wasn't going to let them get away with something like that easily.

They're stupid, Simon…just ask about the cave and walk away…"Where's the cave you found?"

Simon saw that he had hit a weak point in this particular boy. He started to shake, and was on the verge of tears.

"Don't you know where it is?" he persisted.

"Yeah, but I'm not going back! I already showed Jack and the others."

"Tell me where it is," Simon said, trying to be as polite as possible.

"You shouldn't go there."

"I just wanna look. I've got a GloStick."

The little boy finally pointed to the west. "It's over there in the forest."

Simon nodded his thanks, and walked away from the rocks.

.........

"Put it here," Jack commanded.

The big, black pig was lowered to the ground. Jack got the hunting knife and began to cut off its head.

To distract him from the disgusting sight before him, he began to relive the previous night. He had gotten ahold of the knife. And Ralph couldn't do a thing about it.

He was liking the idea of power more and more.

But…he couldn't forget the look he'd seen on Jessica's face. It was a mixture of horror and betrayal…

Jack shook his head as the pig head came off. They weren't siblings anymore. He didn't have to worry about her.

They mounted the head on a stick that was sharpened at two ends. "It's a gift," Jack explained as they walked away. "For the monster."

Little did he know someone had seen the entire thing.

.........

Jessica sat in the shade of a tree, watching the members of her camp. The littluns were playing with sand, Sam and Eric were flicking each other's ears, and Ralph and Piggy were roasting fruit on a stick.

Nothing to do.

Unless…

"Has anyone seen Simon?" she asked, walking over.

Ralph looked up. "I thought you two weren't speaking."

"We're not. But I'd like to at least make amends with him. I hate not talking to him. I mean, it's okay with me and…Jackass because we're not in the same camp. But…I can't bare to lose another member. You guys are my family now. Each and every one of you. And I'm not about to let another one go over to the Dark Side."

Ralph was speechless. Piggy pointed into the woods. "He went into the woods earlier. He might not be there anymore."

But Jessica was already out of earshot and in the woods.