Quick A/N (Continued at bottom) -

Wanted to say a couple of things=

First, this one-shot is dedicated to erihan. I am so sorry I have waited a while to post a one-shot dedicated to you, but thank you so much for reviewing on all of my stuff, as well as Moofy-Fan, Cocolada, 100reasonswhy, PhoenixBlade, and everybody else, thank you so much!

Secondly, this one-shot doesn't contain slash, but I am only going to say it's implied Jalph simply because some people interpret non-slash things TO slash, so there aren't any really big Jalph moments or anything like that, heck I don't even think I did anything somewhat romantic in it, but people will think what they think. Basically, there aren't Jalph moments in here, but if you get some out of it, then sorry to say that I didn't mean it.

Okay that's it! Enjoy the one-shot! :)

He was trying with all of his might to run as fast as his beaten legs could carry him, but with the way things were going, and with the way the smoke was rising from the burning jungles before him, the blonde boy should have known better than think he could escape.

There was pain alright, coursing right up through his legs and in his veins. The scars decorating the boy's nude chest, tugged and ripped more with the boy running past the sharpened creepers on the trees, didn't cause much pleasure for him as he found himself tripping a lot more than he anticipated. With the smell of smoking leaves coming from all around him, he tried not to cough or even weasel out a grunt of discomfort. Keep steady, Ralph. Don't exhaust yourself, especially since you're practically running for your life. Just keep steady.

Chanting noises were heard, all the way from the other side of the island, and while they seemed somewhat faint volume wise, Ralph knew better than to simply take them for granted. The absolute worst thing he could now was stop, after all he wouldn't want his own head on the stick. The stick sharpened on both ends, the boy remembered as the sun seemed much more fierce that day rather than the others and graced him with the humility of sunburn. Even the burning sensation of that didn't make the boy as conflicted as what was behind him. Hunters they were, and hunting is most certainly what they were accustomed for.

A patch in the clearing, the boy saw out of the corner of his eyes, and sudden relief flooded through him. It seemed to be around a thicket, wide and sharp in appearance, the perfect hiding spot from the savages. Ralph almost would have assumed it a mere trap, if not for the fact that he was practically dying to loosen his running legs and to catch his rapid breath. Temptation giving in, Ralph simply sighed as be crouched onto the ground and peeked through the thicket itself, looking around and making sure that no other human was nearing him.

The weather that day was abnormally hotter than the others, as he had noticed from before, and he peeked upwards to find it a perfectly cloudless sky. He would have called it beautiful, if not for the fact that the day itself seemed to horribly dark. The scent of everything burning around him was still stuck in his nose, dirty and itchy, and oh, how the boy wished he was near a source of water so he could soak it up. It might have been the last chance he could have to drink anything ever again, for whenever the other boys would find him, they would most certainly pay him no mercy. Even the bitter schism that had once seemed civilized was more noticeable now than ever before, and after the twins' and their betrayal? It seemed practically hopeless for the boy to get out of this alive.

Crack. The quiet and heart-throbbing noise that came from what seemed like the breaking of a stick frightened the blonde boy, and as he felt his heart beat more painfully in his chest, he crouched lower and lower. He was now almost completely like an animal in a hunt, vulnerable to the other boys that had turned their backs on him, and he was cornered. Even a littlun' could appear from nowhere with an innocent demeanor on his face and call out the hunting noise, assembling the other boys to this same spot, with their sticks and knives, and dammit, that paint..

Ralph told himself to stay calm, but his mind was going at a million miles per hour, and he could feel his fingers twitch as he awaited more noises to come after that one cracking. Whatever it was, it was either an animal or one of the hunters. What's the difference, Ralph asked himself as he could hear other sounds coming out of the thicket, and he pressed his reddened face towards the openings to see clearer.

Only a pig, he came to realize, looking at the sight of the pink flesh as it was eating berries off of the branches near evergreen trees. Ralph had to sigh in relief, for he could have sworn it was something, or someone, else.

"I should calm down...they wouldn't be able to get through the thicket anyway."

The minutes pressed on to hours, and before too long, it had become late afternoon. The fire was still rising, surprisingly, and Ralph had sleep start to come over him. However, he knew the consequences that would come if sleep came first, and the boy shook his head to get these images out of his mind. He would much rather be prepared to run away than rather be asleep and not know better, so he forced himself to stay away with the rumbling stomach he had and the feeling of vomiting everywhere from the fear.

A few minutes more of nothing but silence and the same cracking sound came out again. The pig was no longer where it was before, though, so Ralph reached out and grasped the middle of his bloodied spear. After all, it had once belonged to the demonic pig head himself, so Ralph was sure that some kind of dignity would be spared in this lame excuse for defense. He could actually hear voices now, of the savages themselves, and instant distress flooded through him. He crouched as low as he could, but he noticed through the holes of the thicket that there were familiar sights.

There was Jack, damn him, and there was also Roger, along with the twins. Jack pointed towards the exact area Ralph was hiding, while looking at the twins, and his thick British accent came out in a deep, horrid tone, as though he was extremely determined to pull something apart from one bone to another.

"And you're sure that he's there? If he's not-"

"He is, chief! We swear, don't we, Eric?"

The other twin nodded exceedingly, trying to win the approval of their new leader, and Roger looked towards the thicket with a blood-thirsty look on his face. Ralph could feel the pressure being put onto him at this one moment, and he tried to figure out a quick way to escape without being seen, but the thoughts were practically useless. There wasn't a way out without somebody noticing.

Jack turned his face towards the thicket, his red and green face paint shining slightly in the golden summer heat, and the perspiration of sweat making its way down his chest and leaving his body. Newly toned from all of the physical activity, he looked more intimidating now than ever before, even in the mysterious black choir robe he usually wore, and as the boy looked toward the thicket, he quickly spun around and faced the twins with a glare, or at least, that was what the blonde boy could see with his own vision.

"Dirty little liars, you two are! Keep looking northward...Roger, you join them. I will keep looking around the southern part of the island. Make sure to do the call whenever you see him!"

Ralph watched, confused and slightly relieved, as the twins passed looks of confusion and left the scene. Roger was also baffled, but considering that he always followed his friend's commands, he sharply turned around and ran off into where he was assigned.

This just left the chief himself, Ralph thought, and he still didn't feel too safe. He knew very well that if Jack was to see him through the thicket's borders that he was pretty much screwed, with the newly made hatred that the ginger had felt for him, and Ralph busied himself with slow breathing and no sudden movements. Anything could point him out at this time.

The blonde boy watched as Jack kept moving around the clearing, an angered expression playing with the boy's freckled face, and Ralph had to admit it was rather amusing; watching as the chief himself couldn't hunt anything other than a pig.

Don't underestimate him, Ralph. Your life could depend on it.

Ralph sighed as these thoughts came to him, while the ginger turned back quickly before looking left and right once again, as though to make nobody else was around him, and then he did the one thing that the other boy didn't want.

He was walking towards the thicket.

Ralph shook his head.

Dammit, no! No, don't come here, Goddamit, please, don't come any closer, don't-

It was far too late as the boy witnessed the next moment of time. Jack had made sure not to poke his fingers with any of the thicket's thorns as he pulled pieces of it separately, looking into the middle and finding the missing piece of puzzle. There, sitting down on the dirty ground, all scratched up and looking up with wide and fearful eyes, was his own prey.

A smirk crawled deviously onto the boy's face, making sure to tell Ralph exactly who was going to win this battle, and the two boys stared at each other through the line that proved victory and helplessness.

"Jack," Ralph almost squeaked out, his body shaking and his fear being more than noticeable. He didn't care about his damn pride, because at that single moment, the only thing that mattered was what Jack was going to do with him.

You know very well what's going to happen. Might as well greet Simon and Piggy now, they're probably waiting for you on the other side.

Ralph wanted to squeeze his eyes as the other boy neared him, his icy blue eyes piercing through him like a million sharpened knives, and the blonde could only find his body moving itself backer and backer into the thicket interior, knowing that he wasn't going to give in just yet. He raised his own spear in defense, even though it was pretty much useless, compared to the agility and strength of the boy in front of him.

Once Jack had neared him closely, his smirk only getting wider and wider, Ralph had to close his eyes. There was already the flashes of memories passing through his mind, including his home back in England, with his family and that annoying little sister he had. Then, there was the bookshelf he had thought about earlier, with the books about magicians and girls that he didn't want to read, and then was the animals. Everything the boy had ever known about was going to be gone at this one moment of time, and all it took was for one stabbing motion of the knife to prove it.

So Ralph simply waited. However, the longer he waited, the more he came to realize that, in fact, he wasn't getting stabbed at all. He opened his previously squeezed eyes and glanced upwards, finding the sadistic and carnivorous look that Jack once possessed was now filled with something else, something on the border of uncertainty. Ralph's impatience was wearing thin. If the boy was going to be like a hunter and end him, he would prefer to have his suffering done now than later.

However, something else happened that made the prey more confused than ever at this point, and that was whenever Jack actually started to laugh. It was a low chuckling at first, but gradually, it led on to the boy laughing somewhat hysterically at the vulnerability he was faced with. Never before had Jack seen the other boy in this position, all dirtied up and willing to give in. Ralph's impatience turned from simple annoyance to straight up fury, and the blonde boy barked up in response.

"Have you turned completely batty? What is wrong with you, aren't you going to get it over with?"

The ginger boy had to stop laughing to wipe away the tears coming down from his cheeks before looking down towards the other boy. He seemed to recollect himself as the seriousness of the hunt flushed back into him, but he still smiled a little bit before speaking.

"Get it over with? Oh...I suppose you mean the hunt, don't you?" Jack simply laughed a little bit more before checking around him, seeing if the coast was clear and if nobody was in their line of sight. He turned back around again and continued to smirk.

"I just enjoy seeing this, 's all."

Seeing what, Ralph wondered to himself as the ginger leaned down and lightly pulled the knife away from his pocket. Gleaming in the summer light, it had the leftover remains of pig blood smothered all over it, and the boy pressed it rather harshly onto Ralph's scratched up leg. It was the same leg that had suffered the injury of the spear from earlier, right after the boulder incident and before Ralph officially became an outside. It hurt awfully bad, and Ralph had to grit his teeth together before screaming out in pain.

"Must be nice to be the one in pain this time, hm?" Jack whispered light, marveling at the amazing sight of the blood before him.

"Damn you," Ralph hissed, attempting to reach of his spear but noticing that it was no longer where it was before. His eyes widened as it was now behind Jack, and the redhead boy chuckled.

"You really do need to pay more attention."

Ralph was confused. Jack was doing this all on purpose, just to make him riled up, but the thing was that he was supposed to be dead by now. If all of Jack's intimidating remarks were true from before, than Jack wouldn't have hesitated to pounce on the prey while he could and slice him to pieces. However, it seemed more teasing rather than actual killing.

"Why the hell are you-?"

"Because," Jack murmured, flashing his eyes back up towards Ralph and laughing, sickly and without much regret, "...I want to see you tortured, not just killed. Oh no, I want to see the same exact pain come across your face as it had for me, all the time on this goddamn island. I want to see it, and now that you're witnessing how I felt...you must feel pretty bad about it, don't you?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Ralph said, feeling the knife get deeper in his calve at just the statement. Apparently, he had said something wrong from before, and Jack glared more harshly than before. No more jokes.

"You know damn well!" Jack growled, dragging the knife upwards and making a fine red line going up Ralph's thigh.

It was at this point that Ralph didn't care if he was hiding his pride or not, because he screamed and squirmed underneath the grip of the blade. All kinds of pain came across him, and Jack smiled at the sheer sight.

"Jack...Jack, stop it. I don't know," Ralph began, panting from the pain but also because he was beginning to get scared. "I really don't know what you're saying, but this is taking it to the extreme."

"You could have joined my tribe," Jack muttered, moving away from the leg and going straight up towards the arms, not resisting the urge to slice wherever he pleased. Even with the tortured sounds of the boy in front of him, Jack apathetically continued to tease him with the hunting knife. "You still could, if you wanted to. Things don't have to go this way, you don't have to die."

There was a smug look on the boy's face, but more than that, Ralph could notice a sort of longing showing up within those blue eyes of his. However, Ralph was definitely not interested in this 'bargain', or whatever the hell the redhead liked to call it.

"I would rather die than join your tribe," Ralph hissed, forgetting the pain from the cuts for a minute just to lash his anger out. "You killed Simon, and even worse, you killed Piggy-."

"Don't pretend you didn't kill Simon, either, you dirty liar!" Jack hissed, raising the knife and pointing it sternly. "Besides, I wasn't technically the one who killed Piggy in the first place, that was Roger, after all."

"But you still saw it and did nothing as punishment!" Ralph raged.

If things continued like this, he would be much more dead than he had anticipated before, but at this rate, he knew he was going to die soon, anyway. Too much blood was coming out for him not to.

Jack looked like he might say something in response, but he kept his mouth shut. He analyzed the bleeding boy now, his eyes slightly lighter but still angry in appearance, and he smiled at knowing that this was what happened to the previous chief. He was all torn up now, like a ragged doll, and now there was nothing else for him. Hell, he could call in all of his hunters right then and there and finally just get rid of him, but something within him told him that this was his kill, his prize. Nobody was ever going to take that away.

Ralph watched from his position as a clear realization had hit him. It certainly took awhile for it to come up, but the blonde boy finally realized that there was a reason that Jack wasn't really killing him. Whether it really was to torture him, or something else, he wasn't quite sure...but he knew that it was definitely something. Ralph had to confront about this matter, at least, before he died anyway.

"...you don't want to kill me...do you Jack?"

The redhead looked surprised at the statement before raising his knife up again, furious.

"You're scared," Ralph muttered, feeling the swelling of pride come up again as he could feel the faint nearing him as well. He was going to die, he was sure of it, but seeing the pathetic stutter on Jack's face was enough to make the boy feel somewhat proud.

"But more than that, you're just a coward in general. You would never kill somebody on your own...same thing with Simon. Sure, we killed him together, but you needed somebody else to take the blame...you didn't want it for yourself."

"Watch it," Jack hissed, ready to end his life then and there, but Ralph knew he wouldn't go through with it.

"Further more, you don't want to kill me because you knew that there would be nothing else to feel conflict over. You don't want to kill me because you're afraid that somebody else in your filthy excuse for a tribe will take all the power...maybe Roger perhaps?"

"I said, watch it! You're asking for a brutal awakening!"

"But even further more than that, you don't want to kill me because maybe..maybe," Ralph whispered, his eyes leading onto the blood covered ground and his body shaking.

The faint was starting to corrupt him, he knew, and he would have to close his eyes soon and give his last blesssings to the rotten world around him. He started lightly at Jack, obviously pale in the face and ready to give out.

"...Ralph?"

"Because maybe, in one way or another," Ralph muttered, "...you and I are exactly the same?"

Jack watched, wide-eyed, as the other boy fell to the ground, blood continuing to gush out and his face completely pale. There was absolutely nothing else to say, the boy was dead now, and Jack watched with a tinge of regret before his own knife fell to the ground as well.

The other hunters came by at the sight a few minutes later, noticing the redheaded boy still looking down towards the dead boy with a look of shock and dismay, not daring to pick his eyes up for even a second. Even Roger could tell that Jack was different, in this sense, and the rest of the boys watched as the island continued to burn more and more to the ground.

However, what made it worst for Jack was that maybe, just maybe, the other boy had guessed correctly for the last time.

A/N - I loved writing this one, it was awesome. I love writing Jack and Ralph related stories, especially due to their rivalry, it makes everything all the more fun, doesn't it? Anyways, please leave a review, and I really appreciate all the awesome feedback and stuff :)

Also, I have come to the realization that I have written more than 100k words for these...damn, right? :P

BY THE WAY sorry this is so long, YES THE TITLE IS BASED OFF OF THE THREE DAYS GRACE SONG BECAUSE THAT SONG IS TOTAL RALPH-NESS IN ONE SONG AND I LOVE IT SO YEAH. Also you could listen to Watch You Crawl (by Red) and it would be like a Jack/Ralph rivalry song. Check those out if you want haha