Disclaimer: I do not own Lost, just Charlie. Ha, yeah sure. Well then, I'm also the queen of England!
A/N: I'm posting two chapters up at once today because last chapter was bad-bad-bad-bad-bad-terrible-bad so I need a better chapter to make up for it. This one continues the island thingy so it'll be more interesting than the whole Megan-sleeps-too-much-and-has-freaky-dreams thing. Heh. ;) Must resist urge to make more dream thingies! Oh, and NO, this is NOT a C/K fanfiction, even though it seems that it might be. It's NOT, it's C/C because Charlie and Claire are so very adorable together. P Also, does anyone know the name of the brand of Charile's shoes? I thought they were Chuck Taylors but I'm not sure.
He was shrouded in dark. It was freezing cold. He must be dead. He must be. He couldn't feel anything beneath his feet but a hot gust of air lifted his hair. He needed to open his eyes. He could hear screaming; but not Kate's, it was someone younger's. Much younger.
But when he did manage to open his eyes, it was Kate in front of him, and a swirling silvery mass behind her.
"Kate! Kate, look out! KATE!"
Someone was calling him back.
"Charlie? Charlie! Wake up!"
His eyes shot open again as if they had been closed before... but he had been sure that they had been open. Where the hell was he? He could feel a warm hand on his face. His eyes out of focus, he saw a blurry black-and-orange blob in front of him.
"KATE!"
"I'm right here, Charlie!"
As his world cleared, Charlie looked around wildly, panting. Kate was watching him with worried eyes. He was in the middle of the jungle floor, a dull pain on the back of his head. It was freezing cold.
B A M ! C R A C K !
Charlie screamed and tried to bolt but Kate held him down. "It's okay, Charlie, it's just some thunder," Kate said breathlessly. "It's raining." Charlie struggled to his feet, leaning against Kate.
"You were dead," he said. "I was dead too, the monster killed you, but the trees were talking and then they - they killed me..."
Kate's eyes were as round as dinner plates. She paled. "What, the trees? Uh, maybe you'd better lay down."
The ice-cold rain pounded down on Charlie's head.
"Oh - Charlie, what's that? Turn around a second." Kate grabbed his shoulders and spun him. Charlie blinked. He felt dizzy and nauseous but the world wasn't spinning anymore.
He suddenly became aware that the dull pain on the back of his head wasn't so dull anymore.
"Oww, don't do that," Charlie said grumpily as Kate prodded his wound.
"You have a huge cut here," Kate said, poking the spot.
"Stop!"
"Oh, sorry," Kate apologized.
"Where are the others?" Charlie asked as Kate ripped the hem of her shirt off and wrapped it hastily around his head. "How come you're out here when the others aren't?... Weren't you counting or was I imagining that too?"
Kate grabbed Charlie's wrist and dragged him along. "C'mon, let's see if we can get back to camp." She sighed. "Um... right, what? Counting?"
He nodded. The rain wasn't letting up. He shivered. "Yeah, like 'one, two, three, four, five.' Just to five."
This time Kate blinked. "I wasn't counting," she said rather quickly. "What was that other question? Mm, I was going to pick more fruits for Sun's garden is all."
"What time is it?"
"Probably early morning."
"Then what were you doing going berry-picking at midnight?"
Kate paused.
"Well?" Charlie pressed on. Kate held up her hand.
"Shh," she whispered, suddenly tensing.
"Kate ?"
"Shh!"
"What is it?" Charlie whispered as quietly as possible.
There was a loud crashing noise and an unhuman, grotesque roar ripped its way through the jungle.
"Dammit, dammit - Charlie, run!"
Charlie ran. Kate ran faster. Charlie was clumsier than she. She swerved and twisted around a corner. Charlie, slipping around in the mud, turned as well but there was no sign of her, not a single footprint. Lightning flashed above him, splitting the black sky, briefly lighting the jungle around him. Charlie narrowly missed a thorny bush. It scraped against his leg.
"Bloody hell," Charlie yelled angrily. His head was throbbing with a painful headache. The unseen monster was snapping and uprooting the trees behind him, snarling viciously.
Charlie glanced upwards, pushing through a thick veil of vines, looked down, then quickly stared back up, stopping dead in his tracks. Hanging by her neck above him was Kate, blindfolded and dripping wet.
"KATE! KAAATE!"
The monster was gaining on him. Sobbing violently, Charlie was forced to continue sprinting but to his surprise when he made it through the vines he was at the beach. He'd never known that was an entrance to the beach...
It was still dark - yes, it was early morning.
Not many people were there - there was Claire, Sawyer, and a few others he didn't know that had also refused to move to the caves. He ran over to Claire, slipping around in the soft sand. The soles of his retro Chuck Taylors were muddy and wet and nearly worn through. They weren't good for running.
He suddenly realized that the monster was no longer chasing him and it was no longer raining.
"Claire, Claire," he cried, trembling from head to foot, fear coursing through his veins. "C'mon, Claire!"
Claire sleepily opened her eyes and yawned. Halfway through she gasped, making her hiccup. "Charlie?" she asked incredulously, sitting up in her makeshift bed. "Oh, Charlie, you had me so scared! What were you doing, running off alone?"
"Claire - Claire, luv, Kate - she's - she's - and I - the monster- rain, thunder, bam - she was hanging there - Claire, I -"
Claire, her eyes wide, a flustered expression on her face, put her finger to his lips and hushed him gently. "Wait, Charlie," she interupted. "Take a deep breath now and tell me what's wrong! You poor boy, what happened? You're all wet and torn up. Let's take you to Jack, shall we?"
Charlie nodded numbly. Claire struggled to her feet and unexpectedly hugged Charlie. He was still shaking. "You poor boy," Claire repeated, "what happened?" She guided him like a child back towards the jungle. He cringed and pulled back.
"No, I don't want to go back in there," he whined. "Let's stay here, we can stay on the beach, can't we?"
"It's alright, Charlie, I'll be with you, it's not all that far to the caves. Jack is in the caves, remember?"
He whimpered like a puppy and Claire pulled him along like he was on a leash.
"What did you see?" she asked.
He shook his head, about ready to cry again.
"Oh, you don't have to tell me, Charlie," she said hurriedly. She patted his hand. "Nothing's going to hurt you."
Charlie was acting so differently than before. Before, when he had been sitting on the black rock, he was so closed off from the others, quiet and mournful, yet now he looked like a child that might burst out in tears any minute now. Even though she had told him that he didn't have to tell her, she truly wanted to know: what did he see?
As they walked along, Charlie kept jerking around, staring skywards.
"What are you looking for?" Claire asked him.
Charlie's eyes went wide. "It's happening, it's finally happening," he told her.
"What's happening?"
"This is the end," Charlie whispered. "Someone else knows... and the island is angry."
Sorry for the short chapter, people, it wasn't a whole lot better than the chapter before. Meh, it was probably worse than the chapter before. Ah well. Please please PLEASE review!
