Chapter 3: Nightmares

As she sat in front of it, Kate mused that the fire was soothing and had an almost hypnotic quality. She could have lost herself in the fire, all the thoughts burned from her mind, if it hadn't been for Sawyer.

She really didn't mean what she had said to him earlier and regretted every word. It wasn't like her to feel guilty for so long, especially with something as insignificant as this. Sawyer got what he had coming, and besides, he needed his ego dropped down a peg or two. Kate tried to convince herself that she had been in the right, but a small voice in her head told her that she was wrong. She hated having a guilty conscience and the only way to get rid of the little whisper in her head was to apologize, something she wasn't too fond of doing.

"Why are you still up?" Jack asked from behind her, stretching and trying to stifle a yawn. His hair was tousled from sleep and he was rubbing his eyes.

"Can't sleep," Kate, answered as she turned around to face Jack. " I just have a lot on my mind." She said somberly, then smiled as she saw how cute Jack looked after waking.

"Yeah, we're all worried about Charlie and Claire. But if you don't get proper rest than you won't be any help to us tomorrow," Jack said seriously.

"I know, Jack, I will," Kate said as she stood up and headed for her bedroll. She stopped and turned around, then said softly, "Goodnight Jack."

"Goodnight Kate," Jack replied and the two went off in separate directions.

Kate sank down onto her makeshift bed, or rather, tried to sink. The hard earth made it difficult to get even remotely comfortable, and the thoughts running rampant through her brain didn't help any. She was tired of running, tired of always having to hide her true self.

Jack was the only one who knew much of anything about her past, but he had found out that information by mistake. Jack held her future on the island in his hands all because he had found her mugshot. He knew she was a criminal. He could expose her secret to everyone on the island at any given time, but he hadn't yet. That didn't mean he wouldn't though; Kate had learned long ago never to trust anybody, men most of all. She'd fallen for that trap too many times already, and she wasn't willing to do it again. She'd given up her heart before to someone who she thought she loved and loved her in return, but in the end it had turned out that she had given up her soul to the devil.

These thoughts were tiring though and she drifted off into an uneasy sleep with those words still in her head.

"Mm. No. Please." A plaintive whimper came from somewhere beyond the bushes to Kate's left. "Stop it. Please don't…"

Kate sat up quickly and scanned the clearing to see who was making that noise. It wasn't Jack; he was sleeping peacefully near the fire; nor was it Locke who was laying still and appeared to be asleep, but, upon closer inspection, Kate found that his eyes were still open. Boone was sitting on a log off to the side, near Locke, trying valiantly to stay awake but losing the battle. Every now and then he'd slump down and then jerk back awake, glancing around to see if anyone had noticed that he had neglected his post. That left Sawyer, and Kate wasn't even sure if he had retuned from off in the jungle. She hadn't seen him since their last encounter. Kate knew she shouldn't, but her curiosity got the better of her and she got up to find the source of the noise. For all she knew it could be Claire, crying out for help. She needed to know.

"Hello?" She called into the darkness, "Is anybody there?"

"Help me!" Came a muffled scream.

Kate whirled around and walked cautiously in the direction of the bushes where she thought the cries had been coming from. She warily parted the branches and spied Sawyer, thrashing about in his sleep. He moaned and tossed his head from side to side, hair plastered to his face with sweat. Kate had never seen him like this, so terrified.

"Sawyer," she whispered gently, walking closer, trying to wake the scared man before her.

Sawyer did not wake, but in fact only began to whimper even more. Kate kneeled down beside him, laying a soft hand on his clammy shoulder. She was surprised at the coldness of his body, the sweat beaded on his forehead.

"Sawyer," Kate murmured soothingly, her voice little over a whisper, "Come on Sawyer, wake up."

"No, please stop. Don't do this. Leave me alone!" Sawyer screamed and bolted upright, his eyes wild and panicked.

His cold hand snapped out and grabbed Kate by the throat, applying pressure and cutting off her air supply slowly. She tried to pull his hands away but her strength was slowly diminishing. She pawed at his wrists weakly but, in his half awake and terrified state, Sawyer refused to release her. Realizing this, Kate dropped her hands in defeat.

Blackness was creeping into Kate's vision as she raised her hands one final time to try and get through to the real Sawyer, not the feral man before her.

"Sawyer, stop it," Kate gasped out weakly, reaching out to touch his face, "Let me go."

At her touch, Sawyer's eyes cleared and he let go of her instantly. Kate collapsed in a heap to the ground in front of him, trying to draw air into her deprived lungs while Sawyer looked on in horror at what he had done. Red, bruising finger marks appeared on her pale throat, standing in stark contrast against the creamy white skin. Sawyer was shocked that he could lose control like that, that he had marred her.

Frightened eyes looked up at him as he stood and walked behind her. Sawyer crouched down and a rustling was heard as he reached into his bag. Kate flinched as Sawyer once again came towards her, but he only offered a bottle of water.

"Here," He said softy, his eyes sad, "I'm not gonna hurt ya, Kate."

She took the proffered bottle of water, her hand shaking. She lifted it to her lips and drank from it but ended up coughing it up. Her throat was still too sore to swallow.

"Easy girl," Sawyer murmured, taking the bottle from her hand as she coughed. He picked her up gently and moved her onto his bedroll, which, naturally, was softer than the others'.

Kate's brown eyes searched his before they closed tiredly. Sawyer wasn't about to protest, he had strangled the girl after all, and he wouldn't be able to sleep anyways.

Light rain began to fall, soft and soothing. He only hoped that it wouldn't turn into another one of the jungle's torrential downpours. Just as he thought this, the skies opened up and heavy rain began to fall.

"Ah hell," Sawyer muttered, "Just my luck."

He glanced over at Kate who was now shivering and beginning to stir as cold drops of water hit her face. Lightning cracked across the sky and thunder rolled. However, what woke everyone up was the sound of trees crashing, roars in the distance; slowly moving towards them.

"Run!" came a cry, "Everybody Run!" And the crashing came closer.