A/N: Okay… wow… no reviews for the last chapter. That's okay though… I'll keep writing this anyway. Sorry if the whole bit with Libby scared you off or something. It just seemed like a good idea to me.

Disclaimer: I don't own LOST… if I did would I really be writing fanfiction about it?

(Kate's point of view)

I regret it. I regret the kiss and everything that happened afterwards. If I had just taken responsibility for what I had just done I probably wouldn't be in this mess right now. And frankly, I'm scared. No, I'm petrified. Even though you would think that I was a hardened criminal and that something like this wouldn't scare me, it does. You see, I only did the things I did out of fear. I was afraid of Wayne, I was afraid of going to jail for killing Wayne, I was afraid of all of it. I wouldn't have gone through anything that I did if I wasn't so afraid. Now here I am, scared as ever. I wonder why the natural reaction to fear is to run? My life has been so full of fear that I always have this itch to run away and I can't stop. Now, even if I was let off for murder, stealing, lying, etc. I would still want to run all the time. It's in my system now and it will take a lot of work to get it out. I know that Jack wants to help me stay grounded. That's why I'm afraid of him… running is a natural comfort… sort of like a security blanket. I'm afraid to let Jack close enough to rip that away from me because then I'll actually have to face problems. And yet I want Jack to help me… I want to face my problems. So all-in-all… I'm screwed.

(No point of view)

Kate had dozed on and off for the past three hours. What else was she supposed to do? She was just about asleep again when suddenly the people carrying her stopped dead in their tracks.

"What the hell?" she thought to herself as her eyes snapped open. Oh yeah… there was a burlap sack blocking her vision. She could hear something shouting from a ways off.

"Damn it! Damn it, damn it, damn it!" someone shouted and Kate froze. "Kate!" was the final cry heard from a distance and all was silent again. Kate recognized the voice and it sent goose bumps up and down her arms.

"Jack," she whispered and she felt hope stir. He wasn't that far behind… he could only be about a mile off. The Others knew this and they began to mutter quietly to themselves.

"We can still lose him… it sounds to me as if he's hurt," a male voice argued and other voices agreed with him.

"Oh yeah? And what if he does catch us? I've been watching Jack and he's not gonna let something as little as an injury keep him from coming after his Katie poo," a rougher voice argued and all was silent. Kate's heart raced… would they go after him and kill him?

"I say we eliminate the problem," a rough female voice responded. Kate felt tears sting her eyes as she thought of what that meant.

"No!" a younger female voice cried. Kate recognized it as the young woman who had been arguing with "Zeke" before. "Do you not remember that we need him. We just have to keep ahead of him for a while longer until we reach the spot. We need him if we are going to complete this mission," the woman finished and waited for a reaction.

"You're right," the rough voice from before responded. "We need Jack to start this war," he encouraged. "Now come on… he can't catch us if we pick up the pace!" There were several enthusiastic cries and Kate felt herself being carried at a lightning speed. Before Kate had prayed for Jack to come find her… now she wished he would turn around and go back.

"Please Jack… I'm not worth the lives of everyone else on the beach!" she silently pleaded. She knew that no matter how much she pleaded with him he would still come after her. It was in his nature to not let one person fall. Even though Kate couldn't see it there was a raven circling slowly over the group… seeming to send a black shadow over the travelers.

……………….

Charlie carefully opened his front door and took a peek inside. All seemed quiet and restful. He slowly entered the house and looked around, hoping to see his brother. He wasn't around though so Charlie had to make his way to his mom's room alone.

"Mum," he whispered hesitantly and knocked on the door. He could hear a rustling inside and footsteps headed towards the door.

"Charlie, is that you?" a woman's voice asked worriedly. Charlie breathed a sigh of relief and nodded against the door.

"Yeah… it's me mum… I heard about the trouble," he answered and the door opened a bit.

"What do you want Charlie?" his mother asked quietly, refusing to look at him. Charlie's heart ached as he saw his mother's fair face streaked with tears and her blonde hair horribly messed with. Her blue eyes contained fear and despair in them.

"I want to come in and talk mum… I just need to talk to you," Charlie pleaded and the door opened wider.

"Come in then," she muttered and Charlie slipped through the door. He was surprised how put together and clean his mother's room looked. It so terribly reflected the emotions that were clearly running through the room.

"I wanted to thank you… and apologize for making you stick up for me," Charlie said regretfully. His mother stared at him for a moment and smiled gently.

"You're father is wrong about you Charlie… you have such a good heart. You'll grow up to be a great man one day," his mother said gently and laid a hand on her son's shoulder. "Promise that you won't make the mistakes I did… the mistakes I made of raising you and your brother and the mistake I made of marrying your father. It was a marriage of convenience," she pleaded softly and Charlie tearfully shook his head.

"You didn't make any mistakes raising me mother," he whispered. His mother just stared at him kindly.

"I'm going to take a bath now Charlie… to clear my head. You go on to bed and we'll face your father in the morning," she stated simply and headed towards the bathroom. Charlie nodded and turned to leave the room when something stopped him. For some reason he couldn't quite leave the room yet. He went over to his mother's dresser and gazed at the pictures lined up there. So many happy pictures, depicting a life that barely existed. Charlie jumped at the sound of water running and then turned back the pictures. He picked his favorite one up tenderly, it was a picture of the entire family in a studio. His brother had messed his hair up right before the photographer took the picture, Charlie was sticking his tongue out, his mother was reaching over to fix her son's hair, and his father was smiling painfully at the photographer. Charlie laughed as he always did upon viewing this picture. The laugh died on his lips though when he saw a sheet of paper fall from behind it. Curiously, he opened the folds and read his mother's neat scrawl.

My dearest sons,

I wish I could have lived to see you all have families of your own. Unfortunately that wasn't able to work out. I'm so sorry about the way I chose to exit life but you see it was really the only option…

There had been more to the letter but Charlie had stopped reading. He frantically made his way to the bathroom and tried to open the door. Sadly it was locked and Charlie wasn't able to get in.

"Mother, please it doesn't have to end this way!" he screamed through the door. "Don't do this! You can live to see us have our own families… please don't give up on me!" Charlie hollered as loudly as he could over the running bath water. He rammed himself against the door, trying desperately to break it open. Unfortunately Charlie was never really in to working out after school. He quickly abandoned this method and began searching her nightstand for a hairpin. In the back of his mind he already knew that it was too late but he fiercely ignored this. He could hear footsteps coming up the stairs but he didn't pay attention to it. He had to find a hairpin! He opened the last drawer on the nightstand and found a single hairpin… glittering up at him mockingly. He grabbed it and raced to the door.

"Charlie! Charlie what are you doing!" his brother shouted to him but Charlie ignored him. He aggressively shoved the hairpin into the lock and began to turn it frantically. This had to work. Charlie could feel warm water seeping underneath the door to his feet but he ignored this as well. Finally the door unlocked with a click and he raced into the bathroom. He stopped dead as soon as he saw the bathtub… he stopped and stared. His sweet mother… with whom he had just been talking to nearly an hour before, was there in the bathtub.

"How long had I been looking at those pictures," he thought to himself randomly. He stared and he heard his brother's breath quivering behind him. Charlie didn't even care that his mother's blood was seeping into his shoes and staining his pant legs. He didn't even feel it when his brother pulled him from the bathroom and into the bedroom. As far as he was concerned he was still in the entry way to the bathroom… staring at his mother for all of eternity.

Ever since then Charlie had done a pretty efficient job of convincing himself that she died suddenly in the night… probably from a heart attack from all of her stress. Sometimes though, like now, he dreamed about that night and he remembered.

…………………

"How much farther do you reckon he went?" Sawyer asked for the hundredth time that afternoon. Sayid rolled his eyes and gave the same answer he had every time.

"I don't know Sawyer," he said, annoyance etched clearly in his voice. Sawyer was blissfully silent for a while and all that could be heard was the tramping of feet. A bird passed over head and Bernard, being a natural bird watcher, looked up to see what kind it was. His blood ran cold though when he recognized the raven circling above them. Bernard was not a superstitious man but in times like this he certainly could believe in an omen. Sawyer followed his gaze and for a moment his blood was icy too. Sawyer had read that poem by Edgar Old and Creepy in high school and it all came back to him in a rush.

"Quote the raven, nevermore," Sawyer muttered darkly. Bernard shot him a look but remained quiet. There was an eerie silence in the group and everyone could feel a sense of foreboding creeping into their stomachs with every circle of that raven.

"Hey Sayid…" Sawyer began and Sayid turned to look at him, sensing a different tone in his voice. Sawyer was staring at the ground with interest. "How much farther do you reckon he went now?" he asked and pointed to the ground. There were faint traces of blood mixed in the soil and not far off there was vomit. Yes, this was the same place that Jack had stopped to rest for the first time. Sayid's eyes scanned the ground and he gave a grim smile.

"Not far," he answered simply and began to walk again. Bernard and Jin stared at the ground a while more before heading after Sayid and Sawyer. And still the raven circled them and in the minds of the fearful travelers they could of swore it croaked a line of,

"Nevermore!"

A/N: Okay… that was a really creepy chapter for me to write. It was overall depressing… lol! Please review and tell me what you think!