Chapter 5
They were having a meeting. Well they were having a meeting and a feast. It was complicated. They were having a feast celebrating their first ever win in their battle to save those who were lost on the island and thus cleaning their hands of the others blood. Making them no longer killers but nice, proper, innocent british boys, men, again. Yay for wins and celebrations. However they were not just feasting they were also having a meeting.
They needed to have this meeting. Because they just ran into their first problem with time travel. And that problem was a small six year old boy who for all the world knew in the future had died on the island. Said little six year old who was very much alive and eating all their chocolate pecan cake. Yes Jack had traveled into the future and gotten some food so they could celebrate in their misshift camp. But who told that child he could eat all the cake? Those were expressive.
Roger glanced across the camp at the six year old. For a short moment he wished they had left him behind to burn just so he would stop eating all their cake and not just eating it but putting his nasty fingers in it as well. The same fingers that the dark haired boy recorded him digging in his nose with. Man he hated little kids. Why were they so annoying? And so disgusting as well. Even 10 years before he hated them and he guessed the feelings had not changed.
"You know if he is dead. " Maurice spoke from Roger right. There is an amused smile on his face. "We won't be celebrating right now and thus there would be no cake."
Roger blinked at the other boy. He wondered if he had said his thoughts out loud or something. Because how did Maurice know he wished the little boy was dead?
"Yes." Bill said from next to Maurice. He was smiling as well. They all were. They had done the impossible this day. What was not to smile about? They were one step closer to their goal. "You did muttered it out loud. And yes that is very disgusting of him to use his snort fingers to dig in the cake. But look on the bright side . We won. He is here."
Roger blinked then felt a smile slowly come up on his lips. Yeah. They had won. That was good. Very, very good. But they had a problem. Roger's smile slowly dissolved from his lips. Yep. they had a big big problem on their hands. He and Ralph and Jack had discussed it for a moment before Jack had left with Ralph to get the stuff from the future to celebrate. What were they going to do with a six year old boy that for all the world knowledge was dead, dead, dead? Joseph, the mulberry mark boy, was a ghost walking. A time ghost to be exact. What were they going to do with him? Put him on the ship back to England? Put him in an orphanage? Raise him in the future with them? What do you do with a child that was not meant to be alive? What do you do with three boys counted dead to exact. Joseph was not the only time ghost they were planning to have. If and when they rescue Piggy, James, and Simon what were they going to do with them? For everyone's knowledge those three had died on the island. Never to be seen again until there day of judgment as stated in the bible when the dead would rise again. Yes he read his bible and listened to the preaching in church.
"What are we going to do with him?" Roger stated to the two. And there two men shared a look then looked back at him. They looked confused. Roger had forgotten this was why this was not just a feast but a meeting as well. They others had not been told there problem just yet.
"What do you mean?" Bill questioned. He didn't know what his classmate and friend was getting at. What were they going to do with the little kid? Ha! That was easy. What? Why celebrate with him this day of course then put him to bed in one of their tents and wait for morning to take him back….
The young man blinked and blinked and blinked as the question finally hit him. Yeah, what were they going to do with a ghost like a kid? Because Joseph was a ghost to everyone else in their timeline.
"Oh no." Maurice said, stating out loud Bill's own panic. Oh no, that was right. They couldn't just return him to his parents after this. Nobody knew he was alive except them. Before he could continue his train of thoughts a bell rang. It was their meeting bell. Jack had gotten it on their first night back on the island. "Right meeting time."
With that there young men moved away from their position to the area they usually had their meetings at since returning to the island. An area in there center of camp where their lanterns laid each night as they slept in their camping tents, 4 to one.
Simon stared up in the middle of his conversation with Sam and Eric to look in the direction of the mountains. For a moment he thought he heard something. Something odd, Something like a bell ringing. It was the third day in a row he had heard that sound.
He was not the only one he knew. He had asked some of the littlun if they heard anything and they had. Some said they heard bells like back in school and church. They had started a rumor that it meant someone was going to die soon. Just like the mulberry mark boy had died a couple of days ago. Something about the bells of saint john and for own the bells trolls. Death some of the little ones had reasoned was why there bells sounded. It was the angel of death they had told him marking its prey. For each bell that sounded it was the number of children that would die soon.
Simon didn't really believe that but the way they seemed to be fighting and there fact one of them was dead. He sometimes wondered if maybe death was stalking them all waiting to devour them all. The young boy frowned.
"Did you hear that?" He asked Sam and Eric. The twins shared a look then nodded.
"Yeah…." Sam or was it Eric began with a look of panic on his face.
"It…"
"Sounded…."
"Like bells…" Eric or Sam finished. They had both drawn closer to Simon and looked ready to cry.
"Do you think…"
"It's death…"
"...or the beast?"
Simon frowned deepen and fear raised in his eyes but he said nothing in reply to Sam and Eric. That was not right. They had checked. There was supposed to be no one else on this island yet bells they had. Was death really stalking them?
