The pounding was as loud as drums. It was a continuous beat, loud, and completely unbearable.

Cole's head was hunched over, his dark hair hung over his eyes, hiding his shame, and hiding his fear. His legs felt like rubber, shaking as he walked, and Cole feared they would buckle underneath him.

Turans surrounded the boy. They were screaming and shouting with joy, some throwing rocks at him, happy to see him take his walk of shame, the walk to his death. A clawed and furred hand was wrapped around Cole's arm firmly, making sure the prisoner didn't escape.

"Take him to the cliff!" Turans cried out in the large throng. "Throw him off!"

The soldiers holding Cole ignored them, only facing forward, but the boy knew their intentions were to do just as what the crowd wanted them to do. They will throw him off of the canyon, and that was going to be it.

The pounding in Cole's ears got louder, and louder, and were bursting in his ear as he emerged from the entrance of the cave and faced the steep side of the cliff.

Cole's heart was pounding, and his stomach hurt from the fear and the big hole inside.

The Turans had moved outside, still continuing their yelling, and some now raising weapons, as if to show that the boy was going to die no matter what the guards did.

The Turan holding Cole forced him closer to the edge, so close that rocks fell from his feet and tumbled down into the steep cliff. Shouts from the Turans grew stronger as they told the guard to throw him over already. To end him.

Cole whimpered. He had never been so scared in his life. This was it. He looked down again, waiting for the guard's push down the cliff.

Suddenly, a thud echoed everywhere. It came from the cliffside.

Cole looked closer, but there was nothing there. Then suddenly, a face appeared right in front of him as the figure landed, it's eyes staring into the boy's soul. With a shout, the other Turans pointed their weapons at the creature, but it only stared at Cole. It didn't say a word.

"What do you want?" Cole asked, as brave as he could.

"Cole, it's me."

"...Kai?"

It was Kai. Cole hadn't recognized his face because the moon had cast a shadow, blocking it. And although Cole had believed it'd be best not to accept Kai, the boy couldn't be happier seeing him.

Kai got in front of Cole, guarding him from the Turan's spears and knives they threw at the boy. Then Kai grabbed his arm.

"Are you ready, Cole?" Kai asked, his eyes almost playful. "Hang on to me. Tight."

Cole nodded and wrapped his arms around Kai's torso. Kai leapt high and far, away from the angry screams of the Turans.

Jay and Nya almost reached the top, clinging on to the spare and protruding rocks from the cliffside. They were completely silent, the only sounds between them the occasional grunt and the scrape of rock.

Neither wanted to talk about their conversation.

Jay only looked up. He refused to look at the girl beside him, and only focused on the top of the cliff. To get there alive.

"...Jay..."

"Not now, Nya."

"Jay, I'm s-"

"Sorry?"

Jay's voice was sharp and almost angry, nearly sending Nya to tears. She felt horrible.

"Look, Nya, I meant it. I did. I do love you. And I've known for a while that you didn't feel the same, you only belong to Zane."

"That's not true, Jay! I belong to no one! And you don't love me. It's a crush. No one is in love with me!"

"I am, Nya. I've had about five years to figure out my feelings for you, and I know it's not just a crush, okay? Can we just drop it?"

It was silent again. And the space between them built with things that they didn't say, that they didn't want to

say. Neither wanted to ruin their friendship any further. Then there was a thud. A scraping. They looked down.

The Turans below were cheering wildly. A Turan was climbing up, a thirst in his eyes, something so strong that they could see even from the distance between them and the monster.

"Climb!" Nya cried, and she quickly anchored her feet and vigorously climbed. She gripped on to all of the ledges that she could find, and so did Jay. But the Turan climbed quicker, gaining speed, and breaking the distance between them. He was covering more of the cliff in seconds than they had in an hour.

"We've got to go!" Jay yelled, who was trying as quickly as possible to climb as well. The Turan was coming, and neither of the two liked the glint in his eyes at all.

Nya pointed. "Look! Jay, the top is right there. We just have to get to it. Come on,"
Then there was a crumbling. The cliff shook, and the two struggled to hang on.
Jay looked at Nya, tears of fear streaking from their faces, and their expressions petrified.

And she reminded him of the day on the cliff, looking at ice, and the tide turning and almost drowning Nya. It had seemed so long ago, when all they had to worry about was packing for the Dark Island. And those days when all they looked forward to was the Carnival of the Dead, and all that Nya feared was that Kai may not ever be nice to her again.

Everything had changed. Everything.

Jay was brought out from his trance as the cliff gave an even mightier shake, almost sending him falling. He looked down.

There was suddenly a flood of thousands of Turans, stretched across almost the entire canyon floor, pounding on the cliff and making it shake.

"They're trying to make us fall!" Nya exclaimed, and determination set into her eyes. "Let's go! And hang on!"

But hanging on was one of the hardest things they had to do. The cliff shook violently, and the two knew that they were in trouble. It was like an angry earthquake, one that seemed it would never stop.

They almost didn't notice the rope, worn and battered, drop down in front of them. Quickly they grabbed it, and climbed with all of their might, only resting when they reached the top.

The two lay on the floor, and only then did they realize how sore they were.

Their arms felt like rubber and their fingers looked white and worn. Their legs were lead, and they could barely feel them. The two had just done a three hour climb.

Two pairs of arms wrapped around them, and when Nya saw talons gleaming in the light, she screamed. But then she realized it was her brother, and little Cole smiling at them.

"Kai!" Nya cried, her arms thrown around her brother, ignoring the fur growing on his figure. Never had she

been so happy to see him, not to mention Cole.

Jay was crying tears of joy as he hugged his brother, glad that he was alright. He looked at Cole in the eyes, then he looked around.

"Where's Zane?" Jay asked.

"We don't know," Kai said, sounding upset. "We've looked everywhere. Cole said that Zane had escaped, and he almost died because he wouldn't give the information he didn't know."

"Cole's okay," Kai added quickly when he saw Jay's face. "But if we are going to find Zane, we have to go, now. I want to get off of this island."

All four nodded their head in agreement.

They were more than ready, after all that they had been through.

They found Zane after a long hour of searching.

He was lying down behind a tree, and he was only visible because he had been draped in a bright red sheet which seemed to melt into the dirt, soaking the soil.

And then as they got closer, they all realized with a violent jolt that it wasn't a sheet.

It was blood.

Nya screamed out Zane's name, agonizing, and pushed past her stunned companions. She ran to him, who was still lying very very still and had not yet moved.

She'd shaken him back and forth as hard as she could, her sobs getting louder and louder as she begged for Zane to wake up.

Then Nya's elbow had bumped hard on something sticking out from Zane's stomach, and she had looked to see what it was.

It was a knife, stabbed and sunk right through his skin and into his organs. Zane had been impaled by his own knife, with his fingers wrapped around it, and now he wasn't moving. He wasn't breathing, and he needed to breathe.

Nya took out the knife from inside of Zane's body, and tossed it away, not looking to see where it landed. She immediately got to trying to push air into Zane's body, her sobs and screams getting gradually louder.

Nya felt hands grab her shoulders, trying to hoist her up, but Nya couldn't have it. She thrashed them away, not caring about anything else but bringing Zane back to life.

Kai was on one side while Jay was on the other, both trying to push her away from the bloodied vessel on the forest floor. Kai was burying his face into Nya's shoulder, and Nya could feel the wetness of her brother's tears there.

Nya's eyes couldn't leave the sight of her dead boyfriend's, and used all of her strength to push away from her brother and friend. She sprinted back to Zane, and threw herself on top of his body, not caring if she got a bit of blood on her body from doing so.

And instead of trying to push Zane back to life, Nya collapsed, and wrapped her arms around the dead boy. She pulled away, trying hard to look at the face that she had known, and had loved.

But Zane was gone, forever.

And Nya knew the truth. They all did.

It was self-inflicted. The angle that they had all just found it in confirmed that. There's no way that a Turan would use a knife to kill.

Nya looked at Zane, tears still flowing violently down her cheeks.

Why did you do it, Zane? she asked, before breaking down again.