A/N Words truly cannot express how sorry I am. The last year has been hard for me, what between school, work and personal lives. I was forced to take a break from writing due to lack of time and some writers block. However, I remembered this story and reread it, rediscovering how much I liked it. I am going to try my best to finish this story no matter how long it takes. If any of my readers are still out there, all I can say is thank you. If not, and I'm writing to myself, than it's worth it to know I accomplished what I set out to do.

Fear: An unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat.

I had been in this cave for a while. I didn't know how long, and to be honest, I didn't care. I wanted to stay in there forever, away from everyone. As long as I was in here, I couldn't hurt anyone. Other than myself, emotionally. The tears kept flowing down my cheeks, but I really didn't care anymore, like I didn't care about anything anymore. My mother wasn't here, so she could no longer intimidate me. And, if we ever got off this island, I refused to live with her and Roger again. If this island had taught me anything, it's that I am my own person, and nobody could change that.

Although I may be stupid, weak, scared, indecisive and a total pushover at times, I was still human. I obviously had choices to base my life upon, and that's what I planned to do for the rest of forever. Whether my forever happened to be on this island or back in England, I decided I would live my life the way I wanted.

And right now, I just wanted to curl up and die. And I would've done it, too. But, I heard someone's frantic footsteps in the distance. That's when I knew something had to be wrong.

I crawled up to the entrance of the cave, looking out to see what was happening. I was sure if I kept crouched down and stayed in the darkness, I could see outside and no one could see in.

I decided that if it was somebody I didn't hate passing by, I would go with them to camp. I couldn't stay here for long. I really just needed a little bit of time to myself.

I saw Samneric running down the mountain, towards the cave I was hiding in. I stood up, outside of the cave, and they stopped dead in their tracks when they saw me. They initially looked scared, but then noticed who it was.

"Riley! We have to run! We-"

"Saw the beast!"

"In the forest!" The twins exclaimed at the same time.

"Guys, there's no beast..." I trailed off. To be honest, I didn't think there really was a beast, but something inside me told me to be warned. That there was, in fact, something on this island. Beast or otherwise.

"But we saw it!"

"Big dark eyes!"

"And sharp claws!"

"Run!" They finally finished.

Sam had taken a hold of my right wrist tightly and started dragging me behind his running feet roughly. Finally, giving into his strength, I started to run. He let go of my wrist and I ran up beside him. We were silent until we reached camp. Many of the boys were asleep in their shelters, but I could vaguely make out Ralph's broad figure, sitting alone on a log, deep in thought.

I sighed, remembering once again that he probably hated me. So, when Samneric jogged up to him to talk about what they thought they saw, I hung back.

I heard the twins whispering anxiously to Ralph. I could barely make out any features on Ralph's face, but I saw his expression twist into one of doubt and fear.

"Are you sure?" I heard Ralph ask Samneric. They nodded their heads quickly, clarifying that, in fact, they did see the beast.

"Okay..." Ralph trailed off, obviously trying to think of what to say next. He stood up and paced around for a moment.

"Riley," he finally spoke, making shifty eye contact with me, "Go wake the other bigguns. I'm calling an assembly. No littluns," he clarified.

I headed towards the shelter the older kids slept in. Yes, that shelter was finally finished. I stepped in and carefully shook the boy nearest to me. Maurice lifted his sleepy head and muttered something incoherently. Probably cursing. Sleep didn't come easily when you were cramped in a tiny shelter made of sticks with more then ten kids in it while sleeping on the beach of a deserted island, knowing that with one strong gust of wind, the shelter was coming down.

"Maurice, Ralph wants me to wake all the boys in this shelter," I told him. He swore under his breath again and muttered something about Ralph's leadership skills.

He then proceeded to kick the nearest person. Jack's mop of red hair immediately shot up, as if he was on guard for anything. More specifically, the beast.

"Your girlfriend wants everyone in the shelter awake. Ralph's calling an assembly or some bull shit like that," Maurice told Jack. I could feel my cheeks heating up at the mention of 'girlfriend', but quickly caught myself. Ralph. What about him? I couldn't just forget about him.

Now Jack groaned and began to wake his friends. I took the time to slip away from the shelter and head towards the assembly area. I sat on a log beside Eric, and silently waited for the sleepy boys to find their way towards the meeting.

Some of the boys gave me strange looks when walking into the assembly. It was hard to see their faces, but it almost seemed like they were giving me the same look they did in those first few hours of the crash. Kind of like they were saying 'What is she doing here?'. I wasn't really gone for that long, was I?

Simon was the first of the boys who were sleeping to make it into the meeting area. He graciously took a seat next to me, making me feel thankful. He was much better for me to sit beside right now than Jack or Roger or Ralph. I was sure that soon I would be sitting next to Jack at every meeting. But right now, Simon was the perfect person to be sitting with. He was so kind and, in a way, he was calming. I felt myself relax at his aura. And now I'm sounding insane.

The rest of the boys filed in and took their seats among the assorted logs. Ralph stood in front of the crowd and grasped the conch tightly in his hands. I could see the moonlight glittering off the polish of the shell's surface. He opened his mouth to speak, but quickly changed his mind and handed the conch to the closest twin instead.

"We saw the beast-" started Eric.

"We saw him with our own two eyes." Sam cut in.

The two went back and forth, retelling the story to the group of teenagers sitting in front of them. I quickly looked around the half circle, inspecting each and every boy's face. Most looked horrified, too scared to speak. However, when my eyes trained on Jack and Roger – sitting side by side, of course – I saw a different emotion. Excitement. Anticipation. Desire. Bloodlust. Anything but fear. I knew exactly what would come next.

"This will be a real hunt! Who's coming?" Jack jumped up and exclaimed when the twins were done. Ralph quickly refuted him, pointing out that with wooden spears they stood no chance. Their usual fighting went back and forth until Jack questioned Ralph's manhood.

"Scared?" Ralph's expression turned to one of loathing and bravery.

"Of course not-" Jack shoved a spear to the blonde's chest before he could finish his sentence.

"But what will we do about the littluns?" He finished hesitantly.

"Leave them." Jack answered simply.

"Someone has to stay and protect them," Piggy quietly mumbled. Jack sneered.

"And who shall it be, fatass? You? You can't hardly protect yourself."

"I- I'll stay back with him," I heard myself say. Not that I was afraid, nor could I really do much harm if a beast came to attack the camp, I just didn't think I could take being in the same place as Jack and Ralph together for much longer.

The look on Jack's face became mocking, as if he were going to say exactly what I had been thinking – I couldn't fight much better than Piggy. But, thinking twice he walked over to me. He lowered his face ever so slightly so I was looking straight into his eager blue eyes.

"Are you sure you want to stay behind? I won't be here to protect you and it won't be safe," he whispered, his breath tingling against my lips.

"It's not going to be safe chasing after a monster, either," I pointed out.

"It's not safe anywhere on this island. At least if you were with me I can look out for you," he lifted his right hand and tucked a piece of hair behind my ear.

"Don't worry about me, I'll be fine."

"There's a few extra spears around camp, make sure you have one with you at all times, okay? I don't want my princess getting hurt," and with that he took me by surprise as his lips crashed against mine. It wasn't a sweet soft kiss as Ralph's had been, but a more forceful, powerful, and yet strangely stimulating one. I liked it a lot more than I expected to.

"O-okay," I stumbled over my words as he let me go. He smiled and placed another short kiss on my forehead before walking towards the rest of the boys, some of whom were cheering and wolf whistling. My eyes met Ralph first. He gave me the darkest look I've ever seen dawn his features as he turned his glare away, completely disgusted. Coming up immediately to Ralph's side was my brother. He turned to me to give me a death glare, one that promised revenge. He then trained his sights on the ground and didn't look up again. Finally, Jack turned towards me, grinned sheepishly and started leading the hunters away.

I couldn't imagine what their hunting trip may turn into. I just hoped Jack would come back alive. Ralph and Roger both looked pretty angry. I outwardly sighed, the confusion of what – and who – I wanted was clearly getting to me.

"Riley?" I heard Piggy say from behind me. I spun to face him and instinctively plastered a smile on my face.

"Yes?"

"What do we do now?" His voice quaked. He was scared. I suddenly felt badly for him, and looked to my left and right, looking for the answer to his question. I spotted the rest of the spears propped up against our shelter and walked towards them. Grasping two in my grip, I walked back towards Piggy, handing one to him.

"Well… I guess… we wait."

A/N So if there's anybody still out there (or anyone new), reviews are much appreciated.