It was a silent journey home. Ralph had never seen a group of boys quieter and more submissive as the ones he shared a dining room with on the first night of the ship that rescued them from the island. Some of them sat in groups; Jack, Roger and Maurice were sharing a table in the middle of the small dining room that the marines used before them. They had moved to the captain's chambers to make room for their surprise guests on the way to England. The littluns were receiving special care from an on-board nurse the ship had.
The twins, Sam and Eric, had tried to talk to Ralph the minute after everyone had got haircuts and bathed for a couple of hours each, but Ralph had flat out ignored them. They were seated near him, at a table closer to Ralph's, and further away from Jack and the others, actively engaged in deep conversation and glanced over their shoulders at the fair-haired boy seated alone at one of the tables in the corner of the room.
Ralph ignored the twins. He also tried to block out the laughter occasionally coming from Merridew and his lot, out of the corner of his eyes the red-headed boy would often glance over his shoulder from where he sat in between Roger and Maurice and would smile and laugh if Ralph caught his eye. The former chief kept his gaze firmly down at their 6th bowl of porridge the marines had served them.
"Hey, Ralph," suddenly, the twins were standing behind him. Ralph nearly jumped; he hadn't heard either one of them even make a noise.
They sat down on the bench opposite Ralph, so they were facing him.
"We just wanted to say… we're… we're – " one of the twins, Sam, probably, who did a bit more talking than Eric at times, Ralph noticed.
Ralph stood up suddenly. He couldn't take it. He looked down at the twins, his face full of hurt and anger. "Piss off!"
Suddenly aware that the whole room was watching him, Ralph ran outside onto the deck desperate to get away from everyone.
It was like the last few moments on the island all over again. His heart was racing, he started panicking and didn't even hear his name being called as he ran back down a flight of stairs into a part of the ship he didn't know where it went or if he was allowed to go.
"Where – where am I? Piggy! Where are you?" Ralph called out in the dark, all alone, lost and confused as he found himself in a small room which had nothing but a tiny, rectangular old wooden door which he entered.
"Piggy!" Ralph shouted again. "PIGGY! PIGGY WHERE ARE YOU, WHERE – " Ralph broke down in the dark, empty room with nothing but the light of a small porthole.
"-alph! Ralph!" a voice shouted, growing louder and nearer, until –
"P-piggy?" Ralph said softly, as a lone figure stood in the doorway and started edging their way closer to the crying boy in the small room.
"It's only me," the voice spoke, as they sat down next to Ralph on the floor. The mysterious person put an arm around the smaller boy's shoulders.
The faint light from the moon in the porthole was enough to make out the red hair of none other than Jack Merridew.
Ralph stared up at the taller boy sitting next to him. "M-Merridew?"
"It's Jack."
Silence.
"J-Jack… why… it all went so wrong… we were friends," Ralph started to cry again.
"WE WERE FRIENDS!" Ralph yelled, with as much hurt and anger in his voice as the rest of them had been feeling ever since they were rescued earlier on that day.
"I know," Jack said quietly. He still had his arm around Ralph, as the other boy tried to calm down a little.
"Piggy was my friend."
"Yes. He was."
"Simon was my friend."
"… and we killed him. And I was all alone, and you tried to k – " a fresh wave of tears flowed through Ralph as he could not contain them any longer.
"We could have worked together." Ralph whispered.
Jack stayed silent.
"I – I would've let you have some power. We could have been joint Chiefs, we could have…" Ralph stopped talking.
"It's over now," was all Jack had to say. "What's done is done."
"You… you still have… you still have Roger, and Maurice, and Henry, and William and… and Sam and Eric, and I – "
"And you have me," Jack interrupted. "But… what…?" Ralph's crying had calmed down a little. He stared up at Jack. "We all did bad things on that island. I did bad things. We all turned on… on you, on Simon, on Pigg-" Jack couldn't seem to say his name. "What's done is done. It's time to move on, start over and forget that this horrible, awful thing ever happened. It's time to forget, Ralph. You have to forgive and forget and move on."
"What's gonna happen when we get off this ship. It seems really odd, but I don't think I could stand to be away from any of you." Ralph said softly.
"We live near each other, don't we?" Jack replied.
Ralph nodded. They had on the island, each discussed where they all lived, it turned out that Piggy and Simon lived the furthest away, while Jack and Ralph lived the closest – only one neighbourhood apart.
"I'll come over. Spend the night at yours… move in with you, hell my dad would hardly notice I'm gone," Jack laughed a little, Ralph could hear the sadness in his voice when he spoke.
"You know, I really don't think I want to stay apart from you. We were friends…" Ralph started.
"-are still friends." Jack cut in firmly. Ralph was starting to feel a little better. "We had differences, but when we got along…" Ralph said.
"The last thing I want to do is go home to my old man." Jack said bitterly. "He probably wouldn't have missed me one bit."
"My mum and dad would need some explaining, but I thought since you're so good at persuading…" Ralph commented.
Jack smirked. "Leave it to me, I will get your parents to agree to anything you want. After all, you did just come back from a traumatic experience. It's only in their good nature that they would want to make you happy again."
"You can be evil, but in good ways like that. Y'know," Ralph pointed out. "You should use it more often."
Jack just rolled his eyes. "Come on, we should get back. They will probably think we killed each other..."
He knew he could never leave Ralph alone again...
1 Year Later
"Ow! Jack, what the hell was that for?" Ralph complained, as his "older" brother had slugged him on the arm so hard he dropped the sandwich he had made himself for lunch – the family dog came along quickly and ate the remaining contents – much to the dismay of Ralph.
"For leaving the bathroom a disgusting mess like you always do!" Jack Merridew had replied in a smug tone of voice.
It had been over a year since the boys had returned from the island.
Ralph, now 14, and Jack, 15, had been living together ever since their renowned return, and after several (still ongoing) therapy sessions and family discussions, Jack had been allowed to move in with Ralph and his family – Jack's father had moved out of his house entirely, so there was no need to discuss Jack living with Ralph, Ralph's mother had thrown quite a fit at the sight of the older red headed boy's family home being completely deserted, that she (and Ralph's father) had accepted Jack as one of their own right from the very beginning.
Jack withdrew from his old school and currently attended the same high school as Ralph, as well as Roger, Maurice and William – who had all moved houses and schools for a new beginning, the five of them were a very tight knit group.
Sam and Eric also attended the same school as well, but they had become more closed off and reserved ever since their return home… Ralph gave them a nod and a grim smile if he ever passed by them on the way to classes.
"Hey, you need to clean it up soon, the guys are coming over after lunch," Jack told him.
"It isn't even that messy! And I'm pretty sure you made half the mess too, so…" Ralph took one look at Jack and quickly fell silent.
"I'll go do it now," Ralph said quietly, as he got up from the dining room table, abandoning his leftover lunch.
When Ralph was out of sight, Jack smirked. He felt a little bad for making Ralph clean the bathroom, when it was mostly his own mess after all, but… Jack couldn't help himself. He still got a kick out of Ralph following a simple command such as clean the bathroom, or put that away, or move over on the couch so he could sit in the best seat.
Jack was still in control.
Though they had both almost fully recovered from their time on the island, one thing Jack could never let go of was his lust for power and authority. His therapist knew it as well. Jack ruled the school, he had two right hand men – Roger and Ralph, who followed his every command, one of them never leaving his side.
Though one thing had certainly changed… he would not let Ralph out of his sight, he would not let anyone else near him unless it was one of their friends. Ralph had become his property, his responsibility – to keep him in line and under his control was Jack's number one priority in life. He was never going to let the same mistake happen again. He was never going to let Ralph get away.
Not now…
Not ever.