++ CHAPTER TWELVE

By daybreak, the morning after the raid on Ralph's camp, they had a steady cooking fire going. Piggy's coveted glasses were now on their side of the island, stowed safely in the waistband of Jack's loincloth. Soon, it wouldn't matter anymore – which side of the island they were on – because Jack would control all of it. All he had to do was get the insufferable Colonel and his pig-faced friend out of the way once and for all.

With Arianna in control, finally, Jack was confident that he wouldn't have to face any internal opposition anytime soon. Since the previous night, she had been so pleasantly submissive. He watched her as she walked onto the beach from the jungle with a bundle of firewood in her arms, before feeding some to the stolen fire without a single complaint regarding how it got there. It was almost too good to be true.

Arianna's changed behavior was not one to go unnoticed. Roger, who, as usual, was standing at his side, was also watching her with a look of disbelief. He let out a low whistle. "Holy shit, Jack," he told him. "What the hell did you do to her?"

Jack smirked. "Let's just say, I can be persuasive when I need to be."

Roger chuckled. Jack knew all too well that he assumed that he had simply beat Arianna into submission, but he wasn't about to correct him. For Roger was frighteningly good at many things – understanding subtle manipulation wasn't one of them.

"So I guess she wouldn't mind if I were to, you know…" He glanced at Jack, his tone revealing the slightest hint of uncertainty. He was asking him for permission.

Jack tried to play it off cool. "Are you kidding me?" he laughed. "I'm enjoying her silence for the first time in my life. How about you give it a couple days?"

Beside him, Roger scowled. "Oh, come on, Jack. Bitch tried to kill me yesterday. She owes me."

"I said later, Rog," replied Jack, meeting his gaze as a firm warning. "Like you said, she tried to kill you and she got pretty close. You better hope it doesn't happen again."

Roger held his stare emotionlessly. He was silent for several moments before answering, in an uncharacteristically breezy voice, "Sure, Chief. Whatever you say." Then he wandered off to go sharpen his spear before the afternoon's hunt.

Once he was gone, Jack let out the breath that he hadn't realized he had been holding in. He knew he was pushing the line a bit by withholding Arianna. He was the chief and she belonged to him, so it wasn't like he owed her anything. But that was just it, Jack reminded himself. Roger would just have to suck it up for a while because Arianna belonged to him.

She was still by the fire, feeding it sticks. When she bent over the flames, her dress rode up along her thighs. Jack noticed just how much it had frayed over time, exposing much more of her lean legs and leaving even less to the imagination. He couldn't resist. He walked up behind her and wrapped arm around her waist, bowing his head to kiss the nape of her neck.

"Oh!" Arianna exclaimed in surprise, letting the firewood in her arms tumble to the ground.

"Morning, gorgeous."

"You didn't have enough last night?" Arianna asked. Although her tone could hardly be described as playful, it was so weird to hear her address him in any other way than hostile.

"I'll never have enough," Jack replied, step around her to kiss her on the lips. However, her eyes had such a glazed and lifeless expression that it stopped him. "What's wrong with you?" he demanded.

"That's the problem," Arianna replied, looking as though she were surprised herself. "Nothing is."

Before Jack could get the chance to dig into her puzzling statement, he overheard Samneric's conversation from where they were sitting about a yard away.

"I guess that means that they like each other again?" one twin whispered.

"Hell if I know," the other answered.

Irritated, Jack called out to them, "What the fuck are you dorks looking at?"

"Nothing," they froze, answering in unison.

Rolling his eyes, Jack turned back to Arianna. It was great that she wasn't crying anymore or undermining his authority every chance she got, but her snarky comments were part of the fun. He hadn't realized that taming her, making her so quiet and docile, would be so damn eerie.

But still, he went on in his usual bragging tone. "You sit tight while we go catch a pig, and we can slip away later. I'll even save you an extra-large hunk of meat," he said and wagged his eyebrows suggestively.

"Sure, okay," Arianna said, passive and indifferent. No comeback, no look of annoyance. Jack supposed he should have expected this, but it freaked him out to no end.

"Okay then." He stepped back and cleared his throat. "Well, just stay on the beach and don't wander too far. The monster, remember?"

"Yes," Arianna answered, her eyes lighting up with recognition. She scanned Jack, with his spear and war paint and the stolen glasses. She understood and nodded. "Of course, Jack. The monster."

The whole time that Jack and the others were out hunting, Arianna couldn't stop thinking about it: how normal everything was becoming. It came as a relief not to feel like she was under duress at every second. But just because she could no longer feel that pain, did it make any of this less wrong?

She blushed at the thought of the previous night. It had been the first time she had been with Jack and felt something other than regret. She had kissed him, in an effort to somehow nullify all the times when those privileges had been taken against her will. She thought that it would make everything feel better. Somehow, deep down, she knew that it was only making it worse.

Jack had left Arianna alone, with some bullshit job of watching the fire (which was all so very ironic, considering his failed post guarding the signal fire). She had a feeling that he was testing her, trying to see if she really had changed. If she was truly loyal to his tribe now. She wanted to laugh at the idea running to Ralph, even though she had been so desperate to do so just days ago. From the way things looked, Jack was unstoppable. What choice did she have but to join him? Where else was she supposed to go?

In her numbed state, Arianna's next thought did not horrify her as much as it should have: the thought of resigning themselves to a long-term future on this island. Hunting pigs, day in and day out. Succumbing to Jack by night, and occasionally to Roger. And the longer they stayed here, once the other boys grew older, what would stop them from making their own demands?

This should have made Arianna sick, but it didn't. She was still stuck on the impossibility of getting older on this island. As far as she was considered, they were stuck in limbo. A dream state. An unreality.

Of course, she was in denial of a lot of things. It was her only coping mechanism these days. But sometimes, she couldn't help but think it – that suppressed fear that sometimes kept her up at night. Her hand wandered to her abdomen, which was still flat and growing flatter due to their rudimentary island fare. It would be far too early to tell, but the stubborn fear remained. The worst possible impossibility. Another pesky What if?

Arianna was saved from the agony of dwelling by the sound of whoops coming from the jungle. She knew instantly that they had been victorious, and that they would be eating well tonight.

And sure enough, she saw the tribe emerge from the trees with Jack at the lead and slain pig strung up on a stake behind him. The carcass retained its head this time, Arianna noted. But she wondered if that meant Jack's monster no longer expected any gifts.

"Congratulations," Arianna said once they drew close to the fire, even offering Jack a small smile. The word normal once again rang in her ears, giving her a funny feeling in her stomach. This is the new normal.

Jack bounded up to her with a triumphant grin on his face. "You should have seen it, Arianna," he told her. "Today's catch went off without a hitch. Maybe I'll let you come next time."

Join Jack on his next hunt? Arianna was shocked at this prospect. Just how integrated in his tribe was she going to be?

"Sure," she nodded. But she was grateful that he didn't go into further details this time, that his tribe did not break out once again into their murderous dance.

"You two," Jack pointed at the twins. "Gut the pig and prepare it to be cooked." Then he handed them the hunting knife, noticing that there was dried blood coating his palms. He continued down the beach to wash hands off in the water. Around Arianna, the tribe went off to do whatever they did when they weren't hunting. It was business as usual.

"So, you're a hunter now too?"

It was Roger. He was standing on the other side of the fire, leering at her through the flames. Arianna bottled up the urge to shudder.

"Good hunt, Roger?" she asked in a neutral tone. She noticed that he had the other, smaller knife in his possession and she learned her lesson. She wasn't about to provoke him.

Roger seemed to have other ideas regarding where he wanted to take this confrontation. He circled the fire to stand uncomfortably close in an effort to intimidate her.

"If Jack was serious about bringing you along next time, maybe I should teach you how to kill first," he said, flashing her his knife.

Arianna didn't break eye contact and she didn't cower. "It's okay," she replied coolly. "We all know how well it went last time."

"Yeah, I know," he said with a dangerous smile. "Don't you want to try again?"

She shook her head. He was trying to get a rise out of her by insinuating she should attempt to pull his knife on him again. Her neck still ached from yesterday, and she wasn't going to fall for it. "Goodbye, Roger," she said and tried to push past him.

"Hold up there for a second," said Roger as he grabbed her arm, steering her to a halt. "Jack may be too distracted by your tits to see the truth, but not me. I see right through you."

Arianna wanted to wince at his tight grip and crude language, but she held her ground. "What the hell are you talking about?" she asked.

He let out a dry laugh. "Oh, come on. You're not fooling anyone with this little Stepford wife act. You haven't changed, despite whatever Jack did to you. You're still a danger to this tribe."

"If you have any doubts regarding my so-called loyalty to Jack, then I can assure you that you're wrong," she said, struggling to remain calm in the face of his accusations. "And even if I had a choice, the fight between him and Ralph has pretty much already been won. Don't you see? It's over."

"But it isn't like you to give up losing battles, isn't it?" Roger shot back. "Who's to say that you won't try to steal my knife again and slit one of our throats in our sleep? Jack thinks he can trust you, but I think he's dead wrong."

His words stung enough for Arianna to bite back sarcastically, "You know what, Roger? I hadn't even thought about killing either of you in your sleep, but I'll be sure to keep that in mind."

"Ah, there she is," Roger chuckled, knowing that he got her this time.

"Wasn't it you saying that I didn't even have the ability to kill?" she questioned, dumbfounded. What else did she have to do to avoid getting antagonized around here? "Just tell me," she insisted. "What is this really about?"

"Man, you're lucky you're the only girl here," he muttered, eying her with disgust.

"Or else what? I wouldn't be indispensable?" Arianna demanded. Then she had to laugh because at that moment, it dawned on her what was bothering him. "Oh, I get it now. You're afraid because you aren't."

Roger's eyes narrowed into slits. "What the fuck do you mean by that?"

"You're afraid," she wanted to shout this declaration, but it came out as a jubilant whisper. "That the day will come where Jack won't need you. Maybe you're afraid that you'll be replaced."

"Shut up," he growled, his fingers tensing around her wrist but it didn't faze her. Arianna had him in her clutches in a way she would never achieve by brute force – she knew this now.

"Or maybe," she continued, "you're afraid that I'll replace you. A silly little girl like me – at Jack's side. I bet you would love that."

His face reddened, letting Arianna know that she had struck a nerve. He looked ready to strangle her again when he hissed, "Fuck you, I'll–"

But Roger wasn't able to finish his threat. Luke was yelling over from the guard post, "Chief! Chief! It's Ralph and Piggy."

And just like that, everyone ran over to see what was going on. Roger released Arianna, grabbed his spear, and headed over to the rocky lookout overlooking the entrance marking their side of the island. More curious than anxious, she followed him to the lookout. She just hoped that Ralph wouldn't do anything stupid.

"Halt! Who goes there?" Roger yelled from the top of the cliff.

From where she stood over Roger's shoulder, she saw Ralph approaching with a glasses-less Piggy trailing close behind.

""Don't be stupid, you know who we are!" Ralph called back. He looked angry. "We've got the conch and I'm calling an assembly. Where's Jack?"

"What do you want now?" snapped Jack, who was quick to enter the scene.

Arianna was struck by how clean and unimpressive Ralph looked, facing off Jack and his army of savages with no one but Piggy at his side. Even though Ralph was armed with a single spear, it couldn't help but remind Arianna of doomed soldiers. A Greek tragedy, the Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylae.

"You heard me. I've got the conch and I'm calling an assembly," said Ralph, refusing to back down.

The conch! Arianna had completely forgotten about it. How different things had been when they had first arrived on this island, all those weeks ago.

"Why don't you two just fuck off?" retorted Jack. "This is my end and my tribe. Keep to your own end."

Ralph must have found this rich, coming from Jack. He shot back, "You're the one who won't keep to your own end. Tearing up our camp and stealing Piggy's glasses. You've got to give them back."

"Got to?" he scoffed back. "Who says?"

"I do!" Ralph retaliated. "Piggy can't see. If you wanted to have a fire, all you had to do was ask."

"I don't have to ask!"

Arianna saw the way Jack raised his spear. She felt her heart rate quicken. She had a bad feeling that whatever was going to happen next, it wasn't going to end well.

Never one to be challenged, Jack took a blow at Ralph who blocked it quickly with his spear. As the fight broke out, Jack's tribe broke out into cheers, rallying behind their chief.

"Get him Jack!"

Before long, the spears had been knocked out of both of their hands. Ralph dove at Jack, and they engaged in a messy fistfight. Arianna watched from the overlook with bated breath. It was surreal, almost like watching a brawl erupting on the playground. They were still the same boys, but the context was different. On the island, there was so much more at stake.

The hunters kept shouting, their cries drowning the sound of the fight. Even though Arianna was watching from the sidelines, it was overwhelming.

"Good lord," she winced, seeing Jack land a punch at Ralph's side. "Somebody's gonna get killed."

Roger looked back at her with a smirk. "You best hope so, Princess," he said. Then he turned back to the fight, cupped his and around his mouth, and yelled, "Come on, Jack!"

Down on the beach, Jack managed to kick Ralph off, who retaliated with a kick of his own. Arianna wasn't sure whether they were about to call it a draw and come to their senses, or go back at each other again. However, everything stopped when they heard it: the trumpet call.

It was Piggy, blowing into the conch. The sound of it reverberated over the island, momentarily silencing the rowdy tribe.

"I've got the conch! Let me speak!" Piggy exclaimed at the top of his voice. Arianna wanted to look away out of second-hand embarrassment. Poor kid didn't stand a chance.

Around him, the boys cackled and jeered.

"Get out of here, Piggy," yelled Tony, waiving a dismissive hand.

Jack picked himself up and dusted himself off, shoving Piggy in the arm before standing to join the others.

"Please! This is serious!"

"Leave, Fatass!"

Although Arianna might not have liked Piggy very much in the past, she had to hand it to him. He was called names, he was given a warning – nevertheless, he persisted.

"What I want to say is, if we don't get rescued, we might have to live here for a very long time. Maybe the rest of our lives."

At this, the heckling began to somewhat subside. Piggy was reminding them of the truth, something that all of them had been too willing to forget. The thought about living on this island forever made Arianna sick. But who else here had given this fear much thought? Following Jack's lead, they'd all been too busy splashing around in the water and killing pigs.

Piggy continued, and some of the boys started to listen. "If we are stuck here 'til we get old, then we can't go on acting like kids. We've got to be sensible and make things work."

Arianna had been too wrapped up thinking about the horrors that a lifetime on this island would entail, that she hardly noticed Roger's movements in her peripheral vision. He was at the edge of the cliff, right above where Piggy was standing in the conch. Although he was being quiet, she finally noticed that he was doing something funny with his spear – digging it into the dirt under the boulder, using it like a lever. If he pushed down on the other end of his spear, the boulder would come free and…

The realization hit Arianna like a ton of bricks.

"Roger, no!" she shrieked.

Too late. The boulder sprung free from the rocky overlook and hurtled straight at the boy standing below. It hit him squarely on the head. He probably didn't even see it coming.

Even from where she stood at the edge of the cliff, Arianna could see the lifeless eyes peering out from deformed skull. Piggy, the voice of reason, was silenced.

All around, Arianna saw the shocked faces. It was all too clear, and there was no denying it: each and every one of them was complicit in Roger's crime. There was something even more disconcerting about witnessing murder in the daylight.

Ralph bent over, laying his hand over Piggy's chest in a futile attempt to see if he was still breathing. Knowing that Piggy was lost, he looked straight at Jack and vowed, "You're not gonna get away with this."

If Jack had any remorse for what had just happened, he didn't show it. "Oh yeah? And what are you gonna do? What are you gonna do about it?" he demanded. "You're out of it, pal. You're on your own."

He began to throw rocks at Ralph, chasing him out of his territory as if he were some pest. His hunters, ever the mindless soldiers, followed suit. Ralph had no choice but to run. Arianna's heart panged for him. Now, he was truly alone.

Once Ralph had been successfully expelled, Roger turned to look at Arianna. Involuntarily, Arianna took a step back. She had just witnessed firsthand what he was capable of, and she had every reason to fear what he might do.

"Like I said," Roger told her, smiling, "you're lucky you're indispensable."

Jack marched past the cliff, barking orders left and right, wielding a spear in a vice-like grip. To say that he had been annoyed by Ralph's appearance would be an understatement. He was positively livid. His anger was enough to shake the rest of the boys out of their state of shock, following the act of murder they had just seen.

Ralph would pay for opposing him. Jack ruled the entire island now. Ralph would have nowhere else to go.

"You," he pointed at Pablo and Luke. "Start preparing the meat for dinner.

"Yes, chief," they answered, straightening their backs like dutiful soldiers.

To the other boys, he looked at them expectantly. "Well?" he snapped. "What are you dorks waiting for? Clean up this mess." He gestured down at the beach, where there was as body that needed tending to.

"What?" exclaimed Will indignantly. He cleared his throat at Jack's glare, and promptly corrected his tone. "I mean, Chief, what do you want us to do with… with it?"

"Bury it. Dump it in the water," Jack explained in exasperation. "I don't care what the fuck you do, just get it out of my sight."

Without offering any further instruction, Jack brushed past the rocky overlook to where Arianna was standing by the cooking fire. Like the others, she still looked shell-shocked, a fact which Jack chose to ignore. "I need a stick," he told her. Not asking – ordering.

"A stick?" Arianna asked, bewildered at his request.

"Yes, something long and thin, like what we use for spears." Jack was growing more and more impatient. "You were the one gathering the firewood, so you should know."

"Okay, fine, I'll look," Arianna replied before searching through the pile of kindling.

While she was looking, Jack turned around and bellowed, "Roger!"

"Chief?"

As usual, Jack's right-hand man was never far from his side. Roger appeared over his shoulder. He looked smug – more than that, he looked elated. Not at all like someone who had just smashed a boulder into someone's head. Jack was beyond guilt at any rate. With Piggy out of the way, he was just one step to closer to absolute power. Absolute freedom.

"Here," said Arianna, handing Jack the longest stick she could find.

Jack grabbed the stick from her and thrust it into Roger's hands. "Sharpen it at both ends," he ordered.

Roger's shark-like grin widened with understanding. Wielding his knife, he whispered almost reverently, "Yes, Jack, of course."

He sat down on a rock to start carving and only then, when Arianna saw the pointed tip begin to form, did she look in Jack's direction with shock.

"You're…" she struggled, her lower lip trembling. "You're going to…"

Jack stared at her intently, daring her to say it. But when Arianna closed her mouth in resignation, he realized: he truly had won. "You're in my tribe," he reminded her. "Are you going to act like it?"

She was silent for a long moment. Jack could see the wheels turning in her head. In his head, he was urging her, come on, Arianna, you know what to do.

In the past, Arianna would have cried, even begged for Jack to spare Ralph. She would not only have told Jack that he was wrong; she would have yelled and kicked and screamed. The old Arianna would not have swiftly closed the distance between them, wrap her arms around his neck, and kiss him – heatedly, savagely – for all the world to see. But that was precisely what Arianna did.

Jack met her kiss with equal fervor. He ran his hands up and down her body, and the best he could through her tangled hair. She drew him closer, engaging his tongue in a fight for dominance. Jack felt his blood surge: Arianna wanted him.

"No," he drew back with a strangled gasp, surprising even himself. If he was going to win this thing once and for all, he needed to focus – even if that meant controlling himself for the evening. "Later," he whispered in her ear, voice husky with want.

Arianna wrapped her arms around his neck, her breath tickling the side of his neck when she whispered back, "I'm all yours."

The magic words. Mine, Jack thought to himself triumphantly as he withdrew. The words spurred him back into action.

By the time the sun had set, the meat from the day's hunt was sizzling on the fire. His hunters were once again rowdy and in good spirits. Their bellies were full, and it was as though the nightmarish scene earlier that afternoon had been forgotten. Somewhere, in a godforsaken corner of the island, Ralph was alone. Shivering in some little cave. Jack knew that there wouldn't be a better opportunity to get rid of him once and for all. He had to seize this chance.

Once they had all finished eating, Jack rose to the front of the crowd to speak. "Listen, hunters!" he yelled, and immediately, the voices hushed around him as everyone turned to listen. Jack smiled. Where was Ralph and his stupid conch now?

"Who was it that brought you fire? Who was it that brought you meat?" he called out.

Around him, his hunters cheered as they answered.

"You!"

"You, Jack!"

"Exactly," he continued. "We hunted as a tribe. We fought the monster. But our biggest enemy is still out there, lurking in the shadows. You know who it is?" Jack made sure to pause dramatically before shouting, "Ralph!"

At the mention of Ralph's name, the hunters booed.

"Ralph didn't want to protect you. He doesn't care about this tribe. He would have rather let you guys starve!"

"Yeah!"

"Fuck him!"

Around him, the jeering got louder and louder. Invigorated by the crowd's reaction, Jack raised his voice even more. "Ralph's probably in the jungle right now, teaming up against us with the monster. Are we gonna stand for that?"

"No!"

"Hell no!"

"Tomorrow morning, I say we show Ralph who he's messing with!"

A chorus of yeah's broke out in the crowd. Dozens of angry, painted faces surrounded Jack. The air was tense with a pulsating energy – the same kind of energy that overtook them at their first feast just a couple nights ago. He could hear it beating inside of him – the resonance of an invisible drum.

"We hunt at dawn!" he roared as he raised his spear. His tribesmen followed suit, screaming and cheering. There, on the beach: dozens of pointed sticks jabbing upward toward the heavens.

The sky above was stained pink and purple when Arianna awoke. Jack and the others had kept her up well into the night with their chanting and shouting. She was well beyond disgust at this point. Sitting up, she saw that Jack was already up and instructing the others, rousing them from sleep and making them sharpen their spears.

Today's the big day, Arianna thought to herself bitterly.

She was very lucky that she wasn't like Ralph. How could she be? From the beginning, Ralph had been a decent guy with an unwavering moral compass. Arianna, on the other hand, had been reckless and eager to let herself fall into the wrong hands. In a short span of time, she had learned how to play the game. She had won Jack's favor simply by telling him what he wanted to hear: I'm yours. Learning to think like him was the only way she could outsmart him.

She thought back to what she overheard Jack saw last night by the fire: that Ralph could be out there, teaming up with the monster. How convincing it sounded coming out his mouth. Jack had to have known that all that was a crop of bullshit, but now it was beginning to sound like he was starting to believe it himself.

For a time, Arianna had tried to be passive and numb. She had already seen two deaths and done nothing. She wasn't going to hang by the sidelines for the third. No matter what, she had to play the game. Just a little while longer.

"Arianna."

Jack had finished rounding up the boys and noticed she was awake. He made his way toward her.

She stood up. "You're leaving?"

"In a minute. We have to leave while the sun is still coming up." He showed her Piggy's old glasses, which had been dangling at his waistband. "We're gonna smoke him out."

"Oh," Arianna raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Like a pig."

"Exactly," Jack replied. "So I just need you to stay here on the beach, away from the jungle. You know, because of the fire. Can you do that?"

She forced herself to nod, even smile a bit. "Yes, Jack. Of course."

He was eying her closely, as though looking for the slightest sign of treachery. Her inner voice screamed at her in a panic, the game, Arianna! The game!

She closed the distance between them and kissed him softly on the lips. Her heart ached for easier days when they had just been two kids fooling around. She choked down the sentiment and instead whispered, "Just be careful, okay?"

Jack brushed his finger over her cheek. "Where's the fun in that?" he joked. And for a fleeting moment, Arianna could picture him in his military school uniform, lounging on the quad. His voice teasing, going somewhere, Princess? That Jack was lost now.

As calmly as she could, she watched as he rounded up the hunters and led them silently into the trees. She could make out his blond head as he was crouched forward, creeping on the jungle floor like a predatory cat. His hunters followed suit, hungry for blood. Her heartbeat quickened once they finally disappeared into the jungle. After a few minutes, she could make out the smoke from the first fire that Jack had set quickly rise above the treetops. Ralph's time was running out. She had to find him – now.

In defiance of everything she had told Jack, Arianna ran as fast as should could after them. She'd have to take a different path if she wanted to get to Ralph before they did. He would probably be hiding by now. So how on earth would she possibly find him? Arianna was aware that she hardly had any plan or any chance of saving him. But if she didn't at least try, how could she ever forgive herself?

Arianna kept on jogging through the woods, careful to look at the sky for any trail of smoke that would tell her Jack's whereabouts based on which way the wind was blowing. If anything, her experience on this island had put her in touch with nature more than ever before. Her heart was pounding in her ears. She was acutely aware of the noise she was making, her heaving breathing, the twigs snapping beneath her feet.

"Ralph!" she hissed in vain as she scanned her surroundings. "Ralph!"

Around her, the air was beginning to grow thick with smoke. She was beginning to lose hope. She could hardly see a thing. How on earth was she supposed to find him now?

She kept running. The fire was following her. There was no way that Jack had planned for the fire to spread so quickly. At this rate, she had to reach Ralph now or risk getting burned alive.

All of a sudden, Arianna stopped dead in tracks. It was the pig's head. She had almost run into it, like it had popped out of nowhere.

"Arianna!" A shocked whisper.

By some sheer miracle, she had found him.

"Ralph!"

She had no time for explanations. He grabbed her by the arm and quickly ran with her to duck for cover. They ran until they reached a thicket of leaves. All around them, the forest began to glow red and orange. It was getting harder to breathe with all the smoke.

"Ralph," she whispered as they found temporary shelter behind a bush. They were running out of places to go. "Jack, he's gonna–"

Ralph quickly covered her mouth, his eyes told her that he understood but urged her to stop talking. "It's okay. I know," he breathed back. Arianna looked back at him desperately, and then gave his hand a last comforting squeeze. They both knew what was at stake.

Her mind was racing. Around them, the trees were in flames. Jack's tribe was approaching. She could hardly see within three feet in front of her, but she could make out the bodies of Jack's hunters coming closer and closer. They had no place left to go.

Next to where they were crouched in the thicket, she saw the twins in the corner of her vision. They were standing right beside them. Any minute now, one of them would turn his head. Arianna felt the dread sink into the pit of her stomach. Any minute now, the both of them would be dead.

Then it happened: Samneric made eye contact with Ralph. They stared at each other point-blank, no question about it. Arianna watched them in apprehension, waited for them to yell.

This is it, she thought. Any minute now…

She heard Jack's voice ring out over the sizzling of the dying leaves: "See anything over there?"

Arianna didn't dare move a muscle. She gripped Ralph's hand even tighter.

To her surprise, the twins answered in unison, "No. Nothing," before continuing on their way. She couldn't believe it.

The sweat was beginning to drip down her back. A combination of nerves and the heat emanating from the burning jungle.

You're not gonna die, she wanted to say to Ralph. I won't let you.

In the distance, she could make out Roger approaching their hiding place. He was so close that he'd be sure to spot them. But maybe, just maybe, Arianna thought hopelessly, they'd get lucky.

Unfortunately, they had run out of miracles.

Roger turned in their direction, squinted before straightening in realization. "Jack!" he shouted.

Immediately, Ralph shot up from the ground. "Run!" he yelled.

Adrenaline kicked in and Arianna took off after him. Behind them, a tribe of screaming savages pursued them. The heat of the fire was still at her back. Arianna ran faster than she had ever run in her life. Her sides were splitting, her muscles aching for her to stop. She forced herself to keep moving forward. If Jack caught her with Ralph, he wouldn't show mercy.

If I die… If I die…

Arianna wasn't able to finish the thought. She found herself tumbling to the sand beside Ralph. They were going to die here. On the beach. Just like Simon and Piggy.

She could hear the yells. They were just about to catch up with them.

"I don't want to die," she whimpered, while gasping to catch her breath. "I don't want to die."

In her delirium, it took several long moments to make out the pair of boots before her on the sand. Her eyes panned upward to make out the camouflage, the army uniform. Then to the face. The face of an adult man.

She heard it: the whirring of the marine helicopter in the distance. It finally hit her. They weren't going to die. They were getting rescued.

Arianna wanted to say something, but found that she couldn't. Her mouth was wide open in disbelief. She hadn't seen an adult in so long. She had no words.

"What are you guys doing?" the officer asked, as though he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

That was when Arianna realized the savage yells had quieted. She looked at the tree line where Jack's tribe had gathered, frozen, the shock plain on their faces. Against the crisp army uniform, they looked so wild in comparison. How small they all seemed. My god, she realized. They were just children.

On the sand, Arianna finally found the ability to speak. Her voice croaked, but she answered for all of them. "Please sir," she said. "Just take us home."

The officer gave her a curt nod. Perhaps realizing this wasn't the moment to ask just exactly where all of them had came from, he turned his back to the children and began to give instructions to the soldiers piling onto the beach.

Beside her, Ralph wept. His body shook with grief that seemed to spasm through his entire body. They had all seen too much. The darkness that they would never be able to explain to anyone back home. They had witnessed, firsthand, exactly every despicable act that man was capable of.

Arianna was only vaguely aware of the tears streaming down her face. She should be happy. She should be celebrating. Instead, she was numb to everything. Even though she had been saved, a part of her died on the island that day.

The sobs echoed throughout the crowd of shell-shocked savages. She looked back at them, standing there with their spears. They were just children. Soon, they would be washed and properly clothed, but Arianna would never be able to forget what they done. The island would stay with each and every one of them – a tiny piece of hell they would carry with them for the rest of their lives.

Arianna looked back once again, and this time, the image stayed with her. The sky above them was thick with smoke. The once pristine island, now irrevocably charred. Soon, the wind blowing off the ocean would dry their tears. For now, at least, they had the propellers to drown out the sound of their weeping.

Fin.

A/N: Holy crap. It's over. I just want to say thank you for taking the time to read. Dirty Game has been a labor of love for the past several years, and I'm happy to say that it's something I can be proud of. Fanfiction has been really important for my development as a writer and I'm always looking to improve (so please, please, please don't hesitate to leave a review!

Props to those who caught the #NeverthelessShePersisted reference I threw in there. As with any writer, whatever work I publish will inevitably end up being a reflection of our times. The world can be scary place, so here's to strong women everywhere in defiance of authoritarian leadership!

BTW I won't sign off on this story just yet. I started an epilogue that quickly morphed into a two-part sequel called Clean Slate, which should be up on this site soon. If you still have questions (or want to catch a glimpse of life after the island), be sure to add me to your author alerts.

Thanks again my fellow readers. Sit back and stay tuned~