A/N: Okay, this is my first fanfiction in forever and a day. Oh well. JackXXRalph, sort of follows the story line. But not really. Dedicated to my bestest friend Sheridan, who has been tolerating my LotF obsession for weeks. Enjoy 33

Bare skin brushed below the moonlight, each stolen kiss setting new fires ablaze within me. Behind me I could hear the waves as they crashed into the sand. Once it had all seemed like a paradise. Now it was stained with blood.

"Oh, god," he whispered, his breath hot against my ear. I closed my eyes, fisted my hands into his tangled hair. It was longer now, falling into his face sometimes when he leaned into me. But behind the sheath of twisted strands he was still the same as ever.

There wasn't much I was certain of these days. I knew that everything was falling apart around us, crumbling right into the sea. It would disappear below the treacherous surface and never be seen again. Yes, I knew that everything was falling apart, and that it was probably all my fault. Yet I was clinging to this cruel hope that surrounded me. The one saying that maybe it would be alright.

Or maybe not.

So I focused on the touches, because at least those were real. For now, those were all I had left. The broken gasps, the mist that hung about us all. The arms that wrapped around me as tightly as they could, holding onto me too. Because I was the only thing they had left too.

XXX

I awoke to the sound of laughter. At first I was sure I was still asleep, for I didn't understand how anyone could be laughing in a place like this. The sun was shining overhead, but there was a darkness that stuck to everything. Especially me. Then I realized it was just a few littluns, playing in the sand like they did. And I knew I wasn't dreaming then. We were here. This was real.

"Hey," a quiet voice spoke from somewhere beside me. I pushed myself up into a sitting position, rubbing the lingering traces of exhaustion from my eyes, shaking the sand from my tufts of red hair. It was just long enough to fall into my eyes, enough to drive me crazy.

Ralph offered me a weak smile, one I couldn't bring myself to return. Memories of my dream flooded my mind, of the moonlight and the hushed moans. "How'd you sleep?" He asked me, even though we both knew the answer to that particular question.

"Better than usual," I told him softly, remembering the perfection of my dream. A secret glance was exchanged between us. It said more than our chapped lips ever would. I felt the corners of my mouth being tugged upward by some unknown force. I didn't want to think about that just then. I didn't want to think about any of it.

I wasn't quite sure how long we'd been on that godforsaken island. Everything was sort of starting to blur together, moments mixing into one unending daydream, in which I was alone in the world, completely alone, but he was here too and so it was not so very bad. Ralph was still staring at me, like he was searching for something behind my vacant stare. I didn't have the heart to tell him he wouldn't ever find it.

The blonde boy looked as if he might say something else, something meant for my ears only. Or maybe he'd only go on about the shelters and his precious fire. Those were his obsessions, the reasons he tossed and turned through the cool nights. But then another figure was approaching us, and so we both stayed silent. A shadow fell over me, all things dark and menacing cast by a single presence. Something like fear ran through my veins, but it disappeared quickly. I didn't get scared, not of anything. In this surreal world we lived in, being brave was the only option there was.

"Jack," he greeted lowly, his voice edged with hostility. He was watching me with lifeless gray eyes. I thought that maybe the island didn't have much to take away from him. Maybe he was already empty and cold.

"Roger," I replied easily. Ralph shifted his body uncomfortably, digging his fingers deeper into the sand upon which he sat. "What's up?"

Through narrowed eyes and black hair that surrounded his angular face, Roger gazed down at me. The skin at the tips of his fingers was bloody. I didn't dare to ask him why, because I doubted I'd like to hear the answer. It was all I saw when I looked at him. "We're all hungry, Jack. We need to try and hunt." He said it to hurt, to remind me that I hadn't been able to kill the first pig we'd found. That something had held me back.

I nodded, perhaps too quickly. Too eagerly. Some emotion I couldn't quite decipher flashed across his face. Like approval, maybe, or a demented excitement of his own. Despite the heat of the sun beating down upon us, a chill ran through me. When I glanced over at Ralph, he had lowered his own gaze to his lap. He kept folding and unfolding his hands, pausing sometimes to nervously brush some hair away from his face. He was looking anywhere but at me.

Moke