Part 15.

Jaehyun picked up the spear and told them he would go check out Kong’s kingdom which was the area they had seen the monkeys in. They had marked it off with crowns on the trunks of the trees to make sure none of them would stupidly wander into the territory. Taeyong wanted to tell him not to, he wanted to tell them not to look but instead he suggested walking towards his side of the beach where Yuta was buried. Johnny only nodded before pointing in the way of the rocky side of the island where he and Ten had gone on their date. 

Taeyong started walking, he felt like he was about to throw up. A hand grabbed his upper arm and he turned around to look into Johnny’s eyes. 

  “You know where he is, don’t you?” Johnny asked questioningly. Taeyong’s heart stopped. Johnny knew. Of course he knew.

  “Taeyong?” Jaehyun repeated and Taeyong blinked. He glanced behind Jaehyun to see Johnny already way down the beach. He blinked before noticing Jaehyun had reached him a water bottle and a packed lunch wrapped in the sail and made into a small bag that Taeyong could tie around his torso. Taeyong took it without saying anything, feeling scared because of the tricks his own mind played on him. Jaehyun rubbed his arms. The sun’s rays were hot, sweat trickling down their temples and Taeyong saw an image of Ten’s broken body lying in the sun, decaying in the middle of the clearing where the other corpse hung. A graveyard for the people who died on this island.

Taeyong squeezed his eyes shut before trying to focus on Jaehyun’s beautiful face. 

Jaehyun nodded as if he knew what was going through Taeyong’s mind. “We’ll find him.” He assured Taeyong. “I’m sure he’s okay.” 

Taeyong could only nod. He knew his voice would fail him. Jaehyun walked into the jungle and Taeyong’s feet led him through the sand. Ten being gone did not seem to take the hopelessness away. Taeyong threw up as soon as he was out of sight.

 

Taeyong stared at the cross where Taeil’s body should’ve been. He had been sitting there for at least an hour; eyes upon the crooked writing that had been carved into the wood of the cross, eyes upon where the monkeys had gone through after stealing their friend. Taeyong hoped Taeil was at peace, but somehow he just felt like he had failed Taeil. 

  “He was right.” Taeyong said as he looked at the cross. “Nicolas was right about us.” He cried. “We are all monsters. This island just proves to us how petty we human beings are. How weak we are. How one thought is more poisonous than a snake’s bite. How the poison spreads and takes over our minds. I can’t undo what I did, but if I hadn’t done it… I’m sure we’d see graves lining up by now. Only one. Only one and we’ll have the others too.”

  “What our group was… I guess we couldn’t quite call it friends. Could we? Were we friends? Because to me it seems like that that friendship has ended here. We won’t go back to the world as friends. I’ve ruined that.”

 

And his walk continued until he found the spot where he and Yuta had entered the island, and where Yuta had died. It was as if everything crashed down upon him and he was torn open. Because where Yuta’s grave was… Yuta was sitting. His hair was soaked and his skin pale, his cheeks were hollow and his eyes sunken. The bite of the shark was there, blood had discolored the t-shirt. Taeyong froze and he stared at Yuta whose eyes were upon the ground. Then Yuta lifted his head. Taeyong screamed when Yuta’s eyes snapped to meet his but as soon as Taeyong blinked the other was gone. 

Taeyong slowly went down on one knee and then the second before he curled into a ball, hugging his own stomach. The wind was warm, the sun beating down on him and the waves hissing curses at him. 

Taeyong rolled over to lie on his back. Maybe he should’ve just stayed on this side of the island?

Taeyong sat up and eyed the water. No, it was his responsibility to make sure Johnny and Jaehyun survived. He had made the choice and he had to live up to it. His conscience could eat him up later. He had made his choice.

Jaehyun couldn’t believe it. He couldn’t believe Ten could do this to them. Without a word he’d just vanished and it was very unnerving. Did he do it on purpose? Had he been attacked? Fallen down somewhere and gotten hurt? What if he was calling for help right now? If it wasn’t on purpose… Jaehyun was scared, because he knew Ten didn’t deserve to die on this island. 

Whatever it was Jaehyun wouldn’t give up on trying to find Ten. Johnny was out of it, repeating some other name that Jaehyun now knew belonged to the kid Johnny had been friends with in the orphanage. An orphanage. Jaehyun never knew that about Johnny and this island managed to reveal how little he knew about all his friends. He guessed people went with the ‘fake it till you make it’ phrase and never showed their true selves. This island broke it all down. It erased those barriers and showed how vulnerable Ten was, how fragile he could be. It showed him that Johnny’s sarcastic and distant personality was only a way to protect himself and hide how terrible his childhood had been. Taeyong who had always been a little bit quiet and mostly humble, unless he didn’t like a person… he had survived a month alone on this island of hell. He survived alone and what drive he had to survive. Jaehyun would never have guessed it before they ended up here. 

Jaehyun eyed the crowns on the trunks of the trees. This was the mark of the border of the territory of their land and the monkeys. Jaehyun remembered the baboons at the second night of their stay and he wondered where they had gone. He guessed they had taken over their territory and they must’ve moved elsewhere. Sneaking over to the edge of the cliff he looked down at the clearing where they had been standing at the edge of it, watching Kong feed on Taeil’s remains. Jaehyun grabbed tightly around the spear but he couldn’t see anything but bones that must be the remains of Taeil or other animals. There was no fresh blood, nothing indicating a recent meal. Nothing indicating that Ten had been there. 

Jaehyun got up and went back but he couldn’t help but wonder. What had gotten to Ten? What could’ve killed that boy? He was a survivor; he always made it through any hardships even stronger. What could possibly have surprised him enough to manage to kill him? Or did he really do it himself? Jaehyun doubted that, if he tried to trust his instincts he knew Ten would never be one to kill himself. It seemed as if it was below Ten to ever do that.

Was there something more dangerous on this island that they should fear? Something scarier than Kong? More unpredictable and deadly? 

Jaehyun found himself running. They had to find Ten or at least his body. They had to figure out what happened to him.

Johnny’s body was moving on his own. His mind was elsewhere. 

He crawled over the stones and looked down at where he and Ten had been sitting together. They had kissed. Johnny remembered. They almost took it further than that but Johnny had backed out. Did he do wrong by that? 

Johnny looked up only to jump. A very vivid image of Mark was standing opposite him, over by some rocks that stretched their way into the sea, looking down in the sand, wearing his yellow jacket and his bleached hair. Johnny dropped down and just looked at this image of Mark, even if he moved around and sometimes glanced at Johnny; the taller knew it was only something brief. His mind was only this creative and before he knew it the kid would be gone. Like he was.

Mark was gone.

Johnny’s hand came up to grab around his mouth. Stopping his chin from trembling.

Ten was gone too.

Now Johnny was consumed by anger. He found himself cursing at them. Throwing rocks at the image of Mark until it vanished. How could they leave him? How could they just die like that? He never asked for them to leave, he never wanted to do them wrong. He tried his best to be good to Ten and he tried his best to stay with Mark. 

Johnny looked ahead before he turned straight back around. Ten, he thought. If he wanted to leave Johnny, Johnny wouldn’t stop him. It seemed like everyone he loved would eventually just leave him, nobody fought to stay with him. He fought so hard only to receive nothing in return. Was it even worth fighting?

Should he really go back to his life in Chicago? What would be left? Did he actually have anything to live for? Why did he survive through all this for so long? His life only gave him . He had to suffer so much… Now here he sat, by the fire of a camp he and his friends had set up after finding this island when their boat sank. They found one of their friends dead, they found another one alive only to hear another had died too. Then now he sat there knowing another one had left the group. Probably dead too.

Johnny lied down in the shadow to sleep. His mind was torturing him too much for him to stay awake. He just hoped with all his heart that Ten would return. That Ten would come lie down with him and cuddle him. He wouldn’t even push him away, he’d let Ten do whatever he wanted. He’d hesitate, but he would hold Ten close too; hoping to feel Ten’s breath on his skin when the other sighed in content.  

But Johnny felt nothing. He was alone. 

 

Johnny woke up an hour later. Jaehyun and Taeyong were cooking and Johnny sat up. He looked around but he couldn’t see Ten anywhere. Jaehyun gave him an apologetic look. “Maybe it’s good.” He said as Johnny went over to them to sit down and eat. “Maybe he’s still alive just far away, he could be on the other side of the mountain.” 

  “You think?” Johnny asked, and there was a sincere look in Jaehyun’s eyes. 

  “Ten was always risky. Like dating Hansol that idiot.” 

  “Hansol wasn’t really the best choice for him.” Taeyong piped up, remembering those times. Johnny grimaced. 

  “I don’t think I’m a good choice either.” He said before sighing. Jaehyun and Taeyong looked at the other. None of them said anything, knowing that whatever they said, it wouldn’t do much good. 

  “We’ll look again tomorrow, but I’m sure he’ll be back by then.” Jaehyun said with a sudden determined voice and Johnny found himself believing it. Taeyong eyed the two but he didn’t say anything. 

Ten wasn’t there but that didn’t seem to diminish any determination or belief of Ten still being alive. Taeyong sat there with a bad feeling in his stomach but he was also relieved to see the spark in the two boys’ eyes as they packed up for their adventure. They were very talkative and even made a few jokes to Taeyong’s surprise. He stood up when Jaehyun came over to him and he blinked in surprise when Jaehyun pressed a quick kiss to his lips. 

  “We’ll be back.” He said and Taeyong saw them leave only to be reminded of the sound of Ten’s scream and he dropped back down grabbing at his stomach. He understood why Nicolas was so quick to hang himself. Killing someone was not easy, not even if you thought you were doing something right. 
For now Taeyong still believed he had done the right thing. 

He was afraid that Jaehyun and Johnny would prove him wrong.

Jaehyun and Johnny ran and somehow as they ran a laugh blossomed in their throats and bounced around between them. Jaehyun stumbled and Johnny grabbed his arm and pulled him up before his knees could even hit the ground. The black panther was right behind them, its paws so heavy every step resounded through the jungle. The birds flew up and away and smaller animals fled the scene. It chased them until they got out of its territory. Yet they kept running until they reached the beach. Why they laughed, they didn’t know and when they looked over they found Taeyong staring at them in disbelief. Jaehyun frowned and Johnny’s laugh died out as he stood panting in the sand. 

Taeyong blinked. “Did you find him?”

  “We found the black panther.” Jaehyun explained before laughing again. “Johnny almost got eaten.” 

Taeyong looked worried. “That’s not funny.” 

  “The way it looked was kind of funny.” Jaehyun argued and Johnny wiped the sweat off his face.

  “This is the second day and the third night is coming up.” He said and looked out on the water. “Whatever got him won.”

Taeyong fixed his eyes on the fish he was grilling. Jaehyun got up. “We still got a few hours of daylight.” 

Johnny looked at the sun. “Yeah, you’re right.” 

Taeyong was grimacing to himself, while the two tall boys started to almost have a banter about which area they should explore. “Should we go our separate ways?” Johnny asked and Jaehyun laughed again, the sound was really unnerving to Taeyong. 

  “You’d just get yourself killed.” 

Johnny made a face and pointed at Jaehyun, but he was already making his way towards the jungle. “I know you’ll find me bro.” 

  “Bro, just let me know where you die and I’ll come find you.” 

  “Always, bro.” 

Johnny grinned and went into the jungle. Taeyong put down the tools he was holding and he got up, glaring at Jaehyun who was chuckling to himself. Jaehyun turned around and then the smile fell off his face. “What?” He asked and Taeyong’s brows flew up.

  “You’re kidding me right?” He asked. “You find this situation ing funny?” He had his hands balled into fists. Jaehyun put down the spear and went to get some water. 

  “Chill, Taeyong, Ten will be found.” 

  “Okay, what the is happening to you guys?” Taeyong stomped closer to Jaehyun to get a closer look at the taller. “Have you gone mad?” 

Jaehyun gulped the water before chuckling to himself again and shaking his head. Taeyong looked away, then he realized the two were behaving recklessly. Which could mean something Taeyong had feared. Hopelessness. 

He just didn’t think they’d go down like that. With a smile on their faces. 

Taeyong gripped his one hand with the other and pressed them both to his stomach. Maybe it was inevitable, maybe they were all destined to die? 

  “It was quite funny,” Jaehyun argued and Taeyong spun around before finding a shell and chucking it at Jaehyun. The other flinched when it hit him and he stared at Taeyong with wide eyes.

  “Ten’s ing dead!” Taeyong screamed. “And you’re ing laughing!” 

  “Taeyong, what the ?!” Jaehyun exclaimed in shock and the two shared a gaze. Taeyong started crying, he was sobbing and he curled forwards before falling to the ground. The amusement that had been in Jaehyun’s face was gone and realization washed over him. He walked over and kneeled down beside Taeyong, pulling him into his arms. 

Ten was dead. Jaehyun squeezed his eyes shut. Taeyong was right. Ten was probably dead. This wasn’t a game, Ten wasn’t hiding, he wasn’t testing them. He was ing gone.  

A/N: Part 16 is ready and will be up either sunday or next week, but soon! I'm going to niagara falls, canada this weekend! All the comments inspired me to write so thank you for taking your time to comment! <333