Lost on the Island

Peter's POV

"Well..."

"Yeah?"

"It's not the same," I say to her. And she nods.

"I told you it wouldn't be. From what you've said you obviously like her a lot...even though it's only been three days," Melina says to me. I know it's completely weird to fall for someone in such a short amount of time, but anything can happen right? I just feel like it was meant to be in a way. When I kissed Melina, it wasn't anything like the feeling I got when Ellie held my hand. She was so gentle and soft. And that was just from hand holding! I just can't stop thinking about it. I'm a different person I swear. I just hope that Ellie and I can get a minute alone so we can talk about it...

"Hello? Did you just hear anything I said?" Melina asks me.

"Uhm...sorry," I say to her. She laughs.

"I have to say, you're definitely not the same from the first day when we were kissing in the jungle," Melina says laughing. I laugh too. It seems like weeks ago.

"I think it's a good thing," I say happily. I can't wait to go see Ellie. It's not love yet, but I think it could be.

"Well then, Mr. Lovebird, why don't we go back to the fire pit. Ryan and Ellie are probably wondering where we are by now," she suggests, refering to the fact it's getting dark out. I agree, so we head back. When we get there, all I see is Ryan cooking some fish. He looks up when we arrive.

"Hey, cutting it kind of close aren't you? The suns setting," he says.

"Yeah, sorry about that. Is Ellie in the shelter?" I ask, hoping that I could use this opprotunity to tell her I like her. Ryan looks confused.

"Isn't Ellie with you guys?" he asks, just realizing she didn't return with us. My happiness from a couple of minutes ago is immediatly replaced with fear.

"She's not here?" I ask, realizing I sound quite distressed. We all look at eachother, not knowing what to do.

"As much as I hate to say this...we really can't go looking for her right now," Ryan says, the voice of reason.

"We have to!" I say, feeling like I'm going to completely breakdown if we don't do something.

"Peter, you know Ryan's right. We can't go now, we won't be able to see," Melina says, touching my arm sympathetically. I feel like vomitting.

"We just have to go back to the shelter and hope she turns up," Ryan says. I can tell he's not happy with the idea.

"Come on, let's go to the shelter before it's pitch black," Melina says. We all walk towards the shelter, wondering what's going to happen. Suddenly, Ryan stops.

"Guys...do you feel that?" he asks. Melina and I both pause for a minute to see what he means. I feel cold raindrops fall and drip on me and the wind has picked up. I can see from the look on Ryan's face I should fear for the worst.

"What does this mean?" Melina asks.

"It means...a storm is coming," Ryan says in disbelief. My fear for Ellie escalates to a whole new level.

"Like...a bad storm?" I ask him.

"Take a look for yourself," he says, pointing towards the horizon. As the sun's last bit of light disapears, I see dark clouds swirling over the waves. As we run for cover, all I can wish for is that Ellie is somehow safe.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I fall into a restless sleep against the hard ground. I dream of darkness surrounding us and rain pouring heavily on our now seemlingly frail shelter. Waves harshly crash into the beach and I toss and turn. When day light finally comes, I realize that my dream was more like reality. I'm the first to get up, and my first thought is that Ellie never came back. I run outside to survey the damage. It's suprisingly not that bad except a ton of seaweed washed up on the sand. Melina and Ryan soon akwaken after me.

"Ellie didn't come back," I say, even though this is despairingly obvious.

"We have to go find her now," Melina says.

"How are we going to go about this?" Ryan asks nobody in particular, he could even be talking outloud for all I know.

"Let's just split up. I know it's not the most conventional thing in the world but what choice do we have?" Melina says.

"Alright. I'll go this way on the beach and Melina you go that way. Peter, you stay here at watch camp. Keep the fire going," Ryan instructs.

"No. I'm going to go look for her," I tell him.

"Someone has to stay here!" Ryan says, raising his voice a little. Melina steps in.

"Hey, I can just stay here. I know how to tend the fire now," she says, mostly talking to Ryan to convince him. He seems fine with this idea if not happy about it.

"Ok, so I'll go this way and you go that way Peter."

"Alright, let's get going," I say.

"Oh, and don't go into the jungle just yet," Ryan says.

"But obviously she's in there! She wouldn't have taken cover on a beach!" I protest.

"We all will go in the jungle tomorrow if we don't find her today. That jungle is big, and we have to stick together. Meet back here at sundown," Ryan says in a voice that obviously means no arguments.

"Fine," I say, running off in the direction Ryan chose for me. It's the same direction Melina and I went yesterday, so atleast I'll know how far I've gone if I find the twisted tree we sat by. I run down the beach, calling for Ellie. After a while, I do reach the twisted tree. I know that if I don't turn around soon it's going to take a long time to get back, but I can't stand the fact that she might not be found. As I keep walking, I notice something sparkling in ground. I walk towards it and see that I didn't imagine it. I dig it out from under the sand, and gently examine it. It's a bracelet with green beads on it. I try to remember if Melina was wearing a bracelet when we walked out this far yesterday, and I realize that it wasn't Melina who had a bracelet. I remember from the day we were on the plane she had it on. I only noticed it because it was on the wrist of her right hand, which was holding her ipod.

"Ellie!" I scream. For the first time all day I think I hear some kind of muffled reply, and it's coming from the jungle. Should I ignore Ryan's instructions or slap myself for hearing things?