Stranded

"Lacey!" Gerard called, eyes searching the island. He now wished he knew where she stayed. Although he had always talked to her, it was at night, so it wasn't hidden. He had no idea where to start looking.

"Lacey! Lacey? LACEY!" Gerard screamed.

"WHAT?" Lacey asked, suddenly coming from nowhere.

"Why didn't you answer?" Gerard asked.

"I told you...I don't want anyone to know where I am. I TOLD you to leave me alone...and since you didn't, I had to get out when you weren't looking." Lacey started. "Now...what do you want?"

"You...you know Frank, right?" Gerard asked.

"Frank? The short guy with all the tattoos?" Lacey asked. Gerard nodded. "Yeah...I've seen him around. What about him?"

"Well...a few months ago, a little while after getting stranded on this island...Frank was lonely..." Gerard started. Seeing that Lacey was now paying full attention, he continued. "Then, one day he found a bird, called a Chicken-duck. It was weird...but he somehow related in an odd sense, and the two were always with one another.

"Yeah...and?" Lacey asked, putting her hair up.

"Bert, the bird, somehow became pregnant and had babies, and-"

"Hold the phone...you named a girl duck Bert?" Lacey asked. Gerard rolled his eyes, ignoring her.

"ANY-ways...she had three babies. After Ray played with one last night, though, Frank found one of them dead this morning. He was absolutely heart broken." Gerard continued, gazing harder at Lacey now. At this point, she was looking down.

"I remember hearing something about you having a friend who taught you how to hunt. And...you said you miss chicken more than anything...so-"

"No." Lacey said.

"So...you *didn't* somehow kill Frank's bird? He just...died? You DID tell me that you knew a lot about how certain things were toxic to certain animals. I just figured that maybe you-"

"It was an accident! Well...okay, it wasn't...but I didn't know it meant so much. I've felt bad about this...he sat close to my hiding space today and cried...I felt awful." Lacey said.

"Well...so does Frank. You HONESTLY had no idea how much Johnny meant to Frank?" Gerard asked. Lacey had a look of sickness on his face.

"He...had a name for it?" She said, almost in tears.

"Yeah...it was like his kid. And you just killed it." Gerard said.

"I didn't just "kill" it...I was really hungry and I really wanted chicken. This killed me because I've always loved animals. I was a blubbery mess when giving..."Johnny" the berries that killed him." Lacey said.

"Yeah...but Frank, a vegan animal lover, won't exactly take this lightly." Gerard said.

"I have never killed another animal before. The one time my friend tried to *actually* get me to hunt with him, I couldn't do it. That's I used berries that would make it so the bird would die painlessly...like falling asleep.

"Frank might have understood that, to a degree, if he wasn't so attached to Johnny. But he really loved that bird..." Gerard said. They both sat silently for a moment. At this point, Lacey had visible tears in her eyes.

"If it's any consolation, I don't think I can ever eat chicken again. That was possibly the hardest thing I've ever done in my life...I couldn't even eat it when I learned it was Frank's pet." Lacey said.

"That's why you didn't take him?" Gerard asked. Lacey nodded. Wiping her tears, Lacey started to talk again.

"Listen...I am not malicious. I would have never done what I did if I had known the situation. So...when you tell Frank...please let him know that I didn't do it to be mean...okay?" Lacey said. Gerard, feeling a bit sorry for Lacey, agreed.

"Fine...but, like I said, he's a vegan...he might not understand. The guys and I eat meat...but he doesn't, and he sticks true to his beliefs." Gerard said. Lacey nodded, and walked back to the other side of the island, ashamed.

Gerard turned the other direction, preparing to tell Frank who really did it.