Alone - Kong Skull Island [R.Slivko]

9- Goodbye Is Harder Than Hello

I wake up to find that Reg fell asleep, but luckily no one else had woken up yet. It's about 5:00 AM so I quietly climb down the tree to go and make sure nothing happened while I slept. To my relief, all limbs were still intact, and everyone was accounted for. So, I go and get food for everyone. They'll be fine until I get back.

I'm almost back when I see everyone standing and holding some sort of weapon at each other.

"Are you guys serious?" I say dropping all the food into one pile. "I was gone for literally 7 minutes and you're all trying to kill each other! What even is all the fuss about?"

That's when Icarus pops his head out from behind Reg, who was standing in front of him with his gun up, warning everyone to stay away.

"Everyone put your weapons down," I say, but no one does. "NOW!" I bark and everyone does immediately, not expecting that outburst. Even Conrad looked scared of me for a second. Mission accomplished.

"Icarus, these are my friends," I say motioning around the group. "Friends, this is Icarus. And if I find out anyone tries to shoot him again, I will do more than just yell at you!" I say glaring at everyone except Reg with a warning.

"I told you!" Reg says smirking at everyone. My guess is he told them I would hurt them if they touched him. I mean, he isn't wrong.

"What's the story behind this one?" Mason asks

"Long story short, I saved him, and then we became best friends. This forest is his home, he surprised me last night."

"Wait, I thought I recognized him. He was the one that lived in the village with you, wasn't he?" Hank asks finally putting two and two together.

"Yes, he has gotten much bigger since then. We both have."

"To be honest, I thought both of you were dead after we didn't hear from you for a year. You both are good at hiding."

"Yea, but we have to eat and get back down the river soon or we might as well stay here forever," I say, and we all eat quickly and go down to the riverbank.

"Icarus," I say, and he walks over to me. "Do you want to come with us? We're going to get off this island and I know this is your home, but I don't want you to be alone anymore." He looks at the boat, then to the forest, then back up at me. I bend down and give him the biggest hug I can. The others just look at me confused as to how I understood that. His eyes are what told me, he looked sad I was leaving, but this is his home, he can't just leave.

"It's okay bud," I say, my voice cracking and eyes watering. "I understand," I stop hugging his and put my forehead against his, and whisper, "I'm gonna miss you." He purrs and I stand up and get on the boat as it floats down the river. We never break eye contact as he walks down the riverbank, following us until we reach the edge of his forest. He sits down and lets out a roar as the first tear rolls down my cheek. A second one follows, then a third, fourth, fifth, and they just keep coming.

Reg comes over and hugs me, he could tell we were close by how much I trusted him. Hank even came over and patted my back. "I'm sorry Alex. I know how close you two were."

I get tired of everyone staring at me, so I go onto the roof of the boat-plane thing. Reg is about to follow me, but Conrad stops him and whispers something in his ear, he nods and sits down. I thank Conrad by nodding at him when he looks up at me, I just wanted to be alone right now. It wasn't fair that he had to, and I didn't.