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As he closed the door behind him, the cicadas putting on their damnable nightly concert quelled any hope of finding some actual silence. In theory the paper thin walls of the shack did provide some isolation, but in reality it was either the noise of the outside or the incessant snoring inside. Whichever spot was indeed the worse environment to try to sleep in, it sure wasn’t leading by a mile. Not that it mattered. Duncan had ruled out getting an appropriate amount of rest as a possibility a while ago.
Instead, he wandered out into the woods, disregarding the very real risk of running into some mutant straggler or something else that could quite modestly be described as deadly. He walked for a long time, the path ever sloping upward. Soon enough he’d ascended above the treeline and was able to look back with most of the island in view. The pale moonlight was just strong enough to let him see all the way down to the dock of shame. The comically huge toilet sitting within it particularly stuck out, causing Duncan to quietly chuckle to himself. The only other bright spot downhill was the spa hotel, though only a few windows remained illuminated this late. As he continued further on, the thought of who on the heroes’ team was still awake kept wriggling its way back into his head, mostly focused around one particular team member.
Aggravated, Duncan sped up his pace. But right as he reached the tip of the island, he failed to notice a stray root in the darkness, tumbling face first into the dirt. Spilling out a string of curses, he started picking himself back up, but as he faced forward, Duncan suddenly froze. Just a few meters away layed a log, from upon which Scott was looking back at the teen. In the dim light Duncan was unable to decipher his expression, but he had enough common sense to figure out that it probably wasn’t too inviting.
Standing up, he paused for a moment. Eventually, he decided it’d be a waste to walk back all the way to the shack now. As he approached where Scott was sitting, the other boy had his attention focused elsewhere. And so, for a moment Duncan just stood there, observing as Scott slowly whittled away at a piece of wood. Duncan noted it was quieter up here, the sounds of gouging wood being the only thing breaking up the silence.
As he kept looking Duncan considered how it was somewhat impressive that he was managing to do it under just moonlight without cutting himself. Eventually Scott shot out: “So are you just going to keep gawking like that or what?”
“Uh-” Duncan wasn’t able to respond, he hadn’t realized he’d been breathing as little as possible until his breath caught in his throat mid-interjection. Instead, he sat down at the opposite end of the log.
And so they sat in silence. Duncan gazed out over the horizon and the dark water surrounding the island, only pierced by a streak of brightness from the moon’s reflection. It seems like it was just the slightest bit brighter here at the very top of the mountain, in this light he could probably make out the other teen’s expression much better. Suddenly very curious, Duncan looked ov-
From this close he can easily see the individual freckles on Scott’s face. And it seemed that the quality was mutual as Duncan found Scott looking back at him. As soon as they made eye contact both of them darted away. The silence had morphed then, into something much heavier.
Quickly, Duncan blurted out: “I can’t sleep.” Receiving only a confused “Huh?” for an answer, he added: “Why are you here?” Both of them kept on staring emptily into the dark, speckled sky in front of them.
“I’m as far away from the water as I can be up here.” Duncan looked over at Scott, noting the tooth in his hand. “Oh…” Duncan sharply inhaled through his teeth. “I’m sorry for trying to make you jump during the first challenge,” he said. “Eh, you had no clue,” Scott grumbled. “At least it doesn’t seem like you’ve been keeping up with the show.”
Duncan laughed. “No, I’ve been through enough on my own, don’t need to experience even more of this shitshow second hand.” “Yeah…” Scott agreed.
“Hey, do you still whittle?” he suddenly said. “Huh? Oh, yeah.” Hearing this Duncan started fishing around in his pockets. “I’ve got one on me,” he said, pulling out a piece of wood looking like a cross between an invincibility totem and a skull. He held it up for Scott for a moment before quickly stuffing it back in his pocket.
“Still doing skulls, huh?” Scott teased. “It’s a memento mori,” Duncan shot back. “Oh yeah, and what’s that?” “It’s a symbol of mortality… and like... okay I don’t actually remember what else there is to it,” Duncan said, raising his hands dismissively, not that Scott was looking. “So what does the skull mean to you, then?” the redhead asked again.
“What’s with all the questions?” Duncan said. His eyes glided back to Scott who was still casually trimming the piece of wood in his hand.
“Hey, you started it,” Scott responded.
“Well it’s Chris and it’s death.” Scott shifted his attention away from his piece as Duncan started explaining. “I guess it’s partly that I want Chris to fuckin’ bite it after everything he’s put us through, and also that I’m scared one of these challenges will get someone killed sooner or later.” “You? Scared? Still keeping up your softie streak?” Scott prodded. “Hey, don’t push it,” Duncan threatened. “What are you gonna do? I’m the one with the sharp object here,” Scott responded, going back to whittling, as Duncan leaned back an almost imperceivable amount.
“But. It’s funny…” Scott started. “I actually caught the episode of Island where you gifted Courtney that skull as it aired, probably what got me into whittling.” “Pshhh…” Duncan breathed. “That was so long ago, and that skull wasn’t even anything special.” “Still, it was cute.” “And you’re one to find other peoples’ romantic gestures cute?” Duncan said with a smirk. “Okay, okay, we’re even now,” Scott pleaded. Both of their laughter dissipated quickly enough.
“But you’re right,” Scott continued. “About being scared. It feels so strange to have this thing I was so caught up on when I was younger turn into something so… harrowing.” “Wait, what?” Duncan interrupted. “The skull?” “No, not just the dumb skull,” Scott said. “The challenges have been way too dangerous for a while. I mean… it’s because of that that I’m out here, that I’m terrified of becoming shark food. And I don’t know what to do...” Scott started forcefully pushing the tooth against the wood. “Because if I don’t win this, then what… I just go back to the farm? And then what? It’s not even like I’m the one in line to inherit it. And it’s not like staying there, or just chasing every possible spot on TV is how I want to spend my life,” he’d stopped whittling completely by now, his hands were shaking and his breathing was just the slightest bit ragged.
“Hey,” Duncan gently grabbed Scott by the shoulder. “I get it.”
“I’m an over impulsive dumbass, it feels like as soon as I’ll get put back into the real world I’ll probably end up behind bars, and at this point it’s gonna be a real prison. It’s like I’m already doomed and I’m just waiting for it to all come crashing down.”
Scott sighed and let go of both the piece of wood and the tooth. Without looking up, he grabbed the hand on his shoulder and held it for a while. They both stayed silent. But then Duncan scooched over, into what became like an awkward hug. The other teen tensed up for a second at the sudden closeness, but then ended up turning towards Duncan, embracing him strongly.
Soon enough Scott ended up resting his head on Duncan’s shoulder and sitting in his lap. They just held each other like that for a while, neither saying anything. There they were, just feeling the warmth of one another. Whether witnessed only by the cold night or the entire world, it didn’t matter to them. After a time, Scott carefully raised his head a bit and said:
“You know how I said I started whittling because of that moment?” Duncan didn’t say anything. “In reality, what I alway wanted was getting that skull from you.” Duncan chuckled, and as he did Scott could feel those little tremors in his chest, then he said quietly: “I’ll give you the one I showed you, but you have to promise me one thing.” “What?” Scott whispered. “That we can spite what it stands for together.”