That night of sleep was the best night of sleep I had ever gotten. The next morning was uncomfortably quiet though, without having anybody to talk to I began I began to think of things. Thats when I realized I too had become a murderer. This island has changed me, I need to get as far from here as possible. “Whitney!” I remembered, he has a boat, but where is he? Was he even looking for me? I headed outside to see if I could see any boats or signs of life. This island isn’t like a vacation getaway, it makes for feel trapped or as if you are being punished like in jail. After searching for what felt like hours I walked gloomily back to the castle. Suddenly I felt a firm grasp on my shoulder. I slowly turned around, I would have never guessed what I saw.

“General I” I screamed. He had an evil grin on his face, his wound from where I had shot him bled red through his torn up shirt. “Thought you could kill me?” He asked my questioning my reasoning. I stood there in silence “I-I thought you were dead” I said wearily. “Well, you thought wrong” said General Zaroff. Anger rushed over me I picked up the nearest stick and went to stab him, he stopped it, as if with no effort at all. It seemed like all the “death” did was make him stronger. Without thinking I ran off into the woods, utterly confused. I needed to find Whitney now more than ever, if I had any hopes of staying alive. As I was running it was as if the trees were moving in my way. I kept thinking about how I beat the odds once, but would I be able to beat them again? My heart was pounding out of my chest, I couldn’t hear him but that didn’t mean he wasn’t nearby. “Pssht” I heard out in the distance, its probably just a bug I thought to myself. “Pssht I heard again, I looked around then I found my eyes meet with another’s.

His eyes looked innocent so I was hoping he wasn’t planning on killing me. I quickly scooted over to him. He seemed surprisingly calm, he signaled me to follow him, so by instinct I did. He lifted a large latch which was completely camouflaged in leaves, dirt, and various sticks and twigs. He jumped right in so I followed him. Once I could get a better look at him I saw he has dirty, short and spiky blonde hair. His cloths were raged and torn, I could also tell he hadn’t had a bath in a while. Inside the hatch was surprisingly spacious, the inside also looked quite worn down like it had been there a while. How had I not noticed this before? “Who are you?” I asked, “Charlie” he replied without hesitation. I had so many questions, but all I could ask was “How are you alive?”. “ Well for one, I don’t use trees as hiding places” he said sarcastically. I peaked my head outside, the sky was dark and gloomy, all signs of blue sky are gone. I came down and closed the latch, I then turned around and noticed that Charlie was sharpening some sticks. “What are you doing?” I asked, “Preparing our weapons” he replied. “For what?” I questioned him “To finally kill Zaroff!” He exclaimed.

I was weary, but I knew that it was what had to be done. “ I knew I could never do it alone, but now that your with me, I think we have a chance” he said. “You think?” I asked, “There is no certainty that we will be able to pull it off, I suspect you have tried to kill him once before” he said with confidence. I knew he already new the answer so I didn’t feel the need to respond. We spent the night in the hatch, we need to rest to be at full preparation for what lied ahead of us. That next morning we finished sharpening the sticks, when we opened the hatch the light struck me and burned my eyes. Once my eyes adjusted we stepped out. We had been walking for about 20 minutes when we heard “Crack!” we quickly stopped. “What was that?” I asked in a whisper. “I don’t know, but we better keep moving” whispered Charlie. When we continued walking we realized how close we were to General Zaroff’s house. “Hello gentleman” we heard behind us. We already knew who it was by the evil and mysterious tone of his voice.

“Charlie, long time no see” said General Zaroff. “Rainsford, I see you’ve met Charlie” he continued to say. “How do you know each other?” I asked. “Well, you see Rainsford, I wasn’t completely honest with you before, you are not the only one to have ever beat me” said Zaroff. I looked at Charlie with a look of confirmation, he nodded in response. Then unexpectedly Zaroff took out his gun and shot Charlie in the chest.

“Charlie!” I screamed, I could see the pain and agony in his eyes. As Zaroff started walking away Charlie whispered to me his last two words, “Kill him.” His eyes then close slowly and he was gone. I still did not understand, it was as if he had all the chances in the world to kill me but he never did. I ran back to the hatch to look for any type of weapons, but all I could find was a pile of sticks in the corner of the hatch. I picked the best one I could find and sharpened. I walked confidently towards his castle, stick in hand. I went to turn the knob on the gigantic doors that stood over me, when suddenly I couldn’t breath. I looked down and saw silver point sticking out of my lower abdomen. My knees began to give in as I slowly fell to the ground, the last thing I saw before my eyes went blank was the evil grin on the face of General Zaroff.