tkl-pen
1st Level Orange Feather
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2001
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Here is a little story that came to my mind after seeing this week's episode of LOST - hope you like it.
LOST - KATE & THE TEMPLE
Kate had seen Sayid walking along the beach with his backpack as he was leaving the crash site. He had told her that he was leaving for two reasons - he didn’t feel that he should remain after the dark side in him had tortured another passenger and he felt it was time that someone explored the rest of the island. Nothing was going to stop him since he really wanted some time to reflect on his past and the things he had done.
With this information, Kate immediately ran back to the others at the crash site and told Jack, the doctor and informal head of the group, that she had seen Sayid leave to explore the island. She told him that she had decided to follow Sayid so that he would not have to explore the island alone and that she expected to return within a few days. Perhaps they would find a settlement somewhere. Or at least a way to call for help or to get off the island.
Kate gathered some of her things into a backpack and left the others about an hour after Sayid had gone. She knew that he was following the beach and planned to circle the island. Walking as quickly as she could, Kate caught up with Sayid about three hours later. He had been easier to catch up with than she had thought since he wasn’t moving at any great pace.
‘Sayid,’ she called when she saw him, ’Sayid, wait up, I’m going with you.’
‘It could be dangerous,’ he told her, ’you should stay with the others - there are things on this island that could hurt you, or worse.’
‘No,’ she said, ’I’m not going back - we need to explore the island and the chances are much better for two of us than for you alone - I’m going with you.’
‘Does Jack know?’ he asked.
‘I told him that I had seen you leave and I was going with you to explore the island,’ Kate explained, ’that’s all I need to tell him.’
And so the two of them, the former Iranian intelligence agent and the pretty young prisoner, continued along the beach for a time. As darkness fell, they decided to stop for the night, creating a makeshift camp on the sandy beach, close to the ever present trees that seemed to cover most of the island. They lay down together, using the backpacks for pillows, his arm around her, as they looked at the stars shining brilliantly in the night sky.
‘That is the Southern Cross,’ Sayid told Kate, pointing into the sky, ’it holds a special place in the heart of every Australian because it cannot be seen in the northern hemisphere - they consider it their own.’
‘Over there,’ Kate said, pointing to the North, ’are the seven little eyes - I don’t know what it’s really called but the Tahitians sailed their canoes for months toward those stars to get to Hawaii - that’s what I read in James Michener’s book. Oh, Sayid, where are we - and what’s going to happen to us?’
‘Eventually, someone will find us,’ he told her, ’but we are so far off course that it may take a long time - until then, we’ll just have to survive - we can do it.’
And so, alone on a sandy beach, hours away from the others at the crash site, the two of them fell asleep.
************
When Kate awoke, Sayid had already been awake for a while. He had gathered some bananas and coconuts for breakfast. They ate the bananas and drank the sweet milk from inside the coconuts, all the time looking out over the water for any sign of civilization - a boat, a plane, anything. After eating, and a quick bath in the warm water of the southern ocean, the two of them continued along the beach, walking further and further away from the crash site.
Several hours later, set back from the beach in a clearing, Sayid saw some ruins. Kate then saw them too.
‘What is it?’ she asked Sayid.
‘I don’t know,’ he said, ’some sort of old temple I think. I don’t think anyone has been here for a long time. I don’t see any sign of life.’
‘Maybe we should take a look, though,’ said Kate, ’perhaps we’ll find something we can use.’
As they approached the temple, if that’s what it was, it turned out to be quite a lot bigger than they had thought, and about fifteen feet high from floor to ceiling. Looking around the clearing, there was nothing to be seen - except, of course, for the ever-present trees. It seemed to be an abandoned old temple - even though the stone appeared to be clean and in good condition.
‘Maybe the people who built this temple come back from time to time to clean it and to look after it,’ Kate said, ’that’s why it’s so clean.’
‘I think so,’ responded Sayid, ’there’s nobody here now - come, let us go inside.’
‘Are you sure it’s safe,’ Kate wondered aloud, ’we can’t see anything inside because of the way the portal is built - there is a wall inside the opening.’
“We’ll be careful,’ he told her, ’just stay with me.’
As they entered the temple, they saw that most of the building consisted of one large chamber made of stone blocks - there was a stone table in the center of the chamber - there were stone bleachers around the sides that could seat perhaps two hundred people - torches were mounted in brackets on all the walls - and there was a stone chest to the side of the table.
‘What do you think it is?’ Kate asked.
‘I’m not sure,’ Sayid said, ’it appears to be a sacrificial chamber of some sort and this table must be the altar - there are tie points at the corners for ropes or cords that could be used to secure someone on the table - and there are round spaces for arms and legs on the ends - but there are no blood stains on the table so I don’t think it was used to kill anyone.’
‘It doesn’t seem that big, though’ Kate pointed out, ’it must have been used for a smaller person.’
‘I think it was used for women,’ Sayid told her, ’because these round spaces for the arms and legs are too small for a man’s arms and legs - go ahead and try it, you’ll see that’s how it works.’
‘I don’t know,’ Kate said, ’this place scares the hell out of me.’
‘There’s nobody here,’ he told her, ’just lie down on here and see if it fits - I’ll make sure nothing happens to you.’
‘Okay,’ Kate agreed, ’but only for a minute - I want to get going!’
Kate turned her back to the stone table and lifted her butt up onto the surface. She then turned herself onto the table and laid down on her back. She placed her legs into the two round spaces at one end of the table and her arms, one by one, into the spaces above her head. She fit the table perfectly.
‘You see,’ Sayid said, ’it was designed for a woman - I think that she would be placed into this position and then some ropes or cords would be used to tie her wrists and ankles to these rings at the corners - she would then be completely helpless.’
‘Oh, my God,’ Kate said, ’then they would rape her - even without ropes I can’t move - I can just imagine what that would be like - it’s terrible!’
‘I don’t think it was used for rape,’ Sayid pointed out, ’because it would be very difficult to do so on a stone platform like that - and remember that there are seats for many people to watch all around the room.’
Kate lifted her arms and legs out of the semicircular notches and got up off the stone table. She saw the stone chest to the side.
‘I wonder what’s in there,’ she said to Sayid, ’it must be part of this thing.’
Sayid opened the lid of the stone chest and carefully placed it on the floor to the side. He then reached in to the box and lifted out some large brightly-colored feathers.
‘Oh, God!’ Kate exclaimed, ’I read about this once - the natives in the South Pacific used to tickle female captives from other islands or villages to appease the tiki Gods - it used to go on for hours and hours, even days, until the priestess ended the tickling - sometimes, they would even tickle a girl until she died. When they were done with her, she would be tied spreadeagle to a bamboo frame and towed onto the ocean behind a canoe - then the sharks would feed on her as she was helplessly held on the surface of the water.’
‘I see,’ said Sayid, ’that doesn’t sound very pleasant.’
‘No, Sayid,’ she agreed, ’let’s get out of here - I don’t like this place!’
After leaving the structure of the temple, the two of them looked around the clearing and the surrounding jungle to see if there was anything of interest that could be of some use to them or the other survivors. After a thorough search of the area around the temple, the two of them continued along the beach for another hour or so, stopping to eat fruit that they picked along the way. For the first few minutes, though, Kate couldn’t help but look back toward the temple - and she trembled every time she did so. She even thought she could hear a rustle in the bushes and trees nearby as they walked along.
************
As Sayid and Kate sat down to rest and to eat some food bars that he had brought along for the journey, a number of apelike creatures, slightly larger than a man, scrambled out of the bushes behind them. One of them hit Sayid with a club before he could even get up from the sand to kill him. Another of the creatures hit Kate and knocked her out. It then lifted her onto its furry shoulder and carried her away into the jungle. Sayid, who was probably killed by the blow, was left behind on the beach.
************
When Kate regained consciousness, she was still being carried on the shoulder of one of the apelike creatures. She screamed and tried to struggle as she saw that they were carrying her into the clearing and back toward the temple. Inside the temple, the creature that carried her lowered her to the floor as several other smaller creatures approached her. She fought fiercely as they removed her clothes - one piece at a time - her shoes, socks, jeans, shirt, bra and panties.
They then lifted Kate onto the stone table and forced her arms and legs into the circular openings on the ends. Vines fashioned into slipknots were brought forward and tightened around her wrists and ankles. The loose ends were then tied to the rings at the corners of the stone table. And so Kate was helplessly spreadeagled on the stone table. She screamed and called for Sayid.
It was quite clear to Kate that these apelike creatured could not have built the temple or even formed the idea of the tickling rituals. Perhaps they had seen the builders of the temple performing their ceremonies and they merely meant to copy their procedures.
‘Help,’ Kate cried, knowing that these apelike creatures weren‘t going to let her go and there was nobody around to help her ‘ let me go!’
The creatures were quite curious about her, though. She surmised that they had not seen a white woman before. Or perhaps they recalled the French girl who sent out the distress message. Whatever, she thought, as she lay on the table naked and helpless.
‘Aaah!’ Kate screamed as one of the creatured started playing with her right nipple ‘please don’t touch that!’
Another of the creatures touched the sole of her left foot, dragging its thick finger across the delicate folds of her skin, as Kate tried to squirm as best she could.
‘Aaah, no!’ she screamed as the first creature stroked its finger across her right armpit.
When a larger, older creature entered the chamber, all fell silent. The creatures has spent at least an hour taunting and teasing Kate, touching the most sensitive and ticklish parts of her body, eliciting screams and pleas from her as she remained the helpless center of their attention.
Ten of the smaller apelike creatures, the females if Kate was right, lined up evenly along the sides and foot end of the table - four on each side and two by her feet. The older of the creatures drew ten large feathers out of the stone chest and presented one to each of the females. Kate heard the haunting call of a conch shell as the creatures appeared to call for the attention of their Gods. A small drum started to beat and the various creatures seated around the table in the temple began to chant in a grunting sort of way - clearly, a behavior they had previously seen of the humans who built the temple. The elder creature nodded.
Two of the females reached forward and started to tickle Kate’s breasts with the colourful feathers. ‘Nooo!’ Kate cried as she tried to twist her body from side to side and keep her breasts away from the feathers, ‘Nooo! Hahahaha! Nohoho!’ After a period of perhaps some twenty minutes, the elder creature nodded again and two more creatures started to tickle Kate’s stomach and abdomen with their feathers. She screamed, laughed and cried as the torture went on. ‘Ohoho, pleaheahease stohohop,’ she pleaded as the elder creature nodded and two more creatures started to tickle her thighs and calves. And so it went, on and on, until an hour or so had passed. Then, as suddenly as it had started, the tickling stopped.
The elder creature approached her and looked over the entire length of Kate’s body. She was already exhausted but knew in her heart that this was only the beginning. A female of the creatures brought forth a bowl of fluid, raised Kate’s head and allowed her to drink. It was a cool, refreshing coconut milk mixed with various herbs. Kate could feel it course through her body. The female with the bowl left and the elder creature returned to its seat near the table.
At the sound of another conch shell, the drums and chanting started again, and the two females close to her armpits began to tickle the soft, sensitive area under each arm - every few minutes, the others would again tickle her breasts, stomach, abdomen, thighs and knees, as the screaming, laughing Kate pleaded almost incoherently for release. The tears streamed down her cheeks and the sweat poured off her skin as the tickle torture continued. And then, after another hour or so, it stopped. She was again given a drink of the coconut beverage.
‘Please, no more,’ Kate pleaded, ’I can’t stand it - please let me go!’
Another call of the conch shell was her only answer, with the drums and chanting, as the two creatures at the foot end of the table approached with their feathers. Kate screamed and begged as she saw them approach her feet.
‘Nooooooo!’ she cried, ’Aaaah! Hahahahahahaha!’
After some twenty minutes of the tickling on her feet, the other creatures all joined in for a full body tickling lasting through the entire night. Kate couldn’t even plead or cry anymore. She just laughed and laughed and laughed as every part of her body was tickled, sometimes alone, sometimes all together. Her entire existence became one of laughter and tears. Nothing more existed for her. Finally, after the herbs in the coconut drink wore off, Kate passed out.
When Kate came to, she was on the beach, facedown, spreadeagled within a bamboo frame that had been equipped with wooden floats. Six of the creatures lifted the bamboo frame from the sand to carry it to the water. Kate dangled beneath the frame, suspended by her wrists and ankles at the four corners of the frame. It was an ingenious device that would allow most of her torso and thighs to fall beneath the water but holding her head slightly above the water so that she would not drown. They wanted her to be fully conscious when Mano, the shark, came for her, to take her and to bless the creatures of the island.
As she was lifted from the sand, Kate lifted her head and saw the elder creature before her with a sharp knife. He moved to her feet as she tried desperately to struggle against the bonds that held her. With the knife, he cut deep slits into the meaty portion at the bottom of each of Kate’s toes. She screamed as she felt each painful new slit cut into her flesh. He then moved to the head end of the frame and cut similar slits into each of her fingertips. This would then leave twenty small wounds dripping blood into the water once she was towed away from the beach. She was carried out to the water and the bamboo frame was placed on four wooden mounts. She would be held perfectly in place as the tide came in and the sharks could swim close enough to shore to reach her. And then all of the creatures left.
After a time, as she saw the blood trickle from the little cuts in her fingers and toes, and the pain of her position became more intense, she heard a voice. It was Sayid.
‘Be quiet’, he said, ’I’ve come to get you.’
Once Sayid had carried Kate safely away from the frame, and cleaned her wounds with the salty sea water, he held her.
‘It was terrible, Sayid!’ she cried, ’they tortured me all night long - they tickled every part of me - an they made me drink something that would stop me from passing out.’
‘I know,’ said Sayid, ’I watched most of it from a distance but I couldn’t rescue you until they left you for the sharks.’
And then Kate fell asleep, feeling safe and secure in the arms of Sayid.
LOST - KATE & THE TEMPLE
Kate had seen Sayid walking along the beach with his backpack as he was leaving the crash site. He had told her that he was leaving for two reasons - he didn’t feel that he should remain after the dark side in him had tortured another passenger and he felt it was time that someone explored the rest of the island. Nothing was going to stop him since he really wanted some time to reflect on his past and the things he had done.
With this information, Kate immediately ran back to the others at the crash site and told Jack, the doctor and informal head of the group, that she had seen Sayid leave to explore the island. She told him that she had decided to follow Sayid so that he would not have to explore the island alone and that she expected to return within a few days. Perhaps they would find a settlement somewhere. Or at least a way to call for help or to get off the island.
Kate gathered some of her things into a backpack and left the others about an hour after Sayid had gone. She knew that he was following the beach and planned to circle the island. Walking as quickly as she could, Kate caught up with Sayid about three hours later. He had been easier to catch up with than she had thought since he wasn’t moving at any great pace.
‘Sayid,’ she called when she saw him, ’Sayid, wait up, I’m going with you.’
‘It could be dangerous,’ he told her, ’you should stay with the others - there are things on this island that could hurt you, or worse.’
‘No,’ she said, ’I’m not going back - we need to explore the island and the chances are much better for two of us than for you alone - I’m going with you.’
‘Does Jack know?’ he asked.
‘I told him that I had seen you leave and I was going with you to explore the island,’ Kate explained, ’that’s all I need to tell him.’
And so the two of them, the former Iranian intelligence agent and the pretty young prisoner, continued along the beach for a time. As darkness fell, they decided to stop for the night, creating a makeshift camp on the sandy beach, close to the ever present trees that seemed to cover most of the island. They lay down together, using the backpacks for pillows, his arm around her, as they looked at the stars shining brilliantly in the night sky.
‘That is the Southern Cross,’ Sayid told Kate, pointing into the sky, ’it holds a special place in the heart of every Australian because it cannot be seen in the northern hemisphere - they consider it their own.’
‘Over there,’ Kate said, pointing to the North, ’are the seven little eyes - I don’t know what it’s really called but the Tahitians sailed their canoes for months toward those stars to get to Hawaii - that’s what I read in James Michener’s book. Oh, Sayid, where are we - and what’s going to happen to us?’
‘Eventually, someone will find us,’ he told her, ’but we are so far off course that it may take a long time - until then, we’ll just have to survive - we can do it.’
And so, alone on a sandy beach, hours away from the others at the crash site, the two of them fell asleep.
************
When Kate awoke, Sayid had already been awake for a while. He had gathered some bananas and coconuts for breakfast. They ate the bananas and drank the sweet milk from inside the coconuts, all the time looking out over the water for any sign of civilization - a boat, a plane, anything. After eating, and a quick bath in the warm water of the southern ocean, the two of them continued along the beach, walking further and further away from the crash site.
Several hours later, set back from the beach in a clearing, Sayid saw some ruins. Kate then saw them too.
‘What is it?’ she asked Sayid.
‘I don’t know,’ he said, ’some sort of old temple I think. I don’t think anyone has been here for a long time. I don’t see any sign of life.’
‘Maybe we should take a look, though,’ said Kate, ’perhaps we’ll find something we can use.’
As they approached the temple, if that’s what it was, it turned out to be quite a lot bigger than they had thought, and about fifteen feet high from floor to ceiling. Looking around the clearing, there was nothing to be seen - except, of course, for the ever-present trees. It seemed to be an abandoned old temple - even though the stone appeared to be clean and in good condition.
‘Maybe the people who built this temple come back from time to time to clean it and to look after it,’ Kate said, ’that’s why it’s so clean.’
‘I think so,’ responded Sayid, ’there’s nobody here now - come, let us go inside.’
‘Are you sure it’s safe,’ Kate wondered aloud, ’we can’t see anything inside because of the way the portal is built - there is a wall inside the opening.’
“We’ll be careful,’ he told her, ’just stay with me.’
As they entered the temple, they saw that most of the building consisted of one large chamber made of stone blocks - there was a stone table in the center of the chamber - there were stone bleachers around the sides that could seat perhaps two hundred people - torches were mounted in brackets on all the walls - and there was a stone chest to the side of the table.
‘What do you think it is?’ Kate asked.
‘I’m not sure,’ Sayid said, ’it appears to be a sacrificial chamber of some sort and this table must be the altar - there are tie points at the corners for ropes or cords that could be used to secure someone on the table - and there are round spaces for arms and legs on the ends - but there are no blood stains on the table so I don’t think it was used to kill anyone.’
‘It doesn’t seem that big, though’ Kate pointed out, ’it must have been used for a smaller person.’
‘I think it was used for women,’ Sayid told her, ’because these round spaces for the arms and legs are too small for a man’s arms and legs - go ahead and try it, you’ll see that’s how it works.’
‘I don’t know,’ Kate said, ’this place scares the hell out of me.’
‘There’s nobody here,’ he told her, ’just lie down on here and see if it fits - I’ll make sure nothing happens to you.’
‘Okay,’ Kate agreed, ’but only for a minute - I want to get going!’
Kate turned her back to the stone table and lifted her butt up onto the surface. She then turned herself onto the table and laid down on her back. She placed her legs into the two round spaces at one end of the table and her arms, one by one, into the spaces above her head. She fit the table perfectly.
‘You see,’ Sayid said, ’it was designed for a woman - I think that she would be placed into this position and then some ropes or cords would be used to tie her wrists and ankles to these rings at the corners - she would then be completely helpless.’
‘Oh, my God,’ Kate said, ’then they would rape her - even without ropes I can’t move - I can just imagine what that would be like - it’s terrible!’
‘I don’t think it was used for rape,’ Sayid pointed out, ’because it would be very difficult to do so on a stone platform like that - and remember that there are seats for many people to watch all around the room.’
Kate lifted her arms and legs out of the semicircular notches and got up off the stone table. She saw the stone chest to the side.
‘I wonder what’s in there,’ she said to Sayid, ’it must be part of this thing.’
Sayid opened the lid of the stone chest and carefully placed it on the floor to the side. He then reached in to the box and lifted out some large brightly-colored feathers.
‘Oh, God!’ Kate exclaimed, ’I read about this once - the natives in the South Pacific used to tickle female captives from other islands or villages to appease the tiki Gods - it used to go on for hours and hours, even days, until the priestess ended the tickling - sometimes, they would even tickle a girl until she died. When they were done with her, she would be tied spreadeagle to a bamboo frame and towed onto the ocean behind a canoe - then the sharks would feed on her as she was helplessly held on the surface of the water.’
‘I see,’ said Sayid, ’that doesn’t sound very pleasant.’
‘No, Sayid,’ she agreed, ’let’s get out of here - I don’t like this place!’
After leaving the structure of the temple, the two of them looked around the clearing and the surrounding jungle to see if there was anything of interest that could be of some use to them or the other survivors. After a thorough search of the area around the temple, the two of them continued along the beach for another hour or so, stopping to eat fruit that they picked along the way. For the first few minutes, though, Kate couldn’t help but look back toward the temple - and she trembled every time she did so. She even thought she could hear a rustle in the bushes and trees nearby as they walked along.
************
As Sayid and Kate sat down to rest and to eat some food bars that he had brought along for the journey, a number of apelike creatures, slightly larger than a man, scrambled out of the bushes behind them. One of them hit Sayid with a club before he could even get up from the sand to kill him. Another of the creatures hit Kate and knocked her out. It then lifted her onto its furry shoulder and carried her away into the jungle. Sayid, who was probably killed by the blow, was left behind on the beach.
************
When Kate regained consciousness, she was still being carried on the shoulder of one of the apelike creatures. She screamed and tried to struggle as she saw that they were carrying her into the clearing and back toward the temple. Inside the temple, the creature that carried her lowered her to the floor as several other smaller creatures approached her. She fought fiercely as they removed her clothes - one piece at a time - her shoes, socks, jeans, shirt, bra and panties.
They then lifted Kate onto the stone table and forced her arms and legs into the circular openings on the ends. Vines fashioned into slipknots were brought forward and tightened around her wrists and ankles. The loose ends were then tied to the rings at the corners of the stone table. And so Kate was helplessly spreadeagled on the stone table. She screamed and called for Sayid.
It was quite clear to Kate that these apelike creatured could not have built the temple or even formed the idea of the tickling rituals. Perhaps they had seen the builders of the temple performing their ceremonies and they merely meant to copy their procedures.
‘Help,’ Kate cried, knowing that these apelike creatures weren‘t going to let her go and there was nobody around to help her ‘ let me go!’
The creatures were quite curious about her, though. She surmised that they had not seen a white woman before. Or perhaps they recalled the French girl who sent out the distress message. Whatever, she thought, as she lay on the table naked and helpless.
‘Aaah!’ Kate screamed as one of the creatured started playing with her right nipple ‘please don’t touch that!’
Another of the creatures touched the sole of her left foot, dragging its thick finger across the delicate folds of her skin, as Kate tried to squirm as best she could.
‘Aaah, no!’ she screamed as the first creature stroked its finger across her right armpit.
When a larger, older creature entered the chamber, all fell silent. The creatures has spent at least an hour taunting and teasing Kate, touching the most sensitive and ticklish parts of her body, eliciting screams and pleas from her as she remained the helpless center of their attention.
Ten of the smaller apelike creatures, the females if Kate was right, lined up evenly along the sides and foot end of the table - four on each side and two by her feet. The older of the creatures drew ten large feathers out of the stone chest and presented one to each of the females. Kate heard the haunting call of a conch shell as the creatures appeared to call for the attention of their Gods. A small drum started to beat and the various creatures seated around the table in the temple began to chant in a grunting sort of way - clearly, a behavior they had previously seen of the humans who built the temple. The elder creature nodded.
Two of the females reached forward and started to tickle Kate’s breasts with the colourful feathers. ‘Nooo!’ Kate cried as she tried to twist her body from side to side and keep her breasts away from the feathers, ‘Nooo! Hahahaha! Nohoho!’ After a period of perhaps some twenty minutes, the elder creature nodded again and two more creatures started to tickle Kate’s stomach and abdomen with their feathers. She screamed, laughed and cried as the torture went on. ‘Ohoho, pleaheahease stohohop,’ she pleaded as the elder creature nodded and two more creatures started to tickle her thighs and calves. And so it went, on and on, until an hour or so had passed. Then, as suddenly as it had started, the tickling stopped.
The elder creature approached her and looked over the entire length of Kate’s body. She was already exhausted but knew in her heart that this was only the beginning. A female of the creatures brought forth a bowl of fluid, raised Kate’s head and allowed her to drink. It was a cool, refreshing coconut milk mixed with various herbs. Kate could feel it course through her body. The female with the bowl left and the elder creature returned to its seat near the table.
At the sound of another conch shell, the drums and chanting started again, and the two females close to her armpits began to tickle the soft, sensitive area under each arm - every few minutes, the others would again tickle her breasts, stomach, abdomen, thighs and knees, as the screaming, laughing Kate pleaded almost incoherently for release. The tears streamed down her cheeks and the sweat poured off her skin as the tickle torture continued. And then, after another hour or so, it stopped. She was again given a drink of the coconut beverage.
‘Please, no more,’ Kate pleaded, ’I can’t stand it - please let me go!’
Another call of the conch shell was her only answer, with the drums and chanting, as the two creatures at the foot end of the table approached with their feathers. Kate screamed and begged as she saw them approach her feet.
‘Nooooooo!’ she cried, ’Aaaah! Hahahahahahaha!’
After some twenty minutes of the tickling on her feet, the other creatures all joined in for a full body tickling lasting through the entire night. Kate couldn’t even plead or cry anymore. She just laughed and laughed and laughed as every part of her body was tickled, sometimes alone, sometimes all together. Her entire existence became one of laughter and tears. Nothing more existed for her. Finally, after the herbs in the coconut drink wore off, Kate passed out.
When Kate came to, she was on the beach, facedown, spreadeagled within a bamboo frame that had been equipped with wooden floats. Six of the creatures lifted the bamboo frame from the sand to carry it to the water. Kate dangled beneath the frame, suspended by her wrists and ankles at the four corners of the frame. It was an ingenious device that would allow most of her torso and thighs to fall beneath the water but holding her head slightly above the water so that she would not drown. They wanted her to be fully conscious when Mano, the shark, came for her, to take her and to bless the creatures of the island.
As she was lifted from the sand, Kate lifted her head and saw the elder creature before her with a sharp knife. He moved to her feet as she tried desperately to struggle against the bonds that held her. With the knife, he cut deep slits into the meaty portion at the bottom of each of Kate’s toes. She screamed as she felt each painful new slit cut into her flesh. He then moved to the head end of the frame and cut similar slits into each of her fingertips. This would then leave twenty small wounds dripping blood into the water once she was towed away from the beach. She was carried out to the water and the bamboo frame was placed on four wooden mounts. She would be held perfectly in place as the tide came in and the sharks could swim close enough to shore to reach her. And then all of the creatures left.
After a time, as she saw the blood trickle from the little cuts in her fingers and toes, and the pain of her position became more intense, she heard a voice. It was Sayid.
‘Be quiet’, he said, ’I’ve come to get you.’
Once Sayid had carried Kate safely away from the frame, and cleaned her wounds with the salty sea water, he held her.
‘It was terrible, Sayid!’ she cried, ’they tortured me all night long - they tickled every part of me - an they made me drink something that would stop me from passing out.’
‘I know,’ said Sayid, ’I watched most of it from a distance but I couldn’t rescue you until they left you for the sharks.’
And then Kate fell asleep, feeling safe and secure in the arms of Sayid.
