Chapter 10

Night fell quickly, with its darkened haze enveloping the island almost instantly.

Jacob and Erin had spent most of the evening preparing for the day ahead.  The search of the island was now priority, as they had shelter, food and water.  Jacob noted that were he ever to get back to civilization to always take note of how great pigs tasted, roasted over an open fire. 

As Jacob nailed boards against the rear door, he made sure to stop every few seconds to listen for movement on the other side.  So far, he had heard nothing.  Finally the last of the wooden scraps from the shed were in place, nailed enough times to prevent a hurricane from ripping the door open.  He stared, content with his work, and turned around to head back to the kitchen area. 

Erin sat on the side cot, the dog lying asleep in her lap and she looked up at him and smiled.  She turned her head back towards the little dog, with something obviously on her mind.  Her brilliant green eyes like two gem stones that lit up with the beauty of the open fire, as she sat there in deep thought.   

“You look like something is bothering you?”  Jacob said, knowing that being ship wrecked on an island and sleeping on a cot in a rotting light house wasn’t the best of situations. 

“I was just considering the possibility of there being others on the island.  I know I have search for many days, but the thing that has me troubled is that I always felt like someone or something was watching me.  I know that may sound silly, though given what we have both been through, not so silly any more.

But there was something that you said that has me troubled.  I remembered you said when you first woke up that you followed a flash of red into the jungle.”

“Yes.  I assumed it was you with the red tank top.” 

“I never said anything before, though I think I just now had the time to think clearly without fighting for my life, but I was actually camped out on the beach all that day.  I wasn’t even near the jungle or the area where I found you asleep.”

“You think there are others on this island?”

“That is what I’m thinking.  Things just don’t seem to make much sense.  I guess searching the island tomorrow might bring more things into perspective.  It is just odd.”

Erin looked up at Jacob and smiled again.  “Luckily I have you to protect me. 

Jacob smiled once more.  “I’m not sure how many super heroes there are who wear hiking boots and dress pants, but I will damn sure do my best.”

Erin started to laugh but quickly noticed the dog’s eyes were open. 

The dog’s ears perked up and they both looked in the direction of the front door.  There was a scraping along the wooden frame.  The dog’s growl was low and stern, and the hair on its back was standing straight up. 

Jacob put his finger to his mouth and then pointed to the dog.  Erin quickly hushed the dog by rubbing its ears, which in turn did calm the dog a bit.  His attention was still on the front of the lighthouse.  The scratching moved along the wall and stopped just before the front window. 

The outline of a shadow appeared just outside the window, though with the night air and moisture of the day’s rain, nothing could be seen but a clouded image.  Jacob stared closely, trying to pick through the tiny droplets of water to gather some idea of what was looking at them through the window when the pots and pans started flying across the room, smacking into the distant wall nearly striking Jacob.  He dove to the ground to avoid them and Erin grabbed the dog and ducked under the cot.  The window cracked and spider-webbed and the loud sound of heavy breathing could be heard over the rustling wind outside.

The front door began to twist and contort, as if by some power unknown to either Jacob or Erin and splintered under the strain.  Lightning flashed outside and the pots and pans continued to clang and clatter against the wall. The wood crackled and broke into pieces and from beneath the safety of the table, Jacob could see the visage of a woman appear at the doorway.  He dress was flowing white, and her hair streamed down her in amber waves.  He watched as she walked right passed them, not paying attention to Jacob or Erin hiding just feet away. 

She walked towards the hallway.  Her body twisted in a sexual and powerful way that drew in attention like a vacuum.  Jacob couldn’t breathe, couldn’t speak, and couldn’t move.  He just sat there, drawn into a dazed expression and searched within his mind for the power to resist the fear growing like a uncontrollable madness within him. 

Her outline disappeared down the hallway and the pots and pans stopped their dance along the wooden exterior, sound seeming to cease completely.  The front door of the lighthouse had been obliterated into tiny scraps of wood.  Jacob’s strength and will returned and he made his way out from under the table.  Erin stared in disbelief towards the entrance to the small hallway.  The dog was lying beside her, paws over his eyes as if to escape the terrible lights that just moments ago danced off of the walls within the tiny wooden room.

Jacob walked, slowly towards the front door, and peered down the hallway.  It was dark once more, with little to no light pouring down the tiny corridor from the kitchen fire.  The darkness was almost enveloping.  The turmoil was very common to that same swirling whirl of hell he had seen that morning before Erin had brought him back to reality. 

“Reality?”  He found himself, saying out loud to no one. 

Erin looked towards him, as if to study him.  He was staring down the hallway and talking about reality?  In what completely screwed up reality did a woman burst through a door wielding a lightning storm and disappear into a tiny black hallway?  None of which she was ever aware.

Jacob’s brows were furrowed in concentration.  He never appeared afraid but rather welcomed the situation they were in and held it with a scientific sort of confusion.  This scared Erin more than she would admit, though she could really do nothing to warrant the situation as simple and easy to understand, so he perhaps just had a way of hiding his fear behind the confusion.  Moments passed and suddenly both of their thoughts were broken by the dog once again on the defensive, barking uncontrollably towards the hallway. 

Within a moments and before either of them could speak, a loud heart pounding scream echoed throughout the lighthouse.  The glass in all of the windows shattered at the high pitch and glass covered both of them in a blanket of tiny shards.  The dog had taken this as a perfect opportunity to run back out the front door and away from this nuthouse.  Jacob and Erin began gathering their things, what they could and both of them took the dog’s side of common sense and left the lighthouse. 

As they stepped out of the clearing and back into the dense jungle, Jacob turned back one last time to something that made his blood turn cold.  The boy stood only a few paces away from him.  His head turned in a familiar sinister fashion as if he was studying Jacob for some cruel experiment.  The only experiment Jacob could think of was how the boy could torture him and kill him in the most brutal and painful way. 

Erin ran off following the dog, as Jacob stood petrified like a statue. 

“Your time is coming Jacob.” The ghastly hideous voice bubbled from the boys mouth as he spit up seaweed and sea water.  It was like a drowning victim trying to give someone advice on how to save them.  The whole scene seemed backwards in some way.

The fear within him kept Jacob from uttering a single word.  He could do nothing but watch as the boy took a step towards him.  He came even closer, and in doing so, that familiar pungent smell of rotting flesh and death stung Jacob’s nostrils and caused his eyes to water. 

 The boy’s tattered shorts swayed in the night breeze and droplets of murky black water dripped from them onto the jungle floor.  His eyes burned a pale yellow and Jacob could see sores on him, like something tiny had been taking bites of him.  It made Jacob’s stomach churn and he nearly fell, catching himself on a tree as the boy came ever closer. 

Jacob’s heart raced and his head pounded that familiar throbbing pain that always accompanied the boy’s presence. 

“Why…what do…you want from me?” Jacob said, his voice coming out in a squeaked tone like a pre-pubescent teenager. 

The boy’s mouth twisted in an evil grin as he smiled, the moonlight above caught the grayed black tint of his teeth. 

“I want you to know what happened.  I want you to stop playing house and fucking every walking thing on this island.  I want you to open your eyes and see what is going on around you.  I want you to remember!” the last sentence bounced off the trees and entered Jacob’s mind like a hammer. 

It accompanied a series of images, dancing across his vision like a stale dream.  It ran through his mind like an old movie projector, stopping on a familiar frame in which he could see, as if through a bird’s eye view, the plane.  He saw his body being flung out from the side of the plane, just moments after the lightning had struck the side engine.  The fall was nearly three thousand feet up and he saw the black dot of his body dropping further and further into the dark swirling clouds. 

The plane was struck a second time by another bolt of lightning and burst into flames, the fuel tank taking the full brunt of the natural blast of white light.  As the fuel line dripped the smell of diesel filled the swirling air like a dense roaring cloud of poisonous gas.  The screaming people inside didn’t have a chance.  One man jumped out of the side just before the plane exploded into a brilliant and deadly display of fireworks.  The storm clouds rippled in effect to the power of the explosion and the misty fog seemed to be sucked into the flaming debris like a vacuum. 

The air felt still and cold.  Jacob’s eyes were a blur and he searched all around for any signs of life…

The air rushed back into his lungs and he sat up gasping.  Erin’s hand was on his shoulder and she was shaking him trying to get him to wake up. 

“You scared the shit out of me!  I was running after the dog and when I looked back you were gone.  I came running back and saw you lying on the ground, not breathing.  What the hell happened?”

Before Jacob could respond, bits of fiery debris started falling all around them.  The air had that same familiar burning diesel smell and Jacob could only stare in disbelief as a chunk of a plane fell crashing into the lighthouse.  The ground swallowed the impact like a meteor, and instantly the entire formation of the lighthouse was engulfed in flames, save the part that was obliterated from the impact of the falling mass of steel and fire. 

Erin’s face turned to pure terror, watching as fire and metal rained about them like falling death.  She tugged at Jacob to run, but he sat steadfast in disbelief.  A large chunk of the plane had landed just feet away and as the edges smoldered and steamed, he caught site of the number written in flat red paint. 

Flight 65?

“What is it?” Erin said, her curiosity finally winning over her fear. 

Jacob looked up at her, confused and terrified. 

“That is my flight, the one that crashed.” 

And as if to answer those words, a man fell just from them.  His body imploded into the Earth like a bag of meat.  Blood splattered the trees and surrounding vegetation and though his entire body was now swollen and broken beyond recognition from the impact, Jacob recognized the blood-soaked fabric of a Hawaiian shirt.