The floor was crude and rough. A sign swung above the mantle that read “Home is a Slice of Pie – Cooked to Perfection.” Jacob’s head was still in a lot of pain, though it had subsided a lot from previously. He bent forward, examining his aching feet and searching about the room for Erin or any other inhabitant.
Where in the world am I?
The small one room cabin smelled of dust and a musty stagnant odor of foreboding. He got to his knees and made his way to a chair nearby. It was a rudimentary piece of drift wood that someone had carved into a simple and very wobbly 4 legged seat. The room was no larger than many bathrooms Jacob had seen, with no obvious kitchen and bathroom present. It was just big enough for a small bed, two chairs, a table and some odd version of a trunk that looked more or less like a rotting suitcase.
Jacob listened to the sound of the voices. One was a familiar shrill voice that he could only assume was that of Erin’s, but the other was less conversed and male. He could not make out many of the words but could tell that they were having an argument. A fire roared through the open window and the brightness of the flame, he discovered, was the source of the illumination of the small room.
He slowly made his way to the door, and opened it ever so slightly to peer out into the night. There was a younger man screaming in coherently at Erin, across an open fire. He had his arms raised and brought them down hard against her face, knocking her to the ground. She lay there, motionless.
Jacob felt enraged and finding some last ounce of strength the door of the small cabin was flung from the hinges as he made his way out into the fire-light. The man ducked under the oncoming attack and braced himself. As Jacob came into range, the man used Jacob’s own momentum to propel him into the side of a stack of fire wood. Erin’s faint and quiet moaning was all he could hear as he laid there, blood appearing at his mouth.
The man approached him, kicking him hard in the stomach as he made his way to his knees. The boots the man was wearing knocked the air out of Jacob’s lungs. He rolled over, back onto his back and waited for the second kick to come. The man was distracted instead with finding some type of weapon and Jacob saw this as his last chance.
Spitting out the blood and gritting his teeth, he made his way back to his feet and lunged as the man was bent over to pick up some of the burning limbs in the fire. The man fell into the fire, rolling through to the other side.
Jacob had fallen in the attack and had landed, his right hand falling into the coals. The burning feeling roared through his arm like a stampede, causing him more pain than he had the strength to deal with. His eyes stung with smoke and watered uncontrollably. The whole scene was a blur behind the smokescreen and tears.
His mind raced, powered by adrenaline and saturated by pain. He walked closer to the man, watching him lying on the ground. He noticed small puffs of smoke rising from the man’s clothing as he lay there, still and quiet.
Jacob knelt before him, using his uninjured hand to nudge the man. He lay motionless and breathless. He rolled him over onto his back and as his face rolled along with it, he noticed burn marks and a large abrasive wound beside his left temple.
The man was dead.
Jacob found his way to Erin, her breathing slow and calm. He knew she would be alright, though from the strike she had taken, he assumed she would have a headache worse than his the next day. His adrenaline now faded, he sat down beside her. His good hand rested firmly on her shoulder as she slept beside him with a slow and timid snore.
It seemed like only a short time before the sun had crept its way above the distant hills and brought with it an orchestra of beauty. The island lit up like a field of diamonds, cascading the distant valleys and jungles in a beauty he had never witnessed before. The light greens and deep darker greens almost seemed to be nothing more than a painting by some gifted contemporary artist. The sky was blasted with the beautiful orange and yellow sunrise.
The majestic nature of the oncoming daylight brought forth a new feeling of restlessness in Jacob. He sat there motionless, lost deep in thought and allowed his mind to wonder. He hadn’t the endurance to hold it back or force it to another topic.
He thought of her.
He thought of those amazing dreams and how he had felt. He thought of her beauty and passion. He thought of how she had taken his primal and most driven sexual urges and made him feel as though he was the only thing that mattered.
Jacob had always had sexual relationships. His first coming at the young age of 15, as he desperately tried to live out the numerous fantasies a young boy thinks about. Sex was a customary past time and one he loved more than anything. At times he referred to himself as a nymphomaniac, until his job replaced his sexual urges with that of a higher calling.
Mary Shultz, his first sexual partner, was 3 years his senior. He had landed a high school senior while a freshman. He had tried for weeks to win her attention, as she did her best to ignore him in the long hallways of Greenburg High School. One day, as he walked behind her asking her to the next school dance, he noticed, though he heard her say no that she was smiling behind her blonde hair. Her eyes were a brilliant brown and her smile is what drew him to her in almost every way.
Erin’s stirring brought him back from the mental image. He watched as she looked up at him and smiled, then abruptly looked in all directions for any signs of an oncoming attack or threat. She sprang at once to her feet and Jacob followed suit. She looked across the fire and saw the body of the man lying there, unmoving.
She looked over at Jacob, her eyes wide with confusion and fear.
“Is he…dead?” she said in a whisper.
“I’m afraid so. I came out to help you last night, seeing him strike you to the ground and we got into a fight. The fight didn’t last long as he stumbled through the open fire and…” he motioned for her eyes to once again look at him.
His face was burnt, now visible in the morning light. His eyes were shut and the blood from his open wound had collected in a small pool beside his limp body.
Erin knelt back to the ground, tears flooding her eyes. She caught site of Jacob’s confused look and nodded slowly.
“When you passed out yesterday at the beach, I struggled to pull you to the trees before the tide came in. The tide on this island is very bad and could have easily have taken you out or slammed you against the rocks. When I finally managed to have you within the tree line, I heard something or someone moving in the trees.
As I crawled closer, I noticed on the rocks bits and pieces of the ship I had called home for the past two months being dragged along. Then I saw him…”
She pointed over at the man lying on the ground.
“I called to him and he came at once. I would like you to meet Mark. My boyfriend or rather my ex-bf. His eyes were darker than normal, and I assumed the lack of sleep and exhaustion was starting to get to him. He helped me bring you here and said he had come across this place already standing, though long since abandoned and had taken up roost. He claimed he had survived the ship wreck and that he had been here for 2 weeks now.”
Jacob couldn’t believe those words. “But I thought you said he was dead, died in the storm that left you stranded here?”
“That was my original thoughts. I mean, I didn’t understand how he could have survived. I specifically remember seeing him sink to the bottom. There was a piece of wood floating just able to hold our weight. We floated for a couple hours and I nodded off to sleep, exhausted from the tiresome attempt at removing the water from the boat’s cabin and hull.
Mark was gone when I woke up and I could not find him. I assumed he had perished or sank while I slept and as I awoke, I was near the beach. Mark was not an angry person. In fact, the man I saw yesterday looked exactly like him, but I could have sworn it was someone else entirely. I know that sounds strange and we all have a side of us that we would rather not show others, but last night was different.”
Jacob knew this was the truth. Erin’s face held contempt and heartbreak and he only wished he had found some way to knock the guy out, rather than kill him. It was only an accident that it had happened, but he strangely felt little to no remorse when it happened.
Jacob had heard many people say that the second you kill a man or cause his death, it somehow changes you into a different person. He felt no different. His mind did not linger on the event like he thought it should have. It was pre-occupied by stupid childish thoughts of sexual relationships and he couldn’t begin to fathom the cause for this. It scared him.
“We should at least bury him,” Erin said, her tears still falling.
“I agree.” Jacob said.
He began to dig, oddly, his second grave since awakening on this island. His hands were still sore from the last time and he wished he had a shovel or spade to help him. He watched as Erin sat beside Mark’s body, her hand holding his. He thought that apologizing, but he had seen this man openly strike her down. He wasn’t sorry. This bastard deserved it.
His hands began to dig deeper and his muscles moved faster and faster. As his thoughts raced on through what had happened and as he replayed the site of this man punching Erin across the side of her face, he felt a renewed strength. His head rushed with adrenaline and his arms were not getting weaker, but stronger. The strength was welcomed with such urgency, such raw desire.
Erin looked over at him, noticing the entire grave was finished in a matter of moments. Her eyes were no longer filled with tears, but a strange curiosity.
“Jacob?” was all she managed to squeak out as she suddenly noticed him standing above the freshly dug hole.
Jacob’s mind lingered on the thoughts and his ears never processed or blocked out her voice and he walked over to a tree and knelt before it. The adrenaline was not stopping; it was instead increasing its multitude and coursing faster and faster through his body. He felt like throwing up, but knew his lack of food would only send him into dry heaving convulsions. As he clasped onto the tree, he was able to calm himself down.
He felt a familiar and calming hand on his shoulder and he at once hoped to smell that beautiful scent. That sweet serenity he had dreamed about for so long.
“Jacob?”
Erin’s inquisitive words blasted through his thoughts and brought him to the surface of his ocean of torment.
“Jacob, you are starting to worry me. I do not blame you for Mark’s death, if that is what is causing you so much trouble. In fact, I should thank you for saving me. The rage inside of him was not normal, and very unlike him. He would have killed me, I think.”
Jacob caught her deep brown eyes, and her smile lifted his spirits instantly. He wanted to hug her. Like a childish school boy he wanted her attention more than ever.
She gave him a slight pat on the back and motioned for him to follow her.
As Jacob stood, he saw what he had done. In a matter of a few minutes, there was now a hole, 5 feet deep and the length of a man’s body in front of him. He looked down at his hands and they were splintered and bloody. His disbelief once again returned, but not in the same manner as before.
The splinters, as if alive, crawled from his skin and the wounds healed. His mind was obviously playing tricks on him. He walked over to Mark’s body and lifted him in his arms like one would cradle a baby. He brought him over to the hole he had dug, Erin following in close pursuit at his heels. As he knelt and gently placed the man’s body in the hole, he stood.
“I should say something,” Erin said, as she stared down at her ex-lover’s body in the hollowed grave.
Jacob nodded at her and she at once began to cry once again.
“You had promised to take me on an adventure and my heart had leaped at those words like a school girl with a crush. These past few months have been some of the best of my entire life and I couldn’t have asked for a greater experience. You had taught me many things and showed me a life of fun and how to live it to the fullest. Although it all came crashing down these past two weeks, I will always hold you as my closest friend and will cherish the love you have shown me.
I will remember those times we spent each night, on the bow of the boat, watching the stars dance across the ocean waves. May God watch over you and you forever see the beauty that you have shown me…”
Erin turned and wrapped herself around Jacob. Her tears soaked his shirt and he held her as close as he could. He felt the guilt at last. Guilt for making her feel this way, though it did not change the fact that he still felt the death of this man was not his fault.
As he covered the hole with the dirt, he watched as Erin gathered herself and began to search the area.
Jacob followed her and began to help.
“I do not wish to stay here tonight,” Erin said at length. “This place is worse than having no shelter or fire. I say we gather what supplies we think we can use, and get as far away from here as possible.”
“I don’t think that is a bad idea,” Jacob answered, as he found a couple tarps in a pile of miscellaneous items beside the tiny hut. Erin produced a lighter and small backpack from the shelf inside the cabin and also a second knife which she gave to Jacob.
Before they set off, she handed Jacob the most beautiful sight he had seen in days.
“I don’t think he will be in need of these any more, and I think you most definitely do if you plan on keeping up with me.”
As Jacob strapped on the combat style hiking boots she had given him, they secured their items as best they could and set off through the trees. As they passed by the edge of the small clearing, Jacob looked over the tree he had leaned against just moments before.
The tree was about 14 inches in diameter and on its side was a deep and prominent hand print. The tree itself had been crushed. He looked down at his hands once more, and as Erin walked off into the dense jungle, the thoughts of Mark distracting her from anything else, the same resonant fear crawled back into Jacob’s mind.
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