Chapter 7
Erin’s thoughts were placated by the falling rain and dreary silence, adding to the dread she felt inside. She knew that she didn’t love Mark and in her own sick way was only sleeping with him to get her adventure around the world she had always dreamed about. The idea that she had only used him for her own gain was what had her troubled.
Before the previous night he was always very friendly to her. She knew he loved her in much the same way she had always pictured feeling about someone else, however; Mark was not her type in the least. She prayed for the mysterious and the open book lovable kind was never really her forte.
She watched as Jacob walked ahead of her. He was using the knife she had given him as a sort of machete, though it lacked in size, she was amazed at his strength. She knew nothing about this man. She was secretly scared of him and trusted him no more than she trusted a stranger on the street.
He was average build, with muscular jaw bones and short well cropped brown hair. His eyes were a deep blue that only drew her in when she stared at him for a long period of time. Although he was no body builder or cut like an athlete, he held within him strength, untamed and raw. She did not say anything to him earlier when she saw him digging the hole with his bare hands, but she saw ferocity within him that she had never seen before.
It would have taken three men with shovels to complete the task in the time he managed to do it with his bare hands. He had also left quite an impression on a large tree that she didn’t tell him she saw as he was knelt before it. It was almost inhuman.
She never told Jacob the entire story, nor did she mention what had started the fight that had occurred between her and Mark before he came to consciousness. Mark had helped her drag Jacob into the cabin and kept mostly silent as he did so. He kept an aura of pain and sorrow about him that he had never had before and the abrupt change in his attitude towards life is what truly frightened her.
Only when she asked him what was bothering him did he explode like a cave full of dynamite. His eyes flashed red and he screamed in a tone that was both demeaning and horrifying that, “it was none of her fucking business.”
She was not one to take that kind of aggression for no reason and that is when she returned with some unkind words of her own.
His eyes had madness within them. They burned like hot coals, which reflected the fire-light like a mirror of dancing flames. She had never seen such insanity or sociopathic expression in her life. His only desire was to kill and his rough beard and matted black hair only added to the crazed look on his face. Before she had time to think or consider a plan, he was upon her with both fists colliding with her face.
She rubbed at the soreness of her jaw and the bruised ring around her left eye.
“We should probably get that treated.”
Jacob’s voice broke her thoughts. She looked at him, standing there in a torn and muddy silk shirt, suit pants, hiking boots and wielding a 5 inch knife and could do nothing else but smile.
Jacob’s expression changed from concern to confusion, and then it was as if he knew what she was smiling about. She watched him look down at himself, brush some leaves and debris from his shirt, and then add, “Well, I don’t know if the dry cleaners can help me anymore. But I think the trade off for these designer boots was worth losing my $300 leather shoes. Brings out the seriousness of the situation, don’t you think?”
Erin’s smile faded, and she stared just above Jacob’s shoulder and back through the trees into the distance.
Is that a…“lighthouse!”
Her voice resonated off the trees and seemed to travel the length of the island. Jacob at first appeared startled and then abruptly turned to see what she was staring at. He said nothing, but began cutting and swinging once more as if he too saw something. She took pursuit to follow him once more.
As they pushed on through the trees it came more into view. In the distance there appeared an old lighthouse, at the top of the next hill, overlooking the ocean. It was positioned in the a-typical lighthouse location, atop a small hill that crawled atop some jagged rocks along the surf.
It stood majestic and strong, though more than run down from age. Within minutes they were standing before it, and it stood now taller than ever, reaching into the sky. It’s white, painted base was chipping and some of the wooden siding lay on the ground, battered and rotted from the constant rain.
Erin stepped up on the tiny porch and peered in the window as Jacob walked around the side to investigate the area more thoroughly. She brushed away the cob webs and dust and looked through the window. It appeared to be a tiny room, with a series of shelves and a cot on one side and a small desk and chair on the other. The walls appeared intact for the most part and the floor, although splintered in places, also seemed whole.
As she turned to walk away, within her peripheral vision there was a movement within the room and she turned back and looked. She saw the back of a child’s head, a boy, walking around the corner and into the hallway. The glimpse was instant and she hadn’t time to determine much of anything, though she could have sworn there was blood on the back of his head.
She ran to the door and tried to open it, thinking the worst of the child inside. As she grabbed the handle and turned, it wouldn’t budge. She pushed as hard as she could against the rotted frame, but it was built soundly.
At once the door swung open and the dust covered the face of the man standing before her. His eyes burned in a familiar fury, and his black shaggy hair fell in matted clumps. He was covered in dirt and his breathing was labored.
He remained in the shadows, his face covered by falling dust that made her eyes water and her breath to temporarily be taken from her. She stepped back, coughing as the feet of the man stepped forward.
She was losing her senses, and could barely manage to remain standing as a hand fell on her shoulder and as she attempted to move backwards she lost her footing and fell. She fell much softer than she would have imagined and then it hit her that she was in someone’s arms. She had her eyes closed as if that would have helped the inevitable thud of the hard ground on her back. She opened them and saw Jacob, holding her, concern and fear on his face.
“I didn’t mean to scare you, or give you an asthma attack with the dust. I found an open window and climbed through.”
Her eyes watered and burned but she looked up into his eyes and was suddenly more than happy to see him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and could feel the tension and stress relax on him in an instant. He returned the hug and held her close.
“The boy!”
She jumped up at once, rubbing the dust from her eyes and walked back onto the tiny porch. She walked into the room that she guessed was the kitchen. It had a small pot-bellied stove in one corner and a small table by the rear wall. She made her way through the open door beside the table and into the hallway. Four rooms lined each side of the wall and she took the first one on the right, assuming this to be the closest in proximity to the front window.
She could hear Jacob close behind her and felt strength and courage at having him close by. Stranger or not, he had saved her twice now and she could feel the trust slowly growing for him.
The room was as she had seen it through the window and she looked around in each darkened corner for any sign of the boy. “Hello?” she called out, more in a whisper than a shout. She did not want to alarm him, if he was scared and felt they were out to hurt him.
She saw nothing. She went to the next few rooms, the first a bathroom without plumbing and a pump for a sink. The tub was an old porcelain wash-basin in the corner. She went to the next room and found it to be another room complete with a bed and a stand up wardrobe. The fourth room led to a set of staircases, one leading down and the other one up in a spiral wrap-around for the post of the light above.
She called once more, but heard nothing. The lighthouse was vacant. There were not even footprints in the fallen dust aside from their own.
Jacob stopped her and turned her towards him. He looked into her with those blue eyes and she was suddenly much calmer.
“What did you see?” he asked with concern still imminent on his voice.
“There was a child, or so I thought. I saw him walk out of the room I was looking in through the window on the porch. I didn’t get a very good look at him, but it he was most certainly there.”
She noticed fear grow on Jacob’s face and his eyes left hers and stared at the far wall behind her. She at first thought he saw something behind her, but after a quick glance to where he was staring, and then returning to him, he was now staring at the floor in deep thought.
“Did you see him as well?” she asked, knowing the answer almost before she spoke.
“I…I am not sure.” Jacob’s voice trailed with fear and was broken like a shy child reading in front of his whole class for the first time.
“Why do I not believe you?”
“Since I have been here, I have been having some strange day dreams. I say dreams because that is the only thing I can call them without sounding like a complete lunatic. At first I saw a boy, floating dead out on the surf. I pulled his body to shore and as I dug a grave for him, I took my eyes from where he lay. When I returned, the boy’s body was gone.
When I followed you through the woods later, I came out into a small clearing and as I lost consciousness, I saw the same child, swollen from the heat, standing before me. Please understand I have believed it to only be the heat and lack of water making me see things. I truly don’t believe that I saw him until I lost consciousness a second time down along the beach when I was walking with you.
It seems that when I see them, that there is a migraine that follows closely behind and it causes me to pass out.”
Erin’s eyes sat it thought and as she stared off, her face became shadowed with fear and confusion.
“Wait, did you say them? You only mentioned a boy and not a second person.”
“I apologize, I must have misspoken. It was only the boy I have seen so far.”
She could tell by the look on his face he was hiding something. She had no doubt there was a second person or thing he had seen, but he felt that it was not knowledge he wanted to share. She had not shared with him that she saw her dead ex-bf at the door when he opened it, so she felt that bat-shit crazy was just common in the tropical heat.
She finally broke the awkward silence with a sudden impulse, “I believe this place is as good as any to set up camp. There are two beds in separate rooms, which I think can be made somewhat habitable. Although I don’t think they are going to be the most comfortable, it beats sleeping on the ground in the damn jungle again.”
“I think we should see if the pumps in the kitchen and bathroom work. If there is an old well under us that we can siphon water from, then I think this would be a great place.”
Jacob stood and walked out of the room with the staircase. Erin fell close behind him and stayed near his heels, once again glancing in each room as they passed by as if there was something more to see.
They entered the kitchen and as Jacob sat working the hand pump above the drain, she began preparing the tiny stove for a fire. As she had placed the tiny pieces of wood into the pit, she heard a sudden gush of water and she turned to see Jacob standing, drenched from head to toe with muddy water.
“I think there was a clog.” Jacob said, cracking a smile behind his mud-covered face.
“Well, I think you solved that problem.” Erin began to smile again and shuffled through the shelves of cooking items for some matches or something to start the fire with, grabbing a hold of a small box.
Soon the fire was rolling and Jacob had removed his shirt to let it dry off near the heat. The water ran clear after a couple of tedious hours pumping away and using one of the pans on the shelf, they had set about boiling the water to remove any bacteria. This was a technique Erin knew all too well and after describing the intricate details of diarrhea and vomiting, Jacob agreed that boiling the water would be the best option.
They moved the cots into the kitchen and gathered some large green leaves from the trees outside for bedding. It would not be the best, but would suffice.
Soon night had crept over the island and the ocean waves crashed mercilessly against the cliff, now at high tide, below. Erin sat staring at the tiny glow of the fire and the sudden impact of fear came over her once more. Jacob was laying there, fiddling with the knife and some tree branch he had picked up and she could feel a whisper coming from down the hallway. It was faint at first, barely audible over the crackling wood.
She saw the faint outline of a boy’s face once more in the darkness within. His eyes glowed faintly. He was staring at her with disgust and loathing.
She tried to speak or do anything to get Jacob’s attention but failed to do so. Her voice was gone, stripped away by the fear beating inside her chest. The boy did not move. He stood fast and smiled mischievously at her, and then turned to walk into the far room with the staircase.
Suddenly her voice returned and she turned to see Jacob dozing off beside her in the neighboring cot. His soft snore sounding much more loudly than it should have in the deathly silent lighthouse room. She moved closer to him and shook him violently. He sprang up as if the whole building was on fire, grabbing for his knife on the stand beside him.
“Wha…?!” was all he managed to say before he saw the look of dread and fear on Erin’s face.
“Something tells me we are not alone and do not belong here,” Erin said in a much calmer voice than she thought possible through the throbbing beat of her heart. Jacob looked around as if in answer to her words and returned his gaze back to her.
“What happened?”
“The boy is still here and I don’t think you are crazy or suffering from heat exhaustion. He was staring at me, from the shadows of the hallway. His eyes were burning a deep red and he smiled before vanishing into the far room.”
“Something tells me we won’t get much sleep tonight,” Jacob said, as if the understanding was mutual between them both. “We should keep watch and stay as alert as possible.
The rest of the night ventured along quietly. Jacob took watch for the first 4 hours and then Erin the next 4. As morning broke through the dust covered windows of the lighthouse kitchen, the bloodshot and weary eyes of both Jacob and Erin added to the Jacob’s notion of not getting much sleep.
“Today would be a good day to try to get that light working up above; hopefully we can use that to signal for help for any passing ship.” Jacob said, as he shuffled to get out of the bed and stretched both arms as far as they could go.
Erin stood and did much the same thing, soon following Jacob down the hallway to the far room. As they reached the door, they noticed footprints in the dust-covered floor. Jacob turned to Erin and she knew at once what he was thinking…they needed to get off of this island and fast.
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