Island Of The Cryptids

42

"Jake!" Kaeli cried as he emerged from the cave. She was standing atop a hill, as the wind brushed her hair and swayed the treetops. "I thought you were dead! I couldn't find the phone, but Carlin is gone and he's an evil person he tried to attack me! All we have to do now is get back and find another way to signal for help-"

"Don't bother," Jake said. His face was sinking and his eyes were watery and red from burst capillaries. "I'm sick. I fell into the water and I got infected. There's no hope left for me." Kaeli stared at him in shock.

"No! You can't do this! This can't be happening!"

"I'm sorry, but it's going to happen. I'm contagious. It would be best that you stay away from me."

"But it's waterborne! You won't infect me! You can come with and we can get treatment!" Jake grinned a wry smile and shook his head.

"There's no treatment for whatever this is. There's nothing you can do except go on without me. It's not like I do much for you anyways. You still have Tucker."

"Tucker is most likely dead," Kaeli whined. "I'll be all alone." Jake nodded glumly. Then he sat down on a rock, exhausted, pouting his head in his hands.

"When I was a boy, I always feared being alone. Isolation scared the shit out of me. I just found the whole concept of being without any connection frightening. I could barely cope with it. It destroyed me."

Kaeli looked at the ground while listening to Jake talk. Her scarf swayed in the breeze, tattered and dirty. The wind whistled a somber echo in the silence.

"But as I grew older, I came to realize the nature of being alone. It was something that we all had to deal with. We all end up alone in the end no matter how loved we are. And in order to not be scared of that, you had to become one with yourself. When you found yourself you would never truly be alone."

"What's your point?" Kaeli said. Jake looked up sullenly at her.

"I guess you could say that I understand now. I understand that I have to be alone. I understand that no matter how much I want to change the past, what happened here tonight, I can't. I believe I've learned to accept what's happened to me. And I'd rather not drag myself around for someone else, which is only hurting them." He paused, taking a long, hard gulp.

"I think I'm ready to be alone," he said finally. Kaeli looked at him.

"I understand. I'll try to be strong." Jake nodded firmly.

"Good. Now..." he said. "Hand me that gun on your belt."
Jake eyed Carlin's gun that Kaeli had taken with. She looked at him frantically. Jake saw this and shook his head.

"It's the only way."

Kaeli grabbed the gun and reluctantly handed it to Jake, who weighed it in his hands. He looked up thankfully at Kaeli.

"Thank you. Now get going along. I hope you can find your way."

Kaeli walked into the forest, tears streaking down her face. After about a minute of walking, a gunshot sounded from the clearing, and a flock of birds soared up out of the canopy. She sobbed and kept going