The ocean’s waves crashed into my body as I lay unconscious on the shore. I lifted my head just in time to spare myself from the mouthful of the cold salty bile I would have endured. I did my best to keep the sand that clung to my hands and arms out of my eyes as I rubbed them to clear my vision, not much luck though. Another wave of water hit me and jolted me up onto my feet. It was then that I realized I was shivering, and only tattered rags of linen hung from my frame. The sky was grey and murky, much like the ocean behind me swelling as if preparing for an approaching storm. I wrapped my arms around myself doing my best to keep what little heat I had in my body from escaping.
I looked at what surrounded me and I wasn’t surprised to see that I was on an island, nothing but water and sky could be seen as I looked out into the horizon. The size of the island itself was a mystery to me. Its endless trees and forest extended to the heart of the island where I had no choice but to head into. I began walking slowly away from the water as the last remnants of a wave engulfed my feet, causing me to tread a little more quickly out of the water’s path.
I could still hear the ocean wildly throwing itself about as I made it to the tree line. I knew that making a shelter would be my first priority. If there was indeed a storm coming then I had little time to make something suitable for these weather conditions. I rested a hand against one of the palm trees that lead into the thicket when a vibration was sent down to my core. I jerked my hand away from the trunk and momentarily gazed at my hand before I looked up at the tree. The sensation was gone now, as if it had never been there. I looked around to make sure I was alone. I felt alone anyway. I only I could remember how I had gotten here, maybe I could make sense of everything that was happening. But I didn’t have a clue.
I cautiously placed my hand back onto the trunk and again, a sensation I had never felt before was sent through my body. I stood there feeling the vibrations surge through me and my head began to swim with the feeling of sickness. Before I knew it, it was on my hands and knees and vomit covering the wet sandy island floor. I wanted to pass out. I wanted to leave this island and never come back. I was hot now, the cold that was biting at my fingers and toes had now released me and feverish waves of heat pulsed into them making me want to throw up again. What was happening to me?
After moments of swaying vision, dry heaving, and panic; I felt well enough to get up onto my feet. My knees wobbled as I stood up and I pushed back the feelings of illness that plagued me moments ago. I noticed my hand was back onto the trunk of the tree. There was nothing there. But I could feel something was different. I knew something had changed but placing my finger on it would be tricky. I felt like I had been accepted into the island. As if the moments of vibration I felt when I touched the tree was the island deciding whether I was able to pass any further into it. These were only assumptions though. And something like that couldn’t possibly be real. Living islands had never came up in school or any mythology I had heard of. I shook the thoughts from my head and readjusted my focus towards my survival.
I crossed over past the tree line and began to look for anything to make a makeshift shelter and maybe something to start a fire with as well; though I wouldn’t hold my breath for that. I managed to find pieces of wood, long and sturdy enough to stand up in a somewhat triangular fashion and I came across some large palm leaves that could be placed over it to keep most of the rain out. I was cold again but I was thankful that most of the wind was buffered by the thick trees and other plant life here. I had gone back to shivering though and there was nothing around that I could use to start a fire. It was all too wet.
I noticed only after I had done all the work to make my shelter that it was quiet. No noise at all. I was only a few yards from where I had come into the shore, but I couldn’t hear the ocean anymore. The storm couldn’t have calmed this quickly; I could still feel the wind but funny enough, I couldn’t hear it. I made my way back to the tree line and saw that the ocean was still roaring and a flash of lightning in the distance made me jump. I still couldn’t hear a thing. I stuck my head out of the wood and the sound of thunder and ocean hit me like a stone. I was profoundly confused and unsettled by this whole ordeal.
I went back towards me shelter and the sound was cut off again as if someone had plugged my ears. I clapped my hands together and as you would expect, the sound of them clapping together echoed through the forest. I stared at my hands and did it again, expecting them to be absent of sound but the same sound as before reverberated around me. Then I heard something else. I almost missed it as my clap sounded off. But there the sound of a twig breaking, as if someone had stepped on it. I jerked my head to my left towards the noise and waited; my hands now trembling and my heart racing. Then I heard the sound of something taking a long loud breath, but it came from all around me, I couldn’t pin point it even if I tried. I looked all around me, my head moving in jerking motions trying to catch sight of anything that could be there. There wasn’t though. It was silent again.
I looked around at the ground and found a thick piece of wood that I had missed when building my shelter and held it tight in both hands. I moved slowly towards the spot where I had heard the twig breaking. Tall grass, bushes, and trees covered the area and could easily be hiding some sort of animal. Then the sound of a breath being exhaled came from around me and the grass and bushes began moving as the heavy footsteps of something tore away from me and ran off deeper into the forest. I pursued whatever it was with great speed. My feet carried me across the sand and through the grass after it. I gritted my teeth and gripped the piece of wood hard as I felt something call me to follow it, to hunt it.
I moved through the trees like a predator, I could feel my prey, taste its hot flesh between my teeth. My breaths became frantic and my thoughts dwelled on nothing but the kill. I ran faster and faster and I could feel that I was close, that I would be able to satisfy my urge. I was upon him. He would put up little struggle as I bludgeoned him with my weapon. I raised the wood above my head and then I stopped.
All was emptied from my mind and I felt myself try to catch my breath as dropped down onto the sand. My legs were shaking as were my hands which couldn’t hold the weapon anymore and it fell to the ground behind me. I dropped my hands to my sides and wondered if I could remember how to get back to my shelter. I wasn’t sure what had happened to me. This whole thing was a bad dream. The fear and realization of the situation hit me and I was about to panic when something in the back of my head told me to look up.
Before me stood a stone monolith it was a structure that I thought couldn’t possibly exist. Around the tall standing stone tower were seven stone arches that rose up over it and met in the center. Where they met, a circle could be seen which the top of the spire just barely met. I trembled in its magnificence and knew when I gazed upon it that all things would be answered. I crept closer to it and there was the shadow of a figure over me. I turned to face it and then nothing. Total darkness…
