Jacob stumbled through the jungle, palm fronds brushing his face in the waking moonlight. The dirt felt cold beneath his bare feet as he trudged towards the beach. He crashed through the dense foliage, not caring how much noise he made as it scraped his body, leaving raw red lines against his skin. Salty tears stung the cuts on his face and when he tried to wipe them away with his dirty hands they burned even more. He clutched a wooden box tightly under one arm as the other arm pushed away the brush in front of him. Jacob could hear the crashing waves nearing ever closer as he scrambled over rocky mounds.

Finally, he exploded through the wood line and felt his feet touch the soft sand. Jacob sunk down to his knees, grasping the wooden box close to his chest with both arms. Tears began to pour freely now down his cheeks and a few dropped from his face to stain the wooden box, the warm liquid seeping into the darkened wood.

I'm alone now, Jacob though. I've lost both of them.

His moans became louder and racked his body with spasms. The waves deafened the sounds of his sobs and he let them come freely, running his hand through his short, thick blonde hair. The moon was full this night and the light reflected off of his streaked face.

I want to give it back, Jacob thought. Please, I want to give it back. If he knew accepting his new role would lead to the deaths of the two people he loved the most in this world, he never would have taken it. That is what he told himself, at least. But deep inside he knew that things would have turned out this way no matter what he had chosen. How long was he condemned now to this island? How long did he have to protect it, never growing old? How long would his life of solitude and misery last, without anyone else to share in it?

I'm the worst of all, he thought. I killed my brother, even when he begged me to stop. I didn't know what would happen to him! I was so angry! He screamed inside of his head. Instead it came out as a choked groan, his chest shaking from convulsions.

I've done this to myself; I deserve this, he told himself, sinking his face into his hands, the box coming to rest on his lap.

The trees behind him rustled and for a moment, Jacob thought it was the wind, until he realized there was none. He looked over his shoulder cautiously, tears blurring his vision and he saw a figure standing beneath the palms. Terror gripped his heart and he felt his body becoming weak, his mouth instantly dried and his throat clenched, no longer admitting the misty ocean air. Jacob felt his body reacting, spinning from the place where he was sitting, the box dropped with a soft thud into the sand. He stood now, paralyzed in one spot, the full moon at his back.

Jacob couldn't speak. The words froze in his throat as his mind raced with a million possibilities. He dismissed them all quickly, realizing none of them to be true. His eyes were glued to the figure that just stood there looking at him with a gaze that chilled his soul. The figure looked down at the box and then back up at Jacob. Suddenly, the figure melted into the forest behind him, just as swiftly as he had came.

Jacob didn't know how long he stood there, his eyes searching the forest, unable to move from where he stood.

I'm losing it, he gasped.

Jacob was finally able to bring his hands up to his face and press his fingers to his eyes.

Mother, what have you done to me? Am I to be haunted on this island for my sins for all eternity?

His breath came more deeply now and filled his chest with a calming feeling. He was exhausted; he realized and felt himself move slowly through the wood line. His tears had solidified on his face now and he could feel them crack on his skin. His despair still clung at his heart, but he had no more tears left to cry. He was truly an empty man now.

He entered the cave which for his whole life had been his home and gazed down at the two bodies composed neatly on the floor. Sadness overwhelmed him once again and he knelt down next to the body of his brother, hand brushing across the dead cheek. Some warmness still lingered there and he collapsed to the packed dirt floor, his body curling next to that of the deceased. His arm snaked under the limp appendage and his face pressed into the dark cloth. His scent still persisted. This would be the last night he would ever sleep in this cave for as long as he lived on the island. Darkness overtook him and he drifted into a world where pain and death didn't exist.

"How precious," a voice said, waking Jacob from the deep sleep.

Jacob started to drift back into reality as golden sunlight seeped through the opening of the cave. It was morning now and his mind began to start turning as he thought of what he needed to accomplish that day. His brother was leaning over a couple feet away, watching Jacob wake.

We'll go check the fish traps and see if we caught some breakfast and cook mother a nice meal. I need to start a small fire before I head down to the beach so it is ready by the time we get back. Then we'll go collect hemp from the garden and I can start weaving some new pants.

This all flitted through Jacob's mind in an instant as he lingered in the realm of lucidity. He was gazing into his brother's face, when he glanced down at the dead hand lying over him. Reality came crashing back suddenly like a punch to the stomach which forced all the breath from his body. Jacob flung the dead appendage away and leapt us, his balance still poor and his back hitting the wall of the cave. He glanced down at the body in which he had just been curled against and felt sick. The tone of the skin was pallid in the morning light and the lips and fingernails a bluish-grey. He felt his knees becoming weak and his stomach churned with nausea.

"You're not looking too well, Jacob," the man who looked like his brother said, cocking his head with false sincerity. He grinned with a half-sneer at the blonde man.

Jacob wobbled against the cave wall, opening his mouth and then closing it again, the back of his hand came to brush across his mouth, unsure of what to say or how to even begin.

"Who… who are you?" Jacob said in monotone, looking up now, the color drained from his face. Jacob couldn't help but notice how alive the man before him looked compared to the waxy body lying on the floor.

"Jacob, I'm disappointed in you." The man frowned and stood up fully now, crossing his hands in front of his body, his height towering over Jacob.

His eyes are the same shade of pale blue.

Jacob knew those eyes better than anyone else in existence. He had gazed into them for many hours upon end as the two played their game from the wooden box; the same wooden box which now lay half-buried in the sand at the beach.

"What, too scared to sleep alone in the dark, Jacob?" The other man sneered. "I always thought mother coddled you too much, but now I can see what a big baby she has really made out of you."

The other man was jibing him, his face giving away the contempt he really seemed to feel for Jacob in that moment. Jacob was absolutely stunned, unable to speak and stood there, his mouth agape.

"If you wanted to cuddle, all you had to do was ask."

The other man was enjoying this; verbally tearing him down.

"I mean, it probably beats sleeping with dead bodies."

"How dare you," Jacob finally had the nerve to speak aloud and collecting his wits he stood up straighter against the wall. "How dare you pretend to be my brother?"

The other man chuckled. He had the same day's growth of whiskers that his brother always liked to keep; that scraggly, weathered look that both men liked to wear while leading their lives in a tropical jungle. Jacob often marveled at how the two, supposedly twins, were so different alike, both in looks, and in mannerisms. His brother was bold and brash, he was quiet and contemplative. His brother said what he thought out loud, and Jacob kept his thoughts to himself.

Jacob's memories of his brother angered him as he was reminded of the imposter which stood before him now, daring to use this visage to taunt him.

"I don't know who, or even what you are, but I won't allow you to desecrate the memory of my brother."

The other man started to laugh, as if he knew a secret, a deep, dark, terrible secret that no one else but he knew.

This angered Jacob even more. "I fail to see what is so amusing to you!"

The other man's smile suddenly disappeared and his face became dark. "Anger doesn't suit you, Jacob. Just look what happens when you become angry…" the man gestured to the two bodies on the floor, pausing in his speech for a moment, "…people die."

Jacob felt his strength returning even if the blood in his veins was boiling with anger and he stood now, pushing himself away from the wall.

"You're the murdered," Jacob said boldly, these feelings rushing up from inside him. The anger, pain, and confusion came back to him as a continuation of the events the night before.

The other man held his gaze maliciously, as if by staring alone he could kill someone without even touching them.

Jacob continued to release everything he had wanted to say last night, and it came spilling forth from him, unbridled, like a dam, burst and unrelenting.

"You murdered the one who gave us life, a home, hope… each other." The anguish in his voice was palpable.

"She wasn't our mother!" The other man broke his silence and shouted, his icy exterior starting to wane, anger boiling to the surface now.

"Even if she wasn't our real mother, she loved us, she loved you, and you murdered her for it!" Jacob was shouting, something he so rarely ever did in his life.

The veins in the other man's neck began to bulge.

"She wanted to trap us on this island forever!" The other man threw his arms out, motioning at the walls around them. "What kind of life is that? We were to be caged like animals! That isn't love!" He screamed. "We were her pets… her playthings!"

"She gave you more than any person could ever want in life! I was never her choice… you were her favorite. You we're the one she loved the most!" Jacob could feel his eyes stinging as tears began to well up inside of them.

"She was using us, Jacob! She had enough of this island and wanted to leave, but in order to do that, she had to have one of us take over for her! That was our only purpose in her life! She didn't know what love meant. She never had any of that inside of her!"

"You're wrong," Jacob whispered, "like you have always been wrong about humans. Love exists; it existed in her! She may not have been perfect, but I saw the good in her soul and you took that away, you took that away from me!" Jacob gestured to himself. "I loved her and you destroyed her because I loved her! You're a monster!" Jacob screamed now.

"If I'm a monster, it's only because you made me this way," the other man spoke, calmly now.

Jacob knew this to be true and his heart sunk; this man, this thing, which stood before him. This was of his making. Now he had to take care of it. He had to clean up his mess and fix his mistake. That would be his first job on the island. Maybe that would be his job for as long as he existed. He didn't care. He had a purpose. He had promised his mother at least that much.

Jacob, who had been slumped over at the realization suddenly stood again, a conviction coming to his demeanor and confidence washing over him.

"I make the rules now."

He saw the other man's eye twitch and Jacob could see the rage beneath the surface. The lips of the other man tightened together, going white as the blood drained from them. His gaze bore into Jacob for what seemed like eternity. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but paused and then finally said, "I hate you, Jacob." Every word was enunciated with venom, malice, and spite.

Jacob could feel the rage seeping through the other man's body towards him. It desperately wanted to cling to him and stick in his throat and nostrils. It wanted to pull at his hair and creep into his eyeballs and tear them out.

As Jacob stared into the icy blue eyes, he could imagine this malevolence seeping out, begging to kill him; this black aura, like a black smoke that fueled the other man's rage which could only come deep from within his soul. It was literally, seeping out of his eyes now, which had rolled back into his head. Jacob blinked as if he wasn't sure what he was seeing.

The other man's mouth opened as if to vomit and he retched up blackness, smoke, evil. Jacob was horrified and repulsed. He felt himself shrinking away, his back hitting the wall – a dead end. The smoke started to seep from his fingernails now, as if the nails were being pried off from underneath. The body convulsed, unnaturally, sickening pops and rips came to Jacob's ears as the blackness clawed its way out. The ears seeped and the tongue hung out as if useless. From underneath the clothes it came, from every orifice and pore in the body. It stripped away the man that once was and in its place was pure hate.

The blackness flew at Jacob and he felt himself falling to the ground. Jacob's eyed were glued open in horror and shock as the swirling mass overtook him. But it did not touch him. It hovered – inches from his body, a deafening clacking sound in Jacob's ears. He could feel every hair on his body stand on end as if the air was conducing massive amounts of electricity. The dirt in the ground even seemed to crackle with the energy that was all around him.

It seemed like a lifetime that he was frozen there, in that massive, swirling vortex, pure energy crackling in his face and blinding his eyes. Then it was gone, retreating through the cave mouth. Jacob, who was momentarily blinded by the thing, lay shivering, his body covered entirely in sweat. When he had enough strength to move, he rolled over, and threw up on the floor of the cave. His mother's words echoed in his ears from the day when they were both boys, taken to the heart of the island for the first time and Jacob knew with undying certainty.

It was his… it was him… it was him.