The Brothers

The seagulls flew aimlessly in the morning air. A man in white watches the sun rise from the ocean, taking his tapestry, and airing it out. His dirty blonde hair hasn't been cut in years, he found it annoying to constantly cater to it, the same applying to his beard. The man in white lays it down onto a rock as he move to go towards his fishing nets. He hadn't eaten in a day or two, too much work had to be done.

Pulling the netting in, he looked anxiously to see what fine morsel he could cook today, staring back at an empty net, his aspirations of having fish for breakfast quickly died out. He packed away the netting onto a rock and decided to wait till noon, perhaps the fish were still sleeping.

No sooner had he laid down his netting, a familiar sound echoed from the forest, the seagulls flew away from the ocean immediate, towards the cliff side nearby. The man in white paused, unnerved by this particular sound. The "tica tica" noise came closer as something massive blasted out of the tree line. A solid mass if black smoke emerged, arching from the ground and slamming into the sand. Particles of grainy sand blasted towards the man in white, still not moving. As the smoke disappeared, a man stood n the smoky wisps remaining, clearly not happy.

This man that had emerged from the smoke wore black, and had a dark look spread across his face, his black hair, slightly graying. The winkles and dark circles under his eyes only intensified the look of pure rage. Yet when he spoke, he spoke a callous and collected tone, almost as if mocking to some degree.

"Morning Jacob, good to see your still up with the sunrise." the Man in Black said. The man named Jacob gave a slight smile and replied. "Old habits die hard I suppose, could I offer you some fish?". The man in black merely looked to the netting and snorted. "Quit being stupid Jacob, you know why I'm here!" he growled. Jacob scratched his head as he looked to the sun once again.

"Every other day, you come here whether your, enraged, delighted, pleading, sad or every other emotion you can manifest from your former self, asking me the same question each and every time." The Man in Black said nothing, eyes fixated on Jacob. Without moving so much as an inch, Jacob turned his head, eyes unmoving. "When will you let me leave this island?". His words were like an insult to the Man in Black, he spoke through his teeth in anger, as he spat out a retort. "Why won't you let me leave damn it! It's bad enough that you did this to me! Look at what I've become, all because of my brother!" Jacob's eyes narrowed at his brother's words, he knew the shame all too well of that day, but he also knew of its precursor.

Walking closer to the Man in Black, Jacob's blue eyes shined when he stared back into his brother's eyes, deprived of any shine of light. "You know I'm not happy with the way I treated the situation, but what you did was unforgivable, I've had quite some time to think about what I've done and I've come to terms with my decision, while brash, I think the punishment is quite fitting, don't you think?" he added with a touch of mischievousness. Jacob turned his back and began to head back to his tapestry.

The Man in Black screamed as plumes of black smoke escaped his human form, his entire being broke apart, as if he was nothing more than a memory. As the human form vanished, a raging mass of black smoke remained, and it was enormous. The smoke rose high into the air and curved around, gaining momentum, barreling straight towards Jacob with its speed and might. Without a second glance, Jacob stops walking and turns himself to the incoming mass of smoke, his eyes unnerved. As the smoke was feet away from directly hitting Jacob, something split it into two, like an invisible barrier. The smoke creature cried out in its wail as it couldn't make contact with its target.

Jacob turned to see the smoke reform back into a single mass. It slowly grew smaller and took the shape of a human, eventually solidifying into the Man in Black, who seemed exhausted and rather pissed off. He glared at his brother with eyes full of discontent. "Damn you Jacob! Damn you and your rules!" he swore. His brother resumed his airing of his tapestry and continued talking.

"Your rage won't get you anywhere brother, you know as well as I that Mother's rules still apply to the both of us. You can't hurt me and I unto you." some dust still escaping the tapestry. "Trust me, I would love for you to be gone from my life as much as you want me gone from yours, but I don't plan on going anywhere just yet." He looked to his brother, still panting from exhaustion. "you on the other hand, I can't say the same."

The Man in Black's eyebrows lifted slightly, curious at the remark. "What's that supposed to mean? Because you condemned me to something worse than death! All I asked for was to leave this island Jacob, apparently it was too much to ask for!" he growled. Jacob gave a small sigh and looked at what remained of his brother.

"We were always meant to be here, whether you want to realize that or not, and because of that, you can't leave, as you have to follow the rules." he said with a small personal smile. The Man in Black did something that even caught Jacob off guard a bit, he laughed.

"All right, have it your way Jacob, I'll play by your rules, but remember this, just because I'm playing by your rules, doesn't always mean you'll win!" He paused briefly to look at the tapestry, it was that of a tall structure with light perturbing from it. The Man in Black smiled, something Jacob never did like, it meant nothing ever good pertained from it. The Man in Black walked closer to his brother, inches from his face, careful not to lay a hand on him. He pointed to the image on the tapestry and gave a knowing smile.

"I know you've been going to "their" place , I've seen you go even after they abandoned it, knowing no one would ever come. I have a feeling your bringing more of them to the island, aren't you?" he sneered. Jacob paused to think causally about the idea, he looked rather carefree and innocent to be honest.

"Perhaps, but you've known for a while haven't you? What I'm more curious about, is what you're going to do about it?" and Jacob was right, he was actually curious as to what that thing would do. The Man in Black folded his arms and cocked his head.

"I'll do to them, as what I've done to every other person that's stepped foot on this island." his body beginning to dematerialize into smoke as his human form began to vanish. Jacob still looking at him. With a final grin before vanishing to the forest, the Man in Black's voice echoed out to his brother as a warning.

"I'll kill them!"