This fic was a alternate universe story we had to do in school for English from the book: Treasure Island. Personally, I didn't like the book much. I prefur the muppets version. Anywho, I got an A+++++++++++++++++++ on this story, so I thought: what the hell. I'll post the shitless thing.
Dreams of Treasure Island
I sighed as I looked out the muddled window towards the rainy world of the outside. Rain poured down fast enough to drown the entire town. But I was safe in my Aunt's protective arms.
Too protective. It's not that I didn't like my Aunt Masuka, she just wouldn't let me out of her sight. Not that I blamed her, her husband killed and dragged off into an alleyway, not to be found for weeks, and all. But that was before my time. Her only child had been stillborn. I guess she thinks of me as her own.
When my parents crashed the car, off of a bridge not twenty miles away, I became her only child. There's not a way in heaven or hell she'd lose me.
Together, Masuka and I lived in a village in the middle of nowhere-ville. It was driving me insane. My Aunt seemed perfectly fine with the idea of the safe grasp of the small town. It was killing me inside.
My Aunt approached my back. She put a hand on my shoulder comfortingly.
"What are you staring at, Neko?" Her aged gravel voice giving off waves of warmth that made you loosen your muscles and fall into sleep's claws.
"Nothing. Just looking at the rain, I was hoping to go out today," I said quietly. My back was still towards her. Her grip on my shoulder tightened, her breath speeded up slightly.
"Not today, Neko. Go up to your room and play with your toys," she whispered. I nodded to her and stood silently. I shuffled up the old creaking stairs to my room.
My room was plain wooden walls and floor. On my dresser, my plastic action figures sat collecting dust. My desk held some drawing paper and a model train. I sat on my thin cot-of-a-bed and watched the world out the small round window in my room.
I really needed to get out. I suddenly felt crushed, I couldn't breath. I had to get out.
I opened my small window, squeezed my too slim body out the window to the drowned world. I wiggled onto the roof and jumped to the ground. The mud and water splashed around my feet, drenching my jeans.
I took a second to get my bearings. I set my sights on the forest across the neighbour's field, and ran towards it. I didn't know what I was running from, but I pumped my legs till it burned and my breath laboured.
I was at the edge of the forest. I entered the temporary haven from the rain. I walked into the silent woods, holding my arms and rubbing them, thanks to the freezing rain, trying to get warm again.
I stopped when I got in further to catch my breath. I stopped and listened. Not a sound. There were no birds, no trees rustling, not even a sound of rain. As though as I had entered the woods, the volume had been turned down.
Weird.
I walked in the woods again. I had never been in them. My Aunt hated when I went in a forest anywhere.
The trees were tall and soft shades of brown wood. Farther up were the branches thick and full, completely keeping the rain out. The forest floor was covered in pine needles, decomposing leaves and roots.
I shuffled quietly through the mysteriously quiet woods in wonder, not a single bug or animal.
"This place must be magical..." I whispered to myself.
I let out a yelp as my left foot caught on a root and I lost my balance, and tumbled down a hill.
I fell off a fallen log, into large pointy stick. I felt a searing pain in my ribs, as a branch pierced my skin and sank deeply into my side, just as my head collided with a large rock. Everything sank to oblivion.
***
I awoke to an incredibly bright light, and a pair of rotting teeth full of grime was placed in my view. My eyes ran over the owner of them. His face was large, plain and sun ravaged, with an intelligent sparkle to his baby blue eyes.
"Aye, Jim! You 'right lad?" His pleasant rumbling voice said.
"Huh?" I said unintelligently.
"T'is quite a fall you took," He smiled at me. "When you fell, thought you might not wake."
I opened my mouth and closed it a few times in confusion.
"Who's Jim?" I asked curiously. He frowned at me. I suddenly realised I was laying on wooden planks with my head on the mans legs. Scratch that, leg. He was missing a leg from the hip. I blushed at laying on him. He noticed.
"No matter about that. Fell off the railings of the upper ship you did. You're Jim, me boy."
"Who are you?"
"Long John Silver! Can't remember that too?"
I looked around me. Dear god, I was on a ship! My Aunt's home was a thousand miles away from any water. There were people all around on the ship doing jobs here and there. They ignored Long John and I. They were all in old buccaneer clothes. The stuff I'd seen in text books and museums.
I looked down at myself. I was disturbed. The pants only came down to just below the knees. The shoes looked like pieces of leather sowed together. I had a vest and lace yellow-white shirt. Aw crap.
"You be fine, Jim. Come in the cabins out of the blasted sun," with that, he got up and went in a doorway to the inside of the boat. I stood shakily and followed him in.
I tripped down the stairs I didn't know were there. I would have fell on my face, had Long John not been there to catch me. "Easy there, Lad," he rumbled.
I stood up straight and went into the dark cabin. It was almost impossible to see in the dimness. I waited for my eyes to adjust.
***
The next think I knew, I was looking into my worried Aunt's grey eyes.
"Neko? Neko! Can you hear me?" Her comforting voice called for me through a thick field of blackness.
I tried to move my body. Big mistake. Pain struck through my side all the way down to my toes. My head throbbed with a dull pain that made my vision fog.
I groaned. My Aunt's face was looking down at me with her familiar look of panic. When my vision cleared I looked around the room I was in, carefully not to move anything but my eyes. I was in a hospital room. The walls were a soothing white. Made me feel like I was in an asylum. The air was full of the smell of anaesthetic and air cleaners.
"Neko. Are you all right?" I brought my eyes back to Aunt Masuka.
"I'm fine Aunt Masuka," my voice was gravely and rough from not being used in a while. Masuka suddenly crumbled into tears.
"Oh I was so worried! After you ran off, I looked everywhere. I finally went into the woods and found you! What were you thinking! You could have died," she blubbered.
"I don't know..." I muttered feeling like an old heel.
"I took you to the hospital and they got that awful stick out of your side. They said you have a slight concussion and they want you to stay here till your side is better and your head fine."
Fine by me. I was exhausted from my "little chat." I didn't even realise when my eyes drooped and shut.
***
I opened my eyes to the squawk of seagulls and the smell of salt. I groaned. Not this dream again! Seagulls? Last time in the dream the boat was too far out at sea to have birds.
"Land ho," cried a voice right beside my ear. I jumped to a start.
I stood up and looked around. Same familiar ship. I looked down at my dress and groaned. I looked like a freak!
The boat was approaching an island, the kind you see in tropical areas. From the clothes and boat I guessed the 1700s. But who knows. I'm no historian, and I'm definitely not about to go up to someone and ask them what year it was.
This dream- I can only hope was a dream- was way too weird. But if it was a dream, why was it so real? I've never been able to smell or feel breezes in my dreams. This is way too bizarre. This is probably made up of my over active imagination.
It seemed that a fair bit of time had passed in my "dream world." Possibly days, telling by the beards on the sailors that walked around me. The sun beamed down on me making me break into a sweat. The stench of body odor was thick in the air as the shipfaring men ran around me intent on tasks like slowing the boat and dropping anchor.
"Jim my boy! Not so close to the side. We don't want you going with the pirates, do we?" an English accented voice whispered in my ear. I jumped and spun around on my heel to see a tall man peering down at me with deep brown eyes.
He was heavily cloaked in important looking clothes. I was guessing he was the captain. I was confused, to say the least, but I went along with what he had to say. I nodded my head mutely and sauntered over to the other side of the boat to think were it was less crowded.
Pirates? What's going on here? I felt the cold grip of fear slide down my back. I halted right at the thought. Why should I be scared? It's only a dream, right? I had nothing to lose. 'Sides my sanity.
The crew were loading into the lifeboats to head ashore. I quickly ran over to the closest one and plunked myself down with the grubby men.
Being so close together, the stench was almost unbearable. I was going to take a long shower just to keep the smell from sinking into my skin.
The boat was rowed ashore. The island looked beautiful from this close up. The pure white sand gleamed in the sun. The lifeboat pushed up into the sand and I leapt off. I ran across the beach. Numerous other boats were pushing up upon the beach at the same time. I spotted Long John and he saw me running up the island and he called to me to stop.
"Jim, Jim!" But I ignored him. A feeling told me not to trust him. I looked back at him to see if he was following. He stayed with the boat for the moment. I slammed into a large tropical looking tree while I looked the other way. Pain radiated up and down my shoulder and arm.
I looked forwards. I was at the beginning of the woods. I took a deep breath and ran in.
I've never been a great runner. Too short legs, but I ran for my life. I didn't know why. I just had to get away from the pirates. I ran till my legs were about to give out. I stopped in a meadow to catch my breath. My mind felt light and dizzy.
The ground rushed up on me.
***
I woke to the ceiling of my room. I swung my eyes around the room. My ribs were bandaged and my head was clear. I must have been out for awhile. But for how long?
I sat up and felt a spike of short pain through my shoulder that ended as an ache. I stared at my shoulder with wide eyes.
I got that from my dream?
I suddenly didn't want to sleep. Ever. Who knows what will effect me. If I die in the dream, what happens to me here? I clutched my head in my hands and took a shaky breath.
What's happening to me?
I slowly pulled my blanket off my legs. My ribs itched feverishly. A healing itch. I carefully swung my feet over the bed and stood up. My legs were shaky, but fine.
I walked over to my door and opened it to find Aunt Masuka, hand posed to open the door. Her other hand was occupied by a tray of food.
She had a look of surprise, which quickly turned to a scowl.
"What are you doing out of bed? Get back in there before you collapse," she said as she walked in forcing me to back up to the bed.
"I feel fine," she raised an eyebrow at me. "Really."
"Doesn't matter. I'm not taking any chances with you." She pushed me lightly and I allowed myself to sink into the futon. She put the tray of food on my lap. Eggs and soup. Winning combination. Nevertheless, my stomach growled and I ate hungrily.
My Aunt went over and sat across from me on my work chair at my desk. She was silent for a change. As I chewed on my food, questions popped up in my head.
"How long have I been asleep?"
"A few days. The doctors found your wounds not to be as bad as they suspected." A glimmer of hope ran down my spine. I wouldn't be stuck in my bed as long as I guessed I would.
"So can I go out?"
"Oh no you don't! You're staying in bed! I will take no chances."
I sighed and looked down at my empty soup bowl. "And I don't ever want you going into those woods, understand?"
"Yes," I muttered. Satisfied, she left my room to let me sleep.
I promised her I wouldn't go in the woods again, I wanted to still. Call me crazy, but it was like it was pulling me towards it.
I sighed. I didn't want to sleep. Who knows what's happening in my insane dream world. I laid in my bed for a few hours, eyes rolling and memorising every little corner. Wasn't hard. My room's practically an attic.
I thought about what to do about my little "episodes." Talk to a doctor? Nah, I don't want to be doped up on prescription drugs. Tell Aunt Masuka? Not a chance in hell. She'd blubber and freak out and raise an uproar. Lie about it? Bingo!
My eyelids are getting heavily. Damn, I hate it when this happens. Who turned off the lights? I snapped my eyes open, but they quickly stuttered and fell. I was too tired to stop the mask of sleep that befell me.
***
I woke to a small shack of a cabin. Surrounded by men I had seen on the Hispanyola. I recognised one as the Captain.
"Aye Jim, have you finished loading the muskets?" He stood beside the door peaking out. I realised everyone had an old fashioned gun and was standing guard at a window.
I my hands was a musket and the a pip that held gunpowder. What the hell. I'd improvise. I filled the barrel with a little bit of gun powder.
"Almost done," I called. I found a cleaner brush/pip thing and brushed it down the barrel of the gun to clean it.
"Good lad. Hand it to me," called Captain Smollet.
How did I know his name? Better yet, how did I know the ship was named the Hispanyola? Strange.
All at once, a large boom of a rifle came from the west. The man, Joyce I heard him called, whipped out his gun and fired three shots in return.
Shots were everywhere. I saw through the glint of the window, seven pirates to the north, shooting at us. A bullet whizzed so close to my ear, I could feel the heat off it. I dropped to the ground. Fear laced through my belly. I didn't want to die! Not this way anyways. Not in a bloody dream!
I breathed harshly through my mouth. I felt like I was hyperventilating. Right beside me, Joyce made a sickening slush as something hit him. Blood splattered on my face as a bullet hit him in the head, spraying his fluids on me. I let out a startled yelp. His eyes rolled back in his head and he fell to the ground, a small crimson puddle forming quickly around his head.
I back-pedalled on my bottom as fast as I could to the other side of the cabin. I needed to get away from the body. The blood's flowing so fast! In all my terror, I let loose my bladder, feeling wetness creep down my legs.
"Out Lads, out and fight 'em in the open! Cutlasses!" Cried the captain. I felt cold, empty. Mechanically, I grabbed a cutlasses, managing to slice my knuckles in the process. The pain was only secondary. Deliriously I walked outside, ignoring the dangers that exploded in the sound of rifles around me. But there were none.
The battle was over.
The ground lay littered with bodies of pirates. The stench of rotting flesh already beginning to form in the stifling heat. I dropped the cutlasses, and faded away.
***
The stench of blood and flesh was still with me when I woke up. Someone had punctured intestines, giving the smell a whole new sense of disgust. I couldn't stand it. I leapt out of the bed I had barely noticed and ran across the room to the door, out into the hallway bathroom, stumbling as I hit the wall. I threw my face at the toilet and vomited my lunch. I couldn't stop till I had nothing left but dry heaves. I leaned against the cool base of the toilet while I shook and tried to get ahold of myself.
I looked down at my knuckle. It was bleeding and big enough to form a scar. The blood dripped down my hand and onto the white tiled floor.
I sat there for a long time, and wept as the last of my sanity dripped out with the droplets of blood onto the stained floor.
***
The humid air blowing from the neighbour's field drenched my body in sweat. The salt bringing sweet pain to my wounds.
I, or was it Jim? I'm not too sure now. We are the same people. Neko and Jim. Me.
I needed to go to the forest. It calls to me. I know my mother- or was it Aunt Masuka- is crying for me to return. No matter. She is not a concern anymore.
Must keep the pirates out of the wood's. Can't let them get to the cabin were Captain Smollet and the others stay. Must get back to warn them about the ambush.
I pushed my way through the golden sea of wheat. The forest of excitement and thrill is just ahead of me. I feel my mother try to pull me back home to safety and death by boredom.
No! Can't you see! I need the adventure... Hunt.... Fight!
What are you doing, lady of my Aunt and mother together? Why do you drag me back? Don't you want me to have fun?
But I am tired. The sting of the salt from my body along with the swaying of the waves is making my cuts and wounds ache. I'll rest for now. Must have my strength for when the pirates come to attack us...
***
I woke to the silence of my room. I am in my bed. This is my room, but it's not. Isn't my room at the inn in England? No matter.
I got up and went quietly over to the door and jiggled the handle. Locked. Mother dear was trying to keep me away from the danger. Silly woman. She didn't understand it like me. I go to my window and try to open the latch. The outside of it is boarded up. Not to worry. She cannot keep me forever. I'll wait like a good little boy, sitting on the edge of my bed humming a tune.
"Fifteen men on a dead man's chest,
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum."
Ugh. Don't want to sing that. Too much like the pirates.
The need for the woods is starting to come back, like the crave of drugs. Dancing across my skin. No sooner I hear steps up the stairs and the jingle of keys to open my door. The woman's trying to be quiet. She couldn't creep if her life depended on it.
She opens the door and sees me looking at her. Her face turns to surprise, to shock as I leap off the bed and push her out of the way, running with the grace of a panther. Through the door and down the stairs. Sorry for the ill treatment, but I have to get to the forest. Many lives depend on it.
I jump down the groaning stairs in twos and threes, my Aunt too shocked to yell or try and stop me. I race through the kitchen, out the back door. I leap over the property fence, crossing the road and jumping over the neighbour's decaying rusted barb fence. I feel strangely warm yet cold out in the burning heat. No! Cannot get distracted from the goal. Keep on the target. I raced to the forest with speed I've never know. My bones ached with the need to be with the forest. My magical forest.
I'm swept along in the forest. The silence immediately pulled a wet lukewarm blanket over my head, threatening to suffocate me. I slow myself to a deceiving jog. My chest burns with exhilaration and the task on my lungs.
The silence was impenetrable as I shuffled through the dead branches and dry leaves that should have screamed with sound. They gave nothing but a whisper. This place seemed off. Almost wrong.
I spun around looking for familiar sites of the island forests. All I saw were pines and spruces looking tired and dry with little rain. No like the lush tropical trees of the Treasure island. But this is the island- isn't it?
In a panic, I raced a neck breaking speed through the trees, desperate to find land markers, a whiff of the sea. Anything. Though I could not see the island, I knew it was there. I could smell and hear it. Muffled somewhat by time and distance, but there.
The stench of sweaty bodies filled my nostrils, making my stomach clench and twist. Songs and words long forgotten are running with me, creeping through my skin, dripping over my muscles. They're biting into my bones so hard, it made me cry out in pain.
At the same moment, my foot caught a root sticking up and I was flung down a hill of branches, rocks and pine needles. All the way down, as I was jostled here and there, the stench of men and the song trailed me down.
"Fifteen men on a dead man's chest,
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum."
And then my head collided with a rock. Again. Leaving me to swim through the black waters of the dead man's blood in my dreams.
***
"Neko.... Neko..." called someone. The voice cut through my pleasant fog like a knife. I didn't want to leave the blanket of warmth. Maybe if I ignore it...
"Neko... Neko," that insistent voice! I am never going to be able to go down to the darkness again. I give in and let myself be lifted to consciousness. I open and shut my eyes quickly. The light shoots pain through my head. When my pain has subsided, I tried my voice.
"Lights," I crouched out. My voice was rusty and gravely from misuse.
"Yes of course." I heard feet pat away and come back. "How's this?"
I open my eyes slowly. the world is a blurry image. I blink my eyes a few times to see my Aunt Masuka sitting on the edge of the bed I was currently lying on. The lights were turned off. I tried to life my arm. It felt strangely heavy.
Masuka bent down and cradled my upper body in her arms. My limbs felt like lifeless body parts of a doll. I opened my mouth to say something, but I couldn't think of anything to say.
"I was so worried about you, Neko. I never knew. I'm so sorry." Her voice was cracking. Her back was shaking with repressed silent sobs. Mechanically, I managed to rap my arms around her small body and returned her hug. But I had no idea about why she was crying.
"What are you talking about, Aunt Masuka? What happened," I questioned and cleared my throat. she sat up and looked me in the eyes in and spoke.
"You don't remember? You started hallucinating things."
I cocked my head. "hallucinating? When?"
"The doctors diagnosed it as schizophrenia. Brought on by stress. What is the last thing you remember?" Her face was so close to me I could feel her breath on the side of my cheek. I thought back. Blank space, oblivion.
"I remember I was about to go into the woods on that rainy day." I shivered. Those woods. Something was wrong with them. I don't even know why I wanted to go in there in the first place.
Masuka's eyes narrowed. "I don't want you to ever go in those woods again. They're.... evil." Something in her eyes told me she knew more than she was telling me, but Aunt Masuka was a mysterious woman. If she didn't want you to know something, you wouldn't find out.
I was fine about never going in those woods again. Even though I can't remember what happened, those woods look cold, dark and addictive. Once you go in, you'll want a taste for more.
***
Epilogue
I never went in those woods. Every time I even looked at them, a strange stench of sweaty closed-in bodies in desperate need of a bath filled my senses, leaving my stomach churning and my head dizzy.
The next summer, I was helping the neighbours cut the wheat in the field, when a breeze of song hit me and floated by.
"Fifteen men on a dead man's chest,
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum..."
By TrainerRachel
Dreams of Treasure Island
I sighed as I looked out the muddled window towards the rainy world of the outside. Rain poured down fast enough to drown the entire town. But I was safe in my Aunt's protective arms.
Too protective. It's not that I didn't like my Aunt Masuka, she just wouldn't let me out of her sight. Not that I blamed her, her husband killed and dragged off into an alleyway, not to be found for weeks, and all. But that was before my time. Her only child had been stillborn. I guess she thinks of me as her own.
When my parents crashed the car, off of a bridge not twenty miles away, I became her only child. There's not a way in heaven or hell she'd lose me.
Together, Masuka and I lived in a village in the middle of nowhere-ville. It was driving me insane. My Aunt seemed perfectly fine with the idea of the safe grasp of the small town. It was killing me inside.
My Aunt approached my back. She put a hand on my shoulder comfortingly.
"What are you staring at, Neko?" Her aged gravel voice giving off waves of warmth that made you loosen your muscles and fall into sleep's claws.
"Nothing. Just looking at the rain, I was hoping to go out today," I said quietly. My back was still towards her. Her grip on my shoulder tightened, her breath speeded up slightly.
"Not today, Neko. Go up to your room and play with your toys," she whispered. I nodded to her and stood silently. I shuffled up the old creaking stairs to my room.
My room was plain wooden walls and floor. On my dresser, my plastic action figures sat collecting dust. My desk held some drawing paper and a model train. I sat on my thin cot-of-a-bed and watched the world out the small round window in my room.
I really needed to get out. I suddenly felt crushed, I couldn't breath. I had to get out.
I opened my small window, squeezed my too slim body out the window to the drowned world. I wiggled onto the roof and jumped to the ground. The mud and water splashed around my feet, drenching my jeans.
I took a second to get my bearings. I set my sights on the forest across the neighbour's field, and ran towards it. I didn't know what I was running from, but I pumped my legs till it burned and my breath laboured.
I was at the edge of the forest. I entered the temporary haven from the rain. I walked into the silent woods, holding my arms and rubbing them, thanks to the freezing rain, trying to get warm again.
I stopped when I got in further to catch my breath. I stopped and listened. Not a sound. There were no birds, no trees rustling, not even a sound of rain. As though as I had entered the woods, the volume had been turned down.
Weird.
I walked in the woods again. I had never been in them. My Aunt hated when I went in a forest anywhere.
The trees were tall and soft shades of brown wood. Farther up were the branches thick and full, completely keeping the rain out. The forest floor was covered in pine needles, decomposing leaves and roots.
I shuffled quietly through the mysteriously quiet woods in wonder, not a single bug or animal.
"This place must be magical..." I whispered to myself.
I let out a yelp as my left foot caught on a root and I lost my balance, and tumbled down a hill.
I fell off a fallen log, into large pointy stick. I felt a searing pain in my ribs, as a branch pierced my skin and sank deeply into my side, just as my head collided with a large rock. Everything sank to oblivion.
***
I awoke to an incredibly bright light, and a pair of rotting teeth full of grime was placed in my view. My eyes ran over the owner of them. His face was large, plain and sun ravaged, with an intelligent sparkle to his baby blue eyes.
"Aye, Jim! You 'right lad?" His pleasant rumbling voice said.
"Huh?" I said unintelligently.
"T'is quite a fall you took," He smiled at me. "When you fell, thought you might not wake."
I opened my mouth and closed it a few times in confusion.
"Who's Jim?" I asked curiously. He frowned at me. I suddenly realised I was laying on wooden planks with my head on the mans legs. Scratch that, leg. He was missing a leg from the hip. I blushed at laying on him. He noticed.
"No matter about that. Fell off the railings of the upper ship you did. You're Jim, me boy."
"Who are you?"
"Long John Silver! Can't remember that too?"
I looked around me. Dear god, I was on a ship! My Aunt's home was a thousand miles away from any water. There were people all around on the ship doing jobs here and there. They ignored Long John and I. They were all in old buccaneer clothes. The stuff I'd seen in text books and museums.
I looked down at myself. I was disturbed. The pants only came down to just below the knees. The shoes looked like pieces of leather sowed together. I had a vest and lace yellow-white shirt. Aw crap.
"You be fine, Jim. Come in the cabins out of the blasted sun," with that, he got up and went in a doorway to the inside of the boat. I stood shakily and followed him in.
I tripped down the stairs I didn't know were there. I would have fell on my face, had Long John not been there to catch me. "Easy there, Lad," he rumbled.
I stood up straight and went into the dark cabin. It was almost impossible to see in the dimness. I waited for my eyes to adjust.
***
The next think I knew, I was looking into my worried Aunt's grey eyes.
"Neko? Neko! Can you hear me?" Her comforting voice called for me through a thick field of blackness.
I tried to move my body. Big mistake. Pain struck through my side all the way down to my toes. My head throbbed with a dull pain that made my vision fog.
I groaned. My Aunt's face was looking down at me with her familiar look of panic. When my vision cleared I looked around the room I was in, carefully not to move anything but my eyes. I was in a hospital room. The walls were a soothing white. Made me feel like I was in an asylum. The air was full of the smell of anaesthetic and air cleaners.
"Neko. Are you all right?" I brought my eyes back to Aunt Masuka.
"I'm fine Aunt Masuka," my voice was gravely and rough from not being used in a while. Masuka suddenly crumbled into tears.
"Oh I was so worried! After you ran off, I looked everywhere. I finally went into the woods and found you! What were you thinking! You could have died," she blubbered.
"I don't know..." I muttered feeling like an old heel.
"I took you to the hospital and they got that awful stick out of your side. They said you have a slight concussion and they want you to stay here till your side is better and your head fine."
Fine by me. I was exhausted from my "little chat." I didn't even realise when my eyes drooped and shut.
***
I opened my eyes to the squawk of seagulls and the smell of salt. I groaned. Not this dream again! Seagulls? Last time in the dream the boat was too far out at sea to have birds.
"Land ho," cried a voice right beside my ear. I jumped to a start.
I stood up and looked around. Same familiar ship. I looked down at my dress and groaned. I looked like a freak!
The boat was approaching an island, the kind you see in tropical areas. From the clothes and boat I guessed the 1700s. But who knows. I'm no historian, and I'm definitely not about to go up to someone and ask them what year it was.
This dream- I can only hope was a dream- was way too weird. But if it was a dream, why was it so real? I've never been able to smell or feel breezes in my dreams. This is way too bizarre. This is probably made up of my over active imagination.
It seemed that a fair bit of time had passed in my "dream world." Possibly days, telling by the beards on the sailors that walked around me. The sun beamed down on me making me break into a sweat. The stench of body odor was thick in the air as the shipfaring men ran around me intent on tasks like slowing the boat and dropping anchor.
"Jim my boy! Not so close to the side. We don't want you going with the pirates, do we?" an English accented voice whispered in my ear. I jumped and spun around on my heel to see a tall man peering down at me with deep brown eyes.
He was heavily cloaked in important looking clothes. I was guessing he was the captain. I was confused, to say the least, but I went along with what he had to say. I nodded my head mutely and sauntered over to the other side of the boat to think were it was less crowded.
Pirates? What's going on here? I felt the cold grip of fear slide down my back. I halted right at the thought. Why should I be scared? It's only a dream, right? I had nothing to lose. 'Sides my sanity.
The crew were loading into the lifeboats to head ashore. I quickly ran over to the closest one and plunked myself down with the grubby men.
Being so close together, the stench was almost unbearable. I was going to take a long shower just to keep the smell from sinking into my skin.
The boat was rowed ashore. The island looked beautiful from this close up. The pure white sand gleamed in the sun. The lifeboat pushed up into the sand and I leapt off. I ran across the beach. Numerous other boats were pushing up upon the beach at the same time. I spotted Long John and he saw me running up the island and he called to me to stop.
"Jim, Jim!" But I ignored him. A feeling told me not to trust him. I looked back at him to see if he was following. He stayed with the boat for the moment. I slammed into a large tropical looking tree while I looked the other way. Pain radiated up and down my shoulder and arm.
I looked forwards. I was at the beginning of the woods. I took a deep breath and ran in.
I've never been a great runner. Too short legs, but I ran for my life. I didn't know why. I just had to get away from the pirates. I ran till my legs were about to give out. I stopped in a meadow to catch my breath. My mind felt light and dizzy.
The ground rushed up on me.
***
I woke to the ceiling of my room. I swung my eyes around the room. My ribs were bandaged and my head was clear. I must have been out for awhile. But for how long?
I sat up and felt a spike of short pain through my shoulder that ended as an ache. I stared at my shoulder with wide eyes.
I got that from my dream?
I suddenly didn't want to sleep. Ever. Who knows what will effect me. If I die in the dream, what happens to me here? I clutched my head in my hands and took a shaky breath.
What's happening to me?
I slowly pulled my blanket off my legs. My ribs itched feverishly. A healing itch. I carefully swung my feet over the bed and stood up. My legs were shaky, but fine.
I walked over to my door and opened it to find Aunt Masuka, hand posed to open the door. Her other hand was occupied by a tray of food.
She had a look of surprise, which quickly turned to a scowl.
"What are you doing out of bed? Get back in there before you collapse," she said as she walked in forcing me to back up to the bed.
"I feel fine," she raised an eyebrow at me. "Really."
"Doesn't matter. I'm not taking any chances with you." She pushed me lightly and I allowed myself to sink into the futon. She put the tray of food on my lap. Eggs and soup. Winning combination. Nevertheless, my stomach growled and I ate hungrily.
My Aunt went over and sat across from me on my work chair at my desk. She was silent for a change. As I chewed on my food, questions popped up in my head.
"How long have I been asleep?"
"A few days. The doctors found your wounds not to be as bad as they suspected." A glimmer of hope ran down my spine. I wouldn't be stuck in my bed as long as I guessed I would.
"So can I go out?"
"Oh no you don't! You're staying in bed! I will take no chances."
I sighed and looked down at my empty soup bowl. "And I don't ever want you going into those woods, understand?"
"Yes," I muttered. Satisfied, she left my room to let me sleep.
I promised her I wouldn't go in the woods again, I wanted to still. Call me crazy, but it was like it was pulling me towards it.
I sighed. I didn't want to sleep. Who knows what's happening in my insane dream world. I laid in my bed for a few hours, eyes rolling and memorising every little corner. Wasn't hard. My room's practically an attic.
I thought about what to do about my little "episodes." Talk to a doctor? Nah, I don't want to be doped up on prescription drugs. Tell Aunt Masuka? Not a chance in hell. She'd blubber and freak out and raise an uproar. Lie about it? Bingo!
My eyelids are getting heavily. Damn, I hate it when this happens. Who turned off the lights? I snapped my eyes open, but they quickly stuttered and fell. I was too tired to stop the mask of sleep that befell me.
***
I woke to a small shack of a cabin. Surrounded by men I had seen on the Hispanyola. I recognised one as the Captain.
"Aye Jim, have you finished loading the muskets?" He stood beside the door peaking out. I realised everyone had an old fashioned gun and was standing guard at a window.
I my hands was a musket and the a pip that held gunpowder. What the hell. I'd improvise. I filled the barrel with a little bit of gun powder.
"Almost done," I called. I found a cleaner brush/pip thing and brushed it down the barrel of the gun to clean it.
"Good lad. Hand it to me," called Captain Smollet.
How did I know his name? Better yet, how did I know the ship was named the Hispanyola? Strange.
All at once, a large boom of a rifle came from the west. The man, Joyce I heard him called, whipped out his gun and fired three shots in return.
Shots were everywhere. I saw through the glint of the window, seven pirates to the north, shooting at us. A bullet whizzed so close to my ear, I could feel the heat off it. I dropped to the ground. Fear laced through my belly. I didn't want to die! Not this way anyways. Not in a bloody dream!
I breathed harshly through my mouth. I felt like I was hyperventilating. Right beside me, Joyce made a sickening slush as something hit him. Blood splattered on my face as a bullet hit him in the head, spraying his fluids on me. I let out a startled yelp. His eyes rolled back in his head and he fell to the ground, a small crimson puddle forming quickly around his head.
I back-pedalled on my bottom as fast as I could to the other side of the cabin. I needed to get away from the body. The blood's flowing so fast! In all my terror, I let loose my bladder, feeling wetness creep down my legs.
"Out Lads, out and fight 'em in the open! Cutlasses!" Cried the captain. I felt cold, empty. Mechanically, I grabbed a cutlasses, managing to slice my knuckles in the process. The pain was only secondary. Deliriously I walked outside, ignoring the dangers that exploded in the sound of rifles around me. But there were none.
The battle was over.
The ground lay littered with bodies of pirates. The stench of rotting flesh already beginning to form in the stifling heat. I dropped the cutlasses, and faded away.
***
The stench of blood and flesh was still with me when I woke up. Someone had punctured intestines, giving the smell a whole new sense of disgust. I couldn't stand it. I leapt out of the bed I had barely noticed and ran across the room to the door, out into the hallway bathroom, stumbling as I hit the wall. I threw my face at the toilet and vomited my lunch. I couldn't stop till I had nothing left but dry heaves. I leaned against the cool base of the toilet while I shook and tried to get ahold of myself.
I looked down at my knuckle. It was bleeding and big enough to form a scar. The blood dripped down my hand and onto the white tiled floor.
I sat there for a long time, and wept as the last of my sanity dripped out with the droplets of blood onto the stained floor.
***
The humid air blowing from the neighbour's field drenched my body in sweat. The salt bringing sweet pain to my wounds.
I, or was it Jim? I'm not too sure now. We are the same people. Neko and Jim. Me.
I needed to go to the forest. It calls to me. I know my mother- or was it Aunt Masuka- is crying for me to return. No matter. She is not a concern anymore.
Must keep the pirates out of the wood's. Can't let them get to the cabin were Captain Smollet and the others stay. Must get back to warn them about the ambush.
I pushed my way through the golden sea of wheat. The forest of excitement and thrill is just ahead of me. I feel my mother try to pull me back home to safety and death by boredom.
No! Can't you see! I need the adventure... Hunt.... Fight!
What are you doing, lady of my Aunt and mother together? Why do you drag me back? Don't you want me to have fun?
But I am tired. The sting of the salt from my body along with the swaying of the waves is making my cuts and wounds ache. I'll rest for now. Must have my strength for when the pirates come to attack us...
***
I woke to the silence of my room. I am in my bed. This is my room, but it's not. Isn't my room at the inn in England? No matter.
I got up and went quietly over to the door and jiggled the handle. Locked. Mother dear was trying to keep me away from the danger. Silly woman. She didn't understand it like me. I go to my window and try to open the latch. The outside of it is boarded up. Not to worry. She cannot keep me forever. I'll wait like a good little boy, sitting on the edge of my bed humming a tune.
"Fifteen men on a dead man's chest,
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum."
Ugh. Don't want to sing that. Too much like the pirates.
The need for the woods is starting to come back, like the crave of drugs. Dancing across my skin. No sooner I hear steps up the stairs and the jingle of keys to open my door. The woman's trying to be quiet. She couldn't creep if her life depended on it.
She opens the door and sees me looking at her. Her face turns to surprise, to shock as I leap off the bed and push her out of the way, running with the grace of a panther. Through the door and down the stairs. Sorry for the ill treatment, but I have to get to the forest. Many lives depend on it.
I jump down the groaning stairs in twos and threes, my Aunt too shocked to yell or try and stop me. I race through the kitchen, out the back door. I leap over the property fence, crossing the road and jumping over the neighbour's decaying rusted barb fence. I feel strangely warm yet cold out in the burning heat. No! Cannot get distracted from the goal. Keep on the target. I raced to the forest with speed I've never know. My bones ached with the need to be with the forest. My magical forest.
I'm swept along in the forest. The silence immediately pulled a wet lukewarm blanket over my head, threatening to suffocate me. I slow myself to a deceiving jog. My chest burns with exhilaration and the task on my lungs.
The silence was impenetrable as I shuffled through the dead branches and dry leaves that should have screamed with sound. They gave nothing but a whisper. This place seemed off. Almost wrong.
I spun around looking for familiar sites of the island forests. All I saw were pines and spruces looking tired and dry with little rain. No like the lush tropical trees of the Treasure island. But this is the island- isn't it?
In a panic, I raced a neck breaking speed through the trees, desperate to find land markers, a whiff of the sea. Anything. Though I could not see the island, I knew it was there. I could smell and hear it. Muffled somewhat by time and distance, but there.
The stench of sweaty bodies filled my nostrils, making my stomach clench and twist. Songs and words long forgotten are running with me, creeping through my skin, dripping over my muscles. They're biting into my bones so hard, it made me cry out in pain.
At the same moment, my foot caught a root sticking up and I was flung down a hill of branches, rocks and pine needles. All the way down, as I was jostled here and there, the stench of men and the song trailed me down.
"Fifteen men on a dead man's chest,
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum."
And then my head collided with a rock. Again. Leaving me to swim through the black waters of the dead man's blood in my dreams.
***
"Neko.... Neko..." called someone. The voice cut through my pleasant fog like a knife. I didn't want to leave the blanket of warmth. Maybe if I ignore it...
"Neko... Neko," that insistent voice! I am never going to be able to go down to the darkness again. I give in and let myself be lifted to consciousness. I open and shut my eyes quickly. The light shoots pain through my head. When my pain has subsided, I tried my voice.
"Lights," I crouched out. My voice was rusty and gravely from misuse.
"Yes of course." I heard feet pat away and come back. "How's this?"
I open my eyes slowly. the world is a blurry image. I blink my eyes a few times to see my Aunt Masuka sitting on the edge of the bed I was currently lying on. The lights were turned off. I tried to life my arm. It felt strangely heavy.
Masuka bent down and cradled my upper body in her arms. My limbs felt like lifeless body parts of a doll. I opened my mouth to say something, but I couldn't think of anything to say.
"I was so worried about you, Neko. I never knew. I'm so sorry." Her voice was cracking. Her back was shaking with repressed silent sobs. Mechanically, I managed to rap my arms around her small body and returned her hug. But I had no idea about why she was crying.
"What are you talking about, Aunt Masuka? What happened," I questioned and cleared my throat. she sat up and looked me in the eyes in and spoke.
"You don't remember? You started hallucinating things."
I cocked my head. "hallucinating? When?"
"The doctors diagnosed it as schizophrenia. Brought on by stress. What is the last thing you remember?" Her face was so close to me I could feel her breath on the side of my cheek. I thought back. Blank space, oblivion.
"I remember I was about to go into the woods on that rainy day." I shivered. Those woods. Something was wrong with them. I don't even know why I wanted to go in there in the first place.
Masuka's eyes narrowed. "I don't want you to ever go in those woods again. They're.... evil." Something in her eyes told me she knew more than she was telling me, but Aunt Masuka was a mysterious woman. If she didn't want you to know something, you wouldn't find out.
I was fine about never going in those woods again. Even though I can't remember what happened, those woods look cold, dark and addictive. Once you go in, you'll want a taste for more.
***
Epilogue
I never went in those woods. Every time I even looked at them, a strange stench of sweaty closed-in bodies in desperate need of a bath filled my senses, leaving my stomach churning and my head dizzy.
The next summer, I was helping the neighbours cut the wheat in the field, when a breeze of song hit me and floated by.
"Fifteen men on a dead man's chest,
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum..."
By TrainerRachel