This Day Wept On My Shoulders
I can't help the feeling that's taking over me. And I don't want to stop it…because I like It – Ana Lucia
The trees bend and crack in the wind. Rain drips off their tired limbs and it falls upon her face. She faces the heart of the island; the central essence for all that exists on this plane. Boughs fold back and the forest sighs, letting her in. Its shroud opens up to her and shows her all the secrets. It tells her of things that have been and things that will come to be. Now she knows what must be done and why she must do it.
Lightning paints the lavender skies. She's perched atop her rock like a gargoyle, brooding over the knowledge she has learned, accepting the burden and submitting to the catharsis.
A bird cast its silhouette on the night sky. She glares at it through her rain-soaked hair. It nears, and she pulls the blade out. Its edge singing as the moon reflects on its cold metal. Blood shall stain the soil and the island will feed upon it. The bird cries and she releases the blade. It passes through without a sound, the two halves of the animal landing on either side of her. The dark ooze seeps into the ground around her, she has given it what it wants, but it wants more.
She steps down from her perch and walks out into the jungle to retrieve the blade, her pathway illuminated by the night sky's electric emissions. She listens to the wind and the rain as flurries blow against her face. The noises of the jungle begin to intensify. She looks around, unsure of what the jungle knows that she doesn't. A branch cracks to her left, she spins around, nothing there. The howling winds beat down the trees and they start to break. Something's here.
A dense shadow eclipses the moon, everything turns dark. Something passes by, the ground gives way beneath her, and she descends into fathomless depths. She doesn't scream. She is perfectly calm, not afraid of death.
--
Her eyes open to see that the pyre has been lit again and they are now gathering around it, letting its light pierce their eyes. The flames snuff out the stars and the darkness. She hates that.
She walks over to where they have gathered, carrying a pile of meat underneath her shoulder to the fire. She throws it in.
"What are you doing?" The doctor asks.
"What? Nothing," she said, throwing another hunk of meat onto the flame.
"What is that?" he gestured toward the meat.
"Oh, this?…just something that needs to be burned."
"Why does it need to be burned?" A look of confusion came upon his face.
"Because that's what you do with carcasses, you burn them. You don't want them rotting out in the jungle to stumble upon some day. I'm sure you wouldn't appreciate that. And besides…you might get sick."
"So what animal's carcass do I not want to stumble over in the middle of the jungle?"
She paused for a second then turned to look at him. "Fat man's."
"Excuse me?" He managed to look even more confused than before. "Who is Fat man?"
"Someone that didn't belong here." She threw the last piece into the flames and walked over to where he was sitting. "So let me ask you something…Do you belong here?"
"I don't follow what you're saying."
"Yeah, you don't like doing that do you?"
"I'm sorry, but I really have no idea what you're talking about right now." He started to become uneasy.
"Following. You don't like to follow do you? You like to lead."
The doctor gave a little smile, paused, and nodded his head. "Yeah, I guess I do."
"So how about we play Follow the Leader."
"What?"
"Follow The Leader. You ever heard of it?"
"Yes, I have but I don't know why you would want to play it."
"Pass the time. Do something besides sitting here staring at the fire."
"Okay…so where are we going?"
"I don't know you're the leader. Lead."
"Alright…" He got up and looked around. "How about over there?" He pointed to a spot down the shore.
"No. Let's go someplace in the jungle."
"I thought I was the leader?"
"And you're going to lead us into the jungle."
"Why do want to go in the jungle."
"Because I like it there. Don't you?"
"No."
"Well that's where we're going so deal with it." She said sternly.
The Doctor looked away, turning towards the jungle, and said the slightest of utterances, "Bitch."
"What was that?"
"What?"
"Did you say something?"
"What? No. I didn't say anything."
"I coulda swore you said something. You know under your breath, a very faint whisper."
"No, you must be hearing things. The wind probably."
"Right…just the wind." See gave him a cold stare. "There does seem to be a lot of wind in this jungle, its makes a lot of noise sometimes. Sometimes it sounds like voices whispering, maybe that's what I heard."
"Yeah, maybe."
They were getting deeper and deeper into the jungle now, and the light was getting more and more faint.
The Doctor stopped. "I think we should turn back, it's too dark out here. We could get seriously hurt." He said turning back towards her.
"Don't be a wimp. I can see just fine, how 'bout I lead?"
"No, I think we should really turn back now."
"Look, I understand okay. You don't like me, and that's okay, but I'm not here to be the person everybody likes."
"…I never said I didn't like you…um."
"Ana-Lucia."
"Right, I knew that." He nodded his head accordingly. "And I've never seen you before this so I'm not sure how anyone else would know you either."
She grinded her teeth at that remark. "You think you're the center of the whole universe don't you? You think everything and everyone revolves around you don't you? Well you know what? It doesn't. And it looks like your going to have to learn that lesson the hard way."
A concerned look came across the Doctor's face as she pulled out the blade.
"What are you doing?"
"Teaching you your lesson."
"Listen can't we just talk about this?" He began to slowly move away from her until his back was against a tree. "You're not yourself."
"How can you say that? You don't even know me." She crept closer and closer to him with every breath and began to arc the blade above her head.
More panic came over him. Sweat ran down his brow and his heart rate started to rise.
"You know how much wood a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?" She smiled a heartless smile and came right up to him pressing the blade softly into his belly not fully stabbing him yet.
"You're insane." He clenched his teeth at the thought of the blade puncturing his insides.
"Am I? Or maybe I'm so sane I just blew your mind."
"I'm pretty sure you're insane." He could barely get the words out from all the sweat running down onto his lips and the dryness in his throat.
"No I'm perfectly right in the head. It's you that has to be corrected." She pulled out some rope she had fashioned from some vine and tied his hands and feet to the trunk of the tree. Then she took off her belt and strapped his head down to it.
"What're you going to do to me?" He spouted out.
"I already told you," she pulled her blade up to his skull, "I'm correcting you."
"Ahh…No…N-No!"
The knife cut through his skull like it was butter. The blood spurting on her face brought her a cleansing feeling. She inched all the way around, sawing in some places, until she was able to remove the top of his skull and see his brain.
"Now let's see what we can do for you Doc."
She took the knife and started to poke and prod at the spongy muscle inside his head. She cut out a little piece of his frontal lobe. It squished between her fingers as she examined it. The Doctor twitched.
"This looks tasty." She popped it into her mouth and swallowed. "Yum, I didn't know you tasted so good. Did you?"
"Hagnaz folrum eel..elll." Drool started to pour out of his mouth, his eyes trying to crawl up into his head. "Loagra…"
"Perfect. I think you've been corrected Doc. Congratulations." She put his skull cap back on and sowed it up with a needle and thread she had found in the Doctor's bag back at camp. "I think you'll find a life of reform much more satisfying than the one you have been living." She licked the blade and put it back in its sheath and started to untie the Doctor from the tree.
"Come on Doc lets go back to camp." She took his hand and led the way.
--
Later on the beach she was feeding him oranges and papaya. The spit running out his mouth made it difficult though. Nothing stayed in.
"You know you really should learn some manners Doc. Didn't your parents ever tell you to keep your food in your mouth and chew with it closed?"
"Agroe fu isil pee…eep."
"I guess not, huh?"
She looked up just in time to see the person who calls himself Sawyer walk up to her. He looked over at the Doc and saw the drool streaming out.
"What happened to him?"
"Oh he had a little boo-boo when he fell off a cliff. I don't think he'll ever be the same"
"How did he fall off a cliff?"
"Well, he was running through the jungle last night, it was pitch black, and he tripped over a root in the ground. Then fell over a cliff." She shoved some papaya into her mouth.
"Seemed like the Doc would be smarter than that."
"Well, you can't always judge a book by its cover." She shoved some more papaya into her mouth the juice squirting out as she bit down.
"No, I guess not." He looked around as if he was searching for something to do.
"You busy?" Ana-Lucia asked.
"No. You?"
"No. You wanna take a walk with me and the Doc here?"
"Takin' walks isn't my thing."
"You had to take one to get here."
"That's not what I meant. I meant mushy gushy walks."
"Who said anything about mushy gushy? I think it would be manlier than that."
"Really? And why's that." A small smile came across his face.
"Me and the Doc are going hunting." She pulled the blade out and showed it to him.
"I'm not sure hunting qualifies as just a walk. But the thrill of a kill is something that can get me going."
She smiled. "Excellent."
They entered the threshold of the jungle with their weapons of choice, Ana and her blade, Sawyer and his 9mm. The jungle's mist sank into their clothes and clung to their bodies making them sticky with sweat. The hunt was on. The Doc followed unwittingly.
"You take point. I'll bring up the rear," Ana said.
"Sure thing, it'll be my pleasure." He walked up ahead of her with his pistol at the ready, looking for anything that moved. "Yea, there's nothing like a good hunt. You fancy yourself some hog…say, what was your name again?"
She stopped cold. "Ana-Lucia," she said in a harsh tone.
"So how come I ain't ever seen you around before? You been hiding around with the Doc there?" He gestured to the drooling lobotomized shell of a man that was the Doc now, following behind.
"I guess you just haven't been paying any attention at all to your surroundings."
"Yeah, maybe but I'm not one who sticks his nose in other people's business unless I get something out of it." He couldn't help but smile at his own remark.
"Is that right?" Ana said looking intrigued, "so what are you getting out of me?"
He turned around with a sly look on his face. "I don't know, what d'ya got?"
She walked up to him and pressed her body against his, then pushed in to whisper something in his ear. "Redemption."
The blade pierced his gut and he let out a long gasp out air. She pushed him back and pinned him to a tree, blood spewing out of his mouth.
"You son of a b-bitch!" Sawyer choked.
He finally let out a cry of pain as she began to run the blade up his abdomen then across, a red spray drenching her, exposing his intestines. She clenched some in her fist and pulled, unraveling them. Sawyer's face turned flush as he convulsed. Ana strung out the coil and began to wrap it around his neck tight. She climbed up the tree with the rest of it and pulled him off the ground with his own intestines around his neck. Then she wrapped a string of it around a tree branch, letting him hang. She jumped down and looked to admire her work.
"Beautiful isn't it, Doc?"
The Doctor was slouched down by a rock staring blankly at a caterpillar squirming across his hand.
"I guess your idea of beautiful is different from mine. But don't worry you'll see the beauty I see someday. It's all just a matter of time."
She walked back to the beach with the Doctor trailing along strapped to a vine she was holding. She tied him up to a nearby tree, went over to her rock, pulled out her notepad, and started to write:
Dear Diary,
There's forty left and I'm just starting to have fun. I hope each time it's as satisfying for me as it is for them.