The sky was red and smoke replaced the clouds. The dark smoke made it nearly impossible to see his own feet.
The red sky blared with danger and the wind began to pick up. Ryan's clothing waved with the wind, almost blowing him over. He stumbled to a better footing on the sand dunes he walked upon. Ryan put his palm over his eyes and squinted toward no destination.
His footprints filled with sand immediately after each step as the ground breathed. The carnivorous ground looked as if it could simply suck Ryan up and cause him to never be seen again.
The red light in the sky was pounding heat straight into Ryan's eyes. The wind stayed consistently annoying. Ryan stepped inch by inch against the blowing sand and smoke. His attempts at breathing got rougher. Ryan's tongue and lips begged for water and were completely parched.
The ground had not changed in slope or shape. Ryan had felt as he had been walking for a whole day. Time became longer and drawn out as he progressed forward. The sky had stayed its blinding red and had not changed.
Ryan had become numb to thoughts. The only voice in his head was that of thirst. He muttered to himself words he had made up like an insane person.
"Then in this sin, regard light boar. Pain is owl."
Ryan was in a constant state of shock and mind-numbing stress. Ryan had begun to dig his teeth into his lips. Blood dripped down his chin and onto the sand. The sand consumed his blood just like it had done with his past footprints. The blood had begun to drip down his throat and stain what was left of his shirt. This sensation interrupted the mumbling of a mad man and caused him to wheeze instead.
He harshly threw his head down and began coughing toward the sand. His hands covered his bending knees as the wind punched into his back. His nails dug deep into his kneecaps as his coughing began to tear at his guts.
Ryan, weakly, kneeled to one knee as his coughing fit hit its peak. Something rolled up his throat and poured out of his mouth. The taste of salt began to immediately burn his mouth and lips. The sand in front of him stained with a pitch-black substance.
He grasped his face and pulled at his cheeks. Ryan then let out a scream which was muted by the gusts of wind.
"My face is on fire! My face is fucking burning!"
He punched both cheeks. The rage building up from his nerves being shocked began to leak out of him. Tears came out of Ryan's eyelids, just to be absorbed by his thirsty skin.
The sand had begun to absorb the black ink still dripping from his mouth. In near seconds all of it had disappeared like it never existed.
Ryan wiped his face and began crawling until he could lift himself back up to his feet. Nothing had changed for hours as he walked. Ryan was barely moving forward from each step he took.
He stumbled over his own feet several times and was constantly gasping for air as his exhausted body pushed onward. Sand had covered his eyelashes and collected like ash on his flaky, bald head.
Ryan never stopped mumbling off to himself. He moved away from his thoughts by imagining a nice, open field. It was a lot like the one he grew up near with his brother and mom. Except, often Ryan would have to blink the sand from his eyes, causing his daydreaming to come to an end.
Ryan remembered his body was craving water. His stomach began to turn and twist. Ryan would dry heave nothing but small black drops that would fly off into the sand below.
Ryan took a deep, dry breath, then return to that fake field. This cycle took place for what felt like an eternity.
After a few attempts, the field became much more real. The green marsh. The bright, light blue sky. The grand dragonflies flew around the grass like little airplanes. The small speckles of morning dew soaking Ryan's soft, childlike legs. The cool breeze went through his fingertips as he stared off at the rolling hills between him and the real world.
"Ryan! Heads!"
Blake screamed from behind him. A frisbee flew past Ryan's head, nowhere near close to hitting him. It had snapped him out of his trance from the hills and toward his brother.
Blake was a child. He was shorter and plumper than his future self. Ryan had no second thoughts about his brother's sudden young age. A small heat came to Ryan's cheeks. Blake approached Ryan in his child-like demeanor.
"Do you want to play frisbee, Ryan?"
His voice was nothing less than adorable. Yet, Ryan gave no reaction other than a deep stare. Blake began to tug at Ryan's shirt. Ryan turned his head away from the child and back to the open horizon. He opened his lips to speak in a raspy whisper.
"Did you ever notice the lack of trees in this huge field? It would be a paradise for any tree, yet none have chosen to grow here."
Ryan looked back down to Blake who returned the eye contact with a wide and confused smile.
"Why are you staring at me like that?"
Ryan now gave Blake his full attention. Blake let go of Ryan's shirt and pointed out toward the hills behind them.
"If we get lost in the hills, we would find a tree eventually, right?"
There was no movement in Blake's body. Not even a breeze broke his stance. Ryan looked out to where his brother's finger pointed. It had looked exactly like every horizon that surrounded this field.
Hills and tall grass. It was all the same. Ryan looked back down to Blake who had brought his hand back to his side and narrowed his vision to Ryan's face.
"What would be the point?"
Ryan was dry with his tone. Blake sighed slightly and his half-smile turned to a frown. Ryan stared back into his eyes with no recognizable emotion.
"What is the sad face for, Blake?"
Blake looked back out toward the horizon. It took him a few seconds to answer, but when he did it was in a quiet demeanor.
"I'm just... thinking."
Ryan leaned back and supported himself with his arms upon the wet grass. As he looked up toward his younger brother, he noticed that when sitting, Blake almost stood at his height.
Ryan thought to himself,
"He grew up so damn fast."
Blake sat down next to Ryan. As they sat in the grass, Blake leaned into Ryan's shoulder and fell right to sleep.
He was so warm and his little breaths vibrated his entire body. Ryan couldn't feel anything but the warmth of his brother. Not even the wet grass that soaked the bottom of his calves.
As a dark sky came overhead the two brothers, all had become silent. Ryan yawned as his eyes felt heavier and heavier.
"Everything used to be okay."
Ryan looked down to be startled by Blake's sudden words.
Blake looked up toward Ryan. Immediately Ryan shoved Blake off his shoulder and crawled backward in horror. Blake lifted his hand over his throat which was suddenly severed from his head. Black ink oozed out over Blake's chest as bone and tendons flung around as he breathed.
"Why don't you just curl up and cry, brother?"
Blake's tone had gone raspy and deep. Ryan began sweating and continued backing up. He screamed out toward the boy.
"What are you, some sort of fucking devil?! Where is my brother? Give him back!"
Blake twisted the remaining muscle holding his head on top of his shoulders. The sound of cracking bones was vomit worthy. The smell of rancid salt had filled the air. Black ink had sprinkled all over Ryan's face.
Ryan wiped his eye lashes clean with his palm. Blake's head fell to the ground with a squish and rolled toward Ryan's feet. Blake's eyes turned to Ryan and began to open his ink-covered lips. Ryan leaned back in fear as his mouth widened to its max.
A loud shriek was released from Blake's mouth. Ink splattered all over Ryan's face, once again making him blind. He threw his fingers over his ears out of instinct. The shriek was that of a piano chord. It played so loudly that it bounced around in Ryan's head. No matter how deep his fingers went into his earlobes it could be heard. As quickly as it started, the shriek ended with its echo bouncing and fading throughout the field.
Ryan slowly uncovered his ears, still not able to see due to the ink burning at his eyes. He slowly scooped the ink off his eyelashes with the back of his hands. As he opened his eyes, to Ryan's surprise, he was no longer in an open field. The world around him blurred. He gripped at his forehead which was hot enough to spark a flame.
Ryan felt a breeze beneath his nose. What remained of his disgusting shirt had shifted in that direction the wind blew. As Ryan gained control of his sight once more, he was surprised to be somewhere he didn't recognize.
The world was green and nourished compared to the rocky hillsides and the beach he had seen before. Ryan lifted his neck to see palm trees sprawl into the sky, reaching to steal the light from the yellow and green ferns plaguing the moist soil. Not a single grain of sand littered the ground. The dirt that replaced it brown and wet.
Even though life surrounded him, nothing made a single noise. Not a single critter. Not a single bird. The only echos were the trees bending in the slight breeze.
Ryan lifted himself off the ground and wiped at his shorts as if they were not already stained with dirt, ink, and vomit. Ryan began to cautiously wander the patch of green. It seemed to go on for some time but he could see an obvious break in the trees.
He took his time watching and listening for any movement. Ryan remembered watching a horror movie about an alien with lasers that would hide in the trees, but he couldn't put his finger on the title. It caused Ryan to be very paranoid.
The quite sounds of crashing had begun to fill the air. Ryan began to speed up. Thoughts rushed in his head as he approached the opening.
"No. No. There- there is no way."
Ryan's dirt path came to a quick halt. The ground that had been cooling his feet was gone. The incline of the cliff he stood atop fell hundreds of feet below into a dark sea. The Earth had consumed the land that once sat here and replaced it with this ocean.
The water below was pitch black. The cliffside was being punched down by the ocean to no outcome. Ryan looked left to see the cliff went on for quite some time. It never got slanted to the ocean, it was all a straight drop to a dark, voided hell.
Ryan backed up, keeping his eyes on the edge of the cliff. Once he was a safe distance away from the eerie landscape, he leaned up against a fallen palm tree. Ryan gasped for air and his head began to swirl.
"There is no escape."
Is what Ryan wanted to mutter.
But instead, those words were replaced with grunts, moans, and voice cracks. His eyes watered as he began shaking in desperation.
"Go- going- going home. I want to go home! Fucking- shit god please save- bring me home!"
Ryan cried and curled himself on top of the fallen tree. He stayed there muttering and complaining to himself.
Eventually, he had run out of tears to cry and his stomach had begun rumbling. This was a strange feeling to Ryan. It was weird enough to immediately snap him out of his sad trance. He grasped his stomach as it released a shaky roar.
"Why hasn't this happened before? I haven't eaten in months and now I'm hungry. Why now?"
Ryan turned his head and examined his surroundings. He took count of the resources in his vision and named them out loud.
"Tree, ferns, grass, mud, rocks, berry bushes, leaves, bark- "
Ryan froze and threw his eyes back at the berry bushes. He was astonished. It almost felt fake.
"I haven't seen a single animal. A single bird. Not a single insect. But berry bushes now grow here. How?"
He shuffled his way toward them. The berries were blue and welcoming. Ryan plucked one from the bush and slowly set it on his tongue.
His mouth absorbed any fluid within the berry immediately. His mouth was so dry that it couldn't taste anymore. It moved around the berry like a soccer ball, then slowly squeeze it for all of its juices. The juices flowed down Ryan's dry throat like that of a great flood.
The acidic texture burned, but it didn't hurt. Ryan immediately put another berry into his mouth to repeat the process of consumption once again. Soon enough he was shoving handfuls down his throat. Ryan smiled as berry resin said over his lips. Little, clear tears ran down his face as berries stained his cheeks.
Ryan slept that night soundly on top of the fallen tree. The night sky had returned with a normal moon. No stars littered the sky, but it hadn't bothered his slumber. When Ryan woke up to a burst of nice sunshine the next day, Ryan cried out in joy.
He sat up and raised his hand out toward the horizon of palm trees.
"Blake. Things might just be okay after all."
A month had passed.
Ryan woke up under his makeshift, tree home.
Sticks wove in and out of each other to make the ceiling he woke up to every morning.
Ryan slept on woven grass which made up a blanket. Ryan was shirtless. His body was dirty and stained by mud, bruises, and ashy skin.
The weather was warm. A breeze came through and cooled off Ryan's skin.
He left his little hut which leaned up against the fallen palm tree for support. Ryan walked past the trees and lifted a cloth bag that stood in the shade. It was made of the remains of his old shirt, tied together to a strip of bark which slid across Ryan's chest his ease. It consisted of berries and grass which would sustain Ryan for today's travels.
The sky was blue and there wasn't a single cloud in the sky. The sky had not changed for the past month. Ryan carried the bag and began jogging in the opposite direction of his wooden shack.
As Ryan ran, he passed several trees and rocks. Each rock had arrows drawn with charcoal. Ryan had plans to pass the tree line on the other side of the island.
The last attempt took three days before Ryan realized he wouldn't have enough food, causing him to turn back and take the walk of shame. Ryan was determined to make it this time. He carried enough food for a week's trip there and back. As Ryan ran, a strange thought clouded the back of his mind. This was a thought that had been coming and going but it became more of an issue as he began exploring.
"What if there is no beach. What if it's just another impossible cliff to cross?"
A month ago, Ryan discovered he was on an edge of the island. An edge which was impossible to climb down or escape.
Ryan began coughing as he forgot to take a breath. He came to a slow halt and crouched down to catch his breath. The only noise that bounced off the trees was his loud gasps. Even after a month of being here, the silence still bothered Ryan. No birds, no planes, no bugs. All was very, very still.
It got better around noon when the breeze comes through the trees causing them to dance and whistle. But the paranoia was still in the back of his mind.
Ryan began to run again after the short break. He passed more trees, rocks with arrows, and even some berry bushes he hadn't noticed before. Ryan looked back and stopped suddenly and the thought about a snack that wouldn't waste his supplies. He took off his bags and bent over the bushes to begin collecting.
Ryan picked the berries and set them in one by one. Every few he put in the bag; he would throw it into his own mouth. Ryan leaned his arm into the bush for the last few berries. As he leaned, he began to lose his balance and his palm landed straight into the dirt.
Ryan lifted his hand; droplets of mud fell from his fingers. Ryan noticed this and lifted his hand to eye level.
His entire palm was covered in mud. Ryan stared at it suspiciously. Something didn't add up in his head. He inspected the ground beyond the berry bushes.
Then, a sound quietly hummed past Ryan's ears. It was something moving, but it wasn't living. Ryan stood straight up and walked through the berry bushes. Soon enough, Ryan's feet began to sink in mud. He stared out in surprise at what sat in front of him.
A pond. It was dirty water but it wasn't pitch black like the sea. It waved around with hidden momentum and created small splashes on its muddy shore.
"How the fuck did this get here?"
Ryan turned around and reached into the berry bush. He pulled a hand full of them out and then threw them into the pond. They landed around the center and floated there. They drifted around for a few minutes. None of them got eaten or sank. The pond was lifeless.
Ryan had been aware of his lack of thirst for a long time. When food became available, he became hungry and once again depended on energy and nutrients. This worried Ryan. Water was finally given to him.
"Am I going to become thirsty? Can I even drink this water?"
If it came down to it, he could boil it over a fire. He would just need a bowl of sorts. The next thought that came to his head left a bruise.
"But then what? It isn't a lot. It had never rained before. Will I just run out of water eventually and die?"
Ryan was conflicted. Either way, this was a huge discovery. Ryan immediately changed his plans. He decided instead of making his way to the other side, for now, he would set up a base by the pond.
Ryan gathered sticks, huge palm leaves, rocks, and dead bushes. He began assembling the sticks and leaves. It didn't take Ryan long to finish a safety net leaned against a palm tree.
This would act as a roof. The rest went into a small fire pit. The breeze was coming in which meant the sun was going down. All was going well.
Ryan rubbed two sticks together and got a flame going. The nights didn't get cold, they stayed relatively the same temperature as the day. But starting a fire made Ryan feel like a human in the isolation that was this island.
As he sat by the fire and the moon rose, Ryan stared out into the sky. If he focused hard enough, he could go back to that field. Just visions of strange hallucinations in that cave. It was all so freeing. Imagining someone was here to share his isolation with him was a treat.
Ryan then began to talk to himself.
"Blake! You remember the frisbee? No? Well, it's okay we can walk the trails and mess around."
Ryan's hands began to shake. His eyes got watery but he continued speaking.
"Blake I wouldn't let anything bad happen to you. I love you."
Tears were rolling down his cheeks. He sputtered whispers and half words.
"I wish I never left you alone. I fucked up. I'm- I'm the worst. I was so close to being with you again. I'll move close to you-you. We can BBQ. We-"
Ryan curled in a ball next to the fire and cried himself to sleep.