Status: Work in progress
The Puppeteer
Chapter 4 : the boy with the blonde hair
Jackson stood in the clearing, looking around him, utterly perplexed, he made his slow stumbling way back past the rock he had charles had been sitting on peacefully just minutes earlier. He stumbled into the cave and collapsed into his corner, he sat staring at the roof, he was breathing as loud as a horse, so loud in fact he was scared he would wake the others. He kept on flashing back to the moment, he couldn't close his eyes for fear of reliving the whole thing. Eventually tiredness overcame Jackson and his eyes blinked slowly closed, leaving him to the mercy of dreaded abyss that were his dreams.
Jackson woke to a foot prodding him, he blinked as his eyes adjusted to the light, the foot belonged to Daniel.
“ hey man,you seen charles anywhere” asked daniel, a worried tone to his voice.
Jackson was still half asleep, his thoughts were blurry and muddled. It took his a good minute to comprehend what was happening.
“ Have you seen charles” repeated Daniel sounding more agitated now.
Jackson slowly tilted his head up towards Daniel, his mind was racing, if he told the others what had happened would they blame him for his cowardly retreat or more importantly would they even believe what he was saying, quite frankly he wouldn't blame them if they did not.
Something too fast to catch even a glimpse of ran circles around us for a moment before knocking me to the ground taking Charles and leaving me where I had fallen, after that I stumbled back to the cave and fell asleep again without waking anyone or even attempting to help Charles.
No, it didn't sound believable in the slightest if you hadn't experienced it. He couldn't even explain why they had been out there in the first place. Jackson made a decision, one which he would come to regret.
“No, haven't seen him since yesterday, why is he missing” asked Jackson as innocently as possible, He had never been an eminent actor, despite having been forced to take acting classes by his parents when he was a couple years younger, he had flunked the tests on purpose because of it, lying however was something jackson was very experienced and more importantly, naturally skilled at.
“Yeah, it's past midday and we haven't seen him yet, he was gone when we woke up.”
Jackson shot up from his position on the craggy ground, ignoring the aches in his back from yet another night of uncomfortable sleep.
“ past midday!” spluttered Jackson in disbelief, Jackson never overslept the only exception to this rule was on his brothers birthday a few years back, that has been purposeful though. Despite having never admitting it, everyone knew. Jackson woke up consistently at six o'clock, he was at school by quarter past and never later. Jackson hated other people getting too much attention, he was the favourite in the family, the smartest, most athletic, and not that it mattered all that much but the best looking. He hating siblings birthday due to the lack of attention directed to him on these occasions.
“Why do you think we woke you up, Can't have you sleeping on into the next night now can we?
Daniel mumbled a response to this last remark before pulling himself to his feet, with the unwanted help of Daniel, and made a beeline for the door to see if Daniel had been accurate regarding the time of day. Jackson was stopped in his tracks when he saw who was lurking at the cave entrance, waiting for him it appeared. Derek stood feet apart, arms behind his back staring at Jackson with those piercing violet eyes boring into him.
I know everything, I know how you left Charles to his fate last night, I know how you lied to Daniel, I know how the beast left you, why leave you I wonder, but I know everything Jackson, everything.
The eyes seem'd to speak to him, telling him all his darkest secrets, they saw right through him, tearing him apart as did did so, piece by piece. Jackson stood for a moment, paralysed, before regaining his composure and leaving the cave. He glanced up towards the sun, daniel had spoken the truth, the sun was well passed its peak in the sky and was steadily sinking. There were only a few hours of daylight left, Jackson decided he better make use of them. He was not yet completely awake and had to blink constantly to keep his vision from blurring. His stomach screamed at him in hunger, best head to the fruit trees he thought and changed his direction. He used the route he and Finn had used to return to the cave on their very first night here. He jumped from boulder to boulder as he had done previously ,this time there was no excitement though, no laughter or smiles. It was just Jackson, Jackson and his guilt. He told himself he had done nothing wrong, that anyone would have done the same in his situation but it didn't help noticeably. What did help was seeing Finn, the only one who had really grown to like on the island, lying on the rock in the centre of the clearing with his shirt next to him, full of fruit judging by the way it bulged, almost falling off the edge of the rock.
“Finn” Jackson called up to the rock as he jogged towards the centre of the clearing.
“Hey” replied Finn sitting up and turning his head to look at Jackson “hungry?”
“Ravenous” stated Jackson licking his lips as his stomach continued to grumble.
Finn pulled a bright red fruit from his shirt and threw it down elegantly to Jackson, who to didn't catch it quite as elegantly, it bounced off his head before ricocheting off his arm, evading a few desperate grabs by jackson and eventually landing on the soft grass of the clearing. Jackson bent down to pick it up, the ground was clean and soft enough so the fruit was neither bruised nor contaminated. He stared at the fruit with gratitude and lust for a second before sinking his teeth deep into its soft flesh. Juice sprayed everywhere and dripped down his chin, but he didn't care, all that mattered was the sweet, succulent fruit in his mouth. Jackson finished his first fruit quickly, faster in fact than Finn could climb down the rock. When finn finally finished scaling the rock and his feet touched the ground, he turned around and reached into his shirt, still tied to his back, to retrieve another fruit for Jackson. No words had to be said, jackson's desires were clear by the yearning expression on his face. Jackson attacked his second fruit as vigorously as the first one, more juice dripping down his chin and soaking into his white shirt.
The boys had spent a good hour sitting under the trees, Jackson scoffing fruit until he was contempt and Finn weaving a basket of some sort. Jackson looked at the basket with admiration, it was beautifully woven, completely balanced and even. He would have to ask Finn to teach him sometime, baskets such as these would be a necessity for long term survival on the island, no not the island, their island, this island belonged to them, they had survived the cold,hunger and the fatigue to make it this far, they deserved it, it belonged to them. If only Jackson had known just how wrong he was, for they had would have to survive a lot more before they could claim this land as their own.
The pair, noticing the sun beginning to sink behind the mountain, rose to their feet and heading for their path of boulders that they had so frequently seeked passage aboard. They clambered up the first boulder, peeking their heads out they noticed a figure, a figure possessing long blonde hair, jumping from boulder to boulder as they would be doing in the near future be, heading back in the direction of the cave. The pair glanced at each other, neither of them could recognise the speeding silhouette.
“Hey, you” shouted Finn, cupping his hands over his mouth to project his voice further, “ Wait up”
The figure appeared not to hear,with nothing else to do the pair set off jumping along the boulders, each time propelling themselves further than the last, Jackson hadn notice himself grow fitter during his brief time on the island, he had never been much of an athlete at home, beside the fact that a considerable amount of pressure was placed on him to play rugby, one of South Africa's favourite sports. The only sport He had ever found enjoyment in was chess, if it could even be classified as a sport. The complexion of the game when played at high level was a welcome challenge. Jackson had never liked team sports such as hockey and basketball, his team could never play well enough and there was nothing to do but sit and watch as the opposition scored again and again, but in chess it was different, he was completely solo, no liabilities to compensate for, just him and his raw strategical intelligence and cunning taking piece after piece, winning match after match. Chess however was of no use on their island, and he now regretted not investing more time into physical activity, long jump would have been helpful now he thought, as he narrowly missed plunging into a particularly big gap between two boulders . They were still far behind the figure, the prey Jackson supposed, but they were fast gaining on him. The figure jumped off the last rock, disappearing from their sight. When they too reached the end of the rock trail he was nowhere to be seen.
“Must have been Sam, he's the only one with long blonde hair” suggested Finn “ He is probably in the cave now”
The pair jogged towards the cave mouth, ducking down as they entered, they scanned the cave for Sam. They found him sitting in the corner, his eyes closed, rocking back and forth and, one by one, feeding the small red berries Jackson and Finn had been eating the day before into his mouth.
“Ay Sam” greeted Finn “ We just saw you jumping across the rocks, we tried to call you but you didn't hear”
Sam groggily opened his eyes and layed down the berry in his hand “ What are you on about dude, Iv been in the cave over and hour.”
“That's impossible” replied jackson “ He had long blonde hair, no one else on the island had that.”
All the five boys looked at eachother in confusion, except Derek he rose to his feet from where he had been sitting and opened his mouth to speak.
“No Jackson” Derek corrected “ Jerry had long blonde hair”
Jackson woke to a foot prodding him, he blinked as his eyes adjusted to the light, the foot belonged to Daniel.
“ hey man,you seen charles anywhere” asked daniel, a worried tone to his voice.
Jackson was still half asleep, his thoughts were blurry and muddled. It took his a good minute to comprehend what was happening.
“ Have you seen charles” repeated Daniel sounding more agitated now.
Jackson slowly tilted his head up towards Daniel, his mind was racing, if he told the others what had happened would they blame him for his cowardly retreat or more importantly would they even believe what he was saying, quite frankly he wouldn't blame them if they did not.
Something too fast to catch even a glimpse of ran circles around us for a moment before knocking me to the ground taking Charles and leaving me where I had fallen, after that I stumbled back to the cave and fell asleep again without waking anyone or even attempting to help Charles.
No, it didn't sound believable in the slightest if you hadn't experienced it. He couldn't even explain why they had been out there in the first place. Jackson made a decision, one which he would come to regret.
“No, haven't seen him since yesterday, why is he missing” asked Jackson as innocently as possible, He had never been an eminent actor, despite having been forced to take acting classes by his parents when he was a couple years younger, he had flunked the tests on purpose because of it, lying however was something jackson was very experienced and more importantly, naturally skilled at.
“Yeah, it's past midday and we haven't seen him yet, he was gone when we woke up.”
Jackson shot up from his position on the craggy ground, ignoring the aches in his back from yet another night of uncomfortable sleep.
“ past midday!” spluttered Jackson in disbelief, Jackson never overslept the only exception to this rule was on his brothers birthday a few years back, that has been purposeful though. Despite having never admitting it, everyone knew. Jackson woke up consistently at six o'clock, he was at school by quarter past and never later. Jackson hated other people getting too much attention, he was the favourite in the family, the smartest, most athletic, and not that it mattered all that much but the best looking. He hating siblings birthday due to the lack of attention directed to him on these occasions.
“Why do you think we woke you up, Can't have you sleeping on into the next night now can we?
Daniel mumbled a response to this last remark before pulling himself to his feet, with the unwanted help of Daniel, and made a beeline for the door to see if Daniel had been accurate regarding the time of day. Jackson was stopped in his tracks when he saw who was lurking at the cave entrance, waiting for him it appeared. Derek stood feet apart, arms behind his back staring at Jackson with those piercing violet eyes boring into him.
I know everything, I know how you left Charles to his fate last night, I know how you lied to Daniel, I know how the beast left you, why leave you I wonder, but I know everything Jackson, everything.
The eyes seem'd to speak to him, telling him all his darkest secrets, they saw right through him, tearing him apart as did did so, piece by piece. Jackson stood for a moment, paralysed, before regaining his composure and leaving the cave. He glanced up towards the sun, daniel had spoken the truth, the sun was well passed its peak in the sky and was steadily sinking. There were only a few hours of daylight left, Jackson decided he better make use of them. He was not yet completely awake and had to blink constantly to keep his vision from blurring. His stomach screamed at him in hunger, best head to the fruit trees he thought and changed his direction. He used the route he and Finn had used to return to the cave on their very first night here. He jumped from boulder to boulder as he had done previously ,this time there was no excitement though, no laughter or smiles. It was just Jackson, Jackson and his guilt. He told himself he had done nothing wrong, that anyone would have done the same in his situation but it didn't help noticeably. What did help was seeing Finn, the only one who had really grown to like on the island, lying on the rock in the centre of the clearing with his shirt next to him, full of fruit judging by the way it bulged, almost falling off the edge of the rock.
“Finn” Jackson called up to the rock as he jogged towards the centre of the clearing.
“Hey” replied Finn sitting up and turning his head to look at Jackson “hungry?”
“Ravenous” stated Jackson licking his lips as his stomach continued to grumble.
Finn pulled a bright red fruit from his shirt and threw it down elegantly to Jackson, who to didn't catch it quite as elegantly, it bounced off his head before ricocheting off his arm, evading a few desperate grabs by jackson and eventually landing on the soft grass of the clearing. Jackson bent down to pick it up, the ground was clean and soft enough so the fruit was neither bruised nor contaminated. He stared at the fruit with gratitude and lust for a second before sinking his teeth deep into its soft flesh. Juice sprayed everywhere and dripped down his chin, but he didn't care, all that mattered was the sweet, succulent fruit in his mouth. Jackson finished his first fruit quickly, faster in fact than Finn could climb down the rock. When finn finally finished scaling the rock and his feet touched the ground, he turned around and reached into his shirt, still tied to his back, to retrieve another fruit for Jackson. No words had to be said, jackson's desires were clear by the yearning expression on his face. Jackson attacked his second fruit as vigorously as the first one, more juice dripping down his chin and soaking into his white shirt.
The boys had spent a good hour sitting under the trees, Jackson scoffing fruit until he was contempt and Finn weaving a basket of some sort. Jackson looked at the basket with admiration, it was beautifully woven, completely balanced and even. He would have to ask Finn to teach him sometime, baskets such as these would be a necessity for long term survival on the island, no not the island, their island, this island belonged to them, they had survived the cold,hunger and the fatigue to make it this far, they deserved it, it belonged to them. If only Jackson had known just how wrong he was, for they had would have to survive a lot more before they could claim this land as their own.
The pair, noticing the sun beginning to sink behind the mountain, rose to their feet and heading for their path of boulders that they had so frequently seeked passage aboard. They clambered up the first boulder, peeking their heads out they noticed a figure, a figure possessing long blonde hair, jumping from boulder to boulder as they would be doing in the near future be, heading back in the direction of the cave. The pair glanced at each other, neither of them could recognise the speeding silhouette.
“Hey, you” shouted Finn, cupping his hands over his mouth to project his voice further, “ Wait up”
The figure appeared not to hear,with nothing else to do the pair set off jumping along the boulders, each time propelling themselves further than the last, Jackson hadn notice himself grow fitter during his brief time on the island, he had never been much of an athlete at home, beside the fact that a considerable amount of pressure was placed on him to play rugby, one of South Africa's favourite sports. The only sport He had ever found enjoyment in was chess, if it could even be classified as a sport. The complexion of the game when played at high level was a welcome challenge. Jackson had never liked team sports such as hockey and basketball, his team could never play well enough and there was nothing to do but sit and watch as the opposition scored again and again, but in chess it was different, he was completely solo, no liabilities to compensate for, just him and his raw strategical intelligence and cunning taking piece after piece, winning match after match. Chess however was of no use on their island, and he now regretted not investing more time into physical activity, long jump would have been helpful now he thought, as he narrowly missed plunging into a particularly big gap between two boulders . They were still far behind the figure, the prey Jackson supposed, but they were fast gaining on him. The figure jumped off the last rock, disappearing from their sight. When they too reached the end of the rock trail he was nowhere to be seen.
“Must have been Sam, he's the only one with long blonde hair” suggested Finn “ He is probably in the cave now”
The pair jogged towards the cave mouth, ducking down as they entered, they scanned the cave for Sam. They found him sitting in the corner, his eyes closed, rocking back and forth and, one by one, feeding the small red berries Jackson and Finn had been eating the day before into his mouth.
“Ay Sam” greeted Finn “ We just saw you jumping across the rocks, we tried to call you but you didn't hear”
Sam groggily opened his eyes and layed down the berry in his hand “ What are you on about dude, Iv been in the cave over and hour.”
“That's impossible” replied jackson “ He had long blonde hair, no one else on the island had that.”
All the five boys looked at eachother in confusion, except Derek he rose to his feet from where he had been sitting and opened his mouth to speak.
“No Jackson” Derek corrected “ Jerry had long blonde hair”