Lost Island

Chapter 6: Sorrowful Day

 Levi stared dead-eyed at the pile of decayed bones, telling himself that that'd be him soon. He felt a gnawing feeling of hurt and sorrow. His clenched hand withheld the photo that he had carried with him through all these years and had held most dear. Not only was he feeling hurt and sorrow, but also deep sadness; he was mourning.

He marched down to the shore, not caring the slightly of snakes, and undid his tight grip of the photo to look at it. What lay crumpled in his hands had once been treasure in his eyes. But not anymore. All the photo's ink had been smeared, making it a blur and the corners had been soaked off. All because of that shark.

Not just that but because of that shark two people lost their lives. Two friends. Two friends he'd never see again and would never get the chance to say goodbye to. He scoffed into the air, shaking his head. Because of that shark.

He lifted the photo into the air, ready to launch it into the ocean with anger. His eyes were filling with tears and some began inching down his face. More tears. He whipped at them with his sleeve, but more followed in replace of them. He just ignored them. The action of launching it into the ocean, however, was difficult. He couldn't do it. Even though it no longer looked anything like the photo he had once known, he still couldn't do it.

"Levi?" a voice asked from behind him, the person's steps from a distance getting closer and more pronounced against the sand, until they stopped right behind him. "What's going on?" Silence came between them for a long moment.

"Go," Levi demanded, his back facing the man. He was tampering with the photo in his hands that was now a crumpled mess. "Leave." No movement was made behind him, meaning Harry was still there.

"What's going on?" Harry repeated gently.

Levi didn't say anything as he slowly stepped away, across the sandy shore and away from the hut after shoving it into his pocket. He walked faster when the steps of Harry were present as he followed after him.

His steps engraved into the sand with each heavy step he made into it. He didn't know where he was going; all he knew was he had to get away for awhile. For a couple of minutes, or hours maybe.

Levi could still hear the red-haired man's steps behind him and he set his jaw, shaking his head briefly in replace of communicating his irritation.

It was a couple minutes later of the walk that he began trying to unwrinkle the photo, but didn't take it out of his pocket as he did so, so that Harry wouldn't see it.

The sun beamed steadily over each of their faces and bodies, causing sweat to decorate them as they walked. Each occasionally swiped a fresh layer of sweat off their faces and were panting not twenty minutes into the walk; it was just so hot.

"Levi," Harry breathed, "I-I can't walk much longer." He stopped walking so that he could catch his breath, but Levi didn't wait up. "Hey!" Harry staggered to his side.

Levi was breathing heavily himself, but didn't want to wait for him since he'd just follow him again. However, he couldn't keep up the act much longer. Only a minute later he too stopped to get a breath.

"Look, I saw you holding something. You were going to throw it into the water."

Levi nodded finally after numerous recovering breaths. "Yeah," he mumbled just loud enough for him to hear.

"Can you tell me about it?" he asked. He caught sadness in his eyes when Levi glanced at him before looking down, clearing debating whether to tell him or not.

"Okay, but this is between you and me, H." The red-haired man nodded. "I had..." he trailed off, before saying, "This was many, many years ago. I once had a daughter n-named Rylie. She may have been adopted but she was nothing less than a daughter. Something tragic happened on her ninth birthday." He paused and the silence dragged out.

"Did she die?" Harry asked lightly, his words barely communicated. He crossed his arms slowly between the deafening silence, he too looking down at the sand.

"Y-yeah," he said finally, and breathed deeply. "She's the reason I joined this crew in the first place. She, umm, wanted to go sailing for her birthday and so we did..."

"Paul."

Levi furrowed his brow in confusion, picking his eyes up off the sand and onto him. Harry held a strong expression at the forest, clearly something catching his attention.

"What?" Levi questioned him, following his eyes. There, trotting through the trees of the forest was a man that was supposed to be dead.

The man's short hair was all tangled and knotted instead of its normal slicked back look. He had his eyes planted upon the two men, looking desperate.

Both Levi and Harry were frozen, their minds spinning as they watched the man hurry at them and the closer he came the more the sweat covering him became apparent. Sweat dripped from his body, telling them he'd been running for a long while.

"Guys," Paul panted and stopped briefly in front of them with his hands on his sides as he tried the catch his breath. "It's y-you! Actually y-you! No time to explain, must go," he said weakly, then he started running across the shore.

"Why? Are you running from someone?" Harry demanded, glancing hard at the trees before he started after him.

"Yes, men who will kill me," Paul replied. "A-and they'll do likewise to each of ya'."

Levi followed after them. They were going the direction of the hut, he realized, and figured that is was for the best; they should tell the others about the dangerous men.