Sea

Thomas's eyes widened in fright when he heard this. He never imagined something like this can happen. How could an imaginary creature only his sister could see hate him like the one that was haunting him? A thing like this never passed through his mind.

"She is looking at me?"

"Why don't you check yourself?"

Her brother's behaviour confused Lily. Since he is interested, then why doesn't he just look to his right.

"Oh, sure."

Thomas answered, and then turned his head in the direction his sister was looking.

He was trying his best not to scream when he saw that his mother was standing right beside him.

'I guess there are a few differences in the mom Lily sees and the one beside me.'

Thomas was trying to get further away from his mother. After the night passed, he couldn't take the hunger he felt anymore. Everything around him was looking edible.

'No matter how scary you are, you are already dead.'

Thomas was repeating the same sentence again and again in his head, as if it would make him less terrified by the ghost that was following him. It knew his intentions and wanted to watch what he was about to do.

The ghost was appearing more often, the closer Thomas got to his mother's body.

After arriving, he felt that the monster was right behind him. He felt a non-existent breath at his neck.

"Which part of me would you take this time? I can't understand why you are so scared. Aren't you a bigger monster than me? I didn't eat the body of my kin like you."

"So what if I'm going to eat my mother? You are not her. She would be happy that she can help her children."

Thomas wasn't thinking about anything else than eating. Ghost's presence didn't bother him anymore. The body before him was in a worse state than before, but for him, it didn't matter.

"You can keep lying to yourself then, son."

The ghost stopped its attempts to turn Thomas insane and disappeared with a devilish grin on its face.

Thomas brought back two sizeable pieces of meat. He fried them both. The meal was ready by the time Lily woke up. She was happy that her brother finally ate too. This time, she didn't throw herself at the meat like before, but slowly took it and tried to savour the taste.

Compared to the previous few days ago, she couldn't be even considered hungry.

Thomas looked at the meat before him and was moving his hand forward and backwards. His conscience was trying to stop him from eating another human, but his hands were moving on his own.

After a dozen seconds of constant fighting with himself, Thomas's conscience wasn't able to stop his hunger anymore, and he ate.

He felt that he shouldn't be doing something like this, but because he was so hungry for the past few days, being able to fill his stomach gave him a feeling hard to describe.

"Now, we are one."

Thomas froze for a second when he felt something cold around his neck. It was the first time that the monster touched him. Until now, the most it did was talking and breathing close to him.

"Can't you leave me alone?"

It was hard to suppress the guilt in his heart now. Somewhere deep inside, he knew that his mother wouldn't allow him to do something like this. That's why this illusion appeared before him. His mother wouldn't like to see her kids eating humans. She was always strict and gave harsh punishments if her kids did something that was against her morals.

The ghost didn't listen to him. The meat didn't taste that good anymore. He accepted that what he did was wrong. Even if it was only for survival, it was still wrong.

Tears rolled down his cheeks. His sister was already away since she ate what he prepared for her. He couldn't suppress the pain anymore.

Before, he was too hungry to think. Now, he needed to face what he did.

"Sorry, mom. I know that what I'm doing is wrong, but I'm too scared to die."

Thomas closed his eyes and let his emotions run wild. He wanted to get all this grief out of himself since he understood that to survive, he will need to repeat the same thing.

The ghost was still harassing him, but he didn't listen. He was now reminiscing about his past. If only this whole situation didn't happen. If only the plane reached its destination. Then their family would still be together. Then, he wouldn't need to discover this ugly side of him.

"What happened?"

When Lily saw her brother on the ground sobbing, she got worried about him.

Thomas didn't know how much time passed since he cried. He forgot that his sister could come back and was drowning in sorrow.

He looked up at her and smiled through tears.

"It's nothing. I was just a little sad. It's already dark. It's time to sleep."

Thomas laid on the cold ground as always and was thinking of a way to survive. His mother wasn't enough for a long time. He needed another source of food before the current one ended.

'The plants here are all looking weird. Eating them will be risky. If they were edible, then why would bug leave them untouched?'

The idea of eating the leaves or berries passed through Thomas's mind more than once, but all the bugs that were here were avoiding them. He knew that most of the things that can poison these small creatures would have the same effect on him. They ate something from the soil and catching them was too hard. They were hiding before Thomas even fully bent.

'Maybe I should venture deeper into this jungle or search for an end.'

Before, he wasn't sure where he was, but now, he knew that it was an island. This information was both good and bad news. The positive thing about it was that even if all animals disappeared, he could try fishing. The negative was that it could take longer to notice that a plane crashed and finding it will be a lot harder.

Thomas was too tired to think. For the last few days, he slept four hours. He fell asleep, and when he woke up, the sun was already high in the sky.

He noticed that the body of his mother started rotting, and there were worms inside of it.

'Today is the last day we are eating.'

While eating, Thomas almost puked. He couldn't believe that he could swallow this meat.

"I'm not useful anymore."

Thomas forgot that the ghost was still here. It was quiet for the last few days.

'If I ignore it, it will finally disappear.'

Thomas spent his entire day planning. He found three ways that could keep him alive.

The first option was to search for the sea. This idea was the safest. There was no guarantee that there are fishes in the water, but there was only one problem with it. Thomas didn't know in which direction he should go to reach the target. If the way Thomas chose is wrong, he will venture deeper into the jungle.

The second plan was to try eating the plants here. It was dangerous, but there was a way to lower the risk. Thomas spent a lot of time to remember the things he learned about plants on biology lessons. Thanks to it, he knew that the chances for the leaves at the top of the trees to be poisonous were lower.

Finally, the plan he thought of as the last option was that if he ended up walking further in the jungle, he would carefully look for something to eat there.

Since there weren't any animals at the outskirts of the jungle, Thomas used this plan only if the first one didn't work. The second one was a viable option, so while searching for the shore, he would look at the crowns of the trees.

"Lily, we will rest today, and tomorrow, we will try to get out of this place."

The little girl thought that they were leaving the island. She missed her home but knew that bothering her brother won't help. She was excited, and it took her a long time to fall asleep.

Thomas opened his eyes, woke his little sister and walked forward. He had no clue which way to go to reach the shore, so he didn't even bother thinking about it.

They walked for the entire day. There was no sign of an edible plant, but the jungle was a little less dense here. It gave Thomas the strength to move forward. It was already dark when he stopped moving. It wasn't because he took a rest for today. It was because he heard waves crashing against the beach.