On These White Shores

[Pandora]

Location: Anguilla Island
Characters: Shiloh Quinn Barker, Zoe Ascot
Rating: PG-13

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"You'll find your home one of these days. Anguilla will not be the last place you ever see."

"How can you be so sure of that Constance, we've been here for ten years already and nothing has happened. I do not see a future anywhere but here with the few townspeople that still linger on the coast." Shiloh said with a defeated tone of voice. He had been eight when his parents ship, The Raven, had shipwrecked. Shiloh and Constance, who was now reaching his late 60's, were the only survivors. Shiloh knew that he wouldn't have survived very long without this man who had quickly become his friend.

Together they found a small village of no more than fifty people on the other side of the island they had landed on. It was nice for a young Shiloh to know that he wasn't completely abandoned, nor would he have to worry about the necessities of survival. These simple joys of knowledge didn't last long, he soon grew lonely even with Constance and the others. A yearning inside of him mixed with the sadness of his loss causing a strange anxiety to well up inside of Shiloh Quinn Barker.

Several times when a ship had come ashore to restock their supplies he had been tempted to join the crew, but every time something stopped him. An innate fear of the sea that had developed over time caused by the nightmares, and a strange voice saying that he should stay.

Now, Constance and Shiloh were sitting on the beach staring out into the familiar sea discussing their lives.

"Trust me, son. There is something better for you than this, all you have to do is keep your strength and have some hope."

That night, Constance died.

That was four years ago, Shiloh Barker was now twenty-two years old and that strength and hope dwindled day by day. His trips into town lessened as well and he only went there when he needed food or a good drink to sleep the night away. Shiloh spent most of his days walking along the coast that he had been washed up upon fourteen years ago; occasionally stopping by the grave of his old friend. Sun-kissed skin was bare from the waist up, his shirt was balled up in his hands; being used to wipe away the sweat.

"So, when are things going to change for me Constance? This place is no longer my home, I don't belong here anymore." With a sigh, Shiloh rolled up his dark trousers up to his knees and sat down in the white sand. His elbows rested on his knees and his chin laid against his forearm as he took up his favorite past-time. Watching the horizon.

[Lothy]

The thick black smoke hung in her lungs like tar, choking her, drowning her as the salty water stung her eyes. Her vision was blurred, an occasional stream of red tinting it as the wound on her forehead bled forth. She could hear the screams still and the deafening roar of explosions, almost like a chain reaction ignited by the powder magazine. The water churned around her, the currents still fighting with the vacuum caused by the sinking ship, threatening to drag her down with it. Everything was too surreal, nothing made sense. It simply couldn't be happening. Both her body and mind were in shock, screaming out in pain, emotional and physical.

The sea around her was tinted red and black with blood and oil,, it clung to her skin and made her gag. Her limbs were too heavy, yet she couldn't give in, she needed to stay afloat. She didn't even know why, there was no reason to fuel her need for survival, all was lost. Yet still she clung on. She needed to reach land, she could see it on the horizon. She inhaled a scream as she felt a rough mass bump against her leg, scratching at her exposed skin. She knew they would come, drawn to the smell of blood in number. All she could do was wait for the searing pain of teeth ripping flesh. But it never came. Through the blur of blood and salt she could see the fins, several of them, circling her, so close she could touch them. Had her mind been in it's correct place and conscious enough she would have found this behaviour strange, but already she had lost grasp of reality. As she weakened the currents grew stronger, pulling her body further into the water until she was completely submerged, floating ethereally beneath the surf. The darkness claimed her completely now, the only sounds that pieced her conscious were the whispers that were always with her, even when she couldn't hear them. The whispers of the sea, of the creatures surrounding her and of the loved ones that had passed mere hours ago.

It wasn't until sunset that her seemingly lifeless body found the shore, battered and bruised but miraculously alive, however everything about Zoe was miraculous, she just didn't realise how much so yet.

[Pandora]

Shiloh was still staring out towards the horizon when the sun had fallen and the sky turned dark. Even then he still sat down in the sand, totally memorized by the shifting waves and the sounds of the sea crashing into the shore. Only when lightening began to strike in the distance did he move away from the open waters and towards his home; built long ago out of palms and wood. It wasn't much, but he would rather live out in the cover of the trees than in the small town surrounded by people who did not seem to take too kindly to strangers.

They had been nice enough to him and Constance when they had first arrived, but over the years he knew that they would never be fully accepted by the townsfolk.

The raging waters and the thunder helped lull him to sleep.

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Like every morning, Shiloh began a trek around the island. It kept him both mentally and physically in shape, not that he needed to do much to stay fit in the prime of his youth; but his mind needed the time alone just walking more than anything.

Unlike every morning, there was something on the shore that he had never seen before; a body. His heart pounded, instincts kicking in as he rushed towards the unmoving form in the sand. It was a woman; from a quick glance she seemed to be his age. Any other day, Shiloh may have took time to study her; but at the moment she was not breathing and Shiloh would not allow another person to die if he could help it from a shipwreck; as he was sure was the reason this woman was here now.

Turning her body over, he gasped at the cuts and bruises all over her face and the exposed skin. What he assumed was tan skin was now tinged blue with lack of oxygen, realizing that he may be too late he began to resuscitate her. Hands pressed against her chest while his mouth pressed against hers giving his life's air; hoping like hell it was enough to save her.

[Lothy]

Her dreams were strange and muddled, far from a normal night's sleep, full of horrifying images, feelings, pain. It struck in the heart of her, so deeply it seared, burning. The pain was not real though, obviously, it was an imagined pain, one that would disappear on waking and seem so ridiculous in the morning light. But for now it was real, as real as it could be and it scared her. Something was not right, the pain, the images, they were too real. Her consciousness screamed at her as tendrils of billowing black smoke surrounded her mind. The pain in her chest grew stronger, almost like a retching, something being pulled from her. Almost as if she had been suffering from vertigo the world suddenly jolted on it's axis and her eyes snapped open, her body jolting as she rolled over, coughing and spluttering, salt water and bile scratching at her throat.

She took in her surroundings slowly, starting with the rough sand beneath her fingers as she moved them. Her head pounded and she tried not to breathe too deeply, the pain in her chest catching as she tried to right herself. Her entire body ached and her hair clung to her face in blonde and brown clumps. So much was wrong. Where were her parents? She couldn't feel them around her nor their signature auras in her mind. She was alone except for one. Shakily she lifted herself to a sitting position, her head and body greatly protesting but she was determined. Her eyes met his and her heart skipped a beat. No, more than that. Her whole world stopped, exploded, crumbled and overwhelmed her all in one split second. Her mouth formed a small 'o' shape and she stared, transfixed by him.