(A/N: Wow, it’s been a looong time since I’ve updated this story. I’ve been having a lot of trouble with the beginning, but I have a lot of ideas for this story so don’t give up on it yet! It will get more exciting...)

1. Sandy Beaches and Dark Forests

I watched the ship float into the distance until it was nothing more than a spec, a dot of longing in the wide expanse of sea. At that moment, all I could do was sit. Sit and watch.

I wrapped my arms around myself and wished it all to go away, I closed my eyes and shunned out the image of my home across the water, pretending I was actually there instead of just starring at it with regret. But, despite how hard I tried, I was still there. Still on this island, still on this beach, still alone...

I lay down on the soft sand and wrapped my shawl around myself, breathing in the scent of home that still lingered on the fabric. I drowned myself in memories...

“Jack! Jack! Look what I found!” my sister shouted enthusiastically.

She held out a hand to me, and in it scurried a tiny crab.

“I’m gonna name him Fred,” she stated with pride.

I laughed, and continued my walk down the beach.

“When are mommy and daddy coming back?” she asked me, playing with the crab in her hand as she walked beside me.

“I don’t know...” I replied.

That’s all I remember from my dreaming. It happens to me often, I don’t dream at all but for short bursts of random memories, some longer than others. This one I remembered well, it was the day before I found out my parents had died, in a fishing accident at sea; their boat went down in a storm and they were never seen again. I had had a hard time explaining it to my sister that her parents were never coming back. I’m not even sure if she completely understands it now, two years after the fact.

I thought about all this for quite a while on the beach, my eyes still closed as I tried to get some more sleep and escape from where I was.

I was so engrossed in my memories and sadness that I didn’t even realize that there was someone sitting beside.

My heart nearly leaped out of my chest when I got up to see a man sitting on the beach with me, on the side that my back was turned to. I moved away from him slowly, he was so deeply engrossed in whittling a piece of wood that I hoped I would get a chance to run.

“It’s quite beautiful out here, isn’t it?” said the stranger, not looking up from his work, “almost reminds you of being back there...” he paused to look out at the island on the other side of the water. “The beaches are so similar,” he sighed then finally looked over at Jaqueline.

The sight of his face seemed oddly familiar to her...she knew him from before...

“Professor?” she question warily, “is that you?”

He chuckled, “I supposed I do look a little different from how I used to...though I haven’t seen a mirror in quite some time.”

He smiled at her, and she smiled back, still slightly afraid. He looked so different from when she remembered, though it was a long time since Dr. Jamison had been her teacher. He had a beard now, white with specs of grey, and his skin was more wrinkled than before; but for all this, he still looked relatively young, his eyes twinkling green the way they often did when he smiled.

“Sorry-,” she mumbled, “I just...I thought you were dead,” she admitted, not sure how he would take the news.

He chuckled again, getting up from his spot on the sand, “I’m not surprised,” he said merely, not explaining anything to a confused Jacqueline.

He held out a hand to help her up instead, which she accepted.

“We should be heading in...it’ll be getting dark soon and you certainly don’t want to be out here when it’s dark,” he explain as she rose from the ground to stand beside him.

“I...uh...where exactly is “in”?” she asked, looking around at the ocean to her left and wide expanse of thick forest to her right.

“Oh, you’ll see. You didn’t expect me to be living on the beach shore this whole time? No, I’ve made myself quite at home in the time that I’ve resided on the island,” Dr. Jamison explained.

“Uh...okay,” she said and followed him through a small gap in the forest wall. She was still very confused about the whole situation, but too exhausted to ask questions. She hoped the Doctor was taking her somewhere she could get some good rest; the sandy beach wasn’t exactly comfortable to sleep on.