Lost in the Crossroads

Four - Aftermath worries (Kara)

“Should we get going?” Fenella whispered lowly, wringing her hands together in a nervous habit. Blake and Dein was on her side, treating the cuts she received from diving in the bushes.

Kara shifted uneasily on her seat. She had this feeling she wouldn’t be able to use her sleeping bag as fear and nervousness kept her awake. So were the others. They were trying to wrap their minds around what just happened. The funny thing was, it was nothing compared to the earthquake they experienced.

Earthquakes are natural and...known.

Flying ball of fire? Where on earth did that came from?

Abel was confident that the—San-whatever was that large ball of fire wouldn’t threaten them again.

It’s a ball of fire! Didn’t she saw how close it was to frying the s**t out of them? Instead of shooting it, Abel apologized to it! What is wrong with her?

Her arm hurts because of that damn San-whatsoever. She landed pretty bad on the ground when Abel tackled her and scraped her skin. And her shirt was burned too!

Again, Abel saw no fit to shoot it! She had every chance too! What if it returns and kill them all? Did it not even cross her mind?

“We should.” She answered, wanting to get out of this forest as soon as possible.

“That’s a bad idea.” Abel replied, returning to her task of stoking their camp-fire. She stayed on her previous seat before the attack unlike the others who found it safe to seek protection in the curve of their shelter. Alex was by her side, gun held in her hands. Alert and ready.

“It’s dangerous here.” Kara pointed out, her annoyance roiling out because of Abel’s indifference. They almost got killed and that was her reaction?

Nothing but let’s go back in camp and calm down. What the hell?

“So, does moving in the dark.” She retorted.

“We got flashlights! That thing might come back and kill us!”

“It won’t.”

“What makes you think so?”

“Kara, you need to calm down.” Alex voice penetrated through the rising tension that was them.

Kara looked at her disbelievingly. “That thing is still out there! I can’t calm down! It tried to kill me and Fen! Not to mention it burned my shirt!”

“That’s your problem?” Geneva asked with a hint of accusing in her tone.

“That’s not it!” Kara protested, annoyed.

“Yeah. Yeah. We got it.” Abel answered in a dismissive way.

Too dismissive for Kara’s opinion, she glared at her. “We can’t stay here.”

“I never said we should stay here.”

Now she felt thoroughly frustrated by Abel’s roundabout way of talking. “Then, let’s get ready!” she exclaimed, waiting for anyone to agree with her and move. But no one moves until Alex said so or Abel moves.

Ugh, why they just can’t see the danger of staying? That thing might come back, bring friends and kill them.

“I told you, bad idea.” Abel answered, pointing the fiery end of her stick she kept prodding their camp fire, at her direction.

Alex sighed by her side, caramel eyes pinning Kara with exasperation. “You need to calm down. We can’t move right now. We don’t know what kind of things are out there.”

Which is why they cannot stay here too! They were like sitting ducks in here!

“I know you wanted to move as far away as possible here but we cannot rush, Kara. Haste makes waste. The Santelmo won’t harm us as long as we don’t do anything wrong.” Abel added, calmly prodding her stick back to the fire.

“How did you even know what is that thing?”

“What? Haven’t you heard about it in myths and legends?”

“I do hear stories about it.” Fenella straightened from her seat, brows furrowed as she tried to remember anything from her memories. “It is a…sentient fire-spirit or something.”

“Yeah. Fire-spirit. I heard a lot about it from my father. They were mostly inside a forest, protecting it.”

Kara wished they have internet connection right then and there. If she could just Google the importance of Santelmo’s, then she might understand Abel’s fascination towards it. Not to mention it came from her Father.

Yeah, fascination. What is so fascinated about it anyway? It’s just a ball of fire that can float and attack people—by the way she sees it. That could actually—not really sure about this—understand human language.

How is that even possible when it does not have ears? It is freaking weird.

Hello, Google! Where are you? I need you, pal! Kara lamented inside her head. Man, if they really just have internet in this Santelmo forsaken place, then she might have their coordinates the first hours they arrived.

“Did we do something bad?” Hailey asked for a moment.

Abel tilted her head in silent question.

“For it to attack us.”

“Exactly!” Kara snapped her fingers at Hailey’s direction, pointing out the attack. “Why?” she turned her eyes on Abel who was already thinking. Alex was frowning by her side, caramel eyes stuck watching them rising embers of their fire.

“Maybe it’s the fish?” Tabitha wondered almost innocently.

“Unlikely.” Abel snorted, amused.

Kara actually chuckled at that. A fire-spirit getting mad because of fishes? What is she thinking?

“Probably because you keep stabbing trees in its territory?”

Everyone turned to Abel who looked shocked at what Alex said. Guilty!

“So, it’s your fault!” Kara shouted accusingly at her.

Stories about alphas, markings and mates flooded her mind. It might be different from a fire-spirit but the possessiveness was still there.

“I was just marking our way back.” Abel frowned.

Marking in another’s territory!

“Marking on its territory! Haven’t you heard those stories about werewolves and its territory?”

“Werewolves?” Fenella repeated, gasping loudly.

“Are there any werewolves here too?” Drishti asked, her eyes were surprisingly twinkling with interest.

“Or vampires?” Dein, too. She looked around as if expecting a werewolf or vampire to start popping out somewhere, demanding her affection or s*x.

Kara scoffed at the idea. A beefy man appearing out of nowhere is very suspicious. Especially in the middle of the forest. What on earth is going with those head of theirs? Was the fish they ate for supper making them delusional?

“Focus!” Geneva said, cutting off the whatever delusions their friends were having “Whatever you were thinking don’t happen in real life!”

Kara almost laugh at that. Almost. Viva la Geneva! And her ability to shatter dreams with just words.

“And if we met one, I would kill him, her or them.” Geneva added darkly, brandishing a knife.

Kara unconsciously whimpered and scooted away from her. Geneva was a force to be reckon with when mad. She doesn’t want to be at the end of her blade or gun. Not even close to her right at the moment.

“Gen, you can’t stab anyone or in this case anything you see, okay. Relax, Geez.” Abel said, chuckling nervously. “Back to the topic, I don’t think it attack us because I was marking the trees. That was perfectly normal thing to do in order not to get lost.” The apostrophe in those words can be heard clearly as she looked at her meaningfully. Kara rolled her eyes.

“It was just because we are an unknown threat in its territory. We just got here, remember? Now that I declare our purpose here which is not much of a purpose, I think we’re safe.”

“You think?” Kara repeated.

“Yeah.”

“Well, that was reassuring.” Alex said, clapped her hands once to caught their attention. The gun she was holding was resting on her thigh. “Now that we have that figured out, its best for us to rest so that we could get going as soon as possible tomorrow morning.”

“I can’t sleep.” Kara blurted out quite petulantly. Geneva arched a brow at her, knife already hidden underneath her clothes. Thank God.

“I almost died.” She elaborated, remembering her near to death experience. The trauma of almost being burned to crisp was still there and they were expecting her to just sleep it off? That thing attacked her and go ‘boom’ on the ground! Like a grenade!

Not to mention, her arm still hurts.

Abel snorted, already preparing to rest in her sleeping back. “Happens to me all the time.”

“Not funny.” Alex grumbled by her side, lower half already inside her own sleeping back.

“Well, we almost died yesterday too.” Drishti nonchalantly reminded them which worsened her mood.

“Almost forgot about that.” Dein chuckled, patting Fenella’ shoulder as she went to crawled into her own sleeping bag. They made it sound like it was nothing.

“Man, do we have some bad luck attached to us or something?” Hailey complained, already cocooned inside her sleeping bag and blinking sleepily.

Something is wrong with her friends, Kara thought grumpily inserting her feet inside her own sleeping bag, letting her lower half to be protected from mosquitos. Don’t they even notice there are mosquitos?

“Probably got something to do with our driver.” Alex said.

“Hey!” Abel protested.

She grumpily swatted the burning remains of her shirt away from her and snatched back the paper and pen she dropped on the ground after the initial attack of the Santelmo.

If only they have internet, she wouldn’t reduce to drawing maps. She could easily draw out coordinates and maps with just a click on her mouse and few taps on her keyboard. She could even ask for help! And avoided all of this!

But no internet! No transmission! No satellite signals. It sucks.

“So, if Santelmo’s exist here, we are still in our country? Somewhere with a deep forest maybe?” she heard Tabitha asked to Geneva.

“How could we be in our country without satellites?” she interrupted grumpily.

“I don’t know. Maybe there is something that disrupts the satellite signal inside the forest.” Geneva answered, shooting a glare at her direction. “Shouldn’t you know, Ms. Communication Specialist?

“I wouldn’t be complaining now if I did.” She retorted sassily. “This place is weird.”

Abel hummed in agreement with her which lightened her mood somehow. A part of her was still annoyed with the fishing contest. She didn’t manage to catch even a single fish and Alex caught one!

In the end, no one really fell asleep. Not even Drishti who won’t stop squirming in her sleeping bag like a hyperactive toddler, finding the right position.

It was not even Dawn when they started preparing to move. A few murmurs of Morning was said here and there as they begin their morning routines.

The lack of sleep didn’t lighten her mood from last night. Especially when she saw the full after-results of the Santelmo’s attack. The ground where the ball of fire hit was scorched darkly.

She might have been there if weren’t for Abel. Fenella and her.

It sent another shiver in her spine just by thinking about it going back to finish the job.

How do you kill a Santelmo? By splashing it with water?

Surely, a bullet would work, right? Almost every living thing shot dies. So long as you know where to hit it.

Why didn’t Abel bring a grenade with her or a rocket launcher?

Kara, silently and methodically did her morning routines alongside the others. Alex and the others had checked on their wounds if it was infected and healing good while Geneva and Abel gather some necessary supplies like plenty of fishes and water.

Within an hour, they were already clean and ready to go. The sun has not yet risen.

Alex made sure that there was no garbage left around just in case in pisses of the Santelmo.

Admittedly, the Santelmo was terrifying but Kara didn’t like the way Abel was treating the thing, like it deserved some respect.

Excuse me, it was a ball of fire you know. And it tried to kill us. She wanted to say but kept her mouth shut about it. It was just a myth that somehow managed to be real. There is no use of making a big deal out of it. It was just a ball of fire.

Finally, they were moving again. Abel and Alex in front, leading and cutting greenery that was on their way. Her and Geneva behind, protecting the rear.

Maybe the Santelmo was the only thing in the forest that needed to be worried about.