Chapter 34: Chapter 34
Athena’s P.O.V.
“There you are!” I felt happy and relieved when I saw the gold flag.
It was still hanging in the large tree, the same way how we left it this morning—as if never been touched. I carefully stepped my white rubber shoes on the large root, hugged the tree, extended my right arm, and slowly took the flag from the tree’s branch.
I rolled my eyes out of annoyance. Those Junior students were all weak! How could they not see this? Are they too small not to even notice this gold flag? Or were they too lazy to search? Come on, this is just freely hanging here!
Slowly going back to the ground with filthy soil and scattered leaves, I found myself sweating profusely. At first, I wasn’t able to realize that organizing the Annual Camp could be all this tiring. As I checked myself, some beautiful and white amor secos* were already attached to my shoes and pants, so I had to fix myself first before I had decided to go back to the camp.
But when I reached the corner of my self-made trail, I got baffled whether I would turn left or right. I lost track of pebbles that I placed on the ground that would lead me back to the campsite. In the end, I decided to take the way on the left and just continued to walk.
Glancing at my wristwatch, I found that it had already been an hour, and yet, I couldn’t find my way out. I always ended up being on the same spot, no matter what. I realized that I would always come back to this old tree where I got the gold flag for the umpteenth time already. I had decided to take a different route, but still, the same thing happened to me.
Nervousness started to engulf my chest, and deep inside, panic began to eat me. I was eager to do something, but I knew that I could not do anything. While fighting a rising panic within me, terror mounted at me every step of the trail. My heart was hammering so fast, and my body went cold with an unknown dread.
Oh my God, am I lost?
While trying another route, it looked like I got myself into much trouble. My feet were now standing at the denser part of the forest. Out of fear, it felt like I suddenly had the ears of the wolf but slowly losing my clear sight.
Even the soft rustle of leaves felt heavy in my ears, but at the same time, the darkness starting to spread across the whole place made me disoriented and almost blinded. The narrow path, which was made uneven by the knotted roots, made me step in a complicated way.
I wasn’t getting easily scared, but I must admit, I was afraid of snakes! Who does not, and I would be happy to strangle their necks? Continuously walking around, I stopped myself from imagining things because it would only do me no good, and only God knew how I would be able to survive in this kind of situation.
Not born as a girl scout, I did not have a flashlight with me. I just relied on the flashlight feature of my cellular phone. One more thing that was making me exasperated was there was no signal here. I tried to reach everywhere. I even jumped and climbed from some small tree branches hoping to have even just a bar of signal, but to no avail.
The ground from where we were rushing to bury some traps this morning just became lost in austere darkness that even moonlight could not help. The trees that were all magnificent this morning towered over me. I continued to step across the borderline between what was seen and unseen, but I had to because I needed to find my way out here.
The air became several degrees colder, and I soon began to shiver. It looked like it was going to rain again. On my frequent stops, I tried to find any house or shelter, but there was none. Back in our mansion’s garden, the silence was serene and calm. But out here, the silence was screaming more than a graveyard. For that, a nameless dread fluttered in my stomach.
Oh, wait! Paula said that when you get lost, there was a superstitious belief that you just need to reverse your clothes, and you will soon find your way back home.
Wandering my eyes to further check the surroundings, I guessed there was no harm in trying. I was not superstitious, but it might help me. There was no one aside from me, so nobody would see me taking off my clothes here. Then, I started reversing my blouse and jeans.
I was already done reversing my clothes and continued on my mission to get back, but still, I did not see any signs that I was close to the camp. I could not hear people murmuring around. And with the turn of events, I got even more frightened when I started to feel some raindrops.
As the rain continued to damp me, I ran without even thinking where I was heading. I was not expecting that the rain would be this heavy because the sun was relentlessly shining this morning—making me forget the storm yesterday. I was soaking wet, but I still had no shelter to lodge in temporarily.
Suppressing a shiver, I hugged myself while silently wishing that help would come as quickly as possible. My knees were trembling in fear like it was starting to give up from taking another step. Some people would already get a traumatic experience just by staying here. But to comfort myself, I would just think that these were all nothing compared to every single thing that I experienced from Daddy.
“Help!” I could no longer stop screaming for help when my cellular phone stopped working. It was waterproof, but its battery already went dead. I knew it was impossible, but I was still hoping that someone could actually hear me.
Following my scream was an ear-splitting thunder that made me bend my back, bow my head, close my eyes, and cover my ears for a moment. It was so loud and seemed to be unforgiving. It was too strong that it lighted the whole area for a brief moment.
With too much darkness prowling around me, gruesome rain, and the thought that there was no one aside from me in this threatening forest made me even more afraid of what might happen next. I could feel nothing but blind terror while anxiety paralyzed me. My head felt so heavy as if appearing like it did not belong to me.
Relax, Athena! You can survive here. You have to survive even if you are all alone here!
Out of this complete darkness, I could not help but imagine that something scary would suddenly appear right in front of me. I could not help but think that the sound of the crickets was already converted into a hideous howling of faceless and hovering beasts looking out for their prey. In the end, I deleted them all in my mind and just prayed—the thing that I avoided to do when Mom died.
Lord, please help me survive this. Please send someone who can see me here.
“God is great, Helena, trust me. There is a reason for everything. You may not know it for now, but eventually, you will.”
With the sweet voice popping up in my memory, I suddenly remembered the person who made me go back to what I was certainly doing before. He made me realize that I should let go and let God take over. It might not be obvious, but he made me realize a lot of things. He taught me something although I was not able to show it.
But what is he doing right now? Is he worried about me because I wasn’t yet able to return to the camp?
With all the negative things that happened to me, I must admit that it would be much better to just give up the fight and let myself die now. Mommy and Helena were all gone. On the other hand, Daddy was still yet to accept me as Athena. He even made a tombstone for me even though I was still alive.
In fact, I did not have any reasons to live anymore, but when I thought of Cristoff—about how optimistic and grateful he was no matter what life threw at him—I suddenly wanted to have the courage to fight. I wanted to live longer so that I could still enjoy some more precious and first-time moments with him.
I continued walking further when unexpectedly, my left foot got tripped to what I thought was a huge, and knotted root coming from a large tree. I stumbled to the ground with intervals of crossed branches, making me dwell into the mud, and it was all too late.
Shielding myself, I felt a slight cut and some abrasive scars on my arms. My eyeglasses also fell off, but I did not pay much attention to those. I could see clearly even without my fake eyeglasses on. Dad would get me a new pair for sure.
_________________________
Amor Seco* (the Spanish term for dry love) is a common name for several plants and may refer to:
Alchornea glandulosa—a tree species of the Acalyphoideae.
Bidens pilosa—an annual herb species in the family Asteraceae.
Chrysopogon aciculatus—a grass species.