“Something amusing, Drei?”
“Just happy that you won’t have to kil a few more snakes out here throughout the night.”
*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Chapter 28
“Go try it.”
“I won’t.”
“Just once.”
“No.”
“Why? It won’t hurt.”
“How sure are you it won’t hurt?”
“I just know.”
“You don’t. You’re just talking me into it.” I stared at Anthony. I tried to glare at him but to no avail. What came out was just a stare.
“It’s dead, Drei. It won’t hurt you anymore.” His look was so genuine that I wanted to concede to
his idea.
“Stil . A dead snake is no different.”
He stared at me, trying to convince me otherwise.
“Why is it a big deal anyway?”
Shrugging, he said, “Nothing. It just feels good to conquer your fears.”
I raised my eyebrows questioningly. “Why…” does it concern you? “…do we even have to do
that at all?” The moment the words came out, the answer came creeping from my
subconscious. What a lame question.
“Because,” he plucked a piece of grass from the ground, “that’s how things must be. Fears
aren’t there to hinder us from doing what we must do. They’re just fences that seem to scare us,
but once we get through, we realize that it wasn’t that scary at all.”
We were seated at the front of the house, standing by a dead snake. Judging by my
exasperation, we’ve been here for a lifetime. But by checking my watch, I just learned that my
subjective lifetime has only been five minutes. Why wouldn’t Anthony just drop it? I’m afraid of snakes. That’s it! And so far, I have no intention whatsoever to face my fear. But if I was a
spectator here and not the one directly involved, I feel that I would’ve actual y convinced the one involved to give in to his explanation a while ago. That was a bit of a speech, wasn’t it?
A sudden poke in my arm broke me from my train of thoughts.
I turned and saw a limp body of a snake just inches from my eyes. My scream could’ve torn my
throat apart.
“WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?”
“I just wanted to make you conquer your fear!” He dropped the snake on the ground and he
wiped his hands off his lap. “I’m sorry.”
This time, the glare was successful. I was really pissed by what he just did. It was rude. So
rude!
I was about to stomp my feet and enter the house once again when suddenly a sound from the
woods made both of us stop whatever we were doing.
I looked at Anthony in alarm and he bolted toward me. He grabbed my arm and we dashed
toward the house. Anthony left me by the door and he went directly to somewhere inside the
house. I tried to follow him. I stepped my foot forward but he was suddenly back, carrying a pail
of water. He quickly poured it on the fireplace, extinguishing the fire, leaving us in complete
darkness.
I think I heard sounds of footfalls from the outside. I was so engrossed with my time alone with
Anthony that I forgot we were supposed to be planning on how we can successfully escape.
Now, we’re even barely holding on to dear life.
There were faint voices from afar. I saw Anthony stick his ear on the door. My eyes have
adjusted to the darkness now, and I could make out his face. I do not know whether he was
even aware of our proximity. Again. Maybe he was unaware. Ugh. Why am I having these kinds
of thoughts now? Focus!
Shrugging off my inappropriate thoughts, I pressed my ear against the door too. Taking the
pace of the footfalls, I guessed that there was a maximum of three people outside. But since
their steps were somehow muffled by the grass outside, I real y couldn’t tel .
What now? What if they discovered us here? What if those were men of Zed and Carley? Of
course they’d bring us back. Hard. But then again, maybe those were just innocent passersby
hunting for food or heading someplace else. Or… worse, maybe they were the owners of the
house?
But by the looks of the house, the last time anyone has even stepped on the doorstep was
maybe a few months ago. Five? Four? I really suck at observation, let alone estimation.
We listen intently to the movement of the people outside. My heart skipped a beat at the next
vivid sound I heard.
“There’s the house.”
My hand jumped to Anthony’s arm. It was kind of amazing how I managed to locate it despite
the dark. I felt his hand on mine, as if trying to tell me that he was there. That we would make it alive.
Then the worst happened. The movement outside grew louder and louder. They were coming
near. WHAT NOW?
We backed away from the door and tried to grope our way inside the house. Why didn’t I have a
flashlight with me? But we wouldn’t be able to use it either since it would give us away. Anthony
had his hand on one of mine and his other one on my waist. We were starting to panic and right
there and then I knew that it was the worst move we ever made. We bumped to a chair I
remembered was lying awkwardly on the center of the living room. Stupid chair!
“Shoot,” I muttered.
Anthony’s head turned downward, looking at the chair. From the corner of my eye, I saw him
shake his head in frustration.
“Sorry,” I whispered.
But the consequence was fatal.
“Hear that?” someone from outside shouted.
“They’re here.”
I swallowed hard and tightened my grip at Anthony’s arm. We edged inside the house but
stopped dead in our tracks when suddenly someone kicked the door open and flooded light
inside the room. Like my guess, there were three people. Their flashlights were directed toward
us like we were a bunch of criminals.
“Don’t move!”
That completed the simile.
I knew that this was no time for a laugh but somewhere inside me, I felt like doing so. Then it hit me. The accent.
“You’l pay for the uncalled-for scare, Mr. Andrew Joseph Hamilton.” I inched forward, letting go
of Anthony’s arm.
“You always have to spoil my fun, don’t you?” The light in the middle lowered, revealing the
