Abre Los Ojos || Camilo Madrigal

Unstoppable

Antonio had been riding his jaguar, Parce, when he noticed something was wrong with him. Parce took off in the opposite direction from where the battlefield was.

"What's going on?" he asked his jaguar. Parce growled in response, but Antonio understood everything he had said, although he didn't exactly specify what was wrong. All he knew was that Sofía was in danger.

Parce ran faster, picking up speed as he went. Antonio held on for his dear life, terrified to find out what was occurring if Parce was running at this speed.

When the jaguar came to a stop, Antonio gasped in fright. "No! What are you doing?!" he yelled.

A jaguar, a little bigger than Parce, had its jaw unhinged as it was about to go in for its prey, a girl in a sea-green skirt and a younger girl in a torn purple shirt.

"No, bad jaguar! Don't eat them!" Antonio scolded the creature, causing it to cower back in fear with a whine of devastation.

The little boy then hopped off of the jaguar and went over to Sofía and the other girl. Both were unconscious, but at least they were still alive.

Antonio had no idea who the younger girl was but she must've been someone important to Sofía, for she had her body wrapped protectively around the girl.

Parce laid down and nudged Sofía's body as Antonio rolled her onto the jaguar's back with quite a bit of struggle before doing the same with the young girl, which was thankfully easier. He climbed back on his jaguar and said, "Don't go so fast. We need to bring them to Tía Julieta without them falling off,"

And they ran off back toward the battlefield in the distance.

***

If this is what death feels like, she thought, it isn't so bad. She expected that her death would be more brutal than the typical mortal due to the fact that she was a demigod but maybe death was all the same.

After all the suffering she had gone through, maybe death wouldn't be so bad. Maybe relaxation was what she needed. Maybe she should let everyone else take care of her quest, including the war. She just needed sleep......

"Open your mouth, cariño," Julieta's gentle voice coaxed her. "You'll be okay,"

She opened her eyes and looked around. She laid inside of Casita in Julieta's bedroom once more. Confused, she sat up weakly. "What... what happened?"

Julieta laid her back down on the bed. "Don't stress yourself out," she said as she offered the girl an arepa con queso.

Sofía accepted the arepa and took a bite, feeling somewhat better, but nowhere near healed. Then, a sudden thought came to her. "Where is she? Is she okay?" she exclaimed after she barely swallowed the food.

"Your friend is fine," Julieta said with a sweet smile, motioning over to the sleeping girl that laid next to her.

Sofía sighed in relief. "Good," Once she finished the arepa, she asked, "What exactly happened? Did the war end yet?"

"No, unfortunately," the woman responded. "But we are no longer greatly outnumbered,"

"How many did we kill?!" she exclaimed.

"Far too many to stay innocent," Julieta answered.

"I, unfortunately, know what that's like," she sighed.

Esmeray blinked open her eyes, looking frightened. "Where am I?!" the little girl exclaimed.

"You're safe and that's all that matters,"  Sofía told her.

"What are you doing here? You pushed me off that cliff!" Esme cried.

"Esme, I didn't mean to! I was trying to stop you!" Sofía countered. "I wouldn't hurt you on purpose,"

The girl glared at her. "They all say that. They all promise to never hurt me and each one ends up hurting me worse than the one before them. I thought you were different,"

"Esmer—"

"I thought you would be better than them, but you're just like the rest!" Esmeray yelled, tears flying down her cheeks.

"What do you mean?" Sofía exclaimed. "What did those people do?"

"It doesn't matter. All that matters is that you fall under that category too. A selfish, horrible person!"

The room began to glow, brighter than when the gods would reveal their true form. A cackle emerged from where young Esmeray was before Sofía found herself losing her balance. And she fell to the ground, unconscious once more.

"You cannot stop me, Sofía Valdez. I, Esmeray, am unstoppable," The evil within Esmeray had been awoken once more.