Lost: Casa Perdida [Completed]

The Leap

Kirt Heinrich

I ran through the forest, away from that creature. In that jungle, I didn't know which way was the way to the riverbank. I didn't care in what direction I ran; I simply ran to go as far as I could from the creature. As I ran, I was choking because the fright made me breathe heavily. My heart was beating at a quick pace, thudding louder and louder. Blood was whooshing through my ears and tendrils of terror curled into my stomach. My sweat stuck my shirt tightly to my perspiration-wettened back.

It caught up with me. I could hear it. The sound of a thousand tiny bells ringing. I did see bells on the hem of the long, black robe that it wore. I was glad that I didn't see its face because its face would have looked horrifying.

The wind, despite being cold and refreshing, did me no good as I ran, jumping over shrubs and ducking whenever there was a low-lying branch in my way. I got long scrapes on my arms and legs, but I couldn't afford to attend to my new injuries because a moment lost was proximity gained by the creature. The scrape injuries were burning like as if I was bitten by a million fire ants. Thanks to pumping adrenaline, some of my injuries were not hurting as much.

It was still running after me - the increasing sound of the bells proved that it wasn't far off. I looked behind me and saw the dark-robed creature chasing me. I couldn't catch its face because I didn't have the time to stare at it long enough. My pupils dilated when I saw it coming closer and closer.

By the time I looked in front of me, after stealing a glance at the back, I nearly banged into a tree. Before I could smack right into the tree, I turned to my right and continued running. My legs were sore as lactic acid began to build up in my muscles. I couldn't afford to stop and take a few breaths - not at that moment!

The creature took a turn too and I could hear it coming closer and closer, even though it vanished out of sight. I continued to sprint. While I ran, panting as I did, I feared that the creature was just running to tease me. It could suddenly show up in front of me when I least expected it. From what I heard all my life about ghosts, one couldn't run away from one. Bloody Mary, La Muerta Blanca, and Kuchisake-Onna: what all these phantoms had in common was that one moment they could be behind you and the next moment they could show up right in front of you.

Thud! I smacked into the tree, while I was thinking about the next turn I had to take. My head had a throbbing headache, and my eyesight was hazy. I slumped and fell on the tree. The sound of the bells grew louder and louder. I couldn't get up. The lactic acid buildup in my limbs was too strong and my muscles were sore. I just stared at another tree in front of me, hoping that I wouldn't die by being mutilated alive. As I lay there, I recollected all that I saw when the creature was skinning the girl. Her body looked mutilated like as if she was cut like a piece of meat in a butcher shop. I was relieved when the girl looked like she was a little girl. It couldn't be Hernanda or Alice because the girl's corpse didn't have any breasts. She looked like she would be ten, eleven or twelve.

As I thought of her, through my blurred vision, I see the silhouette of the black figure. It neared me. I heard no sound. Suddenly I got up and before it could lunge at me, I ran to my left side. I think the creature struck the tree when it lunged; for, I heard birds fleeing from their nests after the sound of a thud. Using the time that I gained from the creature hitting the tree, I ran deeper and deeper into the forest. I tripped over the gnarled root of a tree. Getting up, I removed the leaves that stuck to my face when I kissed the forest floor after my fall. My face was covered in wet mud. There was no sound of bells anymore, so I slowly rose, at ease. I scraped my knee when I fell and it was bleeding. Just when I was looking at my knee, the sound of bells resumed.

Limping, I dashed to the left, running down that route. There was a hill in front of me. I couldn't turn right or left because the shrubs were too tall for me to climb. Moreover, if I got stuck in the thorns of those shrubs, I'd be trapped until the hooded figure came to skin me alive like how he skinned the corpse of that little girl. For obvious reasons, I could neither turn back.

I ran up the hill. Looking behind me from the top of that small hill, I see the creature coming closer. My vision was still hazy, so I couldn't see its face. Below me on the other side of the hill was a puddle. The slope on the other side was a dead drop. It looked like the hill was sliced at the top. I deliberated whether I should jump or not.

The creature was only 40 meters away from me. If I lingered around that hill without jumping, I could be killed by the creature. If I jumped, I could have jumped to my own demise into that shallow puddle. With the creature coming closer and now 10 meters away, I began to think irrationally. I ran up to the edge of that drop. The creature was four meters away. I didn't want to die at its hands. Taking a deep breath, I leaped.

The time between my leap and my landing was one of the slowest 30 seconds of my life. It felt like those moments were to be my last moments on the earth. I closed my eyes as I fell, thinking of all the good memories I had from the time I was born till this day when I was going to die after I leaped foolishly and desperately. I thought of Hernanda: the time I took her to the winter dance; the time we spent together at the restaurants in Herculeville; Her beautiful hair and those eyes of hers. I was falling at a fast rate. I counted down to ten before I could touch the ground. I knew that the puddle would be shallow so when I jumped, I was basically going to jump to my own, painful death. There was no way I could live after falling. I'd die by severe fractures and a broken neck. My entrails would spill out of my body after my ribs crack and pierce through my chest. I was just a hundred centimeters from my own death.

3...2...1

The sound of the splash of the puddle after my fall disturbed the birds in the neighboring trees who took to flight. They definitely wouldn't have liked to see a gruesome pile of bone and flesh.

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