chapter 23

We began marching towards the mountain, which was about two miles away from the riverside, following Alex’s lead. The entire journey he annoyed us totally by treating roughly as though we were soldiers marching off towards the battle arena. Whenever any of us got exhausted, he would criticize us and even pass a few taunts. It was highly unusual and odd for him to display this sort of behaviour. Nevertheless, we bore him patiently and walked with the burdensome bags on our backs. He led us using a compass, and his navigation skills were so accurate that we didn’t astray even for a single moment. 

“Ouch!” I cried, as I felt an instant excruciating pain spreading through my foot in the middle of the forest, such that I fell on the floor moaning. Looking down I noticed some reddish liquid leaking out of my shoe. Blood was dripping out endlessly, proliferating the unbearable pain and helplessness. 

“Oh my god!” exclaimed Judy, as she threw her bag on the ground and sat down to tend to me. She removed my boots and noticed a horrible sight; a large nail had been shoved in the sole of my foot. I felt like roaring in pain as the gruesome sight enhanced my pain mentally. However, Judy restrained me, as she cautiously placed her hand on the piece of metal, and instantaneously yanked it out. I felt not a prick as she did so, and a sense of relief broke through my body as I lay on the forest floor.

“Bloody hunters!” Matt swore ferociously, as he sat on the ground beside me, caressing my face. “Dogs like those place such traps while innocent beings get hurt. I’d skin one alive if I come across one scoundrel like that!”

“It’s okay Matt, I’m fine now,” I assured him, holding his hand. Meanwhile, Judy stripped off a ball of cotton from the first-aid kit in her bag and soaking it in an antiseptic lotion, applied it on my wound. I didn’t even wince, as I was staring at Judy compassionately while she tended to me. I felt myself to be substantially fortunate to have a friend like hers, she had been by my side since childhood and had saved my life on various occasions. I would dump mountains of gold for a prized gem like her, I thought fondly. She tore a large black cloth, which was her brand new handkerchief, and fastened it around the sole of my foot. Matt lifted me to my feet and helped me to walk. They decided to cancel the trip and return to Matt’s house, but I repudiated this plan and assured them that I was capable of walking normally, which was perfectly true as Judy had fixed me flawlessly. Therefore, we resumed our journey, however, this time Matt walked beside me. 

By the time we approached the mountain area, it was afternoon, the sun’s scorching heat diminished in its intensity and the breeze became slightly cooler causing the immense sweat that draped my body to dry steadily.

“All right everyone, let’s go right over this mountain,” cried Alex adventurously, unzipping his equipment from his bag.

“Dude, you think we should go for climbing, I don’t think Ellie can-” I cut him off, and said,

“Guys I’m perfectly fine, I can easily make the climb,” I added, a little haughtily, throwing my bag down and removing its contents.

“That’s the spirit Ellie!” applauded Alex and arranged the equipment.

We began making the climb enthusiastically, and as the weather grew cooler it was quite easy to do so. However, as we made the climb, an ill feeling began to develop inside me. I wasn’t afraid of heights, nor was I reckless, but this feeling was something I had never experienced previously, as though somebody was going to spring up from below and grab hold of me. It was a mixture of fear and hallucinating aura that surrounded me. I made each step up cautiously, restraining myself completely from glancing below. Alex and Judy were way above us, both of them were climbing at an astoundingly professional pace, while Matt remained below me, I knew he was staying below to keep an eye on me, for which I was way more than grateful. It was nearly twilight when we reached the second highest peak of the mountain. 

“That was smooth,” cheered Alex, running across the place and shouting randomly just for the fun of hearing his echo ricochet all over the area, while the rest of us sat down, thoroughly haggard by the climb. My body was aching strenuously, that I couldn’t even muster the energy to get up and sit. As I laid on the jagged rocky surface, I viewed the glamourous sight of dusk, the orange light of the sun being enveloped by the darkness of the night and the minuscule stars emerging out from within the blackness. 

We lit our dazzling lamps and started the barbecue. It was like a dreamy scenario, unbelievable, that I was sitting cosily on the crest of a mountain having a barbecue dinner with my buddies. I felt somewhat guilty about lying to my parents about this whole trip and on top of that not informing them about the two-day extension. Nonetheless, the guilt evaporated as a juicy and appetizing barbecued piece of chicken hit my throat. Alex and I assisted with the barbecue but Judy and Matt did the main job. After the luscious meal, we engaged ourselves with a few engaging group games such as spinning the bottle and relished our hearts out. We wanted to have a bonfire, but carrying the wooden logs in our bags would have been extremely burdensome therefore we had cancelled that traditional idea. At half-past midnight, we erected our mini sleeping tents which had space only for one and decided to call it a day.          

“Alex! Could you please assist me with this darned tent, it’s not erecting,” yelled Judy, attempting to straighten the tent’s rods.

“Here let me help you,” I offered abruptly, walking towards her. Judy and I had developed a unique bond during this trip, which felt quite different from what we shared previously, it was much stronger and more reliable. It felt as if our souls had been bonded by an invisible force, a type of bond which conceivably twins shared.

“Judy,” I began quietly as we put up the tent

“Yeah Ellie, what’s the matter,” she answered distractedly.

“I assume you’ll feel weird when you hear this, but I want to say how much I appreciate you being a crucial part of my life,” I gulped, succumbing to unexpected tears that were on the verge of release. Hearing this, she turned briskly and stared at me as though she had just realized my presence there.

“You just stole the words out of my mouth,” she said and moved forward to give me a prolonged embrace which felt convivially warm and pleasant.

“Humph, I wish I was that lucky to get a hug as sweet as that,” said Alex, with lofty sarcasm, pretending to weep, as we broke apart and Judy threw a tiny pebble at him which he laughingly ducked and walked off chuckling. The tents were set up properly and we laid there respectively, waiting for the starry night to conclude.

My eyelids shuttered open instantaneously as my heart began pounding like a wrecking ball. Unzipping the tent, I moved outside, feeling the chill of the night, the torturously freezing wind piercing my skin like needles. I looked up into the night sky, whose colour transformed into blood red. My head started whirling terribly, as though I had intentionally spun around real fast. But I didn’t fall, instead, I continued to spin uncontrollably and my body was in motion. Each spin placed me an inch forward and began leading me towards the edge of the mountain. I struggled to prevent myself from causing any movement but alas, all went in vain. The insane swirling eventually halted at the brink of the mountain, and I stood there petrified. My eyes fell below, the mountain peak was approximately five miles high. And for the first time in my life, I was terrorized by heights. As I turned around to return, my eyes found the pale white face of Judy standing behind me and before any kind of sound could escape my mouth, she shoved me hard, which tossed me below with the force of an elephant’s feet.

And I fell….my entire body experiencing the force of gravity below me, it felt as though life was not worth living, the end had arrived…like how it did for Talia….. I hit the ground with an ominous bang….