BLOOD OF MOON: THE HEAVENLY HEIST

A JAGUAR...PACK?

The exams started soon enough, and I got busy. The topic of 'me knowing about myself' left my mind, quite normally, given I wanted to do well in the exams (which is normal, yes. Even for someone like me). Of course, I didn't want Papa to use his flip flops on me.

A month's rigorous exercise of the brain, I got relieved, as the exams ended. With a feeling of satisfaction of doing well, I went out for ice-cream. As always, Papa didn't come with me. Akna was my only hope. We were returning through the street by the forest, humming to some Becky G songs, when out of the corner of the relatively dark street, came a figure about six feet tall. He covered his face with a black mask, wore a cap, a hoodie (which was weird, given it was summer), and track pants. I could barely see any of his physical features. But what needed to be seen was very much visible. The big knife in his hand.

And my instinct kicked in. I pulled Akna behind me, and stood firmly in front of the thug. "Give me whatever is in your pockets, or die." He said with such intense, that he sounded like a villain from a movie. Akna, who rarely showed much emotion, seemed a little scared. This was not something that happened everyday in Los Cambios. And this was the first time for both of us.

But I trusted myself. Could my new found strength help me out? Spoiler alert? It did. When I straight up denied handing my money, the thug did the obvious. He attacked. I blocked his hand with mine, barely escaping a stab by just a slash on my fist, before I held his attacking hand with my other hand, and grasped tightly. He tried to let himself free, before slowly losing his strength, falling weak. I felt stronger by the moment, as I grasped his hand more tightly. The thug's eyes lost focus, before he collapsed on the ground, his knife biting the dust, kicked far away from him by Akna.

"Stay down." I said, before we started to run. And at that moment, a few things happened quite quickly. From inside the forest, jumped out another figure. This one was a little smaller, height and muscle mass put together. He wore a similar outfit to his chum. He had a knife too, as he quickly picked up the other guy's knife, and attacked us. But as soon as he did, something big came out of the woods too. Something yellowish. It came out and pushed the robber out of our way. I realized in about a second of what it was. Big round face, jaws sharper than the two knives combined, big paws, yellow fur with black round patterns covering it. The jaguar looked at me and snarled, before turning to the mugger and roaring. Akna took a step back, pulling me with her, when another jaguar came out, pouncing on the other mugger, that could barely move. A few more jaguars also came out of the woods, but were mere spectators. None of them attacked me or Akna. They pulled the muggers by their clothes, and carried them inside. And before the fateful screams could be heard, Akna and I ran the other way. I took one last look at whatever had happened, and saw one of the jaguars standing on a high rock, looking at us.

"That's weird." Akna said, "Jaguars never hunt in packs."

"I know." I agreed to what she said, "They are known to be solitary."

"And where are our fathers?"

"No idea. Must be at someone's house, having their secret meetings."

"They always do it at your house. Without any exception."

Things were weird. I had no idea what was happening around me. This strength thing, for once, may have been explanatory, given I was still at the adolescent age. But what about this jaguar pack thing? Sergio was killed by a jaguar pack, Papa had said. Was this the same pack? And why did they not kill us?

I couldn't think anything at all. Akna left me, for she wanted to clear her head. Meanwhile, I sat inside my room, pondering on what had just happened.

That night, something weird happened. Now, when I sleep, I am gone. Like, you need to bang me on the head to wake me up. And I never have dreams. But that day, I did. And it felt super real. In the dream, I was running. Running...on the sea? Yes, I was literally running on water. Far away, there was the beach. The beach was dark, since it was night time. And then, there was a voice. A voice that filled my entire dream-body with a cold feeling. This was the voice of a woman, a shrill voice, whispering, despite the whisper resonating all around the air. As soon as I reached the shore, a light focused on my back, forming a shadow right in front of me. However, it was not mine.

The shadow was that of a female figure. I could barely make anything out of it. The shadow didn't move. And of course, since she was a shadow, I couldn't see her move her mouth, when she whispered my name, "Fabio!" I wanted to ask her who she was, but my voice failed me. I couldn't speak. Of course, I was dreaming this. Then, the shadow started growing in size, getting more and more monstrous. I got scared, and even in my dream, I wanted to run. And like a typical dream, my legs were frozen. I couldn't run. And at that moment, I woke up.

I sat up on my bed, thinking of what was going on around me. I had jaguars attack robbers in packs. I had the same jaguars not even harming us. I had some sort of weird physical strength that completely overpowered others. And now this weird woman in the dream. Did this dream make things clear to me? Not at all. If anything, it complicated my mind even more.