The Gray Fantasy

[The Escapists]

Still jaded, he raked the enormous stems wrapped on Andrea. His fingernails were severely bleeding, as the keratin shells splintered in a steadily downward motion. Finally, Andrea was freed. Pau embraced her to the point of crushing her bones, but not her heart. She was badly wounded, with deep incisions oozing with red, lumpy liquid. Pau’s tears streamed down his face, as he stripped out his shirt to bandage Andrea’s wrecked legs. He picked up Andrea and carried her on his back, while heading vigilantly down the dangerous, slippery stalks.

Their feet soon felt a land, a marshland. Pau sprinted like torpedo dagger towards the woods, and seek for a shelter, for Andrea to rest. While stroking Andrea’s clammy hair, he caressed her face that seemed to undergo a terrible punishment.

“Who did this to you?” asked Pau huskily.

After 10 minutes, Andrea wasn’t still speaking, even a drop of a letter. Pau started to speculate. He could flawlessly see the terror looming on Andrea’s eyes. Glint flushed out on her eye balls.

“Stick your tongue out”, he requested.

Andrea showed her tongue, filled with cursed scars. There were three holes marked in it; two on the sides and one on the tip. Like a coin dropped to inferno flames, it harshly stained her tongue, bounded to experience an unbearable pain.

“Who did this to you?” repeated Pau with a wicked stare while shaking Andrea’s shoulders gently.

Soon, Andrea began to act like crazy. She spread her hands and drew a girl-shaped figure in the air.

“A girl?” asked Pau.

A quick approval was followed by a nod. Pau was still bedazzled. Andrea clenched her fist, and presented her last three fingers to Pau.

“Three? Three-letter word?” guessed Pau.

Andrea timely clapped, as a sign of agreement. Pau was sternly eager about Andrea’s charade like gestures. Looks like he already knew the flow of the conversation.

“Ahm dog? Cat? Boy? Man?” Pau concluded.

Hearing the word “man”, Andrea pointed her index finger to Pau. Sketching in the wind, she stretched her fingers. Pau started making educated guesses again.

“Fiver-letter word? Huh?” said Pau while waist-deep in thought.

Smirking with that ocean-deep dimple, Andrea forged his lips into an “O” shape. The mystery was now on the brink of solving. Still, Pau kept on striking the right term.

“C’mon, keep on guessing Pau. The answer was now too close!” Andrea whispered in her head.

Her eyes winked, forming a nebulae of clues. She squinted around to unearth some hints, until she got rid of the bandage on her damaged legs. There was something on it.

“Why did you remove that?” scolded the concerned Pau.