Lost world

Hollow

 "Can you tell me, why are we here?" asked Rafique crouching beside me in the bushes. We were at the area where Rafique and Raju had their accident. My wristwatch was showing 9 o'clock.

"I have no idea, "replied Raju crouching on my left side. All of us had our torchlights in our hands. We had been in that position for the past half an hour.My knee was getting numb; I looked nervously at my watch. Mom would be expecting me to be home by 10pm. I told her that I was going to study at my cousin's house.

"Then why did you bring us! " I said loudly but was shushed by Raju. I glared at him.

Another half an hour passed by, nothing happened. I was getting really nervous. Rafique had already fallen asleep.Fifteen minutes....mom was going to kill me if she caught me with two guys late at night. I got up quickly startling Rafique from his slumber.

"What are you doing? "hissed Raju.

"I'm going home," I hissed back and would have stock off if I hadn't bump into something. Something soft, and warm.I turned; there face to face with me was the woman in Raju's story. Long hair, pale skinned, bloodshot eyes were looking back at me. She was wearing a long bajukurung, I didn't see whether her feet were touching the ground.

"Ggggggggghhhhooost!!......"Rafique shrieked.

I could hear Rafique and Raju run.....traitors! I turned to run, but the woman grabbed my arm.

"Help me," she hissed. I tried to yank my arm away from her, but her grasp was strong..."Help me..." She was pleading to me. I looked at her eyes and somehow the eerie bloodshot eyes were gone and all that I can see was tears. The young women grabbed my wrist and pulled me along with her. She ran towards the forest, passed Raju and Rafique , who were hiding behind a large rubber tree. I didn't have to turn around to know that they ran after us..We zigzag through the forest.We were going so fast, at one point I didn't feel like I was touching the ground. The young woman didn't say anything, her cold hand was holding tightly to my wrist.

We stopped infront of a large Sena tree. The gigantic tree loomed down at us, with its massive trunk and its peeling barks. The branches were in a strange upward sideway formation as if it was blown that way by a storm.

"Where ....Are ....We .....Going?" I asked out of breath from our sprint.(Mental note, I really need to exercise more)

The young woman didn't answer me. She just looked at the tree, searching for something.

"Come," she said grabbing my wrist again and pulled me after her. She pushed some dead vines away. Hidden by the thick vines was a small hollow hole in the middle of the trunk.It was big to fit the both of us. I could feel her grasp tightly to my wrist forcing me to follow her.

"It looks dark in there, maybe we should find some matches. I'm claustrophobic," I said hoping to delay her until Raju and Rafique arrived. God knows, what would happen if they did catch up with us. None of us were prepared for a confrontation.

The woman ignored me and stepped into the hole pulling me with her. It was cold inside the trunk; I could feel a gust of wind from above as if the whole interior of the tree was hollow. From outside, the tree didn't look that large but inside ....I had expected to be cramped against the woman but surprisingly it was spacious and pitched dark. I couldn't see the woman in front of me but I could feel her pulling my hand, urging me to walk. I walked and walked, it was like the trunk of the tree had expended, I could only sense spaces around me like I was walking into an open area. Had we not entered a tree? Why was I not bumping into something? Surely the trunk wasn't this big?

It felt like a few minutes when she stopped walking. She let go of my hand and through the dark I heard her voice clearly.

"Cover your eyes, "she said. I didn't know what she meant until I was blinded by a blast of light. I quickly closed my eyes tightly as I felt the light scorching my eyes.

I didn't know how long I was standing there with my eyes closed. Five minutes, ten minutes.....I couldn't hear anything except soft gentle breeze brushing past me. I couldn't feel the heat anymore and my eyes didn't feel like it was going to burn. Slowly, ever so slowly I opened my eyes.

Wow....I gasped...