Irene, My dead best friend [Wattys 2015]

Chapter 16: Emotions and Adrenaline rushes

Chapter 16:

“Faster, faster. Until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death”- Hunter S. Thompson

I sat there, with Irene hugged tightly to me, and stared at the hoove-feet at the entrance of the hollowed tree. The skin on these apparently human legs was heavily tanned and lead down to a pair of big and heavy hooves, reminding me of the big bull hooves I had seen on National Geographic a couple of days ago. The hooves were surrounded by a matting of thick, black hair.

My entire focus at that moment was to control my breathing, hiding our presence as much as we could and keep a strict eye on the hooves. Fear brings about a certain kind of sensation in certain people. For me, for example, I was feeling quite a few things. The first absolutely unignorable sensation was my heart beating at about 160 bmp, I couldn’t be sure; it was the adrenaline pumping through my system. The second sensation was of protection. I don’t know why but at that moment, more than myself, I was concerned for Irene and her safety. With her snuggled in my arms and face buried in my chest, I was sure of other two things, 1) she could probably smell my sweat and would be revolted by now 2) I knew I had to protect her, it had been my promise to her.

But before things get better, they must get worse. It wasn’t just one pair of hooves but about 2-3. I could hear some more in the distance, probably looking around for the source of noise they heard from us. I could feel Irene pushing in closer into my ribs; probably feeling as afraid as I was. I hugged her back tightly.

I don’t know what changed amongst those creatures in that minute, or maybe it was the Lord up above that saved us, because the hooves closest to us took a couple of steps closer to the tree we were hiding in. I had stopped breathing all together and felt sweat trickling down my forehead onto my shirt. Irene chose the exact moment to move away from me and look at the entrance of the hollow from deep within the tree. There was something about her eyes, her sparkling blue entirely focused on the hooves that were almost at the entrance now. Like a switch being turned off, one second she was gazing at the hooves and the next she had closed her eyes and her lips moved as if she was saying something but I could hear no sound.

 Like a ripple effect then, I could hear the other hooves further away, followed by the one closest to us taking a couple of steps back as well. Within the next few seconds the sound of their hooves beating down and meeting the ground was coming from far off into the distance but I wasn’t taking any chances, I planned on stay frozen still I couldn’t hear the creatures anymore.

I could feel Irene stir in my arms but I held her tight, adrenaline still coursing through my veins, the urge to protect her still running rampant through me. She stopped moving then, probably understanding that I needed a moment to take in what we had just been through. So much was happening and I couldn’t comprehend any of it. Irene wasn’t who she appeared to be, a ghost like creature in the middle of the woods, yet so realistic. She had charmed me in less than two words and now here I was sitting in a hollowed tree root, ready to risk my life to save someone I had met less than 24 hrs ago. To add the cherry to the cake, there were supernatural things in this deep end of the woods; I couldn’t possibly call this end the woods, it was definitely as thick and as varyingly inhabited as a forest. These creatures that had hooves for feet and human legs, but I never saw the torso or the head. The were too far yesterday  when they were attacking that woman for me to make out their actual shape, but I was certain the torso and head was very close to what looked human.

Nothing was as normal as it appeared to be yet here I was sweating bullets with a beautiful girl in my arms who just might have whispered things to these creatures to send them away but I was still not running screaming into the hills. That was definitely an improvement on my primitive instincts of ‘run in the opposite direction”.

“Jason,” Irene whispered, careful not to move in my arms. I think she was trying to not freak me out further. I opened my mouth but no sound came out, I cleared my throat loudly and looked down at her in my arms,

“Yes,”

“Are you okay?”

“Yea…are you?”

“Yes….but can we get out of here? You’re sweating a lot and you’ve got my entire side all wet,”

I let go of Irene and scrambled out of the hollow of the tree utterly embarrassed. Still on edge, I looked around me, searching the trees for a sign of something…anything lurking around.

“Listen, Jason,” She called out to me as she too walked out of the hollowed tree, her face unfazed, her hair perfectly in place and clothes with just a smattering of dirt on them. Even in our circumstances, still beautiful.

“No, please. We must get out of here, we have to get back to the main road, we can discuss this later,” I couldn’t meet her eyes, I couldn’t talk about this right now, perhaps later when I’ve processed this. Right now, I had to take things back into control, there was too much going on that was purely circumstantial and I couldn’t take that anymore.

“Ok” was her short response, she sounded hurt for some reason, but I couldn’t find the energy to comfort her right now. I needed to understand things, comprehend them before I could make myself emotionally available again. I needed space, but how would I get that without deserting Irene, especially after I had promised to take care of her?

©Hafsa T.M (aka HTMwrites)