The Wings Of A Caged Bird | First Draft

chapter 9 : it's all that snake's fault

My body becomes as still as a statue.

Perhaps I even stop breathing. But the moment the noise of the snake slithering closer reaches my ears, my body's Fight-Or-Flight response gets activated. Just as I'm about to leap away, July raises both his hands, mouthing the words stay still with an urgent look on his face.

Stay still?! How the fuck am I supposed to stay still when there's a snake right behind me?!

But he's right. If I move away too fast, it will provoke the snake even more than its already provoked because of me stepping into its house.

Nonetheless, panic grips my entire body. I begin to tremble all over, eyes widened to their limits as I look at July with intense desperation. He hastily looks all around him, until his eyes settle on a long piece of branch lying nearby. He walks over to it and touches it, but doesn't immediately pick it up. My heart keeps drumming against my chest so hard that my eyes start to lose their focus and my legs weaken up.

"Cedar," he says, eyes fixed to the snake, "when I tell you to run, you immediately run, okay?"

I hold my breath, trying my best to stiffen my body completely. Pound pound. I can't take this. I literally cannot-

"RUN!"

The next few things happen in a single second. July leaps towards me with a scream while I leap to my left with another scream and begin to run blindly with all the strength in my legs. Every time my right foot lands on the ground, a shot of pain moves through the whole leg, but I don't stop. I pass trees after trees, jump over fallen logs, leaves crunching below my shoes. I can feel my heartbeats in my entire body as I distance myself as much as I can from the snake.

Suddenly, a hand grabs mine and I was about to let out another shriek, but then I realize it's just July, who pulls me along so that I can run faster. The forest on both sides becomes a blurry fast-forwarded video, my whole body aches, my breath gets stuck, but even among this whole mess, I feel the surge of adrenaline thrumming in my veins.

Running. Running is freedom.

July, who was running ahead of me while holding my hand, finally stops at a random open space. Unable to stop myself in time, I crash into him, and together we tumble onto the hard ground. Since I land on him it doesn't hurt much for me, but he lets out a loud yelp. I quickly roll over and lie on my back beside him. I want to ask him if he's okay, but I've completely lost my breath.

In, out. In, out. Shit. In, out. Oh God, is my heart okay? In, out. Maybe I'm gonna pass out again. In, out. Ugh, my body. In, out.

I can't believe we literally just ran as if we were being chased by a hungry cheetah instead of a snake.

When my breathing finally becomes stable, I turn sideways to look at July. He is lying on his stomach, face buried into his arms. After I blink and focus my vision properly, I realize that he is trembling.

I prop myself up on my elbows and put my hand on his back. "July, are you okay? Are you hurt, hmm?"

He mumbles something into his arms.

"I can't hear you, July. Did I- did I hurt you?"

He raises his head up to his chin. "I- I accidentally killed the snake."

"Huh?"

"I didn't want to." I see a drop of tear falling on his sleeve. "I just wanted to push it away from you. But I ended up hitting it too hard. I think it died, Cedar." His voice becomes low and shaky. "I killed it."