TWO

HOLIDAY FROM HELL

Bob glanced back over his shoulder as he raced through the trees, his heart thundering in his chest. He couldn’t see anything through the thick jungle, but he listened for the sound of hooves pounding on the dusty ground behind them. Breathing a sigh when he heard nothing but the sounds of nature, he pumped his arms and forced his legs to keep moving.

He turned and peered at Isabella Foamy, who was running beside him. She was holding up well considering they had been running almost non-stop for four days, only stopping to sleep when they couldn’t go on anymore. With only minutes here and an hour there, neither of them had enough rest. They’d had barely any food. Fatigue was beginning to slow them down as they ran with the sun burning down through the trees in patches of fire on their skin.

It was unbearably hot. The atmosphere was sticky with humidity, and the air was dirty with dust and pollen.

Every muscle in his body ached, and his skin was sore from numerous cuts and scratches. He knew if they didn’t find water soon they wouldn’t survive.

He could see a clearing ahead in the tropical forest and hear water running. He motioned to Isabella to run in that direction.

She nodded in understanding, a brave expression of determination set on her face. He wanted to hug her, to let her know that everything was going to be okay, but he wasn’t sure it would be.

Why did I put us in this situation? I couldn’t just have left well enough alone.

He felt a blossom of hope.

Maybe we got away.

It had been hours since they had heard the threatening hooves of their pursuers pounding the earth as they neared their prey. Perhaps finally they had run far enough and left the hunters behind them. Perhaps now they were safe and could finally rest.

He grabbed Isabella’s green-skinned hand when they broke through the clearing of exotic trees, and he squeezed it in hope. He should never have come home. He’d forgotten how dangerous it was in Kalamar, and it had only grown worse in his time away. Whatever the information he’d found meant, it wasn’t worth dying for.

He brushed back the large leafy fronds of the jungle with his free hand to see the path ahead as he pulled Isabella behind him.

His heart skipped a beat as the path fell away, and he realized that there was no path ahead, just a long drop off the edge of a cliff. He gasped as his momentum carried him over the edge, and he fell.

In a moment of pure terror, he clawed at the cliff face with his free hand. The fall abruptly ended as his arm jerked to a painful halt when he managed to get a grip on the edge of the crumbling cliff.

Isabella dropped to her knees and grabbed his orange-skinned wrists. She tried to pull him back up over the edge of the cliff, but her slim green arms trembled, trying to hold his weight.

He glanced back. The rock face dropped down into angry waters below. His only grip on the solid world was the crumbling cliff edge, and the small hands of his companion.

“Bob, no!” Isabella cried out when the edge of cliff he was holding crumbled away in his hands, and all that he had to hold onto was her. Her compact green body was dragged to the ground, now bearing the weight of his larger, orange-skinned form in her small hands.

Sweat stung his eyes, and his bright orange hair poked in his left eye in dark, dusty wet strands.

He glanced down. It was a sixty-foot drop into a fast-moving river below, with violent waters crashing against the sharp rocks. He tried to grip onto the cliff face, but bits of moss and stone came away in his free hand.

This is it. I’m going to die.

He peered up at Isabella. She looked so young, considering she was in her late thirties. Her blonde hair was tied up in a messy ponytail with wisps of gold billowing around her face. Her lime-green skin was glowing from the sunshine. Covered in dirt and sweat and dressed in her little denim hiking shorts and a vest, she looked beautiful.

He stared into her wide green eyes. He wasn’t going to take her with him on this journey. She deserved to live out her life happily and far away from here.

“No!” she cried when he let go of her hand and dropped like a stone into the crashing waters below.

The last thing he heard was her screaming his name. Then the cold waters engulfed him and swallowed him whole.