CHAPTER 50

AS SOON AS ADAM AND I CAME BACK FROM DOING THE INCA TRAil, my mind started shifting from Kilimanjaro being just a personal goal to including other amputees. It wasn't for the faint hearted and surely I was faint of heart.

Inka Trail made it easy, fun, and enjoyable while hiking the bends and high lands seemed as an obstacle.

It was a good day for adventure and having gone all the way to the century old stony buildings, we surely had fun.

We camped for the night and we spent it with the natives singing and dancing at night fall. They arranged for a camp fire and it was very beautiful to see them match around it with ululations and old songs in Spanish.

The women prepared several Peruvian dishes and I count stop drooling over them as it was my first time tasting such a cuisine.

I wasn't even familiar with most of the names but managed to learn a few. The likes of causa limeña, Cabrito con frijoles, Caldo verde, Chupín de pejesapo, Carapulcra Iqueña and many more.

"Doesn't it smell delicious???" Adam leaned over and asked.

"It's fine...." I answered with pride knowing Buenos had just about the best dishes.

Some men and women volunteered to serve the dinner and after everyone got a plate, we sat around the fire, legs crossed with the plate in front of each person.

I looked at my plate twice before looking at Adam's. Mine was more green in contract to his.

"Wanna trade??" He questioned my actions and despite the terrible lighting, I was able to see his ridiculous stare.

"No...no...." I shoved a fork full of what seemed to be an empanada. At least something I knew.

"Have you ever heard the legend of La Llorona??" The woman sitting next to me asked and I forced swallow my dumpling.

"La who??" I asked confused.

"So you've never heard. La Llorona, the weeping woman....." She repeated and I shook my head.

"How about we tell them the story of Xtabay and Utz-Colel???" another one suggested just on the other side of the campfire.

"Only if you don't want them to return. Be kind and spare them some good sleep...." The woman sitting next to me protested and I immediately lost my appetite.

I was never a fan of horror stories and from the look of it, these people were big on it.

"What's.... an...an Xkaby?" I stammered and pushed my plate away.

Then, out of the blue, the fire seemed to grow big and dark fumes erupted from it as of something had exploded.

A harsh but tolerable combustion sound echoed in my ears and I screamed moving back in fear.

"Eleanor! Are you alright??" Adam rushed to my aid and I clung to him like a baby.

"What...what was that??" I asked out of breath, my face covered against his shirt. I wasn't courageous enough to look back at the villagers around the campfire.

"Spending a night here was a bad idea. We should've gone back...." I cried.

"That was the plan but we couldn't. It's too far and dangerous to travel out night. We'll leave at dawn don't worry...."

"Are you alright ma'am....that was just some silly combustion dust. It's only made from candy, sugar and spice...nothing harmful..." Two of the villagers rushed to my aid after the scene I just pulled.

"Oh really??" I raised my eyebrow even though they couldn't see it in the dark.

"Yes, we assure you. It's only to make the campfire interesting...." The other agreed and I pursed my lips and narrowed my eyes at them.

"I can see that. Good job" I sighed and sat back at my place. Adam laughed because only he was civilised enough to understand my sarcasm.

"Are you sure you wanna hear the story??? Or maybe I should ask them not to throw the dust anymore....what's your preference?"

"Just let them do their thing and we can get out of here...." I signed and rubbed my forehead. I heard him chuckle and turned the other side.

"Proceed please...." Adam told the narrator and carried on eating his food just as everyone else was but of course after chasing my appetite away.

"The legend has a wide variety of details and versions. But I will only narrate the typical version of the legend...." He began. His voice was low and hoarse; creepier with each word he mentioned like a bloodthirsty vampire.

I already began trembling thinking of the aftermath of this whole campfire. He sprinkler some combustion dust on the fire making it erupt like a volcanic explosion.

"Long long ago ...so many years back, a beautiful woman named Maria married a rich ranchero with whom she bore two children...." He paused and everyone quieted down carefully listening to him. Unlike before, his voice had changed and it was much better now; less demonic and more angelic.

"One day, Maria saw her husband with another woman and in a fit of blind rage, she drownee their children in a river, which she immediately regrets....." He emphasized on the word regret wearing that gruesome smile exposing his dreadful teeth. Terror filled me and I knew the ending of this story won't be good.

I looked around for Adam and found his hand which I held into tightly.

"Unable to save them and consumed by guilt, she drowns herself as well but is unable to enter the afterlife without her children. Since then, she comes into different villages dressed in a white dress, in pursuit of the souls of her children...." He seemed to have finished and yet again, threw some dust on the fire and this time, it felt like Maria's spirit was fueled with anger.

A rush of wind blew past and fed the fire causing the eruption to be deadlier than before.

I felt a drop of sweat ran down my neck and I quickly looked behind me.

After the narration, a grave silence followed and I couldn't take it in. I was too nervous.

Suddenly, something hard and cold pressed against my waist and started to pull me. I took a deep breath and looked at the glazing moonlight above. It was full.

"Oh dear..." I whimpered and my eyes widen in panic.

A hot voice pierced my ear in whispers sensing shivers down my spine and to my entire body.

I had to run.

I quickly got up but failed to stand as something was holding me back.

"WHERE ARE YOU GOING?" A deep masculine voice,so demonic as though arousing me to follow it to hell. Since I was young, I have always trained myself one powerful technique to escape in the face of evil. Scream!!

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!"