Esperanza's Flashlight

“Why didn’t she wait for the morning?” Milan was shocked. The woman seemed to have gone to find a shrine in the woods for real. His words made Corbin glare at him, and Milan had to twitch his face. “Okay, I might or might not have told her to shove her complaints up Lasair’s ass through a shrine or something. Look, I didn’t say she should do it alone.”

“There’s only one shrine for Lasair, and that’s only known to the sedan bringers. I’m not sure if she knows where she is going.” Corbin sighed and got into his car while radioing the matter to the rest: “Anne might be heading to Lasair’s shrine. Can someone find a possible path known to others?”

Milan felt a little guilty, but he didn’t want to put himself out there. He then stepped away as Corbin rolled the police mobile to help in circling other spots. At the silence of the night, he gritted his teeth. He angrily peeled the glove off his hands.

He glanced at Owen, not bothering to drop the angry eyes. “Are you staying here? I want to help look for that bitch. Do you think they’re doing the ritual tomorrow?”

“The dangers are out there. Let me come with you.” Owen followed the other back to the backyard to enter the house properly. They ran into Corey and Florence who were alarmed by the sudden search.

“Corey, what happens when Lasair’s bride dies?” Milan stopped by the door, surprising Corey with a strange question. However, they all knew it had something to do with what might happen to Esperanza.

“That never happened before, but I think he will be very displeased.” Corey frowned in worry. “Are you going to be okay? If you find her dead… they might think you did it. I mean, you knew she will be out there to look for a shrine.”

Milan froze and stared at the woman with a mix of warning and fear.

Owen patted his shoulder. “That’s more reason why we should find her alive. Let’s go, Milan. If the wolves saw her first, we should follow the howls.”

“I’m not built to fight wolves!” Milan cried out as they ran out to find the nearest exit of the village that led to the woods where the young woman was last seen.

…

Some men had also volunteered to look for Esperanza. When Milan and Owen reached the village gates, even Martin was there standing with the city mayor. Aliyah, the mother, was sitting on a tree stump. She seemed to be crying out her worry about her little girl. The older brother was not seen, but he must have gone out at first notice.

Milan only jogged to Andrew who was serving as the central comms for the search parties. “Hey, any traces of where she has gone?”

“Oh, it’s b—Mr. Sheppard! I mean to say your name!” Andrew panicked and chuckled before growing serious. “It’s too dark in the woods. Also, the clouds covered the moon. We think it’s about to rain again. The path will be slippery, so we need to find her before it does.”

“We’re going, too.” Milan led Owen away to find a place to start.

Andrew gasped. “Wait, you have to wait for the others!”

There was no more time to wait for others. When Milan and Owen reached the mouth of the woods, raindrops were already piercing them from the sky. Soon enough, there would be another white rain upon them.

Milan proceeded to run around, but he could barely see anything even if he had a flashlight. Moreover, unlike the last time, he could feel and see movements running around in the shadows.

When Milan got onto a steep huge rock, he ended up having to mount it to get on top. He pulled himself without difficulty, but the darkness only continued to embrace more and more of him. By then, he looked around. Where did Owen’s light disappear into?

“Did we get separated? Fuck…”

Milan fretted and trembled on top of the slippery boulder. He could continue cowering there or he could keep walking around to find Esperanza. After all, in this weather and darkness, he could only infer the girl was more afraid than he was.

“Milan…” The strange voice echoed, and Milan darted his eyes around. He didn’t know where it was coming from, but that thing had never harmed him. It even told him not to interact with Esperanza back at the bridge that night he arrived.

The young man stretched his legs to find a way to descend the boulder. He slipped down into a muddy path, and the speed of the fall made him fall face-flat into the mud. Milan quickly pulled away and roughly shook his hands to get rid of the mud, but he found something strange. He shone his light at another flashlight that sunk into the mud. It even had a panda face.

He could only think this was Esperanza’s flashlight. He took it out and continued looking for a trace of the crazy girl. When he shone his light on some tree, he saw the huge white hand of the bust puppet creature. It was grasping at a branch that it could only shake.

“Help!” Milan felt like a knife stabbed him in the cold. He just heard Esperanza screaming from a place. He slowly walked along his path and reached the tree the white puppet was shaking. When he looked down, he found himself on top of a quarry-like structure.

There Esperanza was, grasping at the crumbling dirt as she tried to climb up the cliff.

Milan then shone his light at the side and saw how the water was quickly descending into the quarry. Even if it could lift Esperanza, the water was muddy and filled with broken twigs and branches. It might stab and drown her if Milan waited.

“Help me! I’m sorry!” The girl saw Milan at the top of the wall. With the last of her strength, she started screaming. “Help me…! Please…”

Milan threw his flashlight on the ground and looked around for a reliable vine. That was the only time that he noticed how the white bust puppet was already gone. Moreover, the tree seemed unfazed by the huge hand. It was as if the hand was testing the stability of the tree.

The man peered down and still saw Esperanza fighting the vortex of mud from sucking her. He took the rope given to the volunteers and tied it around a thick vine wrapped around the tree and along his foot. Milan then removed his heavy jacket and wrapped the rope around him.

“Please hold onto my rope,” he muttered before stepping off the cliff.

===A/N===

Thank you for picking up the book! The next chapter will be a paid one. If you still choose to read, thank you very much! I will forever cherish you! If you choose to stop reading, thank you for making the journey until this point!