"BOY! BOY! Where are you? Why did you leave me alone there?" GIRL cried while running straight across that Forbidden Pass, her heart pounding with fear.
Imagine running all alone on a dark street, the feeling of being pursued by something you cannot see, that the only thought in your mind is to get out fast, hoping that you'll see a familiar place when you reach the end. But in her case, there was no familiar street, nor hope of finding one also. There was only the endless expanse of green grass, the stalks brushing against her skin and tangling in her auburn hair. She was lost, disoriented, and terrified.
She can't feel anymore the itch in her tanned skin hands and feet with every stroke of those stalks of grass. She can't even feel that some of her short dark strands of hair were caught with those strands of green. Her morena face with its pinkish cheeks was covered with the water that fell from her brown round teary eyes. Her white shirt and brown short, which adds to her cute simplicity, were a li'l bit torn from here and there. Even her tsinelas had been torn off in the rush. She's literally running now on her own two feet.
It's as if she is being pursued by a pack of scary dark snarling dogs. There was no turning back, no U-turn, no way out but forward.
As she ran, she heard strange noises, the sound of water and strange voices, and her terror deepened. She dared not look back, but she could feel the breath of whoever or whatever was chasing her on her neck.
"Waaah!" the poor li'l girl shouted, cupping her ears with both her hands as if she can hear unknown voices and growls already because of fear. Her heart raced, her breath ragged, and she knew she had to keep going.
If you were claustrophobic, then for sure, you fainted already by this time. And if you were afraid of the dark, nyctophobic, then I'm sure, you're at that point of exhaustion already due to that excess use of your adrenaline.
The young girl's heart is beating so fast, beating her inside, with every beat of her steps. That with every breath she breathes follows sobs and fear. Clogging her nose, gasping for air. She knows not anymore the word courage in her vocabulary. It's as if there was no end to this miserable narrative, until...
A faint light glimmered in the distance, a beacon of hope in the darkness.
"Help! Help!" GIRL shouted. A spark of hope was lit in her teary eyes as it reflected the dim light in the distance. She then run faster than before, but she was taken aback as an eccentric feeling pierced her feet.
Have you tried walking in the mud with your bare foot while you were blindfolded? That's what she felt all of a sudden. As if she was walking on a maja blanca or a binalot or a floor of fresh grinned peanut butter. Her feet sank into a thick gooey mud.
Have you experienced that situation when it gets dark that your eyes can't see anything, but after a while, your eyes seem to adjust, and you can now see? As her eyes gets accustomed to the dark, she heard squishy sounds with every step. She then realized the sounds of water crashing and whooshing as if someone is throwing buckets of cola drinks all over.
It's weird that when you're empowered by emotional stress, you can't seem to realize your other senses. So, by now, her senses slowly pick up bits of details, due to that speckle of light that brought her hope.
She can now feel the gust of wind that blows her short hair and sort of wipes her tears away. She can now smell the saltiness of that atmosphere. She can now see that the ground she was standing on was in actuality sands irrigated by the waters of a vast sea. A sea that she had never seen before.
For a moment, her mind was lost by the vastness of the sea reflecting the crimson sky. But then she remembered the dim light, so she searched for that someone that might help her.
As she was about to run again to where the dim light is, she suddenly turned her head for she heard the sounds of steps of four feet rushing towards her from behind. Fear gripped her again. Her lungs burning, her legs aching, shouting for help at the top of her lungs. The same feeling as before. I will not reiterate the horrors she felt a while ago, for it will surely make you sadder than before.
She ran.
She is now trying to catch up with that dim light that's getting even dimmer as she hears the feet of four getting closer and closer.
"Help! Help!" shouts the poor young girl from the top of her lungs...
---~~~o~~~--- ---~~~o~~~--- ---~~~o~~~---
Let's hear THE PSALMIST continue his song earlier,
~~~
"Long aghast swept away as they passed
Bice and grassy they were
A touch of hand, greenness they are
They run and run, swoop, 'twas a grand chase
~~~
Young ones' songs of merriment, tehees
Arpeggios and synths surround
They run and run, and run they were
Suddenly, Girl, you're 'me, myself, and I
'Where is Boy now?
~~~
You run and run, and run you were
Really now, you were all alone
Your mind tells you that
~~~
Down you went in that Forbidden Pass
To that timeworn Healms field
Its edge lays browns and blues abound
And now, your feet taste that sulky sands
~~~
Long aghast swept away as they passed
Waves and foamy they were
Breezy seawall, you're mesmerized
You walk and walk with you by your side
~~~
Young one's songs of mournment
Sobered and gaped you were
Out at a distance, silhouettes of four
Bustled, you're running towards afar
Are they them now?
~~~
You run forth but soon they were gone
Really again, you were all alone
Your mind tells you that"
---~~~o~~~--- ---~~~o~~~--- ---~~~o~~~---
The walk became the run, the run became the dash, the dash became the jump, the jump became the sprint, the sprint became the tripped... she fell face down on the sand.
Her face was covered with mixed-up tears, sweat, and sand. The feet keep getting closer.
There, stumbled on the ground, GIRL lift her head looking forward, and fixed her eyes on that dim light...
"Wha... Why?... oh, why?... Waaaaah!" shocked by the look of the scene in front of her.
If you would see her face now, her look was like all of her blood was lost.
No one was there...
She noticed that the dim light was just the sun saying goodbye to her. There was no smile from the sun at that time. As it goes down, her hopes fall with it.
Do you know that feeling when you accidentally drop all your purchased food from a fast-food? All those spaghetti, chicken, burger, and fries, will never be eaten. All was wasted. Or have you remembered the time when your mommy and daddy left you crying when you were just a child for they have to go to work? Or the time when a loved one has left you, where you left there, don't know what to do anymore, knowing that everything will never be the same again? Painful.
"If only, if only I followed Papa's warning," her mind tells her that. Desperation and sorrow, she felt. "It's my fault, my fault. Mama, Papa? BOY, please help! Where are you? BOY, I beg you, please show yourself. Please."
Her feet failed her already because of exhaustion, fallen to her knees. Hope was washed away as we hear the waves crash in the rocks, covered with darkness.
Burdened and down, deep within her soul, she shouted in her heart, "Someone, save me, please! I can't take this anymore..."
She was left there, face down to the ground, crying, as she waits for her doom to come. The steps of four were getting faster and faster, closer and closer...
---~~~o~~~--- ---~~~o~~~--- ---~~~o~~~---
The Psalmist sang,
~~~
"Afraid, she felt
This unknown place
Lost in Lace Grid
~~~
You never seized to move
Every gear ceased to unmoved
Behind, touch of footsteps, you heard
You felt more afraid
~~~
The walk became the run
The run became the dash
The dash became the sprint
The sprint became the tripped
A chase of grandeur
~~~
You can hear them near you
A touch of coffee
A taste of doubts
The taste of that warm and wet cold delicacy,
Suddenly swifts to a touch of hope
Then a touch of a hand
A taste of fortress' serenity
~~~
Carry her, you, warm and soft Hand
Prints of fours for every step
Turned to twos
They set forth unto the unknown"
---~~~o~~~--- ---~~~o~~~--- ---~~~o~~~---
Suddenly, she realized that she was moving but she was not running on her own two feet. She was carried by two hands. Those hands that carried her were so soft, so warm, so comely, so resting. In her sight, the hands holding her belongs to a father-like figure.
When she turned her neck looking back, the silhouettes of two figures, where the sounds of the four feet came from, were getting smaller and smaller until her blurry eyes can't reach them no more. And when she looked down, she saw only a pair of footprints for every step they take besides that sea as it washes away in the waves.
GIRL and that someone continued to run unto the unknown forest and seek refuge...
---~~~o~~~--- ---~~~o~~~--- ---~~~o~~~---
THE PSALMIST sings his next tune,
~~~
"Hush, steps of tips
Tapiti tapiti tapiti tip
Woosh, swoosh, swish
~~~
Hush, hide 'n seek
Pitter potter, blop, blip
Swap, sweep, eerie leak
~~~
Rush, to that creek
Hustle 'n huddle 'a brink
Rustle, bustle, and squeak
~~~
Rush, to that hump
Badump, badump, badump
Whoop! Finally flump!
~~~
Hush..."
---~~~o~~~--- ---~~~o~~~--- ---~~~o~~~---
"You're safe now," says that someone who carried her to safety.
The young girl was pretty much exhausted by now. As the night keeps getting deeper, the two never actually had a conversation. They were just holding hands in that crammed cave where they hid, as the drizzling rain outside echoed inside. See, GIRL is still very young so she spent the night crying instead of talking about the details and the formalities.
She only believes that she's in good hands now. Nothing matters, for now, none other. That same feeling of comfort beside a father that loves you dearly. That same feeling when you're with your lover after a quarrel that's been solved. That same feeling of returning home again. She was still crying but not out of fear anymore, rather from the joy of seeking a rest.
She cried until she fell asleep and the only reverberating voice she heard before entering a dream is the phrases of her company saying,
"Rest now... If you need help, just ask and the Hand will reach..."
---~~~o~~~--- ---~~~o~~~--- ---~~~o~~~---
THE PSALMIST then sang a solacing song,
~~~
"You were lost
and yet, you were found
~~~
The melancholy abyss
Sober in a vile of sweet sorrow
Drown in an elixir of halcyon
with felicity, you're drawn in
~~~
If one's in need
Just ask
And the hand will reach
~~~
The Hand shall reach
~~~
shhh... zzz..."