To the Land of Green

Chapter Four

"Ahhh! Oh my God! Please stop, I want to go back," I yell. As I'm being pulled by hands, I scream Ractro's name, hoping that he's near me. I'm spinning. In the middle of teleportation, I find Ractro, spinning the same way just like me. As soon as I get near him, I grab and hug him to me. I don't know where we are right now or where will this hole take us and whose hands grabbed me. I hold on to my necklace around my neck and pray. I hope we will be okay.

As I look down, I realize that the circle is like a tornado. It's spinning fast on the inside and outside in circles, but it's kind of different than what I've seen in movies. Instead of being in the place where the circle will take us in seconds, this circle operates pretty slow. I can't see the outside well but with my studies in the past, I know for sure that tornadoes are not supposed to be this slow. This tornado is a little bit slower than a usual tornado. Nearing the bottom, I slowly put Ractro and the diary in my bag and land.

"Who are you?" a man demands, while pointing a gun at me. He looks young, maybe around Rosalinda's age, tan skin, black wavy hair, and he is wearing old-fashioned clothing that Filipinos use to wear in the late 1800s.

"Excuse me? Who are you?" I yell at him.

"This is what happens when you touch stuff Andres!" He yells at the guy next to him.

"Sorry okay. I was just curious. Hola! My name is Andres, and this is my older brother, José. Please don't mind him. He is always grumpy," Andres says.

Now that I think about it, they do look alike except that Andres is younger than José and he has dark brown, straight hair unlike his brother.

"Shut up Andres! Why would you even tell her our name. She could be one of them," José says. Turning his attention towards me he demands again, "Now, who are you?"

"My name is Marie," I tell them not wanting to expose my real name, Marina. I don't know them and one thing I definitely learned from my late parents is to not trust strangers and not give them any details about myself. I have trust issues. I have trusted too many people in the past. I only had my parents and my siblings to talk to about my problems.

"Okay, Marie. Why were you inside the Lobo? How do you know about the Lobo?" José asks.

"I don't know what you're talking about. What Lobo? You mean this?" I point towards the circled object. "And I should ask you guys that. Who pulled me in here?"

"It was me. Sorry," says Andres. "This is called Lobo."

"Oh my God, it was you? What are you going to do to me?" I say getting into a fighting position. I grab my backpack and get ready to pull out Ractro but for some reason I can't feel my backpack. I can feel the presence of my backpack behind me but when I try to reach for it, emptiness is all I feel.

"Where is my backpack?" I ask, touching my back. "Your what?" asks Andres.

I walk closer to the Lobo and try to find my backpack but the tornado is gone. I inspect the Lobo and bang on it.

"What are you doing?" José asks, grabbing my hand and taking it away from the Lobo. "I am trying to look for my backpack," I reply.

"Well, whatever you're doing will never work. We have tried that in the past," says José. "So you don't know anything about the Lobo and how you got here?" asks Andres.

"That's not my biggest problem right now! And no, I don't know anything at all," I reply with half-truth. I think it has something to do with the wardrobe and Ractro. But I am not going to tell them anything. They might take Ractro and do some experiments or they might damage him. I can't risk my only way out of this place.