The Lost Panacea [ ✓ ]

Chapter Four: The Maneless Bush Lion

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Day 2 -·- 3:30AM (Wee Hours)

Location: Isle of Eye

Mission: Operation Lost Panacea

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The time said 3:30am and our last batch of flares were already dimming. Fifteen minutes now, these two tirelessly circling Moon Phantoms will charge at us and be the end of us. Finn and SJ Gallagher were feeding the fire with kindlings like twigs and dried leaves to keep it alive. Their backs were turned at us now. And Tracy was doing what she does best.

Absolutely nothing!

I promised myself that if we die, I'd kill Tracy myself the second time for being so useless. I'd make her swallow a brightly-colored poison dart frog. Raw.

The time shifted to 3:50am in a blink and my flare was just a stick in my hand. Lucia's and the faint campfire glow were the only things keeping us alive and they were both at the brink of extinguishment.

With my eyes closed, I was prepared to embrace death. I shuddered, spewing fear mixed with excitement. More goosebumps sprouted on my skin at the mere thought of being engulfed by shadowy monsters that can't die. I shrugged it off and extended my arm in a crucifix posture. The end is nigh.

Redness. Was this how death was going to feel? Just the redness and goose bumps? I heard a giggle. Lucia giggled. I opened my eyes. I wasn't dead yet, I thought as I felt my body.

"What did I say about packing extra for the trip?" She smiled as she shined her mini torchlight in my face.

I breathed a sigh of relief. Lucia, my secret, sweetheart heroine. She just saved us with her wits. I'm so proud of her. None of us had expected that we were going to spend the night in a little scary jungle or so the Prof had predicted. And yeah, the jungle is no scary at all. No bluffing. So we didn't pack torchlights except flares.

"You're a really smart woman," SJ Gallagher remarked and winked at Lucia. Finn and Tracy nodded agreement but I was billowing jealousy through my every skin pore. No one should complement Lucia except me. Me alone. "Stop glaring, Mr Alex," added SJ Gallagher offhandedly.

That moment, I didn't know what came over me but I was glad something did. "You crazy old Prof! You knew it was going to be a full moon! You knew about the deadly plants and the whatchamacallits ready to pounce on us any moment yet you brought us here without a complete guide."

The mini torchlight grew ears and listened. Just then, it decided to wane and in a moment, it was off. Total darkness engulfed us immediately.

"The sea had dampened the batteries during our voyage here and I forgot to dry it ever since," gasped Lucia.

Ok, we're officially dead meat. I could swear it. I saw two creatures with red slits as eyes move nearer. The Moon Phantoms were approaching us, relishing their 'Big Moment' to devour us. I could feel a cold, strange darkness enveloping me. When I checked the screen of my glow-in-the-dark watch, it said 4:15am.

What a good time to die hard.

Only a miracle could save us. For example, the sun suddenly falling from the sky or a witch called Hermione turns back the hand of time. Whatever it was, just a miracle will do. That moment, Tracy did something I wished I could kiss her... sorry... kill her for. Perhaps both. It was something dumbly smart.

Toggling on Craig's iPhone's light, she shone it around, expelling the maleficent spirits immediately. The light was so bright that it hurts to look at. Or was it because our eyes were already accustomed to the pre-existing darkness? The two Moon Phantoms screeched at the sudden burst of energy that burned their... Well, that burned them and they floated away. That was smart.

What was dumb was that she had the phone with her the whole time but her goldfish brain couldn't think that iPhones come with in-built torchlights. I dismissed her witless wittiness because I have an unfinished business with the Prof.

"So much for the 'invincible shadows' according to our learned Prof," I sneered when the coast was clear.

"That was five hundred thousand years ago. There was no iPhone then and no artificial ultraviolet rays that could destroy the Moon Phantoms terrorizing the Wabamasa Tribes who only used —"

"Behind you, Finn," yelled Lucia, interrupting the Prof the zillionth time in just a day.

"Arrgh, my arm! Damnit," cried Finn through gritted teeth.

Something was dragging him backward, trailing him into the depth of the thicket.

"Arrggghhhh!" Tracy, who was perfectly fine, shrieked louder than the hurt Finn. "The boogeyman's got Finn! The boogeyman's got Finn!"

"Shut!" Smack. "Up!" Smack. I slapped her hard. It sobered her up, I think, a bit. Then I turned to SJ Gallagher while pointing into the dark bush. "What was that?"

"I think," Prof said, choosing his word carefully, "that was the Maneless Bush Lion."

I picked my katana and snatched the iPhone away from Tracy. "I'm going to save him if y'all will just sit here and watch him die."

SJ Gallagher held me back. "Don't!"

I shrugged his hand away. "Don't? And let him die? How inhumane can you be, Prof? Really heartless, I guess," I blurted out before I could swallow back.

"Let him," said Lucia, coming to my aid. "Let him go."

"What about us? The Moon Phantoms will surely come back to attack us without the light."

"Then we follow Alex and save Finn together."

"As if that Finn was worth anything. He's just a useless astronomer."

"Know what? Alex was right about something. You're so inhumane. Don't you feel distressed about his sudden disappearance?"

"No, of course not," shrugged SJ Gallagher.

I was already on the move but they didn't know because they were in the middle of an heated argument.

I believed Lucia turned to stomp away only to discover that I was nowhere to be found. Concluding she saw the beam of my light bobbing up and down in the thorny thickets, I decided she tracked it.

"Are you going to just sit there and wait till the Moon Phantoms and whatever is out there have you for breakfast?" I heard SJ Gallagher yelled at Tracy in the distance.

Instinctively, I knew Tracy was going to scramble after him.

"Wait up, hey." She yelled back. I was right afterall.

A bestial roar tore into the moonlit night and I quickened my pace.

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