When There Is Nothing Left But Love

“Damn! How are we going to get out of here? It’s a sea of mountains!” One woman exclaimed in shock.

Nora looked at the hill range that seemed to go on forever. Holding onto her forehead, she was probably starting to feel restless, just like I was.

Nevertheless, she sighed, “Let’s move on. There’s no way we can’t find our way out.”

Easier said than done. We went around in circles for who knew how long, moving from one hill to another.

The sky got darker and darker while the women got worried. “I think we should find a place to rest. If we continue walking like this, I’m afraid we may bump into some wild animals that live here. That would be bad.”

That was not an unreasonable request. At first, everything seemed fine, as we were able to identify traces of human passage. But after walking for several hours, as we ventured deeper and deeper into the forest, I realized there were almost no traces of human beings left.

Nora turned to face us. She went silent for a while and eventually agreed. “Okay, let’s find a place to rest for the night.”

We had no means of making fire. We had made our impromptu escape without bringing along extra clothes or food.

Fortunately, after walking for a little while longer, we found a large and sturdy tree with a giant hole underneath its roots. Someone must have dug it out some time ago. The size of the entrance, however, was barely accommodating.

As women, we were relatively petite in size, so we had little issue crawling into the hole.

The sky had gone completely dark by the time we entered the hole. Night had fallen. Each of us reluctantly found a safe spot and sat down.

of us in total. Besides Nora and I, the names of the three other women with

began to make introductions. The other three

side, which might be due to hormonal imbalance. Her cheeks had been visibly covered in acne for quite some time, especially along the jawlines. Some of them had formed pus and turned white, while a few had

plump with medium-length hair. Her eyebrows highlighted her forehead wrinkles, which made her seem at least ten years older than

I got to learn about their

young and beautiful women only, but it turned out not to be the case. Perhaps they just wanted women. Any woman would do. As for what they wanted us for, we

in the hole to get some rest. I heard Tessa reciting some prayers close

exactly loud, but in the

and Laurel were understandably scared, but they stayed curled up in the hole,

believe in God, but can you please recite your prayers in your mind, and not say it out loud? You’re going to attract

a furious retort. “God will only protect us. He will not bring us

eyes and, when the chanting resumed, said, “Look, if it means so much to you, please do

went quiet after

exchanged glances. Neither had anything to say.

the night. We lived

The next day.

in the forest was music to the ears. By the time I woke up, Tessa had

knees when the noise roused