"What is despair, officer? I am interested in your answer," Linda said, observing Officer John in the darkness.
The interesting thing about the scene was that they were both alone, gazing at the night sky, which was filled with stars.
"Isn't this despair?" responded the officer, who had served as a police officer on the city streets for 20 years. "Don't you feel it?"
Officer John was completely sweaty, his uniform torn in various places like his arms and legs, and covered in blood.
Before Linda could respond, she heard a sinister sound coming from the trees. She grabbed the officer's arm and they hid in the bushes again.
"You're not answering my question, officer. I didn't expect any less from you," Linda said, never stopping. Her voice was barely a whisper, but John could hear her. "Now I feel resigned, unable to find a solution to what has happened to us. It may be one of the final facets of despair. I don't know."
John looked at the girl's back and remembered finding her fascinating when she undressed. He recalled the young woman's breasts and the beauty of her hips. However, that seemed so distant now. His mind immediately forgot about it. He could hear something sniffing and getting closer to them.
They descended a slope and came across a river of blood, where thousands of corpses floated like lifeless logs.
"I think we lost him!" John commented, looking in all directions.
"You know that's not true. He will keep searching until he finds us and tears us apart," Linda said.
They approached the river, and as they advanced, the stench of death overwhelmed them.
"We have to cross," Linda said, looking at the other bank. "The river is calm in this area. We can reach the other side."
John didn't want to cross, but there was no choice. They had to do it. They didn't think much and entered the river. Indeed, the current was minimal in that area. However, crossing the countless corpses was not pleasant. John tried not to look at anyone, and neither did Linda.
Thinking that just a few hours before, they were in a motel enjoying carnal pleasure, while now they were running for their lives. Linda continued to ponder about despair; it had been the topic of her thesis. She remembered the title: "Despair as a Multidimensional Phenomenon: a study on its physical, emotional, and behavioral manifestations." Everything they had been through deserved further in-depth research. "Despair as a reflective element in humans: a study on the influence of real monsters on the conception of despair in humans." The title was quite long, but what would be the point of shortening it? They wouldn't make it out of that hell alive.
"Come on, hurry up! You're falling behind," said John, extending his hand to help Linda out of the river. "Move!"
But Linda was still surrounded by the river of blood; now her gaze was fixed on an arm that had gotten stuck to her pants.
"Linda, please, you have to move," said John, offering his hand again.
"What's the point?" she said, but John had already grabbed her and pulled her out of the river.
As soon as they got out of the river, a supernatural and grotesque creature manifested itself from the trees. John and Linda immediately looked away, knowing what happened when someone stared at it for too long. So they started running. The horrific creature was moving slowly; it didn't need to run, it was destined for them to become part of the surroundings.
Once they were at a considerable distance, John vomited and Linda held back the urge to cry. It was horrifying to see the creature. The instinct to run was innate; they had to survive, but they had no hope. That world seemed true to the original, yet it was not the original. Linda repeated this to herself many times, while John could only think that something dreadful had happened in the city.
There were the trees, and in the sky, the stars illuminated the darkness of the forest with unusual clarity. The darkness was not total, nor was the light; it was an in-between. There were no living beings either, no birds, no insects. Although the forest appeared normal at first glance. The river of blood was present in any region they approached. The corpses were only human; they had stopped to observe several times, and there were no animal corpses.
"Do you remember how we ended up here?" John asked, without stopping walking. "We were having sex and then what?"
"A police officer and a psychology graduate, what would my mother say?" Linda replied. She wanted to stop, but she kept on walking. "Would it be the Electra complex? Because I found you so attractive, you idiot."
Neither of them looked at each other as they walked towards a lonely hill. After hours of fleeing, it seemed like dawn would never come. That only reinforced Linda's conviction that they were in hell.
"Come on, Linda, how did we end up in a forest like this if we were in a hotel?" John protested, trying to keep his sanity. "Think a little and maybe we'll find a way out of here." But Linda was still lost in her theories about despair. "Maybe we ingested some drugs, but neither of us uses them. Could it be the water or the soda we had?"
John began touching the trees like a madman. This was real, not an illusion.
"You've done that several times understand that we're in a different world," Linda pointed out. "Officer, don't you follow your sense of logic... I don't know what I found exciting about calling you officer, it doesn't make sense anymore."
At the top of the hill, they observed the world around them. As far as their eyes could see, they only saw vegetation, no buildings or nearby farms. Hope drained from their souls. Neither of them cried, they simply fell silent.
"Do you know why we had an affair?" John finally said, not expecting a response from Linda. "Because I wanted to feel alive, after an exhausting and boring routine on the streets. When I saw your flirtatious face while giving you a traffic ticket, I wanted to escape from that."
Linda said nothing.
Both felt the creature approaching from behind. The stench of its body reached them, the crunch of its footsteps and the sound of its breathing were other indications that it had caught up with them.
"That thing has been following us for hours, don't do it, don't give in to it," Linda finally said, never taking her eyes off John.
He slowly drew a gun from its holster. He had already used five bullets, all fired at the creature, but none had harmed it. Both knew why John hadn't gotten rid of the gun.
"Don't do it," she pleaded as he raised the gun, aiming it at his head.
Strangely, the creature stood still, waiting for John to act. It was something that, in some way, both of them knew. It was like a genetic code embedded in their bodies that signaled them that the creature awaited that gesture.
"What way out do we have?" John said slowly, without removing the gun from his temple. "I await your answer."
John avoided looking at the creature, which was about 500 meters away. It was giant, the size of tree tops, with long arms and legs that brushed the ground. It looked like a deformed and elongated baby. Its face was grotesque, twisted, and evil. Its pointed ears accentuated its distorted appearance as if it had been taken from a failed experiment. It was smiling, waiting for John to imitate it.
"Take me with you!" Linda pleaded. "I don't want to be left alone with that thing."
"I wouldn't have the courage," John replied, trembling.
Linda quickly took the gun from him.
"Then I will save us," she said and promptly aimed at John's heart. "We'll see each other where we have to see each other."
The gun went off, but soon it sounded again, and both bodies fell to the ground. They remained motionless for a few seconds.
Their blood caused some plants to sprout, and vegetation greedily covered them.
The creature continued to smile, patiently waiting for the blood to feed the vegetation. They were destined to join it, which is why it was so patient. It waited for flowers to bloom and for trees to emerge, spreading their powerful leaf-filled branches toward the starry sky. When the bodies were dry, it carried them to the river, where they would become part of the entirety in the current. That's how it tended its garden.
Spanish
—¿Qué es desesperación, oficial? Estoy interesada en su respuesta— dijo Linda, observando en la oscuridad al oficial John.
Lo interesante del panorama es que ambos estaban solos, mirando el cielo nocturno, que estaba poblado de estrellas.
—¿Esto no es desesperación? — respondió el oficial, que había ejercido como policía en las calles de la gran urbe durante 20 años. —Acaso no lo siente.
El oficial John estaba completamente sudado, su uniforme estaba desgarrado en varias zonas como los brazos o las piernas, además de estar lleno de sangre.
Antes de que Linda pudiera responder, escuchó un sonido siniestro proveniente de los árboles. Ella agarró al oficial del brazo y se volvieron a ocultar en los arbustos.
—No responde a mi pregunta oficial, no esperaba menos de usted— decía Linda sin dejar de moverse. Su voz apenas era un susurro, pero John podía oírla claramente. —Ahora me encuentro resignada, no consigo una solución a lo que nos ha pasado. Puede que sea una de las últimas facetas de la desesperación. No lo sé.
John miraba la espalda de la chica y recordaba haberla encontrado fascinante al desnudarse, evocó los pechos de la joven y la belleza de sus caderas. Sin embargo, eso parecía tan lejano. Su mente inmediatamente olvidó aquello. Podía oír algo que los acechaba, pisándoles los talones.
Bajaron una pendiente hasta toparse con un río de sangre, donde miles de cadáveres descendían como troncos inanimados.
—¡Creo que lo perdimos! — comentó John, mirando en todas las direcciones.
—Sabes que no es así, él seguirá buscando hasta que nos encuentre y nos haga pedazos — dijo Linda.
Ambos se acercaron al río, y a medida que avanzaban, el olor de la muerte los aturdía.
—Tenemos que cruzar — dijo Linda, mirando la otra orilla. —El río es tranquilo en esta zona, podremos llegar al otro extremo.
John no quería cruzar, pero no había opción. Tendrían que hacerlo. No lo pensaron mucho y se adentraron en el río. Efectivamente, en esa zona la corriente era mínima. Sin embargo, atravesar el millar de cadáveres no era algo placentero. John intentaba no mirar a nadie y Linda tampoco lo hacía.
Pensar que unas horas antes ellos estaban en un motel disfrutando del placer carnal, mientras ahora corrían por sus vidas. Linda seguía cavilando sobre la desesperación; había sido su tesis de grado. Recordaba el título: "La desesperación como un fenómeno multidimensional: un estudio sobre sus manifestaciones físicas, emocionales y conductuales". Todo lo que habían pasado merecía otra investigación profunda. "La desesperación como elemento de reflexión en los humanos: un estudio sobre la influencia de los monstruos reales en la concepción de la desesperación en los humanos". El título era algo largo, pero ¿qué sentido tendría reducirlo? No saldrían con vida de ese infierno.
—¡Vamos, apúrate! Te estás quedando — dijo John, dándole la mano a Linda para que saliera del río. —¡Muévete!
Pero Linda seguía rodeada del río de sangre; ahora su vista estaba fija en un brazo que se había quedado pegado a sus pantalones.
—Linda, por favor, tienes que moverte — dijo John, volviendo a ofrecer su mano.
—¿Qué sentido tiene? — dijo ella, pero John ya la había agarrado y sacado del río.
En cuanto salieron del río, una criatura sobrenatural y grotesca se manifestó desde los árboles. John y Linda apartaron la vista inmediatamente; sabían lo que pasaba cuando alguien se le quedaba mirando durante mucho tiempo. Así que comenzaron a correr. La criatura horrenda iba despacio; no tenía que correr, estaba predestinado que ellos formarían parte del entorno.
En cuanto estuvieron a una distancia considerable, John vomitó y Linda contuvo las ganas de llorar. Era horrible ver a la criatura. El impulso de correr era innato; debían sobrevivir, pero no tenían esperanzas. Ese mundo parecía fiel al original, pero no era el original. Linda se repetía esto muchas veces, mientras que John solo pensaba que algo espantoso había sucedido en la ciudad.
Ahí estaban los árboles, en el cielo estaban las estrellas que extrañamente iluminaban con nitidez la oscuridad del bosque. La oscuridad no era total ni la luz tampoco, era un intermedio. Tampoco había seres vivos, ni un pájaro, ni un insecto. Aunque el bosque a simple vista era normal. El río de sangre estaba en cualquier región a la que se acercaran. Los cadáveres eran únicamente humanos; varias veces se habían detenido a observar y no había ningún cadáver animal.
—¿Recuerdas cómo llegamos? — formuló John, sin querer parar de caminar. —¿Estábamos teniendo relaciones y luego qué?
—Un policía y una licenciada en psicología, ¿qué diría mi madre? — fue la respuesta de Linda. Ella quería detenerse, pero seguía caminando. —¿Tendría el síndrome de Electra? Porque te vi tan atractivo, si eres un tonto.
Ninguno se miraba mientras caminaban hacia una colina solitaria. Después de horas huyendo, no parecía que fuera a amanecer. Eso reforzaba la convicción de Linda de que estaban en el infierno.
—Vamos, Linda, ¿cómo terminamos en un bosque así si estábamos en un hotel? — protestó John, intentando mantenerse cuerdo. —Piensa un poco y quizás salgamos de aquí. Pero Linda seguía cavilando con sus teorías sobre la desesperación. —Será que ingerimos algunas drogas, pero ninguno de los dos consume. ¿Será el agua o el refresco que teníamos?
John comenzó a tocar los árboles como un demente. Aquello era real, no una ilusión.
—Has hecho eso varias veces, entiende que estamos en otro mundo — indicó Linda. —Oficial, acaso no sigues tu sentido de la lógica… No sé qué veía excitante llamarte oficial, ya no tiene sentido.
En la cima de la colina, observaron el mundo que les rodeaba. Hasta donde alcanzaba su vista, solo veían vegetación, no había edificios ni granjas cercanas. La esperanza terminó por escurrirse de sus almas. Ninguno lloró, simplemente se quedaron en silencio.
—¿Sabes por qué tuvimos una aventura? — dijo por fin John, sin esperar respuesta de Linda. —Porque quería sentirme vivo, después de una rutina agotadora y aburrida en las calles. Cuando vi tu rostro coqueto al ponerte la multa, quise escapar de eso.
Linda no dijo nada.
Ambos sintieron cómo la criatura se acercaba por detrás. El hedor de su cuerpo llegaba a ellos, el crujido de sus pisadas y el sonido al respirar fueron otros indicios de que ya los había alcanzado.
—Esa cosa nos estuvo siguiendo durante horas, no lo hagas, no sucumbas a ella — dijo por fin Linda sin quitarle la vista de encima a John.
Él lentamente sacó una pistola de su funda. Ya había usado cinco balas, todas disparadas contra la criatura, pero ninguna le había hecho daño. Ambos sabían por qué John no se había deshecho del arma.
—No lo hagas — dijo cuando él levantó el arma hasta apuntar a su cabeza.
Extrañamente, la criatura se quedó quieta, esperando que John actuara. Era algo que, de alguna manera, sabían los dos. Era como un código genético incrustado en sus cuerpos que les avisaba que la criatura esperaba ese acto.
—¿Qué salida tenemos? — dijo John lentamente sin apartar la pistola de su sien. —Espero tu respuesta.
John evitaba mirar a la criatura que estaba a unos 500 metros. Era gigante, del tamaño de las copas de los árboles, con brazos y piernas largos que rozaban el suelo. Parecía un bebé deforme y alargado. Su rostro era grotesco, retorcido y malvado. Sus orejas puntiagudas acentuaban su aspecto deformado, parecía sacado de un experimento fallido. Estaba sonriendo, esperando que John lo imitara.
—¡Llévame contigo! — pidió Linda. —No quiero quedarme sola con esa cosa.
—No tendría el coraje — respondió John temblando.
Linda le quitó el arma velozmente.
—Entonces yo nos salvaré — dijo y, acto seguido, apuntó al corazón de John. —Nos veremos donde tengamos que vernos.
El arma sonó, pero pronto volvió a sonar, y ambos cuerpos cayeron al suelo. Permanecieron inmóviles unos segundos.
La sangre de los dos hizo brotar algunas plantas, y la vegetación los cubrió con avidez.
La criatura no dejaba de sonreír, esperando pacientemente a que la sangre alimentara la vegetación. Estaban destinados a unirse a él, por eso era tan paciente. Esperó a que florecieran las flores y algunos árboles emergieran, extendiendo sus poderosas ramas repletas de hojas hacia el estrellado cielo. Cuando los cuerpos estuvieron secos, los cargó y los llevó al río, donde se convertirían en parte de la totalidad en la corriente. Así cuidaba su jardín.
Cover and Banner made in Canva; Image generated in Bing by AI, Separators made in photoshop