CHAPTER 37: 37-IN OUR TRAP

Clementine:

My heart started beating fast. Maybe everyone was right when they said I acted more like boys. But when he started touching me like a girl, my body just softened. He still had my face gently held in his warm hands, and I was tightly holding his wrist, like I was falling and he was the only thing keeping me steady. He began to softly suck on my upper lip with his lips, and I got so nervous that I couldn’t bring myself to react. My eyes just closed on their own.

I hadn’t known my best friend could be so mesmerizing. Then, with so much care, he tilted his face and, while doing that, took my lips into his and started kissing me even more deeply.

There was a strange stir in my body. Back when I was dating Yorick, the most we ever did was kiss each other on the cheek. But we used to lie and say we were making out regularly, because I didn’t want anyone to call me a nerd, or him either, for being with me. At the time, I used to think that boys were only interested in girls for their bodies or for sex. But now that I’m growing older, I’m starting to realize that there’s a lot more to a relationship than just sex.

Maybe at some point in between, he realized that I was getting too nervous. My whole body had started to tense up, so he pulled back a little, creating some space between our lips so I could catch my breath. During that pause, he stared into my eyes, and for the first time, I felt something strange, even in his closeness. I was still so angry with him, for playing such a big game with me, yet I couldn’t push him away.

I blamed it all on acting and pretended like it was no big deal, and everything would be fine. But just then, the Faun suddenly stomped his feet hard on the ground, put his hands down too, and went on all fours. Only then did we finally pull completely away from each other.

I shook myself awake and got up from the rock, along with Troy. He held my hand, and we began rushing toward the other side of the woods, trying to put as much space between us and the faun as possible.

By this point, he was also running after us, probably very angry. We could hear him grunt and make strange noises that showed he was in pain from watching us together. It was heartbreaking, but we had to do it.

"I think he has already put two and two together, that I’m cheating on him with you. So we don’t need to go to different places to keep up this act," I started to complain while running, my breathing heavy. I had never been so stressed while running before. I love to run. I love to race. But this time, something had happened. Probably it was the kiss I shared with Troy that left me in a daze.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"He was stunned last time, but this time he was ready to attack us. That means he has already figured it out. He had started acting on his anger," I replied, my breaths heavy.

So we turned to run toward our designated area, where we had set the traps. We started to sprint faster. The faun would pause every few seconds to let out a screeching, howling, painful cry. That gave us an advantage over him. We were able to put more distance between us.

So we ran and ran. And then we finally arrived at our area. We could see Yorick in the tree.

Once we arrived, we began to climb the tree. The faun didn’t care where we were. He started rushing toward us. That was when he stepped right into our trap.

His foot landed right in the center of the trap. The ropes we had made from the tree’s bark snapped tight. In an instant, the whole net sprang up, pulling him off the ground and wrapping around his body. The tree bent upward, hoisting him into the air. Now he was swinging, tangled inside the net, trapped and thrashing. He let out a furious, guttural scream as he fought against the cords.

Finally, we were able to catch a break and climb down from the tree. Once we were on the ground, we all stood together and watched the faun look at us. He was trying to get out, moving a lot. Then one of his hooves slipped through the net, and we could tell he was in pretty bad shape.

"Stop, please. We are not going to hurt you."

I was the one who began to speak, and his struggles started to slow down.

"I caught you kissing your best friend," he hissed, sending goosebumps across my skin.

Every time the faun spoke, I felt like something strange was happening. Hearing a monster talk wasn’t something that happened every day.

"You two kissed?" Yorick whispered, but we ignored him. I had to focus on the faun.

"I know, I know. We shouldn’t have. But that doesn’t mean we don’t care about you," I said, sounding like an idiot.

I wondered how his wife might have explained things to him when he had caught her in bed with his friend. There was no explanation a cheater could give that would satisfy or comfort the one they had betrayed.

"Yet you have me tangled by the tree. Did you do it to make him happy? To show him that I’m not powerful enough to fight back? Did you trap me so I wouldn’t hurt your lover?"

His voice was always weirdly shaky. Even though he sounded very angry, there were these little pauses he took that made me feel uneasy.

"I don’t want to compare myself with you," Troy finally started speaking, thankfully, because I felt like I was the only one trying to convince the faun at this point.

"If you don’t want to, then leave her for me. I love her more than you do. You won’t be able to make her happy the way I would," The faun argued with Troy in the gentlest tone, almost like he was begging him.

"Wow, does the faun even know that it’s your decision to not let anyone come close to you?" Yorick shocked me when he whispered those words right into my ear, making the faun narrow his eyes and look at him.

"Who are you?" the faun asked Yorick, who smiled uncomfortably and put some distance between us.

"I don’t know. That’s what I’m thinking, who I am in this story," he said before walking away, probably to let the faun focus on the two of us and not get confused by his presence.

I watched Yorick stand behind the tree, one hand resting against the trunk as he watched us from afar.