The Gang And The Cursed Path

GOOD FRIDAY, APRIL 23

PURISCAL, SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA

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Maria POV

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We were all behind the church. We were weakly eating the things we had bought at the convenience store. We were all completely exhausted from such a brutal procession. On Good Friday there is a procession from Grandma's house to the church of another small town, 10 kilometers uphill, under the brutal summer sun, without stopping to rest. It is so well known as the journey of repentance since it is normal that not everyone reaches the end of the journey and decides to return. Although it started as a religious event, it ended up becoming more of a sporting event by the attendees themselves.

Every year we young people made the trek while the older people stayed at grandma's house preparing lunch for those who would return. Normally my brothers, my cousins, my mother, and my aunt Damaris participated. But it seems like a lot of things happened this time, My aunt seems to have sprained her ankle yesterday so she doesn't come with us for the walk, Mom is taking care of my grandmother because my grandfather is working in the fields even today, he says that he doesn't He is old enough for long walks, but later he is going to plant corn all day under the sun, which I think is worse. So today there are few attendees in my family.

Next to me was my brother Leon, who came from the United States also under threat from my grandmother, and Brayan, the cousin definitive edition. If Cesar were here, the gang would be together again. I also had more female cousins, but they are much older than me, so the only group that didn't reject me was the men. But don't get me wrong, this group was much more fun than being with the other girls, there was always something fun going on, and if we didn't find a way to make it funny. Cesar acted like the leader, which we ignored, but he was the voice of reason in this group of idiots. Leon was the one with the ideas, he proposed what things to do, they almost always went wrong but it was part of the fun. I was more the one who gave moral support to others, if we did something I was there to be in favor, although we all knew it was a bad idea. But Brayan, was the brute force of the group, if anything needed to be done, it was done. Also known as the biggest idiot, he was capable of doing almost anything, I'm sure if it wasn't for Cesar's crazy stuff, Brayan would have the craziest life by far. If you have seen videos of men doing dumb things, then exactly the same but watching it live.

image [https://i.imgur.com/jC7c8vj.jpg]

I think the three of them should be long dead actually. They've done so many stupid things like bike down dead Dave's hill, pedaling at top speed. See who was the bravest who stood the longest near the lit fireworks, The time we hunted a snake with a machete. The most powerful improvised flamethrower, etc. And in all of them, Brayan was the winner of all of them. But time passed and we did not meet again until now.

Right now we were resting to get our strength back to go back to grandma's house, so we were talking to hang out. Leon knowing that it would not hurt either side talking about work with Brayan nearby, spoke better about his time with his wife and how they met. Brayan, for his part, mentioned the fun things of the past, and was melancholic about Cesar's absence in the group, I really thought the same, I would like him to be here with us today. For my part, I talked about how it was to live in Japan because it was something that Brayan did call his attention to. I even showed hiy photos of Tokyo and where we lived.

"And this here is my room, before I had another bed but a wooden leg broke and I have to use this one until they fix it"

image [https://i.imgur.com/aEBiSy0.jpg]

"Jesus Christ, this is all very interesting Maria, but I have to ask the obvious, that over there not is a dog right ?"

Damn, I had missed Tamamo who is also in the photo.

"That is precisely why I took the photo, that day a wild fox entered my room and I was able to take it" I answered nervously

(Thank goodness it's Tamamo in his animal form and not Momo)

"They are a protected species there, right?"

"I think they worship them as spirits"

"Did you have to do anything to get it out of there?"

"Not much, I just opened the window and he left, ha ha ha"

"They don't sound very convinced, something else happened there?"

"Nope"

"Alright keep your secrets then"

"Very well, I think it's time to go back, if we leave now we can get to lunch earlier" Leon said standing up.

"Okay"

"We return by the usual shortcut then?" asked my cousin.

"Of course, I don't want to walk more than necessary"I answered.

"Still, it's amazing to see how healthy you are now Maria"

"I really didn't think they could do the whole tour"

"I'm glad to know that everything is better now" said my brother.

"Well, after all, I couldn't stay in a hospital forever, could I?"

He was right, even though I would have hesitated before to make the whole trip when I was sick. All this is thanks to Cesar that I can be here today with them.

The return trip was not along the same initial route, but at a certain point, we deviated from the main road and entered the forest to cut the road. The place is what people consider a jungle, but we all knew this place perfectly so it was impossible to get lost. But even so, the road was not easy, because yesterday it rained a lot, so there was a lot of mud everywhere. Even so, we already expected this, we already had practice walking and not getting dirty.

wQqpEg9.jpg [https://i.imgur.com/wQqpEg9.jpg]

"Hey! what if later we go to the supermarket and buy loud fireworks to go scare Daniel!?"

"He should be cleaning the house right now, we still have to get revenge for what he did at that Halloween party."

"I'm sure making him run from fright will help him exercise"

"For Daniel, going from the bedroom to the refrigerator is exercise"

"The last time I saw him, he managed to complete the meat bowl challenge at Nica's restaurant."

"Then he came home for dinner"

"I wanted to vomit just listening to it"

"Remember that he was allergic to bees"

"And the time that Cesar disturbed a honeycomb near him"

"The fat man almost had a heart attack just for yelling"

"I have no idea how he managed to get down to his house"

"That is easy for Daniel"

"Rolling"

"And even so I'm sure he would get tired"

"Hey, did you hear something?" Brayan said.

"Now what? The jokes of that style are already very worn" Leon answered who had already fallen 6 times today with the same joke.

"No wait, I think this time it's something serious"

"Is there someone else ahead?"

"I think he's asking for help!"

Something inside me lit up, the sense that something was about to happen, damn even without Cesar here do things still happen?

"Help!"

"It came from that direction!"

"Brayan wait!"

"We should be careful so they can see us!"

"What if it's a robbery!?"

We ran after our cousin, we talked a little until suddenly he stopped short and crouched down, we were surprised by what he did, we did the same and we approached where she was. I raised my head a little then I saw what was happening. A few meters from us there was a person on the ground, next to him was a huge dog, with dark gray hair, it was a giant coyote, it was attacking her. The person kept hitting him in the face, but the dog wouldn't stop. I could see red stains on the ground, there was blood from his victim.

"Damn, we have to help!"

"Hey, bastard! Over here!" Brayan said without thinking too much about what could happen.

"Brayan Stop!"

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"Waiting! Do not be an idiot!"

"We have to think it through!" I tried to stop him but it didn't work.

"We have to call the police and let them take care of it!"

"We can't get involved"

"We are in the middle of the Jungle!"

"What direction do you plan to give?"

"From the mango tree 30 meters south?"

"By the time they arrive, they will have eaten us all" I contradicted him.

"So what should we do? Let it kill us?"

Don't worry, Maria, this isn't a big deal, it's easy, Cesar has come out of worse things, hasn't he? I should just act the same as him. But how do I act like him? No, wait, don't stress, he always thinks about the things are going to do before he acts, normally. For now, the priority is to save the person on the ground, but for that, we must try to scare the dog away.

Come on what else? What would he be thinking in a place like this?

Damn, my own boobs don't let me see well

...

What else?

He doesn't always yell at someone else?

That is easy, I can try that!

"Stop crying for once and act like a man!"

"Go and help Brayan!"

"Get Coyote's attention so he can hit it!" I yelled at Leon.

"And what do I defend myself with?"

"Here, it's a stick, your ancestors hunted mammoths with one of these!"

"Now go there and make them proud!"

"Help!"

This time the scream comes from Brayan because the Coyote was now chasing him. Leon knew that the situation was dangerous, but he had to do something, he didn't want to be the weak of the team, so he adjusted his glasses, and then he yelled running toward the dog trying to scare him. For my part, I ran towards the person on the ground. She was a young woman, she was wearing sports clothes, I think I had seen her before in the procession, maybe a neighbor of my grandmother, I had to help her.

"Stupid dog!"

"Over here!"

"Brayan hit him with the knife you had!" I heard Leon yell in the background.

Quickly review the situation. The coyote was a couple of meters from me, but Brayan and Leon were holding him back, so I wouldn't be attacked right away. In front of me, I had the girl, she must have been seriously injured. She was on the ground and didn't seem to move. This was serious!

"Hey, can you hear me!?"

"Hello!?"

"Reply to me!"

There was no answer, she was unconscious. I immediately proceeded to pinch her trapeze, but there was no response. Remembering what I had seen some doctors do in the hospital, I opened the girl's pupils, her pupils were dilated, and she was really unconscious. After I loosened her clothes a little and tried to feel her breathing, THERE WAS NO BREATH! I put my fingers on her carotid artery, pulse was very low ,40 per minute, She was close to going into cardiac arrest.

"Shit!"

I took off her clothes and proceeded to do CPR immediately trying to save her.

"Leon Watch out!"

"Behind you!"

"Fuck! Jump on him NOW!"

"Quick, whoever is free, come here now!"

"This girl is dying!"

"That's it! he is leaving wounded!"

"I'm on my way!"

Brayan came running to my side offering his help immediately. Leon was on the ground he seemed to have a nervous breakdown.

"Here!"

"Put your hands on it and compress"

"Go with rhythm"

"120 chest compressions per minute, that's around 2 per second"

"Keep doing that until I tell you otherwise."

"Will this save her?"

"How much time will it take?"

"I do not know!"

"Until the paramedics arrive?"

"Leon calls the fucking ambulance!"

"NOW!"

I went back to check the girl's pulse again, but now it was much worse. There was no pulse, she was having a cardiac arrest.

There was something I had to do, I couldn't give up yet I had to save her.

!!!!

The Talisman Pack!

Inside one of my pockets I took out what looked like a deck of cards, Tamamo had given it to me before leaving. They were to protect us in case something serious happened. Each talisman came with a simple spell and charge. There were several types, on the back they said what each one was for the healing one is to stop bleeding, they will not cure a cardiac arrest, fireball, ice spear, wind blade, and the one I was desperately looking for, lightning. But even so, this is a spell to deal damage, not a defibrillator. But if I manage to measure it so that it has a lower voltage it could work as one, I have to modify it so that it has adequate power. Tamamo had been teaching me a bit about magic, so he told me a bit about these talismans, they had the main kanji, which was impregnated with mana, and smaller characters, this should be the power one, if I change this with this, and I scrape the ink off here, I also have to divide this into three loads to distribute the energy correctly, and maybe it should work.

"Maria, I'm getting tired!"

"I can't be at this all day!"

"Stop playing with paper and help me!"

"We have to change!"

"Here it is"

"Ready!"

"Get out of there if you don't want to get electrocuted!"

"What do you plan to do with it?"

I took the talisman and pressed it on the unconscious girl's chest.

Count, one, two, three

PUM

An electric shock made the girl's whole body tremble

....

Still nothing

Again

I pressed again

Three, two, one

PUM

Another shock, another tremor, still nothing.

"Come on it works damn it!"

Three, two, one

PUM

The charge of the talisman had disappeared

That was all I could do

"Aaaahhh!!!"

The girl's body moved and she sucked in air sharply.

There was a pulse, she was breathing on her own

She had been saved, for now

She was still unconscious and her leg was bleeding.

But the worst for her had already happened

"Damn that was horrible"

"I shit my pants"

"...."

"What the hell did you do there?" my cousin Brayan asked me.

"I finished calling the ambulance, I was able to use the GPS to give them our position"

"We should take her to the street if we want to get out of this as soon as possible" Said the insensitive Leon, oblivious to what just happened.

I put the healing talisman on the girl's wound, unlike the rest it didn't seem to be that serious. We were with her until the paramedics arrived to rescue her, where they took the piece of paper from her and exchanged it for the shirt that Brayan was wearing, so as not to raise even more suspicions about why. Brayan for his part did not seem very reluctant to lose his shirt for a girl.

When they took her away, the three of us continued on our way to Grandma's house. Where they were waiting for us as usual. We tell you about our journey where we activated the grandmother's detective mode, who picked up the phone and started making calls to discover the identity of the mysterious girl. In a short time, he managed to realize that the girl was Daniel's neighbor, the fat man that we were originally going to bother today. Her mother had been a great friend of our grandmother, for which she was grateful that we rescued her.

image [https://i.imgur.com/cKqxMcc.jpg]

Grandma's house is far from what I could call a palace, but I think the whole family has passed through this house maybe even before the formation of the country. At least it has electricity, water, and telephone, but being here is like going back 200 years to the past. We have spent years trying to get my grandmother out of here to a more modern house, but she has rejected all proposals, she is simply too proud of her house. In it, a good part of the family was gathered, everyone was talking about what happened this morning and about what had really happened because the coyotes had never attacked a person alone before. My mother congratulated me for saving someone's life and said she was proud of me. Leon was still nervous about what happened so he looked for painkillers to try to relax. When the congratulations were over, I went to the back to talk to Brayan again.

"What an adventure we had today"

"Now are you're going to tell me what you did in the forest?"

"What were those papers?"

"That doesn't matter, I have more important news"

"...."

"It's Cesar, he's still alive"

"It is impossible"

"I went to his funeral"

"Bryan!"

"It's the truth, he's been living in my house for almost 3 months already"

He looked at my face surprised

"Okay then"

"So what do you need me to do?"

Just as I expected from Brayan, he didn't doubt me and I accepted it immediately. He is still the same idiot as always ready to do everything.

"It's Leon and the rest, they still don't know"

"My mother wants to reintroduce him to the family, but he looks too different than before."

"I want your support, whatever happens, I need you to accept it and act like it's no big deal"

"That's what he wants"

"Then it will be trying to calm Leon down".

"Ok take it for granted"

"I can't wait to get together and try to finish hunting that dragon we left alive when we all played"

"I still have the console ready for the rematch"

"Speaking of dragons, I think you'd better put that aside as well."

"Cesar is bored of them at this point"

The rest of the day passed without incident, everything was exactly the same as in other years. When the celebration was over, everyone returned to their homes. My aunt's house is a little further down, near the convenience store, and thank God it's much more modern. Even so, my mother and I stayed to sleep one more day, until the end of Saturday she received a call, it seems that someone wanted to meet her on Easter Sunday in Jaco, a beach town famous for tourism.