Not far from there.
Marcela and Bernardo are leaning against a tree, kissing under the drops that slip past the leaves and fall onto their warm skin, sensitive to each other's gentle touch.
Sarah is sitting at the edge of the lake, watching the drops that fall and come into contact with the water's surface. They shape small waves that appear and disappear intensely all the time, nothing more than echoes of their brief existences.
Breaking the moment.
A branch snaps behind her.
By instinct, she turns in search of something.
Then she is surprised by a green cloth approaching her face.
She even tries to dodge, but without success.
Now she tries to free herself from the cloth that suffocates her little by little.
Muscular arms imprison her.
On this cloth she observes countless small glowing dots in an avocado-green tone.
In the background, in a brief glance before losing consciousness, she manages to see legs being dragged.
After a few minutes, Sarah begins to regain consciousness. She tries to open her eyes, but they seem to weigh twice as much as usual, her whole body feels heavier.
A small glow similar to the previous one begins to bother her eyes. Looking downward toward her mouth, she finds the same cloth from before, however now it releases a strange odor along with small threads of smoke that come out of the glowing dots.
Smoke that quickly dissipates into the air.
Her arms tied behind her begin to bring a small discomfort. When she finally manages to restore her vision, still lying down, she casts a look forward and finds Bernardo and then Marcela.
Both are unconscious, gagged and tied.
As she moves her eyes, the interior of the back of a van without the rear seats begins to take shape.
A hooded person, apparently a man, is sitting on the left and somewhat distant. He is wearing black clothes and looking downward. Further back, there are two seats with two hooded people also sitting. One is in the driver's seat and the other in the seat beside it.
Sarah tries to pass her arms through her legs to put them in a more comfortable position. With slow, but strained movements, she manages.
Slowly she removes the gag from her mouth while trying to stand up without the man noticing.
After succeeding, she jumps on him and begins trying to choke him with a rear chokehold while throwing the weight of her body backward. The commotion is noticed by the men sitting in the front seats. One of them gets up somewhat unbalanced due to the movement of the van.
Realizing this, Sarah releases the man she is choking and returns to the back.
Her hands feel the metal behind her, the van's swaying does not seem very large.
The man begins trying to get up, recovering from the blow.
The other supports himself firmly on the side while slowly trying to approach, and with a wide step, passes over the two unconscious ones. He seems to prepare to jump. Sarah casts a look around trying to regain perception of things.
In the background, she manages to see through the windshield a bridge approaching at full speed. Recognizing that place, she remembers that the river there tends to fill up with any heavier rain, like the one that fell throughout the day.
She takes a deep breath and then feints to the right, tricking one of the men who jumps into empty space. Immediately after, she throws herself to the left, colliding with the side of the van and propelling herself forward, quickly passing by the other man who even tries to stop her. But he is still disoriented from the chokehold and loses balance, falling to the ground.
Without hesitating for a second, she jumps toward the driver's seat and abruptly applies another chokehold that makes him release the steering wheel. Her arms are so contracted that the headrest pops off to the side with a crack.
She realizes the man is no longer reacting.
The crack was not only from the seat breaking.
In the next instant, a great force pulls her to the side, making her crash into the door glass which cracks.
The van begins to spin and the windows shatter. Everyone inside is thrown from side to side, and a great impact follows. Sarah is thrown out through one of the windows that no longer has glass. After this last impact, she falls for two seconds before seeing herself diving into a fierce current.
She manages to get her head above the water, and finds herself being carried downstream. While floating, she looks around searching for the van. For a brief moment, a lightning bolt cuts across the sky and illuminates the surroundings. Ahead, a piece of the rear reveals itself being swallowed by the fury of the water.
Dive after dive, she tries to get closer.
When she comes back up, she cannot see anything, then realizes she has just lost sight of the van.
She dives once, twice, three times and nothing.
Desperate, she casts lost glances into the darkness that only cease for brief moments when lightning cuts the sky again.
Not knowing what to do anymore and being carried farther and farther away, Sarah begins to dive in the same direction as the river, but slightly diagonally to the left in an attempt to reach the side and find something she can hold onto on a bank she can barely see.
After alternating between dives and breaths, a lightning bolt crashes and cuts the horizon in the distance, at that moment the rain seems to fall in slow motion. Everything is silent, the only thing that can be heard is the loud thunder that follows and her heavy breathing. Thanks to that moment, Sarah manages to see that further ahead there are several tree branches touching the water. One more dive and she raises her arms as she passes under one of the branches, grabbing it with all she has.
After grabbing and throwing her legs, she manages to cling to the branch. Then she begins to move along it until reaching the bank. Sarah leans against the tree looking at the river with her arms still tied.
Her gaze is distant and empty.
Her face like marble shows no expression.
Her fists clench.
The small bones of her hands crack.
She lets her body collapse before the communal force of nature in front of her and falls to her knees on the grass.
Her expression transforms, and a furious and insane look awakens.
Sarah forces the rope between her arms with all she has.
Her muscles are fully contracted.
A roar like that of a wild animal in the middle of a dense forest echoes from her.
At that exact moment four things happen.
The first is a storm of lightning cutting across the entire horizon.
Countless bolts, one greater than the other, fall from the sky as if possessed by life itself and with the intention of destroying everything.
After a few seconds, a final bolt falls downstream.
The second is the awakening of a black dagger, which had long been dormant at the bottom of a cave, now it begins to be taken over by a blue-silver aura.
The third is the ropes binding Sarah breaking with her brute strength.
And lastly, two flowers are cut prematurely from the garden of life.
Sarah's fists fall onto the grass like hammers in a sequence of pure fury, making the ground sink in the areas of impact. And for almost an hour, she remains seated leaning against the tree, exposed to the rain, to the soaked grass and to the river that continues without asking permission.
She stands up with her head lowered, and still with the pieces of rope on her arms, begins to walk aimlessly along the edge of the nearby street. Until she is stopped by an elderly woman with gray hair who has just gotten out of a car in the rain. Frightened by the scene, she crouches in front of her.
"Girl... are you okay?" The woman asks her, however no answer comes, Sarah stands there looking at the ground.
"My God!" She looks at the ropes. "Come, girl, I will take you to a safe place."
She takes her to a post in the city, where two armed forces agents usually stay at night. When they arrive there, the woman tells them what had happened. The two go toward the car, look at Sarah and ask how she is.
Only silence echoes among them.
They ask the woman to take her to the nearest security post in her car. After being examined by a doctor on duty, the police try again to talk to her, but fail once more. Then they decide to leave her alone for a while.
Sarah finds herself wrapped in a towel, sitting on a sofa. The ropes are no longer present.
At least not physically.
Hours pass, and sleep only comes four hours later, when her body falls to the side without her permission.
In the morning, after waking up, she finds her father there beside her. Sitting and with a face shaped by concern. He had been waiting for her to wake up. By coincidence, one of the agents from the morning shift knew them, so he called him.
"Hii. Good morning, how are you?" Júlio runs his hand through her hair.
She nods positively, and hugs him tightly, he returns the gesture.
"Can you tell us what happened?" One of the agents asks again.
She releases herself from her father, looks at him with a sad and moist gaze, and nods positively. After a few more minutes there with Júlio, she is taken to a room where the agents ask several questions that she answers.
Then she tells everything that happened. They hesitate to believe some parts, like the one where she said she killed everyone. They consider that she is traumatized by the event in her account.
After almost three hours, she is taken to a hospital and then home.
She even tries to take a shower.
But water only washes the flesh.
Sarah lies down on the bed and does not take long to pass out.
The rain continues for five more days for most.
Not for her.