Roxygirl! So happy to hear your virtual voice again! I've missed you. Well, here's your update, as promised, half a week later. I decided to not wait as long.

Also, check out the past chapter if you want, fellow readers. I've updated it. One of you (and you know who you are, rookblonkorules) critiqued it. I love critiques to help better my writing. Just more detail was added, nothing plot changing.

Chapter 2!

[This has been edited thanks to the help of rookblonkorules]


When she wakes up, the truck is still moving. She's on her back, like before. She cries out, from pain. A thug clamps a hand on her mouth and she's too weak to bite it. She looks at her shoulder and it is a solid red color. Her bicep is no better. She glares as best she can at her captors. Then the jeep stops.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!" The leader says, sitting in the front. He slaps who Melissa guesses is the driver.

"There is a log on the road, senor," the driver explains.

"Well if you aren't too busy, remove it!" The leader yells two names and the guys around Melissa get out of the truck to move the tree. She tries to sit up, but she groans. Someone yelps, but it's out of her vision, so she doesn't know what's happening.

"Dios mio," the driver says. Another yelp is heard and the driver shrieks.

A third guy is standing next to the truck with his gun out. He cocks it and looks around for an intruder. A loop made of a vine comes down and wraps around his waist. He sees it and doesn't have any time to warn the others before he's pulled up into the trees. His gun goes off in rapid fire and he drops it.

"I-It's the ghost, of the jungle," the driver says from his spot, "He punishes those who prey upon the weak. He's coming." He gets out of the truck. Then Melissa hears a thump and he shrieks. "I-I just remembered I left the stove on and my wife, she hates that!" Melissa watches a blurry image of a scrawny guy run away, back down the road they came. The leader who is now all alone, tells him to come back, but he gets a scared reply that he's on his own.

The leader gets out and taunts the mysterious intruder. Then he disappears into the jungle, leaving Melissa to herself. She pants from the blood loss and the overall pain her body is feeling. She can't remember any other injuries, but her entire body seems so consumed by pain that there must be more.

She hears a gunshot far off. She freezes, listening for more sound. But she only hears the wind and occasional bird call. Some leaves rustle, but it could be nothing. She tries to sit up, to find a sharp object, something, but she runs out of options as her head swims and she has to stop moving.

"Ermm.." she groans. The truck turns on. 'What happened? Is the thug back? Or is this someone ne-' she groans loudly again, 'No thinking. Hurts too much.'

A shadow, from the back lights of the truck, over takes what her vision allows. She feels darkness pushing at her consciousness and she catches a glimpse of a brown cloak before she lets it take her.


After the robbers left the village, the population scattered throughout the buildings. Each family checked their home for what was missed by the evil men's eyes. The hikers went to their small hut. All but one.

Brandon checks Felipe's room while the girls look over the main room. After a moment of searching and coming up with only a stray pot, Melchora looks around. "Where's Felipe?" The others look up, also noting the hiker's absence. "Felipe!" They shuffle out the door and see Felipe standing where he was before. He's staring out at the road.

"Felipe," Alice says, walking over to him.

"She's gone.." Felipe says.

"C'mon Felipe," Brandon says, tugging his arm, "Let's help check the houses." The shocked twin lets his friend pull him away. Felipe sees Melissa's hut and goes over to it. He walks through the door. Her backpack was taken, along with the blanket on the bed. The chair is in pieces. Numbely, Felipe sits on the bed, hearing it creak from the added weight.

"Felipe?" Alice walks in and sits down next to him. He looks up at her sadly and then turns back to his hands.

"I should have done something," Felipe says, forlornly, "I should not have been scared. She is my sister."

"You couldn't do anything," Brandon says, sitting on his other side. They all understand what he means. Melchora sits on the floor, taking Felipe's hands.

"There was nothing any of us could do, without getting shot as well."

"We can't just leave her behind! She's hurt, she.. she could be dead!" Felipe puts his hands in his hair. Nothing is going right. They weren't supposed to have this happen. They shouldn't have stayed longer.

The group sits for a moment, consoling one another with their company. Then Brandon and Melchora get up to help with the larger buildings. There was nothing left in Melissa's. Alice stays with Felipe until one of them comes back.

"Look!" Felipe turns his head to the window. The little boy in the brown hat is pointing up the road. He sees the truck come barreling down the hill. It comes to a stop after hitting a tree. A mother looks at it, seeing that there are no thugs inside.

"It's a miracle," she says. Felipe is given hope and he gets up. He joins the crowd that had gathered around the truck. Men had started to form a line in the back, handing things to each other and piling it where people can search for their stuff. Felipe joins the line and passes vases, jewelry, and whatever else was handed to him. He looks up to the front after fifteen minutes of this. He's wondering if Melissa is in the back.

"Is my sister.. Hello? Is my sister up there?" he asks the man next to him that is closer. But he doesn't answer. Felipe isn't good with Spanish. Alice is, so she goes farther up and talks to a few of the men now in the bed of the truck. She comes back and shakes her head.

"No one is in the back, Felipe. But there are pools of, blood," Alice relays. Felipe looks at the jungle. When someone yells at him to take a jug, he steps out of the line.

"We need to find her," he says, "I'll search the whole jungle if I have to."

"Don't worry," Felipe looks at the young boy who had pointed out the truck, "la Fantasma de la Selva saved her. He'll take care of her." He hugs Felipe's legs, "You'll see your hermana again, senor. I know it." Felipe crouches and hugs the little boy back. He wants to believe him, but a ghost?

'What can a ghost do about wounds?' But Felipe holds onto the shred of hope the little boy and his faith in the impossible it brings.


More in what happens in the movie, but added the OC's to it a little.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Critiques?