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The Pishtaco

By Lillianna Baca

     After our meeting with the Nagual there was a tense feeling. We knew we would encounter one of the monsters eventually but it was scarier than I had thought.

 

      “Odilia, hello? You zoned out for a while, are you okay?” Juanita asked, breaking me out of my thoughts.

 

       “Oh yeah. Is everyone okay? No one's hurt?” I asked, looking at all of the sisters to make sure none of them were injured. They all shook their heads indicating they were fine.

 

      “Alright, well, maybe there is a clean river nearby.  I’m sure we are all thirsty,” I said as they all nodded.

 

     “I’m pretty sure I saw one when we were riding here,” Velia said.

 

      We followed her to the river quietly; it was a bit of an awkward atmosphere at first. You could feel the tension from miles away. But after a few minutes, it was almost as if the whole ordeal hadn’t happened and everything seemed normal.

 

      “Hey look! It’s the lake,” Pita yelled, pointing over at the water.

 

      We all went down to the river inspecting it to see if it would be clean enough just to have a little sip. I figured it was clean enough, and cupped my hands together grabbing some water and drinking it. At the time it felt refreshing, but it tasted like dirt, so I knew it was probably best to not drink a lot. I went to grab one last drink when I heard someone walk over to me. All my sisters were drinking the lake water so I knew it wasn't them. I quickly jumped up and turned around to face a girl who was around the same age as me.

 

       “Who are you?” I asked in a wary tone after the incident that had just happened.

 

        Eventually my sister noticed the tension and walked over to us.

 

        “S-sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. I was just wondering if you have seen a group of girls around here?” she asked with a shaky voice.

 

        “I haven’t, sorry,” I answered. The girl in front of me sighed and nodded her head.

 

        I took this time to analyze her. She had long brown hair; she was also extremely skinny as if she had no fat, which of course isn’t humanly possible.

 

         “Um, do you think you could help me find my friends? I’ve been looking for them for hours,” she said quietly.

 

      I felt sorry for her but I also didn’t know who to trust. I mean, a donkey just tried to kill us! I opened my mouth to speak but was cut off by my youngest sister.

 

       “Of course we’ll help you,” she said with a bright smile, as if she didn’t just see some worrying things.

 

       The other sisters looked unsure, but after exchanging a few looks they nodded in agreement with Pita.

 

       “Where was the last time you saw them?” Delia asked.

 

       The girl in front of us bowed her head to us as if she was apologizing, but it seemed as if it was out of respect.

 

        “Well, I got separated from them in that forest,” she said pointing to the forest in the opposite direction we came from.

 

       The two twins and Pita nodded following her while Juanita and I stayed back a little.

 

       “You don’t think this is odd?” I asked Juanita.

 

         “I think you are just paranoid because of earlier, but if you’re that worried then keep your guard up,” she said, then left me to catch up with the others.

 

        I heard the other girls ask her questions like how she lost her friends, what her name is, what friends' names are, yet I couldn’t focus on the answers.

 

        “So anyway, what is your name?” Pita asked the girl.

 

       “Giselle,” the girl said quietly.

 

        “Ooh, Giselle is a pretty name. So then, what's your last name?” Juanita asked.

 

        There was a bit of silence, and that’s when I started losing my focus on her words because I was anxious something would pop up from behind a tree or something.

 

        “Um, Giselle Martenize,” the girl answered after the awkward silence.

 

       Giselle Martenize...that’s a pretty name right Odilia?” Pita said looking back at me.

 

       “Giselle Martenize?” I asked Pita nodded.

 

        I recognized the name, just from where? That's when it hit me. Giselle Martenize went missing four months and her body was found a week before we found that old man's body. I realized we weren’t safe so I went to get my sisters to tell them we had to get out of here but as soon as I looked up, the girl had grabbed Juanita and was pulling her away from the rest of us. It was as if she knew I figured something out.

 

        “Go after it!” I yelled running after the girl and my sisters as the others followed. We ran until we caught up but when we did the girl was gone and a pale monster was there instead.

 

        Long white hair, deep red eyes, and one tooth sticking out. It hadn’t taken me too long to realise that it was biting Juanita’s arm. I grabbed as many rocks and twigs I could find on the ground and threw them at it. I never had a clean hit but it shocked him enough to drop Juanita so I quickly ran over and grabbed my sister.

“Pita, I don’t think Juanita can move much right now. Can you watch her?” I asked and she nodded. What did he do to drain all of her energy? I got Delia and Veilia to follow through with my somewhat risky plan: I would find sharp sticks and sharpen them a bit more while they found a way to distract the monster. I climbed the tree next to the pishtaco and waited until the monster was completely distracted. I noticed that the Pishtaco was big, but it didn’t seem to be that strong. I jumped onto the monster's shoulder and shoved two twigs into its red eyes. Afterwards, I jumped off grabbing on to a tree branch. My hand slipped and I fell but since it wasn't that high, I ended up being fine. I kicked behind his kneecap to make him fall. Then I grabbed my sisters and ran.

 

       “Are you two okay?” I asked the twins and they nodded reassuringly.

 

        “Okay, maybe we should cross the river to get as far away from that monster as we can,” I said and they all agreed with me.

 

        I had Juanita on my back during this when she started to wake up.

 

        “Guys what happened?” she asked

 

        “We’ll talk about it later,'' I said.

 

         “Juanita, hold on tight. You don’t have enough energy to swim right now so stay on my back,” I said and she agreed quietly as if she was going back to sleep.

 

          We crossed the river quite easily seeing as it was only deep in the middle. Once we got to the other side we all layed down, and I checked on all of my sisters to make sure they were okay.

 

        “Juanita went to sleep again,” Pita said. I just nodded to let her know it was okay. If only I had listened to myself we wouldn't be in this situation.