1 The bear

You like to run every morning for at least an hour around uninhabited roads in the middle of the night when the atmosphere seems to be blue. The dew is falling harmoniously on your face as you listen to music with your favorite red headphones. It's a little cold, it looks like it's going to rain, so the day will begin; although you know there's no way to give an exact forecast since sometimes it gets cloudy and cold at dawn, but at the end of the day it ends up beating down on a glowing summer sun; you feel it in a part of you. You're wearing a dark sleeveless T-shirt and short pants that lighten your path a bit. You're sweating too much, as if you were facing something terrifying, although, the truth is you're not. You're not tired yet, but soon you will be because your breathing speeds up, almost becoming imperceptible at every pause you make to inhale and exhale. And the pumping of your heart beats at every moment in your chest like the desperate beat of a drum. The song ended and another one was played. The light shoes that were comfortable for you in the morning now become heavy when you run at a slower pace on the wet asphalt because of the little rain in the morning, which is likely to break out in the next few minutes. You put your hands on your knees; you stop for a moment to rest, rather than suddenly falling down in the middle of the road because of tiredness, being a main object to cause a traffic accident. The song was in the chorus with the vocalist raising the volume of his voice (is hard come in your heart). You check the time on the clock on your left wrist, you have already completed the estimated time to be running as the doctor had requested; however, you never make an hour exactly, sometimes you make about forty minutes more than the hour, and at this moment you plan to go back to continue with your daily routine, unless a cab appears on the road to take you home as soon as possible. But in those moments you decide to change a little the routine of the day; because you see a path very close to you. You are surprised to see it, if you always take the same path every morning and you have never noticed the presence of that place, unless at night you have walked to that place without anyone noticing it, that's what you call yourself. Maybe it was a mirage, you said to yourself in secret, maybe it was because you left the house without taking anything to your mouth. Your stomach is hoarse and your eyes are dark. You check your watch again with a possibility in your mind to take a walk on that path, if it is not a mirage.

«A few minutes can't hurt», you say in the loneliness around you.

You notice from the beginning a heavy atmosphere when you enter that path, not only because of the garbage that was there and reeking of sewers and hundreds of meters of feces, it is because it feels like that, heavy as if someone or something wanted you to leave immediately. The music stopped without warning, now you can hear a few discontinuous voices mixed with the sound of static (dis a... table ove). The atmosphere is still heavy. The foul smell is stuck in your nose as you breathe slowly. As you look at the trash on the trail, you see a few wet leaves sunk in the dry grass, you also notice some plastic covers and some old dolls with one of their eyes closed, as if their eyes were gouging. You walk for a few more minutes until you stop in front of a path with the arms and legs of dolls and a bunch of insects hiding underneath them. Pauseing voices continue in your headphones speaking in a language unknown to you. You feel fear; you believe in the possibility of going off the path as that someone or something warned you. Now you look at a bear on the ground, open in the middle, where a pile of gray cotton was bulging and where there was also an inscription that said: I WAS A BAD BOY AND I WAS KILLED. The air is stinky and heavy, you have no choice but to inhale that; you want to get out of that place as fast as possible because you can't stand that mysterious atmosphere anymore. You are not far from where you entered and you think you are turning around, but something stopped you. You look at the floor; the bear with the entrails outside is gone. Likewise your hands and legs are mutilated; now there are just a lot of insects running around as if to escape from something bad. The dolls that were winking at you had gone and something that you have in mind is that mysterious fog that has suddenly appeared. Your heart is very intimidated by it and it's ordering your legs to run; but...

You get to look at something very close to you. It was a bear, a real one, a brown bear that could weigh a ton because of its height and because of how fat it looks. You don't move, hearing a voice in your head assuring you that the bear will leave just as it arrived; you believe in that. Now you just have to wait while you stay like a statue that breathes and looks at the bear, who sniffs the ground while walking wearily with his crooked legs, just like those of a reptile. Suddenly, he looks at you, you also notice it, the bear stopped, keeping eye contact with you. You must not move for a moment, if you want that bear's hairy elephant to leave. It is approaching, but you must not move for any reason; it may walk around you, that's all. Even though it wasn't going to, you are sure of it; the bear is walking around with its mouth open, warning you to leave or else...

--What are you doing here, little baby? -he said you.

You don't answer anything, rather you stay silent, surprised and not moving as usual, watching the hairy elephant stand up. You're about half a meter tall, that giant bear, or maybe exactly one meter. Your hands are shaking and your legs can't find the right moment to start running. You took a step backwards with the look in the bear's bright eyes as it opened its mouth full of dozens of sharp teeth; you took another step, this time you are conscious of running as soon as your legs react. The bear raised one of his hands, you were alert to that, and you stepped away a little before the attack. You turn round; your legs obeyed you. You look back as you run at high speed and watch the furry elephant follow you, copying your own movements.

--I'm going to kill you -said the hairy elephant-. Who are you?

You look at the exit of the trail, but the bear is three feet away from you, opening its mouth to attack as soon as it reaches you. You turn to look behind you, and the bear is on his feet; he reaches out with his right hand and lands it on your back in one swift motion. An electrifying spasm ran through your body at great speed. You fall suddenly. The hairy elephant is looking at you with its scavenger's mouth open. He reaches out to grab you and sinks his claws into your legs to bring you closer to him.

--Ag...! -You scream as you feel your legs being cut off by the sharp claws-. Let go of me! -you say as you shake your legs with a fine stream of blood gushing from them and hit the talking bear.

--What are you doing here? -He said-. Who are you?

He's letting go, the punches you give him work. You give him another kick in his mouth so that he lets go of you completely. You roll around a bit before you crawl, keeping an eye on the bear. You get up, although it's too hard because of the cuts that bleed on your legs over pink, fleshy remains. You move one leg to escape and an electrifying spasm runs quickly through your body from head to toe. You hobble along, exchanging eyes at the exit and the bear that had been standing on its hind legs.

--Get out, Noah -he shouted you-. I don't want to see you here anymore; next time, I'll kill you.

You're still limping, panting with fear.

You're at the exit, where the heavy atmosphere ends. You look back behind you; the bear has disappeared from your field of vision, maybe it has run somewhere else, maybe it is getting closer to you. You don't care what the reason is. Your legs hurt a lot and you think you won't be able to get home safely. You are still limping, with the pumps in your chest, and for some strange reason your heart beat naturally the moment you stepped on the road surface. You look back at your back. The path has disappeared; the place where you think the path was is an endless ravine. There is no place to believe that you walked over that ravine without falling. You find yourself scared on the road, not knowing what happened minutes ago, but the wounds are still on your legs. They were real.