Mistakenly Eaten

119. Letting Althea Go

Nicholas did not think even once, when he saw the six feet python tightened around Althea’s arm. He immediately jumped ahead and flashed his light right over the snake’s neck, where he grabbed it only a few inches away from its mouth firmly held on to the neck of the snake.

In retaliation, the snake hissed, opening up it mouth, ready to sting Althea with its teeth but Nicholas held on to the thick skinned neck and kept the head away from Althea’s skin.

Althea could feel the heat from the snake’s mouth and it’s poisonous tongue brushing against the skin of Althea’s arm but Nick made sure to keep it’s hold strong and did not let go off the snake’s neck.

At the same time, Salva reached the spot, running and sprinting through the bushes and turned his flashlight to the spot where everyone else had rotated their flashlights to.

Salva’s eyes widened as he witnessed Althea in extreme danger.

Her face showed it quite evidently, that she was horrified and scared for her life, while Nick did his best to prevent the snake from biting her and at the same time, Gigi tried his best to pull the snake off her arm by untangling its body that it had grasped Althea’s arm with.

Salva dropped his flashlight in the ground and rushed towards Althea and helped Gigi pulling the python off and away from her body by exerting pressure on its tail, hoping that it would only weaken the crawling mammal’s hold off Althea.

Salva held on to the tail, pulling it back, whilst Gigi tugged the mid body of the python, pulling it back but it only retracted back to the pull and tightened its hold over Althea’s arms, restraining and restricting blood in her limb, making her scream in extreme and excruciating pain.

“It hurts.” She cried out loud and her cries only agitated Nick even more who grasped the neck tightly with one hand and with the other hand, helped Gigi pull the body of the snake away from Althea.

Salva held the tail firmly and pulled it off and away from Althea and finding a little lose spot on Althea’s forearm and the snake, Gigi slid his hand underneath the snake’s belly and pressed it tightly, making the snake go weak and loosen its hold on Althea’s arms.

Althea felt the snake slipping against her arm and taking the moment of weakness as her sign, she immediately pushed her other hand against the ground and also forced her legs up against the ground.

After a moment of condor and clamorous struggle, she finally felt her hand slipping against the hold of the curled up mammal and with quite a vigor applied, she finally pulled herself free and away from the snake’s hold.

The moment Althea was free, Nicholas looked at Salva, who nodded at him and quickly the two walked towards the shore and threw the snake back and again in to the ocean.

At the same time, the guards who were looking around to see if there were any more such deadly animals, began clearing up the boat and took charge of the situation.

Althea sat back on the ground, still shaken and horrified with what had happened.

She pressed the skin of her arm, that still felt rattled and wrapped against the leathery skin of the snake who had held on to her tightly.

Nicholas walked back to sit next to Althea and gently touched her face.

“Are you okay?” he asked her and she looked up at him with her eyes filled slightly with moisture.

“Yeah…”

“Good.”

He said, as he grabbed her shoulders and shook her up a bit rigorously.

“Because what the f**k do you think you are doing?”

“Ouch…” Althea complained as Nicholas shook her up and Salva stepped in, pulling Nicholas away and freed Althea off his grip.

“I was better off with that snake.” She complained, getting up on her feet, with Salva’s help.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Salva daunted towards Nicholas, who stood flabbergasted, at Salva’s question.

“Me? Seriously? You are going to hold me accountable in this situation? She is the one who not only tried to leave abruptly but also put herself in danger. Do you know have any sense of safety or security for your own sake.” He told Althea, who jumped up, all the while still standing behind Salva, who sensed that she was also quite angered at Nicholas and he acted as a shield between the two, so that neither of the two would jump on each other and pull each other’s hair.

“Well, what would I know that there would be snakes of the boat.” She complained.

“Had you come and talked to me at least once, none of this would’ve happened and your life would not be in danger.” Nicholas yelled back, suddenly his words washing Althea’s anger away and at the very same time Salva turned towards Althea and threw the same disappointing look at her that Nicholas was giving her.

“Well…”

Althea scrunched her neck a little, at the thought of being at fault in the whole situation.

“What do you have to say in your defense?”

“I am sorry. But that is the only viable option for me right now.”

Suddenly the gush of guilt and shame came to Althea with the reminder of the fact, that why she was running away to begin with.

“Althea…” Nick sighed as he walked past Salva and finally reached out for Althea, gently cupping her face in his palms, as he brought her closer and looked at her soft glowing and gleaming face.

“I am sorry, if I could not come to you or if I didn’t reach out to you. I was so occupied with some other thoughts that the fact you might be in a much more lamentable situation, did not even cross my mind.”

“I know…” Althea breathed softly, as she removed Nicholas’s hand off her face and looked at him with tears welling up her eyes and blinding her vision.

“I know, that upsetting Salva was the one thing at the top of your mind and so it was mine as well. And after everything that you’ve told me about how Salva was so important to you and because of me, he might have felt like you have betrayed you and I have put you two in a tough and complicated spot and…”

“Did the either of you even bother to ask me or come to me, just for once. So that at least, I could tell how I truly felt.”

Salva spoke up, attaining both Althea and Nick’s attention.

“I thought I hurt you.” Althea spoke up, “No matter how I tried to put it, it only felt like deceit and unethical for me to do what I ended up doing and…” Althea spoke in her defense.

“Had you done it for the competition or not truly loved Nick, you would’ve asked him to influence your position in the competition and I would have known about it before anything else.”

Both Nick and Althea went tacit as they heard Salva’s words.

“You both need to realize that I love you both. And nothing in this world would make me happier than to see the two people that I love together and happy. Althea, you didn’t come between me and Salva and ruin our friendship. Yes, I was surprised to find the two of you and perhaps mad as well that you both hid things from me, maybe it was because I wanted to be the first one to find out about everything and when I found out from someone else, it kind of hurt me. But that was it. I was never and would never be against the idea of you two being together. Seeing the two of you happy and getting what you two truly deserve, makes me happiest.”

Nick and Althea looked at each other for a minute and then turned towards Salva, leaping forward and hugged the guy tightly.

“I am sorry. I should’ve told you everything when you came back to the island.” Nick confessed.

“I am sorry too. But thank you for being the best.” Althea told him and Salva only held back his urge to cry and blinked his tears away.

He pulled back and stood erect, clearing his throat and smiled as he looked at the couple that he knew he had to support and make sure that the two would love each other, no matter what may come.

“Now, Nick apologize to Althea for scolding her.” he told the guy, who without the slightest hesitation went down on her knees and grabbed his ears, looking up at Althea and perched his lower lip out, apologizing to her right away and Althea couldn’t help but chuckle up a bit.

“I am also sorry for being so irrational. I should’ve come to you and at least try and talk to you but can we please go away from here now? The snake still gives me creeps and I am afraid that there might be more animals in these bushes.”

Nick immediately got up on his feet and lifted Althea in her arms, “You don’t have to worry even the slightest about any more animal attacks. Because now I know that you shouldn’t be left alone on your own. You are a flight risk.”

Althea giggled as she felt ticklish by Nick’s sudden uplifting.

“Well, I am not a flight risk. I just didn’t want to be the reason behind you and your previous Romeo’s split.”

She looked at Salva, over Nicholas’s shoulder, who held a poker look on his face but he immediately threw two thumbs up in the air and it gave Nick the green light to sprint towards the island and he did so.

The guards, including Gigi and Garry also made their way towards the mansion, leaving Salva behind, who was glad that it was a darkly hour and no one got to see the sorrow and pain in his eyes, that he had when he saw Nick and Althea acting affectionately towards one another.

He turned his back towards the island and began walking along the shore.

He wandered off in to the dark of the night and continued walking, having no sense of direction or idea, where his feet were taking him.

He was devastated on the inside, as he could feel his heart bleeding. His mind felt numb and all that he ever felt was pain. The biggest and most harsh thing for him at that moment was reality. Reality of the fact, that he was going to have to survive that way. He would always have to wish that there would be darkness around him so that no one would be able to see the tears in his eyes that would show up, every time he would look at Althea and Nick smiling, laughing and loving each other.

Salva found himself standing in front of the pool area of the house connected to the beach. His eyes darted inside the house, through the glass sliding doors and he found Althea cozied up, hugging Nicholas who carried her up the staircase.

He immediately looked away and turned his back towards the mansion, not having the courage to look at Althea and Nick cuddled up against one another.

He had the option to run away at that moment but for how long was he going to live in denial.

He could not run away forever. Most importantly, he could not leave Nick, whom he had been with his entire life. He had to make himself understand that, what he lived in was called life and life, hit him pretty hard.

Tears welled up in his eyes, as he couldn’t numb the pain in his heart and he simply began walking towards and in to the water. He did not care for how deep and far he got in to the sea, but he continued to do so, until his feet couldn’t touch the ground and he felt his body floating up.

Slowly, he let go off the force inside his body that kept his afloat on the surface of the water.

He finally began drowning in to the ocean.

He felt light, not because his body went up but because the pain in his heart began to feel slowly lifted off him.

He felt his soul separating away from his body, as he closed his eyes and spread his limbs out, letting the forces of the water take him away.

But he couldn’t stay under the water for way too long.

Slowly he swam back, up towards the surface and pulled his head out of the water, taking in a deep breath.

His eyes still red with pain and tears, told the story of his heart break. But there was only much that Salva could do.

As he swam back towards the shore and slumped down on the sandy beach, looking up at the dark sky, that looked like a metaphor to him and resonated to him as his life at the moment.

He closed his eyes and placed a hand over his heart.

He felt a soft touch over his hand that was placed next to his torso on the sand. He opened his eyes and turned his face to find Althea lying down on the beach next to him and smiling as she looked back at him.

A lone tear escaped his eye, as it fell down on the sand, getting absorbed in to the grainy ground right away.

He knew that she wasn’t real and she wasn’t really with him at that moment.

In fact, in reality, she was with Nicholas in his bedroom or hers but wherever she was, she was with Nicholas and not him.

He could sense what he was having was a moment of final goodbye and a farewell to his love for Althea that he had to bury, right there and then and at that very night. He couldn’t see another sunrise with feelings in his heart for her.

As he looked at her projection, that came out from his own mind, he realized, that was how he wanted her to be with him. Just lying next to him, smiling at him and holding him. Especially in such moments, moments of pain. Where just her presence and her smile were meant to fix everything for Salva.

But it wasn’t going to ever happen. If he had to move forward in his life, then the only was to discard any benevolent feelings of wishful adherence he had towards her and only keep a platonic point of view towards her in his mind.

“I have to let you go…” he spoke softly, as two more tears sped their way and slipped down through the side of his face.

Althea’s reflection only smiled at him and nodded.

“You know that is the only right thing to do.”

Salva couldn’t control his tears anymore and as he shut his eyes tightly, more tears sprung down and he turned his face away, opening his eyes back to look at the starry sky.

He no longer felt Althea’s touch on his hand and no matter how much it pained him and made it unbearable and unbreathable for him, he decided to do the right thing and thence, in that moment, he truly let go off Althea.

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Do you guys feel extremely sad for Salva?

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