Feathers.

Percussion.

Drums.

Salsa moves.

Samba music playing in the background.


Attractive ladies with their head gear, custom-made bikinis dancing & singing on the platform of the beautiful floats parading down the aisle.

Tourists cheering and holding their cameras up, snapping the event which only happened once a year.

In the midst of a joyous occasion & celebration, we see a girl in her late teens, with short messy brown hair and tattered dirty white dress, running along the crowd in one of the historical cities where the Carnival of Brazil is held.

Please, it's my only chance. If I don't escape now, there will be no more chance, she thought.

She kept looking over her shoulders, to see if she was being followed by anyone she knew. She seemed to be running from someone, someone she was very afraid of.

Tourists all joined in the performers and trotted down the aisle all together, forming several "human snake". Random stranger holding the shoulders of one another, dancing to the beat & swaying to the music as the "human snake" was formed longer & longer...

As the music got louder, we see a few mysterious hands pick pocketing from tourists.

A lady was shouting for help as her bag got snatched but her shouts were drowned by the deafening music. But the girl saw that and scooted off from the "human snake" and ran a few more metres ahead and joined the another part of the "human snake".

She felt a pair of warm hand on her tiny shoulders. Although she couldn't see who the person behind was behind clearly, but it was a tall figure and that made her felt safe for a tiny moment, knowing she couldn't be seen by who was trying to capture her. She heard the figure behind her talking in some Scandinavian language that she couldn't understand to someone else.

Just a bit more and I'm free, she thought as she was anticipating the crowed to go pass one of the alley where a construction site was that she could escape to.

She steered off and continued to walk through the human crowd that were scattered all over the city, not realising the tall tourist was following behind her, so are his friends who were behind him.

"Hey! You're going the wrong way." The tall tourist called out behind her.

But she just continued to move forward hurriedly. Any hesitation of looking back might dash her plans from leaving this horrible place. But she felt bad and apologised, "I'm sorry. Please go back to the main crowd after the corner." She couldn't see the guy anymore as people intercepted between. Running away is utmost priority for her at this instant.

While the group of tourists went back after the corner to continue, the confused tall tourist went after the direction the girl was heading....

"Lasse! Where are you going?" His mates called out. "Come back here!"

"You guys go ahead, I'll call you!" The tall, brown curly haired lad replied.

The girl was heading towards a construction site, side-stepping drinkers, smokers in her way. She hid & sneaked behind walls, pillars, columns... checking for clearance as she frantically tried to find the way to the next town/city away from all these horrid environment she has been living for the past 10 years.

As it turned out, when the girl ran off, Lasse noticed blood on his hands. He checked, there were no cuts on his fingers or palm. It was the girl, she was bleeding.

He looked for signs of her, how could she have disappeared so fast? He traced the blood trails. And it brought him to an abandoned construction site. There were homeless people with makeshift sleeping area. There were drug addicts on high by the corner. He suddenly caught sight of the familiar back view he was seeing just now...

"Hey!" he called out, hoping she'd respond. But there was none. He stepped in further as girl move & hid away further.

"I meant no harm," He explained, "Are you alright? I think you are hurt." While saying, he was flipping some dyed cloth that was left there to dry.

As he walked further, he didn't notice a pole right below eye level and smack right at it. The cloth-stand in front of him fell, revealing the girl who was standing behind it. She retreated a few steps.

It was the first time they saw each others' faces. Clearly, she has been through a lot and there were fear & insecurity in her eyes. He was taken aback by her intense look.

His name is Lasse Eisenberg, from Norway. Tall, natural curly brown hair, 25 year-old entrepreneur touring Southern America with his elite cousins & his billionaire grandfather.

Her name is Isabela. She was involved in a horrific train crash 10 years ago when she was a little girl. It took the lives of her parents, leaving her orphaned. She went in a coma and when she woke up, she found herself being part of a syndicate, conning & stealing from tourists. She lived in slumps and ate slump food for the past 10 years...

"Are you hiding from someone?" Lasse asked while being at a distance as she seem afraid and he didn't want to intrude.

She spoke softly, "They will not let me off. I need to run away. I need to escape from here."

"Did they hit you? Beat you?" Lasse held up his palms and showed her, "See, I got this from your shoulders. Are you hurt?"

His heart twisted when he saw the scars & wounds on her arms and neck, probably more on her back.

"It's ok." Lasse said, "Come here, I'll get you out of here."

"Really?" Isabela murmured. "You're really going to get me out of here?" She was inching forward but she could barely stood on her feet as the pain on her shoulder was too overwhelming and all she could see were black...

To be continued...

***

Sound drama but it came right out of my dream. It's amazing how my dreams always take me to places I'd never been to and are always so vivid, the location, pictures, colour, voices, distance etc...

I always feel like inception when I dream. I could create everything subconsciously?