Bruma and the Enchanted Forest

The day was cold. Although the sun was out, dark clouds appeared in the distance over the San Gabriel Valley. A soft wind blew. Rain was expected later in the day. All put together, it was a beautiful day. But in the city of South El Monte, there was a group of friends that were turning this beautiful day into a living nightmare in their lives, a nightmare from which they would not awake. Having just robbed the city bank on the east side of town, Rebecca and her four buddies, Steve, Ricardo, Mark and Mike, fled scared for the mountains. The youngest of the five, Mike, had been wounded in the robbery. Police sirens sounded all around. In a desperate measure to hide away from the law, they ascended the mountains and drove off the main road, into the wild forest. There, they would come to a valley hidden deep in the mountains, a valley hidden to the world, where some of their most horrific nightmares were about to come true. What happens in this place will blow their minds away, literately. This was a place where their darkest side would manifest in them, and their true friendship would be put to the test. This was a place where they would be given the chance to turn around and make things right in their lives. However, not even the monsters and demons in this forest would deter them from their dark purpose. They were willing to lose it all, even their lives, for the love of money. This was a place of magic and wonder, a place of horrors and witches. This was the place where they would meet Bruma. This was the enchanted forest.

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BRUMA and the Enchant ed ForestWhen you choose to do wrong in life, you bring some of your nightmares into realityBy Martin BarajasAuthorHouseCopyright © 2011 Martin BarajasAll right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4520-9445-8Chapter OneThe bank robbery It was a cold day in the city of South El Monte. The traffic on Durfee, avenue was heavy going in both directions. It was a big avenue and it was just before noon, so it was normal for that time of the day. The city of south El Monte is located eighteen miles east of Los Angeles. It depends on its large industrial zone full of flourishing small businesses, some warehouses, some small factories among other types of moneymaking operations, to give the city the financial strength to offer its residents a good standard of living. The Home Security Bank on the west side of the avenue had been open for business since eight O'clock this morning, yet, the parking lot was only half-full. Everything seemed normal inside of the building. The security guard had been watching customers walk in and out of the building throughout the morning. It was the same normal activity to which he was accustomed. It was business as usual. Every day, he would watch people make their deposits or withdrawals of their money, day in and day out, the same as he did today, which he found to be, the most boring thing to do in this, the most boring job in the world. Half of his shift was gone and he hoped that the next four and a half hours would zoom by at the speed of light. (Another boring day.) The guard thought to himself. It was a small bank. It only had six tellers to the right, coming in through the front door, and a decent lobby with a couple of desks, to the left. An agent sat behind one of the desks while talking to a couple, who sat on the opposite side. The guard was bored and hungry. It was almost lunchtime and there were only a few customers inside the bank. (This is the perfect time to go fetch a meal.) The guard thought. After contemplating many options, he decided to order some tacos next door, which he loved to eat frequently. It was a meal that was cheap, convenient, and would not take much of his time to pick up, not that he would be missing anything exiting at the bank, but it was his job to be in the building at all times, and his job was his job. His presence was required at all times to keep watch over the safety in the bank, even if it bored him to death. He notified the manager that he would be gone for five minutes or so, and started heading for the door when something made him change his mind. Two men had just walked into the building and according to his professional instinct, it all seemed too wrong. Though they were dressed casually, there was something rather strange about them. Their smile wasn't enough to disguise their nervous faces. Their eyes seemed unable to lock on a single object for more than a second. Their pupils bounced like pin balls inside of their eyes as they explored the place. This awkward behavior gave away their dishonest intentions to the guard who, by now, offered them all of his attention. They were wearing jackets, one with bright colors, and both men seemed to be in their late twenties. As the two men passed the guard, he greeted them with a "good morning," forcing a smile to his face. He knew they were up to no good and tried to make something out of their response, there was none. The men walked right past him as if he wasn't there at all. Their indifference to his gesture gave the guard an immediate insight on their, not so good, intentions. He felt the warmth of his blood rush to his head and a load of adrenalin was released throughout his whole body by the adrenal glands above his kidneys. With the adrenalin rushing through his veins, all of the guard's senses were on maximum alert, as were also his muscles, which were ready to snap into action in an instant. (I better hold back on lunch.) Full of emotion, he thought in his head, never taking his eyes off the pair, and placing his right hand over his weapon. The guard focused all of his attention on the two men as they passed him. He turned around, not taking his eyes off the suspicious duo, and failed to notice the other two approaching him from behind. One was an older man in his late thirties. The other was much younger, maybe in his twenties, if so, both wearing jackets. Keeping an eye on the two that had just passed him, waiting to see what their next move would be, was the last thing that the guard saw, then everything went black. The older of the men struck his gun so hard on back of the guard's head that the guard was out before he hit the floor. As the guard was going down, the other three pulled their weapons out and ordered everyone to the ground. Right after, the first two jumped through one of the teller's windows, to the other side of the service counter. The other two kept watch over every one else on the ground. They knew that more than one of the employees would probably manage to push the alarm button quicker than they were being ordered to the ground, so the plan was to get as much money as possible, as quickly as possible, before the police arrived. It was a dumb idea; however, these were dumb criminals. Outside of the building, in the bank's parking lot, Rebecca Wilson sat behind the steering wheel of the green explorer. With the engine running, she waited nervously for her friends to come out of the bank with the loot. She was a beautiful twenty-five year-old woman that had nothing to lose, so she thought. Having ran away from home at the early age of sixteen, she had been involved with drugs ever since, and had never being able to maintain a serious relationship with a man for the same reason. She was always on the move, looking for new thrills, and she could not pass this one up. This was, by far, the main event in her life. There was a chance of making it big if she and her friends managed to pull this one out. She could make lots of easy cash and she had nothing to lose, so she thought. Inside of the building, the men were moving as quickly as possible. They wanted to leave before the police arrived, but they also wanted to get as much cash as humanly possible, in such little time. After forcing the tellers to open the money drawers and making them drop all the bills inside two sacks they had brought with them, they jumped back to the other side of the counter and started running for the door. It had taken them about three and a half minutes to pull the job. It had been quick and simple. They had never imagined it would be so easy to pull this off. They ran out with big smiles in their faces, joyful, like small children stealing candy from a candy store. The other two proceeded to run out behind their two friends, all cheering like children. These were inexperienced bank robbers, `wannabes,' if you might call them that, and being so, they had forgotten to remove the gun from the security guard. As the last two ran out of the building, the guard became conscious again, just in time to act on his professional instinct. His head was hurting and he didn't have full use of all his senses yet, but he managed to pull out his weapon and fired several shots at the fleeing suspects. He struck the youngest of the men once in the leg, dropping him to the ground as he moaned in pain. The older man reacted by spinning around and shooting the guard several times, putting him out of commission. He then grabbed his younger friend and dragged him to the explorer, shoving him inside the vehicle as he screamed in pain. Rebecca panicked and was about to drive off without her friends, but she managed to hold on. As soon as the last man was inside the car, she stepped on the gas and sped away from the bank. They were on the run. As they headed for the freeway, which was only four blocks away from the bank, Rebecca was forced to maneuver the vehicle around heavy traffic and at times, had to go over the sidewalk, or drive on the wrong side of the avenue, to keep it rolling. Meanwhile, the police sirens seemed to get louder and closer with each tick of the clock, which was ticking as slow as time ran in slow motion in their heads. It seemed to be taking them forever to speed through these four blocks that led to the 60-freeway. They knew that reaching the freeway without being spotted by police would greatly increase their probabilities of getting away. Inside the speeding vehicle, Mike Smith was crying out in pain. He was the youngest of the men. The bullet had gone through his leg, just missing the bone, but tearing flesh and muscle. It disabled him to walk and caused him great agony. Mike was a twenty year-old, white man, who as a young boy had a promising future. However, after graduating from High School, he started to hang out with the wrong crew, a party crew. It was the party crew where he met Ricardo Santana, a drug dealer, gambler, ambitious kind of guy. Ricardo was a twenty-eight year-old Hispanic, and was feeling that life had passed him by without him achieving any of his goals. He refused to be a loser in life and was willing to do anything to avoid being one. He was hungry for fast, easy money, and had talked Mike into Steve's plan to rob the bank. Everything had gone as they had planned, except for shooting the guard, and their young friend being shot in the leg. Being this their first time robbing a bank, and probably their last, they made many mistakes, and that brought a lot of tension inside the vehicle. They didn't know how badly they had injured the guard, and Mike's painful cries added to the tension of still having to get away, but, where to? This was turning into a mess very fast. They managed to make it to the freeway without being spotted by the police. They could see the chopper in the sky rushing to the site of the crime. Fortunately, it was nowhere near them. They drove into the on-ramp to the 60-freeway eastbound, then jumped into the 605-northbound, heading for the mountains. The chopper flew farther in the distance. Rebecca seemed to keep her cool, moving no faster than the speed limit allowed her to drive on the freeway. She blended well with the ongoing traffic, maintaining the same speed as everyone else. On the other side of the freeway, going the opposite direction, a couple of police cruisers passed them with their flashing lights. The explorer was too deep in traffic to be noticed by the speeding patrol cars, which probably, by now, had a good description of the green explorer. They jumped from the 605-northbound, to the 210-eastbound, and drove off on Azusa Canyon Road, which would take them up the mountains, where they would hide for the moment. Luckily, they had gone undetected the whole way and that was a good thing. However, they still had to find a solution to Mike's problem. They could not take him to a hospital. That would be a suicide move, not to mention, stupid. Moreover, not one of them had any medical experience, or training whatsoever, yet Mike needed medical attention now. The foot of the mountain is only fifteen minutes away from the freeway; however, it seemed to them like an eternity getting there. When they finally arrived, Mike had either passed out or fallen asleep, which was well appreciated by everyone in the vehicle. He was unconscious now, so the crying and moaning had ceased. No one dared to wake him since there was nothing they could do for him at this very moment. His cries would only add to the stress of the moment and that was something they could do without. Rebecca pulled the vehicle over to the side of the road and stopped just before it began its ascent to this huge chain of mountains and their many forests. They contemplated the towering wilderness rising before them, the Angeles Crest Forest. They looked back, one last time, at the world they were living behind, probably never to return. They knew they were in big trouble, so after a moment of silence, Rebecca began to drive up the road, to the wilderness in the mountains. It was awfully quiet inside the explorer as she drove up the first mountain. No one had a clue on what to do next and no one dared to make any suggestions on the matter. However, the silence that surrounded them proved to be just as punishing to their frightened hearts, as any of the things that they could possibly suggest. Rebecca drove and drove up the road until finally; she could not hold the words inside of her mouth much longer. Her mouth exploded. "Can someone tell me where I'm supposed to be driving to? I mean ... I've been driving up this road to, I don't know where, and what about Mike? He is hurt badly! We need to get him some medical care and we need to do it now, and ... and, we don't even know where we're going! Why is no one saying a word? What is wrong with you people? Sure, it's so easy for all of you to just sit there all quiet since you're not the one driving. Well let me tell ..." RICARDO "Hey, calm down, alright already!" That was all that he said and once again, everyone was quiet for the moment. The silence was creepy and each hoped that the person next to him had the answer to their problem, yet, each knew that an answer to their problem, which was very real, did not exist. They had committed a serious crime and were now on the run. It was impossible to turn back the hands of time. After another brief moment of complete silence, Steve spoke, "First, we get away from the city, then we find a place where we can lay low for a couple of days, and then we will see what we can do for Mike!" Steve Harris was also twenty-eight years of age, the same as Ricardo, and had been his good friend for many years. Both had been the first to enter the bank. Steve was a computer geek and had gone to college for a couple of years. He had an ease for speech and was blessed with the good looks of a handsome white male. Anybody that didn't know him well enough would think that this was a man with a bright future ahead of him, well, not so. Steve had a big problem, as big as Rebecca's. Just like her, he was also looking for new thrills all the time, unlike her; he did it just for the thrill of the moment. His ego seemed to be hungry for action most of the time. His passion in life was to walk on the edge without falling over, and he was always putting his life in danger, all in the name of a good time. Just like his friend Rebecca, he could not pass this opportunity either. His plan to rob the bank seemed as easy as one-two-three. "I agree with you Steve." His friend Mark told him, agreeing with his, not so humane, plan to get away and ignore Mike's agonizing cries, and his life threatening gunshot wound. Mark was the older of the men. No one knew his age and no one asked anyway. He seemed to be only a few years short of hitting his forties. Even though he was much older than his friends, he was a follower, not a leader. No one seemed to know his last name and no one cared. He was homeless and a drug user. No one seemed to know where he came from or any of his immediate family. He was always around when he was needed though, and was always ready to help a friend in need, just like today, big mistake. He was the one that shot the guard. The Azusa Canyon is a popular site for area visitors. Its paved road, which curves to the left and right across the Angeles Crest Forest, goes up and around the river of mountains, penetrating its woods like a mega rollercoaster that has no end. It offers these visitors limited access into this hidden wilderness and its running rivers. All day long, cars drive up and down this road, making it the least candidate for a get-away route, but at least they were getting away somewhere, away from the city and its cops. They drove up these mountains through twists and turns in the endless entanglement of read that lay ahead of them. For forty minutes, they had been driving deep into the mountains without saying a word. For forty minutes, they had been looking at the growing abyss below them. The space below kept getting deeper and deeper as they ascended the mountains. Any other day, this would have been an inspiring sight for their eyes to savor, but not today. Of course, they could have used this forty minutes of sight seeing to think of a solution to their problem, but they where numb at the mind and there was nothing really to think about. They were in deep shit and that was that. Still, the scenery was beautiful to their eyes. (Continues...) Excerpted from BRUMA and the Enchant ed Forestby Martin Barajas Copyright © 2011 by Martin Barajas. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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