Odette has lost her marbles. She gently but firmly pries the little children's hands off her arm as the creeper walks out of the room. Then, before anyone has any time to think, she's out the door like a flash of lightning.

I panic and throw the kids off me while Jillian screams, "ODETTE!!!!"

I don't think I've ever run that fast in my life. I'm out the door and caught up to her in no time. I grab her arm and yank her towards me.

"Ow! Quit it!" she hisses.

"What are you doing?" I demand.

"I'm going to give that guy... A piece of my mind," she growls, ripping her arm from my clutch and making a move to run. Before she can, I grab her again and hold tighter than I ever dared before.

"Are you mad???" I hiss through clenched teeth. "Did you even see the look in that guy's eyes? If you so much as touch him I don't doubt he'd kill you. Do you hear me Odette?? Kill you."

She glares at me, the anger still burning in her eyes. Her rapid breathing does begin to slow and she stops fighting to pull away from me. So, I loosen my grip.

"How do we know he hasn't killed Ayana, Chris?" she demands. She mumbles and scolds herself for not being serious about learning sign language.

I wish she'd quit blaming herself. I didn't think sign language would be useful out here.

I sigh. "It seemed to me like he was looking for Ayana, just like you."

"Chris, he abuses her," she croaks.

I shake my head in confusion. "How... How would you know?"

She groans and turns around, running her hands through her hair. "Isn't it obvious? The bruises, the gash, the way he wasn't afraid to knock a lady to the ground..."

"Well that doesn't necessarily-"

"Oh shut up," she cuts in. "Something's off with him. You said so yourself, he'd probably kill me if I touched him."

I awkwardly shove my hands into my back pockets and let Odette pace around so she can cool off.

But after a while, I begin to wonder if she'll ever cool off.

Then she suddenly stops dead in her tracks and gets this look on her face... This look that gives me the impression that she's got an idea.

Oh goody, goody.

She sets her lips on a fine line and grabs me by the arm, pulling me the opposite way from where the psycho went.

"Odette, you need to sit down and breath."

Whatever she's thinking, she thought up with in an angry state of mind. She's not thinking clearly.

"We're going back to the hut," she mumbles."

Irritated by the fact that she's dragging me, I pull away and ask, "Why?"

She lets out a huff of air through her nose and stomps a few steps away from me and back towards me.

"I'm finding Ayana," she announces. "I'm going to find her. And you should come too."

My eyes start to bulge out of my sockets. "Odette, you need to sit down an-"

"No! Chris!" she pleads. Then she grabs me again. "Come on, we have to get a move on before she gets very far."

"Odette!" I protest. "We can't! We don't have the slightest notion of where she went!"

She takes a deep, frustrated breath before getting right up in my face.

"Chris, you can come or you can stay. But I have this more thought out then you're giving me credit for. So. Again I say, you can come or you can stay. Either way, I'm going."

"It's suicide," I hiss.

She looks like she'd like to slap me straight in the face. Frankly, I'm about to do the same; to see if I can knock some sense into her.

"Odette??? Chris???"

I whip around to find Jillian rushing towards us. Odette gives me a quick death glare before plastering on the worst attempt at a fake smile I've ever seen in my life.

"Odette, what were you thinking?" Jillian demands, pulling her sister into a hug.

"She wasn't," I mumble.

Odette glares at me again. Then she just holds Jillian back silently.

"What did he want?" Jillian whispers shakily.

Odette's face hardens again and her mouth is set in that straight, determined line. "Everything's ok," she assures Jillian. "Go back with the kids. I need to... "Cool down" back at the hut."

She looks at me sarcastically when she says "cool down." I roll my eyes but say nothing.

Jillian pulls away hesitantly. "Ok..."

What stopped me from ratting out to Jillian about Odette's master plan? Only Heaven knows.

Jillian backs up slowly for a little and then turns around and lightly jogs back to the schoolhouse. Odette turns to face me. "Tick tock, boy."

"Odette you can't-"

"Don't waste your breath trying to convince me not to do it. There is literally nothing you can say to me that will change my mind," she scolds. "Just freaking tell me- Are you coming or not?"

I take a deep breath to keep from yelling at her.

I look at her hard set eyes, digging into me; demanding answers. There was no cooling her down over this. I see that now. But maybe, if we start to starve, I can talk sense into her and get her to come back with me.

I lick my lips. "What's the plan?"
I sigh.

She smiles smugly. "That's a yes."

She grabs my hand and starts off running towards the hut.

____________________

"I left a note in Mom's 'reminders' on her phone. Says that the two of us are doing something for one of the students. A favor that may take us a week. We'll be gone for a week at the most... I hope."

She talks in a hushed tone, very aware of the fact that all the adults that came on this mission trip are just a few feet outside.

"Get your backpack," she orders. "Stuff all the extra snacks you have in it. Grab, like, ten water bottles from the group supply."

I do as she commands, rather reluctantly. As I'm gathering up my supply of water, I glance at Odette.

"Odette... Why wouldn't we just tell the adults about this? They'd know what to-"

"Stop talking."

"Odette-"

"Nope, just stop."

I huff, frustrated. "Why can't the adults help???" I demand.

"You'd be surprised how stupid some of them are," she grumbles.

I roll my eyes and try to convince her of logic, one more time.

"Adults will know how to help!"

"Chris! They're just as unaccustomed to stuff like this as we are; let's face it,"
she hisses. "Adults will tell us 'Oh don't worry, we'll take care of it' and then hope we forget about it and move on with our lives. They won't let us help. They'll treat us like ten-year olds and say it's 'too dangerous.' They can do the well. I'm finding Ayana."

"Odette-"

"Chris, why are we here? So we can take some selfies with the kids to post on social media and get everyone's praise?" She sighs. "Maybe God sent us here for Ayana. I'm not going to ignore that fact that she's in trouble."

She forcefully shoves the last of her snacks into her pull string backpack. "We start by going down to the lake," she mumbles. "If it's running away Ayana's doing, she'd need to head to a place where she knew she could get water for the trip." She marches out the door.

I follow her. The adults don't even pay any mind to the fact that we have bulging packs on our back. Wow. They either deserve Odette's label as stupid or they're just really into that well.

I have to jog to keep up with Odette's long, determined strides.

"One more question: How the heck do you know where the lake is?" I ask.

She continues to stare straight ahead as she answers, "We're going to ask someone in this village for directions. I know that it's in that general direction." She points diagonally to the right. Then she slows down a little and faces me. She lets a real smile escape her lips. Ugh, I needed her to smile. Angry Odette is a raaaarrreee thing.

She bumps me playfully with her shoulder. "I'm a smarter chick then you thought I was, eh?" she teases.

I scoff and roll my eyes.

I was thinking more like... Crazier than I thought.

But I keep my mouth shut and continue to follow her.

This. Is. Madness.