Disclaimer:
This is a work of fiction. Non consensual sex in any form is completely unacceptable and I don't condone it in any way. Feel free to enjoy your fantasies with whom you share mutual trust and always be respectful.
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15 years ago when I was a young man, when my name, Jamie was normal to all those around me, I had a hard time adjusting to the world. I couldn't find myself at home in a world wherein I was always expected to answer my mobile when it rang, wherein humbleness was rarely rewarded and working in a hipster coffee shop was referred to as 'making a living'; Getting paid in bits of metal and paper by a large company so that I could pay my rent and reinvest the rest of it in more or less the exact same company and their products to keep the machine and my grey existence running.
My friends were one by one finding their call in life, starting their education, families, making their dreams come true but I had no desire to exist like them. I wanted something far more real, to lay my head down in my very own home, exhausted after labouring all day over something that would truly benefit me and the ones I cared for, completely independent from the system.
I had long been interested in those few people left around the world who lived away from everything else, away from society, growing their own crops, keeping their own farms and animals, answering to none but their own and their needs. It sounded so simple yet fulfilling, hard yet rewarding, and I found myself constantly dreaming away to such an existence.
On my 127th shift at 'Tattoo Coffee', I decided that it was time for a drastic change, that I needed to seek out a new life before I faded away into the ever moving mass of people that crowded into the subways every morning with dead expressions on their faces, the light from their smartphones accentuating the dark lines under their eyes; I would take experience from the source itself, deep in nature, in places where the modern human had yet to hold dominion and life could move on in it's natural, brutal and beautiful state.
A week after making my decision, I quit my job, gathered my savings, reclaimed the deposit on my measly little flat and booked a one way ticket to South America. I was almost out of myself with excitement. Never before had I made a decision like this and I was terrified and jubilant all at the same time.
After days of travelling, sleeping in airports sitting uncomfortably for hours in cramped buses and hiking for countless miles, I finally found myself in a small village, the last bastion of 'civilisation' before the jungle took over and society was left behind.
It took me a while to find a knowledgable guide who was willing to take me to the deepest part of the jungle despite my inexperience. His name was Perez, he was drunk and he lazily tried to advise me against it my trip but I was insistent, likely a pain in the ass, and when I opened my wallet to him, he seemed to find the job easier. We agreed to depart early the next morning.
That night in the local watering hole, was when I met Emily. She had caught my eye immediately with her fiery red hair, large striking green eyes and an impossibly disarming smile. Like many other redheads, her skin was almost white and I found myself wondering how on earth she could tolerate the brutal rays of the sun here in the south.
When I approached her and she hopped off her bar stool to shake hands with me, I realised that she was absolutely tiny, no more than 150cm tall, incredibly slim and petite in every sense of the word. She had a posh British accent that was funny and charming at the same time and she wasn't afraid to make a mockery of it.
As it turned out, she was 19, fresh out of college and was travelling the world before starting University the next year. She was naive in the way many people are at that age but she was also equipped with a wit and sharpness that made it clear that she was a smart girl and rendered her instantly likeable.
We exchanged drinks, stories, experiences and jokes almost all night and by the time I told her about my upcoming expedition, we were on quite friendly terms. The alcohol was definitely partly to blame for her insistence on me bringing her along but honestly, she was just full of energy and eager for adventure. Little did she know she would get far more than she bargained for. Like my guide, I tried to advise her against it but she too was stubborn and after a few too many jokes about my manliness, I eventually agreed.
Unsurprisingly, when we met at the boat 5am the next day, both of us were going through severe hangovers. Still, we maintained our high spirits and were looking forward to our adventure and had a good time joking about the drunken escapades the night before. I noticed that Perez, our guide was having a hard time keeping his eyes off her tiny frame though I could hardly blame him because neither could I. If she noticed, she was doing a marvellous job pretending she didn't.
Soon, we were making our way down the river and before we knew it, the sounds and vibrations of human civilisation were replaced by the living, breathing rhythm of the jungle- it was magical. Emily and I lay on the deck listening to each individual sound and tried to guess what had created it. We watched the trees above us pass us by as the boat made it's lazy way down the river and giggled like children when we saw monkeys jump between the branches. For a time, it was almost romantic lying there with her, indulging in small talk and stealing glances at her wonderful red hair as the sun bounced off of it, making it seem even more radiant. With the heat and the relaxing vibrations of the boat, we didn't even realise it when we fell asleep.
We were forced awake as the boat crashed against the riverbank. Perez was nowhere to be seen and the entire rear end of the boat was submerging. In a panic, I pulled Emily to her feet and dragged her off the edge and onto the bank. We crashed into the mud and crawled up towards the trees, looking around in utter confusion for the reason that we had ended up here. We came to rest against a large tree covered in filth and finally took the time to calm down and survey the carnage around us.
The boat was unsalvageable, the engine bubbled and spurted , dying beneath the waterline and we were deep in jungle territory. I never found out what happened to Perez or the boat, but I would guess a large Crocodile tried to test this new foreign object in its territory, breaking the hull and sending Perez into the water to his doom.
Slowly but surely, all the sounds and vibrations of the jungle that we had marvelled over earlier became loud and frightening. The jungle was towering over us menacingly and it was a natural, brutal and beautiful thing to behold.
As our predicament started to sink in, Emily began to cry. I did my best to comfort her but the truth of it all was that we were in way over our heads and I had no idea what to do. The best I could manage was to grab our necessities from the wreck of the ship, get her to her feet and press on in what I hoped was the right direction.
We walked for many hours meeting impasse after impasse. Many a time we were forced to move around massive natural obstructions only to find that we had been probably moving in the wrong direction for a long while. Emily was getting more and more frantic, saying that she should never have left home and a slew of other unproductive things and I slowly found myself becoming irritated by her presence. I couldn't blame her for her reaction but somewhere deep inside me, I knew that I was fighting for my life and here she was, making so much noise that any predator nearby was very aware of our location.
As the sun began to fall, we found ourselves a small clearing reasonably far from the river in which we could set up camp for the night. Conversation was scarce around the fire that I miraculously built and needless to say, the mood was less than optimal. Emily didn't look me in the eyes at all, I think she was silently blaming me for our predicament. Even when she was angry she was beautiful.
When she lay down to sleep, I was tempted to go lie next to her, to hold her and comfort her, to reignite the spark that we had felt earlier, anything that could bring some much needed tenderness and warmth into our forsaken situation but decided against it in the end. This wasn't a romantic holiday, this was the jungle.
For the second time in 24 hours we were awoken violently. Before I had even opened my eyes I could hear Emily screaming. I jumped up immediately but was just as quickly knocked back to the ground by a blow to the head from some blunt object and found myself fading back into nothing.
The next few hours were a blur. Vague memories of being dragged through a forest by some unknown people, the murmurs of our abductors, and still the oppressive jungle looming over me.
When I came to, I felt an alien pressure around my neck. Groggily, I reached up with my hands to investigate this new sensation only to find that I had a rope around my neck. Remembering what had happened earlier, I launched myself up and began to run for the jungle only to be yanked back again by the rope around my neck, winding myself as I hit the ground. Coughing and gagging I found my way to my hands and knees. I heard the sounds of people laughing and with tears in my eyes, I looked around at my surroundings.
Ahead of me around a camp fire sat 10, maybe 15 people staring at me, talking amongst themselves and laughing at the humiliating show I just made of myself. It immediately occurred to me that my wish had been granted; I had wanted to meet 'natural' people and here they were, right in front of me and they had me tied to a tree by a noose around my neck and for all I knew, they were going to kill me shortly thereafter. The irony was not entirely lost on me.