text: A hissing voice. Rustling in the bushes. Something that seemed to slide into the tent. "HELP!" I woke up with a start and immediately sat up. There was water everywhere. The tent was open, probably because of the strong wind, a parrot sat on my stomach. Sanne's scream still echoed in my ears. "What? You said you knew what you were getting into?" I glared at her as I chased the bird away from my stomach and crawled out of my sleeping bag. The air mattress creaked under my weight. "That doesn't mean I expected this!" Sanne looked around with wide eyes. When I followed her gaze I saw that there was more in the tent than just the parrot. I just saw a tail disappear from probably a snake. That explained the hissing. "What scared you again?" I stretched, unzipped the tent and looked out. It was indeed a snake. "That sound, didn't you hear that? It looked like a huge snake!" Sanne pulled her legs in, the sleeping bag was tight around her. When I saw her start to shake, I turned to her and sat on the edge of her air mattress. I had to reassure her. I needed her a little longer. "There's nothing to be afraid of. Believe me." I brushed a strand of hair from her face. "Otherwise I would never have taken you." She sighed deeply and looked at me. I saw deep in her eyes that she wanted to believe me, but that she was still too shocked. "Wasn't it a snake then?" "Yes, that was a snake. But it is already gone." I took the map to distract her. "Since we are already awake, shall we clean up and move on? With any luck we will make it to the temple today." Sanne took the card from me. I rummaged in my backpack and passed her a sandwich. "Here, eat and drink something and then get dressed. Okay?" She paused, put the card on her knees and took the sandwich. The leaves still felt moist under my feet as we continued our route. It had been ten years since I had been here, but it still felt like coming home. I did not expect that I could have gotten Sanne with me. We had trained a lot to prepare ourselves, or especially Sanne. It just started with a walk from home, three kilometers, five kilometers, then eight kilometers on a Sunday morning. Until a month ago we made it forty kilometers in the countryside. Both with a large backpack, with about the weight that we now also carried with us. After half a day of walking we found a good place to rest. Sanne brushed some leaves off a rock and then plopped down on the rock. "Where are we now?" Her backpack ended up in an anthill in front of the boulder. The ants immediately crawled in all directions and I got distracted for a moment by the movements they made. When Sanne motioned to see if I had heard her, I looked up quickly. "I'll have a look. Don't forget to have a drink. I'll walk a little further, then I'll see where we are and where we have to go." I kept looking at the ground when I said that, put my backpack down next to a tree and walked through the trees with the map. The chirping of the many birds would never bore me. In the distance I saw a snake moving slowly between the leaves of a huge tree. I heard a small stream flowing and decided to walk there first. The map was already wrinkled, making it more and more difficult to see exactly where we were. Was the left line a path or did it just look that way? Where was the stream? My despair seemed to grow. The ten years would end today, we had to find the temple. Today. "Martin? MARTIN!" Another scream from Sanne. I turned quickly to see her running through the bushes. "Where are you?" Without a bag, she ran straight past me. "By the stream to your right!" I called after her. She came to a stop and I saw her looking to the right. "Wait, I'll come your way." As I walked up to Sanne, I folded the map. What if I got lost? How long would we search without clue? It is almost impossible that we have not yet seen the temple. As soon as Sanne saw me, she grabbed my wrist and pulled me along. "What are you doing? Let me go!" "Come on, quickly!" Surprised, I hobbled behind her, first towards the backpacks, but then a little further on. "I thought I heard something behind me and went to have a look..." she begins, "and then suddenly I saw this!" She lets go of me and points towards a point in the distance. "What are you talking about? I don't see anything." "Wait, then we'll change places." As soon as I got to her spot, she pointed in the same direction again. There in the distance stood the temple. The temple I had visited with a friend ten years before. At least, back then I thought it was a friend. Sanne had found the temple. And without knowing it, she had taken over the curse. In ten years time she would have to make the same trip again, with a new person. So that at all times someone was under the influence of the curse. I relaxed my shoulders and looked carefully to the right. Sanne had turned white. Her eyes were red. "What have you done?" She had fear in her eyes. "Sorry," I whispered as I slowly walked back, "I had no choice." But she was already gone.