6 Chapter 5: The River Beneath the Tree

Flashback: May 1994

The room was dark and cold. Calista snuggled warmly in between the arms of her mother and father. She the night was not getting any younger but her eyes cannot succumb to her sleep. Her mind was racing around the thought of the knock as she cuddled her mother hugging her tight covering herself with the blanket. She closed her eyes tight as she prayed again for sleep where she finally dozed off.

Calista suddenly woke up from a cold breeze that found its way inside the blanket. The chill was lingering and felt like tendrils caressing her spine. She jolted from her mother's warm embrace and peeped her head to the blanket were only the pale light from the moonlit room drew the silhouettes of everything around her.

Surprisingly, her actions did not awaken her parents. Instead, they were dead asleep during the entire moment. Calista attempted to shake her parents to wake them up but they were deeply unresponsive. The chill still lingered on her and the silhouettes of the room danced as if they were alive. Calista hastily hid underneath the blankets and cuddled close to her sleep mother, closing her eyes shut while whispering for her mother to wake up. She was still not responding, nor is her father.

She then heard the sound of dogs howling from the distance. It was dreadful and incapacitating. The howls were beginning to grow louder and louder and then it suddenly stopped followed by audible sound of dogs whimpering before it went back to quiet again.

Calista was shaking in terror but she held back her tears and hugged her mother tightly. She closed her eyes again but this time she heard a creaking sound of wood from an earshot. It sounded like someone is inside the room with them but she never heard the door open.

She heard the wind whispering to her, a low disembodied hissing sound conveniently audible from within the blanket. She closed her eyes as her terrifying call began.

"Calista..." the disembodied voice called her out. " Calista, apo..." the voice sounded now like her Lola.

She was tempted to open her get out of bed. But her fear crippled her and her sense of dread prevented her to get up from where she was. She prayed for her life. She prayed for her safety and for her parents as well who was asleep the entire time.

She then began hearing a soft knock coming from somewhere. She assumed it was the door and the stories her cousin told her about flooded her mind. She remembered it well and along with the story of the ghastly knock. This made her stomach turn as the knocks became increasingly audible as one knock ends.

The knocks are now becoming more like a banging in the door. As one knock seemed to batter the door with such force and sound. However, despite this her parents remain to sleep soundly not even flinching with the sound of a violently banging door.

As the night continued, the knocks became terrifying. There were always three sets of knocks in varying degrees of tempo and sound. Mostly, it would start with three slow knocks and would end up with violent knocking. And the knocks seemed to not focus on the door alone. As she found it alternating with the windows.

Calista was too scared and so she prayed even deeper. She prayed the Lord's Prayer, which she jumbled or at times forget the words. As she prayed the knocks became louder as if silencing her from her prayers and times the knocks would stop if she finishes the prayer, only to be scared witlessly by a loud and aggressive banging of the door.

The knocking never stopped until the first sound of the rooster crowing. That's when Calista realized morning broke the dead night and finally her fears faded away like the mist kissed by a ray of sunshine. Calista sighed in relief as her tears dried up staining her cheeks, her eyes became heavy from exhaustion, she didn't want to sleep but her eyes finally succumbed to it.

The room was relatively warm when she woke up. The sun's rays spread all over the room. Calista noticed she was alone in the room, her parents left her there while they went about their day as their vacation came to close to an end by the following day. She looked around the room, everything was bright and defined. The wooden dresser near the foot of the bed, the modern windows in the room looked lively and the small the creaky old cabinet was wide open with their bags resting on the floor.

Her fears from last night were finally gone! Calista thought of it as a bad dream, a very bad dream that she woke up from. She stretched her tiny body from where she was curled, went up to the dresser, and combed her hair by her little hands. She put on the brightest smile at the mirror to signal the beautiful day up ahead.

"Calista!" A familiar voice echoed from the living room, it was her mothers.

"Yes, Ma! I'm here!" as she rushed towards the door after she looked for her pair of slippers.

It took her a minute to find the other pair of her slippers and just then there was a knock on the door. She got startled a bit but she never feared it no longer. It was the morning already and whatever that happened last night she thought of it as a very bad dream that she already awaken from. Without hesitation, she flung the door wide open and greeted them with a smile.

"Finally!"

Calista saw three hooded figures standing in front of her door. They look thin and and and pale as what she saw from their hands which were bony and white in contrast to their black ragged hoods. She stood still in shock in disbelief, unable to speak, and unable to cry out. The mysterious person in the middle crouched and grabbed her by the face with its cold and wet bony fingers. She cannot close her eyes nor avert her gaze from such horrifying sight. The figure slowly lowered down its hood revealing its head devoid of any facial features but just a mouth that smiled perpetually as it inched towards her and whispered on her ear.

Present-day: Kahoy'ng Sulad (Underworld Tree)

The boat was filled with silence. Sidapa was minding his own business as he read Calista's book of life. He was very engrossed as he turned every page of her life story, he neglected a crying and confused Calista slumped on the other side of the boat.

Calista was unable to process the entire situation. She can't remember anything and the headache made it worst for her to remember anything at all. She glanced at the mysterious person who just declared himself Sidapa the death god and tried to understand what it all meant.

"What is it, kalag?" Sidapa asked as he continued reading the book without glancing at her.

"Kalag?" she was confused. " Is this one of those elaborate pranks I saw on Youtube?"

"Be it as you think."he answered.

Calista stood up and balanced herself while she waved her hands as if she is trying to reach on to something. She shouted and mocked, then cursed.

"This is not funny, you guys!" she shouted. " Look, whoever you want to call yourself! This is not funny. End this prank at once, or I'll call the police!"

Sidapa laughed at her expense. He was amused at her miserable predicament. Her despair made him remember how fickle humans are in the face of death and how tragically inept they are at handling the truth.

Desperate to get an answer, Calista tried to approach the man on the other side of the boat. She knew he was only a few steps from her and it was easy for her to grab him and maybe slap some sense into him for laughing at her.

"Ah no! That's as far as you can go."

Just as he said that it became clear to her that there was something wrong. She estimated that it will only take 5 steps for her to get to where he was. However, no matter how much she tried to reach him, it seemed to be impossible. He constantly looks to be not moving from the position he is at but to her, it seems like she was moving further and further away as she made a step. A few more steps and she noticed that he went farther than where he originally was. The boat looked longer from before as if it extended itself every time she closed an inch near him. She tried once more, but to no avail, and this time, he was far enough that he looked small from her view.

Calista became livid out of her frustration, she started cursing at Sidapa. Calling him names which in the most part he didn't seem to mind.

"Yawa-a ka! Let me go," she screamed at the top of her voice before kneeling on the floor crying again.

Sidapa stopped reading and placed the book down on his lap. His aura suddenly became palpable. It was a heavy and deadly aura that weighed the boat down to a stop.

"Well, now. You don't have to mistake me for a runaway goddess." he sighed. "I took offense on that." he gestured his hand and suddenly he was only inches near from Calista.

Sidapa raised Calista's chin. She saw nothing of a facial feature, only a dark shadow with glowing red eyes filled with anger and rage. Calista couldn't move even if she struggled to wiggle her way away from him.

"Again, I took offense of that!" he whispered to her ears in the most soothing voice she had ever heard her entire life.

Not a second later, Calista felt a violent force pulling her out of the boat and tugging her down deep into the cold dark waters. It was so forceful it winded her while she sunk deeper and deeper into the dark depths. She knew she fell into the water, she felt it. But everything was dark, she could only feel things touching or grazing her body, she could smell the rotting waters but she couldn't see a thing.

Later on, she realized that she wasn't drowning and yet she was going down further into the dark unknown. She panicked and in her act of desperation, struggled to swim back to the surface. With each stroke, she felt what it seems like cold flesh-like things she is not sure but it felt like it.

She swam going afloat when suddenly cold hands started to grab her. It was at this point where she knew the water she was it was full rotting living corpses. The hands are dragging her down, now she felt the bodies smothering her, hands grabbing from everywhere clutching their bony fingers, digging into her skin.

She was helpless, she couldn't shout. The putrid water was filling her lungs she is unable to breathe anymore but she was still alive. In the distance, she saw a pair of glowing spheres rapidly approaching her. It was coming to her fast as if she was the target. All of the sudden, a force pulled her out of the water and back into the boat. Calista vomited the foul liquid before passing out.

Calista awoke to the warm throbbing warm feeling she felt at the ground she was on. As she opens her eyes she saw again the man this time seating in what seemed to be like a huge elevated chair.

"Ever wondered why you can see me but cannot see my features? Nor the place you are currently right now?" Sidapa asked without looking at her.

She thought of it for a moment and realized exactly how did she know he was a man or how she knew he was sitting somewhere or even reading a book.

"Exactly," he answered as if he read her thoughts.

Sidapa stood up and went down from where he was sitting and slowly approached her. As he was doing so, he gestured his finger to point at Calista and made it look as if he was asking her to come near him.

Calista was too exhausted to even put an effort to stand, let alone approach this mysterious man. But suddenly, some unseen force lifted her from the ground and pushed her right in front of him. Calista was horrified as she saw herself approaching the man without her feet touching the ground. Sidapa then grabbed her by the neck choking her before whispering to her ear.

"Because I said so." Sidapa then dropped her back to the ground.

The poor Calista was gasping for air while in the ground curled in fear. Sidapa went back to where he was sitting slowly climbing the steps back to the chair.

"What do you want from me?" Calista's raspy and trembling voice echoed.

"Good question, my Lady." He sat back and opened again the book he was reading. " I want you here as my Katabang."

"Kata...bang?"

"Yes, katabang. A helper. Don't you understand that term, kalag?"

She nodded her head.

"Good."

"Where am I?" Calista asked.

" You are in my kingdom, Sulad. The tree where the river flows beneath. Where the souls find their rest or lost their way."

"Su...laaadd?" her voice was still hoarse as it was very painful for her to speak. She started to laugh maniacally not minding the pain on her throat. That was the last straw, Calista lost her bearings and her mind broke down. " I don't believe you!"

Sidapa raised an eyebrow.

"This is all a dream, right?" she started punching and slapping herself. "If I hit myself hard, I should finally wake up from this dream." slapping herself even more.

Sidapa sighed and watched her as she was having a mental breakdown.

Calista was whispering things to herself before bursting out. " You are not real! This isn't real!" She hit herself over and over again. She tumbled to the ground still hitting herself while she laughed and cried all at the same time.

Suddenly, roots began to entangled into her arms and legs.

"You are too noisy!" Sidapa mumbled.

Another root then covered her mouth before Sidapa ripped her arms and legs off.

Calista's pain was visible but her screams were muffled by the root pressing on her mouth. Her body struggled a little before she finally went limp.

"There." he sighed in relief. " Silence, at last." Sidapa picked up the book once more and read it.