SPIRIT

Serenity

"Ethan!" I called breathless as I followed my older brother through a narrow passageway. My heart drummed heavily beneath my chest as fear combined with exhaustion kicked in. "Ethan! Wait for me!" I called once again choking in tears. Where am I? What is this place? Why is Ethan acting so strange, leaving me here like this?

As I neared the end of the passageway, the stench of blood and rotting flesh filled my nose. "Ethan? Where are you?" My voice quivered, and silence answered me.

"Ethan, please! Stop playing games, this isn't funny!" I waited for him to appear behind my back and laugh at my cowardice but that didn't happen. I shivered as a cold wind swept the place, and with it carries stronger scent of decaying bodies. Hairs all over my body rose at the thought. No. It can't be human flesh. It just can't be. How can there be such a thing in Babylon. It's probably a garbage dumpsite.

With that thought in mind, I continued my way through the dark and hushed place. But the place wasn't as hushed as I thought it was. A hair-raising cry echoed the entire place.

--Help me...

My entire body went rigid with fear when I saw no one nearby. Tears streamed from my eyes and I started running to only God knows where. "Ethan! Ethan, where are you? Come out please!" I called between sobs and in takes of breaths.

--Please, I'm begging you. Help me. It hurts.

I stopped in my tracks and calmed myself. That voice could be Ethan's for chrissake! "Ethan? Is that you?" But instead of Ethan's voice, another terrifying cry filled my ears.

It didn't take long before the crying stopped. What is this place? I wanted to go home and be with Ethan and Mom and Dad. I wanted to be away from this place dried of happiness and warmth. My body shuddered, responding to the chills the place gave. It's too cold. Too lonely.

A movement caught my eye and my heart pounded beneath my chest. Was it Ethan? Though scared, I headed to where I thought the movement came from. What I saw afterwards left me speechless.

A huge body length mirror gleamed in the darkness, and in place of my reflection was a guy with blood-red hair and lonely amber eyes. Those eyes could be the loneliest pair of eyes that I have ever seen, but that fact didn't take away my fear. He wore a black cloak with its hoods off, and his pale skin gleamed as he moved closer.

--Help me, please. Let me out.

It's him. The voice belonged to him. I was terrified when he reached a hand out and when I stepped back, I tripped on something damp and squishy. I vomited at the foul smell.

My eyes started adjusting in the dark, and I started to make out of what the place looked like. I wish I didn't. Because in front of me were piles of decaying human bodies. All of them stared lifelessly at me, their tongues sticking out. Some didn't have their heads on and most of them were naked.

Then I felt something crawling up on my right arm, and when my eyes darted to where my hand rested, I saw it plunged inside a corpse's stomach where swarming worms are devouring the huge gaping wound.

I heard myself screaming my lungs out as I got my hand out of the body. When I stood up to run, I saw the blood-red haired guy still staring hopefully at me.

--Let me out, please. It hurts.

Blood flowed from his nose and I gasped as his eyes shed tears of blood.

--Please... Help me.

But I couldn't. I was too scared, too terrified to do anything. So I ran away. I ran away as fast as I could.

Footsteps echoed the entire place. Hundreds? Maybe more. When I looked back, I saw men wearing black cloaks with their hoods on chasing after me. No! They can't take me again!

"Ethan! Ethan, please help me! Ethan!" Someone seized me by the shoulder and I tried so hard to shake the person off but he's gripping me too tight, taking me away from life, from everything.

"Serenity! Serenity! For fuckssake open your eyes!" I jolted awake and it took a moment before I realize that I was looking at Ethan's distressed face. I threw myself immediately at him and he held me tight.

"Ethan! I-I was looking for you but—but there were rotting bodies everywhere, there were blood... There were hooded guys, they—they're coming for me, Ethan!" I cried tears of hysterics as soon as realization struck . "Oh, God. Ethan! They're coming for me—I'm scared. The Bro-Brotherhood's coming for me!"

"Serenity," His voice calmed my nerves, and as he departed himself from me he tilted my head up so I could meet his gaze. "It's just a bad dream. No one is coming for you. I'm here and I'm not going to let that happen, okay?"

He held me once again, rocking me back and forth. "Don't—don't let them—"

"I won't. They can't reach us here, I won't let that happen, trust me."

Slowly I relaxed and stopped crying. Ethan caressed my hair as I rested my head on his shoulders. "It's been a week since those dreams started. I'm scared."

"Don't be. Everything's going to be fine. Babylon is sealed. No one from the outside can cross over our territory." He said smoothing my hair back.

But that wasn't the case. The place in my dreams was somewhere else. Necropolis, the name Babylon gave to everything outside its bounds. A huge cemetery. A fitting name for the void of life. It was where Ethan and I came from. We were survivors but was good as dead until we got rescued.

--I'm sorry baby. I can't do anything about those dreams...

All my fears and worries dissolved into a naughty grin as soon as I heard Ethan's thoughts.

--What does it mean? That place... The piles of body. Why are you dreaming about these things? Is it a warning for coming danger? Dammit, this sucks. If only I could do something, anything... to make those nightmares stop.

"Yeah? Like what Ethan? You should probably sleep beside me from now on, so once you start noticing I'm having nightmares then you could wake me up." Ethan's face crumpled in a horrified expression as soon as he realized what I just did. "And stop being so mushy. Calling me 'baby'," I made a face. "Yuck! Don't lovey-dovey me okay, it doesn't suit you. All those muscles and your gayish thoughts totally don't go along together."

"You wench! How dare you invade my thoughts like that?!" He said looking pissed, his face red as he pushed me away. I giggled as I tumbled back on the bed.

"It wasn't my fault. I just woke up, I can't shut your thoughts out just like that!"

"Then shut it! Shut it, right now." Ethan seethed, his steel gray eyes were hard and threatening.

"You know, you have got to stop cursing. Mom will be so mad if she hears you, she might want to cut your tongue out." He just threw me a murderous look and I laughed shaking my head as I tried to concentrate.

I sat straight on my bed and closed my eyes. Million thoughts filled my ears. It's everyone's thoughts. Normally, I'd listen to them for a while, just to know what fills someone's mind the moment they wake up—some thanked God for the brand new day, some thought about what they'd prepare for breakfast, some run speeches in their heads, some confused as to what they should wear for the day. I frowned and concentrated more. I breathed in and out, and slowly the simultaneous chatter in my head went away.

I opened my eyes and glared at my brother's crumpled but handsome face. "Your thoughts are safe now."

He sighed a sigh of relief and rolled his eyes. "Hurry up. We're going to church, you know Dad hates being late."

I scurried off my bed as soon as Ethan left. As I showered and dressed up, I thought about how life was fifty years ago. Fifty years ago before the world—for the people during that time—ended.

December 21, 2012. The prophesied 'Doomsday.' Books about that day were published not so long ago since Ethan and I came. They were accounts of people who survived. It was said that faiths were shaken for who would have thought that the world would really end? They said only God knew when but what does God has to say now? Well, maybe He really knew it would end that day.

Though sometimes I get into thinking, with all the survivors and with the world chaotic but still round, then maybe the world didn't totally end.

Looking back before the prophesied date, they said that omens and signs of the nearing end struck the planet or rather the inhabitants of the planet.

October 25, 2012. The day when it all started. A blindness outbreak occurred somewhere in South East Asia. Nobody knew what it was and why people who normally had good eyesight suddenly went blind. It was contagious and even before the end of the month, half of Asia has been quarantined to contain the disease.

It was a huge mess, they said. Car accidents, plane crashes and explosions filled the planet within just half a month. People were losing hope and thought the entire planet would actually go blind.

November 28, 2012. Everyone rejoiced as scientists produced a vaccine that could regenerate the damaged cells that caused the blindness. It worked and the quarantined, one by one regained their eyesight. People were amazed at the discovered vaccine that can regenerate cells. So not only can it be useful for the blindness, but for every sickness, disease or aging. It was what everyone has been dreaming about.

Turned out that the regenerating vaccine has been a long-time research. It was luck that the completion of the vaccine timed when it was needed most.

And finally the day of the end, December 21, 2012. Everyone had just started recovering from the chaos that the blindness outbreak caused. Many were still to recover but everyone was unaware of what was yet to come. That morning, the sun did not rise. The moon turned red and the earth quivered. The world was destroyed by an entire day of earthquake and tsunami. People found ways to survive but as the day ended, a new beginning of suffering and torments arose.

Corpses rose from where they lay in the streets. There were rumors that it was the vaccine that causes the dead to come back. Somehow those who gets devoured turns into one of the Risen. But no one's entirely sure. There were those who didn't remember anything about a vaccine. And the testimonies differ from one another—and to me it seems that they're just making things up.

Marco, the Babylon's Ruler said that it was God's punishment for humans depending on something else for cure other than Him. It took years before Babylon was established, it was he, Marco who gathered people for Salvation. Walls were built up to separate the Forsaken, as what the Babylonians call Necropolis, where the Risen roams the ground and where chaos and murder were rampant. Nothing from the Other Side can cross over the walls unless they open up the Gates.

It was five years ago when they shut the Gates and stopped the search for people to save. It was said that people from the Other Side created chaos here that made Marco and the Council stop the search. What's weird was that no one actually remembered the details of what happened, they seem to just despise Necros. I haven't really thought about that but, well, I'm just grateful that Ethan and I were allowed to stay. Emilia and George adopted us—we were the last ones they saved.

I'm just curious sometimes, if Salvation is for everyone as what the Pastor says every Sunday, then how come those from the Other Side are being called The Forsaken?

"Hey, little sissy! Daydreaming again?" Ethan said interrupting my reverie.

Sunday service has just ended, and I went to my favorite spot at the staircase of a rundown building in front of the church. There I can watch people coming out of the church.

I scowled at him. "Daydreaming your face! Where's mom and dad?"

"Still speaking with everyone." Ethan said dryly. Well, he's not really into the church thing, probably because he's seen how it was in Necropolis. He was the one who kept both of us alive.

I arched an eyebrow but smiled at him. "You know, we should be thankful. These people have been nice to us. Without them, we'd still be in Necropolis hunting for food and running away from both the living and the Risen."

Ethan sat beside me on the stairway. His expression softened as he contemplated on my words. "Yeah, if not for them. We'd probably be dead by now." His soft side disappeared as soon as it came out, his face tensed and jaws clenched. "But we'd still be dead if they find out about your ability to hear thoughts. You must be careful. We have to be careful."

Yeah, of course we couldn't let them know. Hearing thoughts or anything unbiblical as people in this place pointed out is not a very good sign. They said it's from the Devil, a curse. If they knew, they'll probably just throw me back to Necropolis.

Panic rose to my throat and I gasped thinking about the nightmares.

"No. Don't think about it." Ethan's voice was stern as he spoke but regained his composure. "I won't let anything happen to you, trust me."

Few seconds of silence passed as we watched people go out of the church. Stiff smiles were plastered all over their faces, exchanging pleasantries and saying "God bless you."

I smiled. "Seriously, Ethan? Can you also hear thoughts as I do?"

He chuckled and stared up at the bluish gray sky. I've never seen a sky as clear as this in Necropolis. But it's been five years and I could barely remember. "I can't hear thoughts but I can read you. You're my sister, I know you better than you know yourself."

My brows drew together as I interpreted his words. "Are you implying that I am predictable?"

He made a duh-what-do-you-think-face and rose. "I'll go after mom and dad. I'll tell them we'll go home first if they're still busy." He said and made a run towards the church.

"You're so full of yourself Ethan! I hope you trip your way inside!" I didn't see his face but I could tell he's laughing. But then I blushed as people stared in my direction with their mouths wide open. I bit my lip. Crap! I keep forgetting, church is not a place for shouting and I just wished my brother would trip his way in.

"Sorry..." I mouthed apologetically at the shocked faces.

Geez. Why can't I still get used to Babylon's prim and proper and demure protocol whatever? Everyone keeps saying that people should behave accordingly so God would not pour His wrath on us just like what happened fifty years ago, and just like what's happening in Necropolis each and every day.

But sometimes I think if we're all going to live this way then, where would be the joy in Salvation?