Paula's Sanctuary

IN KENYON'S ICE TEMPLE (2024)

Inside a room, walls covered in ice along with the ceiling, and a stone floor. Kenyon is sitting on a chair facing the rectangular window which has patterns of ice.

He is staring at the picture from earlier, and the door moves and it produces a creaking sound.

"Found any clues?"

Andres steps inside the room. The serious young man, Kenyon, moves his eyes to Andres.

"I haven't found anything," Kenyon throws the picture at Andres, "be useful and find some clues."

Andres swings his hand and grabs the picture, barely missing to capture it. He looks at the picture back and forth as his brows furrow, and his eyes narrow.

"Well, looking at this picture, the mask resembles the ones we fight but this mask is different."

"How different?" Kenyon glanced at Andres.

Andres looks at Kenyon with narrowed eyes, and he looks at the picture again. "Well, it has letters that look like..."

Andres' eyes light up. "I remember it's a language called Baybayin! A part of our script as a Filipino."

Kenyon rises from his seat "You understand that language?!"

"Well... no," Andres said.

Kenyon groans. "You piece of ice shit! You damn fool!"

"It's the first time I see an ice break," Andres chuckles while raising his eyebrows, "get it, ice break? Like break time."

"Why are you being like this? Your joke is trash and you deserve to be burned to ash! You piece of ice shit!" Kenyon rubbed his forehead.

Andres brings out the folder from his dark jacket, and steps closer to Kenyon.

Andres puts the fold on the round wooden desk in front of Kenyon. "I read that folder earlier."

Andres looks straight into Kenyon's silver eyes. "Reading it, I realize that you have granted me these cold-resistant gloves so that I can handle your ice weapons, and fight the mastermind along with you."

"So, are you willing to train now?" Kenyon said as he constructed an ice dagger, and lent it to Andres.

Andres raises his gloves, and he gently holds the dagger. The dagger's handle is made of solid ice along with its sharp short blade, and white cold wind resonates from its form.

At the wide terrain of snow, two men are clashing against one another; Andres with his dagger and Kenyon with his long sword.

The gentle cold wind becomes strong as it becomes an obstacle from Andres' perspective.

"Is this it? Letting the climate be a hindrance to the development of your skill?"

Andres swings his dagger upward and strikes against the blade of the long sword. Kenyon lifts his long sword and swings it down at Andres which he stops with his dagger.

Andres' knees start to fold, he looks at his knees and rolls aside. He stands up and immediately swings his dagger against Kenyon's next strike but he ends up being pushed away by it.

"Show me what I must see," Kenyon swirled his sword and aimed it at Andres.

Kenyon says, "Show me that you are a rightful candidate for being the new warrior."

"Damn right!" Andres shouted with a furrow of his eyebrows and narrowing eyes.

Amidst the harsh cold wind making Kenyon blurry in his sight, Andres moves at full speed while swinging his dagger against Kenyon's fast long sword strike.

Kenyon thrusts his long sword and Andres jumps, therefore, he lands on the large ice blade; pushing the blade onto the ground.

Andres and Kenyon's eyes meet before Andres jumps toward Kenyon. Andres strikes Kenyon's face but he moves his face aside from Andres' foot.

Andres immediately swings his foot toward Kenyon, and Kenyon is kicked in his face which causes him to step away.

"A kick for a kick." Andres chuckled.

Kenyon raises his eyebrow while witnessing Andres sprinting towards him.

Kenyon straightens his upper body and he remains calm and serious.

Suddenly, a heavy sensation falls upon Kenyon's shoulders and he looks around him.

"I'm here!"

Kenyon shakes his head and he looks in the direction of Andres. He points his dagger at Kenyon's throat and he raises his eyebrows while looking at Kenyon's face.

"Hey! You looked like you saw a ghost."

Kenyon thrusts his long sword into the ground.

He turns his eyes to Andres, and with a calm tone, he tells him. "Andres, we must awaken your abilities as a warrior."

"Why?" Andres asked.

Kenyon clears his throat before looking at his temple. "It is important! Because, I can feel that any day, 'they' would come."

Andres steps closer to Kenyon's left side with a glare embedded in Andres' eyes.

"We need to know first the location of the missing students," Andres said.

"How about this," Kenyon raises his hand and lends it towards Andres, "after we investigate this case, you'll commit to training to awaken your ability."

Andres looks at Kenyon's hand, after a brief second, Andres holds Kenyon's hand. Together, they perform a handshake while looking into each other's eyes.

"Fine! You got yourself a deal," Andres said.

Kenyon and Andres are standing amid a storm composed of snow and ice falling from the sky.

"Andres, it's time we head to Paula's house, and after that," Kenyon turns around to face Andres, "I will tell you something far more important."

Kenyon brings out his compass. The ice freckles on the magnetic needle and orienting arrow disappear as they slowly move in different directions.

The harsh wind gathers around them, and Andres covers his face while Kenyon remains staring at his compass.

A snowball strikes Andres' face and he stumbles and falls to the ground. He stands up and spits the snow from his mouth while scowling.

He shouts at Kenyon. "I thought we were summoned to a bus terminal!"

"Is that a slap?" Kenyon inserts his compass in the pocket of his pants, "the compass will take us to a safe place."

Andres points at people who are looking at them. "Well! Tell it to those who are staring at us!"

Surrounded by commoners who are scattered around them; their eyes fixated on both of them.

"Don't be afraid, the compass will take us to a recommendable safe place, if it took us here then be thankful that it didn't take us to a risky place–!"

Andres slaps his head, and he holds the sleeve of Kenyon's grey shirt before running away from the prying eyes.

Andres looks at Kenyon with anger. "Damn you! Stop explaining to me right now! We should've run earlier! This ain't some comic shit where you explain things to me!"

IN A HOUSE IN A SUBDIVISION VILLAGE, PASIG CITY (2024)

Later on, Andres and Kenyon are standing in a living room inside a house.

"That was risky, you know!" Andres said.

"What risky?" Kenyon sighed.

"Are you kidding me?! You terrorized the people at the bus station!" Andres glared at Kenyon.

Kenyon closes his eyes, and yawns. "You should be thanking me for doing that. Also, superpowers? In public? Do you think the news will report some news like that?"

"Oh come on! I know you are going to freeze those people!"

At his words, Kenyon raises his eyebrows at Andres.

"I'm a warrior of ice, and I aim to protect this world from any harm," Kenyon points to himself, "so, don't be afraid, I am just scaring those people at the bus station to give us way."

From the stairs, a woman comes down holding a picture frame of herself with a young woman standing in front of her.

"You both are investigators that know where my daughter is, right?" the woman turned her eyes at each one of them.

Kenyon holds his hands together, and his silver eyes are looking at her. "You are somehow correct but your information has a flaw, we only know clues that could lead us to her location not her exact location."

The woman looks down from his gaze, and she swallows the lump in her throat. "I hoped that both of you know where she is, but the way you answered my questions about her... the way both of you told me about that is amazing."

Andres glances at Kenyon before Kenyon speaks, "Thank you for trusting us... we are going to ask something precious."

"Anything. Please, don't be shy to ask," the woman said.

"Ma'am Maya, before your daughter went missing," Kenyon looks at the picture frame and back to Maya's eyes, "tell us everything she did."

"My Paula, she went missing after she went outside. Nothing happened before she went out," Maya tightly held the picture frame, "but I noticed something odd about her personality."

"Odd? What do you mean by that?" Kenyon asked, still calm while looking at her.

Andres remains standing right next to Kenyon while watching the two individuals talk.

Maya replies while tears are falling from her eyes. "She's always happy, she always smiles when she's in our house but everything changes after that awarding ceremony."

Maya begins to tremble as tears continue to fall from her eyes.

Andres narrows his eyes a bit as he steps a litte toward Maya but he senses something, and he halts, and he looks at Kenyon.

Kenyon raises his left leg on his right thigh. He waits for Maya to say her next words while Andres is observing the situation.

"She never desired to go outside, and she is always locking herself in this house. When we're eating, it seems like she hates eating.

Kenyon asks, "Tell me, before she disappeared, did she tell you any place before she went missing?"

"She always said that she will go to her 'sanctuary' and she hasn't told me what kind of place is that," Maya responded and tears were still flowing from her eyes.

Andres walks toward Maya, he stands beside her while patting her back. "Just let it all out."

"Okay, thank you for the answers." Kenyon stood from his seat and walked toward the door.

"Ma'am, we'll do anything to find her," Andres assures her, "Don't worry."

IN KENYON'S ICE TEMPLE (AFTER THE INTERVIEW WITH MAYA)

Andres is standing in front of the round wooden table as Kenyon remains sitting on the chair in front of it.

"What does sanctuary mean?" Andres hummed.

"Sanctuary is one's safety, meaning, Paula felt anxious in their house causing it to be not her sanctuary anymore," Kenyon looked at the words written in his notebook.

Andres points at the page of the notebook. "I get it now! Her new sanctuary might be her home!"

Kenyon looks at him calmly. "That is what I meant, ice bastard. Right now, we have lead."

"How can a lead be a lead if it is not pointing to a place where we can get the next clue?"

"Then we must go to the next clue," Kenyon puts the folder on the table, "then it is Snow's relative that we should confront."

"Christopher Jeremiah Aguinaldo," Andres said.