Once Was Once

"We need to do something before his body will be in filtered by a different soul."

Said worryingly by the old man, whom they asked helped from.

"This person, or this woman has a strange spirit with her, she seems like normal, but she is not. She acquired this strange spirit, she seeks this spirit."

Leon was advised to not touch the bone, as he was not inclined or simply it's not his job to do help his brother because it would be even more dangerous. His whole family was advised to act normally around Lito. They followed everything and had to let them do it. A woman nearly in his forties, the old man, and a younger man, maybe in his teens; would be the one who would be working late at night so his mother had to prepared a cup of coffee and a sweet potato for them.

They had to work in the middle of the night.

It was near twelve in the evening when they left the house. While Lito's family had to watch over him for the night. The old man had asked for Lito's jacket, not just any jacket, but a jacket that he had been using when he was working in the farm; to be prepared so that they can perform the ritual to call his own soul back. They had to get his soul back, they had to call him back.

The old man and his company returned to their place. Lito's family didn't knew what happened because the old man and his female company kept their mouth shut and signed them to be silent. They were wondering where the younger man is, the young teen boy. Leon went outside their house and found the young boy sitting just outside their house, near the post of their house. He was serious, he was silent, he was waiting for someone. Then, dogs started barking, barking too loudly, its beyond normal.

The young teen stood up, and mouthed to Leon the jacket of Lito that they prepared. Leon rushed inside the house holding his younger brother's jacket and gave it to the young boy. His whole family, the old man, and the woman went outside also to watch what will happen.

With the barking of the dogs a shadow appeared, everyone saw it.

A shadow was approaching them, the clear shadow of Lito, walking towards them. The shadow has the clear image of Lito, they were all in gasp when the young teen said….

"Lito, oh you came home, come and wear your clothes"

The young teen held his clothes as if waiting for someone to wear it, then the shadow wore the jacket, then the jacket fell down. The young teen picked up the jacket and asked all of the family members, and all of them to go inside the house. They waited for something to happened but the old man just told them that he is alright, his soul came back when he heard Lito's snore. The young teen then advised them clearly to let Lito wear the jacket when he wakes up.

Lito woke up wondering why he was in bed already. His mother ordered him to wear the jacket that he prepared for him, that's nothing. He wore it and was fine. But when he arrived at his farm, he never remembered how he had already finished harvesting his plants.

The first thing that he only remembered was the shout that he heard from the old woman; and then nothing.

His mother and ironically his father was at home when he arrived at their place. His father was present, and was told that he came home because of his son. Ironic again, their father was never home then he was suddenly here after everything was settled down.

Without expecting anything from his father, their father actually had something to tell.

The farm where he was working used to belong to the old woman's parents but they sold it to their family.

Everything was fine and well but when the old woman's father was in death bed, he told their children about their land, as if claiming that it still belongs to them. Or in short they were swindled by Lito's parents.

They were in agreement at that time they bought it, they should not be afraid because it was fair and well. However, a dying person's wish or statement has really that impact, it's as if everything is true, yet it's not.

Thus the old woman was seeking to get back what they own but don't want to acknowledge the agreement that was told to her after the elders who were witnesses at that time presented the fact to her. Its' still theirs in her own mind, the old and elder people produced their tsk, tsk and kept on wagging their finger at her because she is causing so much chaos. She did not only did it to Lito but to all other families who bought his father's; and while his father was still alive.

Because of so much greed and her wicked spirit as a person together with the strange spirit that she seeks, caused harm in the community.

The old woman never returned to Lito's farm but he would meet her some time to time. She would not look at him directly, and that's a huge relief to Lito. However, the misery he felt does not end there. He would felt a tightening in his stomach, he felt like he needs to go and shit, but nothing would come out.

It does not end there, he would notice that he would be sweating, the cold sweat. He would bend because of how painful his stomach is, he feels strange, he felt like he was under a spell. And it seemed like he had, her mother saw him, checked his situation and told him he acquired an

"₁amling". A person with am-amling has caused it and they all knew who it is. The only solution is to approach that person who caused it, until the affected one would feel at ease.

For other people don't realize that they have am-amling but some people knew that they have am-amling and were just deliberately causing it. Thus, the only solution is to wait for it to like expire or expose. He was advised by his older brother Leon, to just bear with the pain first, for it would be even more dangerous if Lito would approach the old woman again.

1.amling/am-amling – an unexplainable sickness that caused by someone to other people. The one who caused harm might not have even knew that they harmed someone. It's just that maybe their soul is much stronger than the harmed one. And there are other people who knew they could harm other people and would just continue to do so.