Chapter 10

CHAPTER X

I woke up with the same fear that my stalker could just be lurking nearby me, waiting for his unscripted attack.

My lashes rose up and I saw the morning sky from Emalia's screened window covered by a lilac chiffon curtain.

"Oh, you're up. Let's have some breakfast before we leave." Emalia said while drying her hair with the towel.

My other hand voluntarily wrinkles my left eye while I reach for my phone under the pillow. The phone lit up beaming the time, it's seven-thirty in the morning and Emalia sounded like she's in a rush to go. If I remember it right, it's weekend and we don't have any work or any plans to go somewhere.

"Hey, what's the rush?" I asked her as I stand up to clean my bed.

She just looks at me with a blank face, was she trying to make me connect to her thoughts? My head is preoccupied and currently wanting to just be empty, just so it could be away from any crazy thoughts.

"We are supposed to go see the faith healer today, right?" she pointed out.

"Oh…was that today?" I'm still blank. I remember we've talked about it last night but I was not informed she'd be rushing to meet the faith healer today.

"Yeah, get on your feet now. I already booked a cab and it'll be here in less than an hour."

"Wow, where will the cab come from?"

"It's coming down from Baguio."

"And where is this faith healer from? And how did you get to know one?"

"He's from La Trinidad. When I was a kid, Dad usually brings me to a faith healer because I'm of being sickly. The doctors said it could be something worst. And then my dad tried seeking alternative answers. The faith healer was able to identify that my spirit was being lured in a world we have never seen."

Chills instantly rush through me after hearing it from Emalia. Was I just being lured into a world I have never seen?

I actually was lured once, if that counts when I died. I have never seen that place, it wasn't how normal people would picture the afterlife—it's just heaven or hell. Maybe it wasn't how it supposed to be, perhaps, I was really being played fool by these elemental beings.

"I know it sounded strange to you but, I'm with you, Thalia. It's not bad if we'll just try, right?" her words tried to encourage me at least.

After breakfast, Emilia and I hurried our feet inside the cab that keeps honking the horn about the tenth or eleventh time ever since it arrived. We weren't even able to say a word for Mrs. Cardoso trying to rush the day.

"Hey, hey, you look so stressed than I. what's with so much rush?" I finally bother to ask.

Emalia beamed before answering me, "if we want to see the faith healer first, then we have to be very, very early."

Her answer connotes the idea that the faith healer we are about to see is someone with a long waiting list of the visitor.

"—But first, we'll deliver this for my two sisters. I'll just drop their allowance at my grandma's and we'll be off to our main destination for today." She added showing me off a brown envelope that she took out from her butt pocket.

"No wonder I haven't seen them at your house." It was something I realized late.

"They occasionally go to grandma's place on weekends but since it's their semester break, they've decided to stay there for quite a while."

I remember this is Emalia's step-grandmother who also treats her like blood-related. Emalia is still fortunate.

We arrived at a small village on a route that kind of appears like an uphill climb just fifteen minutes after dropping the allowance for Emalia's sisters.

And then upon unloading the cab, we or maybe—I am shocked by the influx of visitors wanting to see this faith healer. The line is already long despite the earliest time we tried to arrive possible, could they had camped here?

There are some people cleaning up some tents and there are still people arriving by cars with patients looking pale and very ill. Along the line of patients are different classes of ailments. There are those handicapped, some are blind, some have large masses of tumor, and there are others who have terminal conditions too.

I should feel ashamed for wining on my dilemma. Looking at these people made me realized how I'm still blessed to come here healthy—it's just my mental state and instinct which frightens me.

The long line of patients took four dead hours before our turn finally came.

As we enter the small bamboo hut, my expectation would be seeing a dark room illuminated by white candles and an old hermit covered with a white beard that looks like he hasn't taken a bath for a decade—but I was wrong.

The room has one fluorescent light, with one window with a thick bamboo stick preventing it from closing. There was no electric fan but the wind coming from the dancing mahogany trees outside gives enough fresh air to make you feel cool inside the hut. And then a woman who appears like a healer's helper, ask us to wait and sit at their bamboo-made sofa.

A short moment later, a man in his early fifty's come down from a made-from-bamboo ladder that connects the sala to an elevated room of the hut.

I manage to reach my hand immediately, "Greetings, I'm Thalia." I don't know if it's the right thing to approach him but I guess it's not since Emalia tried to veil her laughter.

The man just looks into my hand, and instead of shaking with me, he gently clutches my palm with his left hand, "You have wasted your time. I am not a person who can help you." He then said.

Emalia's face became serious and so do I.

"Who then?" Emalia and I synchronically asked.

Caught by the sudden sync, I decided to take the next words, "How can did you say that when I haven't told you what help do I need?" I asked.

The faith healer took a piece of paper from his polo's chest pocket and handed it to me, "I have foreseen someone will come and look this from me. I have always seen you in my vision but for whatever reason—I don't know. Before I handed this to you, at least allow me to know why." He suddenly requested.

It was a trade I never anticipated. If it is true that he has foreseen everything, how come he never saw the reason behind my coming? And why did he become so intrigued to know?

"Normally I don't charge my patients for healing them. They only do so out of charity and for tips—perhaps. I would appreciate knowing why I happen to have a vision of you two coming here for answers." He added.

I rested my back on the wooden sofa and look at him straight in his eyes, "it's a long story but to cut it short, I am also looking for answers. I need to know the reason behind all the unexplainable things happening to me."

"If it doesn't harm you, why bother?"

"It does bother me—it actually caused me life, once." I continued answering to his recent question.

"Once…?" he mused.

"Yes and I'm being hunted by whoever brought me back to life, it wanted me to find answers," I told him with a sharp gaze.

He presented the paper on top of the bamboo-made coffee table, "here is the address where you can find the person who can really help you."

After keeping the note, I can't help but ask him, "If you're saying you've seen us in your vision, how come you can't see the answers I am looking for?"

"I hope I have the ability to answer that but I can only heal the wounded, not the undead. And for a fact, I am not a fortune-teller."

"I'm alive not like some sort of an immortal zombie." I protested.

"Oh I supposed you haven't figured it out then."

My forehead furrowed, "Figure out what?" I asked.

He then gave me a sigh, "Miss, I can only tell you so much, but that will only slow your phase. Believe me it's a better option to strengthen your stronghold with knowledge when faced by the unknown."

I lost whatever he meant, "I didn't get what you mean but I know you have the answers for me. Please, help me if you can."

Yet he just slowly shook his head, "I'm afraid I really can't help you."

"Please—" I asked once more.

Yet he cued the helper to ask us to leave the hut. I look at him in disbelief before we leave him be.

"So much time wasted for a person who doesn't want to help," I remark as we were inside the cab.

"Actually, he did help." Emalia reverted.

"How?"

She handed me the paper and made me look into an illustration of a stall and it says that it is located behind the Quiapo church.

"So now he wants us to find the oldest oracle in history."

"We need to travel to manila tonight then," Emalia suggested.

"No—not tonight, I need to get a new place to stay."

"You can still stay at home."

"I refuse, Emalia. I prefer having my own apartment. First, its privacy, second, I don't want to bother your family after what's going on with me."

Emalia sighs as a sign of defeat. I felt like she really doesn't want me to leave their house but I need to move out soon before my stalker could even find out I'm staying at Emalia's place. It's better if I could keep them away from my own dilemma. Emalia has done so much for me this day.

***

La Oraculo,

Quiapo Market,

Manila, Philippines

We can't possibly be wrong.

Emalia and I stood still with our chin angling upward to gaze at the old signage of La Oraculo situated at the middle of the market. It was what's drafted in the illustration.

The benefit of the doubt begins to spin. But Emalia and I went for it. It was after a few days when we both decide the file for leave lying that we need extra time to move for another apartment when in fact, I have finally move out that next day after Emalia and I came from La Trinidad.

Inside the small stall was an old man with an untrimmed ash grey mustache, wearing faded checkered long-sleeve polo and a hand-me-down loose trouser. He looks like he can qualify for a Chinese trader if not for his native Filipino tongue.

"How may I help you?" he suddenly asked.

"I'm actually looking for a faith healer."

But instead of answering me right, he just chuckled and said, "Miss, you've probably entered the wrong stall. There is no faith healer here. What's here is an oracle. She is the oldest and last oracle of the pre-Hispanic shaman blood.

"What does the oracle do?"

"She technically sees someone's future and quite of most recent past."

"Is she available now then?"

"Yes, she is, comes, follow me." The old man leads the way inside.

I feel quite hesitant, moreover I still end up following the lead of this old man.

Suddenly, Emalia promptly pulled me back before I could even follow the old man inside a room.

"Are you sure you want to push through this? The old man gives me the right amount of creep and this oracle or whatever-she-called, she is just like a fortune teller. How can we tell if she could really help you?

"Emalia, you said it yourself, it won't be wrong if we will just try," I told her.

As I sit at one of the wooden carved chairs, Emalia chooses to wait outside and just contact me if I need help.

And again, I was expecting crystal balls and tarot cards, but all I see was an old lady who looks like she is sleeping on the adjacent chair.

"Dear child, I know you've been expecting to see me for your own peace of mind. Apparently, you can only have three questions to ask me. Be wise to ask the most significant." She said without opening her eyes. Could she be blind? I wonder.

"But why just three?" I suddenly asked.

"That's the first question because I'm the oracle of three. I can only answer to the question of three."

I rose up as I pressed my hand on the table protesting, "No fair! That's not my question."

Yet she just calmly answered, "It's done, you only have two left."

"Fine, where can I find Dalikamata?" I suddenly asked.

"Ahh… the second question, you can find what you seek at the oldest tree and tallest keep. Visions of the past, present and future, witness of defeat and victor."

Her riddle didn't even give me the slightest hint. And so, I shook my head in disbelief as I took out my phone and type what I can remember from the words she said on my phone's notepad.

"And the last question?" The oracle asked.

And now she's rushing me.

I sigh as I think about the last question I wanted to ask her, "I want to know what will happen to my future?"

She paused for about the next short seconds before breathing in a slow, "I see nothing else but death,"

Death. It was her last word that sends me chilling deep through my bones. Was she even serious about it?

"How? Why? Am I going to die?" I had about two or three more simultaneous questions and yet she stops me midway by chiming in saying, "I'm afraid I've answered all three."

"Wait! Please, just last one. I just want to know if there is a way for the third answer to be revoked."

"Blood for blood. How far are you willing to save your own life against the lives of the many?" she suddenly asks.

At that moment I am left startled. How far can I really go just to save my own life if it could mean I'd risk the lives of many? It was a risk I am not capable to handle.

All I know now is I have to find Dalikamata for other answers. The Oracle was good enough to give me a lead through a riddle I still need to solve. Why can't all these people just help me by directly giving me answers?

And then I suddenly thought about what the faith healer told me, 'it's a better option to strengthen your stronghold with knowledge when faced by the unknown'

I am still uncertain about the things going around me but perhaps finding Dalikamata would indeed give me the answers I need.

After paying the old man for the oracle's service, he grins at me saying, "You should read between the words that the oracle told you. She's old and sometimes her predictions might become contrary to what will happen." And then he left me by the front signage.

His words gave me a small hope that what the Oracle told me might not be true. Now, it's time to solve the riddle answer the oracle gave me on how I could find Dalikamata. And then my head tilted around to look for Emalia but to my wonder, she isn't around.

I walk around the narrow and strait pathway along with the busy market behind the Quiapo church, the whole street is overwhelmed with vendors selling out religious merchandise from Sto. Niño statue, the Virgin Mary statue, as well as the black Nazarene Statue. There are also rosaries of different colors, doctrine books, prayer pamphlets, fans with Divina images and so many more.

The crowd is slowly being flooded by more patriotic devotees buying and trading that it slowed me from my movement to find Emalia. I slowly feel the need for air as suffocation begins to limit my breathing. My vision slowly blurs and I tried to fight it back, at least. I mustered my strength and tried to walk further away from the ocean of people.

When I was about to get near an open area, someone grab me back into the pool of crowd, making it harder for me to move. I tried to walk back and collected all the strength that is left with me.

Right at the moment when I passed through the pool of people, I collapsed on someone with a sturdy feature. The person held my face and tried waking me up, "Thalia, wake up." It's a familiar voice. It was an accent I have heard before.

"Thalia, hey…wake up. What happened to you?" He asked again.

The last thing that my body is capable of doing now is opening my eyes after burning out the rest of my energy a while back, and I was surprised to find myself in the arms of Mr. Stefano Del Vecchio.

What on earth is he doing here?

*****