Silhouettes

Tina was asleep when he woke up, and a string of saliva hung from her cracked lips and into the pool that had accumulated on the stone platform. And while watching her, a thought suddenly came to him. 'That fool was so certain we're gonna die here.'

Then he chuckled. "Heh! Could be possible but I ain't letting that happen."

He was seven years old when he found out he was the one who killed their mother. It was his older brother who told him. And Owen only did that because George won't stop asking where their mom was despite his father telling him many times to keep it a secret.

It was family day at school, an annual event. He and his brother were the only ones who didn't have a mom in their class. Henry went to Owen's, while it was just his aunt, Lucia who accompanied him.

He remembered bawling his eyes out in his aunt's 'No Entry' room that night. He was just a kid and he didn't understand. 'Why did it have to be me? Why did I have to be the one who killed mom?' He kept asking his aunt. He was a bit slow academically but he understood emotions quite well. But even he couldn't fathom how deep his heart had sunk at that time.

And that was the first night Lucia took him out of their villa. Then they pulled a prank on his homeroom teacher by putting a lot of toads in his bedroom.

They caught them personally at the rice field. There were plenty in there, making weird noises at night.

"That's what you get for making my nephew cry," his aunt whispered to his homeroom teacher before they left through the window.

"But Aunt Lucia, Sir Arevalo didn't do anything to me."

"Oh sure he did, my lovely nephew. Who needs family days anyway?" His aunt told him. "Why don't we put some in the principal's office too?"

He was just seven at that time. But he understood his aunt was trying to make him feel better in her own weird ways. And she succeeded! He actually had a hard laugh that time. Even more so since a rumor about the school being haunted started the very next morning. And that was the last time their school ever held family days.

Would they still continue if every single morning, they find blood colored writings on the bathroom mirrors about a curse that would befall the school if they hold another family day? Surely not.

His aunt won't admit it but he was sure she was the one who diligently went to school every crack of dawn to write those stuff. And he would snicker every time he thought about it even to this day.

"Aunt Lucia is the best! I should have taken her with me when I ran away," George muttered as he reminisced about the past. "I think she would fit in just fine in this place."

Then a light suddenly hit his face. The enormous double door across from them that reached the ceiling opened with a thud. And a man wearing a gray robe sauntered inside. Sitting on his head was a skeleton helmet that seemed to belong to a giant bird. And on his shoulder was a knocked out man, carried like a sack, and bound tightly by a rope.

He shut his eyes back and pretended to be asleep. Although he said they could escape, he wasn't really confident in it. He said it more to himself than for Tina. A promise that they will get out of there alive. And hopefully, with the new guy as well.

And with his eyes closed, he could feel another footsteps coming in their direction.

"Hehe. You are so early, Marco." It was an old woman's voice. "Is that the third sacrifice?"

"Yes," the man named Marco said. "Who are you this time?"

"Hehe. I was Aurore thirty minutes ago. I am Tifati now."

"I see."

Then George shuddered. 'Aren't things progressing too fast?'

***

"Hullo! Are you listening?" Said the tortoise.

After George disappeared, Diego met a fellow Phulas resident. A tortoise who was once human but chose to become a tortoise in his next life. Diego later learned that the tortoise' name was Mawmaw. And that he was a middle aged man who didn't want anything to do with humans anymore. And Diego took Mawmaw with him.

The tiny black things that had rat-like bodies and canine faces that dominated him and his coach suddenly retreated after thirty minutes or so.

"Yes I am," he replied to Mawmaw.

"Then return me to my pond," Mawmaw demanded lazily.

"Not yet," said Diego. "I need your help. I promise I will find you a much larger pond when I find George."

"But that's impossible. Just give up."

"Not happening."

"Then just put me down. I'm going back on my own."

"Not happening either. You said you lived here for a long time, didn't you? So you're coming with me. You must know a lot about the place, right?"

"Not true. Not true at all." Mawmaw denied.

And then Diego pulled the reins. He made the horses stop. Through the fog that shrouded the area, two silhouettes emerged. One belonged to a man and the other to a woman.

"You are amazing, papa!" The woman whispered. "Everything's happening as you prophesied."