Three hours ago;
Cecilia lay on her bed, her eyes glued to the silver heart-shaped locket as it twirled, dangling from her fingers. She opened the locket to reveal the hand-drawn photo of Andrea and Chris. She traced the edges of his picture and thought to herself, "You didn't age a day, you look as good looking today as you did two hundred years ago."
She then shifted her attention to Andrea's portrait. "But you…you have been a bad girl. It was because of you that he is bound here. If you hadn't betrayed him, he would have lived a full and happy life." Then Cecilia looked up at the ceiling, contemplating, "Maybe I should thank you, because I would not have met him without you?"
She suddenly sprang up from her bed, glancing at the locket as if scrutinizing it under a microscope. She remembered what Murillo said, "I heard about her from the captain. When I recognized her, I hid her from the captain, and she was able to go to Kaginhawaan."
She tilts her head as if something was amiss. "Why is this here? Why did Andrea leave it here then?" Her eyes came to a realization, "Unless…unless." She covered her mouth with her hands. "She's still here! Andrea is still aboard the Twilight! But who? I met all the female crew members, and this face is not familiar."
"She said Andrea died in 1875." Chris's words came to her like a wave. "Actually…I just realized, I don't even know Murillo's story; all I know is that next to me, she is the oldest crewmember at one hundred fifty years of service." The words one hundred fifty stuck with her. She quickly took out her phone and opened the calculator app, subtracting 1875 from 2025, and got 150. "She said she was here two years before Andrea arrived, which would land her at a hundred and fifty-two, but the captain said she was here for a hundred and fifty. Why would she lie?"
She then remembered Murillo's words "Andrea Primo de Rivera, who was of pure Spanish blood" and then she recalled the incident with the boy Toby "El Bar no abrirá hasta el atardecer, pero por ahora, disfruta de nuestro buffet infinito"
The fragments in her mind twisted and churned, the truth just beyond her grasp—an unbearable weight settling over her chest like a suffocating storm poised to erupt. The silence in the room pressed in, thick with a dreadful stillness that clawed at her sanity, the sting of a revelation so dark it threatened to unravel everything she thought she knew.
She let the locket fall onto the bed with a soft, hollow clink, retreating a step as if the object itself had burned her. Her hands shook uncontrollably, trembling with a mixture of fear and disbelief. Her eyes widened, pupils dilated in shock, as the nauseating truth crashed down upon her like poison.
She clutched at her hair, twisting strands between her fingers, the weight of the forbidden knowledge crushing her spirit. The words tore from her lips, raw and trembling, "You witch... you're Andrea all along—hiding in plain sight, right under our noses."
Her breath hitched, a cold, sickening panic rising within her. She bit her fingers as if to stop the words from spilling out, but the horror of the secret wouldn't be contained. "Oh my god, Murillo... if Chris ever finds out, he'll drag you to the Kasanaan and watch as oblivion swallows you whole." She let out a deep breath. "I'd love to get a front seat for that!"
The truth was a poison, a curse she never asked to drink. "Well, this is one hell of a plot twist. Maybe I should get some popcorn." She picked up the locket and marched out of her cabin.
Present time:
Murillo felt her knees buckle, and she almost slumped on the floor, wide-eyed and slack-jawed. She forced herself to regain her composure and stood straight. "Where did you get that? And why call me Andrea? You know my name is Esperanza."
Cecilia grinned, but in a disappointed manner, "Do I really have to spill it out for you?" Murillo did not reply; she just stood and stared at Cecilia. "Fine! I found this here at the very spot where you're looking, and secondly, Andrea, that's your real name, isn't it?"
Murillo seized Cecilia's hand with trembling urgency. "For the last time... I am not Andrea," she whispered, her voice cracking under the weight of a thousand unspoken sorrows.
"Yes, you are!" Cecilia's voice shattered the silence like a blade. "You're hiding the truth from him. Why? Why won't you tell him?"
Murillo's eyes flickered with a painful storm. "I don't have time for your accusations," she snapped, stepping past Cecilia's desperate grasp.
But Cecilia wasn't done. She grabbed Murillo's shoulders, spinning her around, forcing her to meet the fierce fire in her eyes. "You are Andrea. No matter how much you deny it... You are her."
Murillo's heart clenched, but she shrugged off Cecilia's hands, her voice breaking into a desperate plea. "I don't know what game you think you're playing, Miss Bermudez, but I swear to God, I am not Andrea!"
"Yes, you are!" Cecilia's voice was trembling with rage and pain. "You're that rotten, filthy traitor who sold him out! You might as well have pulled the trigger yourself!"
The words hit Murillo like a dagger to the chest. "You're crossing a line," she gasped, pushing Cecilia away, her own hands shaking. "Back off... Bermudez!"
"I'm not backing down!" Cecilia spat, eyes blazing. "Not while the no-good traitor who stabbed Chris in the back still walks free. You said it yourself; you forgot about him, you buried him because you found a new man in your life, and lived happily ever after! While he…he suffered, bound to the afterlife, punished and cursed for two hundred years!"
"I did it to save my family." Murillo's defenses crumbled. Her breath hitched, tears burning behind her eyes. She choked out, voice shattering like glass. In an instant, the visage of Chief Murillo vanished, and standing in front of Cecilia was Andrea. For the first time, Chris's present, Cecilia, and his past, Andrea, came face to face.
A raw, unbearable ache twisted inside Andrea's chest. "Do you know what it's like," she whispered, voice trembling with grief, "to live every day with the man who threatened everything you hold dear... who killed the person who showed you how to be loved?"
Her hand thumped against her chest, trembling violently. "Because I do. I feel that pain... every second... and it's tearing me apart."
"Liar!" Cecilia hissed, voice trembling with venom as she stared down at Andrea. "You're despicable. You sold out the man who loved you—betrayed him most darkly—and now you haunt his existence like a wraith. What? Is killing him once not enough? Are you searching for new ways to break his heart?"
Andrea's breath hitched, tears spilling freely down her cheeks as her voice cracked with desperation. "I did nothing but try to protect him," she pleaded, voice raw and shaking. "The moment I saw him here, my heart shattered all over again. That's why I stayed... I couldn't leave him—not after everything he's suffered, every wound he's carried alone."