"I cursed his ancestor, yes, but I was not the one to curse the entire family. You can blame the cosmic powers for that one." Triple-A winked at the human, and he walked past through the door.
Cecilia's head shot back, and her eyes glanced left and right; as they say, her reaction was priceless. "I think I'd better start wearing something when I bathe."
In Balete Drive, back in the mortal plane, a cloaked figure arrived in the area where the demon of the tree was destroyed. The figure surveyed the place, as if looking for something or someone. He then let out a roar that shook the very earth where he stood. "They took her! THEY TOOK HER!" He kept on shouting. The figure suddenly stopped after something caught his attention. He gently placed his palm on the ground as if trying to feel something. He took out his hourglass, and it started to glow with a bluish light. From the ground, red orbs of energy emerged, all floating near the hourglass, getting siphoned one by one.
Once the red orbs were all siphoned, the hourglass was filled with red glowing sand. "Your energy will boost the hourglass's range and effectiveness." The figure turns the hourglass on its palm, grinning at the reddish hue of the glow. "Ti's finally time to raid the Twilight," it said, placing the hourglass back inside its robes, and then suddenly vanished into black mists.
The twilight had just made port, and the crew was preparing to accept the new set of passengers. Chief Murillo was strolling along the golden deck after an inspection when Cecilia blocked her path. "What are you still doing here, Miss Bermudez? Shouldn't you be heading home and getting some rest?"
"You forgot this." Cecilia took Chief Murillo's hand and placed the locket in the open palms.
The chief took a deep breath, closed her hands, and glanced at Cecilia. "Thank you," her tone was cold and unapologetic.
The chief was about to walk away, but Cecilia said something that made her halt. "You need to come clean with the captain! He needs to know who you are." She walks up to the Chief, "You have to let him know who you are; he deserves to know the truth. If you tell him, not only will you help him be at peace with his past…you will also release yourself from your prison."
"Because I'm afraid…I'm terrified!" Murillo confessed, and she hung her head low from the weight that she carries. "Not from his wrath or fury…but from the pain that I would cause him"
Cecilia embraced Murillo; she understood all too well how fear could imprison one's mind. "But he deserves to know Andrea. You owe that much to him," she explained to Murillo, trying to make her see that this was the right course to take.
"I…I thought about it so many times through the decades, but the fear of losing my purpose terrifies me, and the pain that I would inflict on him is something I could not do. I saw his burdens and pain, no more; I could not bear to add to the weight that pressed down on him." Lamenting her inability to tell the truth.
Cecilia wrapped her in a warm embrace, and she could feel Murillo's heart break and shatter; she knew she was telling the truth. "I'll help you, Andrea, I'll be there for you. The sorrow, the anger, the hatred—they're all tied to secrets. Truth is the only way to set you both free."
Murillo's arms moved to embrace the human, and she was finally able to say what was stopping her from telling the truth: "I want to believe that. I want to stop running from the past, but… I'm afraid."
"Fear is the last chain to break. You're stronger than you think. The truth will be heavy, but it will lift the shadows that bind you both." Cecilia lifts Murillo's face and gently brushes the strands of hair. "I will be there with you every step of the way. I will help you to make him understand." Her promise had somehow lightened the burden in Murillo's heart, and she flashed a bittersweet smile.
"And why would you do that?" Cecilia felt as if her heart had stopped; her time slowed down to almost a standstill. Turning to who said those words felt like an eternity.
"Captain?" she uttered. The scenario she dreaded the most was happening: Chris learning of the truth before Murillo could confess.
"Captain…I can explain," Cecilia tried to approach Chris, but a barrier of slithering shadows divided the two of them, stopping her from getting close to him.
Chris did not speak; he just stood there staring at Murillo, his glares filled with accusation, sorrow, and pain. His silence was torment to their minds; agonizing silence engulfed the two women. His internal struggles played with his heart, and the anger, betrayal, and sorrow gnawed at his soul.
Finally, he spoke, his voice heavy with pain, forcing a raw and heart-wrenching confrontation about trust lost and the cost of betrayal. "After all these years… you dare stand before me, wearing the mask of a friend? How could you betray me so completely—and then hide in the darkness, pretending to save what you destroyed?" Each word, each syllable, was filled with hatred that accumulated in his heart.
"I carried the weight of your betrayal for centuries—each soul I ferried a reminder of your treachery. And now you come back, cloaked in lies, hoping for forgiveness? You don't deserve mercy. You deserve the cold oblivion that you condemned me to!" None of them had ever seen him like this; it was not anger, it was not fury, it was sorrow, pain, and torment.
Murillo stepped forward, trying to reach for Chris. "Crisanto, please believe me, I had no choice." Her voice cracked, reminding her of a bitter truth: she always had a choice. "I stayed so I could protect you, to care for you, and guide you so you could let the anger fade."
"Do you know what your betrayal cost me? Everything!" He yelled, "My peace, my soul, my very existence. And now, after all the pain, you expect me to look at you without hatred?" His accusations stabbed at Murillo's heart and soul, and she finally understood that it was Chris who paid for the consequences of her actions.
As the truth hung in the air, Chris's body tensed, a silent storm gathering beneath his skin. The daylight faltered, dimming as if the sun itself recoiled from the tempest rising within him. The Kasanaan River, calm moments before, churned violently, waves crashing against the Twilight's hull with a ferocity that shook the steel braces and sent shudders through the spectral vessel.
A deep, guttural groan echoed from the ship's core, as if it mourned the awakening wrath it bore. From Chris's form, a terrifying aura erupted—a swirling mist thick with shadow and flame, curling outward like smoke from a dying fire yet charged with the fury of a thousand storms.