Sin of Lust

CHAPTER 40

“Sister, I know that already. That we can’t do anything about them, but I have too.” Blanche replied. “Did you see the look on their faces? Are you sure you’re happy as you wave them goodbye at the gates?”

Her questions send shiver on Mary Jane’s core that made her released her shoulders and dart her eyes to the ground, “Just like what I have thought, sister. Mouth can lie as much as it wants, but the heart cannot.”

Mary Jane was silent for a good few second, until finally get the courage to look at her deep in the eyes, hoping that she will be able to see at least a tint of hesitation in her, however she found none. “You’re going to really do it?”

“You know the answer to that.”

“Then you better be ready that I will get in your way.” Mary Jane said with a newly found resolve.

“What?! Why?” Mary Jane screeched from the fact that she thought she was going to help them and not do the opposite. “I thought you don’t want this?”

“Yes, I don’t.”

“Why are you doing this then?”

“Because what you’re planning to do is insane! You’re going to put these children on the boat made of mud? You are all going to sink! What you’re doing will put the children and you too to much further danger!”

“We are already in danger! Why can’t you understand that?!” Blanche yelled back, “if we are not going to do something then this…” she pointed down indication of the status quo, “will only worsen! To the point where this chance will not happen anymore.” She stepped forward and hold the elder’s hand, “This is our only chance, sister. We can’t lose this chance.”

“I know you can’t lose this chance, Blanche,” Mary Jane whispered bitterly, “but please know that I can’t lose you too.”

“But… you’re losing all your entire life.” Blanche held her hand tighter, “How can you stay here and bit your lips to stop yourself from screaming? Each child that is taken away from you, you’re just there biting your fingernails off.”

“I know it! I know all of it better than you, Blanche so don’t you dare talk to me like you’re the only one suffering here!” Mary Jane shouted, “I know it better than you, Blanche! But I’ve never made a move where I will put everything away.”

“So, you’re going to lie to them and pretend that all of them are happy and will always be?”

“If that’s what I need to do”

“But do you think that they will be truly happy? How can you do that? Lying like that on their faces.”

“I will shut my eyes and pretend that everything is fine just to make them feel the life and joy before they will be gone from my arms.” She sobs, her cries diminished their conversation as Blanche realized that all this time, Mary Jane cries because she can’t do anything, but now that they are going to do something after many years, she can’t fight. Fires in her have been annihilated by time that passed by.

“Nunna, we love you.” A gentle, sweet voice interrupted them from behind.

“Mildred!” Mary Jane exclaimed when she saw three children behind her, “how long have been there?” she wiped her tears with her apron and forced a smile, just like what she always did.

“Nunna, you’ve been suffering all this time…” Mildred spoke and went closer to her, “I… I can’t imagine how painful it is as you send them away.”

“What?”

“We’ve been here from the very start.” Her response made Mary jane’s eyes but soon it turns into pained ones.

“Now, you know.”

“We already know, Nunna.” Stephen with the same hurt and forced smile on his lips. “We already know so you don’t have to worry about us. We made this decision.”

“What? How? When?” she asked in haste as surprise took over her that she didn’t realize that three of them already know what’s happening.

“When we followed Istella to the gates. We’ve seen it all, we’ve heard it all.” Lino shortly replied.

“You must hate me now.” Mary Jane wrapped her arms around her and darted her eyes away from theirs.

“We don’t hate you Nunna, we can’t.” Mildred said hugging her tight, “you were always there for us, even though you can’t do anything as you said but you did everything for us. You never left us, you were always there for us you never left us not even a single moment.” She spoke.

“You made warm foods for us, you sheltered us, you made us warm blankets. I don’t think anyone will do that to us.” Lino mentioned.

“You treated our wounds; you hug us even though we reek of sweat. You love us even though we are not related by blood. You never left us behind. You loved us more than anyone in this world, we cannot hate you because we know that you were just doing that to at least make us feel love even though no one will in the outside.” Stephen made his words.

Their heartfelt messages brought the dam crashing, letting the tears break from its confinements where it was restrain all these years, “My children…” she hugs her children with a new found fire coming from the strengths that her children brought to her.

Blanche reached her hand to Mary jane and said, “Nunna… let us escape… together.”

Mary Jane hugged them and they cry together for the last time before the kids went to their bedrooms. To them, it all feels like a new life for them, all their thoughts are now said, there’s nothing more to hide so their trust to one another is much deeper than before. And all the thorns in their throats are now gone, making them feel a lot closer.

Blanche decided to ask her, “Sister why did you came here in the first place, I mean I never got to know you better.” She asked as she let her feet sway under her while they sit above the roof of their house.

Mary Jane looked at the night sky and take a deep breath and let her lungs be filled with fresh air, rejuvenating it till the depths of her doubts, “I was actually a…” she was hesitant for a moment that’s why Blanche decided to butt in.

“No, no, its fine sister, you don’t have to force yourself answering my questions,” she sheepishly smiled.

“No, it’s fine. It’s not that serious, now or so I thought.” She chuckled, “I was just a thief back then, I just came here and became a nun just to get the necklace of Daleon which is Luxuria. But things happened and I learned the secret of this house. And the rest is history.”

“So, Luxuria was right…” she mumbled under her breath as she looked down on the pendant of her necklace.

Mary Jane overheard her conversation to herself, “Luxuria was right? What do you mean?”

“Ah… nothing sister that’s not that important.” Blanche waved it off.

The older sister on the other hand is let out a little laugh when she realized how she addressed her, she’s been calling her that all this time, yet this is the only time she has noticed it, “You can now stop me from calling sister,” Mary Jane smiled at her.

“Huh?” Blanche was confused at the moment, thinking that she did something wrong and is waiting for her to lash out.

But instead of angry and furious Mary Jane, she meets a heart-melting gaze of hers, “You can call me Nunna, just like all my children.” She said.

Blanche was stunned for a moment and is in the middle of realization when all of a sudden, her eyes began to shed tears. She cried because in her entire life this is the day she dreamt of, that someone will actually accept her as a daughter and someone to call a mother.

“Wait, wait, wait! Blanche are you alright? If you don’t want that you don’t have to call me, Nunna.” Mary Jane was frantically trying to hush her. But she received a gesture that she didn’t expect.

Blanche lunged forward and hugs Mary Jane with her face buried on her shoulder, her tears are soaking the linen of her clothes but that doesn’t matter to any one, all they care is how they feel at the moment, the warm fuzzy feeling of excitement and swirling emotion of happiness.

“I never knew that you will be this cry baby.” Mary Jane smiled helplessly when Blanche cried on her arms.

“Because it’s your fault…Nunna…” she replied, it was very clear in the elder nun’s ears even though it’s muffled of her own clothes, this made her almost cried into tears as well, however, her age refused her letting out her inner self.

There was a good few moments of them, catching up together and talking about things about magic, different kinds of magic. They even talked about the beautiful days back then and the things and similarities of Blanche’s siblings and the children here. After that small talk, everything feels a lot lighter.

“But for real blanche what are you going to do with the children, you have a solid plan, right?” Mary Jane asked.

“Of course, I have. But I don’t know if this will be effective especially, we are up against the mayor who has a bunch of wizards under her toes and they are just children… and weeds, as you know, that can go wrong, will go wrong.” Blanche said.

“Blanche, they are weeds but they are smarter than we can think off,” Mary Jane smiled, “and I know as their mother, they can do much more than what these wizards can do.”

Blanche bestowed her a determined smile and a firm nod, “We’ve been training this children’s body and their minds and they are all consistently improving. But I know that’s not enough.”

“Things are being prepared foods and medical necessities; we were just going to train till the day we will be able to escape.” She added.

“I see, when do you want to escape? I will help you.” Mary Jane held her hand.

“What?” Blanche was confused since at first there’s no sign that she will help them but now she’s more than willing to give her everything for them. However, when she saw her eyes, she knew it. “I was thinking is we will escape the night Pand, will be shipped out.”

“I see, you have known that the next shipment is Pand.” Mary Jane sighed, even though she has strength for this, she can’t really grasp and handle whole heartedly this case. “Does anyone know about this, aside from the three children?”

“Ah… about that, we don’t know when or we’ll be able to disclose this information.”

“Huh? Why?”

“You see, some of them are just children at body and minds, they are all in love with the mayor. As you can see, all of them are head over heels with her, if we say something against her then they will just think that we hated the mayor and we are the bad guys.” She replied.

“But when are you going to tell the other?”

“I don’t know, we might be never going to tell them unless it is all over.”

“I see,” Mary Jane sighed, since she can understand that even though children are gullible, they are going to believe what they see and if they see the mayor as a goddess then she is one. “We have to get them into going even though they don’t know anything.”

“Don’t mess with us!” the two nuns heard a distant yell from below, and it is coming from the backdoor, “they will never do it!”

That small commotion immediately brought them to act in a haste, and there from above they can see the figures of four children, Mildred, Lino, Stephen, Dean and Kim.

“Dean!” Lino shouted and as the two nuns can see, they are having arguments, “You have to listen to us!”

Blanche was about to jump down from the roof and stop their commotion right there before they could even hurt them, but Mary Jane grabs her shoulder indication that she shouldn’t intervene.

“But—” Mary Jane cuts her off by just shaking her head sideways. And because of that they remain hidden in the dark as they observe everything.

“Lino!” Dean shouted back at him, “what are you spewing? This is not true! Nunna will not do that; the mayor is always so kind! She’s the one who supported us to everything we do and everything we need while Nunna cultivates it for us.”

“Yes, that is true! But can’t you just grasp this, they are just doing this because we are livestock to them. We are high quality livestock that’s why they’re doing all of these.” Lino growled, frustrated from the fact that everything they have just explained is futile.

“Lino…” Stephen put his hand over his shoulder and said, “Lino, stop it. This is not going to help them understand.” He spoke ever so gently.

Lino on the other hand threw his hands over his head and pulled the strands of his hair from absolute aggravation before stomping away, “I don’t care anymore!”

“Don’t walk away from me, Lino!” Dean shouted and starts to follow him, “take back everything you said!”

“I have nothing to take back! That is the whole truth why can’t you understand!” Lino yelled furiously, “we have laid all the evidences we have gathered! We have explained everything to the simplest things.”

Lino and Dean was about to be in each other’s reach when Stephen decided to stop Dean by hugging him from his back and put his arms under his pits, while Mildred went and hug Lino pushing him away from raging Dean.

“Guys please…” Mildred grunted. On the other side, Dean accidentally headbutted Stephen’s nose making the said kid grunt in pain and hold his now bleeding nose.

“Stop it, please!” Kim shouted which stops the four of them from hurting anyone anymore. “Please,” her voice turned to a whisper, “please stop this.”

“But Kim—” Dean was about to say something when Kim butted in.

“Dean, can’t you see…” Kim trailed with her voice quivering every tone, “they’re not lying.”

“What? Are you going to believe them too?” Dean asked in a gasp.

“Do you think Stephen and Lino will say something stupid like this?” she trailed, “they will never be like that. Do you remember the days were Mildred used to say how she wanted to be the mayor when she learned that our needs are being supplied by her?”

They are all silent as she remains speaking, “She love the mayor, this house, Nunna. I know it, she will never say something like this even if it’s a prank, right… Mildred?”

Mildred nodded her head as a simple confirmation.

Dean drops on the grassy ground with her head hanging low, “Why…” he groaned with his shoulder trembling, a subtle sign that he’s crying.

“What do you mean why?” Mildred asked in a gentle tone.

“Why do you have to hide it all from us for a long time?” he asked with broken voice. He didn’t even let her answer, “I see… we… we have been so weak that you can’t trust us. But still… we could do something…”

“We can’t tell you because as you can see, you didn’t believe us now even though we have so much evidence, how much more if we told you before with our hands empty—” Lino huffed but Mildred only nudges him on his side a little forceful to make him stop.

“Dean, we can still do it.” Stephen wiped the blood from his nose and stretches his hand so he could take it. “We still have time; we will make it. And to do it, we need your help.” He added.

Dean took his hand before hesitating them, “Tell me you got a solid plan about this.” He raised his brow from skepticism.

“Of course, we have.” Mildred proudly puffs her chest and put her knuckles on her hips.

“And that takes consideration of taking the other kids, right?”

“Ah-huh!” she proudly grinned.

“And also, you’ve taken in to consideration the magical stuffs going on like the magic bones and magic bubbles, right?” Dean asked again, his skepticism is not leaving him.

“Ah…” Mildred drawled out that syllable for few seconds before answering, “Of course, we have taken that in to consideration.”

Kim could only sigh, “You’re a worst liar, Mildred.”

“I mean, we’ve taken that in to account, but you see, there’s nothing we can do about it but to avoid.” Stephen told them.

“So, that’s what the game of tag all about?” Kim inquired.

“Yes.”

“What about Sister Blanche, did she know all of this?”

“Yes, she’s the one who told us to do this.” Stephen replied to Dean, “she’s with us.”

“But what can we do against them?” Kim asked, “we have no power at all, we don’t have anything aside the two elders.”

“Yes, we know that. If we can’t fight them against their field, we have to drag them down in to our own.” Lino intervenes to their conversation as he taps his temple.

Dean scoffed at him and slumped his arms over his chest, “Go on big brain, show us what you got.”

Blanche and Mary Jane looked at each other as if they are internally conversing how intelligent these kids are. “They are smart and they know what to do.”

“We don’t have an exact plan—” Lino wasn’t able to finished what he was about to say when Dean butted in again.

“What?!” he hollered, “I thought you have thought this through?”

“Come on, Dean let me finish first, will you?” Lino grunted.

“Okay… sorry.” Dean puff his cheeks but still his apology is somewhat half-baked but Lino just sighed.

“As what I have been saying, we have no exact plan to subdue the enemies, what we are trying to achieve is to get away from them and in to safety at all cost.” Lino started. “They can’t do anything with their magics if they can’t see us, right?”

“And besides, they told us that we are the high-quality ones, if we are so, they will not damage any of the package.” Stephen interjected.

“What about the infants like Mila?” Kim asked, “she cannot fight on her own, we can’t leave her here.”

“Yes, I can handle that.” Mildred took the full responsibility of the child when they escape.

“Where are we going to go then? We can’t just escape and spend the rest of our days hiding in our backyard.” Dean stated, referring the forest as their backyard.

“We are going to go to the other side of the wall.”

“Wall?”

“Yes, far from the place where we are only aloud to go, there’s a wall of thorn. That’s where we will escape.”

“What’s in the other side of the wall then?”

“We have not inspected it thoroughly, but as far as I can see, there’s only fog. We have to go and checked it again.”

“So, the plan is still ongoing…” Dean muttered to himself.

“Yes, that’s why we need your help.” “We still need to climb the wall and train the others.”

“Yes, we do, I can check the wall for us, but we have to tell the others what’s going on here.”

“Dean—”

“We can’t do that; we are planning on taking them away from here without telling them.” Stephen said.

“What? You’re going to lie to them?”

“If that’s what it takes.”

“No, no, no, Stephen…” Dean growled, “I can’t let you do that; do you know how much it hurts to know that you have to lie to us because you can’t trust us? If feels degrading, it makes us feel weak and small that we can’t be trusted with these things. And I don’t want to make them feel that.”

Kim sided to Dean. Mildred, Lino, and Stephen looked at each other before Mildred bow her head, “I’m sorry for not trusting you…” she mumbled. “From now on we will not hide anything from you or from the others, we have shared every pain and laughter and now, will you take my hand and let us dine in hell.”

“I don’t care where we dine, as long as we’re together…” Dean spoke, to which Kim agreed.

The five of them finally got the end of their conversation. After that night, everything is peaceful, they sleep together as if that’s the longest night together. And after that, gradually they are making hints to the others about the things that are bound to happen. Since they cannot just go and spill everything especially the children who are below eight years old. However, age doesn’t make someone a gullible being…

“Mildred…” asked Max with concern written all over his face, “there’s something I want to ask you.”

“What is our baby boy?” Mildred stops pushing the cart of their breakfast to crouched down to meet his eye level. “Do you want extra egg or sausage for breakfast?” she asked.

“No, not that…” the kid replied as he looked down on the floor and clutched his heart through his shirt. “Why is everything so heavy?” he asked.

“Everything? Heavy?” Mildred was confused. “I… uh… I don’t think I am getting you, Max? Does your feeling heavy? Do you need more sleep or are you feeling alright?” Mildred bombarded him with questions of concern as she scans his figure and check his temperature by putting her forehead on his. “I don’t think you have a fever though. But let’s talk to Nunna after we ate breakfast, okay?” she bestowed him a smile before standing up and pushing the cart again.

“No!” Max pulled her hand back, and the loudness of his voice caught the attention of many. His sudden outburst caught Mildred by surprise and himself as well, and because of that he pulled Mildred away and shouted, “I pooped on my shorts!” as he ran away.

Making everyone who heard him laughs and threw fake disgusted looks. However, Mildred knew that was just a façade. When they are on the run everyone is looking at them with confused look yet they didn’t bother to do anything with it. When they are finally out of their sight, Max pulled her into the linen room.

Mildred was confused by the way he acts but then everything became clear when Max asks her with his voice so soft and innocent, “Mildred, what's happening?” his voice cracked as he asked that very question. “Everything is unclear, everything doesn't make any sense. We used to be happy while we play but now, we are now playing us if someone is catching us. We are always on the run what's going on?”

Mildred was stunned for a moment because of what she just heard.

“I used to be happy when we play but now everything feels like we are running for our lives I don't want this feeling anymore, Mildred please tell me what's going on. I'm sure there's something going on. I'm not blind, I can see you I can see your eyes. They are not the same as before… Mildred they grew darker.” He said as if he’s in the verge of crying.

Mildred was bemused from he's sudden confession, she knew Max is intelligent and is smart boy but she never expected him to see all of this by himself, “Max...” she trailed. “I didn't mean to hide anything from you.” She cupped his chubby little cheeks. “I just need the right time to tell you everything but please don't hate me.”

Max held her hands on his cheeks and said genuinely, “I don't hate you, Mildred.” I'm just sad of what you did. But I know there’s a reason behind that. I know I'm young but am I not your siblings? Am I not trustworthy enough?”