Mermaid Blues: Beasts, Giants and Spirits

Poison the Traitor

Mark is in the front yard of an old house located north of Camp John Hay. He is standing under an avocado tree. He is waiting patiently for the men inside the house to come out. Five minutes later, they finally came out. They are escorting Japeth out of the door. When they got to the balcony, they halted Japeth from walking further.

Japeth is standing pale as he faces the outside world. His face is bruised, and almost cannot be recognized. A lot of his hair is missing. His clothes are torn and burned by the electricity. His feet could barely carry his body. He's gotten thinner. There are ten hunters behind him. Five on each side. Mark's informant is one of them. He leads the line of five men on Japeth's left side.

Mark began to walk to approach them. He ran along the four-stepped wooden stairs to get to the balcony. When he got there, he immediately looked at the tortured man. He smirked at him to mock him. Japeth flashed his eyebrows as a response.

Mark questions his informant. "What took you so long?"

"It is none of your business," he replied. "What's important right now is to deliver this guy to the leaders."

"Where is the exact location?"

"You know where Kadaclan Village is, right?" he asked.

Mark nodded. "I have been there like twice. The place is peaceful and serene."

"Do you know the hill next to it?" he asked. "Go to the very peak of it. There, you can find a house unoccupied by people. It was once a resting house occupied by the family of a previous mayor but is now bought by the Syndicate himself. I'll give you a picture of the house so that you can find it easily among the woods." And so, he gave him a small photograph of the house.

Mark took it from his hand. He looks at it. He could see a house in the woods. The walls are entirely glass. The house is inspired by treehouse designs. It is not that huge, it is neither small. It is only a two-story building with a triangular-shaped green roof.

"Good luck," the informant said. "Make sure they won't do anything funny or else kill this man."

"Why won't you come with me?" Mark asked. He began to wonder. He doesn't know that there is a fly that just landed on his back. The fly slowly and silently melts like wax near a flame. The melted fly turns into a button that sticks into the back part of Mark's windbreaker jacket.

"It's because you are good enough to handle the job," he replied. "Do not try to question the plan of the Syndicate."

"Of course," Mark nodded. "Of course..."

"Now, it is almost time. I heard you can teleport, yes?"

Mark looked at Japeth again. He looked at him blankly. Japeth chuckles softly.

"Are you ready to see your friends again, black eyes?" Mark asked mockingly.

Japeth remained quiet. He is just looking at him blankly. His head was shaking and so were his feet. In order not to see him further suffer, Mark suddenly grabs Japeth's arm and teleports him away from that place.

****Blue Water****

Ana is stranded inside a room. She is sitting down on the bed. Her wrists are chained to one of the bed's legs. There is a window next to her where sunlight comes in. She is staring right through it to see the outside. She is curious as to where they brought her. She is wondering what place she is now. She has no idea whether she is still in Baguio or not. The place outside is unfamiliar to her.

"Damn, these chains," Ana complained.

Then, someone opens the door. She turned her head to see who had just entered. To her surprise, she could see a girl. A girl is so frail and skinny that the outline of the bones of her face is obviously showing. She's got thin long hair and her height is just four feet tall. Ana can tell that she is a lot younger than her. Ana looks at her as if she is looking at someone dying - terrified and pitiful at the same time.

"Hi. I am Daya," the girl introduced. "I just saw my father's guards escort you here. I just got curious as to who you might be."

Ana didn't respond. She is just staring at her with wide eyes. She's terrified of Daya's form. Daya smiled with enthusiasm. She understands how terrifying she looks to other people. She approaches the girl on the bed. She sits down by the edge.

"I have never talked to another girl in a while," Daya said. "My father doesn't allow me to go out of the house, so I am quite lonely here. Ever since I was born, I have had this rare disease in me, so I am never allowed to get outside to play with other kids. The doctors are also afraid of me."

Ana finally responded. "What happened to you?"

"My dad told me that I got cursed. My grandpa also had it. That's why he died recently. My sister also died before him," she said.

"Who cursed you?"

"My papa said that it was a monster. He cursed my grandparents so that they would not be allowed to have generations next to them. The monster got angry and he cursed my grandpa," she explains.

"That's cruel," Ana comments with sympathy.

"But why in the world did the monster do that to your grandpa?"

"My father just said that the monster got angry," she said. Unfortunately, she can't tell her why.

Then, the door opens. The girls look at the person who got in. It is Gabriel.

"Uncle Gabriel!" Daya yelled in excitement.

"Why are you here, little lady?" he asked. "Your father is looking everywhere for you," he told her. "You don't want him to worry about you, do you?"

Daya looked at Ana. "I have to go," she said with a tone of sadness in her eyes. She stands up. She can barely get her body up. Gabriel moves close to her as he helps her to stand up. Ana watches her as she gets concerned. Daya is walking slowly towards the door, being assisted by Gabriel.

Before she opens the door, Daya looks back. She turned to look at Ana before she went. "What's your name?" she asked.

"My name is Ana. It is nice to meet you too, Daya," Ana replies.

Daya smiled at her before she went out. She shuts the door close when she was outside. She left her with Gabriel inside that room.

::::::::::::::

Mark is in his spirit form. He is currently a moon cruiser. Japeth is riding on his back. His hands are cuffed together and there is a chain connected in between the cuffs. Mark is biting the other end of the chain. Japeth's lips are gagged with a handkerchief tied around his head.

Mark has finally found the place his informant is talking about. He arrived at a place where there was a house at the peak of a mountain near Kadaclan village. Like what the informant described, it is hidden by the trees and it is empty like no one came to maintain it in years. The house is just created as a rest house or a vacation house.

He and Japeth have arrived at the front yard. Japeth wonders what kind of place Mark brought him into. He's getting creeped out as he looks at the empty house.

And so, Mark dropped Japeth down to the ground. Japeth grunts in pain as he squirms like a worm. Mark turned into his human form. After that, he helps him stand up.

"Let's move," Mark said. "Go! Go!" as he pushed him toward the door. Japeth has no choice but to do what he's told. He moves forward towards the door.

::::::::::::::::

"Why do you need me? Where are Kuya Benjie and Kuya Wendel?" she asked.

"Don't worry. Nothing bad is gonna happen to them. We might be savage killers, but we keep our promises," Gabriel answered while walking around in front of her.

"Why do you need to reconnect this reality with the other one?" Ana asked.

"Well, blame it on the previous guardians before you," he replied.

Ana creased her forehead. She began to get puzzled.

"You don't have any knowledge about what they did to their ancestors of Daya, do you?" he said. "Such a sweet girl. She doesn't deserve what is happening to her," he added. "Do you want to hear a story?" he then asked.

"Yes, please. Very much," Ana replies. "I want to know the very beginning of why you kill those tattooed people. What are our connections to all these?"

"Once upon a time, before the world's realities disconnect from each other. Spirits who are the higher intelligence in their world can freely traverse from their world into our physical reality. You see, I imagine a venn diagram. The the circle on the left is the reality the spirits perceive. The circle on the right is the reality we see. In the middle, in the interlap, there is the planet Earth. You get what I am saying? For us humans, we can only access the other side through the areas where the barrier between our reality and theirs is thin. For example, the Bermuda triangle. Area 51, the Dragon's triangle, Crete, and, of course, our very own Cordilleran forest, Palawan, and the Trench in Mindanao. People are accidentally transported there and they never come back."

He took a seat on a wooden chair placed in front of the girl. Then, he continued his story.

"Gaspar, the grandfather of that poor lady, is one of the guys who made the guardians pull off their final draw. They have made the girls disconnect the spiritual reality from our reality."

"What did they do? Why did the the previous guardians disconnect the two realities from each other?" Ana further got intrigued.

"It was because of these beings who think they are far superior to us. These beings are related to humankind but they are different. Much like humans to chimpanzees. These men are men of renown. They are far stronger, far more intelligent than us. Ancestors say they came from reality other than ours and the spirits. In other words, they came from the world's third reality - the mythical side. However, there's more to that story. They call themselves Armans. They intend to invade this world for their own, killing humans along the way. However, this reality has a sort of defense mechanism for them. They are the werewolves and other beast-shifters. The Armans have made friends with some of the hunters who they convinced to fight alongside them. In hopes of eradicating the immunity. Gaspar, Daya's grandfather, is one of them. He's like a general to an Arman army. There was a war supposed to happen thirty years ago in the spiritual realm. However, the spirits can't tolerate those beings anymore."

Ana is shocked at what she heard. She couldn't believe it.

"The guardians took immediate action. They gather all their powers together to disconnect the three realities together before anything happens. After divergence, spirits can't traverse into other realities anymore. Those who were there during the disconnection got left stuck there. The places of anomaly in this world stop creating mysteries anymore. The Bermuda Triangle and the other places stopped sucking in people. The gods, too, are no longer able to travel into different realities as they used to before. "

"How about those who are marked by Lumawig?" Ana asked. "Isn't it that Lumawig is a god too?"

"That is a mystery. However, according to the journal of the first mermaid, Lumawig is a spirit responsible for balancing the world. According to a legend, Lumawig marked three hunters with tattoos similar to that of what Benjie has. The reason? That is to symbolize that he approved of them as husbands to his daughters. This time, it's for another reason. To maintain separation between our perceptions."

"Why try to reconnect them if the previous guardians aim to avoid war?" she argues.

"It is what we want," Gabriel said. "I get to rule the world, you know?"

Ana looks at him with a piercing glare. "You are crazy."

"Now, Gaspar had made one of the spirits angry. Do you know what kind of spirit it was?" he continued. "It was an ephirmise. The curse states that any of the generations next to their ancestors will get killed. Thus, all the generations next to grandpa will cease to exist."

"You are crazy," Ana comments.

"Yeah," he nodded. "As you can see, Daya's father, Gaddo, wants to get to the spiritual reality to find the ephirmise and kill it once and for all."

"Even if you connect the realities together again, people are going to die because of the collision, right?" Ana complained. "How about the innocent people he's gonna kill?"

"You think we didn't think of that?" Gabriel stood up. "Now that I have finished my story. I am out of here," he said. He stood up. "Better hurry and remove the tattoos of the guys or else they'll die instead."

:::::::::::::::

Mark pushed the door open. He and Japeth immediately look inside. The room is spacious with no furniture installed. Mark entered the house first. Then, he pulls out the chain connected to Japeth which forces him to go in. They entered to explore the place further. There is a glass wall facing opposite the door. Next to it is stairs leading up to the second floor. Japeth is silently looking around as he follows Mark. The place smells like rotten mold mixed with the smell of a dead rotten rat.

Then...

"Help!" a voice from above yells in desperation.

It was from a girl. Japeth recognized the voice. He widens his eyes as he looks at the guy in front of him. He can recognize that the voice came from Salome. Then, he begins to suspect that they will not meet any of the pack leaders of the Association at all. Instead, he suspects that they have made Mark fall into their trap along with him and Salome.

And so, with curiosity, Mark ran to the stairs, dragging Japeth along with him. They immediately ran along the stairs to get to the second floor.

"Mark! Help!" she continues to call.

Mark got to the second floor. He halts by the end at the top of the staircase. He was surprised when he saw a woman kneeling down in the distance. He could see her crying in fear and desperation. There were ten hunters standing behind her. They are all aiming their rifles at her. He could see no Seth, Cielo, Gaston, or Gordon. He realized he had been tricked. Japeth stands beside him while looking at Salome, who is very terrified.

Mark took a step forward to get near her. When he took another step, a dart of poison suddenly came at him. Its sharp thin pin penetrated through his skin at the neck. He halted as he felt something enter his neck. Agatha used the dart gun to spring the dart at his neck. She was standing right at his three o'clock. He was so focused on the girl that he didn't notice the witch aiming at his neck.

Mark slowly falls down. He kneeled on the floor first. That time, he grabbed the dart and pulled it out. He dropped the weapon afterward. His vision begins to blur. He fell down to the ground. He pants deeply as he still tries to open his eyes as much as possible.

Salome yells his name as she watches him lie down on the cold dusty floor. Mark could hear Salome's screams. He can feel that at any moment his heart would seem to seize function.

"You think you can trick us?" the witch said as she walked toward the hunters. "I have been monitoring you while you are gone out of my sight. If you think you have the freedom to roam around and be free, you are not correct. As long as you are working with us, we have to keep an eye on you."

Japeth is standing right next to the dying Mark. He watches him struggle to breathe with horror. The hunters came over and they took him. They dragged Japeth away from Mark. They held him so that he wouldn't move a muscle.

"Do you think I had never realized you and the Santelmo was teaming up?" The little fly she just conjured in her hand is buzzing, hovering above her head. She stepped on his head. "You plan to stab us in the back, huh?" she pressed the sole of her shoe harder on his cheek. "You i***t. You shouldn't have done that. Because of that, you'll pay the price. Your beloved slut over there will suffer as a punishment as your suffering before death."

"You animals! Let him go!" Salome shouts at the witch.

"Don't worry, I won't do anything to his face. Spirits are the most formidable beings but tough luck their hosts aren't as invulnerable as they are. He will die poisoned, that is all. He'll die slowly. I am being generous. And soon you will join him in the afterlife."

"Goddamn you! Rot in hell!"

Japeth keeps squirming. He wants to break loose but the hunters holding him are strong enough. They won't give him a chance to make a move. Even when his mouth is gagged. He shouted "son of a b***h!"

"You are making yourself useless. So, blame it on yourself," she told Mark as she watched him close his eyes. Agatha puts her foot away from him. She turned away and she began to walk confidently. She smirks due to her confidence that the traitor will surely die.

Mark opens his eyes and he begins to inhale deeply. He immediately stood up on his feet. He coughs to get the dirt out of his system. He is strong as before he got poisoned. He stood up like he had just got up from his bed. It seemed the poison didn't take effect. "Ouch!" he muttered while he gently rubbed the injected area with his hand. Japeth, Salome, and the hunters were shocked. Agatha looked back and she was also horrified. The poison should have killed him by now.

"Surprise!" he confidently said. "Good thing my powers allow me to be tolerant to poison even without turning into a monster."

"What the--" before she finished her comment, a huge beam of light suddenly blasted her away and she got slammed into one of the hunters who was standing behind her. That white bliding beam erupted from Mark's body.

On the other hand, the hunters standing on either side of Japeth got their chests pierced by a strong jaw. Meaning that they have lost their hearts their sternum and some part of their lungs and ribs. Their bodies dropped to the floor. Blood splashed everywhere from the holes of their chest upon impact.

The remaining hunters are blasted away when Mark opened his hands upon them. They are all flown all over in various directions. One crashed to the glass and he got turned into ash. Two more of them who fell down to the concrete floor also got incarcerated, reduced into atoms.

Agatha is the remaining one who is still breathing. Mark watched her stand up. He looked at her anxiously while she looked back at him with a glare. He was alarmed , yet, he still wants to test her. She is about to cast a spell but a dome of light suddenly envelopes her. Now, she has been caught inside.

Salome was shocked when Japeth suddenly appeared behind her. "Hold still," Japeth instructed as he crouched down and reached for the rope that was restricting Salome's hands. He then begins to untie the knot.

Salome was confused. She glanced to confirm if it's really the pack leader. How was Japeth behind her, untying the rope if she's seeing a Japeth in front of her who was kneeling on the floor, gagged and tied up?

Mark's face was begining to fade away, revealing someone else's. His appearance is fading as well. Second by second, his skin was turning into ashes, revealing another layer of skin beneath. His left eye changed from wider eyed to a slightly narrower eye. His hair dyed blonde was also fading away into ashes revealing another, a natural black hair. Before his full face was finally revealed, he turned himself into a bright nuclear energy in a shape of a beast. He doesn't want to show himself in front of everyone as the host of the spirit. Instead, he revealed himself as the Saint Elmo's flame.

"What?" Japeth who was kneeling on the floor reacted even though his mouth was still gagged. But then, he untied himself using telekinesis. He raised his arms and he reached out for his face. Without any warning, he ripped his face off, reavealing another human underneath the disguise. As the skin fades into thin air, Salome was frightened. However, it was revealed that it was Mark who was under the disguise all along.

"Mark!" Though she was still horrified when Mark suddenly ripped himself, that was gone when she realized that the man kneeling before her is the one she was longing for.

Finally, Japeth unleashed the final binding. Once she felt her arms and legs were free, she immediately ran to Mark. With an open arm, she hugged her boyfriend's head and pressed him into her bossom.

"Good grief!" Japeth sighed as he was looking at the sight. "I was hoping to die but this feels more awkward".

Then, the Santelmo came over to Japeth. It stood still beside him as he joins to watch the happy reunion in front of them Then, Japeth said something that made the spirit caught off guard. "You wish you have a loved one like that," he teased.

The Santelmo was just quiet.

"Okay," Japeth shugged.

With a warm embrace, Mark hugged his lover like there's no tomorrow. It has been a while since he had seen her, held her hands, kissed her and smelled her scent. And so, he was so happy that he finally had her. It has been grueling days when they got separated from each other. But those days were gone now that they were together again. The days of longing has ended that day.

"Good thing I switched places with him or else he will die of poisoning," Japeth told the spirit eventhough he knew the spirit wouldn't react.