Not like Us

Chapter 21

Bella held a scissors and a brush on both of her hands. “The cuts are uneven,” she commented as she assessed Lamang’s hair.

“I did it on my own,” he explained. Most engkantos in their kingdom had a long hair so he had not have an short haircut ever since.

“Why did you cut it?” Bella curiously asked. He already looked good when he had a long hair but she could not deny as well that the other features of his face had been lifted because it were not being overwhelmed by his hair’s appearance.  

“For a change and to make myself feel free,” Lamang replied. Cutting his hair was one of the things he was not restricted to do.

Bella started trimming Lamang’s hair to make it presentable. “Free? Why? Are you being deprived of something?”

Lamang nodded, “Only for one thing but because of that, I am deprived from a lot of things.”

Bella could not see Lamang’s face but she felt that his voice was sad. “Are you allowed to tell me what that one thing is?”

“Hmmm,” Lamang thought.

“It is okay if you cannot. I respect it,” Bella followed. “And oh, I have a question,” she added.

Lamang looked at her. “What is it?”

“You could not feel my negative energy, right now? Just like the last time?”

Lamang noticed that as well. He was not hurting like he always felt when he saw her. He closed his eyes to feel himself. “"Hmm, I could not. Maybe because I am in human form.”

Bella sighed in relief. She was glad he could not. Lamang went back on looking at the scenery in front of them.

“Is everyone of your kind could transform as a human?”

Lamang nodded. “Yes, the royalties and the knights can but not everybody could.”

Bella looked at him. “Which one are you?” she asked.

Lamang’s forehead wrinkled. “What do you mean?”

“You said only the royalties and the knights could. Which one are you? A royalty or a knight?”

“Hmmm…”Lamang produced.

“You could be in great trouble if you are a prince right? For sure they would be looking for you.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Lamang answered. He tried to drew another big circle on the air but nothing appeared. He sighed.

Bella stopped the trimming and walked in front of him. Lamang looked up. Her eyes were bigger than usual. “So you are really a prince? Prince Gat Lamang?”

Lamang chuckled. “Just Gat Lamang which means Lord Lamang.”

Bella nodded. “Ohh, what about the ladies there? What do you call them?”

“We called them dayang which means lady.”

Bella nodded. “There must be a lot of beautiful dayangs there,” she concluded. She had read that engkantos were a beautiful creatures.

“I do not know but they said no one could compete against my mother.”

“What features did you take from her?”

Bella went back to his back and continued trimming his hair.

“Half of her eyes and half of her ears but with this face right now, I look like her.”

“What do you mean?”

Bella did not understand him. With his face right now? His face as a human?

“My mother was a human.”

Bella could not believe what she heard. “How is that possible?”

“They fell in love,” Lamang simply said.

Bella nodded. “Finished!”

She handed the mirror to Lamang. “It is more even now compared yesterday.”

Lamang stood up and removed the clothe from his neck. “Thank you.”

Bella just shrugged. “And sorry for bothering you and your grandmother,” he added.

“There is nothing to be sorry,” Bella went to the road and sat there. They were waiting for her grandmother.

They could not go inside until her grandmother returns.

“What is your story?” Lamang asked as he sat beside Bella.

Bella lightly chuckled. “It was a mess.”

“I will listen,”

Bella heaved a sigh. “I was nine when both of my parents broke up. The most painful thing was that they broke up because they fell out of love and they did not even tried to resolve it. In the end, they both went on their own ways. I lived with my mom and visit my father sometimes. They both have their own family so I was left all alone.”

“You did not have a good relationship with your parents new family?” Lamang asked.

“I was too in denial to accept everything so I shut them out.”

“You are aware?” Lamang asked.

Bella nodded. “Yes, I am aware.”

“I tried to study myself but there were just somethings that I could not control.”

“It must be your heart,” Lamang said in pulse.

“Yeah, it must be. The heart is very hard to control.”

“Why are you with your grandmother now?” Lamang curiously asked.

“It was the last day of school. They invited me to a party and my mother’s house is always suffocating so I agreed. I was just sipping a drink when one of my friend introduced me to someone. I pretended I was having fun talking to him to not embarrass him but the truth is, he was so boring. I was trying my best to get out of the conversation by looking at my phone or answer a nonexistent call but he pulled me back to him and he started crossing the line. I removed my self to him and my guy friend helped me but that had cause into a fight. We were brought into the station and my mom found me there. That is why she decided to get me away from my friends and stay here in the province for a while to change.”

“And have you succeeded in changing yourself? You look very kind to me,” Lamang asked and commented. He admitted that the first time he saw Bella, she really looked like a black sheep in the family but as he continued seeing her he could feel that her inner self was just hiding and it was very light in feeling.

“Well, I have been sober for weeks.” Bella chuckled.

Bella looked at him. “I wonder,” she said as she faced him. “If you could change into a human then why did you stay on your engkanto form when I saw you?”

Lamang lay down on the ground and looked at the sky. The group was clear. There was no animals in the area aside from the bird flying in the sky. “It would drain my energy. I already exert an energy when opening a portal and doing both at the same time is very draining,” he explained.

He assessed the sky. It was blue and clear. The clouds were moving slowly. It was just peace. Lamang felt that he was free from restrictions. He closed his eyes.

Bella noticed that Lamang were already sleeping. He must be so tired from the farm earlier. Bella’s grandmother were harvesting some produce to distribute it to other towns. They were moving big boxes to load to a car. She lay beside him and looked at the sky. She never really got the chance to observe the sky. She breathe in and the air was fresh.

“What are you two doing?”

Bella opened her eyes and Lucas faced greeted him. He was covered in sweat. She immediately sat up. “Lucas,” she called. “What are you doing here?”

Lucas looked at Lamang whose eyes were still closed. “Why are you both on lying on the ground?” he asked, “and how was he?”

“Nana, told use to wait for her here. What are you doing here? I did not hear any sound from you.” Bella looked behind him. “He is fine now.” There was a bicycle leaning on their post..

“Oh, I did not know you know how to drive a bike as well,” she commented.

Lucas chuckled. “It would be weird I do not know how to drive one.” Lucas looked at his bike. “That is where I started before I started learning driving motorcycle.”

Bella nodded, “What brings you here?”

Lucas walked towards his bike and reached for something. It was a container containing of something.

“What is that?” Bella asked as she sniffed what was inside.

Lucas laughed and Bella stepped back and covered her nose. “What is that?!” Bella reacted while still pinching her nose to cover.

“It is a fermented fish,” Lucas answered while still laughing. “You should have not smell it.”

Bella looked at him. “You did not warn me.”

Lucas handed it to her. She accepted it without a smile on her face. “Thank you.”

“Your grandmother ordered it. She said she misses the taste of that.”

Bella’s face turned sour and Lucas noticed it. He laughed.

“You could eat that. It is delicious. You should try it.”

Bella did not smile but she nodded her head in return. “I will try.”

“That is good,” Lucas said as he now positioned his bicycle. He looked at Lamang. “You should wake him up and let him get inside to sleep. I bet it is not comfortable lying on the ground.”

Bella nodded. “I will. Thank you for this,” she said as she raised the container.

“See you,” Lucas said as he turned his back and started pedaling down the hill.

“Who is it?”

Bella jumped when she heard a voice from her back. She faced him.

“You startled me,” she said to Lamang.

“Who is he?” he asked curiously.

“He was the one who helped me take you from here. I was with him when we found you.”

Lamang nodded. “A friend?

“Yeah, he helped me when I needed help.”

Lamang just nodded again. As he looked at Lucas who was now from a far. He noticed there was a tint of black in front of him. He adjusted his eyes to focus and he saw that the black creature looked at him and giggled.

“I need to follow him,” Lamang said.

Bella looked at him. “Why?”

He did not looked at her back. He was too focused on Lucas. He slowly walked. It was slow but Bella could not catch up due to his long legs.

“What is the wrong Lamang?” Bella said as she followed him. Lucas was already out of there sight.

“The reason why I went to the town. I saw it,” he answered. “Your friend. He could be in danger.”

Bella stopped. Is he saying the truth? Bella thought to herself. She looked around. She was sure there would not be something that would endanger Lucas. She had been to the road and she never saw that would make someone hurt.

She still followed Lamang. He was now walking in moderate phase. He could not walk fast because his body was tired and sore from the heavy tasks that he did from the farm.

As they continued walking, they saw the bicycle of Lucas. He was not there anymore. His bicycle was on the ground.

“Where was Lucas?” Bella asked as she looked around. They had not reach the part where the farm yet and the sides of the road were still full of trees. The wheel was still encircling he still must had been near.

Lamang looked for foot trails. Lucas must had leave some. “Here,” Lamang saw there were grass that was not standing upright anymore. He must had went there. The place was steep. Both Lamang and Bella relied on the trees to get down. As they went down, they heard a sound of water hitting the rocks. There was a river. Bella’s grandmother never told her.

As they continue to climb down, they heard a loud splash of water. They looked at each other and ran towards the sound. They could not run faster due to the steep area. Is Lamang really right? Bella thought to herself. What did he saw? She continued.

As they reached the river, they did not saw anyone. They could not saw Lucas. Where could he be?

Lamang noticed there was bubbling on the river. Bella tried to step in to the water to save him.

“No,” Lamang warned. “Just stay there. I will save him,” he said. Bella nodded and went back to the land. The river looked shallow but as Lamang submerged into the water. It was not. It was deep. He saw Lucas, unconscious. He went towards him and grabbed him to get him out of the water. Lamang took a deep breath as soon as he rose up from the water but Lucas was not giving any sign of breathing.

Bella cleared the ground from the stone and they lay Lucas down on the ground. Bella tried to look for his pulse. There was none. They both look at each other.

“He is not breathing,” Bella said, rattled. “What should we do?”

She bit her nails. She did not know what to do. Here phone was at her grandmother’s house and the place was isolated. This was her first time encountering such incident.

Drowning, she thought. Drowning, she continued. When a thought come to mind, she immediately started pumping Lucas chest. She did thirty pumps. She remembered on her NSTP subject that they were thought how to do CPR. She tilt Lucas’ head, chin pointing up, pinched his nose and started supplying him with air but there was no response.

“Hey, wake up,” Bella said while doing another compression. She supplied him with air again.

A minutes later, Lucas coughed with water. They helped Lucas rolled over to get the water out of him.

“W-what happened?” he asked panting.

Bella hugged him. “Thank God!”

Lamang sighed in relief. He looked around the area and the black creature was not their anymore. It escaped again. Lamang rolled his fist.

“What happened?” Lucas asked.

Bella looked at him. “That is what we were supposed to ask you too. What happened? Why are you here?”

Lucas stared a minute to the air. “I heard a woman’s voice. It was calling my name.”

A woman? Lamang asked to himself. It was not the black creatures doing?