tales buried in deep

Tale 1: Widow Ceremony

There was a family everyone is talking about. Everyone's keeping an eye for. Everyone's passing folklore around. Senticia Family. A family who has a rumored curse. Only women lives and the men went missing in question.

That's why every time Shanon walks throughout the town, everyone keeps whispering. She knows it's all about folklore.

She knows very well.

A young lass has overflowing charms and beauty despite her family reputation, their genes are remarkable gorgeous. They say that it is the pretty ones who mostly have curses. Their only blessing is their beauty.

Shanon doesn't believe any of that. In fact, she made a good wife image to all the men in the town. So every woman has been nothing but envies her beauty.

"How much for this tuna?" Shanon asks the man selling fish in the market. She's tasked to buy all the ingredients needed for the special event tonight.

The man sneers at her. "How much is your body?" Shanon ignoring his question, pulls out a sum of dollars and puts it on the table, and gets the large fish in her bag on her own.

"Is that enough? Or isn't?" She glares at the man. But the man just chuckles. "Enough." He thinks it's funny to see Shanon Senticia being mad. Perhaps, he likes to see every woman angry or uncomfortable. A classic of being a jerk.

She has become pissed. She walks while ignoring all the people around her. She buys all the things and ended up walking throughout the whole town again.

Yet this time, she chooses to go in a shortcut route. Their hacienda has been in the west of town. Only their family knew the route, passing through the woods and lake then to the abandoned cornfield, and last going into the tunnel.

The special event is his twin brother's surprise announcement. At last, she'll know their traditional ceremony.

As a Senticia, she needs to be 23 years old to witness and know the family tradition. She grows up learning that folklore is nothing like their family at all. She knew it's all hoaxes and that people want to tear the family because of their beauty.

And now, her 23rd birthday with his twin announcement will be a great event.

Or so she thought of.

"Shanon, come here! I forgot to tell you about formaldehyde at Mushrooms. Hurry now!" Her mother orders before she could get inside their mansion.

Shanon becomes annoyed at her. "I need money."

"I already gave you earlier."

"I spent most of it. What if that forma- something costs more than my face?"

"Quit complaining. Here." Sharphy, her mother, gives twenty bucks on her hand. She looks at her daughter as if saying 'You-know-what-to-do.'

Shanon gives her a nod. She quickly jogs to the gate, meeting his twin holding a basket. "Shawn! Happy birthday to us. I can't wait for your announcement." Rather unsettling, she feels something odd about him. "Are you nervous?" she asks.

She thinks it's because of the announcement. Is it? Shawn avoided her gaze. He closes their distance, whispers at her ears.

"You need to leave the town. Agni"

"What are you saying?"

"Before it's too late."

"Shawn, this isn't funny. What do you mean?"

"Shawn!" Ophelia interrupts the twins. Shanon pinches Shawn's left hand, signaling to say something. Thus, Shawn doesn't listen.

Ophelia smiles at Shanon. "You'll be happy to hear the surprise. I would love to chat with you, but this isn't the right time. See you at the mansion!"

She pulls his husband and wraps her hands around his waist. Shawn just gives his twin a deadpan face.

And Shanon knows there is really something off.

It bothers her so much. When she arrived at the Mushroom's, a shop of chemicals, she almost forgot the word.

"I think it's formaldenide? formaldezide?"

"Poor lady. Is it formaldehyde?" The old woman at the shop suggests. Shanon nods and smiles at her. "That's it!" She also notices how the woman becomes confused and perhaps suspicious.

"What do you need this for?" the old woman asks while putting the chemical in the box.

Shanon shakes his head sideways. "I don't know. I've been ordered to buy."

"Better be careful with that. This could kill anything and even anyone."

The whole mansion has been awakened by the ring of the longcase clock in the hallway. Dark is probably Senticia's favorite as every floor of their house has been filled with it.

Only the basement isn't.

There, seven people gather for a celebration and ceremony. Shanon is still puzzled by her twin's words. She wants to talk with him but Ophelia insists not. An opera is playing in the phonograph, red candles with one black-lit in the room, round table with only six chairs, creating a weird eerie atmosphere.

Shanon doesn't notice this. She thinks it's cool and normal. Shawn remains standing behind Ophelia. As the clock strikes, Ophelia stands up, turns the vinyl player silent, and speaks.

"I'm having a baby." She said in a formal tone.

Shanon suddenly thinks of Ophelia. She is older than Shawn, five years gap. Besides, she's been recommended by their mother.

"Shanon, this is also the time where you can have a start. Here are the potential candidates." Sharphy pushes the envelope on the table to her daughter. Shanon pushes back. "I don't want to. I'm not ready."

Shirly grins. "You are."

"So when does the ceremony start?" Shanon avoids her mother and the incoming argument if she replies 'no'.

Ophelia answers her. "Now."

She pulls her long blonde hair with her right hand, and the other carries a knife. She uses the knife in cutting her hair and stabbing her fingers.

Shanon looks confused. Is she playing a trick? Is this a show? Does she want another hairstyle? Shanon doesn't understand it first.

But then, it's just a beginning.

Shawn walks to his wife, licks her fingers, and voluntarily rips his clothes with Ophelia's knife. Shanon has the urge to stop them from whatever this may be going on. She rushes to her twin but has been stopped by his grandmother.

She shouts, "WHAT IS HAPPENING?"

When her twin turns to her, she's taken aback by what she sees. It's not just his clothes that have been ripped, but his skin and flesh as well. She trembles at her twin's sliced open torso.

Then, Sharphy hands an injection to Ophelia. As Shanon struggles to be free with her grandmothers, she just witnesses Ophelia stabbing the injection to her husband directly into his heart.

"IS THIS THE CEREMONY? f**k YOU ALL!" Shanon screams, voice cracking.

Ophelia laughs. "When a new life has been formed, we need to lose an old life."

She's mad. All of them are mad except Shanon. She cries and cries while seeing her brother shaking, losing blood, moaning in pain, and gradually having convulsions.

Ophelia collects his blood through the injection, scooping and drinking from her hands. Shanon falls from her knees. This is traumatizing. Too much for her twenty-third birthday.

When Shawn couldn't move, their mother sits beside his corpse. She instantly grabs his p***s and cuts it with a cleaver. In a moment, Shanon's grandmother and mother chop off her twin's body in front of her.

Ophelia carefully cut her husband's face. She said that she will display it, so their child would see how he looks like.

Suddenly, Shanon remembers the folklore.

Once there was a father and head of the Senticia Family living his peaceful life with his wife. He miserably rejected his firstborn whom his daughter.

His wife knew his plan to get rid of their daughter.

And so she got rid of her husband first.

From then, the town wanted Losalinda Senticia to be hanged. They believed she's a witch and cursed all men in town.

But, every people went inside the hacienda didn't manage to come home.

Some believed that there was a monster inside the hacienda and ate them.

Some said that Losalinda cursed them to their death.

And some speculated that they've been bewitched by Losalinda's beauty.

That's why people didn't mess with Senticia anymore.

Most of the people are scared of whatever going on inside Senticia's hacienda. And now, Shanon, as a Senticia, living as the folklore goes.

"Why....are you... no, we... why are we doing this f*****g ceremony?" She asks breathlessly.

Sharphy turns to her. "Mama Losalinda will be alive. And so does our new family member."

She becomes more upset. She stands up. "Is this what you call family? A family killing one another?!"

Her grandmother, Dephir, scoffs and stares at her with disgust. "We will never be a family with a male human!"

Her anger infuriates more. "A male human? He is my brother! He is my only brother! f**k you all!"

Suddenly the wind of the room changes. A voice comes around. Shanon froze from her feet.

"That is not a way to talk with your grandmother."

Everyone excluding Shanon smiles and looks at her back where the first mother speaks. Losalinda is still alive. She has still grace and beauty.

Shanon dislikes her. She thought that Losalinda made their family's reputation worse. But she never thought that she could be still alive.

She never spoke with her, yet to this day, she had.

"Fuck... you.."

Losalinda laughs. "My, my, I won't understand youth these days with their own language."

Shanon laughs as well. "Shawn is my only brother and family in this room." She glares at each of the women inside.

"Since you all said we are a family. Then, we will die together." She said with eyes closed, and lips curved.

Her mother looks confused. "What are you saying, Shanon?"

"I already knew the truth. I just need to confirm it." She takes out a lighter from her breast.

Then it ignites.

The whole house has been filled with fire. It spreads quickly as she and Shawn planned this suicide mission.

They will end their own family. Once and for all.

Shanon is laughing while the rest are panicking and in distress. She walks and sits beside her twin, lies down, and holds Shawn's cold and hard hand.

"I won't leave the town without you. When you die, I die. After all, we're twins." She says while enjoying her last time.

There was a family everyone is talking about. Everyone is afraid of. Everyone has been grateful for not existing anymore.

Senticia Family all died and was engulfed by the flaming rage of fire. Up to this day, no one knows what truly happened inside.