Repeat and Retribution

Chapter 42

“Clyde?” she whispered once more.

Yet her voice seemed like a distant echo. Though darkness covered all around her, she felt it warm, she didn’t get scared even if she was in a feeling floating light stated since there were tiny specs of orb lights surrounding her.

“Clyde?” she called out again this time it was much more cleared and seemed to actually come from her voice.

“Crys, wake up, hey Crys!” A familiar voice ringed in her ear.

It didn’t take long before she was finally able to open her eyes. Greeted by blurry visions, she knew immediately who one of the figures was in front of her, yet she was a bit tense seeing another person just behind.

“Hey Crys, you better wake your ass up girl!” her friends' voice boomed forcing her to finally open her eyes.

Confused and disoriented she quickly looks around, frowning as she was suddenly in a different place, feeling sluggish with a really bad headache.

“Brit, what happened, where am I, where’s Clyde?” She could not help but ask, still remembering where and what she was doing just a few moments ago.

Brittany let out a deep sigh, folding her arms to her chest as she straightened up. “Well, for starters, it seems we’re back in our current timeline,” she blurts out as she started looking around.

Grabbing her head to try and stop the pounding she was feeling, Crystal tried to stand up, now feeling the coldness under her and the back pain and the itchiness of the grass she was sitting on.

“What?” She burst out in panic knowing what that meant.

“Does this look like the body of a young woman to you?” Brittany gestured to herself, one eyebrow raised as she posed like some model in front of her.

“Wait, what do you mean, what happened?” She started breathing fast and hard.

There was the familiar-looking tree, the pond, the nearby mountainside and she was sure they were in a real forest. Yet all she could remember right now was that she was just with Clyde a while ago.

“Hell, I don’t know either, I just woke up in here, back to my old self again,” Brittany sighed fixing her hair as it had some leaves in it.

“Hello there,” the person next to Brittany finally spoke, startling Crystal as she had almost forgotten about her.

Her eyebrows quickly shot up, seeing the woman was wearing what looks like a traditional baro’t saya.

“Who’re you?” Cautiously backing away from the woman she checks their surrounding once more.

“I’m Maria, the guardian of this place,” the woman swirled her hand before pressing it to her chest.

It was now much more clear to her where they were, seeing the familiar-looking tree, though it looks less mesmerizing now that the sun was up and the fireflies were no longer surrounding them.

“What?” Crystal couldn't help but frown in confusion.

“She’s like the caretaker here,” Brittany clears, seeing that she was still a bit distress and groggy from just waking up.

“How was your little trip?” Maria had a very sweet smile on her face as she said those words.

That just made her forehead crease as she was still trying to get a hold of what was happening.

“How…” she stopped for a moment to think of the things that had happened, she was pretty sure she went back to the past and managed to do her life all over again. “I mean, I was..., I’m confused,” yet she was now totally clueless seeing that she was back from where she started before all of those things happened.

It’s like those years that she’d been there fixing her life all just went away in an instant, yet she was still able to remember everything very clearly.

“Yeah! You seem to know what’s going on, mind explaining to us what happened? Cause, there’s no way in hell that all of that was just a dream,” Brittany turned to the woman.

Being the logical and ever cautious thinking girl her best friend was, it seems she somehow has an idea that this person with them had something to do with what happened.

“Yes, I...I don’t think that was just a dream,” Crystal states, going along with her best friend.

Maria’s smile ended up becoming wider, her eyes squinting almost to a close as if like some amused and laughing child.

“Of course! But first, would you like to have some tea and snacks. I bet you’re now feeling that hangover right now,” the woman states motioning her hand to her side to show what seemed to be a small hut just on the other side of the pond.

Brittany and Crystal both frowned, more puzzled as they didn’t remember a house being there before.

Maria did not wait for an answer, she instead proceeded to walk to the said house in a slow and very demure lady-like manner. Holding her long skirt up to avoid it from getting muddy.

She and Brittany look at each other not talking but seemed to both get the idea, there was a part of them that was wary, but there was also a part in them that kept saying to follow the woman for answers.

In the end, they both ended up going along with what the woman wanted. Wanting to know exactly what had occurred these past few years when they ended up in the past.

They arrived at what seemed to be an old-style house, it looked quite sturdy since the elevated upper story’s foundation looks to be large stone blocks, though the walling were made of hardwood, balustrades decorated the sides of the house and stairs, it’s window were the old sliding style ones made of shells. The roof looked liked Chinese tiled.

It felt like they suddenly traveled back in time to the old Filipino Spanish era because of the very looks of the place. Even the furniture seemed antique, from the chairs, the tables, even the cabinets and utensils that were neatly prepared for them looked so authentically old.

The small rectangular table was set with nice pieces of china wear set, from the small plates to the pot and teacups.

Several types of fresh loaves of bread were neatly placed in a nice basket there were also biscuits, sweet rice cakes, and pudding along with it.

Maria sat on the seat at the very end of it and began pouring some tea on the cups that were prepared for them on each side.

Brittany and Crystal looked at each other, though it seemed quite odd, they didn’t really feel any danger at all during that moment. As the woman seemed to be alone in the house.

They decided to sit alongside the woman, facing each other since the table was set up like that. The hot brown liquid was still piping hot when they checked the cups.

Both of them remained quiet as Maria took a sip of her drink, eyes closed while savoring it for a few moments, before giving attention to them again.

“So, what was it that you want to know first?” the woman implied as she placed her cup on the saucer.

Since Brittany seemed like she was still thinking, Crystal decided to let out what was on her mind as she was really disturbed by all this.

“Who are you exactly, and what was that trip you were mentioning about a while ago?” Not stopping to breathe she said each and everything that was bugging her.

The woman let out that sweet, warm smile that almost made her eyes close. “My name’s Maria Makiling, and the trip I was mentioning about as I told your friend over here, is your escapade traveling back in time,” she said confidently and with all seriousness.

That didn’t bode well for Brittany as she immediately raised both her hands for a stop. “Wait a minute, hold up! You mean to tell me, that you’re the mythical spirit guardian that resides in the mountain?” she said one eyebrow raised while looking at the woman.

Even Crystal was now more confused knowing full well about the name that was mentioned by the lady.

“I can’t really say I’m mythical since you are actually talking to me right now,” Maria giggled.

“Is this some kind of joke,” Brittany snorted, face twisting in disbelief and annoyance?

That made Maria grin. “Was your travel back to the past a joke?” she said in a mix of challenge and mock.

The comment quickly silenced Brittany as she ended up gaping from the realization of things.

“About that, what exactly happened? I mean, why are we back here, now. I thought I’d be able to change all of this, since...since…” sensing some vast power was behind all this, she was still unable to believe that she was back from where she started.

“You would have if you just remained on your path to redemption,” Maria said cooly, taking another sip from his cup.

Crystal could not help but frown. “What do you mean?”

“Well, you started out quite well, making sure to be a good daughter to your parents, honing your skills for a bright future, doing all the things that you weren’t able to do before. But then you began straying from that path when you met with that man again,” Maria stated reminding her of all those things.

“You mean Clyde right?” Brittany butted in at the mention of a man.

“Yes,” Maria turned and gave her friend a nod before sipping her tea again. “At first we thought that there wasn’t really anything to worry about since you seem able to control yourself for a while. But then, all of a sudden you started becoming confused, troubled, and conflicted. Making you lose your way all over again,” she sighed.

Crystal swallowed hard because of it, though everything seemed to be impossible, there weren’t really any other explanations that she could muster in regards to what happened to them. Making her regret even more for wasting such a miraculous thing.

“Original path? What original path?” Brittany could not help but ask confused at what was being said.

Maria turned to Crystal at that moment. “Child, do you remember what you said the night that you fell asleep, before going back in time?” she smiled as she tilted her head to the side.

“I...I had a vague memory of it,” that was all she could say as she wasn’t really sure since all of it felt like a dream that time.

“Let me see, the exact words that you said were ‘I wish I could take it all back, I wish I could at least get back at him for all the things that he did. I swear I’ll never make those same mistakes again,’ those were the exact things that you said that night,” Maria recalled tapping one finger on her chin.

Crystal's eyes grew wide as the memories began flooding her mind. “Ho...how did you know that?”

“Don’t you remember? We talked, you and I.” Maria giggled.

“You were that voice,” she gasped when she suddenly realized the soft-voiced in her dream were the same with the woman.

“Yes. You wish to get back and we sent you back, but you never did what you promised, you seem to have thought that you’d be able to change his mind instead, convinced yourself that if you just did things differently, you’d avoid your demise. But with how things preceded on that time, you were bound to end up in the same situation, so we reverted everything back to how it was, seeing as nothing was really going to change, plus the fact that you didn’t come through on your word,” Maria was explaining it like it was just a simple thing.

“Wait, wait! Hold up! If this was all her, how come I also got stuck there?” Brittany intervened once again as she was having one of her doubts again.

“Oh, that was a little side effect of being too close to the wisher, you ended up being dragged along with her, apologies for that.” Maria winced as she said those.

Brittany ended up frowning. “So, you mean to tell us, that you turned back time, change all the things that happened, but decided to revert everything back like it was nothing because Crys wasn’t able to push through with her promise. I mean, that’s not spirit fairy-like s**t, that’s freaking god-like thing!” she burst out eyes almost popping from trying to make light of all these inconceivable things.

“Oh, it did take a lot of effort on our side and it wasn’t just me, but as you said, we are not god-like, cause if we were, then maybe we would have tried to intervene every time your friend wavered and started to stray from her path. But alas, we were powerless in regards with that, which puts us to our current situation now,” Maria clapped her hands together in dismay.

“Which is?” Crystal was finally able to speak again sensing that she needed to clear some things out.

“Since you weren’t able to push through with what you promised, your wish was...how do I say it…, revoked,” Maria said in a disappointed tone.

“Revoked? Like, it was just disapproved because she wasn’t able to push through with it, I don’t remember a wish being like that,” Brittany snorts not having any of it.

“Well, it’s a bit complicated to explain and elaborate. But yes, it was removed and all the changes that were supposed to happen were reset back to their original state, though the good news about it is that all the skills, memories, and knowledge that you accumulated all throughout that time will remain with you, it was the least we could do for you,” Maria said with a sad smile and what seemed to be a consoling tone.

But...what...what exactly did I do wrong?” Crystal was suddenly panting as she now realizes that she was back from where she was. Left, broken, alone, helpless, and in her middle age.

“You fell in love with that man all over again, you promised you wouldn’t, but you did,” Maria sighed.

“And now I’m back here, old, cheated on, and stuck in my old job.” Crystal’s tears began to trickle down her eyes as everything was starting to dawn on her.

“I’m really sorry, but we can’t do much with these sort of things.” Maria bit her lower lip, lowering her head from her own helplessness.

“Can’t you give us another try at least?” Brittany quickly muttered in a somewhat pleading manner.

“If it was possible we would have, but your friend here was just lucky to be in the right place at the right time,” Maria gave out a half-smile at the thought.

“What do you mean,” Brittany ask as Crystal seemed to now be in a state of breakdown.

“Once in a blue moon, we are allowed to grant one wish per person to whoever would seek us here, the olden folks know about it, but of course none of you believe in that anymore. And it just so happen that that exact day was the time that your friend was under our wishing tree,” Maria conveyed with a saddened look.

“So you mean, it was just a once-in-a-lifetime chance,” Crystal's voice cracked as she looked at the woman.

“Precisely,” Maria said in a slow yet steady tone.

“And I wasted it, all because of my stupidity.” She ended up cackling as her sobs mix with her laughter.

Tears started to run through her eyes. Suddenly back to her hopeless self again, all because she kept holding to that hope that she and Clyde would be able to be together again.