Reverberations of the Sea

The Big Dipper

    “Do you think she was kidn*pped?” Erico questions hiding both Kiko and Hira from outsiders, he adds, “She’s been gone for more than six months, she could’ve been dead.”

    “But she’s not— she’s breathing normally.” Kiko’s voice breaks as his throat almost constricts itself from the emotional turmoil he was experiencing, yet he held himself back. Pleading, he says, “Let’s just get her back in town before the other folks arrive to the site.”

    He heaves a nervous sigh assuring Erico to remain calm, “We’ll contact Hank once we get there.”

    A silent agreement was passed when Kiko stood up whilst carrying the unconscious dreamer, only to hear a weak drop of a shard hit the sand. Both boys averted their gazes from Hira to the sharp and solid element stuck onto floor of the seaside. It had looked nothing like a diamond or any regular rock residing on the beach; rather, it was an opaque rigid object that resembled a geode. Beside it had also been a washed away book, only it had been completely untouched by the waves—not even a mark of a droplet had gotten on the pages of the leathered tome. The two shared a look of skepticism and disbelief as they stared at the two objects supposedly brought by the girl. Although puzzled, Erico reached out to take the items for Hira to explain if she were to wake up any sooner. The rough man spills them into the pockets of his jacket slowly leading Kiko back to the truck.

    The radio had been shut off to avoid any static noise disrupting the labored breaths of Kiko and the repetitive tapping of fingers against latex from Erico. There had been no exchange between the two boys as they had nowhere to start the conversation full of questions without answers. What kept them quiet was located at the backseat of the car— Hira who had been sleeping soundly each passing moment never particularly shifting from either side; thus, she remained still and almost dead. Erico noticed Kiko glance back to check on the girl’s status— there was relief, fear and urgency swimming under the gaze of Kiko as he investigates Hira’s skin and breathing patterns. Kiko then looks away into the distance; his thoughts of the previous encounter resurfacing. Unexplained disappearances and reappearances of Hira continued, he thought, had there been a patterned time for these?

    Erico kept a low profile from the front seat as they passed by several homes and people walking the streets of the small town. Eventually, his sight follows the Dickinsons waving towards their car. The old couple hurriedly approached the vehicle from the sidewalk. Smiles plastered on their faces as they finally got to see the boy who had hid so long from the worried eyes of the villagers.

    “Ko, it’s been so long! How have you been, son?” Mr. Dickinson holds onto the door of the car in haste. There had been an applied brute force onto the vehicle as it stops at the sudden intrusion of the elder’s hand. With a gleeful sound coming from his wife, Darcie Dickinson, slowly reaches out to the touch the face of the silent boy; however, he flinches away immediately bowing his head for his behavior.

    “Oh, no worries, Kiko. It’s been rough for you, I know.” She moves her long nails away from his face and out of the vehicle before she adds with a smile, “Hira was a lovely girl after all.”

    Kiko chokes out a reply, “She was.”

    Mr. Dickinson’s eyes trail the truck from the front then to the back, which both Erico and Kiko don’t fail to notice. Abruptly, both boys block their views from the covered body of Hira. The older latter humming before a throaty laugh leaves him, “Are you boys hiding a surprise?”

    “Yes!” They both reply rather loudly before clearing their throats. Erico answers first, “It’s for April, sir, her birthday is set tomorrow and we wanted to be as secretive as possible.”

    Kiko, however, catches a glimpse of Mrs. Dickinson lean in closer to the window of the backseat; thus, he says aloud, “Mrs. Darcie, what exactly did you call us here for?”

    For a brief moment, her trance vanishes turning all of her attention to the young man seated in front. Similar to a whiplash, Mrs. Dickinson plasters another sickly sweet smile on her face as she slowly hands out a black envelope to the innocent and unknowing boy. Her voice rises a little in pitch almost unnoticeable, yet Kiko catches on as he meticulously listens to the words of the old woman, “This letter was addressed to Hank Ginto; unfortunately, we heard he was out of town on a business trip, so we thought you could hand it to him personally.”

    “Haven’t heard such news, Mrs. Darcie.” Erico replies to which Kiko barely nudges him on the side, thus Kiko counters with an opposite answer, “Gladly, I’m sure it’s very important.”

    “Absolutely,” Mr. Dickinson chirps in still holding onto the door of the car, his fingers digging harshly into the rubber. Once again, Kiko grabs their attention with a loud cough as he stares from the old lad’s growing nails to his pale face, “I hope you don’t mind excusing us, we have to set up the apartment for April’s birthday. She’ll be arriving in a few hours from now.”

    Unwillingly, the lad retreats his hand and grins at the two—  a mocking Cheshire’s grin— causing a shiver to crawl up Kiko’s spine as he watches on with a feeling of threat and discomfort. The couple look on even after Erico speeds up the car farther away from their spot. Erico glances back at the Dickinson’s house every few minutes noting their missing silhouettes, thus he utters warily looking back onto the road ahead of them.

    “They’re gone,” Erico taps signaling Kiko to check the side view mirror, “Kiko, they were behaving unwontedly. ”

    “Like they weren’t—“

    “Those weren’t the Dickinsons. They’d have sent the letter to Hank once he returned— they were his close friends.” Kiko adds remembering the uncanny look he saw on Mrs. Darcie’s face, “Like you said, there weren’t any news regarding Hank’s out-of-town business trip; people would’ve talked if they knew he left after just recently grieving for the loss of his daughter.”

    Erico pauses for a minute to retaliate Kiko’s explanation, “So, what? They’re imposters uncannily resembling the real Dickinsons? Nothing seems to makes sense in this town.” 

    “Turn left, Erico.” His friend gives him a look as he processes the next words Kiko spoke, “We’re bringing Hira back to Hank.”

    “What about the police? We can’t have a kidnapper or some psychopath on the loose, because we weren’t quick enough to solve this. Kiko, you’re the brain here.” Despite his disagreement, Erico follows suit with Kiko’s order. He turns left before the stoplight to enter a narrow pathway leading towards the Ginto’s gate. Kiko explains fully turning to face the driver, “Hank will deal with all of that, only a father knows what to do for his daughter. If we end up going to the police station carrying a missing girl while they haven’t even discovered the body in a span of six and a half months, they’ll be completely suspicious of us.”

    No one can be trusted, Kiko’s words echoed in his head.

    The car took a halt in front of the emerald gate, but as soon as the vehicle stopped just before it the looming spades of metals had creaked open allowing them to proceed without any obstacles to block their way in. Erico mutters underneath his breath, “No one’s there, Kiko.”

    “We’ll find out when we get there. Right now, we need to bring Hira in safely.” Erico gives Kiko a silent nod slowly driving through the short path. Finally, they park the car to the side of the stout home lined with pillars at the front— all having similar ink marks on them— and vines wrapping the house until a hanging garden of sorts bloomed on top of the roof. Daisies and Chinese Lantern fruits were the most prominent flowers budding in their garden.

    After a while, Kiko raises his fist to knock on the wooden door, thus stepping back to wait for it to be pulled in. However, there had been no movement coming from the inside of the house and rather only silence greeted him. Cautiously, he reaches out to the knob turning it to the right and slowly pushing it in as to not make any noise. His line of vision had been greeted with an empty living room, but all had been left clean, organized and untouched. Although dust had started to accumulate in some areas, everything else remained intact and in place assuring him that Hank had left the house with care.

    His eyes scan the other rooms while he calls out to the owner of the house, “Hank, I have some sudden news.”

    No response and not one silhouette was seen in the house. After Kiko paced back and forth in every nook and cranny within the abode, Erico comes in with the envelope in his hand. The place seemed unnatural at first glance; otherwise, Kiko opens the baskets and refrigerator in the kitchen area to confirm his suspicion.

    Erico snorts, “Dude, we have food at home.”

    A hand stops Erico from continuing his remark towards Kiko’s speculation. Kiko throws out a basket of dead fish and rotten vegetables from the chiller, he points, “Hank left more than weeks.”

    “And?”

    “I don’t think he’s returning,” Kiko utters before averting his attention to the message Erico was holding, “We’ll need to check what that envelope contains.”

    Erico holds the envelope away from the latter disagreeing with his speculations, “We’re getting way too ahead of this. Calm down, Kiko, Hira’s all right.”

    For a moment, Kiko turns away from the truth of Erico’s words. Hira was safe— she was alive— that’s all that matters, but nothing seemed ordinary. Something felt out of place as he gazed one last time at the black envelope that could be hiding several secrets. He argues, “The Dickinsons— they couldn’t give this to him. Aside from our earlier speculations. Why? Why hand it to us specifically rather than wait it out?”

    A wave of curiosity washed over Erico the longer he looked at the inviting item in his hand. His belief cracking as he considered the words of his friend. After a moment’s worth of thoughts, Erico decides to open the envelope. But an abrupt force that could slice through a person pinned the message onto the wall. Black smoke spreads and evaporates from the letter before morphing into a burnt symbol on the wooden wall— an ancient symbol filled with eight rays and a circular eye at the center. Kiko faces the entrance of the kitchen where the force had originated. His voice coming out hoarse as his heart knocks on his chest painfully, “Hira.”

    There stood Hira with her left hand extended palm facing the two boys, and the other hand holding tightly onto the book and stone. Finally, she lowers the raised arm to wrap the clothing a little closer to her body before walking towards the mark. Erico exchanges a look with Kiko, only to see the latter engrossed on the girl in front of him. Hence, the gruff boy asks, “What exactly was that?”

     Hira tilts her head to face them, a solemn look graces her face as the words leave her, “That was a curse mark, and it was enough to be fatal.”

    A single movement of her hand accompanied with a whisper had shifted the once short covering into a new form of clothes; additionally, a new skin of gold and blue lining Hira’s features almost as if those had been carved onto her tan skin. Now covered in a white ruffled blouse and black ivory pants, Hira grabs a block of chalk from the table, and then walks onto the center of the room to kneel and draw until Kiko asks, “The Dickinsons handed that letter to us. Were they the real Dickinsons?”

    “Those were Morphemes, puppets of the sorcerer’s council that can mimic the outer appearance and voice of any person they killed. It was intentional to hand it to you, Kiko.” She steps closer to the said boy, “The council can and will kill anyone involved with my family.”

    Dread fills the Kiko as his breath hitches at her proclamation, but pushes down the fear for the girl in front of him. The two watch as Hira traces a symbol marked with two varying sizes of circles with an arrow piercing through the middle of each circle before it gets cut through the middle once again by another line; then, two short rays cut through the semi-circle rounding up the bottom of the outer circle. Hira whispers a short spell, “Revelum.”

    The once neat and perfect house turns and twists morbidly misshaping as several objects burn, break and decay over the course of a few seconds. Everything was in complete ruins and nothing had been left intact.

    "You're father--"

    Pursed lips and a furrowed gaze clouded with pain replaced the stoic look on Hira's face, "He'll be all right; he has to."

    Carefully, Hira walks over to the other room, which had been the library section, and swiftly her eyes scan the vicinity: burnt and marked shelves, books scattered all over and ripped apart as if a group had been searching for something, and lastly the walls had been hammered down until the room had been left in devastation. However, Hira turns to her right approaching one shelf that had been fully damaged from the fire.

    Another incantation expels from her lips, “Revelum paraf.”

    Instantaneously, letters scribble themselves onto the wood. Hira softly pushes her hand onto the bottom of the shelf where the words had appeared. Wiping the spell away, Hira tried to transfer them onto her palm. Eventually, she opens her palm facing the three. It read:

    Follow the big dipper where the hunter must chase the bear that may lead him to the key.

    “Hira,” her name tumbles from his lips before he has the time to retreat his word, “why you? Why would they kill anyone close to you?”

    Closing her palm, she faces them onwards with a rather impassive expression. There had been no explanation as she shook her head to utter a response, but her voice got cut off the moment a thin black smoke sliced through the cracks of the wall. It had eventually turned into an arrow. The sudden attack had Hira pulling the stunned boys to a different side of the room where she repeats the words, “Vanusapario.”

    As if his dreams returned to haunt him once again, darkness envelopes Kiko’s vision.