Thirteenth of The Blue

VIII

IT IS A VANTAGE POINT as Leigh have foretold. A perfect scenery where anyone will feel they are one with the environment. They are surrounded by trees that have grown freely atop a rock formation extending like an arm from the land towards the sea. It is bluff that falls down in an almost ninety-degree angle down the sea in a drop that is no more than fifty feet. Each wave of the raging water below crashes in a foamy spray against the white rock walls dispersing a different aroma in the air that seem to freeze time when it reaches deep in the nostrils. The chirping birds perched at the treetops and branches served as a background sound that gives a nostalgic effect. This is a place where one could unwind and recollect, for it gives a momentarily rest to the heart, mind and soul.

            Geiki have been relieved after a burden of safari to the top. He and Leigh went over and around obstacles to see what the said place has to offer. They went through the forest of trees and have crossed a snake nest where the mother gamely chased them away from her territory. And among the mini adventures making up the package of their trek, he did not enjoy getting wet as they crossed over an ice-cold stream just to end up wall-climbers; Geiki, convincing himself he can do a better ascension on the wall of rocks than Spider-man.

            "Wow!" He still cannot believe that after everything they have gone through, a perfect spot awaits them. He brought out a camera phone to catch the rare beauty of the place in a lens.

            Leigh enjoyed watching him as he took shots around. A smile never left her face as Geiki acted like a kid on his first visit to Disneyland. One of the many traits he loved most at him is his closeness to nature. Any other man with a hard heart and silly mind would pay this place no mind.

            "You acted like it is your first time to see the sea," she said while taking a seat, finding the best spot on the huge rough rock surface near the edge. She chose the smoothest place, eyeing the horizon the way a captain will on a bridge of a ship.

            Geiki had many travels, with Leigh, friends and his brothers in fraternity. He would say no for a chance of an adventure, it is what drives him, the very cell all his blood is made of. Many would like travels too, but Geiki is different, he sees something through everything that made up nature. He will sit down and observe ants on the ground, admires how will a scorpion capture and feed on a prey and feels sorrow to a mother bird mourning around chicks that have fallen from the nest. He already saw many breath-taking views all around the country, crystal clear falls, volcano craters, caves, lakes and rivers, but he still fall in love how nature does everything it does. Yet no matter how close to nature his hearth is, he denies that the hand of God turns the acacia tree right or left, nor commands the sea and air to calm down or rage in fury. He is not a religious man and denies everything that has ties to any belief of a supreme being. For him, nature is what it is and it commands respect.

            He sat down beside Leigh, a smile of contentment never leaving his lips. "This place is cool!"

            A soft breeze past on them like an unseen horse and they both felt it not with their skin but with their heart. Leigh closed her eyes, as if feeling a series of soft kisses invading her body. Geiki faced the soft gale with eyes open but his mind seems to be sent a million of lightyears away and back in a couple of seconds.

            "You are good in picking up places," Geiki said in a voice almost in a whisper, his ears not believing it is his. "I feel like I want to recollect. You know...."

            When he trailed it off, Leigh felt goosebumps, her heart seem frozen in ice. It took about a couple of seconds before Geiki spoke again, and in same amount of time, her eyes locked on his like drawn on a magnet, unable to move.

            "Talk to you about many things we haven't before." He finally said and felt her frozen heart beat again to let her blood freely circulates from being held somewhere in her veins.

            Her eyes were at last free from the grasp of Geiki's and she looked toward the afternoon horizon. "I love seawaters," she said with a frosty softness. "The breeze blowing from the sea. The splash of the water. They all give a painful stab when I leave them."

            "I wish we have food." Geiki diverted the talk. He is feeling uneasy about the topic. It felt like an invisible hand is choking words that must have come from his heart. "I forgot to buy some. Maybe we can chip on the rocks and learn chewing some.”

            There is the Geiki I knew, Leigh finally thought as she shook her head and smiled.

                                                                                            -KM-

BELOW THE BEACH FAR away when the n***d eyes must have not recognized the tiny specks at the cliff dropping towards the sea, Spring sat on a rock. She could have been mistaken as a gorgeous mermaid sitting on the rock, but a pair of legs gave it away. Her eyes are zooming in on them like a pair of powerful binoculars. She could have counted the hairs of any bug that would bite them.

            Control yourself, Leigh, her mind is sending waves of telepathy, if only the other could have intercepted them. She trained her eyes on them leaving just a few seconds to scan around for any possible threat. Enemies could be lurking nearby, awaiting a perfect moment to plunge a dagger on Geiki's back.

            But not too far from her too, a wanderer by the beach who pretends picking up shells and corals from the shore has her eyes at two too. She is waiting for an opportune moment to thrust a barbed arrow at her target's chest. The would-be assassin also knew that her moment may not come at broad daylight, yet sunset is drawing near, and in the cloak of the night, the victim and his guards may be caught off guard.

                                                                                           -KM-

THE HOT BALL OF white flame that is the sun took its course and is now sinking at the western horizon where the tree tops draws a red zigzag line against the b****y sky. It could be a breath-taking view watching the sun pack for a whole day of work like a kite slowly pulled down by an invisible string down the waters that is turning from blazing orange to red as the heavenly body cast its last rays up in the sky in a color that was adapted by the sea below, but the western horizon is no body of water. It is a woody and mountainous horizon and there will be no breath-taking sunset, at least not here.

            Local birds took places on the branches of trees in cheery chirping sounds. Geiki went silent and observed them, admiring the little creatures' way of life. They roam around under the bright daylight and take rest before it turns dark to regenerate their energy before taking their flights again at the first light of the day tomorrow. He understood their lives from a different perspective, wondering what an adventure it would be if he have a pair of wings like those.

            "I wonder," Leigh broke the long silence. They talked all afternoon, reminiscing and laughing together when they shared jokes. But when the sun nearly settled, they watch how slowly the color drained from everything around them, and it felt like the sun's gravity is pulling all of it. "What sort of crazy things is running in your mind?"

            But Geiki did not bite the bait. In his heart, he feels the kid in him taking control of his personality. The little Geiki trapped within a young-adult body is too focused to be disturbed. This one of those traits that makes him a rare gem, he can watch in awe, like a child, how a pupa slowly opens and unfold it wings to take flights around the garden as a beautiful butterfly. Leigh cannot help it but just watch, or more even, stare at him while trying to read what is in his mind.

            Then as quickly as the kid in him took firm grasp in his body, it was gone. A moment he was a kid watching the birds in fascination, jaw dropped to its stops and lips partially open, then the eyes narrowed and the lips met in an almost perfect line. Leigh has just observed a morph in a matter of seconds. Saw how the shiny eyes of a boy blinked then became a different pair with a cold glint of fierceness all over it. It does not feel good witnessing that change, like seeing a pretty butterfly suddenly became dragon breathing off fire.

            "For a second there I thought you wanted to be a bird." Leigh uttered with a soft laugh, eyes still on Geiki who is watching how the last light be taken away with the gone sun.

            "As a matter of fact," he faced the lady with a smile, the different fierceness on his eyes was now gone. He is a different person again, not the kid nor the fierce. "I wonder what it feels like to be a bird. It must be some sort kind of an adventure."

            "You are really peculiar, mister," she said with a soft slap on his cheeks but her hands never left his face as if it is instantly glued there. He is now with another person, not the kid, not the predator, but the adventurous, the one crazy teens instantly fell in love with. "I wish we have a whole year like this trip." Her voice is a whisper that seem to fade towards eternity.

            "We will have another one next year." He felt like it is customarily to respond in same soft voice. He looked at her right on the eyes, Leigh feeling like an invisible hand is reaching and squeezing her heart while Geiki felt his breath could not supply air in his lungs.

            "I am afraid...." She let it trail for a moment, and Geiki felt that someone had held time for a couple of seconds or more. "This is our last."

            It came to Geiki like a h*******t; a series of violent explosion is rocking the deepness of his heart. He never saw it coming. Not once his mind came across the thought that Leigh will soon leave. In a split of a second, the churning gears of his mind remembered how she came in the neighborhood one day.

He is riding his bicycle under one hot afternoon of the summer vacation that could have broiled a chicken. A silver SUV, and yes, he remembered the color and may have counted every unfortunate insect that was swatted on the surface of the silver tinted windscreen. He pulled the break lever sending the rear wheel of the vehicle in a perfect semi-circle arc, painting a black trail of rubber burnt on the surface of the defenseless white road of their subdivision. Time seemed to stand still as the young Leigh, not more than eleven, walked out of the vehicle and was followed by a couple of maid. She walked towards and in the house just next door that was vacated for a long time. It is the first time he found out that a heart could skip a beat or two. Then the neighbor whose parents were at the United States of America approached him one rainy afternoon asking for a shade under his yellow umbrella. He felt embarrassed because of the six Spongebob showing faces printed around the cloth. But the lovely girl did pay it no mind. They became friends and made adventures together in the limited vastness of their subdivision. Then time took paces faster than the sinking sands in an hourglass and they grew up as teens and developed a relationship as best of friends, not letting anybody in their circle merely counting two. Then time may have jumped and they were on college. Leigh who should be taking of Medicine in a popular school in the country chose Geiki's campus and enrolled History instead.

            "Why?"He finally began when everything that was burned by the pistons of his mind was depleted. "Why did you come in my life if you are just going to leave me one point of time?"

            Leigh did not respond too soon, but she chewed on the question for a moment. "Geiki," she finally came. "Everything comes to an end." Then she eyed the skies void of any clouds, her eyes darted at eastern horizon where a full moon is attempting to rise. "Even the daylight ends to give way for the moon."

            If she is a poet, Geiki may have been contented. But she never noticed that during those times she is looking at the rising heavenly body, one of Geiki's hands came over hers which is still on his cheek. "Why did you enroll History and followed me? You should have been in another University but why did you enlist in mine? You should have been a medical student."

            Like a robotic doll ran by a depleting battery, she turned her head and is sure feeling she was caught unguardedly like an expert swordsman finding herself at a point blank range of an aimed bow and arrow of an archer. She felt like a criminal with no avenue of escape but to confess. "Because you are so special to me."

            "I learned to love you, Leigh."

            That came like sledgehammer. She sat there, dumbstruck for a moment, a same feeling that a surfer has no other choice but to ride on the swelling peak of water. "I wish saying 'I love you too' will make me stay. But it won't."

            If he knew the words will come plunging like a dagger, he must have worn a chain mail. The pain of being left by his best friend came like a soft breeze yet ragingly blowing down a rock. He sat there still, eyes locked on Leigh and the lady cannot fight the gravity erupting from his eyes. He drew his face near attempting to land his lips against her, half expecting she will dodge it and land a crunchy slap across his face. But Leigh did not move, but instead sat there still and closed her eyes, submitting herself to the man at his front. Geiki inched closer, and inch away, half, a fourth and almost tasting her sweet lip balm. Just then, a flash of lightning struck on the surface of the water not more than ten feet away from them and was instantly followed by a thunderclap sounding like a huge tree suddenly splitting out loud.

            At that, Leigh felt embarrassed and turned her face away as a floodgate suddenly swung wide open inside Geiki drowning him in deep frustration. In all the years of their friendship, not once they tried that, not even in their mind. They slept together in a room countless times but none came close to what they have tried.

            Leigh pulled her hand and stood without saying a word, leaving Geiki still sitting, swept by deep frustration. She wants to curse herself, but cannot do it, she wanted that kiss too badly either. In all the years, a feeling that started as a tiny seed deep within her heart grew up to a feeling she thinks nearly bordering what should be love, but then she thought it is perhaps just an affection. She looked at the moon, now a big ball looming above the pitch black carpet of sky. She felt a tingle in her soul, that somehow the big full moon foretells a forthcoming disaster.

            Geiki left with no choice stood beside her friend, his eyes on the heavenly body too. He wanted to whisper an apology in her ear, but that thought was instantly dissolved when he set her eyes upon the moon. There is a burning sensation deep within his body. He cannot tell why but the sight of a full moon gave him an uneasy feeling for the first time in his life. It felt for him like looking at his own graveyard, yet he does not know why.

            "I guess that means we have to go," he uttered in a voice that he sure not his.

            "It is so beautiful," she said, her eyes never leaving the heavenly body, but she lied. It is pretty sight indeed, yet her words do not mean it. "Hmmm... Yes, we have to go before we never find our way back."

            And as Leigh turned around, he met her by the eyes. They are now standing face to face, the other barely a shade even under the great aide of the light from the moon up above. She gave him her sweetest smile and there was no sign of embarrassment in her eyes, not even regret or anger. Her hair swayed when a soft breeze passed by, and they appeared like silver strands.

            Silver strands, Geiki felt his mind is going in a whirlwind. He felt swirling while stumbling deep into the oblivion. “Silver strands”, he can hear a voice that was not his booming inside his mind. He can see flashes of silver strands of hair under the aide of moonlight. Then there were faces as if shot from a projector in his eyes. The man with the dragon wings was the last projection and he can hear his voice so crisp now, "join me brother...." The man standing on the Eiffel Tower came next. His spear, and the different cross that was a glow of light took over his minds in an instant. Then the pain, he can feel that his mind is now going in circles at light speed.

            "Geiki?" It was an angelic voice that brought him back to reality. It was Leigh's and she caught the blank stares from his eyes. She is sure his irises are darting through hers, but saw her no more. "Should we start getting back?"

            He just nodded then turned around without a word as if hypnotized.

                                                                                             -KM-

NOT TOO FAR AWAY from the western sky, a figure is flapping its wings, whipping the surrounding air so hard. It is another demon, a female one. But this one is different type from the one earlier. She is clad in black metal armors and chain mail like an ancient female night. Her hair is flowing behind her shoulders while her eyes were hidden in a black tinted eye shield that was a part of a helm that circled the forehead and the back. On her stretched left hand is a bow wrought like a pair of dragon wings while an arrow aimed that is so true is almost released by the right. Provided she will let go of the arrow, it should traversed in perfect straight line towards Geiki's chest where the barbed tip will go through his back.

            "That aim was so true," it is a booming base type voice she well knew at his back. "That will do the job."

            "May I do the honors?" She spoke in a voice closed to sound of sand and cement rumbling in the hollowness of a mixer. She do not need to turn around, it is their highest general at her back.

            "Maybe we should let it go for now. There are other plans that will sure win us this war."

            She glared pass the tip of the arrow which she is sure will home into Geiki's chest. She cannot believe what she has just heard. Is this a form of deceit? Perhaps the high soldier has gone soft, or is just testing her. Her fingers want to release the arrow to its flight for she had waited all day for the right moment to assassinate him. But that would mean violating a direct order and it could mean an eternal punishment. She lowered the arrow then in an instant it was no more, like it was just a pigment of imagination a while ago.

            "You should know," she turned and snarled at her superior looking like she will claw those long black nails at him or bite somewhere at the neck. The anger of being interrupted from a sure kill flares on her red eyes but was perfectly concealed by the black eye shield. "One of your loyal servants was killed in action when he attempted to kill that unworthy human down there."

            "I know," he avoided looking at her and aimed his eyes at the target below. In all those years, he cannot believe so much is at stake because of that human who is now leaving the place. "I have seen it with my own eyes. His lost will not be in vain. Believe me; you do not want that arrow planted on his chest."

            "I will let it go now," she looked at the moon which marches at a slow pace towards the middle of the black ceiling of sky. "But next time I have him on my aim, no words of yours will stop me."

            "Believe me, when that time comes, I will kill you myself if the arrow misses." There was no emotion in his voice and she felt a cold tinge somewhere amid sentence. "If that time will ever come."

            She looked at him, looking for a trace or a clue somewhere in his eyes. She knows there is a plan, one still waiting to be unleashed. How she wished she resides in his mind to know what it is. But she was wrong, it is a twisted mind full of many mazes and cannot be decoded that easily.