The Orient Pearl of Dalatica

In the Arms of the Stranger in Black

Vern was watching the water as it fell on the pool under it when a hassle on the bush interrupted the flow of thoughts on her mind. She immediately grabbed a towel by her side to cover her body, dripping wet beneath her thin clothing.

She was enjoying herself in the luxury of the waterfalls located in the middle of the woods, a kilometer north of the Cagbigajo Village. It is a secluded place found after an hour of travel via motorboat from the town of Pambujan, in Northern Samar, and a one-hour hike from the port unloading area. It’s a small village, the hometown of her old nanny when she was still a kid, Nana Isabel. People live from the resource they could get from nature like crops, vegetables, and livestock. There is electricity but cellular network coverage in the area was not accessible, which was favorable to her. The night was long and peaceful, unlike the loud and blinding lights of the city. This place was the best spot for her escape from the asphyxiating life in the city, especially the life of an only daughter to Emmanuel Villegas, the CEO of Villegas Industries.

He arranged her for marriage to the man whom she’d only known for a week, to seal the merge of the company with its rival. That made her escape and found this paradise she longed and dreamed of.

Her eyes hovered on the bushes, densely spread out along the side of the stream, a few meters away from her. She scanned the surrounding with her eyes, yet all she could see was trees towering over her, bushes of ferns, and grasses. She stayed still until she was sure that everything looked the way it was when she came a while ago. Everything seemed calm and there was no sign of movement.

She stood up and moved towards the bushes while wrapping the towel around her body while stepping on every rock that obstructed her way cautiously.

The bushes were as high as her waist but there was no single leaf that could have torn if someone or an animal rushed through it. She walked further to the higher ground towards the coconut trees but didn’t see something unusual.

“Hello!” she called out but only echoes responded back. She kept on walking until she reached a ridge above the bushes, where different tall trees rose from the ground. It was hard to be at the top of it so she had to pull on a handful of vine to assist her to go over the ridge.

She found nothing but a vast span of trees and bushes.

“Maybe it was just my imagination,” she muttered to herself and took a step back when she got satisfied herself from inspecting the area.

But, there was something that seemed peculiar about the place. The leaves on the trees and bushes looked more vivid, swaying in the motion of the wind but Vern couldn’t feel even a single soft blow of wind against her skin. She looked back at her tracks but she couldn’t find the ridge anymore. She walked back but she couldn’t see the slope down to the stream where the waterfalls flow through.

Her heart started to beat faster and her mind began to travel to different assumptions. He continued moving back to the direction where she went from. But to no avail, she was walking in circles for so many times because after walking for so long she would just end up on the same spot.

She removed the towel, gripped on the bottom hem of her shirt, and was pulling it up to undress herself when the sun glowed so brightly. To her surprise, a strand of shining reflection glimmered as though as a reflection from water. A part of it was slamming on her face which was blinding her a little bit.

She was enthused by the sight and run excitedly towards the direction where she supposed the reflection was coming from until she saw the ridge again from afar. She doubled her pace to get there in an instant.

But she miscalculated her next step. She was a foot away from the ridge when the ground collapsed. It was so fast and sudden. She lost her balance and screamed as she was falling down, along with the blocks of land drifted from the mainland. The forest shook. Her shriek thundered in the entire forest that even birds flew from different directions.

She couldn’t do anything but to close her eyes and offer a prayer in silence. She glanced one more time and concluded that any moment from there on, her breath will soon end. She hugged herself and prepared herself for the impact. Her heartbeat was so fast that her count of seconds couldn’t keep up. Her mind was spinning because of various thoughts rampaging inside. Her muscles started to numb and little by little, her consciousness drifted away.

The last thing she knew was that she was in the arms of a stranger with dark, a little bit rounded and slightly slanted edges, glinting with mystery and enticement looking at her intently. There was surprise flashed in his eyes, but it was altered by irritation. His pale face showed no mercy in mesmerizing her.

If he was a grim reaper, it was now beyond her attention. She seamlessly wanted to drown in intoxication as the feeling of floating in air, took her to the ambivalence of the world. She would not surely oppose. She would let him bring her to any dimensions even it is to the place of inescapable danger. She closed her eyes and then let the darkness succumb her entire being.