The Untold Chronicle: Fire and Rain

Chapter 3

I took a closer look at the book, which is about the size of my palm. It has a brown cover with a rough texture, indicating how old this book is. I was about to turn the book when I noticed some blood from my hands, I remembered him giving me this while my hands were soaked in his blood.

 I took some tissue to wipe the stains on the book and my hands. Few bloodstains stayed on its cover so I just let it be. When I looked at the time, it was around ten o'clock in the evening. Is it better to read it tonight or tomorrow? Curiosity filled my mind, so I took it to my room. As soon as I sat down, I opened the first page.

I started examining the paper, it has these yellow stains and the edge has few cuts. Because the paper was so thin, I had to be cautious as soon as I lifted the cover. My eyes widened a bit while staring at the drawings on the first page.

"What exactly is this?" I uttered as I took a closer look at it.

The first page was filled with black drawings of a silhouette of a man's body with a horse head and a giant. My forehead knotted as I tried to remember those pictures. They were so familiar and looks like I’d heard about them before.

They were somehow related to the Philippine folklore, the werehorse and a Giant. I shook my head in disagreement. They’re not existing anymore and those were just my Grandmother’s stories for me before going to sleep.

I was no longer paying attention to the first page, so I shifted it to the next. That's how I frowned again when I saw another drawing and now it is already colored. The image on the top left is a fire, while the image on the bottom right is water. Despite the fact that the images were about to fade, I could still tell the description of the image.

What are these? I shook my head in annoyance. This is pretty upsetting.

The two images are separated by a line that resembles a c***k. Is this a puzzle I should try to solve? Is the name of the killer located here? Having thought that the guy gave me this after the crime scene. My eyes widened as a result of those questions, and I couldn't help but turn to the next page.

This time, I saw a clear image of a fighting werehorse and a giant. As I observed the two, I couldn't help but cover my mouth. They were pitting fire and water against each other. What exactly is this? Is this for real?

I closed the book before I stood up.

“No, Are those for kids who want bedtime stories?” I sarcastically laughed.

I started walking back and forth to the living room and thinking what are those pictures meant. That guy would not probably give the book to me for nothing, right? What were the Werehorses and Giants fighting? Does that thing come up?

My grandmother just told me that they were just living peacefully in the forest and if a human did a bad thing, they will grab the chance to punish them. I fixed my hair stress fully before I stopped walking back and forth.

I went near to the sofa where I threw the book. I want to know the story behind those pictures. I have decided to pick up the book. I turned the page back to where I stopped. I sighed while staring at those mysterious images again before turning onto the next page.

I shouted frustratedly when the I that words were so small. I went straight to my room to get my reading glasses. I sat on my bed with the book and I started to read the lines written on the fourth page.

"10,000 years ago, when the known mythological creature, the Giants, existed in our country. There were hundreds of Giants scattered throughout our country, and one remarkable thing about those Giants is that they were all male creatures. They resemble fire or flames because of their tobacco.” I stated.

My face was just in a blank expression while reading the first paragraph. I’m not fond of the mythical creatures of Philippine folklore that they were talking about. This is unbelievable and I can say that these are not proven. I am already living in a modern world and this kind of topic was just for provinces. I sighed before I started reading again.

Most of the horrible Giants lived in their favorite tree, Balete Tree, where they stayed awake the whole night and waited for humans they wanted to play with. Tobacco smoke was their favorite scent. But 5,000 years ago, another group of creatures existed, the werehorses

“Oh come on? Earlier the Giants and now the Werehorses?” I uttered in disbelief.

This is getting creepy and creepy, I really hate mystery stories or what. I just can’t believe if they really had existed or not. I erased those thoughts before I started reading again.

Werehorses are usually found in some of the country's forests. They were easily distinguished by their head the really looks like a horse and human-like body and the legs of a horse. They resemble water or rain and most people believe that whenever the weather is sunny yet there’s pouring rain, they concluded that two werehorses were getting married.

I nodded at what the book said. When I was young I always encounter some kind of these scenarios where the rain started to fall even though the weather was so bright and had no signs of rainfall. I fixed my hair into a bun when I felt that some of it loses.

I turned the page into the next page and started reading the first line which made my heart throbbed.

“They were peacefully having their own life in their habitats when one of the female werehorse got r***d”

“Oh my-” I murmured.

Does this r**e end up in a war which the image shows on the third page? I held my mouth and tried to sink all of the information I got. I stretched my back and massage my temple. I didn’t expect to read this kind of story, I thought that the stories about them were just old beliefs.

The other werehorse witnessed this kind of incident and they saw the Giant r**e the female werehorse. Because of that incident, there was a dispute between the two sides that results in a war. According to the Giant's reasoning, he did it because there were no women in their group, preventing them to reproduce to make a larger group.

The Werehorses didn’t stop to seek justice so they decided to have a war on a large field using their powers and skills in fighting. In hours of battling, many giants died until they decided to escape. The group of Werehorses celebrated their victory and had justice.

The female werehorses were now not comfortable with the Giants so they planned to kill the Giants and until in the modern world, they were still secretly looking for them. Some of the giants and werehorses studied how to shapeshift their appearance and they end up going to the city to hide.

My mouth formed an ‘o’ reaction as I read the last line, some of them are nowhere in the city. The hairs on my arms suddenly raised and my heart started to beats faster. I shouldn’t have to feel scared, Those creatures won’t do anything bad to humans unless we started the fight.

Curiosity consumed me even more so I read it again, and this time I was already halfway through the book because it took a few pages of what was written because it was so small. When I turned the page, I discovered that the story of Werehorse and Giants had come to an end.

I wondered why the next page was blank, I was about to turn it on the next page again when some letters suddenly appeared on the paper, like what I have seen in a fantasy movie. I almost dropped the book because of the shock as well as the trembling of my hands while holding it.

I started reading what was written.

List of names of Werehorses scattered in Manila.

The names listed were over 50 plus that’s why I won’t able to read all of them. Those were just names, and no photos were attached. You will really be curious about their look. In just a few seconds the other names started to fade. Does that mean the one who fades was the one who just died? How come?

There’s a lot of killing crimes here in Manila and I don’t know which of them are the ones related to this. Those list of names consumes a lot of pages until I reached another blank page. I waited for it may be because some letters would appear again.

Like I expected, They appeared in the book.

List of names of Giants scattered in Manila.

I expect over 50 names but I have only seen 10. After a few seconds, the 9 on it faded. I tried to turn the pages to look for more but most of them were blank already. I stopped because of the realization, does this mean. There’s only one Giant left here.

I turned the page on its last page.

LOOK FOR THE LAST ONE AND HIDE.

Silence ate me as I slowly closed the book. I can’t even utter a single word. Is that message telling me to look for the last giant? And hide? No. I don’t want to involve myself in this kind of situation. I went up from my bed and went to a nearby trash bin.

Without a second thought, I throw the book. I won’t do what that book wants. I went back to my bed and look for the time. It’s already 11:30 pm, I forgot that I haven’t brushed my teeth so I went to my restroom again to wash my face and also to brush my teeth.

I watched myself in the mirror and I suddenly stopped when the thought about the last giant came up to my mind.

“I don’t want to get into any trouble. Stop yourself, Theia. You’re not a hero or a savior.” I whispered to myself.

I nodded like I answered my own question. I went back to my room, I even took a glance at the trash bin where I threw the book before I shook my head continuously and decided to have my sleep. Zoelle wants me to be there tomorrow.