Cross and Conflicts

CHAPTER XIII: Tongue, Paper and Horns

It was midnight, and Noumenon woke up feeling the weight of her adoptive mother’s arm over her abdomen; it turned to be an extra blanket of warmth inside the air conditioned ward, and it was something she needed the most. With her face marred still by purplish spots and now healing cuts, she smiled at Sister Lita’s image sleeping at her side softly snoring. She reached out to touch her hair—thankful that she’s here. Monsignor Alvez had tasked the extern sister to watch over her while he went back to their monastery to deal with matters resulting from the incident at St. Peter the Fisherman Parish, particularly the burial of Sister Mary Peter.

            The novice still somehow blamed herself for what had befallen her senior. If only she had been mindful of the red flags apparent in the parish, she could have done something not to let her get murdered.

            “What a cute bond you share.”

            Out of the blue, someone spoke with a tone hidden in factitious admiration.

            Noumenon almost screamed at what her eyes had led her to. She’s wide awake, and she’s certain that she wasn’t hallucinating. What she’s unsure of was if it was a lizard crawling on the ceiling above her or a person who looked exactly like it clad in a dark green sleeveless coat and black pants.

            With a long body, it has the head of a man, but it wasn’t exactly human. His elliptical eyes are golden with narrow pupils like a pair of sharp black slices. She couldn’t see his ears, for he can hear through the small hole on each side of his head. His exposed skin—from his visage to his arms and down to his feet—is covered in brown scales like a mosaic of smooth and overlapping flat plates. Yet what’s most conspicuous was his tapering tail lazily wagging as if it was amused.

            “Scared” was an understatement; she was horror-struck since this was the first time wherein she encountered someone with a preternatural appearance—someone who looks less of a human being but more of a reptile. She wondered how this was even possible.

            She glanced at Sister Lita. She was still asleep and oblivious about their unexpected visitor.

            Noumenon gulped before she managed to compose her inquiry. “Who are you? W-What are you doing here?”

            His mouth widened even more as he grinned, signifying that he wasn’t here by chance but because he was clearly here for her. “I apologize for frightening you, missy. The name’s ‘Zard’ and I’m here because someone has ordered me to get you.”

            She did her best to sit upright, but she was careful not to wake her adoptive mother. She couldn’t believe her predicament. Being kidnapped was the least she thought that could happen to her. This seemed outrageous; after all, it hasn’t been long since she had a fatal experience. Hearing that someone wanted to get her was unbelievable and at the same time, unnerving.

            “Tell me, Mr. ‘Zard,’ who was the one who ordered you?”

            She saw him detach himself from the ceiling and land on his feet. He was then standing at the foot of her bed.

            He tilted his head to one side. “You should go see him yourself. That person is very eager to meet you.”

            She pursed her eyebrows. “What if I don’t want to go with you?”

            His countenance darkened. “Missy, you know that you apparently don’t have a choice.”

            “Please, don’t do this.” She gripped the blanket covering her.

            “Hmm?”

            “I am—I am going to profess my final vows next month.”

            He only watched her continue what she was saying.

            “I’m officially going to be a Carmelite nun. I wish to live a cloistered life. I don’t want anything else but to serve God alone.” Her voice was trembling. “So, please, I’m begging you; leave me be.”

            Her new acquaintance, however, looked at her indifferently. “Oh? I’m sorry, but I’m not particularly interested about what you wish to have or be. Now then, let’s go.”

            He was extending his hand to her, anticipating for her to take it. On instinct, she briefly eyed the closed door to her right.

            “Please don’t think about calling the police officers guarding you for help. They’re also having quite the difficulty dealing with my two co-workers outside,” he warned her.

            Then, as if on cue, Sister Lita opened her eyes. As soon as she grasped their current situation, she joined Noumenon in alarm.

            “Who are you?!”

            It was abrupt and sudden. She couldn’t then be awake anymore.  The novice vividly saw that when he opened his mouth, his tongue, slender and slick, stretched lengthily then lashed at Sister Lita’s face.

            Kssh! Bog! She was shortly severed from her consciousness as she fell with a loud thud to the cold floor.

            “Ma!” Noumenon shouted, worried about her. She scrambled on her bed to get to her, but Zard swiftly held her by her arm.

            “I had planned to go easy on you actually.”

            He slugged her still recovering gut.

            “Aack!” She gasped.

            The heavy blow sent an agonizing sensation. She felt electrocuted to the point that her mind became numb and made her sleep.

            Knock. Knock.

            Someone was at the door.

            “Come in.”

            Then came inside the ward a huge person past six feet with two horns, long and bent, on his head. His torso is larger than the lower half of his muscular body. His eyes are black—the same color with the thick and tangled hair growing on his head and around his neck. His nostrils are big; his ears are pointy. And he was wearing a black hoodie which may have hid his horns but wasn’t hiding much of his dominant biceps.

            “Oh, Buff. That was fast,” Zard mused.

            He frowned and with a deep voice, he responded. “This job is way too easy. You could have single-handedly dealt with this. Pyrus and I shouldn’t even have come.”

            He noticed the aged woman lying below him and the one on the hospital bed. “So, then, which one of them will we be taking?”

            Zard cheekily smiled. “We’ll be taking them both.”

Moments Earlier

There was a crackle above them which made the two junior officers, both master sergeants, look up. It was the CCTV. Penne Martinez, the taller and with lighter tone, eyed the small equipment suspiciously, while Danny Buhisan, his colleague, looked shocked at what appeared to be a piece of paper which sliced through its screen. A tiny smoke surfaced from it, and they looked at each other dumbfounded.

            “What just happened?” Danny uttered, his thick brows raised.

            They were both assigned to guard the survivor of the St. Peter the Fisherman Parish incident; on the contrary, if they were to be honest, they didn’t actually fancy this assignment. First, it had become tedious to stand by the private ward for an entire day, and they’d been doing this for days. Being placed on traffic proves to provide more activity than this.

            Second, and more significantly, they weren’t welcoming of securing Cross’ prey that much considering that he might make an appearance to finish her off. Yet either way, they had no right to disobey a direct order.

            That midnight, however, it wasn’t the master murderer who paid them a visit.

            Klak! Klak! Klak! Klak!

            There were footsteps approaching them, and those sounded nearer and nearer.

            Hmm   Hmm   Hmm  

            Hmm   Hmm   Hmm  

            They were both unfamiliar to the tune they were hearing, but they were certain that it was a woman humming.

            She slowly emerged to their view—tall and slender wearing a long white coat over her fitted shirt and pants. Her black hair reached about her shoulders, and her complexion is as pale as a blank canvas. Her eyes are of an oriental, squinty and small. She had a calm expression on her heart-shaped face while she was doing something with her fingers like she was leading an orchestra.

            The officers deemed her weird. They didn’t understand her gestures.

            She halted from a distance in the corridor. She had also stopped moving her fingers when she closed her right hand in the air as if holding onto something.

            Obviously, she was neither a doctor nor a staff of the hospital, so they guessed that she might just be a patient’s watcher who has an eccentric demeanor. She finally smiled to them, and when she unfolded her right palm, they beheld something exceptional yet bizarre.

            From different directions came flying thousands of sheets of paper. It was if these were all vacuumed towards the corridor.

            In total astonishment, Danny tumbled while he was cautiously looking up at the sheets spiralling overhead. Penne, on the other hand, stared at the woman, and he could bet that she had something to do with this strange occurrence. It looked like she was animating the papers.

            He instinctively pulled out his gun and pointed it at her. Something in her—he sensed—was bad news. “Who are you? And what business do you have here?”

            Danny stood back up and followed suit. He also felt that she shouldn’t be taken lightly.

            She, on the other end, didn’t brush off her smile, and she still didn’t speak. Instead, she lifted both her arms upward, and as she did, the sheets piled up in quick sequences around the two officers, containing them inside a fortress made out of paper and blocking any potential path for escape.

            Penne clutched his gun more firmly. “What the hell are you doing?!”

            The woman relaxed her arms down. Inside the paper enclosure, she stared at them while their guns were directed straight to her.

            “We’ve seen your magic trick. Now, ma’am, tell us what you’re doing here.”

            She shook her head. It was vague whether she negated doing magic or if she refused to answer why she was there. It was also confounding them why she wouldn’t talk. Yet again, she raised her right hand towards their direction and motioned something with her fingers.

            Kssht!

            Even with the minutest thought, the officers did not suppose what had then happened to them. They also had never deemed paper to be as sharp as razors that would cut through their flesh. But there they were.

            It was a matter of a second, and from behind them, several sheets struck their bodies. These were akin to knives that abruptly stabbed them, deep and excruciating.

            Danny toppled down the floor first. Blood gushed from all over his frame painting the floor crimson. In an instant, he lied immobile and defunct with his eyes wide open. Likewise, Penne appeared to have ceased breathing.

            The four walls of paper surrounding them slowly collapsed as the sheets fell down in sections like dead leaves during autumn.

            The woman looked down at the inanimate bodies. She felt no pity for them, for they weren’t her first victims, and they were simply part of a job. She had not once failed to dispose of those she was ordered to, and this time had been the same. That was what she thought before she had to step away from the risen police officer.

            “Aargh!” Penne took her shock as an opportunity and grabbed his gun. Just seconds ago, he thought he had died, but he was tougher than he thought he was. Even with a sheet of paper stuck to his skull, he lunged at her with all the strength he could gather.

            Her eyes widened since she was clearly seeing the muzzle of his firearm.

            Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

            Kssht! Kssht! Kssht! Kssht!

            Before the bullets could hit her nonetheless, a thick pile of sheets shielded her and caught those.

            Penne made certain not to be victimized the second time by her assault earlier. He conjectured that she was only good in long range battles but probably useless in close combat. So even with the collective stinging of his wounds, he rushed forward—intimidating her.

            Yet just as he thought he would have the advantage, a hand larger than his head bashed his face to the wall, incapacitating him instantly. The impact was too strong that it amassed cracks.

            “Pyrus!” He heard the newcomer say before consciousness abandoned him.

            “Are you alright?”

            The woman was relieved, but she didn’t voice her thanks. She gazed at him with grateful eyes instead. In return, Buff patted her crown.

Aeon froze before a cesspool of horrifying mess. His two subordinates appeared motionless on the floor environed by piles of paper. More than wondering how that many sheets were brought outside the ward of the novice whom they should be guarding, he was more concerned about what had occurred for them to acquire the grotesque make up of their bodies. The misfortune of his subordinates blinded him at first that it took a little while for him to notice the tall woman standing adjacent the door of Noumenon’s room.

            She had a deadpan expression, and she seemed cautious of his arrival especially after he pointed his gun at her.

            “What happened here?!”

            Although not threatened, she put her hands in the air in order to appease his apprehension.

            “Hey! Answer me.” He emphasized his grip on his gun. “Did you see who did this?”

            The situation was ironic. She didn’t respond but only continued to stare watchfully at him.

            The lieutenant gritted his teeth. He felt enraged, but he didn’t know whom to channel his anger. He excused himself to head back to their headquarters and came back again only to find the junior officers lifeless. He needed to know who was responsible for this. Nevertheless, he continued to hold the woman who was already in the crime scene as the primary suspect.

            He reached inside his jacket pocket and showed her his police badge. “I’m Police Lieutenant Aeo—”

            “We know, sir.”

            He was about to introduce himself and invite the woman for questioning; however, someone behind her interrupted. Upon keener observation, he doubted his eyesight. There were two individuals who came out of the ward; the one who interrupted him looked like an anthropomorphic lizard and the other has the attributes of a water buffalo. Supplementing the policeman’s shock was identifying Sister Lita and Noumenon hung over the broad shoulders of the latter.

            “You! Put them down!” He warned.

            The reptilian returned him a smirk. “Greetings, Lieutenant Aeon Ginto. It is an honor to finally meet you.”