Cagay, is a beautiful barangay in the province of Cebu
The residences of the poor inhabitants
are very simple in their appearance. They are not guarded unlike to some of the
wealthy ones. The more fortunate people has big houses surrounded by
beautifully laid out lawns, containing ornamental trees of various kinds and
numerous beds of flowers of choice and sometimes very rare varieties.
On the Judas Street
Most of the visitors coming in are having
adventures in the beautiful hot spring and waterfalls. Nanay Lina has been working
there for ten years as a caretaker. She is a good soul as ever lived, always
hard at work. From early morning until dusky eve she is on her feet. It has
always been a gossip and astonishment, among the neighbors, as to how old woman
could work so incessantly without becoming weary and resting for an hour or so
after dinner.
Tonight is cool and pleasant. The hour is
nearly six o’clock in the evening—the hour for supper in the cottage. Mitch is
staying in the cottage for two days and a night together with her high school
friends.
“It’s been six years already when we last
met!” said Mona, the president of the class.
“Many
events of our lives are needed to be discussed. I guess two days is not enough.”
replied Mitch.
The rest of the girls were chatting about
their love stories. Some were talking about their carriers. It is now ten
o’clock. Mitch sat on the front step
humming the tune of a well known hymn to herself as she gazed up at the stars,
for it must be remembered that although she not by any means pious, still, like
a dutiful girl, she wanted to go to church with the man she loved. Many things
happened to her. Some made her happy and some made her sad. But whatever they
maybe those were God’s plan.
The girls were quite now taking their
rests but for Mitch wanted to urinate, she got up and went to the comfort room.
As she exited from their room, she saw total darkness so, she lit the lamp. She screamed because something jumped off to
her. When she turned her head, a rat ran around. She sighed.
“I can’t sleep. What is happening to me?
Life is so unfair.”
“Hey Mitch! Are you okay? Remember, we
are here to enjoy and forget our problems.”,
said Mona who followed her.
“Mon, how can I enjoy when I know that my
life from now on would not be easy. I am bearing a bastard child. At my young
age, I never know what kind of life I can give him.”
Mitch knew that she’s still in love with Roland
but he cheated her all along in their three years of relationship. She just
cannot move on so easily. Roland only gave her a cold shoulder and a false hope
that someday they will be together. When she told him that she was impregnated,
he disappeared.
“There, that’s what I think is the matter
with you, and I can tell you one thing my lady and that is, that sooner you get
over your infatuation for that disrespectful man. Life must go on. Don’t worry, we are always be
here to support you,” comforted Mona.
The girls decided to sleep early so they
can continue their adventure the other day. It was past twelve when a scream
can be heard echoing the entire room. Everybody got out from bed and lit the
lamp so they can check what happened. They saw Mitch crying like crazy.
“
Hey girl, what happened?”
“ A dream, a nightmare!”, cried Mitch.
“ A nightmare, let us hear it.”
“Well,” she begun, I sat for two hours on
the front step looking at the stars. When I went to bed, I felt like urinating
so I got up but a large rat ran between my feet. I went to our room and after I
shut the door I fell asleep.”
“I dreamt that when I got up in the
morning everything and everybody was changed except me. This cottage instead of
white is green. You April, Mona, Gerlyn, Manilyn and Divine, all had heads like
bears and you all growled at me but yet could talk, and that was very strange.
You all had eyes as large as horses’ eyes, only they red as blood. While I was
talking to you I heard a noise in the street and on going to the door, I saw
hundreds of black bulls with blue eyes, very bright blue eyes coming towards
the house, bloods were dripping from their mouths and their feet made fire come
out of the ground. They came, roaring very loudly all the time, right straight to
the house. They broke down the wall; I ran to the back door and locked it. Then
they all commenced to butt the house violently that it nearly fell over. It
shook so I woke up and found out that I had fallen out of bed. It is still very
clear and fresh in my mind that I can’t get it out of my head”, narrated her.
“It’s just a dream and dream is just an
imagination. Stay calm my friend. Okay?”, said Manilyn.
As
the night is very damp and disagreeable, all begin to feel sleepy. Before Mona
went to bed again, she took the bucket and drunk some fresh water and
immediately went to bed and found Mitch crying. After going to bed, she says,
“Oh my God, I forgot to put the lamp out”, rose immediately and extinguished
the light.
Mitch, who had just stopped crying
remarks to Mona that “ this is a wretched night”, “ somehow I can’t get to
sleep again. For a few minutes everything was perfectly still. No sound was to
be heard except the breathing of the young girls.
They remained perfectly quite when Mitch
jumped out of bed with a scream, exclaiming that there was a mouse under the
bed clothes.
Her scream startled her friend who was almost asleep
and she also got out of bed and lit the lamp for she is as much as afraid of
rats as Mitch is. They both searched but could not find it. They decided to go
to sleep again.
After ten to fifteen minutes, the girls heard something moving in their bed.
Mitch exclaimed, “There is that mouse again, Mona. Let us get up and kill it.”
They both arose and heard a rustling in a
green paste box, filled with patch work which was under the bed. And were
amazed to see the box jump up in the air about a foot and fall over on its
side. The girls could not believe in their own eyes so Mona placed the box in
its old position in the middle of the room and both watched it intently and
when to their amazement the same thing occurred again.
They told the other girls in the other
room but they did not believe them. They just laugh to their stories so, they stopped
because there had no reason to continue.
Mitch complained of feeling feverish and
was advised by other friends to go to bed, which she did. After she had been in
bed for about fifteen minutes, Mitch jumped with a sudden bound into the center
of the room, taking all the bed clothes with her.
“My God!”, Mitch exclaimed. What can be
the matter with me. Wake up Mona, wake up! I’m dying, I’m dying !”
“ Dying!”, responded her. Why dying
people don’t speak in that loud tone. Wait until I light the lamp, don’t die in
dark Mitch.
Mona thought that Mitch was just kidding but
when she lit the lamp, she was considerably alarmed by her friend’s appearance.
There stood Mitch in the center of the room, her long hair almost standing on end her face as red as
blood and her eyes really looked as if
they were about to start from their sockets, her hands grasping the back of a chair so
tightly that her nails sank into the soft wood. She was truly an object to look
on with amazement, as she stood there in her white night gown trembling with
fear. She didn’t know what to do now.
Mona called as loud as she could for
assistance so all the girls were running to their room.
“Great heavens’, exclaimed Divine” What
shall we do with her now?”
Mona was speechless with amazement, while
they stood looking at her friend, not knowing what to do to relieve her agony.
She became very pale and seemed to be growing weak; in fact, she became so weak
in a short time that she had to be assisted to the bed.
After sitting on the edge of the bed for
a moment and gazing the room with a vacant stare, she started to her feet with
a wild yell and said she felt like bursting into pieces.
Mona whispered to her in a calm voice to pray
and everything will be okay. Her friends assisted her to go to bed again. She
said in a low choking voice,” I am swelling up and shall certainly burst, I
know I shall.”
She was literally burning up with
fever and yet as pale as death, while
only a few minutes before her face was as red as blood and her entire person as
cold as ice. What a strange case, pale when hot and blood red when cold, yet
such was really the fact.
While her friends stood looking at her,
wondering what would relieve her, for her entire body had swollen to an
enormous size and she was screaming with pain and grinding her teeth as in fit,
a loud report like thunder was heard in the room. They all started to their feet
instantly and seemed paralyzed with fear.
“My God!” exclaimed Mona. “The cottage
has been struck by lightning and I know we will be killed!
“I wonder what that awful noise was?” she
said. Going to the window and raising the curtain they saw that the stars were
shining so brightly and was then satisfied that it had not been thunder they
had heard. Just as she let the curtain drop, three terrific reports were heard,
apparently directly under the bed. They were so loud that the whole room shook
and Mitch for a moment before had been swollen to such an enormous size,
immediately assumed her natural appearance and sank into a state of calm
repose. As soon as they found that it was sleep and not death that had taken
possession to her, they all left the room except Mona who never leaved Mitch.
The next morning Mitch remained in bed until
nine o’clock. When she arose it was seemingly all right again and got her own
breakfast. It seemed that nothing had happened last night. Nanay Lina was the
one who prepared their breakfast. While in the dining area, they told her
everything but to their surprise, she cried. She told them that almost all of
their lodgers who came from different places experienced the same thing. She
told them that five years ago a beautiful woman was raped and murdered exactly
in the room were they stayed. The dead body was covered by the bed clothes and
two days after was found under the bed. Until now, the killer is still the number one
wanted person in the town.
“Maybe, that young lady wanted you to
help her to have justice.”
The girls return home in the city
bringing the experiences and lessons they learned.
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