Teo begs off to be left behind at the gate of the cemetery after Teniente Leon left along with Tatang Chuy and the servants. He reasons out that he has to wait for Isko who is also at the cemetery to visit the tomb of his mother. Fray Luciano and his deacon had long been gone after the friar voiced out his intent of leaving the cemetery the soonest. He claimed that there is a mass that they need to be prepared for the next day. Amidst the silence of the night, Teo makes up his mind that he will prove himself if Utoy really is at the old church ruins and if he has really been abducted, either by a mortal or by the burned man
Once alone at the gates, Teo stops a carriage and settles silently inside. He instructs the coachman to bring him to the church then proceeds in looking through the windows, setting his sight at the houses with candles illuminated on their doorsteps that they pass by. Some of the houses already have Christmas lanterns hanging on their windows, eclipsing the burning candles just like how the forthcoming Christmas season seems to overshadow the Feast of the Day of the Saints. Unconsciously, he would count the number of burning candles in every houses which have them on their doorsteps, and he would know those are the same numbers of deceased relatives these houses have
"Why are you alone at this time of the night, Segnor?" the coachman enquires,
Teo falls silent as if he has never heard the coachman's inquiry
"it is perilous to roam around tonight as the violent spirits of those who died without the blessing of the church are wandering around too" the coachman resumes
"I will be at the House of the Lord tonight, Segnor" Teo answers finally
"I see. Those ghouls, no matter how powerful they seem to be at this time, are still not able to trespass the House of God. I even plan to stay at the church overnight as well; but if I do then I won't have any reales to buy sustenance to feed my family with. We might starve to death and end up as one of those ghouls eventually," the coachman laughs
Teo shrugs his shoulder off and resumes counting the candles permeating at the doorsteps of houses they are passing by. His silence is interrupted once again by the coachman;
"Of all the ghouls that might be wandering around, it is the Maranhig that are the most feared for they said it has dug its grave from the inside out after getting resurrected. The Maranhig maintains quite a reputation of abducting children like that of the missing son of a farmer. I think it will only be a matter of time before his corpse is found especially after this night" the coachman claims
"We are all hoping for his safety," Teo answers irascibly
It is starting to rain when they reach the church of St William the Hermit which looks gloomy that night being washed by the falling rain. From the carriage, Teo hops into the road and covers his head with his hands as he runs towards the church doors. Finding them to be shut, he makes his way to the belfry to hide under its roofs while the rain is pouring down. He settles to silently watch rain drops washing the dirt off the ground as it starts to get muddy. The hem of his trousers begins to get wet with mists from the rain and gets stained with splashes of mud.
When the rain pour starts to slow down, Teo proceeds to walk towards the old church ruins. Though it has been years since the last time he was there, he still knows the way through. From the belfry he walks towards the back of the fortress church and reaches the cluster of tamarind trees. Walking through further he then comes along pieces of broken marbles which used to be part of the old church's flooring. From where he is at, he now sees the ruins with the old church's fortress still standing with more broken marbles surrounding it. The old belfry still stands intact beside the ruins with wild vines crawling up to it and its walls are mostly covered in moss
Unexpectedly, he feels terror starting to seeps in from seeing the ruins for the first time since the fateful day of Lito's disappearance. As he steps in forward, his sandals sink in the mud and get stuck. Despite several attempts at retrieving his sandals with no good results, he then decides to take them off and leaves them stuck in the mud to step in the ruins barefooted. The cold ground adds chills to his already soaked body in rain water. Inside the ruins, Teo struggles to see around him as darkness easily consumes him. The silence pierces through him making even the littlest noise amplified; from the chirping insects to his own beating heart. He begins reciting the Lord's prayer while he wanders in the dark with only his recital disturbing the deep silence. He starts to feel terrified being alone in the dark once again just like how it was years ago when he came looking for Lito
After a moment of wandering around, he realizes that nobody is in there, not even Utoy nor the burned man. It is then he concludes that Fabiana must have been mistaken and accepts the fact that there is nothing in there but the empty ruins. He could not fathom at that moment why he even considered believing the woman for once
He is about to leave the ruins when he hears footsteps approaching. He pauses to confirm if what he hears are of somebody's footsteps or of stray animals roaming around. The footsteps sound coming near him. From outside he sees pale light coming in which is enough to stave the dimness off the ruins, it could be a light coming from a lamp. Teo finds a wall to hide and he settles to wait for whomever is holding the lamp. A figure reveals itself from the doorway but Teo still struggles to recognize who, since the lamp creates a shadow covering the face of whoever is holding it. He has to peek his head through the wall in the dark trying to get a look at the person walking around the ruins
"Are you here, Segnor?" the person calls out in the dark
His voice is echoing through the broken walls
Teo is shaking upon hearing his voice, his is familiar and chilling. The voice is of a young boy. Teo seems to be frozen perching his back behind the wall still in complete disbelief as he tries to make a reasonable explanation to himself of what is happening. He is sure who that voice is from but it frightens him to even consider the possibility of that boy calling out to him. At that moment it starts to make sense to him of those claims that the dead are roaming the land of the living at the night of the Day of the Dead. The claims that spirits of the dead would reconnect with the living even just for one night. Confusingly, he begins to accept these claims as facts, as he slowly falls down to his knees behind the wall. Like a child once again, he coils up himself as if shielding himself from what might be happening next; wishing that it is all just a nightmare. He begins biting his fore finger expecting he would wake up soon. He keeps biting off his fingers until he feels he is tearing off into his own flesh, tasting his own blood only to realize he is not dreaming. The pain from his wound crawls all over his body, making him cover his mouth with his hands to keep himself from whimpering or even creating a slight noise.
The light from the lamp moves into his direction as he hears its footsteps coming close to where he is hiding. He looks away at an opposite direction trying to ignore the inevitable, that the figure holding the lamp would eventually find him hiding behind the wall. The lamp is now directly pointing at his direction while he is still looking away from the figure standing before him. He sees his own shadow growing and starts crawling to the ground caused by the lamp. That is when Teo knows that the figuree has found him
"Segnor?" the voice calls out
Teo looks into the direction of the light while still covering his hands to his eyes struggling to ward off the blinding light. He tries to recognize the boy standing before him; taking him a moment until he does