Chapter 27
"Restrain him for now!" The doctor ordered the other nurses while looking awfully disgusted at the blood-soaked Anna. "Ummm… Ms.Sanbwan, do you have any extra clothes?"
"Y-yes, doctor." She nodded while embarrassingly looking at her blood-soaked clothing.
"Yes…take your leave for now." He said. "We'll take care of him for now."
Anna nodded and went out of the room. She hurriedly walked back to the station, praying that the beast would calm down. Unfortunately, it wasn't. The beast growled as her stomach cramped violently. It felt like the monster's claws were ripping her guts apart. She gasped for air as her gut continued to contort itself.
She was about to faint when she reached the station. She was alone and gladfully so. She immediately licked the blood from her mouth and cheeks as she went to the sink before washing her face completely. After cleaning her face, she went to her locker to get some fresh clothes before heading to the showers to take a bath.
She entered the showers alone. Without any hesitation she went inside one of the cubicles and immediately took off her clothes. She washed herself with the calming warm water from the showers.
Anna closed her eyes, to avoid looking at the crimson liquid flowing down her body. She took the soap and immediately scrubbed her body with it, trying to rid the foul yet exhilarating stench that awakened the beast inside of her. However, the soap and water weren't helping her at all. In fact, it was making it worse.
Suddenly, Anna's hands began to move grotesquely on their own. Horrified, she immediately tried to gain control of her hand, unfortunately she was failing miserably. Anna felt the hair on her back stood up as her body began to change into the thing she feared.
Anna immediately stepped out of the cubicle while still trying to gain control of her extremities.
"Come on! Come on!" Anna's voice trembled as she tried containing her monster-controlled hands.
She prayed and asked for help from a higher power, but it seemed like no one from up above was willing to hear her prayer, let alone intercede with her predicament. Anna closed her eyes and prayed some more. As she did, she could hear the monster inside her growled and howled at her.
The beast tried to claw out of her consciousness. Her vision began to blur as the beast rocked the core of her very being. She was able to wipe herself dry before she finally loss her consciousness.
"Anna!" Her mother's voice rang in her mind. "Anna!" Her mother called out again.
Anna opened her eyes and was surprised to see her mother's face right in front of her. She looked around and was surprised to herself being child on sleeping on her mother's lap facing a beautiful sunset in a beach.
It was the most surreal thing she saw her entire life. The crimson sky slowly eating the golden rays of the sun while darkness slowly encroached the blue canvas of its outer border. It was a picturesque, yet puzzling view that she had never seen before.
"You're awake, Anna?" Her mother caressed her head.
"Yes, Mama." She answered with a smile.
She stood up and hugged her younger looking mother.
"Where are we, Mother?" She asked.
Her mother smiled and kissed her cheek. "You'll learn soon enough." She answered.
Anna got confused of her mother's answer but never questioned it. It has been a while since she saw her last and with such a wonderful dream, she would rather stay there for a while and have a moment with the one person she loved the most.
"Would you leave me again, mother?" She asked while hugging her mother.
Her mother simply smiled at her and gave her a hug. She never answered the question, although, her mother's eyes spoke of sadness and great longing for some reason, Anna couldn't identify it the way she could when she was older.
Night finally conquered the sky, masking the golden sun with the blanket of darkness and the subtle glow of the full moon. Anna can't get her eyes away from the bright moon shining above the dark dome. Its reflection from the sea danced like a maiden swooned by the gentle thrust of the waves, creating a rhythmic illusion of a tantalizing dance in the water.
Her mother carried her back into a small yet well lit nipa hut. Inside were rows of candles scented in different fragrance of petals that she recalled her mom used to plant in their small-spaced apartment. Her mother carried her until they went into the dining room located at the upper floor of the bamboo house.
"Are you hungry, Anak?" Her mother asked while smiling.
She bit her lip as her mother's smile triggered the lingering memories of her last days before she finally went to rest. The now, little Anna kept her tears from flowing down her supple cheeks, but it wasn't enough to hold the waterworks down.
Her mother squinted at her, confused at seeing her little daughter cry out of nowhere.
"What is it, Anak?" She asked Anna as she wiped her tears using her thumb. "Why are you crying?" She kissed her cheeks.
Anna looked at her mother with longing. She wanted to speak to her a thousand things and plea to her selfishly to stay beside her, no matter how impossible it was for her mother's unavoidable fate. She hugged her tightly, trying not to let go of the moment and whispered in her ears.
"Ma, please don't go." Her voice cracked as her emotions flowed and flooded her mind, losing her words to the tidal wave of sentiments she had towards her mother.
She felt her mother sobbed before she cleared her throat and answered.
"I won't be going anywhere, Anak." She smiled with a glint of tear welling in her eyes.
Anna poured out her emotions on her mother's shoulders, sobbing out the years of yearning to that one moment she got the chance to see her again. Her mother hugged her tightly while patting her back as she tried to shush her and make her smile once again.
"Hush now, my love." Her mother smiled. "I have prepared your favorite." She opened the pot placed in the middle of the table.
"Tinolang manok!" Anna's face brightened as she looked at the chicken glistening in its stock.
This was something she never confessed to anyone, her favorite food. Not even to Rico. It was something she kept to herself because it reminded her of her mother. Eating another tinola might taint her fond memory of her and no matter how much she tried to make it for herself, it never tasted as good as the original.
So, she swore never to eat or cook another tinola again to keep her mother's memory alive somehow. It was a weird oath she thought but it worked.
"Anak, here's your first serving!" Her mother took out a bowl and gave her a chicken leg. "Ohh… you be careful, okay? The thing's still hot." She added.
Anna touched the glass bowl and immediately took her hand away. Her mother looked at her laughing.
"I told you it was still hot." She smiled at her while blowing the bowl. "There, that should do it!" Her mother proudly announced after blowing the soup from the bowl several times more.
Anna took a spoon, scooped a spoonful of the broth and sipped on it. She smiled and wiggled her foot hanging on the chair where sat.
"Delicious?" Her mother asked.
She simply nodded and went back to the soup. She finished two chicken legs and heaps of rice by the end of their dinner. After her mother finished washing their dishes, they immediately went inside the room adjacent to the kitchen and laid down on their matted reeds.
Anna cuddled beside her mother, embracing her as the cold sea breeze gently blew inside their house. She held her tightly, afraid to lose her again. Her mother caressed her hair before patting her hair and began humming a lullaby she could never understand let alone remember that well. It wasn't Tagalog or Bisaya, nor Waray. It was something else, it sounded so ethnical, yet strangely familiar.
The humming started with a sweet, slow tune before she begin the first verse of the song. She couldn't understand it well, but at that time, weirdly the mysterious language her mother sung was something she understood fully well.
She smiled and sung alone until sleep crept in on her and took her consciousness into pure and utter relaxation. Slowly, her eyes closed until her vision went to dark and she felt like floating on air along with her mother in her arms.
"Good night, Mama." She said before a big yawn.
"Good night too, Anak." Her mother replied. "Now, take a good night sleep, you have been working so hard in the hospital, I know how tiring that is." She added.
Anna smiled and cuddled herself into a ball in her mother's arms when she suddenly realized.
"Wait, what do you mean by that, Mama?!" She asked as she opened her eyes with her mother's surprising comment.