"Anna!" Samantha's voice echoed in her head. "Anna! Wake up!" Anna was far too fading to open her eyes.
"Anna!"
"Anna!"
"Anna!"
She opened her eyes and realized she was no longer in the morgue. The ceiling was also different from her apartment. It was full of glow of the dark stickers; a galaxy of stars and planets stuck in the ceiling and walls.
Anna stood up and looked around. The cabinet where she used to stick her drawings and posters her favorite boy bands was there. She stood up and ran out of the room. She opened the door and was greeted by the nostalgic sunlight beaming from the wooden window slits, reflecting the beams into the well-waxed wooden floor. At the far end corner of the room was a wooden double door, where her mother's room was.
Her heart beat wildly as fond memories of her mother came flashing back to her. Just thinking about her sweet voice and warm caresses, made Anna shed a tear. She took a deep breath as she took a step forward.
The floor creaked with every step, something she found annoying yet she fondly loved.
"Anna!" Her mother came calling her from the other room.
Her heart skipped a beat hearing her mother's voice again for so long. She was hesitant and in disbelief, it has been years since she heard her mother's voice her passing.
"Anna!" Her mother called out once again.
She wanted to call her mother's name, but her voice was stuck on her chest. She took another step before deciding to rush into her mother's room. However, before she could open the door, her mother called her once again, but this time it came from the downstairs.
Her mother called her out from the room once again. Anna froze, confused and afraid of what was happening.
"I am here inside the room! Come here, Anna." The voice from the room commanded.
"No, Anna don't listen to it!" The voice from downstairs insisted. "Come, downstairs!"
"Anna!" The voice inside the room shrieked. "Come here, child!" The doorknob twisted and open slightly, revealing the darkness of the room.
Anna wanted to run downstairs, however, just as when she arrived at the stairs, she saw nothing but darkness.
"Anna!" The voice was now just above her. "Aaaannnaaa…" Her mother's melodic call became chilling rather than comforting.
She felt something dripping from the ceiling. She slowly lifted her and was welcomed by the same feral creature in the morgue, grinning at her while holding a severed arm. Anna froze in fear as she saw the monster slowly descending towards her, taunting her for inability to move.
Anna woke up gasping for air.
"Babe!" Rico held her hand as she frantically tried to stand up. "Lay down still, you're safe now." He tried to calm her down.
It took Anna a few seconds to realize she was awake and whatever that scenario was she had earlier was just a bad dream. She turned to Rico and hugged him before breaking down to tears.
"You're safe now…" Rico kissed her forehead. "You're safe now." He whispered those calming words on her ear.
"Where am I now?" Anna asked her boyfriend.
"You're inside the hospital." He said as he gently laid Anna back on her bed. "You collapsed inside the morgue."
Anna tried to recall what happened, but every time she did, all she recalled was the monstrous image of that humanoid creature. Her head throbbed in pain as the monster's face kept flashing from her memory.
"Are you okay?" Rico worriedly held her hand.
"No." She answered as waves of pain pulsated throughout her head. "I need the—bleurrghhh…" Before she could end her sentence, Anna spewed the contents of her stomach.
Rico immediately called one of their colleagues from the nurse's station and asked for help. After giving her some medication, she went back to sleep, only this time, it was a dreamless, peaceful sleep.
She woke up a few hours later, around the evening. It was there that she got greeted by Samantha and their other co-workers. Anna could still feel her head throbbing, but she couldn't sent her guests away especially Samantha.
"I am so sorry, Anna." Samantha sobbed. "If I weren't a klutz, this wouldn't have happened." Her eyes were red and puffed from crying since yesterday's incident.
"It wasn't your fault, Samantha…" Anna paused as a wave of pain jolted through her head. "T-things…just happened." She added.
"J-just get well soon, okay!" Samantha said. "I also heard that Ms. Min is currently reporting the incident to the board to get our system fixed." She reported. "The old maid wants to clean her hands from the incident and wanted everyone to forget who made you go there in the first place." She clicked her tongue.
Anna had nothing good to respond after hearing that. She knew all to well how their supervisor would usually wash her hands from any accidents and mistakes in her department, and this was one of them. She sat there silently, not reacting to her friend's wiles.
"Looks like, Anna needs her rest." Rico smiled at Samantha, interrupting their conversation.
Samantha looked at him and smiled. "Of course, we'll Anna, take your rest and I will be stationed here later tonight. So, if you ever need me…"
"Of course, I will ring the bell as quickly as I could." Anna smiled at her friend.
"Atta girl!" Samantha smiled and took her leave.
Rico sat beside her bed, holding her had. "Hey, I took a day off. Don't worry, you will never be alone." He smiled.
"Thanks, babe." She smiled back at him. "I…I—"
"Now is not the time for that." Rico adamantly said. "Take some rest. I will be right here with you when you wake up." He kissed her hand.
Anna couldn't hold the tears falling from her eyes. But Rico simply wiped it off her cheeks and laid her down to bed. She closed her eyes once more and slept soundly on her bed.
Anna woke up a few hours later, with Rico sleeping beside her by the chair. The place was dimmed with only a strobe of light from the comfort room illuminating the room. She looked at Rico's watch to check the time, it was already 2:30 A.M.
"Buenas tardes, Dayan." A silky, yet feral voice greeted her from the far corner of the room.
A pair of glowing eyes appeared on the dark corner of the room. Anna froze in fear as her memory of the monster began to flash again.
"I apologize to have frighten you, dear child." The pair of eyes blinked. "I just came here to personally apologize for one of my clansman's transgressions."
"W-who are you?" Anna's voice trembled.
"My name, child, is not important." The voice answered. "But I shall tell you what you need to know. I am the matriarch of the clan Abat." The individual finally revealed itself to her.
The creature looked like the monster she saw inside the morgue, however, it had more human features rather than feral. Her face was oval shaped with its skin seemingly tightened by botox or some chemicals. Its eyes were slanted and cat-like. Its nose was human and aquiline in shape, while its mouth was shaped like that of a cat.
The monster was thin. Even with the layers of black cloth, leather, and feathered gown in top of its body, the creature still looked thin. Its arms had the same feral pattern of the monster, but it was more colorful and more pronounced.
It bowed to her on one knee before standing up on the foot of her bed.
"I have finally met a Dayan, after 3 centuries of waiting!" It grinned.
Anna shook Rico, trying to wake him up but her boyfriend wouldn't opened his eyes.
"Rico, wake up!" She desperately shook her boyfriend's body. "Rico—"
"It is no use, dear child." The Abat matriarch said. "He won't wake up, not until I told him to."
"P-please, don't hurt him!" She begged.
The matriarch looked at Rico and smiled. "You remind me of me, when I was younger. Do not fear, my child I wouldn't hurt him. I just came here to talk to you and give you this." It showed her a black throbbing heart.
"W-what is that?!" Anna shivered at the sight of the beating organ.
"This is the heart of my grandson… the one who attacked you." The creature's voice trembled. "This is how we apologize to the royals. Please, take his heart and eat it. It will honor us." The monster bowed down to her and offered the heart to her.
"I-I cannot take this…" Anna started crying out of fear and confusion. "Please, take that with you and stay away from me!"
"Child…please, I beg of you—" The monster begged.
"Please, no more!" Anna shouted. "I don't want to see you…or any of your kind! Let me be." She wailed.
The matriarch glared at her. "Very well, dear child. But know this, you can never escape your destiny. Once the hunger calls you…you have no choice but to answer." The old Abat slowly faded from the dark corner. "Remember that, young child."