"Y-you, WHAT are you!?"
Loud beats of thunder spread across the forest, all the way to the outskirts of the Urqlia Continent, terrifying sparks of lightning strikes the ground, creating horrifying yet enchanting scenery.
Thirteen men are gripping their weapons in their hands with a petrified look drawn on each of their faces.
Their guts were telling them to run, but their body refused to do so. They tremble at the sight of a woman or what used to be a woman.
In front of them was a gigantic serpent with scales carved with thin gold curves as if an artist drew it. Its eyes shone a dangerous glint of bloodthirst, its fangs were long and sharp, and if it were to lunge onto a human, it could cut them in half. Just imagining such a thing happening to them made their heart beat faster and their whole body go numb from fear.
The man in the middle, whose chest puffed up with confidence from earlier, was now trembling and stupified from seeing the transformation of their previous Duchess.
" *hiss* " Slowly, the giant serpent moved its head closer to the man, making sure to show its sharp fangs as if to tell him that she will, kill them. The man in front of her twitched when he saw purple ooze thrilling down the fangs of the serpent. His eyes followed its movement, and when it dripped to the ground, it dissolved the dirt creating a hole while smoke went out of it.
The man jolted and moved away from the fuming hole. [Poison!], he thought. As if his mind finally gained its senses. He gripped the hilt of his sword and glared at the creature in front of him. "You! You monster. No wonder they wanted you dead. A monstrous being like you is just filth in the Cielito!" He screamed as he positioned the tip of his sword at the creature in front of him.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a loud and ominous laugh of a woman echoed in his head. Startled, he looked at the rest of his men, and it looked like he was the only one who heard it. Before he could call out to his men he heard it again except this time, it wasn't laughing.
"Ever since I first came to the Cielito household, I was never welcomed. They acted affectionate whenever the previous and the current duke were around, but when they were not, they went cold and would even physically hurt me from time to time. It was only a matter of time before those blasted mother and daughter duo finally decided to cut me off of the family."
His eyes dilate, but the next thing that happened made him freeze and unable to breathe.
The gigantic snake's upper body slowly changed its form. Slowly the scales on the head of the snakes one by one disappeared to the hipline, covering only the chest part of the figure, and a few scales were scattered all over its upper body. Long black hair was neatly tucked behind its ears, almost reaching the ground. After the transformation, a figure of a woman's upper body came to view. However, connected to the bottom of the figure's upper body was the lower half of the snake.
The sight captivated the men, but it soon turned to terror when she slithered to them using her lower body. Her movements were fast as if she wasn't dragging her long and heavy tail. She stopped in front of the man in the middle, glaring her blue eyes at him. The man was startled, and out of instinct, he raised his sword and swung it to the woman.
However, just before the sword sliced through the woman's neck, she leaned her body backward and easily avoided it. She slightly lifted the corner of her lips and looked at the man mockingly. The next thing that happened made the man shout curses and kneel in pain.
No one knew how it happened, but when the other men saw the man kneeling in pain while holding on to his right hand, a few of them stumbled backward. And were already shaking and thinking that maybe they shouldn't have been so blinded by money and just rejected the order that the wretched former lady offered to them. Then perhaps they wouldn't be scared and worried about their life right now.
Their eyes were stuck, looking at the arm that was now covered and dripping with blood. The hand that was holding on to a sword from before was gone and now laying on the ground, still gripping the sword in its palm. Their guts were telling them to escape and get away from the woman, but their legs and so as the rest of their body were shaking.
The woman raised her left hand and flicked away the blood. That covered her long and sharp fingernails. She looked at the rest of the men with murderous intent in her eyes, and she smiled at them sweetly, but before she could do anything.
Everything went black.
Amari can hear a faint voice calling out to him. Its voice sounded just like the woman in his dream. But with no murderous intent in it.
"Amari, my child. I'm sorry."
The woman told him in a different language, yet Amari understood it. Amari was confused about how did this woman know his name?
And how was he able to understand the language? But before he could ponder unto it, he heard another voice.
"-ri"
"Amari, wa-"
"Amari, WAKE UP!"
The voice woke Amari from his dream, and as he opened his eyes, he saw Tim's face. And it looks like he wasn't happy at the moment.
"I've been calling out your name for an hour now, and you still haven't woken up. You keep on mumbling in your sleep were you having a nightmare?" Tim looked at his friend worriedly. After all, Amari wasn't the type to talk in his sleep and dream of nightmares.
Amari looked at him dazed, but he just shrugged at his friend saying "I don't know. I did dream of something weird, but I don't think it was a nightmare...Anyway, why did you wake me up?" Amari changed the subject, not wanting to continue the conversation anymore.
Tim noticed it, but he just sighed and smiled at his friend.
"We've arrived at the resort, and right now, the other team has already left the bus. All of the team are at the front desk of the resort. We're the only one left behind, so hurry up and get your stuff so we can catch up to the team."
Amari hurriedly grabbed his bag and followed Tim out of the bus. When he stepped out of the bus, a gentle breeze mixed with ocean scent passed by them. The scene displayed in front of them was captivating. Vina Resort is just a 4-star resort yet just from the view of the entrance. It could easily pass as a 5-star resort.
The resort was far from the city's bustling noises and lights, and even though the place is popular, the resort isn't crowded since it's still in the mid of September, and most families are either busy with work or school.
Amari and Tim were just invited by their old college classmates to have a get-together and it just so happened that one of their old classmates is a relative of the owner of the resort.
When the owner found out about the get-together, he let them spend two days and one night at the resort for free. After hearing about this, the whole team decided to make their get-together a School Trip, or in this case a Reunion Trip, instead of the usual get-together parties.
Some people were able to clear their schedules or just happened to be available at the moment, while others were disappointed that they didn't come due to work or personal reasons. Amari and Tim came because it just so happened that their day off lined up to the get-together. Tim was the most enthusiastic between the both of them, saying that it's been ages since he last went on a school trip. While Amari was neutral about the idea of a Reunion Trip. he was fine as long as someone he's close with was attending it.
The two of them reached the rest of the team, who are now chatting and taking pictures in front of the registration desk.
[...They all look like some bunch of teenagers.] Amari thought as he walked to the nearest couch and sat on it. He turned his head and saw the same thing with his friend Tim. He was holding up his phone, posing and grinning.
"Amari, come here. Let's take a selfie I'm going to post this on my Instagram!"
Dumbfounded, Amari just shook his head and ignored his friend. He pulled out his phone from his pocket and just surfed through his notifications, checking for any updates from work. Amari wasn't a workaholic, but felt like something was wrong and that something was going to happen. Seeing that there weren't any messages from his company, he slipped back his phone into his pocket. He laid his back on the couch and breathed out a huge sigh.
"Sup, you doing good, Amari? That was one big sigh just now." A man said, followed by a deep chuckle. Amari felt the space beside him dip from the weight. He turned his head to look at the man beside him, his eyes widened with surprise, but it immediately disappeared as if it was never there. Amari smiled at the man beside him.
"Oh, it was nothing. I was just worried that I might have left something behind from work. It was nothing important, James."
James Waitley is a 6'9 ft tall guy with a sharp face and a charming smile. James is your typical famous guy at the campus. He was bright, good-looking, kind, and popular in the crowd. And as a bonus, he also has a great family background. Amari first met the guy at an event held by their university. He first saw him on stage when he was in his first year in university. Who would have thought that they would end up having the same course and would even be classmates during their last year in college?
Though the two of them were in the same department, they never really interacted with each other. They only talked to each other during a group project or so.
After graduating from university, James started taking over his family's business. Amari heard of this from his chatty friend Tim said that he kept in touch with a few of their college classmates, and one of them happened to land a job at James' family's business. So news got out that James is now the CEO of a successful company so, Amari didn't expect him to join the trip cause he was a busy man.
"I didn't notice you came with us on this trip. For a busy man like you, I thought you would be back at your company." Amari looked at the man and smiled at him.
James laughed softly at Amari. "Well, let's just say that I 'told' my secretary to give me two days off. I surely did not beg him to do it." He said as he jokingly wiped a fake tear off his face.
The two of them continued to talk for a while. Most of their conversations were just about work and some other stuff. By the time they finished, they were all called out by the organizer of the trip. Since only a few people came on the trip. They pair up with a person to stay with for the night. Naturally, Amari paired up with Tim. The two got their card and were instructed to head to their room right away.
"I talked with the organizer just a while ago, and they said that we're allowed to explore the resort just before sunset. But he also said that we shouldn't wander off to the nearby mountain with just the two of us and that we could do that tomorrow morning with the rest of the team before leaving." Tim said while opening the door of their room with the key card.
"Is that so. Then, should we go out for a walk first? It'll be boring just staying inside this room with nothing to do. Well, technically, I got nothing to do while you're just going to play with your phone for the whole day." Amari placed his bag on top of one of the beds in the room.
Each room that was given to the pairs has two beds in them. Amari took the bed near the glass sliding door while Tim took the other available bed. The room that the receptionist gave to them was a bit near the ocean so, when Amari opened the sliding door, a gentle ocean breeze entered the room. He leaned his body by the door, and his eyes carefully took in every detail of the beautiful view of the sea in front of him.
"Sure, let's go!" Tim hurriedly got up from his bed and shoved the key card into his pocket. Amari closed the sliding door and followed after Tim. The two of them went to the front desk and asked for directions. After the receptionist gave them a few tips and suggestions, they headed out to explore the resort.
The two of them explored the place, and they both took a few photos together and some selfies. After they ventured into the place, they went to a minibar facing the open sea.
They ordered two beverages and started discussing random topics while they stared at the peaceful waves of the beautiful sea. They stayed there until the sun began to set and the color of the sky started to change into an orange tinge.
As the sun starts to descend, the sound of a ringing phone interrupts the two people talking. Tim picked up his phone from the counter and swiped the green button.
"Hello?"
["Tim, it's me, Chaze."] A shallow yet pressing voice responded from the other side of the line.
"Oh, Chaze! What's up?" Tim got up from his seat and signaled Amari that he will be back. Amari gently nodded his head and faced the bartender behind the counter.
The bartender smiled at him. Amari then returned the gesture with a small smile. The bartender went back on doing his job. But after a while, he started striking a conversation with Amari.
"Is this your first time at the Vina Resort, Sir?"
Startled, Amari raised his head and looked at the stranger behind the counter. He was not expecting the bartender would talk to him, but he still responded to the man.
He chuckled slightly and said, "Yeah, this is my first time in this resort. Never really got a chance to go here before since it was always fully booked."
"Indeed, this place is always fully booked. *laughs*" the bartender placed the glass he was holding on the counter and picked up another one to clean it.
"But maybe it was because of the legend that's why a lot of people frequent this place."
"Legend, what legend?" Amari didn't know anything about a legend regarding the resort. There wasn't anything related to a myth from the website. And the organizer also didn't say a word about it either.
"Yeah, there's a legend that goes around this place. When I first started working here, the person that interviewed me told me. That the reason why the owner decided to establish their business here was because of the legend. They said that the mountain near the resort, right over there..." the bartender let go of the glass he was holding and raised his arm and pointed his index finger at the tall and eerie looking mountain connected to the resort.
"At the very edge of the mountain is a cliff. Before this place turned into a resort, some people used to climb the mountain, that said they kept hearing a voice of a woman that kept asking for help. They searched the place, there at the very edge of the cliff, was a woman crying.
The woman's cheeks were wet from tears. They said that the woman asked them for help in finding her child. In the end, they weren't able to find the child, but one guy found a box, and inside it was an egg. They brought it to the woman thinking that it might be the child's belongings, but they didn't expect that when the woman saw the chest, she would gladly take it from them, and she thanked them nonstop while saying the words, "Thank you for finding my child. Thank you! May the Goddess Shila bless you all!"... "
The bartender stopped talking and saw that Amari's glass was almost empty.
"Would you like another glass, Sir?" He said as he lightly smiled at Amari.
Amari noticed that his drink was already empty. He looked at the bartender and smiled back. "No thanks. Instead, can I have water, please? "
The bartender nodded and gave him a glass with iced water in it.
"Thank you."
The bartender smiled at Amari and continued talking. "At first, the people thought that the woman by the cliff was delusional so, they immediately said goodbye to her. But not even a few seconds after they turned their back at the woman, one guy looked back to see that no one was there. The rest soon followed after, and they immediately left the mountain. A day after their encounter with the woman by the cliff, they kept experiencing strange things, but here's the catch, even though strange things kept happening to them it always turned into a lucky situation.
One guy's business started to go downhill out of nowhere, but when he was on the verge of giving up, his secretary called him when he was at home, resting his exhausted mind. His secretary told him in an excited voice that the company's profit went off the charts and even tripled overnight. These kinds of strange things kept happening to them but in different scenarios. Soon after, news got out that the reason why they became so lucky was because of the lady near the cliff."
The bartender sighed. He looked at the mountain and squinted his eyes at the quiet place. " The legend doesn't make any sense, and it's strange, but I guess some people are interested in those kinds of stuff since they kept coming here."
Amari lowered his head and chuckled a little. He was going to say something back to the bartender, but someone else beat him to it.
"Amari. Chaze just told me that we have to go back to the hotel." Tim went back to Amari as soon as he hung up from the caller.
"He said that there would be a pool party by six this afternoon. And it's already...a quarter to six! Holy- Get up, Amari. We're going to be late!"
Tim dragged Amari by the collar of his shirt and didn't even care when Amari stumbled down from his seat. The resort was a massive place, and it took them 2 hours to explore the venue. So, right now, Tim didn't care if his friend was now glaring and planning his funeral in his mind. Irritated by being forcefully dragged by the collar like a dog on a leash.
"Goodbye, Mr. Sylvester. Hope you have a nice stay at the Vina Resort!" The bartender behind the counter yelled as the two figures slowly disappeared from his vision.
The corner of the bartender's mouth slightly raised as his eyes drifted to the box, far hidden at the bottom of the shelves. His eyes softened and he genlty smiled at the object.
"And I'll see you soon..." His last words were silenced as a gust of wind drifted by the sea as if to let any nearby entity unable to apprehend what it was.