Prologue

Bad Dream! 

I got up from lying down. I’m running out of breath. Again, I dream of it, the same dream ... the same nightmare. I’m staring blankly at the wall, I once more drift back.

I shook my head, trying to erase the dream in my mind while I let my body fall on the bed, bouncing me gently for a second. I spread both of my arms, looking hard at the ceiling for a few minutes before I turned my head right through the alarm clock. The sound of it made me realize that it’s already eight o’clock in the morning.

I woke up early, mostly at 6 am, but every time the nightmares visited me, I always woke up for two hours. It has been two months since I dreamt about it. I hope I won’t be dreaming about it anymore. Hoping it will never come back again—to haunt me.

Tears formed in my eyes. The hot fluids ran down every side of my cold, pale face. Whimpers came out of my mouth. I don’t want to dream of it again. I can’t bear the agony of it.

No!

Never!

No!

It will never be my fault. No, it’s not me! Not me...

****

One

It was Friday night; the moon was shining brightly outside the five-story building. On the third floor, a light was still on. Vesta Fades was sitting on a chair in the dance studio, gripping a hand mirror. Her eyes swollen. In her beautiful face was the sadness that was visible, biting her lower lip to prevent the sobs from wanting to come out in his mouth. She was tired of crying alone. Every time her groupmates left home, she stayed behind, wanting herself to be left alone. 

It’s almost a year when her twin brother, Xyrell, disappeared. The investigator that her Aunt Elena hired always had the same conclusion that Xyrell will never find, that he was dead. She could not accept it until now. For months that passed, she’s praying that Xyrell was alive until she received no hopes.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Remembering the morning when her cousin Ashley called her during a rehearsal practice of their group for the upcoming shows at Cebu next week. Her world fell upon her after she heard from Ashley that Xyrell’s bag left in the forest, along with his papers, ID, money, and notes of his research. Blood traced that ends in the falls confirmed Xyrell’s blood in the test conducted by the police. The police concluded that a wild animal attacked her brother, which led to his demise, and the body was eaten. She left the studio that day running to her Aunt Elena’s office, tears streaming in her eyes, for she cannot contain the horrible news.

Vesta opened her eyes and wiped away the tears in her face, using her free hand. She can’t forget that day. She will always remember it as the darkest day of her life. She sighed helplessly. The blow of the air-con made her sicker. The coldness reminded her of how cold her life was losing both her parents at twelve, and again she lost the last of her family.

She questioned herself why she was so unlucky, why she needed to be broken in different ways. Is this how this life wanted her to be miserable until her last breath? She bitterly smiled, placing the hand mirror on the table beside her.

Aunt Elena was the sister of her mother who adopted her and her twin brother after losing both their parents. She took good care of them, like their mother. Vesta blessed to have her. Yet, the guilty remained inside her of how Elena lives a life without her own family, no child on her own because her attention focused on them.

Vesta stood up and had enough. She cannot move on when she until now believed that Xyrell was alive, waiting for her to find him. She felt it. Xyrell not gone. The police report was wrong. They were all wrong. And she will prove it. She clenched her fist. She strode out of the studio, going toward where the office of her Aunt Elena.

Similarly, she knocked on the brown wood door.

“Come in,” said the soft voice of her Aunt Elena.

Vesta opened the door, and she saw the surprised reaction of her aunt.

“Why are you still here, Vesta? You should go home. You have a show tomorrow,” Aunt Elena said with concern in her voice.

Aunt Elena put down the blue folder she was reading on her desk. She was sitting in a swivel chair. The place was capacious, yet there was only a desk and a drawer in the room. Vesta’s eyes landed on the picture frame on the desk. It was the picture taken after Aunt Elena adopted her and her brother. Aunt Elena was twenty-two years old in the photo in the frame.

She walked towards the vacant chair near the desk. The room felt not to like home for her. It was lifeless in her eyes. Vesta sat on the seat without waiting for her Aunt Elena to invite her for a seat.

“I don’t want to go home, Aunt Elena, I want to talk to you, and it’s very important,” Vesta said, trying to hide the disappointment in her voice. She knew Aunt Elena enough for her to disagree with her plan.

“What is it?” Aunt Elena’s unsure voice.

“Concerning my brother...” Vesta said in a faint voice, meeting her Aunt Elena’s eyes.

Aunt Elena frowned on her face. “What about your brother?”

She intakes air before she slowly blew it out. Why was she so nervous? She doesn’t wish to hurt her Aunt Elena with her decision.

“I’m going to La Moran, Aunt Elena, to find him,” Vesta said.

Aunt Elena had an impression that every time she talked you can’t look away with her face, having a long nose, dark eyes with long eyelashes, same as Vesta’s mother, light brown skin, and full red lipstick lips. She had black, stretched, wavy hair having a petite, slim body.

There were a lot of men interested in her and some courted her however, she had no interest in finding a partner. Vesta doesn’t know the reason, as if her Aunt Elena was waiting for someone.

Aunt Elena frowned while thinking for a second. She exhaled. “About your brother? Look Vesta, if it’s troubling you that—”

Vesta cut her words by raising her right hands that baffled her aunt. She doesn’t want to hear again her aunt’s justification.

“Aunt, please! I want to find my brother. I’ll do everything to find out the truth and the reason he went missing. Why would they say he’s dead with no corpse?” Vesta reasoned in a pleading tone. She closed her eyes just to stop the hot tears that wanted to fall. She slowly opened her eyes. 

Aunt Elena was so surprised by what Vesta said. Her face shows rejection.

“No, I won’t agree with that! What are you thinking, Vesta? I don’t want you to get in danger, so I won’t!” She stiffly refused, as if what Vesta doing was madness.