The Girl Between Two Worlds

by Kristyn Maslog-Levis

  “They think you’re insane and therefore dangerous,” he said, chewing on a sandwich halfheartedly.

  “No one wants to cross your path now because they don’t know what you are like. They’ve always seen you as quiet and meek even after all the rumors about your mom. Then suddenly you go all alpha female on the top girls so now they think you’re just nuts,” Alyssa added.

  I didn’t say anything but I could tell they wanted to say more.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “We’re worried about you,” Alyssa hesitated. “We’ve never seen you like this, Karina, and to be honest, I’m a bit scared after seeing you choke Natalie. I mean, she totally deserves to be taught a lesson but it’s just that …”

  “What?”

  “It looked like you wanted to kill her,” Mark finished. “I’ve known you for a long time and I’ve never seen you look like that before. It’s not a nice thing to see. It’s downright scary.”

  I should be defending myself, tell them I was still me, that I was not homicidal. But I couldn’t deny the fact that for a moment I felt powerful. That I could easily take on Natalie and Melissa and everyone who had been gossiping about me.

  “I’m sorry for scaring you guys. I don’t know what to say.”

  “Just try not to go all psycho on us again, okay? Save it for the real enemy,” Mark smiled a bit. I nodded and went back to my lunch.

  The choking event totally eclipsed the news about knowing who the manananggal was. Fortunately, Jason didn’t go to school so I didn’t have to worry about seeing him. I wondered what happened. I wondered if the clan leaders were right, that they were planning an alliance with the dark clans. Thinking about being enemies with Jason hurt my insides. I wanted to be sick.

  “What happened last weekend? You haven’t said anything about your little stunt,” Mark asked.

  I didn’t know where to start. I knew I could trust them but I couldn’t bring myself to admit that Jason might be the enemy.

  Still, I needed all the help I could get. So I told them. I told them everything. After I finished, no one spoke. Alyssa’s mouth hung open, and Mark looked bewildered.

  “So they really have their own entertainment center?” Mark said. Alyssa and I looked at each other and laughed. For the first time in a really long time, I let out a full-on belly laugh, not caring that everyone was looking at us. When the laugh tapered off, we looked at each other. I could almost see Mark’s mind ticking.

  “Okay. So we have to come up with a plan, right?” Alyssa asked.

  “I’m not sure planning will do me any good at this point,” I said quietly. Mark hadn’t said anything for a while but I could see he was deep in thought. He had this look, like the world didn’t exist and his mind was in outer space.

  “Mark?” I asked, waving my hand in front of his eyes. He looked at me but not really, like he was only half with us.

  “I’ll figure something out, I promise,” he said.

  I smiled at him, not knowing what to say. I doubt he would figure out anything that could save me but I couldn’t tell him that. He needed to work on this. It was what comforted him. So I let him.

  Chapter Sixteen

  August 2013

  Hi Patrick,

  My sincerest apologies, but like what I said on the phone, there is no trace of your wife. I’ve coordinated with my contacts with the authorities as well, and I’m on a dead end. This is a very unusual case.

  When I took on your case, I was certain that the police missed something from their investigations. To be honest, sometimes they don’t really look close enough especially when it’s a migrant—a new one at that.

  From my experience, these cases never happen. There is always a trace of something, or someone seeing something. But nothing has turned up. I will keep digging but at this point, it’s not looking good.

  I don’t want to waste your money, but if you want me to keep looking for your wife, I will.

  Again, I am so sorry.

  Sincerely,

  David McPaul

  Private Investigator

  June 2015

  L olo promised to restart my training so I hurried home. I opened the door to the garage, surprised to see what Lolo had done with it. The garage had been turned into a training gym, complete with a punching bag and wooden dummy.

  “Um … Lolo, what is all this?”

  “Today, we focus on your physical side. I will teach you how to fight.”

  I picked up the sword hanging on the rack from the wall.

  “This is a real sword, Lolo. Are you expecting me to actually use this?”

  He took the sword from me and put it back on its rack.

  “Yes, I am, but not today. I know you have doubts about your physical abilities. But this is essential to your training. You need to be able to defend yourself with whatever is available in your surroundings, and to be able to adapt to any given situation. You need to be able to defend yourself so you can defend the ones you love.”

  I thought about Jason and cringed. Would I have to fight him? Would I have to kill him and his mother? There was probably more chance of him hurting me than the other way around, given how uncoordinated I had always been.

  “Lolo, I’m good at swimming and I took a couple of karate lessons as a kid but I am nowhere near skilled enough to hold any weapon.”

  “By the end of this week, you will be. Trust me,” he said with a hint of a smile. I had never really seen Lolo smile so I took it as a good sign that he was confident about our training.

  “After the physical training, we will then train to incorporate all your abilities together. You will become a kick-ass fighter.”

  My mouth fell open. I laughed uncontrollably, gasping for air.

  “I may have been watching too much of your human entertainment machine,” he said, smiling fully this time.

  “That was an awesome first attempt, Lolo. I am proud of you,” I said, giving him a big hug. His arms tightened around me and he patted my head awkwardly after letting me go. It had all been very business-like with Lolo for the last couple of weeks. Having that moment with him was the closest normal contact we had had as grandchild and grandfather. I wished in my heart there would be more. I wanted to get to know my grandfather, not just the ruler of Engkantasia.

  “Okay, so where do we begin? Pick up the jacket, put the jacket back on?” Lolo stared at me, confused. “We better get you started on The Karate Kid DVDs tomorrow, Lolo. I need to educate you about Bruce Lee, too.” I smiled and took the spot beside him.

  The two-hour session was brutal to my body. I didn’t know I could physically hurt like that, or have muscles in places I didn’t know about. Lolo was a great teacher but he was determined to create a fighting machine by the end of the week.

  I wished I could say I was a quick study. In my head, I pictured me in a fancy movie montage, getting things right on the first go. Unfortunately for Lolo that wasn’t the case. I dropped things. I nearly maimed myself. I destroyed furniture. I damaged my own body parts and almost broke Lolo’s family jewels. It was a good thing we used mock weapons. I would’ve been dead before the real fight began.

  I limped to my room for a hot shower. I just wanted to stay in bed all night but my stomach was growling. Although I was in agony, I couldn’t help but smile at my reflection. Aside from my hug with Lolo, I was also feeling very good about myself. I always thought I was going to suck at anything physical so I never pursued any sort of sports or physical activity. I didn’t dance. I didn’t do baseball or basketball. I didn’t even ride a bike. But after the training, I was starting to rethink things. Maybe it was just my fear that held me back. Sure, I almost maimed myself, but I was still able to do the punches and kicks properly. There was hope for me yet.

  I walked to the kitchen to find dinner waiting for me with a note. Dad was working late again but he wanted me to have a good dinner. It had been a while since he had made dinner for us. I opened the lid and smelled the aroma of his h
omemade roast chicken and veggies, with rice on the side. My favorite.

  I started to eat, fast and eager, surprised at just how famished I was after training. My phone beeped. It was a message from Jason, asking why I left without saying goodbye. I deleted the message and put the phone on mute. He never tried to contact me after I left. I wondered why.

  Still, I couldn’t have anything to do with him. He was the enemy. He was the son of a manananggal. That made him one, too.

  I took the plate in the kitchen and searched for Lolo. I needed to ask him if there was a chance that Jason was a manananggal. I needed to know.

  I found Lolo in the living room, sitting with his eyes closed. The lights were off except for a small lamp in the corner. It looked like he was meditating, his chest barely moving.

  “Lolo?” I called out quietly. He opened his eyes and looked at me.

  “What is it, mija?”

  I sat on a nearby chair. I wanted to know the truth but I was afraid to ask, because I didn’t want to know if I was right about Jason.

  “Is it possible to have a male manananggal?”

  Lolo looked at me, knowing fully well what I didn’t want to hear. “There’s never been a full-grown male manananggal before, apart from the old king who was killed by his wife. Every century or so, one would be born, but it would never survive to become a full-grown man. It was always hunted and killed not just by us but also by the dark clans.”

  “Why would it be such a threat if it were male?”

  “A female manananggal can only give birth to one child at a time. But a male manananggal can impregnate as many women as he wanted, increasing the race of the clan at an alarming rate. This threat scared everyone, but every time we wanted to intervene, we were always too late. The dark clans always beat us to it. In a way, I am thankful for that. I don’t know if we would have been able to terminate a child.”

  “Then how were they able to repopulate their clan?”

  “The dark clans have an alliance of sort. Creatures like the aswang and the wakwak help the manananggal create their young. You must understand, the dark clans are eternally paranoid. They have their own system to balance each other so that each clan doesn’t have too many offsprings. They don’t want one to be more powerful than the other.”

  Lolo sighed, clasping his hands together, hesitating.

  “What is it, Lolo?”

  “You must understand that if Jason is indeed a manananggal, then we don’t know what he is fully capable of. We’ve never had one created in the human world before. Let alone one who has survived this long.”

  “Jason can’t be a manananggal. I would’ve sensed him, right? My new abilities would have warned me about it if it were true,” I asked, but even I knew I was grasping at straws. The knots in my gut every time he was near me—those were signs. Signs I ignored.

  “I don’t know, mija. No one knows what abilities a male manananggal possesses. We’ve never fought or met one who survived.”

  Maybe it was not his mom. Maybe it was one of the help. Maybe someone close to the staff. Perhaps. Or perhaps I was just making excuses because I didn’t want to face the reality that Jason was a monster.

  As if he could read my mind, Lolo took my hand.

  “No matter what happens, we will be here to help you. No matter who it is, we will be here to protect you.”

  But could they protect my heart?

  “There is something else I need you to know, mija,” Lolo said, almost a whisper. My heart beat faster. It was going to be bad news. I just knew it.

  “In order to be the ruler of Engkantasia, you have to leave the human world and never look back. You will be bound to your duties and rule Engkantasia until you produce another heir. The life you now live will be left behind, and you will never experience the world of the humans again.”

  I stared at him, my head pounding, unable to process what he just said. He continued to talk but my mind was spinning. It was hard to listen to him.

  “If you decide to stay in the human world, then I will go back to Engkantasia and surrender the throne to the next ruling clan. I will not have a choice. I, too, am bound by the rules of our world.”

  Leave my world. Leave my friends. Leave my dad. Or both worlds would collapse. My choices were clear.

  “What’s so bad about handing the throne to another clan? Why can’t that work?” I asked, hoping this is a good alternative, even when I already suspected it wasn’t.

  “The two strongest clans are ours and the manananggal. If I hand it to another clan leader, they can be defeated if the manananggal decides to take the throne.”

  “So I have to leave this world forever. Can’t I take Dad with me?”

  Lolo shook his head.

  “The veil between our worlds is getting weaker and weaker, which means more creatures can go through anytime they want. We need to seal that veil completely. No one can get in and no one can get out. Separate the two worlds forever. Humans in the human world and the engkanto in Engkantasia.”

  No room for humans in Engkantasia. That was what Lolo was saying. If Mama were here, she would take on the throne. Maybe that was what she was trying to tell me the night she disappeared. Maybe she always knew that she was going to go back. But she was not here and I had to make the decision. What else was there to decide though? Could I really live the normal life I wanted here, knowing that I had put both our worlds at risk by doing so? I would never be at peace.

  My mind was suddenly so clear. I felt the pain in my chest as I made my decision.

  “I know what I must do.”

  Lolo nodded and squeezed my hand.

  I hugged him, clutching his robe as I stifled a sob. I had to keep it together. I needed to focus on what had to be done. I couldn’t fall apart. Not now.

  It occurred to me that Lolo had been training me not just to defend myself, but also to possibly rule an entire kingdom. He waited to tell me until I knew more about what was at stake. Maybe he was afraid I’d be scared and run away like Mama did.

  I let go of Lolo and wiped my tears. If I was expected to survive this, I needed all the information I could get about Engkantasia.

  “Lolo, I need to know our enemies. You mentioned other dark clans in Engkantasia. What are these creatures and how can we defeat them?”

  “It’s late, mija, you need to rest. You have school tomorrow.”

  School. It was ridiculous to be thinking I should be going to school when I probably wouldn’t be living here anymore by next month. I was tempted not to go but it meant missing out on my time with Alyssa and Mark. These may be my last weeks to experience school. After that, who knows what my life would be like. I had to go. My last moments of normalcy before entering the unknown.

  I started for my bedroom but not before making Lolo promise to tell me what I needed to know. He said he was going to ask Serra to come over after training to show me what I wanted. I climbed to my room and sat in the dark for a while, letting the tears fall. My life wasn’t really mine after all.

  I tossed and turned through the night. I dreamt of mother again, bloodied and in pain, screaming for me to save myself. I tried to reach for her hand but a glass wall fell between us, sealing her from me. I couldn’t break the glass. I couldn’t hear Mama. We were separated forever. I screamed and banged on the glass but it was too hard to break. I saw Mama being dragged by her legs into the darkness. I woke up sweaty. My heart was racing, and I knew that I had to find Mama before the veil shut forever. It was my only chance to see her again.

  Chapter Seventeen

  MAMA’S DIY

  ENGKANTASIA BOOK

  Duwende

  The duwende is a goblin-like creature that lives in rocks and caves, old trees, and unvisited and dark parts of houses. Although good in nature, it can be irritable and grumpy. It often plays with children.

  This little creature can provide good fortune or bad fate to humans. It sometimes comes out at 12 noon and during the night. Muttering words like “tabi
apo” (excuse me) will appease a duwende that has been disturbed from its naps. It can be mischievous and take human things and laugh when you can’t find it. It only gives the thing back when it feels like it or if asked nicely.

  I had gone to school hundreds of times in the past, but it seemed different. I noticed the noise of the chattering students, the smell of food coming from the cafeteria, the colors on the walls covered by the occasional graffiti. I wanted to remember every single detail. I was lucky that we managed to keep me in the same school even after everything. We had to move to a smaller place so we could rent out our old house. Dad said we were ‘downsizing’ but I knew it was because he used up a lot of the money to hire private investigators to find Mama. The school was the only thing that he didn’t want to change. I was grateful for that. I didn’t think I would have survived moving away from Mark and Alyssa after Mama disappeared.

  I was looking for my friends when I sensed him, so strong it felt like I had been punched in the chest. I knew it was him. I could smell him. I could feel him. His strength, his blood, his poison. I knew even before I turned around that he was there. I didn’t know how he managed to hide it from me all this time. Or maybe how I felt for him clouded my judgment. He wouldn’t do anything in the middle of a crowded school so I knew I was safe. Still, I couldn’t stop my heart from beating fast.

  I saw him walking toward me. His face was unreadable. Even after being certain of what he was I couldn’t stop myself from wanting to touch him. I had dreamed of caressing his face again, pressing his lips against mine. That was never going to happen again.

  He stopped inches away from me and I could smell a different side of him. A damp room mixed with sickly sweet fruits, almost rotting. He wasn’t hiding who he was from me anymore. Did that mean he was ready to show me who he really was? To scare me? To show me who was stronger? Did he know who I was all this time?