Epilogue

Esperanza sat in her hospital room, a blank sheet of paper laid out before her. The medication had steadied her moods, dulled the storms that had ruled her for so long. For the first time in years, she felt… normal. Fragile, but normal.

She picked up her pen and began to write:

***

Dear Luz,

I don’t know if you’ll read this letter, and I wouldn’t blame you if you threw it away without opening it. But I need to write, if only to put words to everything that’s happened.

I want you to know that the child on that recording — the little girl who dreamed of healing animals — she’s still here. She was buried deep beneath the illness, smothered under symptoms that devoured me whole.

That doesn’t excuse anything, I know. I accept now the weight of what I did during my manic episodes. I hurt innocent animals. I terrified our family. I almost killed you — my other half, my beloved sister.

I don’t know if I will ever fully recover. The doctors are cautious, their predictions uncertain. But I know now who I really am: just a sick woman who has to learn how to live with her sickness. There will be more episodes, even with treatment. But I want to try. I want to become that little girl again — the one you let me hear on the recorder — the one who wanted to heal, to help, to make things better.

Thank you for saving me from myself.

I’ll understand if you can’t forgive me. I’ll understand if you choose to keep me far from your life. But know this: despite the illness, despite the madness, the love I have for you was never a lie. It was only… twisted by what I became.

Abuela Rosa’s stories about El Chupacabra turned out to be the perfect metaphor: a way to give a name to something unspeakable, just like our ancestors did with their legends. I became my own myth, my own monster.

El Chupacabra belongs to the tales told to scare children at night. It has no place in this world.

I hope that someday we can see each other again — not as predator and prey, but as two sisters who survived something terrible.

With all my love, and all my regret,
Esperanza

***

She folded the letter carefully and handed it to the nurse. Outside, summer was drawing to a close, soon to surrender to autumn and its new colors. The Chupacabra born this summer had returned to the realm of legends.

It was time for Esperanza Takashi to try to become human again… if that was still possible.