The Boss's True Identity

As the guards came closer, the drumming in their chests grew louder, deafening them. Their ragged breath synced with the guards’ steps as their surroundings spun and blurred in Jurie’s vision. Light-headed, she scooted closer to L and leaned on his shoulder.

“Hey, you can’t pass out now,” he whispered to the part of her head where her ear could’ve been. His lips, slightly touching her cheek, added to her erratic heartbeat.

“I feel nauseous.”

He let her rest for some time as he watched the guards walk closer.

“Are you sure you heard something in this direction?” a guard asked one of his colleagues.

“Absolutely!” he said. He pointed at the exact spot where Jurie and L were hiding. “It’s coming over there!”

The two in hiding petrified when the guard pointed his gun at where they hid.

They held their breath when the guard’s finger was about to pull the trigger. Luckily, a rabbit jumped out from the bush.

“Dude, it’s just a rabbit.” One of the guards lightly poked his companion’s head in annoyance. “You wasted our time.”

“Let’s head back to the Draining Valley. The Boss might look for us,” the other one said.

As Jurie and L watched the guards’ backs, they released the air they had been holding.

“That was close. Can you walk?” he asked.

She nodded. Her face lit up with an enigmatic smile. “Do you want to see the mystery behind the Rekindling Forest trees?” she asked, like she wasn’t dizzy moments ago.

“Are you nuts?”

“No. I’m just curious about what they do to the arrested Blankians. I want to help them if I can.”

*

No argument took place.

The two found themselves following the trail of the three guards and hiding behind huge trees whenever one of them would check their backs.

From the bright side of the mountain, where hope seemed possible, they began to trek the eerie part. No birds tweeted. No insects dared to make any sound. There was no wonderful harmony from dancing tree branches and the rustling of the leaves. Everything was dull—the atmosphere gloomy, like sadness hung in the air. It was heavy with longing and yearning for something yet to be identified.

Tears kissed Jurie’s cheek. She silently absorbed the lurking darkness of the area. Her brain went foggy as she tried to remember things: how she got there, what she did for several days she had been there, and whether she had a family or friends. Nothing seemed to make sense. She even tried to figure out who she was walking with.

‘Why does it feel like I know me when I don’t?’ Confused, she kept her pace. ‘Who am I again?’

Her steps became heavier for every meter she took. She was becoming less and less aware of her surroundings. Her eyelids got heavier as well.

“My memories… they’re—I can’t remember some things about me. Who are you? Why am I walking with you?” she asked. “Why are you and the surroundings wiggly?”

A splash of paint snapped her out of the dimness clouding her consciousness. She wiped the excess dripping paint off her face without getting mad at him for doing such. She didn’t have the energy to be angry, though she knew she could’ve felt a certain emotion or reaction.

“I think we should head back to town. The negative energy reigning in this area is affecting you.” He took a few steps back, but she didn’t follow.

“I can’t move,” she said. Her feet were glued to the ground. “Something tells me that I must keep going. Something strong is pulling me to the mountain top.”

Although baffled by what was happening, L didn’t have any choice but to come with her. He walked back to where she was and took the jar of paint from her hand. He took a few steps towards the thick bushes and hid the jar, along with his containers. He grabbed some stems and made a knot out of them to mark the hiding spot.

“It’s safe there. The guards won’t notice that since they only blindly follow The Boss’s order,” he said before walking closer to her side again. He even took her hand as he beckoned her to walk.

“The Boss’s identity really intrigues me,” she said. “Will we see him there?”

L shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe.” He looked at her with curiosity. “What would you do if you saw him?”

“I don’t know. Maybe ask him why he is giving Blankians a hard time.”

*

As they got closer to the rows of gigantic trees—Tanguile, Manggis, and Almaciga—moans and cries of anguish reverberated in the air. The groans of gasping for air made Jurie imagine chubby people being squeezed by something heavy. She pictured out how their body shrunk as something powerful sucked their souls.

Then she remembered the woman who stole a portion of her soul. It was the primary reason why she was swept into that world anyway. She needed to find her before her time ran out.

“Hurry!” She ran ahead of L, not minding the rocky steps. “The devil must be there!”

“The who?” L followed her.

Breathless, she gasped for air as she leaned on the Manggis trunk. She sat on its huge protruding roots; her throat was parched. Behind her were six- to seven-foot-tall shrubs and bushes.

After about half an hour of resting, they kept going until they reached a glade where the sounds of agony got louder and more terrifying to listen to. As she got closer to the final layer of tall cogon grasses, more spine-chilling cries echoed in her ears. They were too painful to hear; it almost tore her ears.

She pushed the blades of grass aside, blocking her view, and went speechless when a terrible scene greeted her.

Blankians hung upside down, tied on tree branches circling an enormous cauldron. Some of them lie almost lifeless on the forest floor, shrunken like dried raisins. Their mouths, wide open. Black liquid substance gushed from all openings of their bodies, including their invisible pores.

There seemed to be inconspicuous straws sucking the ink from the Blankians. The ink floated like wobbly jellies in the air towards the cauldron.

“Is The Boss inside that thing? What is he? A mosquito sucking the ink out of our fellow Blankians?” she asked, glancing in L’s direction. She didn’t get any response.

L stood there, petrified!

She took huge strides to get closer to him and tapped him back to reality.

“I think we should go and warn the citizens about the forming bad weather,” she said, pointing at the dark lumps of cloud forming and hovering on the cauldron. “Let’s go!” She grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the cogon. “Hurry!”

They hadn’t taken any step yet when the temperature in the area became heavier as the clouds got bigger. A slightly strong wind whistled, followed by black lightning slashing, creating crevices across the already troubled sky.

L slowly chuckled. “So, this is the power of the Rekindling Forest!” he blurted without looking at Jurie. He was so fixated on what was going on that he ignored her. “The guards brought them here to be cleansed from their sins!”

“Cleansed?! Are you crazy! It’s not cleansing them; it’s killing your people!” She pulled him once more, but he wouldn’t budge. “What sins are you talking about?!”

“Creativity! Creating a unique story is a sin in Blankia! Being creative here is a heinous crime against The Boss!” L laughed maniacally. He behaved like a lunatic scientist who had just discovered the cure to all of mankind’s illnesses. “He’s coming back!”

“Who’s coming back?!” Jurie asked, annoyed by being ignored. L kept blabbering nonsense while chuckling like an evildoer in most fiction stories.

“The Boss doesn’t want Blankians to remember their identity. He doesn’t want them to remember who they are. He wants everything to be simple; that’s why Blankia is all-white. Everyone must be equal. No one must be distinct!”

L’s crazy behavior continued. Jurie panicked. She was about to grab his arm when a voice stopped her.

“Don’t touch him!” It was a female’s voice in her head, the same voice she heard when she found the jar. “Look!”

Her eyes glanced at L’s feet. They were turning black. The cauldron was overflowing, and some of the spilled ink had already wet the ground, painting the colorless grasses black.

“Run! Jurie, run!” the voice whispered again.

“No! I can’t leave L here!”

“Run before he kills you!”