Coward

Julián's mind was a whirlwind of panic and despair. Twenty-five years? Where to begin searching for a body that the ocean, rain, and jungle had claimed for so long?

The cemetery. He had to verify the lie with his own eyes.

He drove like a madman, skidding at the entrance to the village. He found a rusty, forgotten shovel in the cemetery shed and ran toward Elena's gravestone, a pale slab that now seemed like a gigantic mockery to him.

" No! " he cried, falling to his knees on the mound of earth. " Damn it!, Damn me! " He pounded the empty coffin with his fists until his knuckles bled. The symbol of his redemption was just another false grave.

Then the memory hit him hard: the beach, the moon, the dull, wet crunch.

He started the truck and headed for the coast, as the sun began to set on the horizon, painting the sky a mournful orange. He ran across the sand like a madman, digging with his hands, scratching the earth, pleading.

" Elena, please! Tell me where you are! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do this! "

But he found nothing but cold rocks and sand that slipped through his fingers. The tide was rising, lapping at his feet like a reminder. And then he understood. Tropical storms, currents, erosion... the sea does not return what it takes away. Or it had buried her in an underwater grave impossible to find.

He looked up, watching the last rays of sunlight, like a gold coin sinking into a vault of blood, disappear behind the horizon.

The sun had finally set.

A supernatural silence fell over the beach, so absolute that it seemed to absorb even the sound of the waves.

And then, he heard it.

A scream arose that did not come from a single point, but seemed to emerge from the air itself, woven from the voices of Akari, Haru, and Hana. A single heart-rending cry, a chorus of pure agony that twisted in the night, a sound that no other human being heard, created only for him.

And then... nothingness. A void more terrifying than any scream.

Julián collapsed onto the wet sand, defeated. He knew he had failed.

The return home was a sleepwalking journey. The front door was ajar, swaying gently. Julian pushed it gently.

And there they were. Sitting on the sofa, in a perfect row, as if waiting to watch a movie. Akari, Haru, and Hana. Their bodies were intact, but empty. Their eyes, wide open, were glassy and fixed on the white wall, but they saw nothing. Their faces were frozen in a grimace of such deep terror that it had petrified their muscles before life left them. There was no blood, no wounds. Only the instant theft of their souls.

Elena's ghost materialized in front of him, her rotten, dripping form emitting a cold that froze the air.

" This is all your fault, Julian, you killed them " he hissed, his voice a whisper from the grave. " And now, it's your turn. "

But Julián's essence, the core of cowardice that had defined him since that night on the beach, took control. There was no anger, no final act of defiance or fight. Just the primal urge to flee.

He turned on his heels and ran. He passed by the specter of his past, past the bodies of his future, and shot out the door. He got into the truck and drove off, leaving behind the house and everything he had ever loved.

Through the dirty windshield, he saw Elena on the porch. She didn't move to chase him. She just watched him, shaking her head, and uttered a word that pierced the glass and stabbed his heart like an ice pick:

 "Coward. "

Julián drove along the winding mountain road, crying intensely. " I'm a coward!, I killed them!, I killed them all! " he shouted, hitting the steering wheel so hard that he felt the bones in his hands crack.

The tears clouded his vision. But that one second was more than enough.

He looked up and Elena's distraught face filled the windshield. Her purple eyes, now the size of moons, stared at him, not from outside, but from inside the glass, as if she had always been there.

" ¡AAAAAAAAAAAH! "

Julián turned the steering wheel sharply. The truck crashed through the flimsy metal guardrail as if it were made of paper. The world became a whirlwind of shattered glass and twisted metal. The vehicle plummeted down the ravine, spinning until it crashed onto the rocky bed with a final crash.

Miraculously, or perhaps as part of his punishment, Julian survived. Mortally wounded, with a metal rod piercing his abdomen and his legs shattered, he managed to crawl out of the smoking car. The pain was unbearable, and with one last burst of strength, he crawled toward the mouth of a small cave at the base of the ravine, seeking darkness so he could die in peace.

Inside, a tiny trickle of underground water flowed. And there, tangled among the roots of a tree and two black rocks, under the crystal-clear water, bones glowed in the whitish glow of the moon filtering into the cave. A small, fragile human skeleton. Entangled around the ribs was a small silver locket, rusted but recognizable, the same one he had given her.

Julian had found her.

Julian made a sound that was no longer human: a bubbling, broken laugh that mingled with the blood filling his lungs. He had found Elena's bones.

Elena materialized at the entrance to the cave, blocking the exit and the pale moonlight. Her silhouette was the very embodiment of despair and vengeance fulfilled.

Julián stopped laughing.

And the only thing that could be heard in that cave was a single, pitiful cry, which quickly faded away, absorbed by the damp darkness of the cave and the constant flow of water.

(Fragmento de noticiero, semanas después)

"...las autoridades mexicanas, en cooperación con la embajada japonesa, han suspendido la búsqueda. La familia Tanaka, desaparecida durante sus vacaciones en Chiapas, sigue sin ser localizada. Solo se encontró la camioneta alquilada, destrozada en un barranco remoto. No hubo rastro de los ocupantes, lo que ha llevado a la investigación a un callejón sin salida. Se especula con la posibilidad de un crimen o una desgracia relacionada con el terreno accidentado..."

(Final cut)

The house on La Reforma remains empty, its doors and windows sealed by a "NO ENTRY" sign. On the living room floor, half-buried under a layer of dust, lies Haru's camera. The red battery light flickers faintly, like a dying heartbeat.

On the black screen, the last recovered photo plays on an endless loop: the family smiling, united and happy, in front of the majestic white veil of El Chiflón waterfall.

And in the lower corner, where the mist from the waterfall mingles with the shadows, the figure of a woman is no longer a blurry smudge. It is a sharp, drenched silhouette, her head tilted forward, not crying, but smiling with a frightening stillness, her empty eyes fixed on Julián's unsuspecting back.