Welcome Home - A Part

As I stared at the bellows of smoke left behind by the bus, I wondered what on earth could I gain from going to a trip back home.

The path connecting this rotten bus stop to the town had overgrown trees on either side, their branches like spikes intertwined overheard to form a tunnel that's quite dark at night. I wade through the path, carefully watching my step as dead leaves crunched and weeds squished beneath my boots. After spending some time in the city, treading in soft earth again felt gross. It's like stepping on piles and piles of fish. Crunch, crunch, squish, squish. 

It's the same old town even after two decades.  There's a lighthouse at the top of the cliff where the hut of the caretaker—good heavens if the man was still alive. He's been kind enough to let us children climb the tower provided we help in cleaning the place. Looking down westward, was my alma mater, the school, still standing and somehow improved. Did they add a new building?

"So the government finally has its eyes here, huh," I said, quite relieved of the good thing I observed. Hopefully, there's more improvements.

Most of the buildings I saw stayed more or less, unfortunately. Near this hill en route to the bus stop stood both the hospital and cathedral, side by side. To be fair, this detail didn't sit right with me. I mean, I wasn't the only one who thought of the connection. Most of the gossiping housewives also noted how those places of healing were built near each other. On the other hand, it might just be a reminder to them—to us that we also needed to heal our souls and not focus entirely on the body.

Anyway, enough with the sightseeing. I needed to get down to business. After all, going home was the first step of my job.

Jacob's town was a sleepy seaside town that also had a bunch of hills in its outskirts. While the students were spared of the suffering of hiking uphill, going to church and the hospital was quite tiresome, especially when you failed to catch the only local bus.

The wind was howling as I took the grueling hike. The city did shaped me into a lazy office worker I forgot how I made it easyto make several round trips before. Shaaa~shaaa~ The sea breeze whispered unknown tales; perhaps overjoyed by the returned of one of its children.

At the end of the long and winding path was the manor-less estate. The inhabitants called it as such despite clearly having a gigantic decrepit manor sticking out like a sore thumb... oh. I remembered why. It's because nobody could see the manor anywhere save from here. With the rest of the town in plain sight, only this area remained secluded.

The vine-infested gate made a short, shrill, shriek as I pushed it open. I only walked one step forward though. There's something that must be done whenever a townsfolk visited.

I pricked the tip of my forefinger and let crimson blood swell from the wound. It continued growing in my finger until it reached a good enough size. I then dabbed it on my forehead before heading in.

The dead trees moaned and groaned while the whispering wind slipped through the cracks. The air was now freezing cold too, despite the time. It's still noon but my breath started fogging up as if I've climbed a whole mountain.

From the thickening fog, leaves started rustling, as if someone was kicking them. Straightforward. The kicks sounded coming from someone tired of wadding through the dead leaves and soft earth rather than amusement.

Then, shone a bead of light.

I heard panting too close to my ear.

I twisted my body, intending to look at the prankster but was met with a nervous and tired gasp.

It's nobody but my own breath.

The firm grip that latched on my shoulder though? Well, that's...