“There they are! Capture them!!”
Like angry mobsters, the town folks swarmed Triggs’ group.
Confused and worried, Michael mumbled, “W - What’s happening? Why are you doing this?”
One of the folks answered, “They already told us the truth!!...” he was referring to Jesse and Cassie. “... It was the witches who sent these Sigbins!”
“And you’re one of them! You damn witches!!” another added.
Feeling betrayed, Melchor snatched away the unconscious Chris from Michael. Then, with a disappointed face, he looked straight at Lae’s eyes. “We… We trusted you…” he said with a stutter. “... I thought you were genuinely helping our Barangay. I never thought you were working with those evil people.”
Lae was too bewildered to even reply to the old farmer.
Cassie even fueled the tension with her accusations. “They even tried to put a curse on me. I'm just lucky I have my anting-anting* to protect me!” she stated while holding her bizarre necklace.
“Please… detain them before they can spread more evil,” Jesse urged the folks.
Like animals with hive minds, with Jesse and Cassie as their king and queens, the mobsters began capturing their marks.
Triggs tried to talk sense, “Wait! You’re getting it all wrong!!! We can explain everything to you.”
But the folks’ minds were too clouded with unwarranted anger.
Zaine tried to resist, but he was quickly outnumbered and unable to fight back.
Using rattan strings, the folks detained Triggs, Zaine, Lae, and Eddy by tying their hands behind their backs. They then forced their captives to kneel on the dusty ground.
Eddy, even though helpless, didn’t lose his pride. “I’m the Paranormal Investigator here, so please listen to me, this is not what you think it is!” he insisted.
Jesse countered by saying, “Don’t listen to him, folks! He is brainwashed! He’s just here to confuse us, all!”
Eddy was deeply disappointed by his apprentice’s claims. But he couldn’t do anything; he was baffled by the situation, and the crowd was too emotional to even listen to his words. As the crowd cheered for their demise, the old Paranormal Investigator could only shake his head in defeat.
“Let these witches learn their lessons!!”
“YEAH!! They are pests in our Barangay! They are pests in society!”
“YEEAAAAHHH!!!!”
The uproar intensified.
As the son of the Barangay Captain, Michael felt responsible for the commotion. He tried to control the crowd. “Guys! Please stop this! Are you just going to detain them on baseless accusations? Please let’s be civil about this!”
“Even you, Michael?” Lorna instantly replied. “Don’t tell you’re brainwashed too?”
With a light shrug and mocking tone, Cassie uttered, “Well… he’s in love with a witch.”
All of a sudden, the uproar was replaced by gasps and surprised faces. Everyone glanced at each other, as if they heard wild gossip.
“That’s true! He’s in a relationship with one of those evil people. No wonder he’s trying so hard to defend them,” Jesse added.
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The muttering continued in the crowd; everyone was blabbering their comments.
“Wait, is this true? If it is… this is so disgraceful…”
“As the son of the Barangay Captain, I expected more from him…”
“Right. So disappointing…”
“What a shame…”
With that, Michael abandoned his hope for civility. He tried his best to contain his frustrations, but the folks’ behavior started to get on his nerves. “SHUT UP!! Where are all your manners!? Why are you acting like this!? Does my father even know you’re doing this!?”
“In fact, I do…”
The crowd stood aside to give way to the Barangay Captain. Arriving at the scene, with a cigarette tucked between his lips, Mario instantly silenced the crowd with his presence alone.
“With all your noisy blabbering, how could I not know what’s happening?” he uttered while puffing a smoke.
“Kapitan? What should we do to them? They’re the ones who’s been sending Sigbins to our Barangay,” Bert said.
Michael tried to argue. “No, Pa! That’s not true! This is not…”
“Shh! Shut it!” Mario muttered.
Like an obedient puppy, Michael stepped back and shut his mouth.
Mario then ordered his people, “Send them to the Detainment Room. I’ll talk to my son privately.”
Without further ado, the crowd grabbed Triggs’ team and walked them towards the Barangay Hall.
“Wait! This is all wrong!! You can’t do this to us!” Triggs insisted as the crowd dragged him.
“Cut it out! You're lucky Kapitan just ordered us to detain you. If it were up to me, we'd lynch you right away,” Bert said.
“You’ll regret this… just wait…” Zaine whispered with spite.
“See? Threatening us now, huh? How much evil can you get?” one of the folks replied.
“Tch!”
…
…
…
“I heard you’ve already been in this Room. Well, what can I say? You really deserve to stay here,” Bert said as they threw the Triggs’ team to the Detainment Room.
BLAAAAM!!!
The door slammed close as the folks locked it from the outside.
The air in the room was heavy. Heavy dismay was sculpted on the faces of the people inside, as their silence shouted their total disbelief.
Succumbing to spite, Zaine uttered, “I’ll kill them all…”
“Really? That’s all you can think of, Zaine?” Lae scolded. “Doing that will just prove their accusation against us.”
“Tch!”
“I can’t believe this…” Triggs muttered. “Why are they like that? And I thought Gwyn already wiped their memories?”
“You heard it: the anting-anting protected them from the Words,” Lae replied.
“But still… Even though the Words didn’t affect them, they don’t need to accuse us like this!” Triggs said. “And to think they would do that to their mentor too? Tsk... What disrespect!”
“They’re total amateurs - I get that, and they only worked with me for three months…but I also didn’t expect them to be like this. I also failed to sense them in their aura… such a shame…” Eddy uttered with a sigh. “It’s just unfortunate that they got to the Barangay before us.”
Triggs agreed. “Well, yeah... I wonder if this would have happened if we'd gotten here first.” He, then, blew off the biggest sigh in his life.
“So, what are you planning to do after this, Mang Eddy?” Lae asked. “You know, we could just use a Portal to escape this Room.”
“No,” Eddy answered straightly. “What happened tonight will tarnish the reputation of dedicated Paranormal Investigators like myself. My pride won't let me leave here without clearing things up.”
“But… how would you do it?”
CLICK - CLANK!!
A noise came from the doorknob; someone was unlocking the door.
With the smoky scent entering the room, they already knew who was coming.
Entering the Room, Mario got straight to business. “So, Michael already told me everything,” he said as he took a puff of his cig. “Even though he’s an idiot, I'll always choose to believe my son over those stupid apprentices of yours.”
Mario’s statements gave slight hope to Triggs and the others.
“But as a politician, I need to show my people I’m doing something. If I don’t give an immediate solution, they’ll see it as incompetence,” Mario explained. “These people are already fed up with all these shits. They want someone to be held accountable.”
Eddy already knew what Mario meant. “So, what do you want us to do?” he asked.
“Mang Eddy…” Mario uttered with a chuckle. “I hired you to clean this mess,” he reminded. He finished his cigarette and threw it into a nearby bin. Then, he gave an ultimatum, “I’ll give you three days to fix this. If the Sigbin attacks won’t stop before that, these people will blow up and I’ll be forced to point my finger at that ‘cult’.” he was referring to the Children of The Moon.
“I understand…”
Out of nowhere, Mario smirked and murmured to himself, “Those idiots really don’t know how to stay hidden, huh?” Then he let out a soft chuckle.
He turned his back, preparing to leave the room. He then tossed the keys over his shoulder, towards his back. The keys dropped to the floor. “I’ll just tell them you escaped,” he said. “Three days or we’ll storm their Temple…” his final message while walking away.
Triggs and the others were left speechless. Although a chance was given to them, the absurdity of the conditions still tensed them.
“So… What now?” Triggs uttered softly.
“There’s no other choice; we need to get to the bottom of this,” Eddy answered.
“Well, we already have a clue: the Mark,” Lae pointed out.
Triggs nodded his head. “Yes, we just need to find out who’s really behind all of this,” he said. “But… where do we start? And how?”
“I think I might know something...” Eddy stated.
Simultaneously, Triggs and Lae faced Eddy, waiting for him to continue his words.
“Back at the Temple, when you were discussing the mark and the creatures' origin — whether they were created or summoned — something came to mind,” Eddy explained. “As I mentioned, I've been in this line of work for quite some time, and throughout my countless investigations, I've encountered people with peculiar stories. However, there's one individual who struck my memory.”
“Are you saying you already knew the right person, Mang Eddy?” Triggs asked.
“No, but I know someone who may lead to that,” Eddy answered. “I just hope that my gut is right about this one.”
“Well, that’ll be our first step,” Triggs said. “Just please tell us more about it. Who is it?”
Eddy answered, “He’s the son of a previous colleague of mine. His name is Elijah...”