CRIMES AND MYSTERIES 3: AKO SAPATOS

XI. THE REWINDER (part 2)

--Nastja’s diary—

I never had the chance to see the picture that “cursed_chatmate” had sent me.  Hindi ko maipaliwanag ang mga sumunod na nangyari after he sent me his picture.  I know I was there, in front of the computer, anticipating to see the picture.  But next minute, nasa bahay na ulit ako ng tita ko.  And I couldn’t even find my laptop.  Was that chat with Mondael and ‘cursed_chatmate’ just a part of my dream?  No, that couldn’t be a dream!  I was in Maruja’s place, then suddenly nakauwi ako sa bahay ng tita ko ng hindi ko man lang nalalaman kung papano.  How could that possibly happen?

Something weird and unexplainable is clearly going on, but I brushed the thought off my mind.

Just when I was dreading to ever come back to Maruja’s place again, nagtext naman sa akin si Lou at nakikipagkita sa bahay nina Maruja.  Kailangan raw naming mag-usap at kasama niya raw si JR.

Napilitan akong magpunta sa bahay nina  Maruja kahit medyo kinakabahan ako.  The place was so quiet when I arrived.  There was no sound but the clicking of the computer keys.

“Hello?  Anybody there?  Lou?  JR?” tawag ko.  I could feel my heart thumping very fast.

Click, click…

“Hello?” kinakabahang sabi ko.  “May tao ba diyan?” I dawdled in my steps.  Palakas ng palakas ang tunog ng keys.

Click, click, click…

Hinawakan ko ang door knob ng main door.  Hindi ito naka-lock.  I don’t remember ever leaving from this place anyway.  Baka hindi ko nga ito nailock.  But why don’t I remember ever leaving from this place?  Dahan-dahan kong iniikot ang door knob, then I pushed the door open.

Click, click, click…

What I saw when I stepped inside almost made me fainted.  Ang nakabitay na si Maruja, na nakaluwa na ang mga mata.

“Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!” I screamed so loud.  I closed my eyes and when I opened it again, wala na ang nakabitin na si Maruja.  Chill, you’re just imagining things, I scolded myself.

Isang bagay na nagbiblink ang kumuha ng atensyon ko. It was my laptop, and it was open.  There was a message in the chat box.  It was from “babydynamite9” na hindi ko alam kung sino.

                   Babydynamite9: Gilles Simon is lying to you.

                Babydynamite9: alam nya ang lahat ng nangyari sa inyo.

                Babydynamite9: don’t trust him.

                Babydynamite9: siya ang ‘cursed_chatmate’

Hindi ko maisip kung sino pa bukod sa akin ang pwedeng makaalam ng nangyari sa amin ni Lou.  Hindi ko maisip kung sino ang babydynamite9 na iyon na alam pati ang tunay na pangalan ni Lou na Gilles Simon.  Only one way to find out.

                   Nastja_s: cno ka?

                Babydynamite9: isa ako sa mga nabiktima niya sa pakikipagchat

                Gretch_03: ako rin.

Sino ang Gretch_03 na ‘yun na biglang sumingit sa usapan namin?

Muling nagbalik ang matinding takot sa puso ko nang makarinig ako ng paparating na yabag ng paa.  I hugged myself protectively.

“Nastja?” si Lou iyon.  Sila lang pala ni JR ang dumating.  I could read the emotion on his forehead, ‘WORRIED’

“Are you okay?  You look sick,” Lou observed.

“Hey Nastja, look, I’m sorry for what happened to your mom.  I just found out recently.”

Yumuko ako.  I could read JR’s emotion. ‘PITY’

“Listen, Nastja.  JR here is a – rewinder,” Lou began.  I just stared at him.  “When I say rewinder, it means… Listen, you know how you could read people’s emotions literally, right?”

Tumango ako.

“JR here could… rewind scenes that have just happened recently.  And…”

“And?”

“And he saw how your mom died.”

I was horror-struck.  Finally.  Finally, I will know what triggered Mom to kill herself.  I tried to compose myself eventhough I felt like succumbing to tears.

Lou recounted the events that lead to my mom’s death based on the rewinding visions seen by JR.  It was painful to hear her suffering so much from intolerable pain.  Isang hindi nakikitang pwersa ang dumukot sa mga mata niya ng unti-unti.  Paano nga naman niya makakayan ang matinding sakit?  She committed suicide because she couldn’t take the pain anymore.

But where did the invisible force come from?

“The force plucking her eyes out came from the picture she has seen,” Lou explained.

“From her… chatmate?”

“Yes.”

Napalunok ako.  Naalala ko si Maruja na nakita kong nakabigti.

“You know now why I asked you to meet us here, right?  Here of all places?” Lou asked.  I shook my head.

“Maruja and her best friend Gretchen also committed suicide, over a chat mate.  I know these three cases have something to do with each other.  Kaya pinapunta ko si JR dito, I will ask him to touch everything in this place so he could rewind a lot of scenes.  So we would know what happened to Maruja before she killed herself.”

JR held my hand to reassure me but quickly dropped it.

“Bakit?” tanong ni Lou.

JR shook his head but he was smirking as he looked from Lou to me.  I knew instantly why.  Narewind sa isip niya ang nangyari sa amin ni Lou.

“Wait, I’ll touch everything I could in this place,” JR said, then disappeared from my view.

“What made him react like that?  Nabasa mo ang emosyon niya diba?” tanong ni Lou.

“I have… no idea,” I lied.