Deviant Spirits

Chapter 4. A Package Full of Curiousity

Karen panicked after reading the letter. She texted Thea to go check on her Dad. She says she on her way but it has been 30 minutes but still no sign of her best friend. She went upstairs to get some medicine. She took some from the medicine box. As she was about to leave she thought something moved in her room. She looked inside and for second she thought she saw Boneneng. When she looked at the direction where the cat supposedly is, it’s gone.

“Weird. Hai.” She was about to walk out when she notice the package that came with Boneneng. Suddenly she has this intuition to bring the package to his dad’s room. Her mother had already noticed something is wrong with her husband. She thought it was just a flu so she kept on checking his temperature every now and then. Karen looked at the stash inside the package. The different coloured stone and crystals, the dream catcher, the fabrics, the book and the chest. She took the crystals first.

“This looks ordinary...” She then channelled her diwa thru the crystal, a yellow one. It blinked like a weak pulse. She tried to get it near her father. The moment she pressed the stone on his father’s forehead it got darker and darker till it’s totally black.

“Karen what did you do? My fever’s gone.” His father seem to have quickly recovered.

“It’s the crystal. I just channelled some of my… ack!” The crystal shattered while she was holding it. It caused a small cut on her fingers but they were not deep.

“What happened Karen?” Angelo asked.

“I don’t know. It’s just burst all of a sudden.”

“It burst because the curse is too strong.” It was Thea. She looked pretty dirty. Karen then heard Gibo talking to his mom.

“What took you so long?” Karen showed her irritation.

“It was my grandmother. Actually we need to talk about it later.” Thea looked Karen’s father. “How are you sir? I think you’re feeling better.”

“Sure am feeling better.” Angelo smiled. However Thea didn’t bother to respond.

“Karen. The crystal is an anting-anting. It absorbs harmful spells. As you can see it helped your father get through for now.” Thea then signalled Karen to hand over the package. “Before I wasn’t able to tell what these things are meant for. You need to discover the shadow world yourself. And when you finally did, we we’re too occupied trying to rescue the missing children.”

“Oh Thea it wasn’t your fault. It didn’t occur to me as well.” Karen knew how the conversation will end if she won’t respond quickly.

“Oh well. This stones and crystals thingy are all anting-anting. They have different function. Anting-antings are different from Agimat. Anting-anting are charmed object with specific effects. That one for example is a curse remover. An Agimat is a much more powerful charmed object that has multiple functions.”

“Wait. Ok that those were cool information but how would that explain what happened to it? Why did it broke down?”

“Ok Kars. That kind of anting-anting usually works on weak or regular curses. However the curse placed on your father is so strong that the curse absorber broke down.” She was disappointed.

“But my dad’s fine now. See?” Kept on touching his father’s forehead looking for signs.

“The curse was only halted today. Tomorrow you’ll see how the curse will take effect. And afraid it will come back 10 times more painful than today.” Thea proceeded to chant silently. Karen’s can’t recognize any word from the chant but she did understand it.

“Is there a way to remove the curse?” Karen tried using her diwa to remove the twisted energies lurking there.

“Fortunately there is. And what you’re doing right now isn’t actually helping us remove the curse.”