The Morgue Retreat House

2. The One with the Long Stretches

CHAPTER TWO

. . . THE LONG STRETCHES

PAULIN

Gumising si Paulin sa kanyang kuwarto, her head was throbbing and her vision was blurred. She looked around, at nakitang nasa gilid niya si Reah na malamang binabantayan siya. "Rey? 'Bat tayo nandito?" tanong ni Paulin sa kanyang matalik na kaibigan. "Pau!" gulat nitong sinabi sabay sa isang mahigpit na yakap. "Naku! May nakakita sayong nahihilo malapit sa kusina, dinala ka nila sa session room, at ngayon dito ka lamang sabi ni Manong." Paulin couldn't utter another word out of her mouth, she only stared at the bleak pastel color of the ceilings. Their room was decent, there was the single bathroom at the edge of the room with a queen sized bed and a single mattress placed on the floor to fit three people. She looked up to Reah, meeting her eyes, her pupils were a sploch of green. Reah's eyes were a dark brown, a far different color than what her eye color was now. Paulin was startled and stood up from her bed swiftly, Reah tagging along her. "Where are you going, Pau?" "You know you could tell me anything." She couldn't tell her anything, she wasn't Reah. "I need to talk to Michelle." Paulin opened the door and quickly slammed it back. "Pau! She's out town doing some errands, you might want to wait!" She went rushing in the hallways passing what seemed to be a hundred of doors, avoiding the person who identified herself as her closest friend. "You seem a little bit off, Reah. I suggest you go fuck off back in our room!" Paulin shouted as she made a few turns into a different part of the building. She could still hear the steps that were meticulously following her. The once steady beat of her heart was now a jagged beating. Trying her best to lose this msyterious figure following her, she took a flight of stairs and made her way to the main hall.The sight of the main hall was hypnotising, the staircase depicted huge circles looping around the whole building. On each floor was a different painting, this time of saints. Now she realized why they weren't allowed to explore this part of the building, they could be lost for a very long time. Some part of Paulin wanted to see every nook and cranny of the building. She shook the feeling, returning to the task at hand: hide.

JUDE

There was once a time when Jude had owned one of those orange tuperware water bottles, he'd bring it everywhere, to school, when he traveled, or carry it around the house. He had tons of memories with it, if you'd give him another bottle, which was better than his bottle, he'd still end up picking the orange water bottle. The bottle had held a priceless value, a sentimental value that could never be replaced. What else can he say to justify its place in his life? It was the best water bottle for him. It was lost one day. His mother had gotten mad at him, for fussing over 'a stupid bottle'. The bottle did not only hold a big sentimental value with it, it held in the memories of his childhood, something that was so precious to him. It was kind of a symbol for the entireity of his childhood, when it was gone, it felt like his childhood was gone too. But it was gone, he'd realize it while answering a sheet of paper Manong asked everyone to answer. It had contained questions, a lot of questions, but the biggest question there was was "If your whole childhood could be summarized into one object of your possession, what would this item be?". He'd cried.Not only he felt like throwing up, he wanted to shout. Shout so loudly until his voice dropped out. His longing to go far away from home had intensified, even though he was far away from home, he had felt a huge chunk of it when he was with his classmates. There was this urging feeling inside of him that wanted to stay, and that free spirit telling him to go. He didn't know what to feel. He should try not to feel, but then he would be empty, depressed. Jude was alone with himself again, Manong had made them go out, be by themselves, away from their own classmates. He found himself a spot in the church near the retreat house, he supposed that many of his classmates would be here, but it was only him. It was a concrete, nineteenth century style of church that would appear in war films, probably the only thing in the retreat house that generated interest in him. The church was hard to find since it was covered by a thicket of plants. But Jude found himself with a secret path that lead him straight towards it. Was it part of the retreat house? Maybe he had tresspassed. Anyway, he didn't care about it, it wasn't like he was going to steal some items from the church. He nearly had the urge to see if someone was out there in the back. It seemed that a stranger was going to be a better companion to him rather than a close friend. He could be open to them, something that he rarely does to his friends anymore. Maybe it was all these bottled up feelings that he needed to release from his mind. He'd tried to be open to their akyat-bahay, but they just couldn't understand him. He just asked for someone to listen, not to understand and give off their own personal opinions. The questionaire was almost done, only a few questions left in the front page. It had been approximately a hour and a half since Manong let them go, but Jude didn't mind if he stayed, it was peaceful here. When he walked inside, the date on the boards were July 2nd, 1999, he just chuckled and grabbed a few of the flyers near the entrance. The interior was more updated than the outside of the church, newly painted walls and two chandeliers that looked like it was from less than a decade ago. One of the flyers was an advertisement for a seminary, which was their retreat house (he made sure to look at the address). It had been a seminary once, Manong informed him and a bunch of students during snacks. The flyer had been dated from fifteen years ago. Weird, considering the modern internals of the church. He dropped the flyers off in his chair, having enough. The church probably forgot to remove the old flyers of the boards. He covertly fished out a phone from his pockets, a secret he had kept from everyone. He set an alarm for thirty minutes, and went back to thinking. It seemed that he wanted to be in a louder setting, the silence and peacefulness only made him think more about his emotions.