A Traveller

Everything that happened felt like a dream, I was quite sure that I missed a day of work because of my last ordeal but I found out that I didn't. It felt weird and unnerving as I went out of bed that day. I stared at the mirror, my eyes we puffy and my complexion looked horrible, and don't get me started on my hair. I was known to be the most fashionable child in the family but today I look like a wreck and that felt like the understatement in my century, if I can I'll stay in my bed the whole day or a spa to get me to a point that I can go out of my room, going outside the house is a whole other story. I sighed, I did what I can do make me look acceptable, I donned my pants and a shirt, I still have a few more sight visits to do and as horrible as I felt I knew I had to do them.

Driving to sites has proven to be a relaxing activity, I can be outside the house and my workplace, but I still have a lot of questions and I really didn't want to listen to Ciel anymore, because he isn't someone I can trust, mainly because he is weirdly emphatic, and nothing he says in my opinion is true. In reality I was very skeptic when he told me Robin Alcalde's name, but he was a person who supposedly been through what I am going through right now. As I was driving on the expressway I decided to call, it's not like I'm going to lose something if I took the chance to ask him, "Bixby", I said to my phone, "dial 'Robin Alcalde'", automatically my phone called the number of Officer Alcalde, the speaker replied with the custom ring. The line kept ringing three times until someone picked it up.

"Hello?" said the baritone voice from the other end of the line, it was cool and sounded fun.

"Uhm... Hello, I'm looking for Officer Alcalde, my name is Bethany Villafuerte." the line was silent for a few seconds and then a different voice answered. This time it was a lot more serious and a bit more melodious than the other one.

"Hi, this is Robin", he said

"Hi, it's Bethany Villafuerte, I was wondering if I can talk to you about my sister?" I was going out on a limb by mentioning Annie but I just thought that maybe he would speak to me if I mentioned her.

"Ms. Villafuerte", he paused, I stopped my car in lay bay, "if you are free around five today we can discuss about it".

"Sure, are you familiar with the Red String Cafe in UPTown Center?, if so we can talk there."

"Very well Ms. Villafuerte, I'll see you at five."

After I heard the call ended I was a little bit reassured that everything was at least going somewhere. I continued my drive and wanted to finish my rounds soon. It's a bit tolling whenever I talk to Officer Villafuerte and to meet him again under another set of strange circumstances is again unnerving.

Around three I was done with the last site inspection. During my drive back I can't help but think about the last site. It was a renovation for Villalobos family, they had recently wanted to restore an old family home but almost everything about the house was rotten, damaged or irreparable. When our company took on this project I hated Lamia for giving it to me, I thought it was assigned to me because of spite, because this project is a nightmare, and the team... Well I had to beg for a proper engineer to be assigned to me, which I somehow managed to get. We had been working on the project for the past two years and it was one of hell of a distraction from everything that I was going through. We estimated that the project will be done in the next four months and if the family doesn't ask for any changes in the current look it's going to be a breeze. It was because of this project I first engaged with Albert Saldivar, we were briefly introduced and but even then that man had a strange charisma that was difficult to resist, but for some reason it was very unsettling. Him being my client all of a sudden was a lot more unsettling, because it felt as if he was detached with the world despite being very much involved. I shook my head, now is not the time to wonder about my client, I said to myself a much more pressing matter was at hand. I shifted the gears and stepped on the gas, it's time to wake up from this nightmare.

I arrived at the cafe and saw him almost instantly, he was wearing plain clothes, but his posture was so straight that it looked awkward in the sea of slouching and laid back teenagers and other socialites. He caught my eye and smiled at me kindly as he waved, he looked young for a police officer. I walked up to him and sat across him, the chair was so soft that it could engulf me whole, I saw him smile as I laid back on the soft couch, then he called a server and I ordered a large sweet ice blended drink while he surprisingly went for a strawberry flavored drink. When the waiter left he began to relax a little, then as we waited he began.

"Is this really about Annie? Or something else?" he said it kindly that it caught me unaware, I stared at him for what seemed like a few seconds before I could respond

"Both", I swallowed and started, "I need to know the truth. About Annie, how you found her and what's happening to me..." I trailed off.

Robin looked at me and smiled weakly, it's like I wretched his heart open with what I just said. He assessed me, it was as if he was examining my whole being as he stared, after a quick glance to the window, he again sighed and said, "You are in such a bad state right now", he gestured at my neck, "your sister will be rolling in her grave if she finds you're like that".

"I know", then the waiter came, served our drinks and left, "how did you find her Officer Alcalde?"

"She, Annie, lead me to her body", that was his statement, "I know that you may think that this is crazy, to be honest at some point I believed that I was insane as well. But, Ms. Villafuerte you need to understand that whatever it is that is happening to you right now, it's not going to be better unless you do what you need to do."

"You mean, being a 'Traveller'?" I saw his eyes widened as I said that word and he almost choked on his own drink.

"Yes. It's been quite some time since I heard that term", he smiled through the coughing, "but to be honest I'm quite glad that I am no longer called one."

"Called one? I'm sorry but your not making any sense", I said in confusion.

"After your sister's accident, the one where my parents died", he began, "I was having constant nightmares of hell and a voice that has save me from the numerous ordeals that I go through. By the time that I took the case the dreams and the events has gone very bad, that's when I first met your sister. She was like an angel and a devil at same time, saving me - baiting me. She was, for the lack of a better term, possessed. Your sister is undeniably one of the most interesting women that I have encountered in my life."

"She was eight", I said out of the blue sounding offended. I felt offended, he was talking about my baby sister as if she was a grown woman.

"Oh right... A child in your eyes. But Annie has showed herself in several images, as a child, as an adult, both ways, and the sight of here was never a good sign. Annie has asked me to find her, and save her. She was the first to call me a Traveller. I hated it as much as you hate it now. She called me a Traveller and it gave me goosebumps whenever I heard it. I had multiple accidents when I took the case, all was brought about by your sister and that abominable creature that possessed her, most were life threatening and the attacks happened often and yet I never looked at it as supernatural. I couldn't accept it because it was illogical and I am a police officer and the only thing I could work with is the tangible and the sensible, and Annie Villafuerte's case everything but that. It nearly drove me to the nut house to be honest." he said it as if in just one breath. I was staring at him in awe.

From the very beginning I knew that Annie's disappearance was never normal, and the photo of the black thing that held my sister was real, as I had encountered it in the past. But as I stared at Robin

it felt so real again. All my life I had made myself believe that all of this was just a silly hypothesis I had made up to explain why Annie disappeared. Now that Robin has told me about it my whole world felt as if it was collapsing.

"Are you still a Traveller", I asked so suddenly, but instead of surprise he smiled at me

"No. As the name suggests, it has 'travelled' away from me, finally. The reaper that I met after the whole ordeal said that the gift of being a Traveller has left me, that time I can't help but think that being a Traveller is more of a curse. A curse that you can't outrun or cure because it will place you in situations that will force you to do what you have to do. Annie was a victim of the selfishness of others, but who can blame them, Annie was your baby sister, I think what your parents did was out of love and desperation."

He paused, took a sip and stared at me, his eyes were looking at me indignantly, somehow he must have thought that he has offended me in some way by mentioning what my parents have done. Knowing how I reacted the last time he accused my father, it must have been really an experience if he remembered it.

"So now...what does that mean for me?"I asked him trying to sound casual about it, but in reality I'm dreading his response.

"It's up to you Ms. Villafuerte, but keep in mind that you will be placed in situations that you will be forced to do things that are out of your nature, and might regret. Whether you do it or not, regret will be there, what makes the difference is which option will make you feel worse. It's going to be a long and troublesome, but you can't outrun it. You either do it, or die trying to avoid it, because if you don't try to find them, they will find you instead".

The air felt heavy as we fell silent with his last statement, my chest tightened, I felt a chill run down my spine, then he then asked a waiter for a menu, the sun was setting as he was choosing, to my surprise he was choosing for the two of us, he smiled at me and finished the order without even asking me, "I ordered a grilled chicken sandwich for you, if it's not to your liking I apologize, I assumed that you and your sister has the same palate." I was staring at him dumbfounded, he assumed that Annie and I liked to eat the same thing? How could someone like him assume that, unless...

"I had dinner with her once", he said as if he was reading my mind "how... it's a lot more complicated to explain... but it's one of the things you will experience if you are a Traveller."

After eating we parted ways, but things were too much to process in one sitting, he was kinder than what I had expected and he seemed to have genuinely care about my sister, maybe... I thought to myself, maybe if Annie was alive they would make a good match. I stood in the parking lot watching him drive away, I tried to take it all in. A Traveller, i sighed, my life that was complicated, became a lot more complicated, under my breath I sighed again, "curses, curses."