Unearthen ( part 2 )

We can all agree that people are innately good---can we? but I argue that people are both innately good and inherently evil, for if a human is only innately good then, therefore, humanity is the perfect being and that the earth would be what God had pictured as " Paradise ".

Only one being can create such " paradise " only one being can be perfect and that is faith, that is God, perfection simply means no flaws, no bad, and all good, but for my case--- it's different.

I have atoned the meaning of perfection to something achievable, bearing in mind that human history, actions, and deeds are those that constructed this basis, perfection means balance, 'tis its harbinger.

Therefore, humanity can never only be innately good but must also be inherently evil, we are but two sides of a single coin breed to love and to hate and recreating what God had pictured as " paradise " into a placid rock we call earth.

---------------

Beside me was a man peculiarly similar to the man back at the inn, who served as the all-around repair and maintenance man including the driver. He wore an all-white uniform from the body down to the toes, unfortunately, lucidity had yet to befriend me which made it impossible to read the mans' name tag that's neatly clipped at the top right corner of his uniform. Similar to the old-looking woman beside him.

I can say the same for the other woman that sat solemnly to my right while a pen and clipboard rests by her hands. I leaned against the stack of pillows at the head of the bed and kindly asked for water, the man came prepared---expecting it even as he lunged at me with a small white tablet with a letter "P" carved at the middle and a tall glass of water.

" Pimavanserin. " 'Twas for the headaches he mentioned.

With a hand covering my face, I asked; " What happened? Who are you? "

" Good to see you're back---again...don't you recognize me? I'm Grace Garcia, your primary psychiatrist. We've been here already James can't you remember? "

We've exchanged quick glimpses as I slowly shook my head.

" Can you recall anything during the incident? "

I gradually told her everything starting from the planning phase of our trip all the way to the isolated inn and the events that took place in the small native community. She didn't take down any notes or flinched at the slightest as if she already knew everything that I was telling her considering this is the 8th time that this happened. Her eyes loomed over the pen that her fingers fumbled on.

" You see James...the incident took a very heavy toll on you psychologically. The traumatic experience you've encountered was too much for your receptors to handle. Your emotional, mental, and physical receptors have been incredibly damaged to the point that your brain cannot tell whether what it's picking up is valid or not. This causes tremors and voices in your head and most importantly, this is the very root of your delusions and hallucinations James, the root of your psychosis. That's why you keep having these monstrous episodes. "

Something tells me that she wasn't done but a sudden outburst protruded.

" Episodes?...how many times has this happened to me? "

" This is the 8th time. "

My arms were crossed as sorrow and self-pity made me shove both palms unto my face.

" You keep relapsing James, almost every 2 months, although we thought your 7th episode will be your last, after all the remarkable improvements you've shown, it only lasted for 3 and a half months. "

" If all that was only under psychosis then what did truly happen to me? "

" Everything that took place before your arrival at the isle of Batanes is true, what happened next was different. First of all, you didn't have a tourist guide, public transportation was used to get from one place to another, and you didn't encounter any isolated inn at the isle of Batanes, you and your friends went to the only remote province and found yourselves a motel. After that, you went to the heart of the isle, but on September 23 all of you apparently got separated, eventually, all of you suffered starvation and thirst as it is medically reported by the nearest general hospital. By September 25, all of you should've landed safely back in Manila, in less than 5 hours all of your parents called in. "

" On September 25, later than afternoon the official search and rescue operation started at the isle of Batanes and 12 hours later all of you were found---barely alive. " She trod lightly.

" All of you were either found unconscious, under a delusion, or halfway unconscious, but all roughly alive, you've spent 1 week at BGH or Batanes General Hospital then eventually here, at hilltop Gattaran's psychiatric institute at Cagayan De Oro. "

My face still buried in my palms, I start to understand my own predicament as pitiful, and tragic it seems.

" Where are my friends? " I eventually asked,

" ...Back home, safe. And soon you will be too...as long as you follow all of our instructions. Okay? "

She didn't take long in scribbling down a note perhaps? then stood sharing a fleeting smile, she took the air purifier near the door and next to my bed.

" A few months back your mother visited you, not that you'd remember. She said that this would always calm you down. It's surprisingly effective. "

" One last thing, before I go... " She started,

" About the voices? " I protruded as she fails to conceal her pitiful demeanor.

" I can't recall hearing anything about these "voices" but as soon as I do...I'll let you know. "

pleasantries were exchanged on both behaves as she bid me farewell and the man next to me with her too including the old woman. I was alone yet again, not long after I would be attending a mandatory group cognitive behavioral therapy session, but until then I am alone. I am once again in touch---in control, sane, and alive.

How could I know that "this" is real? How can I tell reality apart from imagination if both realms collided unto me, both in touch---both in control, both in the flesh, in spirit, and in soul. I am both sane and alive attached and tugged in both dimensions, I walk on both lands, I see two worlds collide into one, yet all but me remains dormant and oblivious of this anomaly. This time, I have taken heed of all the portents, the past shall no longer haunt the present.

A thought lingers still, like an after operation of a tumor but bits and pieces of it still remain a phantom of its former self, similar to those of my memories for the past 18 months, as if they're latent to begin with.

" DO NOT! FALTER, MY CHILD. SOON YOU AND ALL THAT'S DEAR TO YOU WILL FINALLY BE FREE OF THIS ACCURSED REALM. "

" PARADISE! HAS BEEN PROMISED TO BELIEVERS. "

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March 19, 1989

Later on that same day,

A man wearing a thick cotton brown coat reaching all the way down his polished black shoes and neat black pants, his Kevlar vest was strategically shown labeling no agencies, his skin lighter than black but darker than brown as clearly portrayed by his face and hands, his demeanor starked only business as it always had been, reached for his box of cigar hidden somewhere in his pockets.

Beside him was a scrawny looking kid roughly in his mid-twenties as the man roughly in his early-forties, the kid had the same uniform except it was color brown and he had no Kevlar vest but had two torso holsters equipped with two guns, unlike the man who was buzzed cut the kid had a brown hat which conceals his face if half a mile away.

Grace addressed these two gentlemen men inside her office.

" How's our little patient Doc? " asked the kid.

" Same as before. I really thought that our 8th trial would finally do the job..." replied Grace.

" Remaking the exact model of his room, imitating one of his precious memories, what's left on the plate doc? " Answered the man.

" This, is an unlikely turn of events. " added the man as he lights up a cigar.

" I am sorry Mr. Consolacion, but who's this new pet of yours? " The kid gave her a menacing glare as the man managed a laugh.

" Please, drop the tradition---call me Nate, after all, we've been here for about 18 months now, damn. As for my new partner---call him Mr. Ponciano. "

Grace handed him the clipboard, in less than half a minute Nate gave it to Ponciano as he sees no improvement or whatsoever.

" In the first 2 months, we've made the four kids believe in this little fairytale of ours---what made this one exclusive? I'm beginning to think that someone's growing incompetent over their job. " Nate hovers closer to her ears then whispers;

" And that---isn't, me. "

A smile that pushes boundaries of terror and fear starked on his face as Nate displays a great art of intimidation.

" Nate, the protocol isn't working on him. We should take other measures. "

" What do you have in mind Doc?... "

" Instead of thoroughly replacing his memories before we actually heal him. We should try to heal him then replace his memories. "

" And what if he recovers but fails to conceive this new memory? always follow the protocol Doc, we both know what happens if you don't... I don't care how many years this will take---nor the extreme---procedures that you will go through. Wipeout that damn memory of his and replace it with a new, then, and only then, will he be recovered. Understood? "

Nate paused, and suddenly there's this humongous tension between the room so tensile that it could deteriorate aluminum steel.

" I'll be giving you another year, and if shit---doesn't work your way...then this little lab rat of yours would be spilling brain juice after we lobotomized him. "

Nate and his young partner left the office after scanning through another set of files.

---------------

" Hey boss, about the last patient, what caused that brain of his to go all loose? " Ponciano quietly protruded as they were passing the time with a couple of cheeseburgers at the local restaurant.

" Usually I'd punch you in the mouth for not knowing crucial information like this right about now but since I'm in a lovely mood, I think all pass on that." Nate munched on his burger before he continued,

" As you understand by now, the protocol isn't working on him, he's somehow resisting by psychological means. sad to say that even our great Grace Garcia seems outmatched by this...peculiar situation of ours. " He sipped half his cola to help him swallow then continued,

" The first batch of the PNP to come in contact with that forest came across a native community... "

" UHTRR fanatics? " Ponciano protruded,

" You're catching up quickly kid, the first batch encountered violence on the said report, they managed to injure at least four PNP's. They didn't have permission to shoot under the circumstances that the natives only had sticks and stones and that they didn't speak in Ivatan, but rather in another language foreign to even the residence of the isle. "

" Damn boss, stuff like these gives me the chills. "

" You ain't seen nothin' yet kid. After that shitshow directives contacted me to head the assembled team, next thing I know, we took over the search and rescue operation setting aside all PNP's. "

" What did you do when you encountered the natives? "

Nate's eyes flickered like a young sparrow audaciously falling in love with a nightingale whose feathers ignite in the body of cosmos.

" Summum bonum. It's Latin for "Highest good" or "Ultimate good", ethically speaking it means that all of one's actions must be based on consistent good. What we did was for the better of humankind. I executed an order of genocide, none slipped by, we burned all that would be of any loose end, confiscated evil relics, then a cave was found at the top of a plateau. Inside that cave was beyond description, it certainly ruined the word fucked up for me, then there laid the five sons of bitches, nearly dead if you'd ask me, they laid their body and heads into that forsaken graveyard as if it's their death bed. "

" Reports did put emphasis on the nearly dead part, also at the photographs of a woman's statue at the middle of the graveyard, and the part about used energy for dark arts..."

" It's true. " Nate intervened before Ponciano could finish.

" I reckon that those kids were under some trans or charm beforehand. That totem confiscated by the meadow showed hidden rune carvings on the latest report, not sure of its origin yet but soon---they will be, and I'm guessing that spell would've been done by at least 3 to 4 hours. "

" You don't say. "

" One last Thing boss, that final patient---do you think what he's been saying really did happen? "

Nate scratched his chin before answering.

" They've all experienced delusions and hallucination, but they've all likely been seeing different things, memories even...the thing about dark magic is that no one really knows what it is, or what it can do, before you, understand---before you'd know, it would probably be already too late. "

---------------

2 years earlier,

December 15, 1987

The group cognitive-behavioral therapy session started at exactly 5 pm, all five chairs were placed in a circle and another four were at each corner of the room just in case of an accident or in an unlikely turn of events.

At the five chairs sat Ysabel, Carmeline, Andrea, Gabriel, and Grace as she too were their primary psychiatrist. Pleasantries were exchanged and eventually stories, emotions, opinions, and tears followed, as every session always had---but this time something did certainly changed. Today was a day of merriment and mirth, stories of past grief and horrors turned into a ghost of future past, emotions of lament and sorrow somewhat to compassion and love, opinions of what should and should not have done turned to what could and might come of us, and tears of bitterness---now of joy and glee.

For this day is unlike any other day, today was the day of their last group therapy session and their last day in this institute as Grace has given them the news highlighting the words " Last day, Final session, can go home to your families, Christmas, New year. ".

All was well and done but before each one of them left, a thought buried in all of their heads had come, casting loom and now yet again, they've found themselves at the edge of their sits, frowning at the thought.

" How's James? " asked Ysabel, finally breaking the short-lived tension.

" James is going to be fine. In a few months, all of you can see him again, as a new man even. " Grace assured giving them a smile worth of confidence and fidelity.

" During the time being, and under his predicament, you can visit him as much as you want. But do bear in mind the visiting hours. "

On December 15, 1987, the victims of an unforeseen event had finally been registered as free folks of the country once more, after being a patient of a mental institute at Cagayan, although, one victim still remained---as the reports describe him to be manipulative, ruling under disorderly conduct, and is classified to be compelled by the strong fanatical structure of his imagination.

~~~fin~~~