The Comrade's Sacrifice

Author's note: Please read part I first

The next day, the weather was against us. In the morning, the heavy rain rapped the roofs of the houses. The wind battered the acacia trees surrounding the village. It was as if something knew what we were about to accomplish at midnight. It was as though the culprit of the missing children tried to frighten us to back out in performing our plan.

Aunt Norma closed the window. “I feel that a tropical cyclone or a typhoon is about to enter the village,” she said.

We had no means of verifying that. We had our mobile phones but there was no network connection. Fredo had his equipment, but it didn’t work as a radio.

We killed time until two hours before midnight.

***

“We have to start our plan now. Time is running,” Vin said.

“You’re right.” I agreed and went to Aunt Norma’s room. I knocked on the door and Nina opened it.

“Are you going to start now?” Aunt Norma asked, sitting on her bed.

“Yes,” I said.

“Nina, let’s stay in Anie’s house, in the meantime.”

Nina bowed. They put on their shawl, got their raincoats made of Anahaw leaves, and moved out of the house.

I had briefed Aunt Norma that we would use the house as the battleground between us and our unidentified enemy, the culprit of the vanishing children. I had told her it would be a kind of battle that would ruin the house. A battle between wizards and witches. Even though our evidence was not substantial, Vin and I had reckoned that the culprit was a strong, abominable witch.

We cleared the table as if we would place countless bundles of money bills and divide among us after robbing a bank. It reminded me of a Hollywood film about a heist. Vin and I brought out our athames and placed them on the table. Beside the athames, we flattened the pentacle at the center of the table. We dressed Nigel ‘the kid’ with a real kid’s pajamas. Even so, he still prepared his wand and inserted it at the back of his pajama. Vin and I put on our brown robes and capes and our conical hats. Nigel ‘the kid’s outfit appeared to be funny, but it was not the time to have fun. Rob was sitting at the corner and watching us as we planned every step to summon the culprit. Fredo was nowhere to be found. We didn’t mind him, for it was necessary for us to set everything before the time came.

Ten minutes before midnight, we were all set. We placed Nigel ‘the kid’ inside the pentacle. We spread his arms and legs to align his position with the star sign in the pentacle. I stood on one edge of the table while Vin was on the other side, opposite of me. In front of us was Nigel ‘the kid’ trembling in consternation. Rob was still sitting in the corner praying the Rosary.

Five minutes before midnight, the wind and the rain stopped all of a sudden. Rob also stopped praying. There was silence except for our own breathing. An odorless smoke went in through the gaps of Aunt Norma’s house. It slowly crept towards us, towards Nigel ‘the kid’. The culprit might have thought him to be a real kid. He was our bait and, I supposed, it was a good ploy. Vin and I simultaneously plunged our athames into our own stomachs. As we pulled them off, they slowly transformed into long swords. Part of the blade of our athames could be found inside us. I held the grip hard. The smoke thickened, and it was hard to see.

“Nigel is gone!” Vin shouted in horror.

I hurried to the center of the table and moved my left hand to touch Nigel ‘the kid’. Instead, I touched Vin’s arm. “Vin, is that you?” I said.

Vin tapped my hand. “Yes. Nigel is gone.”

“Nigel is taken?” Rob’s voice quaked.

“Stay where you are, Rob,” I said. I got the pentacle and tried to use it to fan the thick smoke away, but it didn’t work. I tried again and again until the smoke was sucked outside the house. I placed back the pentacle on the table.

The smoke was gone, and so Nigel ‘the kid’ was. We were silent for a moment. Vin held his emotion to cry in grief. “It was not a work of a witch,” Vin said. He dashed to the windows and ran to the door, but only to find out that they had been closed tightly.

I agreed with Vin. No witch could ever take Nigel ‘the kid’ away inside a pentacle protected by two gallant wizards. “Something, a powerful force, not human or witch or wizard or other elementals on Earth, could have done that,” I said.

Rob looked up to think, and then he nodded in assent. “It’s terrible. Nigel is now gone.”

“Did you feel something demonic before he was taken?” I said.

“No, I didn’t. I’m certain that was not the work of a devil.”

I had faith in Rob. Demonic possession was his forte. He knew if there was or if there wasn’t. The phenomenon seemed to be brought about by the fourth kind. I turned and walked over to the door. I held the wooden slide bolt and opened the door.

“Where are you going?” Vin was after me.

“I will find Fredo. I think he knows what’s happening.”

The three of us moved out of the house and headed to the clearing. The night was dark, but we could see the grassy streets of the village were empty. Though they knew only children had been taken, the villagers were afraid to go outside after nightfall.

As we ran along the passage towards the clearing, our swords were swinging against the plants contesting to grow from our sides. We could see moving blinking lights in the clearing ahead and through the trees enclosing it. As we got near, the lights got bigger, and it showed that they were moving to the right, surrounding a dark and huge saucer floating a meter off the ground. The size of the flying saucer actually occupied the entire clearing. There was a sound of a fan moving against the silence of the night. To the right side of the clearing, there was a strong white ray, the same color of the light striking Fredo’s cowboy outfit. In front of him was a thick smoke curling up from the inside. He unholstered a cigarette like a gun from the side of his belt, flipped open a Zippo lighter in his left hand, and lit the cigarette. He cocked the cigarette in his mouth. I got nearer to him and I heard him speak in a dialect I could not understand.

He turned to me. “I am negotiating,” he said. “Stay where you are?”

I stopped and froze. I turned my head to Vin and Rob and signaled for them to move back.

“Move away from the clearing and wait for me there.” Fredo pointed to the passage to the village.

We hurried back to where we had passed through. We waited under the acacia trees and were quiet for so long that it felt like forever. I knew all three of us thought of helping Fredo. But we also knew that we could not help him and if we tried to help him, it might worsen his plans. Apparently, he was the best person for that was his forte, the extraterrestrials.

Vin broke the silence. “How come Fredo did not tell us about it?”

“I think he wanted to work on his own,” Rob said.

During the interview I had with Fredo, he had set expectations that he normally works alone. He had even said, ‘You will be surprised at how I deal with things, in extraterrestrial nature.’ I suppose this was it. “I think he has reasons he did not tell us about it,” I concluded.

After a few minutes, the blinking lights on the clearing diminished, switching from yellow to blue for a minute, and then gone. Staying for a while under the darkness of the moonless night, our sight adapted to the surroundings. We heard children crying and so we looked to where the cries came from. Silhouettes of children were moving towards us. Someone directed them in our direction. I uttered a chant, transforming my sword back into an athame. Vin did the same. Quickly after, we dashed to help and guide the children back to the village.

“Over here, over here,” Rob instructed the children to follow him.

Vin hurried to the last child behind and picked him up like a loving father. “I thought you were gone, kid,” said Vin.

“I was. Thanks to Fredo,” it was Nigel ‘the kid’s midget voice.

“Where is he?” Vin put him down and faced the clearing. “Fredo!” he shouted through the darkness. He tried to walk to the clearing, but Nigel ‘the kid’ held his hand not to proceed.

“He’s not coming back,” said Nigel ‘the kid.’ “Let’s get back to the village. I’ll tell you everything.”

***

Improvised bamboo torches danced like fireflies around the village as the villagers swarmed the area in front of the chapel. Parents of the missing children burst into tears as they found their children clasping their tired and hopeless bodies. They approached us one by one to thank us repeatedly. We felt their overwhelming gratitude. We were heroes for them. At that moment, I wanted to tell them it was Fredo who saved their children, but they had to rest. It would be better to tell them everything tomorrow.

Aunt Norma rushed to me, and then she embraced me. “How are you doing, son?”

“I’m doing fine, Aunt Norma.” I turned to my comrades. “Let’s get inside the house.”

Aunt Norma tapped one of the villagers, who had a torch, and borrowed it from him. She led us to the house. She opened the door, and she gave the torch to Nina. “Kindly hold this.” Nina got the torch and remained at the doorway.

We waited outside. Had Nina entered, the torch might have set a fire inside the house. In a few moments, I could see Aunt Norma walking back to us with a lamp in her hand. She removed the glass of the lamp and lit the wick from the torch. She turned away and walked over to the sofa. Nina killed the torch, put it beside the door, and welcomed us. We entered the house.

Aunt Nina set the lamp on the table. “Can I remove this now?” She pointed to the pentacle.

“Yes,” Vin said. He took off his conical hat, cape, and wizard robe. He folded the cape and robe and placed his athame inside it.

I did the same as the house felt warm.

We sat around the table, the way we did when we had our first dinner there, but the chair where Fredo had sat was empty.

“Tell us everything, kid,” I said to Nigel ‘the kid.’

Nigel ‘the kid’ struggled to lean forward on the table. Vin stood up and lifted him over the table. He was a sitting figurine on top of the table. I felt it entertained us all, especially Nina, as I noticed she furtively smiled. I could feel deep inside she was laughing.

“Fredo is now gone,” Nigel ‘the kid’ started his narration. “He won’t be coming back. They have taken him in exchange for the kids’ freedom. I saw him talking to the aliens that looked like an octopus with hands and legs that formed like tentacles that produced thick smoke. I couldn’t hear what they were talking about because I was tied inside a glass tube chamber. But I’m pretty sure it was a unique language. They talked for a few minutes before they released me and the kids from the tube chambers.

“Fredo instructed me to help the kids out. They were all crying, and it was hard for me to hush them. I just said to quit crying because their parents are waiting outside. I led them out of the spaceship. The young ones could not understand, so I had to force them out. When all was already out, Fredo told me to go out too and follow the children. I asked, ‘How about you?’ He said, ‘I have negotiated successfully. I need to stay with them. They want my help for something more important than taking children with them. You go now. I’ll be okay. I’m a space pirate. I know what I’m doing. Till next time, if there’ll be next time, my friend.’ He grimaced, tapped me on my shoulder, and pushed me outside. Then the flying saucer went up and away.”

“Fredo has sacrificed himself for the children’s freedom,” Vin commented. “I’m guilty of not believing his journeys to the galaxies and wonderful planets and his stories about diverse alien civilizations.”

“He is a hero,” said Rob.

“Indeed,” I said. “We will never know when Fredo will go back here on Earth. We will never know when we will see him again. He is a brave man.” I turned to Aunt Norma. “Aunt Norma, as high respect to Fredo who saved all the children in your village, I’m requesting to mark this day as a hero day in the village in honor of Fredo.”

Vin, Rob, and Nigel ‘the kid’ nodded in absolute agreement.

“I will, definitely,” said Aunt Norma with conviction.

***

The next morning, we gathered in front of the chapel. As the acting chieftain, Aunt Norma delivered her speech about our bravery and highlighted Fredo’s heroic deeds. She assured the villagers that the incident of the missing children would not happen again. The villagers rarely believed in extraterrestrials, so we had agreed during last night’s discussion to make it appear that witchcraft caused it and that Fredo sacrificed himself to free the children. Whoever we looked at from them, we saw a face lit up by hope and happiness. The children appeared to have not experienced trauma as they played around. Aunt Norma concluded her speech by ordering the men of the village to slaughter pigs and cows and instructing the women to prepare a banquet before noon.

The banquet did not last until nine in the evening. We danced with the young girls to the rhythm of the village’s musicians who played songs from the ’70s and ’80s using bamboo instruments. Nigel ‘the kid’ enjoyed dancing with Nina. I felt Cupid’s arrow had hit him. Vin would tease them. He said that they would get married the next time we visit the village. We drank tuba, a coconut wine, and Vin and Rob did not like the taste so they threw up on the sly.

The next day, we were all set up to go home. We bade adieu to the villagers. I bid goodbye to Aunt Norma. I hugged her tight and kissed her on the forehead. “We will go now, Aunt Norma. You know what to do if you need my help again.”

She nodded as droplets of tears flowed through her rumpled cheeks. We waved our hands as we walked out of the village.

We went home, to our individual life; Rob back to Baguio to his girlfriend; Vin and Nigel ‘the kid’ back to the mythical village in Samar; and me back to my real life as a land surveyor in the Land Management Bureau in Manila.

***

One day, after more than a year, I got an email in my inbox. It flabbergasted me to see it came from Fredo.

My friend,

You know my only reason for joining you in your journey. Adventure. I am a space pirate. I was born a space pirate and will die a space pirate. You may think that you owe me. Think not about it, my friend. The thing I did was the thing I like. The thing I love, actually.

Before I took the journey with you, and after your interview with me, I had surmised that your Aunt’s village was experiencing an extraterrestrial phenomenon. The same thing happened in a remote village in Guatemala a few years back. The same thing. The time of the missing and the smoke that snatched the children are the common signs. I had been there to investigate the phenomenon.

I apologize if I didn’t tell you about it. I didn’t mean to discredit what the three of you were supposed to do. It’s just that I wanted no one to comment on my own plans. I wanted it to work smoothly. And it did, right?

The extraterrestrials who took the children are inhabitants of a planet in the Andromeda galaxy. They used children as subjects of their research. They took young inhabitants from other planets as well. They wanted to observe their diverse behaviors. They wanted to study their physiology. Because they wanted to replicate them in order to fulfill their plan to invade the planets where these inhabitants live.

You may have been surprised how I was able to let the children go. I negotiated. Remember that I’m a space pirate. I know and understand the galactic language. I know how these aliens behave. If you’ll ask me how I did it? It’s a secret.

For now, you need not worry that the same thing would happen again on Earth. It will not. There are already Guardians surrounding our planet. In fact, I have a Martian friend working as a Guardian. I told him about it, so he had to inform the Galactic Bureau, hence the task to guard Earth.

Thank you for letting me be a part of your team. See you when I see you.

The Gallant,

Fredo de Marzo