Chapter 16

He saw the old woman standing a little distant from him, still holding the lilies while wearing an oddly eerie smile.

Uriel suddenly felt like something was wrong, so he surrendered to the invisible and unreasonable fear.

He followed the old woman as they went around to glance at each of the dead person's tombs, slowly reading their names.

"This cemetery is quite huge, isn't it?" She asked, staring afar. "They say that this is where people who died from a great war years ago were buried. It's no wonder that some familiar historical names might come up from these. Among these dead people buried six feet underneath must be soldiers, innocent villagers, oppressors, foreigners, victims, activists, and a lot more. It's quite fascinating to know that the corpses who had been through that renowned war were just lying here on our feet."

"It's... scary," Uriel responded, looking down at the ground as if he's stepping on a fragile glass with only death beneath.

"Don't be scared," She assured with a soft, creaking voice. "A time will also come when we'll all have to be in the same place."

Olia Isema neared him, only inches away from his face. "And when we die, it's better to just die and get our corpses buried, okay?"

Uriel felt chills down his spine.

Her eyes were unnatural.

It felt like he was getting lost in a darkness blacker than the deep forest just by looking at it. The tension only broke off when she resumed walking around, reading the names slowly.

She was randomly putting the lilies on top of the tombs softly as if they're her relatives' tombs.

Few minutes after repeating the same thing, Uriel had already forgotten about their goal and why they came there in the first place.

He wasn't attempting to get out of something on their visit anymore. He just wanted to go home and curl up under the thick blanket.

Even that seemed not enough for him.

He thought that he might just be overreacting things and that he's failing to keep his emotions under control.

His head was aching and throbbing, so he was about to ask the old woman to just go back home and let him rest until they passed by a tomb.

It was an awfully flawless coincidence, so to say.

The names read Jeremiah Dela Fuente and Cecille Dela Fuente. He recognized those names, but wasn't sure enough who they were.

But judging from those names, it was a man and a woman, sharing surnames – which meant they are related. Uriel thought they're most likely his parents.

"Well? Have you noticed something?"

Uriel gulped a lump and shook his head. "No, I don't recognize any of these names. Can we call it a day and just go back home?"

"Hmm, well I'm also feeling a bit tired, so we can do that."

"Okay."

On their way back home, Uriel was just obediently following her with his head bowed down a little. He glanced one last time at the blind man from the entranceway, but nothing in particular caught his attention.

He felt like the only one he could trust right now is himself, so he kept the fact that he remembered the names of those people.

Now that it's a bit clear to him that his parents aren't alive, it felt lonelier than ever.

Something he thought he couldn't feel as long as there's hope. But that itself had been crushed right in front of him.

While looking at the old woman's back, thinking hard, he realized that the only reason she'd invite him to look around that cemetery was because she wanted to know if he could recognize his own parents.

And so, the doubt was quite clear that the old woman in front of him knew him before he lost his memory and is most likely pretending to be clueless about his identity.

That itself was enough reason for him to suspect her in all ways.

This time, the weight and burden of being himself against the world was heavier than he expected.