Chapter 11: Christian's denial

It was very late, nearly 2 AM. Christian laid down on his bed and stared at his phone above a newspaper on the bedside table. Samantha's case has been over the record and it's really disturbing. Lots of fake news keeps popping out of nowhere and he became one of the media targets since he's one of Samantha's closest friends. At this point, Christian wasn't entirely certain if he'd say something to at least defend his friend or remain silent and avoid everything. He can't seem to trust the media's intention to clear his friend's name regarding the issue about her being related to demons. Kathleen has been gone for three days and those nights of her absent, he's been suffering from insomnia.

Something is bothering him; he feels like he's not alone. He could feel eyes staring through his soul ever since Kathleen left. Christian shook the thought off and tried falling asleep but minutes past and he only felt more awake. He turned to his side and looked out the window.

He blinked a couple of times as his eyes slowly focused on the two street lights outside. As him being a near-sighted geek, he still needs his glasses to make out the image of the street lights which he doesn't remembered being there.

All of the sudden, he felt his eyes getting heavy. Soon enough, he fell asleep with his glasses on. He woke up the next morning feeling exhausted. He sighed and slowly pushed himself up with one hand when he felt a stinging pain on his back. He paused for a moment, trying to feel the pain to its extent until it slowly feels bearable. He turned to look at the window and his brows rose when he didn't see anything outside. The street lights weren't there. He took his glasses above the bedside table, wore it, and went back to the window. His brows met when he confirmed his confusion. Nothing's really there. His expression changed and twisted when he looked at the window glass and found claw marks as if something was piercing there—suddenly, his fingers ran through his glasses when he remembered to have fallen asleep with it and now…

Chills ran through his spine but he chose to shrug the thought away. He must be just imagining things last night and forgot that he actually took his glasses off—did he? He decided to go the kitchen to drink a glass of milk when he heard a strange noise.

It was thin, scraping-like sound, coming from a distance. Confused, he traced his way back and finally found the source. Someone had slipped a small note from underneath his bed.

"What in the..." he muttered, managing to look elated and slowly approached the note. He bent over to take it and found only two words written in a messed-up penmanship.

"Get out!"

He groaned and his body began to tremble when he felt as though someone had scratched him in the back and had to lean against the nearest wall for support. He reached a hand and winced when he felt his flesh being lacerated. Taking his shirt off, he ran towards the bathroom to check it out and froze in horror to what he saw.

"W-What in the actual fuck?!"

"Hey!"

"Holy fu—WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" Christian screamed and immediately pressed his back against the wall.

Kaiser giggled, amused of his reaction. "I've been ringing the doorbell for countless of times, bro, but no one's answering. Besides, you left the door open so, I invited myself in. If you don't mind."

Christian's brows met. I just woke up, he realized. How's the door open? The horrified look of his face sent confusion to his friend. He felt cold sweat trickling from his forehead down to his temples.

"What happened to you? Have you had nightmares? It looks like you need a glass of water," Kaiser turned against his heel and walked towards the dining.

Christian swilled and was about to look at his back once more when he remembered the piece of paper which he no longer has. He must have thrown it somewhere when he rushed in.

"HEY! I NEED TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT SOMETHING," Kaiser shouted, placing three rolls of newspaper on the center table.

Christian scrubbed a hand through his face as wind snapped his cheeks, from the window, around his legs, lifting strands of his hair.

"I-If that is about Samantha's case, please not now," he intoned, grabbing a bathrobe from the bathroom cabinet. Oddly, he doesn't feel any pain at all—as if nothing's there anymore.

"Why?" Kaiser's brows drew down as he watched Christian walk his way towards the couch in front of him. He sat down and sighed. Kaiser waited for his expression to turn into a polite interest but it didn't.

"I've been avoiding this issue. So, please."

"Are you hearing yourself, bro?" Kaiser scoffed. "This is Samantha we are talking about. Your friend, my friend, your girlfriend's best friend! How can you not care?"

"Of course, I do! There are just things that we need to stay away."

"Very well. Then let me ask you this instead, where are Kathleen and Scott? They are together, right? Looking for her? Why didn't you tell Kim and Junel? At least we'll know where to find him. He's not answering our calls. Jess needs him, now that she's about to give birth."

Christian drew in a deep breath and then started swearing in Bisaya, a widely spoken dialect in the Philippines. "Yawa man diay ka! If you only came here for that then you're worse than me. Stop caring about Samantha when you care much about that other woman. I'm not putting up with that duality. He just wanted to make his image a bit pleasing for these."

The newspapers scattered on the floor when Christian flicked them over. Kaiser bit his lip when he realized what he just said.

"Look, I'm sorry," he stammered. "I don't really know where to start, Tian. The moment I heard the news about what happened to her and that she's gone, I could no longer sleep soundly at night. Samantha has been always a good friend to me and was always the one who cheers me whenever I feel like giving up. If it wasn't for her, I might have already lost it."

"I knew..." Kaiser's lips twitched. "Scott and Jess didn't have a clean end. They didn't really break up. It's just one day, she left. Scott never got his eyes around women since then. He's too in love with her until he met Sam. He was hoping she could fill up the missing pieces Jess took when she left and she did, or so he thought. Because when Jess came back, I saw that happiness in his eyes once again: the happiness I only saw when he's with Jess."

"Did he even love her?" Naturally, Christian doesn't probe, but this time, he did.

"At the very least, yes. She's been his savior and he became a better version of himself because of her."

"Then you're wrong. He must haven't realized this himself but maybe Samantha was just too good for his ego. You know what kind of person he is and having a smart, independent and well-mannered woman beside him makes him feel like he can do anything and everything."

"We don't know what's really going on inside that jerk's brain," Kaiser sneered.

"I don't wanna know either. I really don't care about him anymore. People who play with other people's feelings do not deserve to be cared for."

"What do you mean?" Kaiser's brows met.

"Some of his ex-girlfriends contacted me after knowing what he did to Sam. Even the mother of his daughter confirmed he ran away when he got her pregnant and didn't even show up when she gave birth. He must be taking this incident as a huge opportunity so he could escape his responsibilities to Jess," Christian saw the acceptance on Kaiser's face as though he's already aware of it and frowned.

"Anyway, I really need you to know about this, so please listen," Kaiser bent over and took one of the newspapers on the floor and opened it in a wide spread. "You're aware of this, aren't you?"

Christian's heartbeat picked up an abnormal rhythm and scratched his head. "Jesus, get real, will you?!"

"I am being real—I mean; the evidences do. Are you not reading the internet? Lots of spiritualist confirmed the demonic events behind Samantha's case."

"And you believe those pieces of craps?!" Christian hissed.

"They are no craps," Kaiser groaned, slamming a hand against the center table. "Samantha has been taken by a demon. How would you explain those black marks? Look at this!" He took his phone out and hovered over his screen. He then flashed an image of black footprints from an unknown creature with an article explaining what they were.

"A mark from a black miasma of a soul-eating demon..." Christian muttered the last sentence as his mouth thinned into an obstinate line. "This doesn't make any sense, and these marks looks like it's from an elk."

"We don't have elks here in the Philippines, stop bluffing! On top of that, what kind of elk walks on its hind legs?"

"Then maybe, it's a huge-ass deer. Everything has a logical explanation and these," Christian pointed the newspaper. "These doesn't make any sense at all."

"Then what does? If human or some logical creature took Samantha then they should have contacted us by now for ransom," Kaiser groaned in frustration.

"Not all people that were kidnapped have been settled with random, some were being trafficked," Christian almost sounded like he's swallowing his words. He wanted to believe the things he's creating inside his mind to save the bits of him that has been keeping him sane for the past days. He swilled as his eyes slipped behind Kaiser to where a long-haired woman is grinning at him in the most horrifying way. Her faced is deformed as though she fell from a three-storey building and smashed her skull. Fresh blood is dripping from her hollowed head.

She raised a finger and crossed it against her rotting mouth to keep him silent.

"I told you to get out," her voice echoed into the air.