Halo - 12. Chapter Twelve

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Stephanie, the kind woman who was married to my father and showed no inclination towards the demonic, was literally suspended on the ceiling by her black hair like the webbing of a spider. I held Mike’s hand tightly; he was the only person who was preventing me from running out of the house while pissing my pants. With her extra set of limbs and her enlarged size, he looked like a monster from a fantasy game…but this was real life and I had no idea how we were going to defeat this creature without an automatic game over.

“Duncan. It’s so nice you came by,” Stephanie said with a sing-along tone. “For a moment, I thought I was going to have to send another one of my own to capture you again.”

“So, you’re the one who sent that aswang who attacked Duncan at the woods,” Mike noted, clutching my hand with the same tightness.

“Of course, I did,” Stephanie said with a wide smile. “Since his father was going to lend his company to Duncan in the near future, I needed the boy to be under my control while still maintaining my disguise… Unfortunately, that didn’t work, and your father somehow was loosening himself from the webbing that I had on his conscience and the doll that I used to control him. So, I had to do what was necessary, and envelope your father’s body in my webbing, as for your brother…”

“Where are they? What did you do to them?” Duncan demanded.

“Don’t worry. They’re safe for now… However, your brother did put up quite a fight.”

I winced at the very thought of my twin brother getting hurt, and I knew the wailing I heard early must’ve come from either my father or Dustin.

“So…what’s your plan for me?” Mike asked, releasing my hand and taking a step forward.

Chuckling, Stephanie lowered her eight feet to the ground and said, “Death.”

A bright light suddenly flashed from Mike, and Stephanie screamed as her skin burned. I witnessed the entire scene without being blinded, most likely caused by the abilities granted to me by Mike. I looked at him to see the same large, gold-colored disc with four smaller discs revolving around its perimeter that levitated behind him. Stephanie continued to scream in pain as she pulled herself back up, and Mike fired one of the small discs into the air, slicing the black webbing and causing her to fall back onto floor.

Moving forward, Mike began slicing away at Stephanie’s eight legs, each one falling to the floor as they sprayed black liquid from the severed areas. He then stood on top of her and his large disc flipped vertically, positioned in front of Mike and began shining a bright light. For some reason I could tell that it was charging its energy, and I was so concentrated on what was happening in front of me that I didn’t noticed the webbing behind me that crept to my feet. The webbing then snatched my feet, causing me to fall to the floor and the webbing began to crawl all over my legs to the rest of my body.

Panicking, I tried to pull the webbing off of me, but it was too strong, and my hands ended up sticking to the webbing instead. Mike called out to me, and I looked to see him right before Stephanie kicked him off of her with her last remaining leg. As the webbing began constricting my movements and tightening around my body like several large snakes, Mike ran to me as Stephanie reattached her severed legs by shooting more webbing that acted as glue. Mike managed to slice away the source of the webbing around my body, freeing me before more webbing struck him and stuck him against the wall.

“You thought it would be that easy?” Stephanie said before laughing wickedly.

With the hair-like webbing loosening off my body, I stood and saw Mike was completely covered by an encasing that was slowly tightening around him. I knew I had to something quick before Mike got hurt, but what exactly I had no fucking idea. All I could do was watch Stephanie as she neared me with all eight legs and a menacing smile. Then sensing something at the periphery of my vision, I turned to see Mike’s large disc on the floor and understood that it was the only option other than death.

Stephanie shot more webbing at me, but I managed to dodge it, just barely, and rolled to the disc’s location. I then lifted the disc with both hands by the inner hole. The disc quickly started to shake and crack; I didn’t have the training or experience to handle a weapon of this caliber, and it was going to collapse and dematerialize if I didn’t act fast enough. So, using all my physical and mental strength, I threw the disc at Stephanie right before it exploded, and a bright light consumed the entire foyer.

I felt the force of the explosion that caused me to fall back onto the floor, and I cover my eyes with my arms as the light was even too bright for my eyes. Then everything was dark again, and I slowly pulled my arms away and saw a large, black debris on the center of the foyer’s floor, most likely the remnants of Stephanie and the explosion itself. I then looked above to the see all the webbing falling onto the floor, and I then turned to see Mike sliding back down onto the floor. I quickly went to him and saw that despite his heavy breathing, he looked completely okay.

“Are you okay, Mike?” I asked as I crouched to his level.

“Yeah. Yeah, I think I am.” Mike looked at me and said, “You saved me, Duncan. How did you do it?”

“I…I just threw your disc weapon at Stephanie before it exploded,” I answered before hugging him.

“Shit. If you’re talking about that large disc, then it exploded because I didn’t properly dematerialize it…and the fact that you managed to handle it before it exploded on you is…miraculous,” Mike said as his breath began evening. “You’re a miracle, Duncan.”

I smiled, just relieved to know that Mike was okay. Wailing was heard again, and I knew that my father and Dustin were somewhere in the house. I looked at Mike who nodded at me, and I stood quickly and lifted Mike to his feet as well. We then ran across the foyer, up the staircase and searched every room on the second floor. I finally went to Dustin’s room and saw masses of black webbing on the floor. I saw my father leaning his back against the desk, and I approached him just as Mike entered the room as well. Crouching down, I looked at him more closely and saw that he was unconscious but breathing. Despite his ruffled suit, he looked completely fine.

“Shit.”

I turned to see Mike standing beside the bed where my brother was lying on. I quickly walked to Mike’s side and what I saw was devastating. “Dustin!”

I placed my hands on Dustin’s face, a face that was devoid of his eyes, with two bloody sockets instead. He was sobbing, asking where he was and who was touching him. He then started convulsing violently, which I tried to stop, but I was completely useless as his body then became still. Mike was by my side and placed his hand on the side of Dustin’s neck, and he assured me that he was still alive before he pulled out his phone and called nine-one-one. He then held me, my face against his chest as I began crying for my brother and for his life that was going to be changed for the worse forever.

***

Sitting at the waiting room, all I could do was stare at the floor as I waited for the doctor to come through the doors and tell me that my brother was going to be okay. But I knew I that wasn’t going to be possible. I saw the sockets of what remained of his eyes, and I knew that Dustin was going to live the rest of his life without sight. I thought having to wear thick-lensed glasses was difficult, I couldn’t imagine living without the sense of sight all together. All I could hope for Dustin was that he recovered from his injuries, so that he could begin to recover and adjust to his new way of life.

Mike was currently talking to the police about the incident after paramedics entered my house and saw all the masses of webbing on the floor of the foyer, the remnants of Stephanie that was in the form of a black pool of liquid, and my father and brother in a separate room with Dustin’s eyes gouged out. I thought that calling Angelica and Adam would’ve been a better idea, but Mike told me that the injuries that Dustin sustained was beyond even Angelica’s expertise. I believed Mike knew best as I continued to sit in the sitting room, all by myself as he was somewhere else in the hospital with the police. My father was also here, and I already visited his room, already examined and in stable condition.

Another set of doors opened, and I saw Mike enter the room. “Is everything okay, Mike?”

“Yeah. Yeah, everything’s okay. Angelica and Adam are currently talking with the police as I speak, and then they’ll be here after that,” Mike said as he rubbed the back of his neck. He then sat next to me and with his hand on mine, he said, “Are you okay, Duncan?”

Leaning my head against Mike’s shoulder, I said, “I don’t know. My twin brother is currently being operated on, and I don’t know how he’ll function without his sight. And Stephanie…crap. I don’t know what to feel right now.”

“I understand.” Mike squeezed my hand gently. “You’ve been through a lot tonight, and don’t worry. Angelica, Adam and I have this handled.”

“Thank you.”

The same set of doors opened again, and Angelica entered the room. “It’s done.”

“You wiped their memories? Including the paramedics?” Mike asked, standing up.

“Yes, everything they witnessed back at the scene was removed from their memories and replaced with another set of memories instead.” Sighing, Angelica then said, “You really should’ve called me, Mike. Having to wipe away their memories with different light frequencies was a challenge all by itself.”

“I’m sorry, Angelica, but I couldn’t take any chances with Dustin’s life if you didn’t know how to properly treat him,” Mike replied.

“Oh, and calling the police after an aswang attack wasn’t taking any chances either?” The doors opened, and Adam entered the room with angry expression on his face. “You could’ve messed up big time if we hadn’t arrived.”

Mike growled, and Angelica stepped between them and said, “You’re not helping, Adam. At least the situation is resolved now, and now we all can focus on moving on from this incident and continuing with the mission.”

“And what mission is that?” I asked as I stood from my seat. “If you don’t mind me asking, of course.”

“I don’t think this kid needs to know anything about why we’re here,” Adam stated.

“Just shut up, Adam. He deserves to know what this mission is about since it involves his father’s company,” Mike said, looking at Angelica who nodded back at him. Mike then turned to me and said, “As the woman, Stephanie, said back at your house, the aswang have been monitoring your father through her as their secret agent. What just happened confirmed our suspicions that the aswang want to use your father’s company as a catalyst to control the amount of fossil fuels that are burned and increase the amount of air pollution in the air. Their own mission is to block as much sunlight from entering the world as possible, allowing the aswang to thrive beyond the night and eventually control not only the fossil fuel industry, but the entire planet as well. That’s the worst-case scenario, and it can’t happen as long as people like us still exist.”

I nodded. “I understand.”

“Do you really?” Adam interjected with his arms crossed. “You’re an outsider, just like Mike. You don’t really understand how the Laguna tribe feels about this entire situation or the Filipino people as a whole. We really should’ve adopted the isolationist method like the tribes in Hawaii and Alaska. Instead, the Laguna tribe now risks its continued existence when we decided to let in an outsider who in turn allowed a stranger to have the same abilities that has made our people special from everyone else.”

“There are people with the same abilities in Hawaii and Alaska as well?” I asked.

Sighing, Adam said, “To put it into simple words for you, there’s a tribe of Hawaiians who garnered their abilities similar to ours through the light coming from the lava of their active volcanoes, while an Inuit tribe in Alaska acquires their powers through the constellations in the night sky. That’s the only other communities we know of. There are possibly more within Europe who harness their abilities through lightning, but we don’t know for certain since they’ve isolated themselves from the rest of the world, like we should be doing as well. Have you ever heard of the Golden City or El Dorado that was a civilization supposedly made of gold? Yeah, well that place actually existed, and unfortunately for them they shared their knowledge and technology to the Spanish conquistadors before their city was conquered and eventually destroyed. We can’t end up like them.”

“Well, until the aswang are dealt with, I think plan to isolate ourselves can wait,” Mike inserted. “There will be nowhere to even hide if the aswang gain power and cover the world with darkness.”

“He’s right,” Angelica said that caused Adam to scoff in response. “Our main mission is to solve the aswang dilemma, and the only we can do that is with Duncan’s help.”

“What about my father?” I asked. “He’s the current president of the oil company. Shouldn’t he be the one you should be talking to?”

“I’m sorry, but we don’t know if your father can be trusted,” Angelica said. “He has been under that aswang’s control for who knows how long, and we don’t know if there’s any remnants of its control. You’re really the only person we can rely on to continue this mission.”

“And what makes him so special?” Adam asked.

“Because,” Angelica began, turning to Adam with furrowed eyebrows, “If Mike trusts Duncan, then so will I. And since he has the same gift of Maria, he can prove to be a very useful ally.”

Cursing to himself, Adam shook his head and collapsed onto a waiting chair. “Whatever.”

“And how exactly can I help?” I asked.

“First, we—”

An alarm suddenly started blaring, and I saw blue lights flashing as well, which was an indication that someone needed resurrecting. I then looked at Mike whose look of concern made me instantly know that this wasn’t just any code blue. I quickly went through the double doors that led to a hallway that had hospital staff scurrying in one direction. I followed them as Mike, Angelica and Adam followed right behind me. I then saw the staff entering one room in particular, and I looked to see that the area was completely dark. The lights then flickered back on, and only the thing that I saw was an empty bed.

I couldn’t confirm that this was Dustin’s room, but somehow, I knew deep down that he was just taken by the aswang. Oh, God.