by Justine Camacho – Tajonera

1 Bella

She wasn’t beautiful. Which was why I always wondered why her mother named her Bella. Her eyes were too far apart, her lips a little too large for her face. She was gangly, awkward. Her hands and feet were freakishly long and narrow. And sometimes, talking to her, you felt that she wasn’t entirely there. 

I met her the summer I turned sixteen. My parents were having a spat and they thought it best to ship me to the province while they were figuring things out for themselves. I stayed with my aunt, the single remaining sibling of my mother, who lived in their ancestral home in barangay Barahan, Pola, Sta. Cruz, Mindoro Occidental. Tita Osang lived in a traditional turn-of-the-century home with the most basic addition of electricity and some plumbing.  She was a formidable woman who ran a rice and cattle farm on her own. She put together an efficient household. When I arrived, she put me to work alongside her farmhands, no questions asked. My day began at four in the morning and ended at seven in the evening. Despite a day full of physical labor, she let me run wild, on my own, at around four in the afternoon. That was how I met Bella. 

Tita Osang’s house was in front of the ocean but it wasn’t a cove; it was more of a steep coast with an abrupt drop-off into the deep part of the sea. No one really swam at the beach but there was a healthy fishing community in the area. The kids of the fishermen played by the rocky coast and the cave formations nearby. 

Bella and I had a lot in common despite what you might think. I was a stranger from the city. She was treated much like a stranger as well. The other children didn’t like her. She was alone when I happened upon her, mending a net despite the dying light of the sun. 

“Hello,” I said tentatively, not sure if she wanted to be bothered given how intently she was working. 

“Hello,” she answered back. Her smile, showing her uneven teeth, was very open and sincere. 

“What are you doing?” I knew she was mending a net but I was desperate to just have a conversation. 

“I’m helping my mother with this,” she gestured at the net. 

“Is your father a fisherman?”

“No. But my father is from the sea.” “Oh, you mean he’s a seaman?” 

“Seaman?”

“I mean, does he work on a boat?”

“Oh. No. He’s from the sea.” At this point, I gave up on her father. 

“What does your mother do?”

“She mends nets and she sells fish and fried bananas in the market.” That was something I understood better.

“Do you go to school with the other kids?” 

“No. I’m too…” she looked up from what she was doing and stared at the ocean for a while. I waited. “Slow,” she finally said. Her face reddened a bit. Or was it the setting sun that made it seem so? “What about you?” she asked me. “You’re not from here.”

“No, I’m from Manila.” 

Her eyes widened. “Really? Tell me about Manila!” She took in everything I said even though I suspected that she didn’t understand some of it. She nodded and smiled, just the same. 

“What’s your name?” I asked her.

“Bella,” she said. 

“That’s a beautiful name.” Her smile was a light that emanated from her face. Her strange features and crooked teeth were transformed by that smile. 

“And you? What’s your name?” 

“Nico.”

“Can we be friends, Nico?”

“Of course!”

“I’m glad. I don’t have any friends.” 

I was tempted to ask: not a single one? But I knew that would be too insensitive to ask. She looked like she had tears in her eyes. The light of the sun was down to an ember. The moon was beginning to rise. 

“Would you like to continue mending your net at my house?” I asked her, not sure if that was a practice in the province. “We have light there,” I explained. 

“My mother might worry,” she answered. “Maybe tomorrow?”

“Yes, that would be fine!”

“I’ll ask her if that would be all right with her.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

“Would you like to go swimming in the cave?” I didn’t know there was a swimming cave. As far as I knew, it was dangerous to swim in Barahan.

“Yes, sure!”

“Meet me here again tomorrow.” 

The waves continued their gentle rhythm against the shore as I made my way home, my thoughts still lingering on Bella’s strange words. When I reached the house, I found Belen, my aunt’s cook who knew everyone in Barahan, already preparing dinner, her sharp eyes noting my arrival. I asked her about Bella.

“Oh. Oh, Bella. Did you get to meet her today?”

“Yes, I did. She seems really nice.”

“Well, try to avoid her, if you can.”

“But why, Belen?”

“They say she’s cursed.”

“Cursed?” Did people still believe that sort of thing? 

“She has the blood of the sea people.” I couldn’t believe my ears. 

“What sea people?” I remembered what Bella had told me by the ocean. That her father was from the sea. 

“You’re a city boy. You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“But she’s really nice. She doesn’t have any friends.”

“There’s a reason she doesn’t have any friends.”

“She didn’t do anything to deserve that.”

“Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“I can’t believe that people shun her because of a rumor.”

“It’s not a rumor.”

“Well, it certainly sounds like a tall tale to me.”

“Just be careful, Nico.”

“Why? She wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

“You never know.”

“What I know is this. It doesn’t hurt to be kind.”

She tsk-tsked and served me my dinner of grilled fish, eggplant salad, and rice. 

2 The Cave

The next day, I couldn’t wait to be done with my chores so I could meet Bella. I brushed off what I had heard from Belen. At four in the afternoon, I headed to the rocky shore in front of my aunt’s home and waited for Bella. She came lugging a large market basket with her nets and mending gear. 

“You should teach me how to mend nets, Bella,” I suggested. 

“Okay. But let’s go to the cave first. I can leave these here for later.” She dropped her basket and gear, weighing it down with a rock, and beckoned me to follow. 

We walked a long time along the coast line. We finally reached the bottom of a rocky cliff. The opening to the cave wasn’t very obvious, but Bella, being familiar with the terrain and the outcropping, easily led me into it. I could hear the whistling of the wind through the hollow of the cave. It was dark and damp but we walked towards a sliver of light in the distance. The light came from a slight opening from the top, and below it was a small, isolated lagoon of very clear water. 

“They don’t know about this,” Bella said. “It’s my secret place.”

“It’s good to have a secret place.”

In her t-shirt and basketball shorts, Bella jumped into the lagoon.

“Come swim,” she called out, “the water feels nice.” Being a city boy, I was used to bathing suits and board shorts. But it was different in the province. I took off my shirt and jumped in after Bella. 

The problem was…I couldn’t find Bella in the water. I went up for air after circling the lagoon. The water was clear enough for me to check for her. But she just wasn’t there. Had there been a current that took her into a hole in the lagoon? 

“Bella?” I called out uselessly. It was a small enclosure and I could hear my voice echo back to me. I started to panic. What if she was drowning? My breathing became ragged. I was thinking about calling for help but that would mean losing time that could have been spent rescuing Bella. 

After a few minutes, I saw Bella emerge from the surface of the lagoon. Her body arced into the air, her long hair formed a whip. She was laughing. Actually, she looked different. Was there a glow in her eyes or was it a trick of the afternoon light? Her skin looked bluish green from where I was on the mouth of the lagoon. 

“Bella, where were you? I was scared that you’d drowned!” I said, angry that she was just laughing while I had been out of my mind with fear. Her eyes were wide with surprise.  

“I’m so sorry, Nico,” she said in a small voice. “I can hold my breath a really long time in the water,” she attempted to explain. 

I did the math in my head. No one I knew could hold their breath underwater for more than a minute. I thought back to what Belen said. 

She swam closer to me. I couldn’t help but notice how easily and gracefully she swam in the water. On land, she seemed clumsy and uncoordinated. Or was I imagining that as well?

I decided to brush off her disappearing act. “I’m glad you introduced me to this cave. Would you believe I’ve never swum in the water the whole time I’ve been here in Pola?”

“Why not?”

“My aunt says the water here in the coastline isn’t safe for swimming.”

“That’s true. There’s a very deep trench close to the shore.”

“How do you know that?” 

“Everyone knows.” 

That was fair enough. “My mother doesn’t like me going near the water.”

“What? Does she know that you are swimming here?”

“She doesn’t need to know.”

“Why doesn’t your mother want you near the water?” Her eyes widened with curiosity. 

“She says I almost drowned when I was very small.”

“Do you remember it?”

“No, I don’t, but I’m always happy when I’m in the water which is why it’s a pity that my mother doesn’t like me swimming.” 

“I like swimming too,” she said,“Will you be going to school here?”

“No. I’m leaving by the end of the summer.” 

Her eyes lowered and her mouth pursed. “You’re going back to Manila?”

“Yeah. Back to my parents,” I sighed. Who knew what I would go home to?

“At least you’re here now,” Bella smiled. “Do you have a lot of friends in Manila?”

“I have a few,” I replied. I was not very sociable. Who needed a lot of friends? A few like Eddie and Miguel were enough for me. 

“Will you meet me again tomorrow?” Bella asked. 

“Sure. Where do you live?”

“I can come back in front of your aunt’s house.”

“But where do you live? In the town?”

“I live in the fishing village, near the Barahan school. It’s not very far from here.”

“What’s your mother’s name?”

“Emmelita. But people just call her Lita. Nico, you don’t need to come for me. I’ll meet you in front of your aunt’s house.” 

Why didn’t she want me to meet her mother? I didn’t think much of it at the time. But it was a good thing that I asked where she lived. 

3 The Cruelty of Children

I waited for Bella by four in the afternoon the next day but she didn’t show up promptly the way she had the day before. I gave it another thirty minutes before I started heading towards the village. I asked about the school and the house of Emmelita and I was pointed to a hut. I knew something was wrong right away because I could hear weeping from inside the house. I knocked but no one answered. I kept knocking. 

A frail, bony woman with prematurely gray hair opened the door. Her eyes were red from crying. 

“Ma’am, does Bella live here? Are you her mother, Lita?” I asked. 

She nodded. “Who are you? Bella doesn’t have any friends.”

“I’m Nico. I’m not from here. I was supposed to meet Bella at four earlier today.” Bella’s mother looked confused. 

“May I come in?” I asked. She hesitated. 

“I’m her friend. I won’t hurt her.” She bowed her head and stood aside. 

I came in to find Bella in a fetal position in the corner of the hut. Her face was in her hands. All I could see was her hair matted with blood. She was shivering. Her hands, arms, legs, and feet were covered with blood and bruises. 

“Who did this to her?” I asked. My blood was beginning to boil. 

“The children,” Bella’s mother said, disoriented. 

“What children?”

“The children in the village. They hate her. They call her fish girl, stinky fish girl. She just went to the market to buy a new dress. That was all.”

A new dress. She had bought a new dress to meet me. I felt dizzy with the realization. 

“Bella?” I came closer to her. I crouched by her body on the floor. 

“Nico?” she could barely open her swollen eyes. She was looking at me through mere slits. “Oh, Nico, I’m so sorry,” she lisped. Her mouth, too, was swollen. 

“Sorry for what?”

“I’m so sorry I couldn’t meet you at your house,” she said. How could she think of me at a time like this? 

“Ma’am,” I addressed her mother, “please let me take her to a hospital.”

“No, no,” Lita shook her head, “I can’t afford that. I’ll take care of her.”

“Nico,” Bella said, her voice barely breaking over a whisper. I knelt closer to her. “Take me to the cave.”

“Please, Ma’am, she’s badly hurt. Please let me take her to a doctor. My aunt lives nearby. I could borrow a truck and take her to the hospital,” I pleaded with Bella’s mother. 

She wrung her hands. She looked at her daughter’s broken form on the floor. She didn’t say anything but she nodded. That was all I needed. I scooped Bella into my arms. She was so light. 

When I walked out of Bella’s house, I could see the children that Bella’s mother talked about. They were gathered outside Bella’s house. They were of different ages, some of them teenagers just like me and Bella. But their eyes were hateful, spiteful. What they didn’t understand, they hurt. I held Bella closer to me. I wanted to lash out at them, I wanted revenge for what they did to Bella. But there was no time for that. 

“Nico, take me to the cave,” Bella repeated. 

“You’re too hurt, Bella. I’ll take you to the doctor.”

“No, Nico. Take me to the cave.” 

I wrestled with reason. But I didn’t want to do anything that would hurt her even more. “After I take you to the cave, please promise me that I can take you to the hospital.” She nodded weakly. 

Even though Bella was initially light, the longer I walked, the heavier she became. When we finally reached the rocky cliff, the light was golden. The sun was setting. Bella guided me towards the opening of the cave. 

“Please hurry,” she said. 

When we entered the cave, the light was fading. I let the ember above the lagoon guide my steps. The air inside the cave felt thick, pressing down on me. Even the usual whispers of water against rock had stilled as if the whole cavern were holding its breath.

I laid Bella gently by the edge of the lagoon. 

“Thank you, Nico,” Bella said. “Don’t come for me. Please just wait for me.” I was too exhausted to understand what she was saying. “Don’t be afraid,” she said. 

Before I could ask her what I should be afraid of, I heard the water. It started as gentle lapping against the rocky edges of the lagoon. But soon, the lapping turned into the sound of waves. How could there be waves in the lagoon when there was no wind? I looked intently at the lagoon. The waves were turning into a whirlpool. But that wasn’t the only thing happening. I saw a greenish light emanating from the vortex of the whirlpool and that was when I knew to be afraid. 

My heart started hammering in my chest. My skin turned cold, my hands clammy. I could feel all the hairs on my arms and the back of my neck stand on end. I saw Bella reach out to the water.  

I wanted to scream. But no sound came from my mouth. As soon as her hand touched the water, I heard a horrible sound come from the center of the whirlpool. It was a series of loud, malevolent, impossibly high-pitched wails that hurt my ears. I had to put my palms against the sides of my head. 

Tentacles emerged from the water. So many of them. My first instinct was to run as far away as I could from the cave. But I couldn’t just leave Bella there. I started crawling towards Bella despite the horrible shrieking and the blood-curdling sight of tentacles coming out of the lagoon. 

Bella shook her head, warding me away. “Trust me. Wait for me,” I saw her mouth form the words.

The writhing mass of tentacles started to envelop Bella’s body. The sight of it paralyzed me. My knees buckled. I sat there, transfixed, staring at the tentacles pulling Bella into the water and the green light under the water that threw back reflections on the walls of the caves. I sat there as if hypnotized. I couldn’t move my body. All my instincts were telling me to flee but I was rooted to the rocky floor of the cave. The churning water increased in intensity, forming impossibly high waves. 

One of the waves knocked me back. Then all I saw was darkness. 

4 The Transformation

When I came to, the cave wasn’t completely dark. I didn’t know how long I had been lying there. But I knew it was night time. I saw moonbeams coming through the crack of the cave wall above the lagoon. But my head was completely fuzzy. I ran my hands over my head  and felt a bump at the back of my head. With a start, I remembered Bella being dragged into the water by that thing. That thing! 

I started to tremble involuntarily. Was that thing still in the cave? 

I attempted to get up. My head swam with pain. I rested on my elbows before getting up. I had to find Bella but I was too scared to call out. I scanned the lagoon area but I couldn’t see her anywhere. Was she still in the water? Had she drowned? The same feeling of fear that had gripped me earlier returned. I felt my way to the edge of the water. I didn’t know what I was expecting to do. I couldn’t even imagine going into the water. 

I heard the lapping of the water. Something was happening in the lagoon again. The eerie green light appeared in the center of the lagoon and a whirlpool began to form again. But this time, it wasn’t as wild and powerful as it was earlier. It was a gentle stirring. Something emerged from the center of the whirlpool. Some thing. 

It looked like a man-sized dragon with webbed spines running from the crown of its head to its tail. Its skin was covered with scales. It had its back towards me but I could tell that it had a human-like head. As it turned, I saw huge glassy eyes that glowed green. Below his eyes was a maw of twisting feelers and saw-like teeth. Beneath the creature was a writhing mass of tentacles. I wasn’t sure if the tentacles were the lower torso of the creature or a different creature altogether. I was too scared to investigate. Actually, I was too scared to move. 

In its arms was the supine form of Bella. 

The creature drew near to the edge of the lagoon and laid Bella on the ground. And just as quickly as it had emerged, the thing disappeared beneath the water, taking with it the weird greenish light. 

The cave was plunged in darkness again, except for a few slivers of moonlight. I crawled towards Bella. I could hear her breathing normally. But the sight of her took my breath away. Even in the meager light, I could see that she did not have a single scratch on her. She looked fully healed, healthy even. Her face looked peaceful. How had it happened?

In the next few minutes, I came to my senses. How was I going to explain what had happened? What would I tell my aunt? What would I tell Bella’s mother? Where would I take Bella? Thankfully, I saw that Bella had stirred. She was coming out of her deep sleep. 

“Nico?”

“Bella, I’m right here. I did what you asked. I stayed.”

“Are you all right? I made sure. I made sure that you weren’t hurt.”

“Yes, I’m fine. I just fell backwards and now I have a bump on the back of my head.”

“Oh no!” 

“Don’t worry about me, Bella. I’m just glad that you’re well.”

“I told you. I just needed to come here.”

“But what were those… things, Bella? I’m not sure if I was dreaming.”

“You weren’t dreaming, Nico. Those were my people, my father’s people.” People she called them. And yet, I could easily imagine myself as fodder for the creatures that healed her. She did say that she had made sure that I wasn’t hurt. Did that mean that I could have died there if she had not intervened? 

“Are you well enough to stand?”

“Yes, I think so.” She sat up easily, without my help. 

“What should we do, Bella? How do we explain your miraculous recovery?”

“Could I stay at your farm first?”

“You’re right. That would be the best thing for you to do right now. I’ll think of something for my aunt.”

I observed Bella in the light of the moon as we emerged from the cave. Was she different? Had she become more like the creature in the cave? She seemed to be the same. She was still the Bella I had met, thin and bony like her mother. But upon closer inspection, I noticed something different. There were faint white lines crossing both sides of her neck. I hadn’t seen those before. They looked like nothing more than old scars. 

When we got to my aunt’s house, I made Bella sleep in my bed and I slept on the sofa in my aunt’s sala. 

The next morning, I explained the situation to Tita Osang. Bella was being bullied by the kids in her village. She needed a place to stay for a while. It wasn’t much of a problem. Tita Osang was too busy to be bothered with little disturbances and gossip. She took one look at Bella and told Belen to cook her breakfast. 

“Look at her. I’ve never seen anyone so thin, not even the kids in the village.”

“She and her mother are ostracized.”

“Well, it is a close-knit village. It’s a sad thing to be different in a very small place like ours.” Tita Osang looked wistful. “It’s a good thing your mother left. Me, I don’t mind being alone here. I pay fair wages and we do hard but good work. That’s all I care for.”

Belen kept shooting me dagger glances from the kitchen. 

5 The Disappearance

The days passed quickly for me and Bella at Tita Osang’s farm. We did chores together. Bella looked frail but she was just as tough as any of Tita Osang’s farmhands. We didn’t talk much about what had happened in the cave the night she was beaten up by the other kids in Barahan. But neither did we return to the cave. I think Bella was trying to keep it out of our conversation as much as she could. On my end, I felt that I may have imagined it. However, the things I had seen would come back to me at night, in nightmares. I didn’t tell Bella about them. I was waiting for her to be the one to bring it up. 

Four in the afternoon was that time of day when everyone in the farm was resting. While Bella was with me, we would take walks along the coastline, avoiding the fishing village or we would hang out by the mango grove. My tita had strung out hammocks in the porch facing the grove and sometimes we would take naps there. 

One afternoon, I woke up to find Bella gone. She wasn’t at the house and she wasn’t at the farm. I didn’t think she would go back to the village. That left the cave. 

Maybe she worried for me. Maybe she didn’t want me to remember what I had last seen there. That was probably why she had gone there without me. I had half a mind not to follow. What good would come out of it? Those things would never harm her, anyway. Or so I tried to convince myself. The thing was, she was my guest. I didn’t want anything to happen to her on my watch. 

I walked slowly to the cave. I was in no hurry. As soon as I saw the familiar outcropping that marked the entrance, my heart hammered again. I thought I would be physically sick but I forced myself to keep moving. I wanted to be sure she was there. I wanted to be sure that she hadn’t come to harm again. 

Even though the sun was still shining outside, I felt cold in the cave. I kept seeing in my mind’s eye the weird green light at the center of the lagoon and the long, grayish arms covered with suction disks and thorny hooks. Every single second, I felt like turning around and fleeing. But instead, I called out, “Bella!”

My voice echoed in the cavern. The lagoon was smooth and quiet. The water was so clear I could see the rocks and stalagmites beneath. Still no Bella. My heart started to calm. Maybe she wasn’t in the cave after all. Maybe she went back to the village against her better judgment. She might have missed her mother. 

I turned around to walk out of the cave but I heard something stirring in the water. I turned around to see some thing emerging from the water. I wanted to scream but, like that night when Bella was healed, nothing would come out of my mouth. It was like being in a waking nightmare. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t scream. It was a feat to even breathe. 

The creature was smaller than the one that I had seen bearing Bella. It was humanoid with glistening white-gray skin, a spiny back, long spindly limbs that ended in webbed appendages, large fish-like glassy green eyes, and a maw for a mouth, full of pointed teeth and writhing feelers. It crawled out of the lagoon and moved towards me. 

As the creature came closer, it began to change. Long hair sprouted out of its bald head, its skin lost its sheen and gained the human suppleness of skin, it shrank a bit, its webbed appendages became narrow, if a bit oversized, hands and feet. Its face. 

Its face was Bella’s. 

In the next second, I was looking into her wide-set eyes. “Bella?”

“Nico,” she said in a normal voice. Only moments ago, what kind of sound would have come from such a mouth? “Are you afraid?”

“Yes,” I said truthfully. How could I not be? Was this why the children of the village hated her? Had they seen her in such a state? 

“You don’t need to be.”

“What are you, Bella?” I hated myself for asking. I sounded like some kind of racist. But the thing was, I felt it was fair to ask. 

“I also don’t know.” She looked away from me and looked into the water. “I’m very grateful to you. You are so kind.”

“I’m very sorry that the children in the village hurt you. They had no right to do that.”

“But you see, now, Nico,” she said, “you see how I don’t belong here.” She was right. “And now I have reason to leave.”

“What are you talking about, Bella?”

“I’m in love!” she exclaimed. She did have that glowing, fevered look of someone in love. Not that I had much experience in it myself. I guess people just know. 

“With him,” she pointed to the water. 

I did not want another creature to emerge. She must have been referring to the thing that had saved her. I thought it had been her father or kin. Obviously, it was not. 

“What will you do, Bella?”

“I need to say goodbye to my mother.”

6 The Things to Come

What happened to Bella? She thanked my aunt for letting her stay at the farm. And then she went home, head held high. I was with her when she went back to the village. I didn’t want to risk another episode of bullying.

Her mother was amazed at her complete recovery. She thanked me profusely and gave me a plateful of fried maruya. I ate them at her kitchen table as Bella took her aside to explain. Bella and I had talked about the story she would tell her mother, a white lie. It wasn’t a grand plan or anything. It was a simple, likely scenario. 

My aunt had taken to her and had offered her a scholarship so she could study at my school in Manila. Summer vacation was coming to an end. She would go to Manila with me and enroll in my school. She wouldn’t be home for a very long time but she would write. In fact, in her enthusiasm, Bella had already completed a series of letters with dates on them. 

“Would you mail them to her?” Bella had asked me. Of course, I said yes. Bella’s mother nodded, smiled, glowed with pride. It was a better story than falling in love, running away with her lover from the sea, and bearing a dozen fish-children. 

As Bella and her mother spoke, I wondered about how Bella had been conceived. Had Lita been swimming in the very same cave that Bella frequented? Had she met a sea-god as well? And why had things turned out differently for her? Perhaps it was because Lita was fully human and could never survive in the sea? Who knew? There was no point in asking. 

Bella packed a small bag. She didn’t have many possessions. Bella’s mother carefully placed her daughter’s birth and baptismal certificates in an oil-stained manila envelope. “For her school requirements,” Lita said, endorsing them to me, as if I were her guardian. I wasn’t any older than Bella. But maybe she trusted me, deemed me more experienced and wiser, having come from the city. “You’ll look out for my daughter, won’t you?” Of course, I would. 

She patted my hand and smiled. It was the first time I noticed how wrinkled she was for her age, and that she had missing teeth. Life had not been kind to Lita. But when she waved goodbye to Bella, she looked like she had won the lottery. I winced a little at our deception. But it was better this way. 

The second goodbye would be the one for me. We went back to my aunt’s house to deposit her small bag. It was understood that I would take it with me to Manila, together with all the letters to her mother. I was just going to start out with senior high but I had a whole other lifetime to manage. 

“Are you scared?” I asked her. 

“A little. But I’m more excited than scared.”

“Will you change completely when you join them?”

“I think so.”

“Would you ever be able to change back to your human form again?” 

She looked thoughtful at that. “But why would I want to do that?” She had a point. 

“What if you needed to rescue your mother from drowning?” It was an unlikely scenario. Her mother only mended nets. She didn’t go fishing. 

“Maybe I would. If it really mattered to me.”

“That’s good then. Will you be different?” What I had meant was: would she still be the same sweet Bella that I knew? The one who wanted to be my friend? 

“Of course, I’ll be different. I’ll be with my people.” 

I tried to absorb that for a moment. What was it like to be with “your people?” Was I with my people? Was I happy to be human? I didn’t think I would ever ask myself if I was happy to be human. 

“What is it like? To be with them?”

“There is so much beauty, so much power in the sea,” she said. Her face shone with that feeling of belonging. She would never be beautiful on land. But it was a different story in the sea. 

“Do you forgive the other children? The ones who hurt you?” Her face darkened. She didn’t answer. 

“You don’t need to come into the cave with me,” she said. 

“I don’t mind.”

“No, it’s okay. I know it scares you.”

“Well, this is it then?”

“Yes, this is it. Thank you so much for being my friend, Nico.” She hugged me unabashedly. “It was nice to finally have a friend.”

“I’m glad you’re my friend,” I said, hugging her back. 

I never saw Bella again. 

Years later, Lita and I became the unlikeliest pen pals. In the first few years, Lita wrote about some children from Barahan going missing. It seemed that every year, one or two of them would disappear. 

In between the bad news, Lita shared the good news: how she had luckily found a large pearl in one of her fishnets that turned out to be a rare form of south sea pearl and how she had been able to buy a small house with it; how, during a particularly bad typhoon that had hit the coast of Sta. Cruz, her life had been spared while many of her neighbors had perished. She thanked God for all her blessings. She kept telling Bella that she missed her but that Bella had no reason to worry about her. She was happy for her scholar daughter who was going to do great things in the city, in the world. 

Bella and I had imagined a whole playbook, a long, storied life for her. She had gone on to college and migrated to a different country. Only things that would make her mother happy. I heard from my aunt, too. Her whole farm had been untouched by the super typhoon that Lita had told me about in her letter. 

“I was lucky,” Tita Osang said. But she worried about growing old. “Won’t you come back to Barahan?” she asked me. “You loved it here, didn’t you? Why don’t you take over the farm?” 

I thanked her for the offer. But no. Nothing would convince me to go back there.I continued to have nightmares about the things in the cave. 

But the only thing that kept me from going mad entirely was the thought of Bella. If just a fraction of Bella still existed in the deep, then maybe there was hope. Maybe her friendship with me would somehow check whatever malevolence was inherent in her people. Maybe there were no old, tentacled, polymorphous titanic things waiting to rise from the ocean. Maybe there was no legion of spiny fish-dragons with maws for mouths waiting to devour humanity. 

Maybe Bella and her love for a few humans kept all that at bay. Or maybe they were just taking their time. After all, they have all the time in the world.

About the Author. Justine Camacho-Tajonera was born and raised in Cebu City, Philippines. Though she started her professional journey in the corporate world, working in telecommunications and marketing, her love for literature remained constant. To stay connected to her creative roots, she pursued a master’s degree in Literature and Cultural Studies, cementing her commitment to writing.

She has published poetry in local anthologies and publications and has authored works across various genres. Her self-published titles include Just for the Summer (a contemporary romance novella), A Portrait of Jade (a young adult romance novelette), Bayawak’s Trail (a crime novelette), The Mermaid from Siquijor (a fantasy romance novella), Snuggle Wuggle Wee (a children’s book co-authored with Buding Aquino-Dee and Jenny Ong), and her poetry collection, Gift: Poems. Her first traditionally published romance novel, Steady Sarah, was released by Penguin Random House SEA in 2024.
Justine maintains a Substack blog, Claiming Alexandria, where she shares her poetry and thoughts on creativity and life. She is a marketing professional in the Philippines, is married, and has two children.