4. Flashback

Elena was born in the town of Balangiga south of Eastern Samar. She had two younger brothers, Edgardo and Emilio. Their family lived in a simple bungalow in the outer limits of the town. Her father is a backyard farmer who grew vegetables in a wide space beside their house. For entertainment, they have a small black and white television where the family watches their favorite soap opera. Her father is usually the first to open it for the evening news. There is also a radio with cassette player that is the source of argument with her brother Edgardo as they do not have similar interests in music genres.

Like any typical Catholic Filipino family, they always hear mass at dawn during Sundays. It is followed by a hearty breakfast in a nearby eatery. The Mercados spend their Sundays at home. While Elena is taught by their mother the fine arts of weaving, her brothers are outside helping their father with the vegetables tutored on how one can grow fine produce free of any chemical fertilizers or pest control agents.

As simple as he is, Mang Onorio, Elena's father bore tattoos on his back, parts of it even creeping to his chest and stomach. Elena saw this once when she ran to her parent's room to get help from her father. Aling Luisa was out that time to buy some supplies in the public market.

"Tay, Emilio is choking," her voice trembling. "I think he swallowed one of his toy soldiers."

Onorio, sleeping face down woke up with a start. It was then that Elena got a glimpse of the tattoo on her father's back.

Hurriedly, Onorio dressed up asking Elena, "What happened anak? Where is he?"

"He's in the sala, tay," Elena answered trying to pull Onorio to the direction of their living room.

As Onorio was applying the heimlich maneuver on Emilio, Elena thought about the tattoo she saw. It was like a collage of faces. Scary ones. It depicted men with tattoos all over their body as if it was their second skin.

Every Monday, Mang Onorio takes his kids for a ride on their pedicab -- a bicycle with an attached sidecar -- to school. Elena was in grade six at the Balangiga Central School when the conflict in the mountains of Samar was brought to their town by fleeing rebels.

The first gunshot was heard around 2:00 am. Immediately, Mang Onorio woke his family and gathered them to their bedroom. From his cabinet, he took out a revolver made by one of the towns of the province of Cebu. He checked if he had all six rounds loaded and rejoined his family behind the bed.

The gunfires grew loader as the clash was brought nearer their baranggay. They can hear the screams of their neighbors who are trying to run away.

"Tay, I think we should go," suggested Elena while clutching her mother.

"She is right, Onorio," seconded Aling Luisa who is trembling with worry for their family. "Let us go to my sister's house at the town proper. It may be safer there."

After a little thought, Mang Onorio said, "Okay, gather all essential things that we can bring. Then we will go."

The family hurriedly packed a few essentials. They put change of clothes, underpants, and a little food in two bayongs. Elena went to pick up the radio but Edgardo got there ahead of her.

"I'll bring this one Ate," Edgardo said. "You can help nanay with Emilio and the other bayong. I will carry the this one," referring to the other bayong he is holding with one hand as his other arm clutches the radio.

The family went out the back door and walked into the dark as the gunshots can be heard about a block away.

Then they heard bullets zing past them. In panic, Luisa and Elena ducked in a nearby dug out drainage as people run past them to the safety of the town proper.

Elena and her mother got separated from the rest of the family. The gunshots grew louder as the fighting got nearer.

"Come here anak," urged Luisa. "Let's hide inside this culvert."

The two crawled into the culvert. Elena just pulled her leg in when rebels jumped into the drainage for protection. They did not notice the mother and daughter because they were focusing on the soldiers chasing them.

Luisa hugged Elena who has her hands covering her ears. "Don't worry, anak," she whispered to her. "We will be safe here as long as they do not notice us," she said as grenades began exploding nearby.

A grenade blew a few feet away from the culvert in between several rebels crouched in the drainage. The loud explosion, the blast of air and the blood of killed rebels knocked mother and child unconscious.

They were woken up a few hours later by soldiers who were inspecting the result of the battle and assisted them out of the culvert and up the road. Their names were taken and they were interrogated.

"I'm sorry but you cannot go to the town proper," the regretful military officer told them. "The rebels are currently holding the place under siege."

Worried as she was about the fate of her husband and sons, Luisa brought Elena to Leyte. She had a brother there whom she can ask for help.

Days, weeks, and months passed and they have never heard from Mang Onorio. Her mother got depressed while Elena found it hard to study.

Years later, the mother and daughter moved to Manila as Aling Luisa went to find work to help sustain what remains of her family. Elena went to the Manuel L Quezon University to study nursing so she can go abroad to make their lives even better. That is where she met Alfredo. A handsome dashing young man who fancied her. They hit it off immediately and Elena was happy for that. Alfredo helped her regain her glow that she lost when that grenade exploded near her not more than six years ago.

Their love brought them to live together as Elena's mother went to work as a domestic helper in Hong Kong. That was when the beatings began. Alfredo was a jealous man and he always blamed Elena every time another man looks and smiles at her.

When she got pregnant, Alfredo left her thinking that her child was sired by another man.

Her heart broken, she had to make ends meet for her and her still unborn child. Life has eased for her when suddenly this horrifying figure appeared. She once again felt the fear she had while huddled in that culvert as she stared at the hooded figure in front of her.

"What do you want from me!" she finally screamed at the figure.

"You," the figure replied in an unearthly voice. "I have no business with you."

The hooded figure then held his closed fists in front of him, left hand on top of the right as if holding a bat. Then he moved them apart as if feeling an imaginary pole. A bright rod of light appeared to form extending between and beyond the man's fists. Then the rod turned into a dark wood with tribal designs. There is an inscription in the wood that Elena could not discern. She thought she saw those characters before. As the man finished his movement, a spear materializes. It has a serrated stone-like spearhead and decorative strings tied where the spearhead meets the wood.

The man stepped back turning the spear toward Elena. He had his left hand palms down holding the spear on its foreshaft as his other hand holds the spear midway on the lower end of the pole his palms down. He raised the spear, ready to strike Elena.

"It is unfortunate that you will have to die as well," said the man as Elena watched in horror, unable to move away.

She closed her eyes and prayed, turning her head away while supporting her body with both arms behind her. "My God! Please save me and my baby!"

"Your god has brought this upon you," the man said as he made a final pull to lunge at Elena.

With great strength moving both body and arms, the man thrust the spear not toward Elena's heart but to her womb.

Elena waited for the sound of flesh being torn but what she heard instead was a clang of metal against metal and the thud of the spear hitting concrete.

She quickly opened her eyes as a long and large bolo riddled with markings held by someone behind her left the spear it parried and swung toward the spear holding assailant.

The assailant jumped back pulling the spear away with him holding it near the poles end.

Elena saw her savior jump over her in a flutter of cloth to chase her assassin. Then she lost consciousness.