When Back In Time

Esperanza coughed.

"So how was the storm? Is it fun?" the little boy asked, looking at Esperanza who was laying on the sand.

The little boy held a small staff. He then turned himself into a young man of his 20's.

"Bangun Bangun?" Esperanza said and coughed again.

The god of Time and Cosmos looked at her and asked again, "Is it fun?"

Esperanza tried to recollect her thoughts and to what happened to her. She remembered she was on the ship, there was this angry n.a.k.e.d woman and a storm.

"What the heck is fun with that?" Esperanza retorted. "Who was that woman anyway? What is wrong with her? Why was she n.a.k.e.d?"

Esperanza was soaking wet. She had some wounds on her forehead, arms and her legs. Fortunately, she miraculously survived the storm.

"That woman you referring to," Bangun Bangun started, "She is Maguayen." Bangun Bangun straightened his barong. "Well…. Apparently she's a goddess."

"What?" she looked at Bangun Bangun, dumbfounded. "She's a goddess? Another deity? If she's a goddess, then what is her issue? Why she's so angry to me?"

"Isn't it obvious? You always waltz around there, tampering and disturbing the timeline, like you always did," he said.

"What? What do you mean?"

"You still don't get it? Didn't I warned you to never disturb the time where you don't belong? Didn't I tell you never to save someone's life and disturb their timeline?" he looked at her coldly.

Esperanza bent down her head and recollected what happened. That's right. She save someone's life again. That man on the cabin who had lost his lover. She saved him from hanging himself.

"Why is it….wrong to save other people?" she mumbled.

"You still don't get it, do you? It is not wrong to save other people, if it is your timeline, if you are not tampering the time by going to the past or to the future. But it is wrong to save someone who was destined to die, especially here in the past. Their history are already written and you should not change it. That thing that you did is not heroic but a grave sin. You did not let his life flow according to his destiny but according to your will."

Bangun Bangun said, "I'll tell you this once so this will enlighten your mind to never act recklessly while you are here in the past. That man you just saved will have a tragic life. He and his lover Rosario, was having an argument about the baby inside the woman's w.o.m.b. That woman, Rosario had an affair out of wedlock with another man. That's why, after their fight Rosario decided to end her life and her baby's because of the shameful and immoral thing she did to herself and to her lover. And then, out of guilt, her lover tried to kill himself. He was about to die, according to his fate, yet you save him. Thus, changing the course of his timeline....

"You did save one life. But don't you ever felt jolly over this act of yours. Because what you did triggers another catastrophic event that shouldn't happen if you just stay your cool and stop saving people."

He continued, "The man whom you proudly saved was safe after the storm hit the ship both of you were in. Then, after two years he will find himself in front of the house of her lover's affair. He will knock on their door and the affair's mother will open it and welcome the unwelcome guest. Peril will come forth as he raises his gun, with murderous intent, and shots first the mother, then the father who was in shock and sitting on the living room. Then the screaming sister will be found cold and dead on the kitchen....

"While the other man, the affair, with tears on his eyes, tried to fight back and avenge his family, kicked the gun away from the devastated lover. Then the man will find a way to murder the illicit other man by bludgeoning mortal blows on his back, his c.h.e.s.t and on his head. Not satisfied with this deed, the man shot the other man not just once on his head but two, three, four, five, six and seven. He shot him seven times with his gun. Afterwards, the man killed himself by pulling the trigger below his chin."

Esperanza could not find words to express but just weep.

"People knew what was happening inside that house but no one has the guts to help. They were afraid of him, him who became a madman, a killer," Bangun Bangun said. "That's why you should stop distorting the timeline of other people in this era. And that's why Maguayen is enraged, you were saving the people who're supposed to be dead. You did not only save one life, Pepe's, but also that man's life. You angered Maguayen the goddess of Sea and Death."

He continued, "And about that man, you could not do anything to his fate. You could not change him from becoming that murderous monster. That's why, weep human. Weep over your idiotic so-called heroic deed. All your actions were in vain as it will deliver things in despair."