River Yao, a young regular reader of Likhaan Online, is a Filipina who sent this contribution all the way from New Zealand. She introduces herself to us:

My pen name is River Yao. I am 20 years old.  As for my educational background, I graduated highschool from St. Jude Catholic School here in Manila and studied in Ateneo de Manila University for two years before transferring to the University of Otago in New Zealand where I am currently studying. 

My favorite authors such as CS Lewis, and Robin McKinley influenced my writing style. I love reading fantasy stories: ALL Robin McKinley books, Chronicles of Narnia, and the Hobbit. 
 

     There was really nothing sinister about the house or its past. It belonged to her grandparents, who were still alive and before that it had belonged to her great grandparents. Nothing really melodramatic about it. Except for the shadows that seemed to loom about.  

     Lara sat idly on a couch on the side of the dining room, watching impassively as everyone talked and ate.  She stared at the reflected glimmer of the pale lights around the room on the purple liquid of her glass of grape juice. Hardly anything exciting at all.   Then, slowly,  an image of a tall, brown haired man, reaching out his hands towards her, crept into her mind¹s eye. 

     She didn¹t know how long she sat there captivated, staring at him in her reverie, when suddenly, her cousin Mila approached her.  Lara looked up, feeling as if things were going in slow motion. She hardly 
ever talked to Mila, nor did she want to.  Mila, although she did not look freaky, freaked Lara out a lot. Mila was into the occult and supernatural.  And although Lara was interested in those topics, she 
did not want to be involved in them in any way. 

     "Hey, do you want to go out and take a stroll?  I¹ll show you around the neighborhood."   
Mila stared at Lara with her large pitch black eyes. 

     Lara looked up.  Before the words "no, thank you" could escape her lips, she realised that although she visited her grandparents quite frequently by car, she had never bothered to venture into the neighborhood on foot. She glanced at her relatives--taking, eating, milling around--then her liquid brown eyes met Mila¹s as she nodded.  

     "The shadows--they are real," said Mila abruptly as Lara stood up and fell into step beside her. 

     Puzzled, Lara met Mila's eyes, but did not say anything. She waited for Mila to continue. Mila remained silent though, as they walked out of the large wooden door and into the street.  The sunset was a wondrous maze of pinks and oranges in the sky.  There was an eerie quiet about the slight swaying of the palm and coconut trees as Mila and Lara walked down the road. Large houses flanked the street that they walked on.  Lara was left to her own thoughts which were wary, calm, but with a sense of fear. Oddly, the streets were empty. 

     Finally, a few blocks down, Mila knelt down on the ground and pried open the round metal sewer cover.  It didn¹t strike Lara as odd as to how someone Mila¹s size could actually manage to open a metal cover,  instead, she wondered why Mila was opening up the sewers.  Characteristically, she remained silent, although fear was slowly creeping up on her.  Finally, she managed to demand, "What are you doing?" 

     "You will meet my mother and father's friends today. They are having  a party," replied Mila, simply, as she slipped into the hole and made her way down the ladder into the sewers.  

     Lara, for no good reason at all but compelling curiosity, followed her down into the sewers, bracing herself for the stench and darkness.  Only, there was no stench and darkness.  It was a very large and 
clean tubular underground tunnel made of grayish silver material which Lara could not recognise.  There was utter and complete silence except for the sounds of their footsteps.  

     After what seemed like a long while, Mila led her up another ladder and pushed open another heavy metal sewer cover as easily as if it was made of plastic.  Mila helped Lara up to level ground.  Lara looked around, there were some trees around and there was a small concrete structure filled with people.  Instinctively, she walked towards the structure, suddenly oblivious to Mila. 

     "³There's a party,"² Mila informed her blandly, staring at her with her dark eyes. 

      Lara avoided her gaze and continued walking.  What appeared to be human forms from a distance, suddenly, revealed themselves to be non-human, to put it nicely.  The skin of the people were a sick shade of orange and they had black marks all over their body.  What stood out most was their eyes, they were so human, and yet not.  It seemed that they were filled with the dark side of the human spirit, so fully, that staring into their eyes was a mind numbing experience.  

     They looked up and stared at her, hundreds and hundreds of them, feasting on long tables.  What they were feasting on--Lara did not notice.  They were ghouls, creatures of the dark, and it dawned on her that Mila and her aunt and uncle belonged to them.  She stood there, shocked, and for some reason, although they did not move nor act threateningly, she started to run for her life. 

     "Lara, come back!" yelled Mila, still rooted to the spot she stood on, as she watched Lara run.  "The party is just getting started!" she added, snarling.  Although from her passive expression, one could 
not have known had one not heard her.  

      Run, run!  a voice in her head echoed.  

     Suddenly she came upon a small concrete house in the middle of the trees.  A doorman opened the door, and let her in with a knowing, expecting look.  "Help!" she gasped as she stumbled blindly into the 
house. 

     Suddenly, a pair of arms were around her, and she looked up into the warmest and the most beautiful eyes of deep brown she had ever seen. They were owned by a very handsome stranger whose face was enigmatic and beguiling. He acted as if he knew her, and as if he had been waiting for her--for a long, long time.   

     "Hush, darling, I¹m here. They will not harm you.  They have kept us away for so long.  For lifetimes.  But now, the time is right, you are with me, we are together once again." He kissed her gently. 

      Lara looked up, puzzled, yet drawn by his melting voice.  A feeling of deja vu swept into her and she suddenly felt, dizzy, disoriented. Then, everything went black. 

     "Lianna, Lianna!" an urgent whisper coaxed her.  "Don¹t leave me here, Lianna!"  Lara¹s blurred vision refocused on Kene, his brown eyes filled with unshed tears.  
     "Oh, Kene," she managed sorrowfully, her fingers brushing his cheek.  Tears rolled down her face from the corner of her eyes, her chest burning from the pain. "I will see you again, they cannot keep us apart," she whispered, as Kene bent down to hug her, unable to reply.  ³I will find you again," she promised.  Suddenly, her hands fell limp down on her side, and her eyes closed. 

     When she woke up, she was staring again into the eyes of the handsome stranger, although now, he was not a stranger anymore.  All the feelings that she did not know she had for him surged up from her 
hearth.   

     "Kene--"she began softly, her eyes meeting his familiar large brown eyes.  "What happened?"   His eyes gazed into hers, their souls meeting again in joy.   
     "My love..." he said tenderly, his hands caressing her face.  Suddenly, he looked away, into the distance, a worried expression coming over his face.  "We do not have long," he murmured.  He 
returned his gaze to her.  "Those ghouls--those shadows--" he began softly, still looking down upon Lara who was still lying on the bed, "they made the mistake of killing--" he paused, a stricken expression 
crossed if face at the word "killing" as he recalled,  "--you and thus letting your soul wander free into your next lives. They kept me captive for a century before I was finally free to find you." 

      Lara shivered as she recalled the shadows looming in her grandma¹s house.  "Why?" 
     "I don¹t know," Kene replied gravely.  "All I know is that they are looking for us now, again, knowing that we will be reunited."  His brown eyes met hers in a long thoughtful silence.  "There is only one 
way to escape into our next lives." 

      Lara met his eyes with quiet courage and dawning understanding.  

     "I give my life to you, Kene," she pledged. 
     "And to you, mine," responded Kene quietly. 

     Their lips joined in a passionate kiss before they took a sip of gleaming red wine.  Soon, two figures lay forever at rest on the bed in that room.  Lara, Kene, and the small concrete house in the middle of the clearing of trees was since gone from memory and existence. 
 

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