“Wait up! You’re walking too fast!” Reymark tries to catch up to the rest of the tour group. “I thought this was supposed to be a stroll, you guys act like you’re in a marathon.”
“Ok everyone, the slowpoke’s complaining, I guess that means everyone else has to adjust.” Maria hit back with her trademark smirk. “Why did you even come with us? You knew that you’d be in the group with experienced mountaineers.”
“I know why he’s with us.” Jori elbowed Reymark and gave a knowing glance.
“Shut up.” Reymark elbowed back.
“Enough, all of you. This is a nice, relaxing trek. Let’s keep it that way, alright?” Danylyn pointed towards the base of a balete tree. “We can rest over there.”
The group stopped their bickering and surrendered to their leader’s wishes. It had been a rough trek, even by their standards. The mountaineers welcomed a chance to catch their breath and rehydrate.
Sweat was collecting on their foreheads, the sun was especially merciless today.
“You guys go ahead, I can catch up,” Reymark said.
“Oh come on, we’re less than halfway there. You can’t keep taking breaks when things get hard. Soldier on.” Danylyn tried to boost her friend’s morale, but there was little success.
“I mean it, go ahead without me. I can stay here by the shade and catch up when I have my energy back.”
“But Rey, you’ll miss the great view.” Jori nudged his head in Maria’s direction and she was thankfully oblivious to the gesture’s meaning.
“Guys, seriously. I’ll just slow you down. We can meet up after you guys finish the trek and I can have lunch or something.”
“If you say so.” Danylyn picked up her backpack and took a final sip of water. “Alright guys, gear up, let’s get this hike finished and see the top of this mountain, time to hustle.”
The rest of the group took their gear and headed up the steep incline. Jori sped up to match Danylyn’s stride and Danylyn ignored him as she always did. Elections were coming up and Jori wanted to be the president, he tried to show his capabilities by attempting to overshadow Danylyn.
Maria was in her own little world. She put her earphones on and set the volume to maximum. She didn’t care about petty things like positions. She came to the mountain to unwind and leave the burdens of the city behind.
And that left Reymark underneath the balete tree. His heartbeat had stopped its rapid crescendo and normalized into a smooth aria. He caught one last glimpse of Maria before she caught up with the rest of the group and his heart started up again.
“Dammit, not now.” He ordered his heart to ignore the truth he so desperately tried to hide. Reymark gave a sigh of surrender. Maybe it was finally time to roll the dice and tell Maria what he felt.
“What’s the worst that could happen? “ He thought out loud.
“Maybe she isn’t the one for you.” A beautiful, almost melodic voice replied.
Reymark looked around, there was no one there with him. The shade of the balete tree shielded him from the overbearing sun, and he was certain that only the tree and himself were the only living beings around.
“Now I’m hearing things.” Reymark rubbed his eyes and yawned. The trek must have taken more out of him than he thought. He sat on a flat rock and leaned his back against the tree.
“She will never love you.” He heard the voice again. This time it was loud and crisp, almost as if the voice spoke directly to his ear.
“Hello? Jori if this is another one of your pranks it’s not funny!” Reymark waited for a reply. Jori’s incessant teasing was getting on his nerves and it was about time he gave the pest a piece of his mind.
“She will never love you. Not like I do.” The voice came from behind him. Reymark turned around and faced the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Her features seemed to be carved from the most expensive marble, her hair cascaded down her shoulders like a jet-black waterfall.
It was her eyes that he couldn’t escape from. They were deep set and seemed to pierce into his soul the longer she looked at him.
“Why do you love her?” The strange woman asked.
“She’s smart and beautiful,” Reymark answered.
“No, that’s not it, is it? There’s something more.” Her penetrating gaze shed the layers of doubt that normally filled Reymark.
“She—“ Reymark tried to answer again but he woman put her hand on his chest.
“You cannot hide the truth, not even from yourself.” She looked him in the eyes, with an almost melancholy expression. “Even if you wanted to.”
“She was the only one that laughed.” The truth seemed to flow out of him. “Whenever I tell jokes, everyone says how corny they are and they make fun of me, but not her. Maria was the only one who would laugh at my jokes. She would always smirk when I was around and I thought that meant she liked me too but I’m not sure. I never told her.”
“That you loved her?”
“She is the only girl I dream about. I would do anything to be with her.”
“A dangerous sentiment.” The woman sat on a flat rock in front of Reymark. “Love like that never has a good ending.”
“What do you mean?”
“A fire that burns that bright only lasts half as long.”
Reymark stared at the woman. Beautiful as she was, he could sense sadness behind her placid exterior. She stood up and touched the tree behind him and pulled out a skull.
He stepped back, startled by the object the woman was holding.
“This was my first love.” The woman stared into the skull and her voice softened. “We thought the world was ours to take.” She set it on the foot of the tree. “We were wrong.”
Reymark felt the ground rumble. The balete tree looked as if it was opening up, the vines and leaves revealing a macabre sight. Six skeletons were lined up beneath the tree. The bones were in immaculate condition, shining bright in the afternoon sun.
“We were all wrong.”
Even the wind respected the stillness of the scene. Reymark stood silent, his breathing a reminder of the reality of the situation. The woman just stood in front of him, lost in her own thoughts.
“Do you know what happens when one of my kind falls in love with a human?” She walked to the rightmost set of bones and held its hand. “This happens.”
“Love is dance to a deadly rhythm. You lose parts of yourself you didn’t realize you had. Then, it finally hits you. It was love all along. The cause and crisis, the ever-present menace. The end and the beginning. “
The light reflected on the tears flowing down her face.
“She will never love you. Not like I do.”
Reymark felt his legs buckle, weakness spreading over his body. The balete tree seemed to be growing around him, the vines wrapping about his limbs.
The woman leaned in close and kissed Reymark.
“I love you.”
The tree embraced him, he tried to move his arms but his body would not cooperate. The balete tree engulfed Reymark until not a single trace was left.
“I love you.”
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Written by Karl Gaverza
Copyright © Karl Gaverza
Inspired by ‘The Enchanted Tree of Parang.’ in Philippine Folk Literature: The Legends. Eugenio. 2002.
Engkantada Illustration by Kurt Prieto
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