A Soul's Journey

Chapter Twelve

With popping eyes and plastered mouth, Von just stared at the figure that slowly shaped into a human outline. It took the form of a female.

"Who are you?" There was a pounding of sort in Von's heart.

"I'm Michelle. Your evil desires brought me here but I was a bit late to stop you."

"You have no business coming here and intervene with my plans."

"I'm an invisible helper."

"Just like Danilo?"

"And where is he now?"

"He just disappeared...maybe to be with his wife."

"Yes, he disappeared because he knew me. He wouldn't stay even a second with me."

"Well, I don't care what's between you and him. All I can say is, I am satisfied and happy that my vengeance had been carried out."

"Vengeance? Did you say vengeance?

"You heard it."

"In this world you are in, you are supposed to repent for your sins. For what you have done, you were putting yourself in a hole you could hardly get out. You should have placed the resolution in the hands of the Lord and not in your hands. Do you think you attained justice in what you did?"

"Yes, I did. He took matters into his hands and took away my life. This guy ruined my future...my happiness...my Kim...my life!" Von's voice was getting louder. "And even a thousand of his life is not enough to pay for everything I lost."

"Everything has a purpose and will be revealed in an appropriate time." Michelle stayed cool in spite of Von's sky rocketing voice.

Michelle calmly held Von's hand and led him away. He couldn't explain why he followed her without hesitation. They went inside a noisy and crowded room of a hospital. Immeasurable painful cries from human beings of different ages and sexes bombarded their ears. Faces with dripping blood, pale colored skin, cracked bones and other painful looks greeted their sight. A handful of medical personnel tirelessly crammed to attend to the needs of patients in this stomach-churning room. Michelle, still holding Von, stopped beside her target, a woman in her mid-twenties crying over a bloodied guy.

"Look at her, Von. Listen to every word coming from her lips, and feel the thoughts and the emotions coming out of her heart."

Von glanced at the motionless body of a man sprawled on the floor that he recognized as Boy Scar and then fixed his eyes on the hapless pregnant woman crying hysterically and desperately begging for the doctor to save the life of the man, her husband. Her left hand wrapped around her frail two-year old baby girl while the other hand tightly held the edge of the doctor's stained sleeve. As the wife begged for the doctor to save the life of her husband, the little girl watched around but not knowing what was happening in her little world; she did not have the slightest inkling that death was slowly taking her father away.

"Woman, we can't do anything to save him, he's dead. I still have to attend to the other patients. I will let the aides bring him to the morgue instead." The doctor turned around.

The doctor's word was like a pointed dagger that pierced through the heart of the woman but her love of her husband prevailed over hopelessness. She continued her plea. The doctor wiggled his hand to free himself but the woman clung on to his leg. He gently but strongly pushed her head away and freed himself.

The scene didn't escape from the eyes of Von and Michelle.

Von tried to embolden himself and resisted the pangs of the woman's crying. But the emotion of the woman kept pounding his heart until it broke the defense and exposed his merciful heart. He tried to leave the place but Michelle called him to stay.

He wouldn't allow Michelle to change his stand. He resumed the defense of his action. "You should have seen how Kim suffered from my loss, she was even hospitalized."

"Who were with her in the hospital?"

He trained his eyes away from Michelle and the crying wife. "She was with her parents."

"And friends, isn't it?"

"Yes...and the pain broke their hearts, too."

Look at the woman, who are with her to share her agony and pain? There is one...her daughter—a daughter that knew nothing about life ahead but would harshly experience the bitterness of having no father. Who paid for the hospital bills of Kim? Now, who would handle the hospital expenses for this woman? She barely had anything to feed her daughter."

"Well, why blame me for all this stuff? Her husband took away my life and it is just right that I take away his life also...nothing more, nothing else. Her husband should have secured a better job, not intruding into the life of others."

"Your answers are shocking. You don't have the right to take away his life even if he did that to you."

He chose to remain silent...might be a sign of breaking down.

"Von..." Michelle was still calm and feeling his heart. "...we are individual souls cast into an ocean of other souls for a purpose that God only knew. But soon, after realization of some degree, it will be revealed to us the reason why. But for now, let's just face the reality and live it. Let us live and move within his rules so we won't go astray in the pursuit of holy life.

The renewed loud cry of the woman disturbed their conversation. She pleaded for the doctor to come back but her plea fell on deaf ears.

The woman's cry agitated the little child and drawn to cry with her.

The cries of the mother and child finally took toll on Von and broke his evasive heart. "Michelle, could you do me a favor?"

She stared at him.

"You told me you are an invisible helper..."

"So...?"

"Please, save the life of this guy." He dropped his head on his palm.

Silence reigned on them.

Then he raised his sight on her. "I beg you, Michelle."