Chapter 22

He looked so frail, not the robust fit man he had been when she left Fiji years ago. Her heart melted. She brushed away tears as she walked towards him. His watery eyes widened when she neared him.

“Uncle J. How are you doing?”

He looked like he was minutes away from a heart attack. His eyes bulged with terror. She wondered why.

“Penina…Iko sa mate?” (English: Are you dead?)

Her eyes teared.

She’d forgotten he had been the only one to use her full name. Her dad had been the other. This distant cousin of his had been his best friend.

“Io, Momo…” (Yes, uncle.)

She continued on in the Fijian language, advising him on where to find her body. She was puzzled when he trembled as she gave him directions. When she ended, his eyes were brimming over, his body shaking. He held on to the couch as he tried to step away.

“Momo, what is it?”

She was scared she might be the cause of his demise. Now that he knew for sure she was a ghost. Then she stopped her instinctive movement to reassure him because his attention was not on her.

He was looking beyond her.

His eyes were wide with distaste.

“You…” He spluttered in Fijian. “You dare to show your face? You murderer. Did you kill Penina too?”

Stunned, Nina jerked around to see who he was addressing.

Her aunt stood there.

But she didn’t look like the aunt she knew.

The look on her face chilled her to the bone.

She stared horrified as she saw a menacing, murderous look flash across her aunts’ face. The scornful tone she used further solidified the horror of the unfolding nightmare.

“Why couldn’t you keep your big mouth shut.” She asked him in Fijian.

Nina shivered.

Her aunt’s voice sounded terrifying.

How could someone she thought she knew so well, change so drastically?

It was like a horror movie unfolding before her eyes.

She watched in fascinated terror as her aunt turned that look on her.

“Yes, because of you I died. You had the gift I didn’t have. I wanted what you had. I craved to have it. I killed to have it. But my son always got in the way.”

Dimly, Nina heard a gasp from beside her. That brought her out of the paralysis she had been held in. She glanced to her side without moving her head. Semi had just entered the room. Just in time to hear her confession.

She wished with all her heart he hadn’t, but it was too late.

But he surprised her. In a breathless, but strong voice, he spoke, “I knew it. I suspected you had something to do with Aunt Lani and Uncle Sakiusa’s deaths. I couldn’t prove it, so I tried to give you the benefit of the doubt. I numbed myself all these years, into believing my own mother couldn’t be that wicked. She loved me, didn’t she? I kept thinking it was evil of me to think that of my own mother. She showed only love towards my best friend, my only sister in the world. She took care of the two of us.”

He stopped to gulp in air.

“Oh, mother. Why? Why deprive Nina of her parents? And me, of my favorite Uncle.”

His voice broke.

Nina stepped to him, wrapping her arms around his heaving shoulders. She tried to comfort him, as they mourned anew.

She hadn’t suspected this.

In all her imaginings, she hadn’t had an inkling of her aunt’s hatred, nor jealousy.

“Well. That was truly enlightening.” Drawled Cagilaba as he appeared beside Aunt Seni.

Brett appeared on her other side, caging her in.

“Seriously?” He asked Cagilaba in a bored tone.

“Is that all you could come up with?”

“What? That’s all I could think to say.” Cagilaba shrugged.

“I’m speechless with shock. The culprit was under our noses all the time.” He ended his monologue.

“Wh…hh…at?” Stammered Uncle Jo from behind her. “Who…hoo are they?”

She had been too caught up in the emotional moment, she had forgotten about him.

Her uncle’s heart might give out with too much overload.

Her arms fall from Semi as she turned. Uncle Jo’s eyes were almost bulging. It would have looked comical to she and Semi at one time. They would have been falling about laughing by now. But at this moment they were both tense with tangible horror, and an overwhelming sorrow.

“Uncle, they’re friends.”

He relaxed at her reassurance.

She stepped to him.

He recoiled. Stepped back. She stopped, stood where she was.

“That’s Brett, and that’s Cagilaba.” She introduced the two.

They nodded a greeting but didn’t move from their positions beside Aunt Seni.

Were they ensuring she didn’t escape?

Or were they there to stop her from trying to hurt her uncle?

“Penina, I will send the young men out to find your body in the morning. Then we will have a traditional Fijian funeral. Go in peace now.”

Her uncle was still petrified.

But he still had the presence of mind to promise her a traditional farewell.

“Thank you, Uncle J. Moce for now.” (‘moce’ is goodbye in Fijian}

She stepped out of the house, feeling a deep hollowness.

Semi and Brett came to stand beside her. Cagilaba walked out with her aunt. She marveled when she saw her hands shackled with golden handcuffs. Angel shackles.

“I’ll be taking her to stand before the council.” Brett explained.

“Then she will have to go somewhere to work out her sentence. It may be some time, but I’ll be back.”

He took a deep breath.

Turning to Cagilaba, he warned.

“Take care of them. And stay away from her.”

His voice was hard as steel.

It didn’t faze Cagilaba.

“I’ll be seeing you around.”

There was laughter in his voice.

But it was cut short, and turned into a growl, when Brett bent his head to kiss her. His lips compelled hers to open to him.

She was breathless when he finally released her lips.

“I’ll be seeing you all.”

He stepped away.

His hand reached out to snag Aunt Seni’s arm, but he froze when Nina gripped his.

“Wait.”

She stepped around him to face her aunt.

“Why? And who did that voice belong to if it wasn’t Cagilaba?”

She was desperately trying to hold it together, but she wouldn’t allow herself to fall apart. She needed answers.

Now.

Her aunt sneered.

Before she could answer, there was a whoosh.

A thick wall of fire came out of nowhere.

One minute her aunt was standing there, the next she was gone. The golden handcuffs clanked as it crashed onto the ground, empty.

Semi yelled; his voice filled with horror.

Nina couldn’t process, unable to understand what had just transpired.

Before she could think, Brett tackled her to the ground.

His body covered hers.

“Stay down.” He yelled in her ear.

She winced.

“I’m dead. Remember?”

She was mad all of a sudden.

“What the hell just happened?”

She tried to push him off.

“Are you crazy, woman?”

He didn’t wait for an answer, as he stood to pull her up.

“Stay there. I’m going to get Semi.”

His voice grim, he turned to look around.

Semi’s scared voice came from somewhere to the side.

“Nina. Where are you?”

Dawn was painting the skies with golden fingertips, but darkness still surrounded them. She could dimly see a silhouette which looked like Cagilaba. Brett met up with him, then they turned to where the sound of Semi’s voice had originated from. Following the aim of their direction with her eyes, she was shocked into immobility at what she beheld.

The man holding Semi by the throat was huge. Cagilaba and Brett looked puny measured against him. She was dimly aware Brett had rushed back to her side, but her eyes never wavered from the hulking shape.

Cagilaba stood his ground, halfway between them, and the giant holding onto Semi.

She had no doubt this was the beast that killed her aunt.

Her heart grieved, but Semi’s plight concerned her right now.

“Please don’t hurt him. Please. Let him go.”

She managed to croak past the lump in her throat He heard her.

As Brett pushed her behind him, held her there, the giant’s deep booming voice came to her.

“I won’t hurt him, if you come to me now.”

Brett tensed.

“Like hell she will.” He thundered back.

“Let him go then. I will come to you. But first, who are you?”

His raspy answering whisper caused chills to skitter up and down her back.

She trembled.

She would recognize that raspy whisper anywhere.

“That was you?”

Her voice came out as a squeak.

She cleared her throat.

“Who are you?”

That sounded better.

“Cagitoba.”

“Fuck.” Cagilaba swore.

She heard the disgust and anger in his voice.

‘What was this?’

“Why? Why did you kill them?” Cagilaba asked, his voice was restrained.

“You are my intended bride, promised to me for services rendered.”

Brett tensed, then swore out loud and long.

He ended with a challenge, “Over my dead body.”

“Mine too.” Affirmed Cagilaba, his voice a roar.

Cagitoba chuckled.

“That can be arranged. Now let’s get serious. Either you come now, or I will have to obliterate your cousin, just as I did your aunt. Then I will obliterate your angels.”

His hands raised in a threatening gesture.

“Stop! I’ll come. Let Semi go.”

“I will, when you’re here.” He growled back at her.

“What are you saying” Brett roared at her. “I won’t allow you to go with him.”

“You have no choice. I have no choice. I won’t allow him to obliterate my cousin. Besides, I have no intention of giving myself freely.” She whispered the last into Brett’s ear, as she stepped away.

She knew they wouldn’t stop her.

They would respect her wishes.

She hadn’t given them any choice.

The early morning sun highlighted them all as she walked to Cagitoba. Brett’s eyes blazed with suppressed emotions. She could see them all, as she knew he could see hers. Cagilaba watched her with hooded eyes. An unspoken promise of death lurked deep in them.

She perused Cagitoba as she neared him. He was a giant, but he wasn’t horned as expected. The tales of demons were not true. They looked ordinary.

Human.

Except this one was a giant.

He gripped her arm, then pushed Semi away with a grunt. Semi was scared, but he valiantly protested.

“No, my sister. Don’t! He’s a demon. They always lie. He will kill you.”

Cagitoba gripped her tighter.

“I promise I will come for you. Wherever you may be.”

She heard Brett’s grim promise as her surroundings changed.

The last sight she had, was of the three uplifted faces, filled with despair, anger.

To Be Continued…