Joy and relief showed in Cecilia's eyes when she saw Chris's features returning to normal. The bulging forehead ridges receded, and his skin returned to its normal fair to pale hue. The sharp claws all turned to dust, restoring his hands to their original form. All that morphed and became twisted because of his wrath changed back, returning Chris to his true form. After regaining his human form, even the eerie riverbank where they once were also vanished, returning to what it originally was.
Chris collapsed to his knees, and Cecilia caught him before he fell to the ground. "What was that?" The pawnshop owner stood up, and he looked at himself and saw that he had no wounds or injuries. "I felt every pain, every snapping bones, every torn flesh…but here I am without a scratch on me"
The pawnshop owner pointed his gun at Chris and Cecilia. "I don't know what witchcraft or voodoo curse you placed on me, but you won't get another chance to do it!" He shouted in fury.
Cecilia instinctively shielded the incapacitated Chris with her body, "No, don't hurt him!" she pleaded. Instead of a loud bang, what she heard was a hollow thud. She lifted her gaze and saw the pawnshop owner get cross-eyed, and he fell to the floor like an old piece of lumber.
Behind him was Chief Bustamante, who reverted to his spirit form and held a lead pipe: "I forgot how painful pain was." He said with a chuckle. Cecilia grinned back at him while cradling the unconscious captain.
Moments later, the police arrived and rounded up the perpetrators. "It was me; I killed the old man! I confess to his murder, I will confess to anything you want me to…just don't let him get me." The pawnshop owner deliriously shouted. His men reacted the same; they all confessed to their crime, as they were too afraid of undergoing another round of torment.
Chief Bustamante was talking to the arresting police officers, and Chief Murillo went back to the Twilight to get people to prepare for the old man's funeral, while Martinez tended to the captain. Cecilia approached him, glancing at the unconscious captain on the stretcher. She sat beside Martinez, who was trying his best to avoid her gaze. "Are you feeling well now?" she asked with the utmost concern. Martinez only nodded; he was too ashamed to speak to her directly.
"Is it okay to ask what happened to you?" She delicately asked the helmsman.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to run away and cower, but when I heard those gunshots…I froze in fear," Martinez explained. "It was like I was back on the beaches of Normandy."
Cecilia scoots over to Martinez and, with sisterly concern, wraps an arm around Martinez's shoulders. "It's okay, don't worry about it, I know what happened to you during D-Day, and I don't blame you if those sounds triggered something inside you."
Martinez shook his head, "It's not like that, Miss Bermudez," he corrected her, "I did not die fighting that day, I died running away in fear." Tears began to flow from his eyes as he recalled the painful story. Cecilia, on the other hand, was shocked by the personal revelation she was hearing, but she did not move away from Martinez.
The sounds of bombs and gunshots rang in Martinez's mind, while the fire from explosions and gunfire flashed in his eyes. The stench of burning flesh and blood filled his memories, and he closed his eyes. "The sixth day of the sixth month during the forty-fourth year, Operation Overlord was underway." He began to recall the truth behind his death that fateful day.
"I was with my best friend, Carl, and we successfully reached the beach and were behind some large steel thing called the 'Atlantic Wall', and the two of us were joking despite the ongoing hellish battle around us."
D-Day, Beaches of Normandy - Year 1944
"Hey Mario, I bet I'll get to shoot way more enemy soldiers than you," Carl snickered as he carefully peered around the steel structure.
"Have you been smoking weed again? You have a terrible aim. How are you going to hit anything?" Martinez fired back as he did some reconnaissance himself.
"The fire is getting concentrated in the middle. This is our chance, let's go!" Martinez grabbed his gun and made sure his gear was secured, standing up from his hiding place and running to the next clearing
Carl was following Martinez when he glanced at one of the pillboxes and saw an enemy soldier redirect a machine gun towards Martinez. "Watch out!" he shouted as he pushed Martínez out of harm's way. From out of nowhere, Martinez heard the mechanical whirring of a powerful Gatling gun, and he watched helplessly from the ground as Carl was mercilessly ripped apart by the enemy's armament.
Martinez screamed in terror when he saw that there was barely anything left of his friend. He clawed at his head, and he whimpered like a child. It was then that the horrors of war dawned on him; he watched as young men like himself were getting slaughtered and blown apart. He cried and wailed as he saw the blank stares of his fallen comrades all directed at him.
When the whirring stopped, he scampered to his feet to run back to the ships that brought them there. He had not even taken a step when he felt a stinging sensation on his chest. He looked down and saw blood oozing from a gaping wound. He was not even able to process what had happened to him when he felt bullets tear into his back. The world spun, and he collapsed face-first onto the blood-soaked sand, choking on the metallic taste of his own blood. His last breath was a ragged whisper in the hellscape of war.
Nasugbu, Batangas, Philippines - Year 2025
Cecilia couldn't help but shed a tear for her friend, and out of compassion and pity, she hugged a sobbing Martinez, trying to calm him down. "It's okay, it's all in the past now, let it all out, just cry as much as you want to," Cecilia said as she stroked the helmsman's back.
"Do you know why I stayed with the captain?" Martinez asked in between sobs, "So that I can postpone my judgment, because I know I will be punished for my cowardice."
Cecilia hugged him tighter and whispered to him, "Nobody thinks you are a coward; you will not be judged by anyone for being afraid, least of all me." She tenderly told him.
Meanwhile, on board the Twilight, a pair of hands caresses a heart-shaped locket. The pair of women's hands turned the locket over, showing the passage 'You and Me, till forever ends'. She opened the locket and revealed an old hand-sketch drawing of the captain and a beautiful Spanish lady. The woman closed the locket when she heard a knock on the door. She then tucked the locket inside her blouse, stood up, and left her room.