Inside the car, Catherine noticed that John was a bit silent throughout the ride."I want you to meet my first love, Dahlia. We will get there in a few minutes. She is related to my past. It"s important that you knew about her," said John in a mellow voice.
Catherine didn"t say anything to him. She fixed her attention to the car"s window. Deep inside she was already thinking who is this woman? If she was his first love then why would she need to meet her? John mentioned to her early about going to the cemetery.
Does his "ex" live near the cemetery?
The sun was just about to set when they reached the cemetery. The car stopped at the entrance and the driver brought a pot of flower and two candles. Then the car proceeds inside.
They parked near the lamp post.
John picks up the pot of flower and the candles and they continue walking towards a solitary tomb a few meters ahead.
The whole place was dotted with flowers especially along the pathways. For some reason, Catherine felt at ease.
Now things became clearer for Catherine, it finally dawned on her, on where does John"s "ex" was currently living---in the cemetery!
Dahlia was already a deceased person...
They stopped at the grave with Dahlia"s Aquino"s name written on it. John put down the pot of flower and placed the candle on the candle holder and wait for Ramon to light the candle with his gold lighter, after lighting the candle Ramon proceeds to wipe the dust on the surface of the marble grave. Done with dusting, he turned around and went back to the car.
John sighed and stared at the tombstone.
"Catherine meet my first love, Dahlia. Don"t worry you may be my second love but you will be my last for sure," he winked at her.
He kissed Catherine"s forehead in front of his ex-girlfriend"s resting place.
They sat down on the bermudagra.s.s.
"I will now start recounting to you my story with Dahlia," he said.
"John, spare me the intimate details...," she said
John smiled at her and held her hand securely into his lap.
"Okay. To make the story short, Dahlia and I are about to get married. One day when I return from my trip from Zamboanga Del Sur and visits her, the murder happened that night. I saw her naked about to get molested by the masked man in her room. I fought hard with the man, in the end, Dahlia died by ma.s.sive blood loss due to the inflicted wound in her neck made by the knife man. He was not satisfied, he carved all these scars in my face. Until now he was at large. He totally vanished from the face of the earth and was never caught to pay for his crime until this day."
"That is sad, John. I"m sorry for your loss and for what happened to Dahlia. It must be very hard for you to accept the fact that she was already gone."
"Yeah, looking back, the first few months of her pa.s.sing was very hard for me. But I was able to come to terms with her death after one year of endless torture and nightmares. I was confined to my own world, a total recluse, alone most of the time, tormented with Dahlia"s cries of help almost every night."
"Jump to the present. I meet you and my world took a 100% degree turn. Now you become the center of my world. I am afraid I will lose you one day that is why I have to marry you quickly!" He brought her hands to his mouth and kissed them.
Catherine stared at Dahlia"s tomb, she suddenly felt a chill on her nape as if a wind suddenly pa.s.ses by behind her. She had her long hair tied in a ponytail.
"John, stop kissing me in front of your ex, she might get angry!" she s.n.a.t.c.hed her hands away from him.
John only smiled at her. "She won"t be angry with you. I am sure she is happy now in heaven knowing I already meet somebody new to spend the rest of my life with. I"m sure she doesn"t want me to spend my life alone living with just her memories..."
Catherine sighed. The tragic fate of Dahlia shaken her a bit.
"Who could be the killer? I think the killer is her "ex"," she suddenly blurted out.
John stared at her face. "I think the same. The last thing I heard and remember from the killer was that he screamed at my face telling me that Dahlia is his alone. As if he was trying to tell me that they have a relations.h.i.+p or something. As far as I can remember, she was single when we began dating. And during the length of our relations.h.i.+p, no guy ever come forward to claim that he was her ex or something. The Police investigator cannot find any fault on her previous boyfriends who were already married or anyone that can be a suspect to the murder case."
"Dahlia might know the suspect, too bad she died too early." Suddenly she felt a cold wind caresses her spine---again?!
She straightened her body and looked at her back, yet she saw nothing!
"Did you just blow air to my nape?" she asked John.
"No. Why? Something wrong---?" He tried to check what was on her nape.
"Nothing..."
But Jhon already planted a wet kiss on her nape.
"You had a s.e.xy nape, Catherine." His voice suddenly went husky with pent up pa.s.sion wanting to be released.
Catherine"s eyes widen. "OMG! Don"t tell me you suddenly got aroused just looking at my nape?"
When she glances at his face his eyes were already unreadable.
"Hey John...," she poked at his arm.
"Come with me Catherine," he said.
Her brows furrowed. "Where?"
"In the restroom," he replied.
"Huh? Do you want to take a pee? Go ahead, I will just wait for you here," she said.
"Are you sure you don"t want to come with me?" he asked again.
"Yes am sure."
"Okay, if you change your mind go after me. I will be waiting for you there," he said and winked at her.
John rose to his feet and sauntered towards the direction of the comfort room.
Catherine was puzzled by John"s recent att.i.tude. Was he expecting that she will follow him in the toilet so that they can have a quickie? Right in the middle of the cemetery? Heck no!
She continues looking at Dahlia"s tombstone.
"Hi... sister Dahlia, don"t worry I will take care of John from now on. Hope you are living in peace wherever you are right now," she whispered.
Then out of the blue, something bit off her leg, she saw some black ants crawling on her leg, the others were already climbing in her shoes, she saw not only twenty but hundreds of black ants crawling towards the area where she was sitting. She swatted away the insects from her shoes.
She immediately rose to her feet and put a distance between her and the crawling insects.
She looked at the direction of the toilet, John just came out from one of the cubicles.
A tiny sprinkle of water fell from the sky, the heaven above suddenly turned dark, and rains start falling down.
"Run towards the car Catherine!" John pulled her into the direction of the car.
Ramon was already opening the car"s door for them.
The moment they entered the car, the rain already pours down in torrents outside the vehicle. When the car was already out of the cemetery and traveling smoothly along the highway the rain stopped pouring.
Catherine stared back at the cemetery"s direction. The rain still continues pouring hard in the area where the cemetery was located.
"What are you looking at?" asked John.
"I"m looking back at the cemetery, the rain was still pouring heavily over there. Dahlia must be very angry because you are getting married soon," she said in a serious tone.
John smiled at her. "Trust me she won"t!"
He pulled her body next to him for a tight embrace. He doesn"t want her to entertain negative thoughts, only positive thoughts.