Holding on to His Promises

Chapter 12: Haunted

He chuckled while combing his wet hair. "Don't go far away. May nanghihila ng paa rito," aniya.

Sinamaan ko siya ng tingin. "Oo, ikaw 'yon!"

Tumawa siya. "No. Seriously. I heard from an old man who lives near this falls that someone already died here because of drowning."

Bigla naman akong nakaramdam ng takot sa sinabi niya at nagsitaasan ang mga balahibo ko sa braso. "R-really?" It was obvious in my voice that I was scared.

"Yeah."

"P-pero bakit may mga naliligo at pumupunta pa rin dito?"

He shrugged. "Because they don't know about that story."

I wandered my eyes around the place. Dahil medyo papalubog na ang araw, parang naging nakakatakot na tuloy ang lugar sa paningin ko.

Naibalik ko ang tingin ko kay Dylan nang marinig ko ang mahinang pagtawa niya. Pinagmamasdan niya pala ang reaksyon ko. "Are you scared?" nakangising tanong niya.

"Who wouldn't? I find this place creepy now," tila mangiyak-ngiyak na sabi ko.

He looked at me with disbelief while still smiling.

A moment later my eyes widened when I felt something moving under my feet. "Oh my gosh, Dylan! Something's moving under the water!" I exclaimed.

I quickly jumped on him to hug him but he wasn't ready so he lost his balance and we both sank in the water. Malalim ang nilubog namin dahil 8 feet ang lalim ng tubig sa location namin. I just closed my eyes tightly while still hugging Storm in fear. I felt his one arm around my waist holding me, and I knew that he was using his one hand to swim and so that we could float again. After a while our heads finally appeared above the water to get some oxygen. We were both panting and gasping for air. He dragged me to the other part of the falls where the water was a little bit shallow and our feets could feel the sands under the water.

"Are you okay?" he worriedly asked me. He caressed my face and put the strands of my hair behind my ears. "The thing that was moving on your feet was just probably a fish," he said.

I could still feel my body shaking because of fear and coldness at the same time. "You really know how to scare me, Dylan." My lips trembled.

"I'm not scaring you, okay?"

"Yeah, right! But you know that I'm easy to be scared!" inis na sabi ko.

He just heaved a sigh and then gently pulled me closer to him, hugging me. "With me, you have nothing to fear, Demi," he said in a soft voice.

The weird feeling haunted me again and I felt my heart pound fast. I hated this feeling but I couldn't deny that I loved the warmth of his hug.

"Demi! Storm!"

He let go of me when his cousins called us. He held my hand and we both came out of the water. Nagpatianod lang ako sa kanya.

I thought we would go home after we swam in the waterfalls, but no, we stayed in the falls and they even made a bon fire. Napakadilim na ng paligid at ang bonfire na ginawa lang nila at ang bilog na buwan ang nagsisilbing liwanag namin. Now I was watching Kuya Breyden building the four tents. Tatlong katao raw ang pwedeng matulog doon kada isang tent.