"How did you..." I was lost for words when I saw Peter on the living room.
"Teo..." Peter's voice was shaky, his eyes were watering. I was still perplexed on how he knew where our house in Tagaytay was, but his expression also manages to confuse me.
I walked down the stairs, and Peter rushed to me and embraced me tightly.
"I missed you, I really missed you..." Peter uttered, his voice sounded really sad.
"How did you know I was here? How did you know this place?" I asked him.
"What is going on?" Damien asked as he walked down the stairs. "What is he doing here?! Can you let go of Teo...!?" Damien complained angrily as he approached us.
To our surprise, Peter moved away from me and then, in turn, embraced Damien.
"What the hell is happening here...?" Kuya Martin was confused, and rightfully so.
"What are you doing?!" Damien pushed away Peter angrily. "Are you drunk? Are you high? How did you even get here?!"
"Damien, it's me, don't you recognize me?"
"I know who you are." Damien said sarcastically as he pulled me to his side.
"No..." Peter sounded sad and exhausted. "I mean, it's me, your cousin... Peter"
"Don't you dare drag my cousin Peter in your messed up ploy to get closer to Teo!" Damien hissed angrily as he grabbed Peter's collar.
"Damien, don't..." I pulled him back. "Please, just calm down."
"Did you tell him?" Peter asked Damien without flinching. "Did you tell Teo what I told you at the hospital? Does he know?"
Somehow, Damien was taken aback by Peter's words.
"We made a promise remember?" Peter continued.
"What are you...?" Damien sounded confused as he pushed Peter away.
"Ever since I woke up from my accident, I kept on having this dream. At first, it was blurry, but when I met Teo it became more vivid like I was seeing more than a dream, but a forgotten memory." Peter looked at me. "You were prominent in my dreams, Teo..."
"Stop." Damien sounded impatient. "I don't know what kind of game you're trying to play, but enough is enough... How did you get here?!"
"I kept on dreaming about this place when I described it to Ela, she helped me find this place." Peter answered.
Of course, it was her. Ela, no, Gaia is behind all of this, I knew it.
"Go. Just leave." Damien told him.
"Just last night I collapsed, and as I was unconscious, I dreamt of myself being in a hospital bed. I thought I was remembering what happened to me after my accident, but the people surrounding me were unfamiliar... until I saw you..." Peter turned to Damien. "In my dream, we seemed really close, and then I started talking to you about Teo and..." Peter's face contorted, he looked like he was in pain. His face got pale and then suddenly he lost consciousness.
Peter fell on the floor and when I tried to see if he was ok, Damien pulled me back. "He's burning up." Kuya Martin said and carried Peter on the sofa.
"That must explain his delirium." Damien said sarcastically.
"I think we should bring him to the hospital, his high temperature is not natural." Kuya Martin insisted.
"Damien... Let's go..." I looked at him pleadingly.
"Fine." Damien replied. "I'll drive."
Kuya Martin carried Peter to Damien's car. "Let's go." Kuya Martin said as he closed the door and walked around the car.
We haven't even got inside when a familiar black car stopped near us. A man in a cap with his face hidden behind a mask and a shade stepped out of the car, and fear instantly crept in me. I knew who that man was and seeing him there scared the hell out of me.
I started trembling all over and I was in a state of utter panic. I was frozen on my feet, I couldn't move at all.
"Teo, get behind me..." Damien said as he pulled me to his side.
"Who is he?" Kuya Martin asked as he walked towards us.
"I told you... Teo is mine, and anyone who gets in my way would disappear...!" There was something off about the man's voice, something very eerie. He took out a gun and pointed it at Damien.
"Don't...!" I shouted in panic as I saw the gun. I tried to step in front of Damien but he pulled me behind.
"Fuck!" Kuya Martin exclaimed.
"Teo, stay behind me!" Damien shouted.
"Come with me, Teo, and no one will get hurt." The man threatened in a creepy manner.
Damien's grip on me got tighter. I could feel that he didn't want to let me go. "You can't have Teo, I won't allow it." Damien insisted.
Something is off. What's this feeling...? Something is definitely not right.
"Damien, something's not right..." I told him nervously. "What are you?" I asked my stalker. "What do you really want from me?"
It was weird how he was never caught, how no one could trace him. Like he would appear out of nowhere just to torment me and then disappear in thin air never to be seen by anyone at all.
"Don't provoke him, Teo." Kuya Martin told me. "Calm down, why don't you put the gun down and let's talk things out." He said to the stalker.
"Shut up! There's nothing to talk about. I only want Teo!' The man insisted as he fired a warning shot in the air.
That was when I felt my pendant getting hotter. I could feel that it was getting restless.
The moment that stalker raised his gun in the air, both Kuya Martin and Damien raced to towards the stalker. A struggle for the gun ensued, and I was afraid that it would end up just like in movies, where the gun accidentally fires and shoots either Kuya or Damien.
Something worst happened; two shots were fired and both Damien and Kuya Martin fell on the ground, blood gushing out of their chests.
"No... no... Kuya! Damien!" I shouted in fear and desperation as I ran towards them.
I didn't even have the chance to touch them, because the stalker took me by the arm and pulled me towards his car.
"Let me go..." I struggled.
"No one stands between us no, my Teo..." He sounded crazy. "Let's go..." He continued to pull me.
"I don't want to!" I protested.
"Come with me!" He shouted angrily as he pointed the gun to me. "If you won't be with me, then no one else can have you! Now choose, come with me or join those two in hell?!" He shouted angrily.
"Go ahead, shoot me." I told him as my eyes started watering. "I'd rather die than be away with Damien." I was suddenly filled with anger that somehow made me braver. "Shoot me!" I repeated as I stepped closer to his gun.
That crazy bastard was about to pull the trigger in a fit of anger when everything around us suddenly froze in time.
Golden orbs showered from the sky and formed a female figure near us. "You have a choice to make, Teo." Gaia said.
"You... you were behind all of these?" I asked her in a shaky voice.
"A life must be taken today." Gaia continued. "Whose life would it be; your bother, your lover, or your first love?"
"What?"
"My first love...?" I was utterly confused. "Peter? But he's already..." I looked back at Damien's car as my suspicion grew. 'You don't mean...?"
"Just like how Fate gave you another chance, I did the same for Peter. The only difference is that instead of changing the course of destiny, I placed Peter's soul in a dying body." Gaia said.
"What? You mean, that is really... our Peter?" I asked as I looked back in the car.
"Isn't it fantastic? I found the perfect new vessel for his soul; one that looks exactly like his old one." Gaia said with glee. "Aren't you thrilled? You were so devastated when he died, you would've died because of depression if Fate didn't interfere. Now, you can be with him again, with your Peter."
"Yes, you're right; Fate did interfere and brought Damien to me, because of that I was saved from depression, because of Damien I found my will to live again, I learned to love again." I replied to Gaia. "I already made my peace with Peter, you shouldn't have disturbed his peace."
"So, you're letting him die?" Gaia asked me. "Are you really letting Peter die right in front of you for the second time? Can you really handle it? Are you really that selfish that you would let someone else die just so you can be with Damien?"
"Then what do you want me to do?!" I asked her impatiently. "You told me to choose!"
"There is another way." Gaia said as she came closer to me. "And I think you know what it is."
My heart fell and my whole body went numb in realization. "You want my life..."
"Offer yours and I would make it so like none of this even happened. Everything would return to how things are supposed to be before Fate interfered. Peter's soul would be at peace, and your brother and Damien would still be alive." Gaia insisted.
"What about Ethan and James, Axel and Clark, would they still meet?" I asked her as my eyes started watering. Those four; their lives were affected because of me. "If things went back to how it was supposed to be, would they still meet each other?"
If Axel and Clark haven't met, Axel would still be jumping from one relationship to another, and Clark would still be haunted his past mistakes.
Because of Ethan, James could finally be free from the shackles that his own family attached to him, and because of him, Ethan finally learned what love really is.
"I can make it happen." Gaia replied.
"Then..." I said.
"No! You can't do that, Teo." Suddenly, my pendant started pulsating and turning like crazy. Then all of a sudden, blue light erupted from the car.
"Peter...?"
"It's been long, Teo." I was expecting to see Peter, after hearing his voice, but instead, I saw the blue boy, the agent of Fate sitting above Damien's car.
"You...?" I was confused.
"Did you miss me?" He asked gleefully. "Ahh, finally, I am out of that body."
"How did you?" Gaia complained.
"That wasn't very nice, trapping me in that man's body. Using me to try and confuse Teo, tricking him to give up his own life. Now, isn't that too cruel for a mother to do?" The boy said as he floated towards me.
"You were trapped in Peter's body? Is that why you haven't shown up in a while?"
"Yes. And every time she fails to make your love for Damien waver, I get closer and closer to my freedom." The blue boy explained.
"But why would she trap you inside that body? So that you wouldn't be able to help me? I still have the pendant though."
"How very clueless." Gaia said with a laugh. "You still don't get it, do you? Why don't you show him your real form? Stop hiding behind that childish form."
"What is she talking about?" I asked the agent of Fate.
"Later." He replied. "For now, we have to deal this cunning lady." He added as he floated around Gaia. "You know the story about the cupid who fell in love with the mortal boy, right?" He asked Gaia.
"How could I not? That cupid started this whole mess." Gaia replied in disdain.
"But do you know the deal he made with Fate?"
"Deal? What deal...?" Gaia sounded clueless.
"Tell him, Teo. You remember what I told you right?" The agent of Fate told me.
"The Cupid must make the mortal boy happy. If he fails, both of them would disappear from existence, and not even a single memory of them would remain."
"Exactly." The boy said. "And by now, you must know who that mortal boy is, right?"
"Yeah... me..." I replied.
"Sounds great!" Gaia scoffed. "If that cupid disappears together with him, then all the anomalies in my realm would disappear..."
"Maybe." The blue boy said. "Or maybe their disappearance would cause a ripple of effects that would alter the outcome of everyone's destiny. It's not like they would simply die, they would completely disappear from existence. Every action, every word, every effect they had on the lives of the people around them would disappear, and not even Fate, not even you, could know what it would cause to this realm."
"And you worry about the ripple of effects now, after what you did?!"
"Fate reversed time to make it so that Teo's death never happened. Still, it caused anomalies in your realm, imagine what kind of chaos would happen if two beings suddenly disappear from existence. It's not like time would turn back again..." The agent of fate chuckled. "So, let's make a deal. Fate would help you cleaning-up and preventing any other anomalies, but in exchange, you would leave Damien and Teo alone..."
"Hmph... What a sly one Fate is..." Gaia said. "...but, I don't think that's enough to make me leave the center of anomaly be."
"I see... Then, what else do you want?"
"I'll think about it. For now, you can take care of this mess." She said and then disappeared.
"She's gone..." I sighed in relief. "Is it really over...?"
"No. Far from it." The boy said. "Gaia hates making a deal, but while she's thinking about it, she would leave you and Damien alone. So be strong, Teo."
"So, she would come back again...?"
"Don't be afraid, I'll always protect you." His voice suddenly changed, it sounded familiar. Then his figure shifted, his silhouette became that of a man, that of someone very familiar. "This time around, I won't let you cry." He said as he reached for my face.
Tears suddenly fell from my eyes as his voice and face changed to that of my Peter.