She watched Ericka closely as she and her childhood friend Gerald strolled through the dense forest. She was hesitant about whether to reveal her true identity, that she was not Ruth but Chesca.
I don't know if it's better to reveal it, or if I should just keep it a secret until the trip is over. She just sighed and followed the two in front of her. As she grew up, she had no one she could call a friend, because their father forbade them from going out and talking to children like her back then. Her only friends and companions were her sisters. In the guise of Ruth, even though it was just a false identity, she had a friend whom she considered someone to talk to and who was funny, making it seem like she had no problems at all back then. Even though it was only temporary, she was happy.
At that moment, Chesca clenched her fist.
"Ruth?" Ericka called out to her.
She looked at the person who called her, clearly worried about her behavior right now. She just smiled then.
"Ah, I'm just thinking of something." Chesca said that so she wouldn't wonder and worry.
Ericka just nodded back then. She scanned her surroundings, unable to deny what she was feeling now, because she knew the next place it would lead to.
She furrowed her brow, looked around, and scanned the area again to see if she was mistaken.
I'm not mistaken, no. I know this place. She thought to herself.
They walked around again. She secretly glanced at Gerald while he casually chatted with Ericka. If you know the dense forest well, it seems they are being led through a place that could be their doom or salvation.
It seems like they are taking us around this place. Perhaps this was a planned activity for our current outing. She could only think to herself that she was quietly following. It is still on her mind and seems to be a memory that won't fade away.
"Be careful here; there are traps. They are for animals." Gerald's warning caught her attention.
"Eh? Are there any animals living here too?" was the only question Ericka asked her companion.
Chesca was just listening to the conversation while surveying the entire surroundings with her eyes.
No animals live here, because my father kills the wild animals that quietly inhabit this place. This is solely her perspective.
Animal? It seems she knows another meaning of the word "animal" that the person they are talking to now is referring to. She smiled to herself.
Fernan always tells me that there are many lost animals here, but the people are worse than the animals. Chesca expressed her frustration and clenched her fist.
"Oh, someone almost got into trouble here," Gerald said to them.
"Your classmate?" Ericka immediately asked.
"No, just like you, who are also outsiders, this is the first time I've seen her face."
There, they exchanged glances.
"Did you ask for the name?" Ericka asked.
Gerald thought for a moment. "Ah!" he exclaimed, recalling the name he was searching for in his mind.
"Thalia," said the one who was thinking.
She met the gaze that Ericka shot at her.
"Thalia?" Ericka asked again.
Gerald nodded as confirmation that what she said was correct.
"Do you know her, Ericka?" Gerald asked.
"There are a lot of Thalias here."
"I think she lives there." He pointed to it.
Chesca furrowed her brow.
No one lives there. She could only say it in her mind.
"Huh? Wasn't there anyone living there before?" Ericka asked the person she was talking to.
Gerald just smiled at the person and chuckled softly.
"Well, when you left here when we were still kids, there were houses there." This is what he replied to them.
Her frown deepened even more, because Chesca knew that the land they were stepping on now was property.
"Who lives here?" Ericka asked.
She continued to listen to the conversation between the two. Chesca even saw him pondering before answering her companion's question.
"Hmm? What was the last name of the person living there again?" He even bent down, which made him stop walking. They also stopped to wait for their companion.
"Tejero—Tejero is the surname." He said that when he remembered the family living there.
Chesca swallowed, as if her throat suddenly dried up, so she cleared her throat unexpectedly, which caught the attention of the two.
"Sorry, my throat is just a bit itchy right now." She immediately made an excuse to the two.
"I also know the family living there," Gerald said.
They just nodded.
"Maybe she's there." Gerald said this to the two people accompanying him.
They immediately walked towards the direction Gerald pointed out earlier. Her mind and heart are not yet ready to face Thalia again; she is nervous about the anxiety of their reunion and how she would talk to her, just like their conversations before.
She knows the Tejero family because that was also the surname that helped her on the brink of death at the hands of her father.
Fernan Tejero. Her memory of the owner of the name she mentioned. She is also close to Vincent Tejero, known as Vince. She couldn't fully comprehend that this was the hideout of the Tejero family, and the question in her mind was why Thalia was here in the house, or as she called it, their nest.
Many thoughts were running through her mind, so she didn't notice what they were going through until they were in front of a simple house with two floors. Chesca looked around; it was quiet and inviting them to the small house ahead.
"Let's go home; there's no one here." Ericka called out to them.
"It does look like it." Their companion said.
They were about to turn back to go home and return to their path when they encountered a woman carrying a basin.
She wanted to cry because she knew that woman. This is Vince's eldest sibling, who, while she was escaping like a stray cat, helped her treat the wounds she had sustained during her escape at a time when her life was extremely dangerous.
Chesca wanted to hug the person in front of them, but she was holding back her emotions at that time.
She smiled at them when the woman saw them.
"Good day." Ericka greeted.
"Good day to you too." She stared at her companions until her gaze landed on her; she was stared at for a long time and then smiled gently at her.
Chesca smiled back at the person in front of her now.