When Back In Time

"ESPERANZA!" CLARA called out to her, horrified with eyes wide open.

Esperanza looked behind her, with beaded sweat all over her face. Her hands were stained with blood. Some were smudge on her forehead.

Her hands were shivering, in fear.

Clara asked, "A-anong nangyari sa-sa iyo?" (W-what happened to y-you?)

Clara scanned Esperanza, who was sitting on the wooden floor with the bloody mess. Her eyes went behind Esperanza.

Behind Esperanza was a young man who was sitting on the floor. His hand gripped his wounded left arm to stop the bleeding.

"Ate Clara.... a-anong ga-gawin ko? A-ayaw tumigil sa pagdugurugo ang ka-kanyang braso," Esperanza asked in fear. (Clara... W-what should I do? His a-arm wou-would not stop bleeding)

"Esperanza," Clara drew towards them, "S-sino siya? Ba-bakit su-sugatan siya?" (Who is he? Why is he wounded?)

The young man, who has a dark complexion, was pale after losing too much blood. His vision became blurry and immediately lost his consciousness again on the floor.

"Oh my gosh!" Esperanza blurted out.

"Oh my---- ano?" asked Esperanza, perplexed. (Oh my-----what?)

Esperanza asked as she tried to wake up the young man, "Anong gagawin natin ate?" (What should we do Clara?)

"Esperanza!" Clara called out which shook Esperanza.

When Esperanza looked behind her, Clara was no longer standing near her but was standing on the stairs, with eyes wide open.

Clara asked, "A-anong nangyari sa-sa iyo?" Clara asked. (W-what happened to y-you?)

Esperanza stopped.

She heard a grunt behind her and saw the young was sitting straight, conscious.

"Esperanza," Clara drew towards them, "S-sino siya? Ba-bakit su-sugatan siya?" (Who is he? Why is he wounded?)

The young man lost his consciousness again on the floor. Esperanza looked at the guy.

"Esperanza!" Clara called out.

Esperanza looked at Clara, who's standing on the stairs. She also saw the young man sitting up, conscious.

"Esperanza," Clara drew towards them, "S-sino siya? Ba-bakit su-sugatan siya?" (Who is he? Why is he wounded?)

'What' s going on. '

The young man fell down on the floor. Clara walked back towards the stairs and there, started to call out Esperanza' s name. The young man sat up straight, gripping his wounded arm in pain.

Clara asked again, "A-anong nangyari sa-sa iyo?" (W-what happened to y-you?)

The scene kept repeating and repeating.

The young man would fall down on the floor, unconsciously. Then seconds after, he would sit up in pain and then fall down again. Meanwhile, Clara would walk back towards the stairs, called out Esperanza in horror, drew towards her and asked questions and then walked backward.

Neither of the two noticed the strange happening except Esperanza.

Time repeats per se over and over.

"What's going on?" Esperanza mumbled in bewilderment.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

The young man froze half-way falling to the ground.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Clara froze too on where she was standing.

Everything in that moment froze except Esperanza. She looked around, not knowing what's happening anymore.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Esperanza looked sideways and saw a man walking towards her while hitting his wooden staff on the floor.

'How did he come inside the house? I locked the door, I' m sure of that. So how? ' Esperanza asked herself.

The man was wearing a Barong Tagalog. He looked like he was on his 20's.

"How rude. Are you going to stare at me or you'll invite me inside your house?" the man asked.

'He is already inside the house,' Esperanza thought. 'Wait------- did he just speak in English?'

Esperanza looked at him with a gapping mouth.

"Really? Human, gather your wit and don't just open your mouth there," he said.

Esperanza asked excitedly, "Wh-who are you? You are not speaking in Tagalog. You are not from this era, aren't you?"

"Don't you recognized me?" he asked

Esperanza frowned, recollecting that she never had met this man before.

The man sighed and hit his staff on the floor thrice. The staff morphed into a wooden cane. The man, then, morphed into an old man. The old man smirked as he saw the recognition on Esperanza's eyes.

"You----you are that old man that I was looking for. You were the man who said I'm stuck in this period. You are him," she said.

"Yes, I am him," he said.

"How did you do that? How did you change yourself? What kind of sorcery are you using? You are young just a seconds ago and now you are old. How did this happen? Who--who are you?"

"People have known me from many names. In the west, specifically Greece, they called me Cronus, the king of Titans. In Rome, they called me Saturn. Everyone knows me from many different names. But those are not me. They just mistook me as Cronus and Saturn because we have the same power. Anyways, I am known in the Visayas, the people there worshipped me and named me.   I'm Bangun Bangun, God of time and cosmic movements," he said as he spread his arms on the air. Up ahead, the wooden ceiling was no longer there but up there was the night sky with lots of constellation. "I can pause time, move it fast-forward or backward. I can manipulate the time."

'A god?' asked Esperanza to herself. 'What in the world?'

"I've never heard that there is such god as you----- I mean I never heard your name before," Esperanza said.

Bangun Bangun looked at her coldly, "Why I'm not surprised. Filipinos in your era don't even recognize local deities. You always worship other gods, foreign gods like Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Ra, Horus, Odin, etc. While in your own country, you don't even know us or even care to know us."

Esperanza looked down, ashamed. Bangun Bangun looked at her in irritation.

"What a god.... like you doing here... inside this house?" she asked.

"To pay you a visit," Bangun Bangun said.

"Wait---- to visit me? And wait----- for a god like

you, are you supposed to wear that? If I pictured a god, he should be wearing a long white robe, the likes." Esperanza looked at his outfit, he was wearing after all a Barong Tagalog. "This is really messed up my head. I don't understand everything," Esperanza said.

"First off, I'm a god so I can wear whatever I like. No one can dictate me what to wear. And besides, this is the fashion trend here. Second, I want your silly mouth to shut up and stop babbling nonsense."

'Well, him being here is nonsense,' Esperanza thought to herself.

"As I said, I am here to visit you."

"Firstly, Bangun Bangun, you said you're a Visayan god. What is a Visayan god doing here in Luzon? And what are you doing in this era? " Esperanza asked.

"Stupid girl. I'm a god, I can do whatever I want. I can travel wherever I want. I am the god of Time, I can go whatever year I want. Are you not using your head?" he scolded her.

'What's with his issue?' Esperanza thought to herself.

"Then------ why you are here.... visiting me?"

"Because you've been tampering the time, distorting the timeline because of your carelessness," Bangun Bangun remarked.

"I----- what?"

"You've been time traveling constantly and changing history over and over again. You've been using my watch carelessly," Bangun Bangun said.

"Changing history?" Esperanza asked. She looked at the wristwatch on her wrist.

"Like this young man here," Bangun Bangun looked down on the young man behind Esperanza. The young man was frozen halfway towards the ground. "He was supposed to be dead but you help him out. Thus, changing his history, his future."

"I was helping him out. He was in pain, wounded. Of course, I should help him. It's not wrong to help other people," she spat.

"Indeed. It's not wrong to help other people. But this is a different era and you don't belong here. It's none of your business to help other people here. You were not supposed to change other people's future. Like Clara and especially this young man here."

He continued, "You've changed his future drastically and even made his life miserable."

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"Soon... you'll know what I'm talking about. Soon.. you'll realize everything and wish you never did it in the first place."