He was startled when someone called him "kuya" from behind. It was as if his heart skipped a beat from the surprise. He turned around to face the child. He heard the child's voice, so he knew there was someone else with him. When he looked back, he saw the child hunched over.
"You scared me to death." He sighed deeply. "Who are you?" he asked the child, his chest feeling uneasy. "Who are you with?"
But the child did not respond. He remained hunched over, as if uninterested in his presence. The eerie silence around them was somewhat frightening, and he felt an unusual chill enveloping him. However, he didn’t pay much attention to the chill, given that the area was surrounded by many trees, making the surroundings naturally cool.
"Josh is my name," the child suddenly said, his words seeming to have a strange finality. "I’m going to Sitio Tanglaw too. Aren't you going there, kuya? I’m alone. My dad left me in the town."
He was taken aback by the child’s response. "Left you? Why?"
Josh remained silent for a moment before answering, "My parents didn't see me when they got home. They thought I had gone home before them."
Gael noticed Josh's unsettling behavior. The boy refused to meet his eyes directly, and there was an eerie fear in his gaze. Suddenly, Gael saw that the boy's fingernails were mangled and oozing blood. It was then that he noticed an old, festering wound on Josh's hand. 
What horrified him was the sight of a wriggling worm emerging from the wound. A wave of revulsion washed over him, threatening to overwhelm his senses. Summoning all his courage, he turned away from the boy, disturbed by the disturbing and inexplicable scene before him.
"Are you okay?" he asked, worried about the child's condition but not wanting to look back at him just yet.
"I'm hungry," Josh replied in a harsh tone, his voice dropping.
Gael noticed the sudden change in the child's tone. He seemed like a different person compared to the child he had first spoken to. His fear increased, and he was unsure how to respond to Josh's strange behavior.
"Ah! Perfect, I have a lot of snacks here. Want some?" he said, turning around, but when he looked back, Josh was gone. A cold shiver ran through him at the sudden disappearance of the child. It felt like a shadow had passed by him. His mind began to spin, doubting whether what he had seen earlier was real.
Gael looked back at the place where he had briefly spoken to Josh. His mind couldn't understand how the child had vanished without a trace. He noticed the deep silence of the surrounding forest, which seemed to amplify the strange feelings enveloping him.
His hands trembled as he reached into his pocket where he had kept some candies and a piece of Reese's chocolate intended for Josh. Yet, when he looked at them again, they had drastically changed. They were now covered in old mold, and worms were feasting on them. He recoiled in disgust and quickly discarded them. How could this be? 
He had just bought those candies from the terminal earlier, and the Reese's chocolate he had taken from his pocket, now infested with worms, was purchased only yesterday. What was happening? He was confused. He tried to analyze it, but he couldn't find any logical reason for what had just occurred.
Fear and doubt filled Gael’s mind as he tried to understand the unexplained events around him. The sudden disappearance of Josh, coupled with the spoiled and worm-infested snacks, filled him with dread.
He looked around, noticing the change in atmosphere, as if the forest held secrets he couldn't grasp. The silence of the forest seemed to weigh heavily, amplifying his anxiety. One thing he couldn’t understand was why he felt like he couldn’t leave the place. He felt paralyzed and drained of energy.
No matter where he looked or even with his eyes closed, Gael still saw Josh’s image in his mind—the shadow of the child who had suddenly disappeared. He hadn’t seen the child’s face clearly earlier because he was hunched over. But now that he could see the wound on the child's body, he doubted if he had really seen a child earlier. If not, what was it? He didn’t want to believe it could be a supernatural being, as he didn’t believe in such stories. He didn’t believe in ghosts because, to him, they weren’t real. The silence of the forest was filled with questions he couldn’t answer.
He let out a heavy sigh, trying to steady his nerves. "Come on, Gael, ghosts? Really?" he muttered sarcastically. "Next thing you’ll tell yourself is that those moldy snacks were actually gourmet treats in disguise."
As he walked deeper into the forest, he couldn’t shake off the eerie feeling. "Yep, just my imagination running wild," he chuckled nervously, glancing over his shoulder at the seemingly shifting shadows. "Maybe I should stop watching those horror movies before bedtime."
The rustling of leaves made him jump, and he chuckled again, trying to lighten the tension. "Or maybe," he mused aloud, "I should start a ghost-hunting business. 'Gael's Ghost Busters'—we make sure the spirits have a good laugh before scaring us half to death." He chuckled at his own joke, hoping it would ease his growing unease.
After what felt like an eternity, he finally saw the familiar outline of Sitio Tanglaw in the distance. The small houses, the narrow pathways, and the friendly faces he remembered were all still there. "Almost there," he whispered, feeling a mix of relief and anxiety.
As he approached the entrance to the sitio, he saw children playing bahay kubo and chasing each other. He thought that the children of today might not know that game anymore. Nevertheless, he smiled, recalling how he used to play bahay kubo with his friends, always with Matteo as his teammate. He smiled again when he noticed the children stopped playing and stared at him, curious about the stranger in their midst. Gael smiled and waved, hoping to appear friendly. "How are you?" he greeted them.
One of the older boys stepped forward. "Who are you, kuya?" he asked.
"I'm Gael. I grew up here," Gael replied. "I've been away for a long time, but now I’m back."
"Where, kuya Gael?" the boy asked with a hint of playful skepticism.
"From Manila. But now, I’m back here," Gael said, trying to show trust to the questioning child.
"Where is Manila, kuya?" asked a little girl, who seemed very curious about what Gael was saying.
"Far away. You need to take a plane to get there," he replied. He thought about how to explain the plane without confusing the child too much.
"Plane? The big bird that flies in the sky?" the child asked, full of innocence and wonder.
"Yes, kind of like a bird, but it's not just any bird. It has a different wingspan," Gael explained with interest. He described to the child how big and impressive a plane was, trying to make it sound engaging.
"Like a giant bird with wings that can fly," he added, trying to make it sound interesting and not scary.
"Wow! That’s amazing, kuya! How do you know all of that?" the child asked, eager to understand the new things he was learning.
"I read a lot and watch documentaries," Gael explained. He told the child how he learned these things. "You should read too because reading can take you to faraway places."