(TW: animal cruelty, violent kids)

"C'mon, just one last time!" said Robert, his hand raised, palm out.

"But my hand already hurts!" said Tony, shaking his fist.

"One last hit and I let you rest, okay?

"...haaa!" Tony aimed at Robert's palm and hit it with a smack.

"There, see, that wasn't so bad!" he said.

They are currently in his room, it was a Saturday, and Robert asked Tony to come over to hang out.

A way to make up for the past, he thought.

"Now, try to hit my face!" said Robert with a grin.

"A-are you serious?!" stuttered Tony.

"C'mon, just try it!"

"O-okay..." Tony aimed, but his fist faded in mid air, he ended giving Robert's face a little pat. "Can't do it..." he mumbled, "sorry..."

Robert gave a sigh and sat on the bed.

"It's okay, let's take a break first."

Tony took a deep breath and sat beside him.

"I still can't believe you live next door to Angela, you know..." he said

"Yeah, I never knew about it, either," Robert lied. "You sure know a lot about her... you really must like her so much..."

"Yeah, I guess you could say that," he replied, beaming. "Though all I could really do is watch her from a distance. A smile from her is enough for me, I smile that's not even meant for me to see!"

'Here we go again...' thought Robert.

The doorbell suddenly rang.

"Robert can you see whose at the door?" called his mother from the kitchen.

"Right, wait here..." he told Tony.

"That's okay, I really need to get back now..."

They went to the front door.

Robert looked at the person standing outside the gate. He was a tall young man with a pale complexion and thick black hair. He wore black long sleeves and a pair of black slacks and black shoes.

"Anybody home?" asked the man when Robert didn't come out.

"Well I'll be damned!" Robert suddenly said, "Kuya Glenn?! Is that really you?!"

"Well, you gonna let me in or not?" said Glenn with a short laugh.

"Come in, come in! This is your house after all!" He opened the door and led Glenn inside. "Tony, this is my cousin Glenn Mendoza, kuya Glenn, this is my classmate Tony," he said, introducing the two, "last I heard of you, you were in the US!"

"Well, I'm on a break, so I thought of visiting the Philippines for a while!" explained his cousin.

"Nice meeting you," said Tony, "But I'm afraid l have to leave now, Robert, see you in school on Monday!"

"So, Glenn, what brings you here?" asked Robert's mother.

They were in the living room now with Robert sitting next to his cousin.

"I've never been better!" Glenn said. "You see, Tita Glo, I have decided to become a priest."

"You what?!?" said Robert and his mother in unison.

"Yes, and I thought it would be best to visit my native land and meet my old friends and family," continued Glenn. "I haven't been back here for 10 years, you know?"

"Are you serious, Kuya Glenn?" asked Robert.

"Oh, c'mon, Robert, that's fantastic news!" said his mother, "I'm proud of you, Glenn, to make such a decision!"

"I still can't believe it...." Robert said, "so how long will you be staying with us?" he asked.

"Just for a week," replied Glenn, "just long enough to reconcile with an old friend."

"An old friend?" asked Tita Glo, "Anyone we know?"

"I don't think so, we were neighbors, we knew each other since childhood, and I never were such a nice kid back then..."

"Neighbors?" thought Robert.

"Her name," Glenn continued, "is Angela Bartholomew."

"You're classmates?" Glenn asked his cousin. They have moved to Robert's room after taking dinner.

Robert sat on the bed while the other sat on a chair in front of him, cuddling Yang in his arms.

"Yeah, she sure is one weird girl..." said Robert, "Totally different in school."

"Yeah, but I'm glad to hear that she's got friends now."

'Hmm, maybe I could ask Glenn how to make her smile,' Robert thought to himself.

"You see," continued his cousin, "we were partners in crime, her and I..." he raised Yang to his face and nuzzled it. "And as you know, I wasn't such a nice kid when we were young."

"It all started, that summer," said Glenn, "when I got bitten by a dog and had to take 12 shots for rabies. I hated dogs so much that I threw stones at them whenever I see one. One day, as I was stoning a little dog to death, a boy suddenly passed by, carrying a cat."

"What are you doing?" he asked of me then.

"Taking revenge," said I. "Dogs are evil and they bite! They should all die."

"That's right," he replied, "they bit my kitty too! Now my kitty is in the garbage dump!"

"What about that one?" I asked him, pointing at the big struggling cat he was carrying.

"This is aling Bona's cat, I'm teaching it to swim," he replied.

"What for?" I asked again.

"So that when the big dog chases him, he could swim across the big canal and loose him."

He smiled at me brightly then proceeded to the bridge.

I followed him and watched him throw the cat in the water.

The cat fought for its life for some time, but the filthy canal was deep, soon it stopped struggling and drowned.

"Ah, failed again!" he said, "I'll try again tomorrow."

Then he smiled at me again and left.

It was the same the next day and the day after.

Soon, we came to be friends and were notorious in the neighbors as little demons.

I was 12 then, and he was only 6 and we were never really punished since our families were two of the richest families around here at that time. One day, after chasing after a hen and throwing two chicks in a bonfire I started, he started telling me about a guy he hated in his class.

"I want him dead," he said again and again. "I'll kill him and feed him to the big dog next door and throw his bones in the fire so that no one would ever know what happened to him!"

"Hey, that isn't very nice, killing small things is one thing, but that's another kid you're talking about," I told him.

"But I hate him! He keeps calling me skinny lizard and pulls at my hair! I really hate him! I want him dead!"

"Really now?" I asked him. "Come with me, then."

We went around the neighborhood, looking for something, anything we could 'play' with.

By that time, all the cats were locked indoors, and even the stray dogs were afraid to come near us.

It took us all evening when we finally found a small kitten left in a garbage pile.

"There," I told him, kicking at the kitten.

It gave a soft 'oof' and began to cry out loudly for its mother.

"'Till now, you haven't actually killed anything with your own hands, have you?" I asked him. "'Till now, you never actually had blood in your hands."

I took a broken bottle from the pile of trash and handed it to him.

"Kill it." I told him.

"W-what?" he replied surprised.

"I said kill it. Stab it with the bottle and watch how its body quivers as the blood pools around it."

"B-but..." he stammered, "I can't..."

"Kill it!" I insisted, taking his hand and aiming it at the kitten.

"No!" he screamed.

He threw the bottle away and began to cry.

I took the kitten and gave it to him then and told him; "Boys don't cry you know."

He looked at me then and shouted at me!

"STUPID!!!"

Then he ran away and didn't talk to me for a whole week.

When the week passed, I went to his house to tell him I was sorry.

He came out wearing a skirt! Then he suddenly told me that Ghe stands for Angela and that 'she' wanted to marry me when she grows up!

I was surprised then, thinking that this homo is coming up to me, so I said, "I can't marry you, you're a boy!"

He never spoke to me after that.

Not even when I tried to tell her we were leaving for the states.

Robert looked at his cousin who was currently holding his kitten.

He quickly took Yang from his cousin who was smiling besides himself, reminiscing about his childhood.

"You're scary kuya Glenn," he finally said. "I still can't believe a kid like you would turn out to be a priest! What made you want to become one anyway?"

"My first real kill," his cousin answered.

Robert felt a chill run through his spine.

"Don't worry, it was for self-defense," he assured him. "A mugger tried to stab me, after a struggle, I stabbed him instead. And it felt... good."

Robert stared at Glenn, speechless.

"That's when we left for the states," his cousin went on. "I had to go to a psychiatrist for 2 years with no avail. I was going from bad to worst, until I met this old priest in the neighborhood we live in..." he looked at Robert and smiled.

A peaceful smile.

"I guess you could say he showed me the light"

Glenn spent the night with Robert and his mom.

The first thing Robert did the next day was look for Yang. He found him sleeping on Glenn's stomach. Glenn woke up when he tried to take it and smiled at him.

"Afraid I might whack your cat silly?" he said playfully.

"Ah... he-he... just gonna give Yang his milk," said Robert. "By the way, didn't you say you wanted to see Angè today?"

"Yeah, I was thinking maybe after the morning mass we could pass by their house and talk to her?"

"Morning mass..." thought Robert. "I wonder when I last set foot inside a church..."

He looked at the picture on his table and smiled.

"I guess it wasn't that long ago, wasn't it Belle?"

Glenn looked at his cousin and saw him smiling sheepishly at the portrait.

"So, this is Belle, huh?" he asked, taking the picture.

"Yeah, that's her, Annabelle Cruz," replied Robert.

Glenn looked at his cousin. His eyes were low, his lips parted, mumbling Belle's name. He put his arm around Robert's shoulder and pat him on the back.

"Come now, I'm sure you'll get over this," he assured him, "Now, go get ready for church."

It was already noon when the cousins went to the house next door.

Glenn insisted in hearing the mass twice and spent 3 hours in the Adoration Chapel,

Robert was starting to feel he would go past heaven and end right back in hell.

It was only after confession that Glenn finally decided to go.

"I wonder if she's still angry with me..." mumbled Glenn as Robert rang the doorbell.

"Who wouldn't? After what you said to her just when she confessed her feelings to you?" Robert said. 'Come to think of it, perhaps that's the reason behind the man hating!' thought he.

It took a while, finally, the door opened and they were face to face with a puffy eyed Angela wearing her pajamas.

"Okay," she said stifling a yawn, "what did you forget this time?"

Robert looked at Angela.

So did Glenn.

Angela blinked a couple of times then slammed the gate shut.

"What was that?" thought Robert.

The gate opened again suddenly, with Angela looking more awake. She looked at Glenn and blushed.

Robert cuffed Yin playfully.

He still can't believe the look in Angela's face when she saw his cousin. Yin pawed at his fist and scratched him, leaving red marks on his knuckles.

"She sure looked cute back there..." he found himself thinking.

He looked at the two seated in the veranda. They faced each other, his cousin speaking with a gentle smile on his face, and the other still blushing like crazy. It was Angela who asked him POLITELY if he could let them talk alone.

Now, that was a surprise!

And here he thought the blush thing was a real shocker.

He looked at the scratch Yin gave him. Small red beads were beginning to form. He placed his knuckles on his lips and sucked at it.

"Really, Ghe," said Glenn still smiling, "I almost didn't recognize you! You've surely grown up to be a beautiful lady."

"Thanks..." replied Angela, still blushing, "you didn't turn up so bad either..."

"I'm glad you're not angry at me anymore."

"Oh, of course not, that happened years ago..." she looked at him and smiled, "besides," she said, "there's so much I want to tell you..."

"Me too, Ghe," replied Glenn.

"Ahh, she's smiling at Glenn!?!" said Robert in surprise.

The two were too busy talking with each other they didn't notice him gaping at them with his jaw hanging.

Glenn's smile suddenly faded.

Then he held Angela's hands and said something.

Robert strained to head them, but he was too far away.

Angela's smile suddenly disappeared.

"I'm sorry, Ghe, but that's the path I chose," said Glenn, his hands still covering Angela's. "I do hope you will be happy for me, I've finally found my place, and have found myself through this vocation."

Angela was speechless.

She looked at Glenn and watched him shimmer as the tears filled her eyes.

"Yes..." she finally said, "I'm glad for you... really..."

She tried to smile again.

She felt the pain of rejection within her, yet she also felt as if a heavy burden was finally lifted from her shoulders.

She had waited 10 years, 10 long years for his return, and now that they are face to face...

"Then I guess I should be calling you brother Glenn from now on?" she said with a laugh.

"Yes, dear sister," replied Glenn, the smile returning to his lips as well. "Let it be just like the old times, when we were known as the twin devils! Minus the dead animals, of course!" he added with a laugh.

"But I still couldn't believe you are related to him," said Angela, pointing a thumb at Robert's direction. "That guy's such a wimp!"

"He-he, that's just the way he is," replied Glenn, "you see, he's got this childhood trauma concerning a broken ruler, so he looses himself whenever he sees blood. Especially his own."

"What? He goes crazy?" asked Angela.

"Something like that," the other replied.

Glenn patted Angela's hand and gave a deep breath.

"Just between us, okay?" he said in a whisper. "But that cousin of mine is really such a coward! I think it's so nice of you to look after him."

"Y-you think so?" said Angela, turning red again.

"Yeah, can you look after him for me?"

"Well, if you ask me too..."

"Now, what are they saying?" Robert asked himself. "Why do they keep looking at me?"

He watched as the two gave him another look and broke out laughing.

Robert felt his face turn red.

"My own cousin..."

Later that night, Glenn announced that he was leaving the next day.

"But I thought you said you would be staying for a week?" asked his aunt.

"Yes, but I've decided to return to the monastery as soon as I can, so I'll be leaving for the US tomorrow," said he. "Besides, by having this little trip to the past, I have straightened my resolve to enter into priesthood even more."

"We'll send you to the airport then?" asked Robert.

"Don't bother," replied his cousin, "you have school tomorrow."

"Tomorrow's my day off, let me send you off instead," said Robert's mother.

"Well, if you insist."

"Wait, let me get the Polarloid," said Robert standing up, "you can give a picture to Tita Gina too!"

With that, Robert left the room.

The two looked at each other and smiled.

"I'm glad Robert's doing better now," said Glenn.

"Yes, moving here sure was a wise decision," replied his aunt, "he's much more stable than the day he lost her."

"Ah, but that girl is the real reason behind his change you know, if it wasn't for Belle, who knows what Robert might have turned out to be, or where he might end up in."

"I know, honey, I just wish he'd just move on..."

"Found it!" they heard Robert call from inside his room. The two looked at each other guiltily as he came out holding a Polarloid camera.

"Now, let's take lots of pictures to commemorate this day!" Robert said happily. "Who knows when we'll be meeting again?"

"Of course!" his mother replied as the three of them posed for the camera.