The soul opposite him hung on his every word as if they were a lifeline. “Where are we heading for our first assignment together, bosing?”

Libum pulled out the compressed brown book that held the annals of past souls he collected, and said a prayer before opening it to a blank page. Kolupati’s writing soon filled the page, so he had to strain to decipher what was on it. 

“An old woman’s soul has been spotted wandering a famous bridge at night, and her crying is heard frequently, even to regular old humans. She’ll need to be collected before she causes trouble. Tulay City, the Nata bridge.” Libum gestured for Tikba to follow him outside. “It’s been modernized, so she’s taken it upon herself to ask the people walking across for help. She died a few years ago, but hasn't caused a problem until recently.”

“Tulay City!” 

“You know it?”

“It’s way too noisy downtown.” Tikba stuck both fingers in their ears and scrunched their face up in displeasure. “All those people, and there’s too many shops. It’s…overwhelming sometimes.” The soul pondered as if they were remembering something, but changed the subject just as quickly. “What’s this woman like?”

Libum was stuck in his own trance, mentally counting how many souls he’d collected for the past month. Muttering under his breath, Libum started to count before he snapped out of it. Tikba gave him a strange look. He had to remember where he was, and who he was with. “Oh, her? She’s been around for a while, but she didn’t start causing problems until recently." 

“She uses the same path every day and walks from the beginning of the bridge to the end, and when she’s done, she turns around and does it all over again. Some end up following her, stuck in a grief-filled nightmare, and if they do that, they risk losing their minds. Our job is to collect her and prevent more deaths. At the very least, get her to move on and stop harassing people. The more people she hurts, the more corrupted her soul becomes.”

“And if she doesn’t come with us?” 

Libum pointed with his lips towards a dark figure that stuck itself to one of the trees below. It moved, a black shadow, and Tikba thought if they listened for too long, they could hear the shadow crying. The shadow watched them, where their eyes should have been pure white. It shocked them to see such a creature.

“Bring her here and she’ll likely turn into multo,” was all he said. “Souls we collect either move on, or they become shadows of who they used to be. She's not to that level, though, and likely won't be. Imagine speaking with a confused elder, that's to be expected. We're going to communicate to her that we're taking her soul to the afterlife, then we'll take her and transport it to Kolupati. What she decides next is up to her.”

“We just pick up and drop off souls, then? So...I mean, we're a delivery service?” Tikba's disappointment was apparent. Libum nodded. “I thought there'd be more to this. Like fighting evil devils who want to devour souls, or something. This is it?” Tikba exhaled loudly, then smiled at Libum. “At least I get to work with and have the pleasure of looking at a magan-laki all day. Being dead isn't too horrible.”

Libum just stared at the new Anito with a dumbfounded expression, too shocked to be angry. Was this the reason they decided to form a contract? Shaking off what Tikba just said, he slashed an ancient symbol into the air six times in rapid succession with his first finger. 

“Watch,” he said, repeating the name of the bridge. The portal opened up, slowly ripping a hole in the space, like a zipper being pulled open on a jacket. A cerulean blue of the ocean opened up. Sounds of creaking metal echoed from the other side of the portal. “You first. The new ones always lose their damn nerve when I go in before they do. Try not to listen too closely, and focus on keeping your limbs intact.”

But Tikba had already set foot inside the portal and was gone. Libum shrugged, pleasantly surprised,  and hurried after the other Anito, the muffled sounds from the portal filling his head. A weight slammed against his body, but he forced himself upright. A few seconds later, he arrived in front of Tikba, who looked ill. He searched for the chocolate from before and bit down, hard. The sugar brought Libum back to his head. He offered Tikba a piece, which they accepted, before vomiting into the bush next to them.

“Are you going to be able to work, or should I send you back to Mutya?”

“I can work,” groaned Tikba. “Why am I vomiting? I’m dead!” They wiped the side of their mouth clean of spit and Libum, unphased, began walking to the bridge. Bumper-to-bumper cars and common-horses carrying wagons honked and neighed as they inched forward on the road. The only available space was a narrow strip of concrete, mostly occupied by shops and vendors, on either side that only two people could walk comfortably on at the same time. Even so, small groups of people ambled up and down the bridge.

“I can’t wait to get home,” one said, easily slipping between the crowds.

“Try this!” A girl tilted over an iced candy in order for the boy next to her to take a big enough bite, to which she shoved his shoulder and said, “Ay?” The woman’s steps were heavy enough to be noticed on the wooden panels, as she grabbed the skirts and dresses of anyone who passed by, including the girl with the sweet treat. Her hands were light, fingernails yellowed.

The old woman appeared as a ghastly form, sniffling to herself as she walked up to unsuspecting humans and wailed in their faces. Her gaunt cheeks and eyes sunk into her face. Her skin, starting at her fingers and down her thin wrists, took on the appearance like having been dipped in black paint. He hadn't expected her to have progressed this much, but Kolupati assured him it would be fine. As they got closer, Libum took notice of a human woman who held a little girl swathed to her back with a colorful cloth, her chubby cheeks squished against her mother's shoulder. 

Her eyes were dark and wide with curiosity as she watched the lost soul move from person to person, but she had no fear. 

Libum and Tikba walked together, and her eyes fell on the two before the little girl smiled. A knife twisted in Libum's stomach, both as he noticed the girl and the older woman's corruption. The lola was worse off than he first thought, the appearance in her skin almost scared him enough not to touch, and his hands instinctively went for the sticks in his bag, but he hadn’t brought them.

“Where’s my grandson?” the old woman shouted, blackness burrowing under her skin. She carried her own cloth that wrapped around her back, but held nothing. “I can’t find him anywhere. The bridge looks so different, and I think he’s lost!” She turned her head rapidly to look between each person, then to the water below, her reflection showing something much sinister underneath. The longer a soul remained as a multo in the human realm, the more twisted and worn down they became.

“Lola?” Libum sped up and gently touched the decrepit woman's shoulder despite the bite in his hand. His tone was soft. “We're here to take you home. You can rest now, you don't have to keep walking this bridge. Aren't your feet getting tired?” She was very old and frail at this point, and Libum braced himself for the anger, the grief she carried as her hand snapped and locked Libum’s wrist in a death grip.

“WHERE IS HE?” she wailed, her skin sallow. “HE’S NOT SAFE!”

“I’m right here, lola,” he replied calmly, twisting his own wrist to touch her. “It’s okay. You don’t have to look for me anymore.” The grip on his wrist dug her sharp nails into the flesh, and Libum let out a low grunt as blood started to trickle into his hand. “Let go of me, please, lola.” He took a step back, trying to distance himself.

Snap!

“HELP ME!”

The woman lunged forward in an energetic sprint on all fours, her teeth elongating and her eyes filling with blood. Convulsing, her nails scratched marks deep enough to bleed. She pulled Libum close to her.

“Come on!” she said, in a whimsical voice that edged on monstrosity. “We’ve got to get you back to your mamang, Ko.” The heat of the bridge dug into his heels as she forcefully pulled him over to the ledge. Just as she was reaching the end, he forced her into a hug and felt her corruption touch his skin, his mouth, his cheeks. 

“LOLA!” Libum said this urgently, so that it would stop her from transforming fully. A chance for her to remember her own humanity, and the child she lost. “Please, I’m going to fall.” The closer she dragged him, the more he struggled. He shoved her forward, spiraling down into the fog below. His stomach dropped out of his body.

“Bosing!”

Tikba grabbed the back of Libum’s uniform and used the other to swipe for his hand. The man shut his eyes tightly. Using Tikba’s hand as support, they lifted him halfway up back onto the bridge. The old woman floated in the middle of the air, looking down at both of them before she came closer. 

The old woman paused, fully taking in the features of the man. Examining both, her face returned to what it looked like originally, not so grotesque. She smiled, leaning on her tiptoes to reach him, and gently tugged on Libum's cheek, the hostility gone in seconds as she released her grip. Her eyes, hidden under layers of wrinkles, glanced from the little girl now at the end of the bridge, to Libum and back, like she had forgotten why she had come. Slowly, her corruption melted away.

“This child is full of love,” she said. “Ko...” The soul looked up, as if noticing the two for the first time. “Ay nako, hello. Is it time for me to go now?” Even with Libum's nasty attitude, he still couldn't find it in himself to be rude to grandmothers. Even ones that tried to kill him. Her toothy grin exposed some missing teeth.

“Yes, lola. We've come to make your journey a little easier. Please, allow us.” Tikba copied the same tone Libum used, taking her hand and pressing it up against their forehead. They offered their hand. The two Anito each took an arm and led her through the portal for Kolupati to receive. Tikba opened a portal this time, clenching their teeth as they did so, sweat beading across their forehead after the woman went through. They smiled when they realized it worked, and looked to Libum for approval.

“It wasn't as bad as you said.”

“Try doing it thirty times in one day,” Libum deadpanned, secretly beginning to resent their attitude. Though, this did nothing to stop their smile. “At least we got here when we did. If the soul became a multo, it would have corrupted us both.”

A white hummingbird collided with Tikba's chest from the open portal. It shook its head back and forth, stunned, before it said, “Anito!” in a shrill, high voice. Tikba jumped up as if their whole body had been electrified, and they screeched before passing off the bird to Libum. He turned away to give Tikba a chance to compose themself before answering. 

“Libum responding. You have a sick sense of humor, woman. What is it?”

“What are you blaming me for this time?! We don't have time for your tantrums! That damned suicidal cat, she's about to kill herself again. Make yourself useful and collect her before she does something drastic. Persuade her to enter a contract with me, will you?” The bird hovered between them, the gentle hum of its wings the only sound. “You can mention her sister. Pull her heartstrings a bit. Use that head of yours, and maybe I’ll consider what we talked about.”

“What the hell was that?” asked Tikba, fingers over their ears. “You can do that?”

“They’re messengers, spirit guides used by Kolupati, and we can hear them through our contracts with her. You’ll be coming with me to see the twins then. Or, at least, one of them. Now you can experience a cursed human—” Libum coughed and corrected himself. “The Inapo, yourself. Let’s go.”

“A…” Tikba blinked. “Did she call it a cat?”

Libum didn’t answer, before he began the motions to open a portal up. Libum could hear, through the other side of it, screaming as clear as day. He took a deep breath and braced himself.