After everything was said and done. They all finally decided to end things.
"I will make amends for causing harm to the students. I'm prepared to be executed." Maricar said walking towards me. "No need to surrender yourselves. I'd rather you atone for what you did for the rest of your lives. Getting jailed would do no good, it'll also uncover things we desperately hid before. And I would also prefer it, if I was branded as a victim rather than a slut."
She gave one final look to Jeremiah and Helena who's now hugging their daughter, Cynthia.
"We will make everything right. Offer a mass for your soul, and visit your grave. Help the family you left behind in secret. Anything, to atone for what we've done." Mr. Bartolome said, with resolve.
"Maricar. We both were in love with the same man. We both got played, but I chose fighting underhandedly, too obsessed to let go. This is not an excuse for what I did, this is me finally seeing how immature I was." Mrs. Bartolome stood and walked towards Maricar. She stopped and gave her a hug.
Hesitating, Maricar hugged her back.
"How emotional. I was expecting a revenge plot not a compromise." Millien said disappointedly.
I glared at him, from my shoulder.
"Don't say that. All's well that ends well. Don't complicate it." I shushed him, even though the Bartolomes couldn't hear him.
Mrs. Bartolome stepped back, and smiled.
"If we were not in live with that guy, we could have been friends." Maricar said smiling back.
Mr. Bartolome shook his head, and felt insulted, but there was no real heat on his reaction.
"I know. I played you two for my own selfishness. And I'm sorry. Truly. Helena, one thing was true. I love you, and I have never touched any other woman, when Maricar was gone." Mr. Bartolome said, with genuine sincerity.
"LIE." I said out loud.
They all looked at me like I'm about to start another wave of chaos in this room.
"Chill. Technically, he did it with the maid. Well, even more technically, it was Maricar but the body wasn't hers. Get it?"
I said trying to play a joke but all I receive were glares.
"Sorry. Thought it was funny." I scratched my nape, and started whistling away from the chaos I almost started.
"Anthony, it wasn't funny." Sarah said, crossing her arms.
"I'm just trying to make everyone aware that something did happen. And there's a possibility of....you know." I gestured with my hands, drawing a big belly in the air.
The Bartolomes froze. Since it was a possibility for the maid to get pregnant. Not just that...
Cynthia... Paled.
"Me too right?" She said, a bit shaken.
Gino and Sarah looked at her. Since she's in the same situation.
Oops. I didn't mean for that to happen. I was just trying to shake Mr. Bartolome, not Cynthia.
"Well, that's a very delicious turn of events." Millien said, munching another cookie.
"I'm sorry. Revenge blinded me, and turned me into a monster..." Maricar felt bad.
She was ready to leave and get executed without a chance of crossing over. But the situation left trails of her actions. Consequences for the Bartolomes to face.
But Mrs. Bartolome, didn't let it shake her, she pulled Cynthia into a hug and kissed her temple.
"No baby. Whatever happens. If something grows inside your belly, we will accept it. We will love and cherish the future given to us. We've done too many bad things in the past, and this is not a punishment, this is a chance to prove we're better people now."
Cynthia cried into her mother's arm. Then Gino stepped forward.
Maybe a sense of responsibility. I don't know.
"I'll....help. But, you know how complicated it is for me." He said with strained voice.
"No need son. We can take care of our own. You're just someone who's tricked into it. We aren't trapping you. No need to father the child. If there is a child." Mr. Bartolome said firmly.
Gino felt oust out of the situation he was involved in.
"Since things are already settled... Maricar, I'll purge you out of the body." I said, putting the Holy Rosary around her neck.
I started speaking in Latin, to purge he rout of the maid's body.
This time, Maricar wasn't resisting, and it ended smoothly. The maid's body slumped on the floor unconscious, and Mr. Bartolome took her, still covered in a jacket, and carried her to a nearby couch.
"Maricar, show yourself to them."
[SKILL LET THEM SEE ACTIVATED]
The Bartolomes gasped in shock. They're finally seeing Maricar's form when she died.
Limp, disfigured, dislocated bones waist down. Blood leaking out from a partially flattened skull.
That's Maricar.
And they exactly remembered that posture, that face, looking down on he breathless form that day.
Helena cried, Jeremiah, did too.
"Time to finally say goodbye, Maricar." I walked to her ghosts form and raised my dagger.
She was ready for it.
Maricar closed her eyes and smiled. But nothing happened.
I didn't execute her, instead.
"You will serve in the ghost realm, eternally. Go on. How will.you make amends if you're executed."
A portal has opened, and Maricar's face and body has returned to it's orginal form. She jumped at me and hugged me.
"Thank you. Thank you, Anthony. I don't know who you really are, but thank you. I'll serve you well."
"Wait-"
Before I could asked what she means by serve me well, she happily stepped into the portal, and it closes just, instantaneously.
[TEAM TASK COMPLETED: GAINED + 500 TEAM POINTS]
[TEAM POINTS CAN BE USED IN THE TEAM INTERFACE]
[GAINED + 500 POINTS]
I was able to take a long deep breath and stretched out.
Team task finally done. And I've got points to use.
Speaking if which, how much do I have now?
"System show me my total points." I muttered to myself.
[TOTAL POINTS: 2,587]
[SYSTEM CAN BE UPGRADED]
[SPEND 2000 POINTS? Y/N]
Awesome! I can upgrade my system. Without hesitation, I tapped [YES].
And just like that, all my skills and items leveled up too.
I was oblivious to it, but everyone was already about to interrogate me.