13 Betha's Story

Betha didn't look Irish. She didn't sound Irish either, all thanks to the Hollywood movies and television series that accompanied her every night in a far-off and isolated house where an old woman just died. At a young age of 10, she managed to dig and bury an old woman and the house was all hers. She had the perfect garden with lots of vegetables and fruits, so she survived for a month without going downtown. After a man in his 30s suddenly kept on knocking on the door one day, she knew she had to leave. Betha immediately got out of the house after he left, feeling frightened to be found in case he came back.

She didn't look foreign to any of the places she took as her home, so no one would've suspected that she was different. She always picked her dwellings based from the town's ethnicity. A city capital was a definite no. A rural area was not her preference either. It had to be a small, quiet town not far from civilization and big enough to be considered a city with modern culture and good landscapes; Summerland was the perfect place.

Except for food, she never spent even a single penny on anything she owned from her car down to her clothes but for the first time, she was suddenly spending her own money in Summerland because she wanted to replace everything she got from the people who died after her wailing. She couldn't count them on her fingers and couldn't remember all of them either. In all those 13 years that she had transformed as a banshee because people were in danger, she never thought about saving any of them. She was evil after all. It was in her nature just like in the folklore.

Most of the tales about banshees weren't true except for the description about being an old hag and the wailing. It was good that her mom was able to pass down the grey cloak that could hide the terrible eerie sound, but she can never conceal it from people who know her personally like Apollo, Mrs. Rodriguez, Gab, and her colleagues at the pharmacy. Anyone who knew her name could see her true form and hear her annoying screech which is why she isolated herself from people for a very long time. The only time she felt she wanted to suddenly belong was when she saw Apollo. For selfish reasons, she had the greatest desire to use him to completely remove her ugly banshee form from her life but when he tried to kiss her that night at the rooftop, she felt the need to protect him. And with that driving force, she transported to the middle of nowhere and had no idea how long she had been staying there. She was in a place full of green pastures; it wasn't dark nor bright, so it felt like it was afternoon forever. There was no sun, no moon, no stars, there was nothing else but pure green surroundings. She was alone but every time she woke up from a deep slumber, there was a generous variety of food that was more than enough for her entire day. It was always on a mantle laying on the grass right beside her sleeping corner. She called countless of times to anyone but there was no response. She would've lost her mind if she didn't feel relieved to be away from Apollo who could've possibly died because of her. She didn't want that. Not anymore. From the times that she woke up to a generous serving of food, it has probably been a week though she wasn't 100% sure because time didn't feel like it was passing. It just felt like every day was déjà vu.

She didn't know what to do. It seemed like she would forever be stuck wherever she was, and she thought that maybe it was for the best. She didn't deserve to belong anywhere. She had not killed anyone, but she didn't save anyone from dying either. And worst, she took their belongings as if they were rightfully hers. Because of that, she was being punished. And for the first time, she felt that she deserved to be alone.

She remembered the time when she was only 10. Her dad got scammed by Rolando, his business partner; one that he considered his best friend. The company went down because of that and his dad almost lost his mind because he cherished that company like it was his own son. It was one of the companies listed in Forbes as The World's Most Innovative company. In that list, five were of Irish operations.

Ireland had been marked for attracting cutting-edge FDI investment across a range of sectors. The nature of their family's business was biopharmaceuticals. She didn't' know anything about how Rolando has scammed her dad, but she felt the impact when he started drinking and her mom started suffering from anxiety depression. She cried the night during her 10th birthday when her mom and dad kissed her goodnight and said that they needed to go to Rolando's place to take back what he stole from them. She had the strangest feeling that something bad would happen…and it did. Her parents died in a car accident that night.

She recalled how happy they were until an American entrepreneur knocked on their door and talked to her dad about big investors for their company's growth. That American was Rolando. It happened just a few months before her birthday, but his dad trusted him as if they knew each other well because he had a knack for power statements, and he sounded genuine…except to Betha; she had always felt that there was something not right about him. After her parents died, she was taken to St. Mary's Centre, an orphanage. But when the house was sold and she got the money from their trusted attorney and realtor, she took off. She managed to travel to the United States with the help of her mom's quirky assistant named Moira. After that, she paid her to go back to Ireland and never to tell anyone where she was. Being a peculiar person that she was, was a big advantage; she never did ask why a 10-year-old kid would want to be alone in a foreign land.

Her banshee form started when she was eight, but it wasn't after she turned 18 that she turned into an old hag with long silver hair. When she was a kid, she just simply lamented whenever someone within five kilometers was in danger. She didn't have an ugly form; only her hair transformed to silver. She stole from anyone who died after her wailing and she enjoyed taking what was not hers: cars, clothes, money, and jewelries. All of that because Rolando stole from her family too.

However, because of Apollo, the hatred vanished like it was never there. She no longer wanted to be selfish. She no longer wanted to steal. She suddenly wanted to belong somewhere, and it felt like Summerland was the perfect place, but she couldn't risk Apollo's life. She wished there was a way to be with him without his life on the line. But first, she had to find a way to get out from wherever she was.