LEON “WHAT’S the meaning of this, Helen?” I asked my wife. I just got back from a long day of work. When I came home earlier than expected, I caught Helen lying butt naked next to a guy in our very own bed. Helen was horrified to see me. “Angelo, please let me explain!” she pleaded, and got up while covering her naked body with our blanket. “What’s there to explain?” I scoffed and forced a smile. Helen tried to grab my arm, but I distanced myself in repulsion. She got hurt by that but still, she tried to lie her way out to this. “Angelo, I can explain everything so please, don’t leave me,” she begged, and shed crocodile tears. The guy reacted, and laughed sarcastically. “Are you going to tell your husband how much you enjoyed my rod, dear Helen? C’mon, you can do better than that, baby. Tell him how many times you complained about his lousy sex techniques and how bad he is in bed, honey!” “Shut your trap, you big oaf! This is my house!” I shouted at him. He ignored my outburst, a
LEON I RAN to a nearby dark alley and there, I staggered and panted. [I can’t breathe!] I exclaimed in my mind. My vision started to get blurry, and I could feel my head spinning. It was way too early to doubt my boyfriend. We haven’t talked much lately because I became busier at work, so he must have changed his job and didn’t have the chance to tell me. “That must be it,” I convinced myself while trying to catch my breath. “Sheldon was always the one who considered my situation and went along with my one-sided requests. And not once did I ask if he was really fine with all of it.” Realizing all of these now scared me. What would I do if Sheldon grew tired of me? After that brief overthinking, I decided to go to his place so I could talk to the person himself. We’ve been lovers for more than six years! How come only now I would realize that I knew so little about Sheldon?! ━━━━━━ ◦ ◦ ━━━━━━ I ARRIVED at his place faster than I expected. Was it because of the adrenaline rush th
LEON “AWW~” I heard my mother say. Then, she patted my head. “I have faith in you, (.....). I know you’ll do just fine without me,” she said. “That’s not true! I’m only ten!” I reasoned out. “For now,” she uttered. “Okay. (.....), whenever you feel lonely, just look at the moon,” she advised. “The moon?” I frowned. “Why the moon, Mom?” I asked. “I don’t know,” she half joked, and chuckled when I pouted at her. “I mean, just look at it,” she encouraged, and pointed a finger at the moon. I stayed longer that day so it was already night time. “The moon is so beautiful, don’t you think?” I stared at it for a while. Back then, I never understood what my Mom tried to imply. Who would’ve thought that it was her way of saying that she loved me all her life? “What’s so special about the moon, Mom?” I retorted, a little disinterested about it. “You know… I was told that I can never get pregnant. That was also the reason why your father left me because I couldn’t give him a child,” she re
LEON I BARELY made it on time. I parked my motorcycle a little farther from the studio so they wouldn’t notice that I was here. I hid myself in a dark corner and decided to message Derrick before I proceeded. Leon: Where are you? Derrick: Doesn’t matter. Where are you right now? Leon: Still in front of the studio, but I hid in a dark corner. Where the hell are you?! Derrick: Don’t mind me. Go at the back, but don’t get yourself caught. Leon: Caught? By who? Derrick: Can’t explain. Just do it. -seen- I clicked my tongue in annoyance. I had no idea why Derrick was acting weird. He was adamant about it. I was about to leave my spot when he sent me one last message saying: Derrick: Please be safe -seen- I attempted to reply as it bothered me. What was going on, really?! I made sure that my phone was put on silent before I walked my way to the other side of the building. I felt uneasy, but I still had to do it. ━━━━━━ ◦ ◦ ━━━━━━ IT WAS quiet, so I began to think that
SIDAPA WHEN the world was created, several gods were given important roles to keep the balance between good and evil. Some became the Goddess of the Sea, some became the God of the Sun, and others chose to be a lot closer to humans and took many forms. Gods and Goddesses all had their true forms. In order to relate themselves to the mortals, a lot of us took the form of humans when they visited their realm. One of the few, who neither looked like a human nor a God, was me. Born from darkness and light itself, I became the God of Death. In the near future, humans would have known me as the Grim Reaper. When I came to the mortal realm, I took residence in the highest peak of the mountain called Madja-as, a place that no humans dared to climb for it was known to send them to their early deaths. All I had with me was the giant, black tree. There, I silently welcomed every new soul that was yet to be given a body to live in. I would measure its lifespan and carve it to the tree with th
SIDAPA I GOT back to my tree, but I saw no one. I looked around, searched every bush and tree, and still nothing. When I got tired, I walked back, disappointed. “Um, excuse me?” I panicked when I heard a voice speak behind me. I assumed it was hovering over me so I lifted my head up to the sky, but it turned out that it was standing right in front of me so I looked down. My eyes widened. Before me stood a being whom I had never seen before. It had long, silver white hair that stretched down to its waist. Its skin was so pale, and their icy blue eyes were gorgeous. It wore a silk robe that covered very little of its skin. I couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman, but one thing was for sure: It was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life. “Who are you?” I asked in a soft voice. But since I was in my true form, what was soft for me would sound very deep and scary for others, like talking to a creature that came straight from the underground. “Can you please help
SIDAPA I GASPED when I remembered about it, and I quickly left to find some herbal plants nearby. It didn’t take me that long to find one. I handed over some leaves and vines to the guy, and he accepted them. “Wrap them around your leg. It will ease the swelling,” I told him, and he just stared at the leaves. “What? You don’t know how?” I raised an eyebrow. I laughed when he shook his head. “Don’t laugh at me, Mister! I am not from here, so I really have no idea about these… these things you gave me,” he admitted. “What are these for?” he asked with teary eyes, before showing me the vines. “Use that to tie the leaves together so they won’t fall off when you move,” I said, and he looked more confused. “Please put the leaves for me,” he pleaded. “What?” I exclaimed. “My claws… I might hurt you,” I refused. He sat down and sighed. He felt hopeless. “Can I ask you something?” he opened up while trying to figure out how to apply the leaves on his injury at the same time. “What is it
SIDAPA “SIDAPA, why are you swarmed by black butterflies?” Libulan asked. He had just arrived, and the first thing he noticed were these butterflies that were fluttering all over the place. “Don’t mind them,” I said, and continued carving new lifeline marks again on the tree. “You’re allowed to sit,” I added when I saw him still staring at me, or rather the butterflies around me. I met Libulan a week ago. He injured his leg when he fell down from the sky. He told me that he was hiding from the sea serpent, Bakunawa. For some reason, he asked if it was okay that we see each other again and I agreed without much argument. I admit, I was captivated by his beauty. He looked so perfect in so many ways. But again, I feel like I’m breaking the rules for harboring such feelings towards another God. And he’s a man, a very gorgeous one, I thought. I was almost done with the last mark when I heard something crack. “It broke,” I said in horror as I lifted the broken machete in an eye level po