Abysmal

Celestin Vallejo is an ordinary girl. But her life took a turn when she manifested her power on her 16th birthday. She was sent to an unknown academy and became one of the chosen ones. Everything went well, not until the tables turned. Celestine died while being branded as a traitor. She was executed by her own father and betrayed by her trusted friends. Unexpectedly, someone gave her chances to survive. And after several lives, her revenge is finally ready to be served.

Lilith Mendez is the Cupid of the city and owner of The Billionaire Matchmaking Agency. She’s known for her professionalism, attention to detail, and discretion. But her dating life is abysmal until an alluring stranger enters her life. Despite the warning bells, she considers opening herself up to the possibility of romance…until things go awry. She’s found herself in the wrong situation with a powerful and dangerous man. Rescued by Cristo, her friend and billionaire-in-shining-armor, Lilith's tempted by his assurances of protection and passion. In this tangled web of deception, lies, and broken promises, what can Lilith do when the promise of relief makes her want so much more?

He hated to see her happy, he hated how a girl from a low class, poor family became his wife, a crown prince's wife! She was abandoned by the ruthless prince on their wedding day. When he left, she suffered all kinds of trauma, pain and abuse inside the palace. Her blaring screams were either muffled or ignored mercilessly. However, the trampled and sinless soul was still hopeful that one day she'll be freed from the malicious clutches of her tormentor but the prince of Svamgarh had some other vicious plans of torturing his bride and making her life a hell inside his abysmal cage. He re-entered in her life only to make her sufferance more heightened. Why? Because she is the sister of a scum bag who ran away with the crown prince's sister and now he's hell bent to destroy her dignity and snatch away her mental peace till she stays nothing but a breathing corpse. He hurt her, crushed her dignity in order to avenge the bruise created on the royal status but her innocent beauty drew him towards her ending up into a web of lethal obsession, pain and lust.

How painful is it to grow in the oppressive bitter cold? Is it because the desire for revenge is so intense? For the sake of love, Christabel's life became turbulent in an abysmal way. She never knew falling in love was a great crime until she found herself in a situation that made her doubt her love, not giving her a chance, her life was destroyed within the range of five months. She dreaded the emotion 'love' and its accomplice. All hell was let loose when her cunning enemy sent her to a place a sane human will not dare spent a second in. Her stepsister will not stop until she collects something she believed she snatched from her. As if that was not enough, she was accused of murder and was cast out by the person she so much respected. No dulling! Life is hotness for hotness and coldness for coldness. It is a time to be brave and sharp; like the biblical-edged swords. She decided to show the other side of the by taking revenge! Prove her innocence and regain her lost pride. The question here is, is she innocent? Who is the real murderer? Will she be courageous In the face of all these adversities? Will all these come to a full cessation? What is her fate amid this chaos? Will her lovely mum and mentally handicapped sister be able to save her despite them being poor? Will her life be ever meaningful?

Tunnels deconstructs the individual’s Romantic fascination with ‘love’ or the grammaticality of beauty. Ideally, the ‘tunnels’ in the collection are subterranean love poems from the suburban imaginary. These seemingly syntactic tunnels travel through one’s literary imagination or heterotopic dreamscapes, and while αγάπη (Greek for ‘love’) inspires these rhizomic tunnels to navigate the abysmal ‘meta-spectacle’ of gesture, language or moment of poemness, the mind like the many-colored jeepneys of Manila, where driving past roast goose restaurants in Shek Kip Mei or spotting stilt houses in Kampong Kleang, attempt to explore the transgeneric textualities of the everyday, alongside the unstructurality of time and space, the littoral and the liminal.

My name is Emma. At 31, I am doing well for myself. I’ve got a great job. Or at least a well paid job, my boss loves me, and my girlfriends think I’m great. More important than anyone's opinion is that of my housemate, and best friend in the world, Scott. Scott thinks the world of me and always tells me to be myself. So why do I feel the need to lie outrageously on dates? From rock-climbing to Muay Thai: when it comes to prospective boyfriends, I am compelled to embellish my C.V. with unlikely porkies that alwaysbackfire - with hilarious results. I have Craig to blame for that - he really shattered my sense of self-confidence and self-worth. But then I turn the spotlight on Scott, and he wishes he'd never brought it up. With a penchant for checked shirts and Harry Potter-style specs, I decide he needs a makeover and to experience the abysmal dating world. My friendship with Scott began in the most unconventional way. His past life had made him homeless and isolated, but he saved me. And now we are inseparable. My dating disasters began when my relationship with he-who-must-not-be-named ended. Waking up with a pounding head, a dry mouth, aching limbs and a random arm draped over my waist, I struggle to get up and then stumble to the bathroom. I rubbed my eyes and stare at the hungover, half dead panda eyed loser staring back at me. What started out as a lighthearted challenge with Scott, became something more. We were prepared. But nothing could prepare us for the surprise results! Before long, I realise that our lives will never be the same again.