Empty Smiles

In an empty white space a black haired boy with pentagrams in his eyes is laying in the floor looking at what looks like galaxy swirls. he swipes one of his hands and a swirl disappeared. " How boring " it was this very statement that lead to his journey in search of his memories

Fatima Jane Robles, whenever she's with people, she only shows them her faked and staged smiles. She was running away from the past, but the past kept on hunting her. She was silently battling all her struggles alone. Her smiles may be faked and staged because of a different level of pain she felt, she still managed to feel real happiness because of the one man named Vishnu Lloyd Conception. Whenever the both of them were together, enjoying each other's company, especially in bed, she always gives him her genuine smiles. And, her smile never fails to caught him off guard. And as the saying goes, 'love comes in so many ways'. Until one day, she just realised that she already had fallen for him. But the thing is, it was too late.

Years of living his life in hell, Kai forgot how it felt to be happy. All his life, only pain and agony constantly remains in his heart. The songs he wrote and the tune of music were the only thing that allows him to hold on and live his life. He doesn’t even know if living lifelessly is still called living. He was there hiding in the dark where nightmares haunt him every night and woke up alone in his empty bed, sweating bullets and tears, he just wanted to end it all. But one accident changes everything. After the incident, Kai woke up only to see an unfamiliar place and people calling him as ‘His Bride’. Will this new life allow him to heal and live as the way Kai wanted to or will it be the reason for him to totally lose himself?

After our eighty-eighth canceled wedding, I called my business partner. "I'm taking the Haviana market project." There was a beat of stunned silence. "Seriously? That's ten years overseas. You just got married—well, weren't you? Does your husband even know? What about your parents? You always said staying close to them was everything." I glanced around the empty church and let out a sharp laugh. "There was no wedding. No husband. And my parents? They've got Cindy. That's all they need." Another pause. "Alright. Pack your bags. You leave tomorrow." After the call, I ran a hand down my wedding dress. One last tear slipped out, quiet and pointless. Cindy had another "episode" today. Claimed she'd off herself. Andrew canceled—again. I'd looked at him, drained. "It's the eighty-eighth time." He dropped his head, guilt all over him. "Just a little more time, Viv. She's been off since the accident. I'm scared she'll actually do it. I swear, I'll talk to her. For real this time. Then we'll get married. Promise." My parents didn't hesitate. "Vivian, let Andrew go. If Cindy hadn't gotten kidnapped trying to save you, she wouldn't have these breakdowns. Are you really putting a wedding over your sister's life?" "How could you be so selfish?" I'd heard it all before. Used to fight it. Not this time. If neither my fiancé nor my parents wanted me around, then fine. I'd leave.

My husband doesn't love me or our daughter. It's been six years since she was born, but he's never held her. The doctors say he has an emotional disorder, and that he doesn't know how to express the way he feels. But when his true love returns, he smiles at us for the first time. He even brings our daughter a gift. I think it's because he's finally seen sense… until she and I see the photo he uses as his phone's wallpaper. In it, his eyes are crinkled as he smiles. He has one arm around a little girl whose front tooth is missing, and he holds his true love's hand with the other. My daughter tugs on my hand, and her eyes redden. "Mommy, do you think we should leave? Should we give Daddy three final chances? Let's leave him if he still doesn't want us after that."

What would you do if you saw a woman who really looks like you in your dream murder someone? What would you do if you know that it is not you but when you woke up the dead body is already under your bed but there is no evidence or even a single sign of murder? What would you do if you heard voices and saw scenes that made you insane? And what would you do if you’re the only one who came back from the dead after the bus accident? Find out the life of Irish Stephen who came back from the dead after the bus that she was riding together with her friends, colleagues and boyfriend fell off a cliff that made it totally wreck. People call her “Lazarus” and “Lucky” for returning back from the dead but for her it is a curse because after an accident she knows that there is something wrong with her. She starts seeing things, seeing people that she doesn't know, and hearing voices that she thought is just an effect of the accident. Only her friend Devon understands her and helps her by consulting his friend named, Luna, who knows about spiritual awakenings who told Irish to empty her heart from hatred because of what happened to her in the past of losing someone she loved and her life. When she starts discovering what is happening to her; it is more than what she expected because it is all connected to her dreams and to her visions. The voices that she hears and the things that she sees are all connected to her. Find out how it happened and how Irish became a living dead. Here in MORTEM from one of the best story-teller; I.B.LOYOLA

From riches to rags. From perfect to flawed. Avianna has lived the best life everyone dreams of. Her life was perfectly filled with joy and happiness. She had everything and anything she wanted. And finally is married to the love of her life. But everything changed in a blink of an eye. Smiles curved into sadness. Happiness into tears. She lost everything, maybe even a bit of herself. No more riches, the man she loved dearly being a reason for the loss of their unborn child. And the reason why she can never have a child again. After losing everything to him she finally decides it's enough and divorces him. She finds herself drinking in a night club trying forget about everything that happened to her. Under the influence she ends up sleeping with a man she doesn't even know. ***Excerpt*** "What's your name?" he whispers his hot breath burning my ears. His beard tickling my skin. Hearing his voice for the first time I think I melted. Processing the deep, fruity voice in my mind. It took me just as long to answer his question. Scared that I might have already forgotten my own name. It felt hard to find words for it. "Avi-Avianna," my voice faint and brittle. " Beautiful name for a beautiful queen, " he whispers again. Did he just call me a queen? Beautiful queen? I couldn't control the smile that spreads on my face. " What's yours? " I ask. Even though knowing it didn't matter. I didn't care who he was but only what he was about to do to me.

Imagine my shock when I found out that my husband, a professor who had proudly embraced a childless life for half of his years, had an affair with one of his own students. She even had his six-year-old son. The day I planned to report him to the university, Zia Thompson came to my door with the child and knelt in front of me. "Maybe you and Zeke were in love once," she said. "But he's over forty now. Who doesn't want to have a child? A legacy?" "I don't need a title," she went on. "I can give up the child too. I just beg you, don't tear our family apart." I looked at my husband, who stood protectively in front of them. I felt terrifyingly calm. "Cut ties with them," I said, my voice flat, "or prepare to be reported to the university. You choose." Without a moment's hesitation, he tore the report letter into shreds. I thought that was his answer. But on the fifty-second night of a bed grown cold and a home echoing with silence, he still hadn't returned. Instead, I received news that Zia was pregnant again. She had graduated by then. The report I never sent no longer posed any threat to them. Zeke didn't bother to hide his fatigue and irritation anymore. "Treat Zia and the kids well," he said, "or keep living alone in that empty house. It's your choice." My heart was already a wasteland. "I have one more option," I said. "I choose divorce."

Stella is happy in every aspect of her life, there is nothing she could ever ask for. Until on the night of the full moon, the light envelopes her and sweep her away back to her recurring dream. There she found a fragment of herself, a memory that is long gone. "You are my Luan, and in this dream no gods, no fate, or deity can forbid us to meet" - King Sun "Our love is God, when we say let the mountain move, it will move. Empty the sea, it will be empty. If I need to kill everyone, even the one who love me and precious to you I will. You are mine and only mine" - The Justice "We are destined, Fate declares it. Yet, fate is not written in stone. It can be burn, torn, tampered, and destroyed. So who am I? Telling you who to love. I love you and that's all I know" - The King of the Celestials

"At your darkest hour, when all seems lost and there is no hope of light. When you feel the darkness pressing in on you from every side, when you find yourself standing on the precipice of oblivion, A Hero will descend from the Moon.     His glittering silver face will cast a bright light upon your path. Avoid him, but it will be impossible. You will thrive hard to run... that's when the beast in you will Awake, and you'll meet the real you".  People say she's Beautiful when she smiles, but unfortunately, life isn't funny to her in any way. Poor Freya. At the age of Nine, she lost her parents in a day, making her live a life of torture with her Uncle. She was tossed out of the house at midnight into the ferocious rain after being beaten, stripped, scratched with whips, and tormented without cause by her uncle's wife. Bracing her difficulties and keeping her mother's last words in her heart.   In an iconic scenario, she met a Wolf whom they both had two things in common.  Rejected and Devastated.  They face their terrible fates together, walking together till she  becomes his Human Luna, Impossible?