When Jake realized where they were headed, he started panicking. Big time. "Oh no no no," he muttered under his breath, clutched the dashboard and held on for dear life.
Caleb shook his head. "Stop being such a wuss. You're the one who wanted to join me on this mission, so you're going to have to suck it up, princess." His eyes roamed around the vicinity, looking for anything unusual. He parked the car right underneath the street sign that said "Balete Drive".
"Yeah, I did. But you never told me what the mission's about. Hell, for all I know, you'd want me to gank some manananggal or beat the living daylights out of some dwende or something."
Caleb snorted. "Manananggals? Please. You know as well as I do those creatures do not exist at all. Well, at least not in this day and age. You're lucky they aren't, otherwise, I might have to ask you to do it."
"Can't we just do this some other day? You know I don't like ghosts. Why does it always have to be about ghosts?"
Caleb eyed his friend dangerously. He knew how exasperating Jake could be when the mission involved the walking dead, but he wasn't just about to abandon the assignment. Sinag already told them it was either now or never. They were at a race against time and he'd be damned if he let Jake sabotage this one shot opportunity.
Sinag, their trusty seer-slash-prophet, told him he would find his companions in the occurence of a supernatural event. Of course, he would have to kill whatever eerie creature stood in his way before a companion would be revealed. It pissed Caleb knowing that he cannot fulfill the prophecy on his own. He hated working with a team. And although he had Jake tagging along since forever, he still didn't like putting up with the idea of a Fellowship of the Ring bullcrap.
"Even if you do insist on this I-can-do-this-on-my-own-I-don't-need-a-team idea, you're never going to be successful. The gods have foretold this already and it's useless going against something that's already preordained."
God, even Sinag's irritating sermons were beginning to seep into his consciousness. He much preferred her voice when the diwata Sariya speaks through her. Albeit it was a lot creepy knowing the deity's human manifestation was that of an age-old woman who was almost always at Sinag's side.
Jake whined some more on the perils of dealing with a cranky spirit at the height of their powers that night. Caleb was just about to throttle him when a silver Honda CR-V sped past the block. He blinked and then saw the flash of a white dress up the road. "She's here. Shut up and just let me do my job."
Caleb turned on the ignition and followed the SUV, ignorant of the sudden chill brought about by the night air.
I wrote this in a burst of sudden inspiration. It's been marinating in my head for a couple of months now and this is the first time I've actually committed this project on something tangible. It's still a work in progress and there's still a lot of research and plotting to be done, but I'm hoping for the best. I hope I can see through the end of this ambitious project.
I love it! We need these kinds of stories to revive interest in Phil. lit. Like I said before, a big reason why I don't like reading Pinoy stories is the voices are boring, and almost always, the ending is sad. I don't know, bawal ba mag karoon ng happy ending?
ReplyDeleteI like this, a really modern twist on our urban legends. I can't wait for you to finish it. :)
Hehe thanks! The ego boost does wonders to beat the procrastination ghosts away. Ako rin, I really want to see more modern takes / re-telling of some local myths. This story delves more into urban legends, not much into the familiar lore we all know like kapres, etc. I find it interesting to explore the "what ifs" in urban legends. Feeling ko kasi hindi pa sila masyadong na-e-exploit sa Phil. fiction.
ReplyDeleteThanks again for the feedback. :D Ginanahan ako tuloy haha!
Medyo traditional ang karamihan sa mga Pinoy writers, although a few comic book artists do try to break that mould. Ewan ko ba, when I do try to read mga local stories, especially from the folks na Palanca awarded etc., medyo nawawalan ako ng gana. I'm not criticizing, mind you. Siguro di ko lang talaga type mga sinusulat nila. :p
ReplyDeletePareho tayo, mare. Sakin kasi parang masyadong up there yung scholarly fiction to the point na hindi ka na talaga maka-relate. Di ko alam kung sadyang bopols lang ako haha. In my opinion, wala naman yan sa kung gaano ka-highfalutin (sp?) ang story...mas effective sya para sakin kapag marami ang nakaka-relate. :D
ReplyDeleteAmen! I don't mind if the topic is "intellectual" but I'd rather it's presented in an engaging manner. Kaya ako biglang nagka-interest nun sa Holy Blood Holy Grail dahil ke Dan Brown (even though a lot of people didn't quite agree with it).
ReplyDeleteOr, yun nga, sadyang sobrang simple lang ng utak ko to comprehend such level of literary works. Haha.
Hahaha ganun din ako. Simpleng words at concepts lang kahit pagbuhul-buhulin mo yung plot, magegets ko naman basta wag lang yung over sa metaphors. Hehe. I think this is the reason why comics is becoming more popular kasi mas madaling ma-grasp yung story, not to mention visual pa sya.
ReplyDelete