Chaos Inside A Pen

Author's Note: Danag is spirits that once co-exist with mortals according to the Isneg Folklore in the Philippines. However, their co-existence ended when these spirits soon learn to crave human blood   It was the chilling wind of 5 in the morning that embrace my bones as I step outside for a jog. The surrounding is still dark but thin slits of light are slowly creeping from the east as I decide to take the familiar path that leads towards the green fields of our barrio. For almost 10 years of living in the city with every corner smothered with glitz and glamour, the sight of our village is still the one that my eyes yearn for. The simplicity of the houses that are not competing with their sizes and height. The trees that are more appealing the than the lifeless skyscrapers that look like an oversized tombstone at dusk. And most of all, the greenfield that makes you finally breathe life itself as compared to the stench of smog in the big city that chokes out the life in all of us. ...

  Arnold dreamed that he was in a garden with Emma.   They run across the acres of hundreds of flower-like little children savoring the years of their innocence. The breeze smells of life and all its zest and sweetness as they fling themselves in a bed of technicolor; dipping their body into the pools of petals with laughter that made the birds in the birds in the sky appear and dance above them.   It was the kind of dream that everyone, even Arnold, would wish will never end until something just shatter than a breakable wall between dreams and reality.   And for Arnold, that was when one of the flowers suddenly flaunt a red eye right in front of him the moment she looks at Emma. It gave him the look that will eternally haunt even on his waking life.   “Arnold? Arnold?”   Pain shot right through the skull or Arnold upon opening his eye with his heart skipping some of its beat upon his awakening. The first to greet him is their ceiling and the voice of Emma ...

For someone who works in an unusual time where most of the people are already dreaming with drippings on their lips, Arnold is one of those who can easily sleep soundly. The friction between his skin and the bedsheet is a natural sedative for him. No need for him to gulp several teacups or even the dead old counting of sheep.   But tonight, surprisingly his usually deep sleep was intermittently roused for an unknown reason; as if there is this unseen hand that shakes him at random and he has no choice but to open his eyes that are revolting against him now for easily giving up the much-coveted slumber.   The simultaneous shift from sleeping to being wide awake finally reached a conclusion when Arnold decides to rise from his bed when he heard a sound coming from their living room.   It was the voice of someone talking in a hushed tone. Arnold would consider it nothing but a fractal of his forgotten dream in the first place and yet after a moment, the voice becomes all too...

  “We lost another dog, Arnold. Now it's our Pomeranian. Do you know how much is that dog? 10K Arnold. Ten fucking thousand.”   Diego takes another puff from his Marlboro black cigarette while fighting some of his tears to burst from his sullen eyes. Arnold reluctantly pats the shoulder of his friend who lives nearby from their home; just a walking distance in the opposite street. Diego is one of those animal lovers who become content with canine and canine companions rather than those with the modern-day bipedal mammals; treating them like their own child or somehow like their lovers minus the sexual activity.   It was the third time he lost another one of his beloved pets. Just like his other dogs, his Pomeranian he named “Becka” was found lying in one of those darkened alleyways in their compound. It was obvious that there is someone behind it all along for all of his dogs died with a common denominator: a slit on their neck right in their carotid. Effectively draining...

  Denzel with his Lolo Vir hasten their way back to the apartment of Cheska as the spectral form of the young girl is like a busted bulb right now as the faint glow from its physique now flickers on and off. Her soul has been separated from her body for too long that Denzel fear that her mortal shell will reject it due to the thinning soul line.   And if worse comes to worst, she will be practically and inevitable become one of the dead.   Upon entering the unit of Cheska, the two will be greeted by Lolo Vic who is now beneath the flesh of Cheska’s body. His having the time of his life right now as he explores the sensuality of a female’s body; a Venus as an old perverted men right under the skin of a maiden that bears the body of an hourglass.   He is about to hit the “sweetspots” that every woman begs to be touched when Denzel suddenly draw a sign of the cross in the air and recited the infamous Roman Catholic rites of exorcism to expel the body of his ...

  “Apo, I am afraid about your decision on leaving Vic with the young lady. You know him.” Lolo Vir finally breaks his silence as they follow the Dalikmata along the empty streets with only a few cars embark the midnight journey while the city is already asleep and perhaps dreaming about its former glory when its people are simpler and buildings and infrastructure doesn’t look like a colossal tombstone. “Trust me, Lo. Lolo Vic is the best choice for leaving an empty mortal shell alone.” Denzel said calmly to which Lolo Vir can’t help but to wonder if his grandchild really knows about the history of infamous grandfather that become a most wanted figure before among his peers and colleagues who are part of the occult society. It is or the same reason why he can’t Lolo Vic who sought magic in extreme means with abandoned values and virtues; a typical wizard bent on the left path. “Alright apo. But don’t tell that I didn’t warn you.” The two hurriedly catch their breath as the Dalikmat...