Heto na naman ako.
Nakikita ko na naman ang aking sarili na tumatakbo sa isang makipot at lumang daang tila napag-iwanan na ng panahon. Tanaw na tanaw ko sa itaas ang nakangiting buwan na siyang nagbibigay ilaw sa aking dinaraanan. Ngunit pakiramdam ko ay hindi ngiti ngunit ngisi ang siyang binibigay ng buwan.
Ika nga nila, kapag naghugis ngiti ang buwan sa kalangitan ay mababalot ng dilim ang buong kapaligiran na mukhang sa unang pagkakataon ay aking masisilayan.
Hingal na hingal na ako mula sa pagtakbo. Hindi ko na magawang tandaan kung saang parte ng lugar ako nagsimulang tumakbo. Bakit ba kasi dito ako dumaan? Bakit ba iniba ko ang daan na aking tinatahak pag-uwi? Siguro nga, ito na ang katapusan ko.
Nanginginig at pilit kung inaabot ang bukana ng iskinita, ilang takbo na lamang, ilang hakbang na lamang at makikita ko na ang liwanag mula sa poste nang sumulpot siya sa aking harapan.
Nababalot ng itim ang kanyang katawan. Nang siya ay dumilat, hindi ko nagawang umalis pa sa aking kinatatayuan ng bumungad sa akin ang pulang-pulang mata niya. At nang ibuka niya ang kanyang bibig ay unti-unting nagbago ang hugis ng kanyang ngipin hanggang maramdaman ko na lamang ang dugo sa aking leeg.
Bago ako tuluyang kunin ng dilim, naaninag ko ang isang babaeng nakasuot ng puti. Malinaw kung narinig sa kanya ang mga katagang, isa…apat…tatlo.
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Vladimir’s POV
“Dumadami na naman sila,” may pag-aalalang sabi ng aking kapatid na si Van habang binabaybay namin ang madilim na eskinita. “He is really building an army.” dagdag pa niya.
Hindi ko sinagot ang kanyang sinabi sapagkat naiirita ako sa sari-saring amoy na aking nalalanghap. Hindi na sana ako sumama sa kanya at hinayaan ko na lamang siya sa kanyang balak gawin ngunit alam ko namang hindi rin ako makatutulog kapag may nangyaring masama sa kanya.
“You should have told me na dito tayo pupunta,” pagsusungit ko. “Sinabi mo sanang magdala ako ng mask.”
“Sorry, alam ko namang hindi ka sasama and Dad told me na keep this a secret from anyone hanggang sa matapos ito.”
Magsasalita pa sana ako nang biglang tumahimik ang paligid. Mula sa dilim, lumabas ang isang lalaking nangangamoy bangkay.
Unti-unti siyang naglakad patungo sa amin. Nakangisi habang nakatagilid ang kanyang ulo. Tila isang zombie sa pelikulang napapanuod ngayon ng mga tao. Sabay naming inilabas ni Van ang pilak na kutsilyo at naghanda para sa kanyang paglapit.
Bigla akong nandiri nang tumulo ang dugo sa kanyang labi. Nakakairita! Hindi ko na hinintay na makalapit siya. Sumugod na ako at ginilitan siya sa leeg kasabay non ang sabay-sabay na paglabas nila.
“That was uncalled for,” I said. “Meron ka naman sigurong plano di ba?” tanong ko sa kapatid ko. Napapaligiran na kami ng mga low-key, lowkie for short.
“Wala, actually,” tumawa siya bago niya gilitan sa leeg ung sumugod. Hindi na nga pala ako dapat na magtanong pa dahil maiinis lang ako sa kanya. Kailan ba siya nag-plano? Madalas puro sugod lang siya.
“Tsk,” itinago ko ang kutsilyo ko. Hindi kami matatapos kung ganito lang dahil sa bawat napapatay namin na lowkie ay nadadagdagan sila. “Let’s finish it fast.” I told my brother. Sabay naming inalis ang aming gloves at inilabas ang aming kapangyarihan.
My name is Vladimir Fear. I am a vampire. If you are still wondering, yes, vampires still exist in the modern world. Iyon nga lang, we are just like myths and legends for people. They thought we only exist in movies. That’s what they thought, and what we want. We still want to live in darkness. That's why we are preventing these lowkie vampires from harming the people, though actually we are somehow exposed. Sad to say, dahil din sa mga uri namin kaya kami na-e-expose.
We vampires came from different houses, class, and rank. First house is the House of Nobles, they are our ancestors. They are actually rare nowadays, they don’t mingle with people dahil sila talaga yung mga bampira na hindi lumalabas kapag may araw. They formed the highest council of our race, and mostly they are sleeping in coffins in their respective places. And, will go out if there is a war.
Second, the House of Pureblood with House Fear as the highest class, and there are two more, the House Ruin and House Fall respectively. Hindi ko na matandaan ang ibang Houses but I believe there are more than ten houses of purebloods. I haven’t met those because they live on different continents that’s why I can’t name them. We, purebloods are given unique powers and abilities different from the half-bloods or commoners.
Half-bloods were formed when a vampire mate with a human. It is not actually accepted in our clan that’s why for the last hundred years they have been waging war to be named as one of the houses. They are also the reason why there are lowkie vampires. Lowkie vampires are humans turning into vampires pero kapag hindi sila nakainom ng enough blood they will die.
The half-bloods used humans to build an army. They turned humans into vampires by the use of their blood. It turned out, for the last few years, ang daming naitalang missing person. Some of them were successfully turned into vampires, others were dead because they weren’t able to feed blood. We, the houses, actually joined forces to stop them. That’s what we and Van are actually doing. Killing the lowkie vampires sounds evil because they have families looking for them but it would be more evil if they spread over the place.
“Woah, damn!” I heard Van say. “Natapos din, so what are we going to do with all of this corpse?”
“Turn them into dust,” utos ko. My brother can turn everything he touches into dust. That’s his gift.
“Ya, sure.” Hinawakan niya ang isang bangkay resulting into domino effect as they all turned into dust.
I blew away the dust in front of me. Yayain ko nang umuwi sa Van nang mapansin ko ang nakatinging babae sa amin.
Teka, hindi ko man lang naramdaman. Kanina pa ba siya jan? Nakita niya ba ang—automatiko akong lumapit sa kanya. Tumakbo siya, tama ang hinala ko na nakita niya ang lahat ngunit bakit hindi ko man lang naramdaman ang presensya niya. Ni hindi ko naamoy ang dugo niya.
Nasa dulo na kami ng bukana ng eskinita, isang hakbang na lamang at maabot ko na siya nang bigla itong mawala sa aking paningin. Napatigil na lamang ako. Lumingon ako sa paligid ngunit hindi ko nakita ang anino niya.
“Kuya, bakit ka ba tumakbo? Sino bang hinahabol mo?”
“Yung babae, nakita niya tayo.”
“Babae? Sino, wala naman akong nakita babae.”
I looked at him and went back to the street. “Ya, baka imagination ko lang. Let’s go home.”
Next morning, I went to school. I still live a normal life, pretending that I am a human even though I am not. Since then, palipat-lipat na kami ng lugar na tinitirhan. Every five years or six years basta alam namin na marami na ang nakakakilala sa amin ay lumilipat na kami. I’ve been to different places, lived in different houses, and used different names for the last hundred years. The name I am using is actually not my real name, but the surname always stays.
My sister, Via, actually has the ability to change and play with people’s memories. It’s her gift. We change some of the memories of the people we’ve met before leaving them. But there were few people we chose to remember us. They were the people whom we created lots of beautiful memories we can’t afford to lose.
I walk inside the hallway of the university. We stopped growing when we reached the age of 18. College days, so I usually start going to college in every town we move to. To tell you, kung may award lang para sa may pinakamaraming degree and medals in college I will be awarded. I tried so many courses along with Van, and my sister Via. I also have one more sister, Vanna, but she doesn’t like going to school kaya nasa bahay lang siya. The reason is she’s our owl. She’s our connection to the past, present, and future. She sees everything in her vision. Each house was given an owl. She was ours for the last hundred years. She usually spends her time in our library, lumalabas lang siya to buy the things she needs like books. It’s risky to let the owl go alone.
I chose Literature as my course now, never tried it before so I agreed with Via and Van though we don’t stay in the same class. I don’t like having them around with me, so do they. We keep a low profile wherever we go, we don’t create names for us. We just live like a normal student. But sometimes, we can’t because we need to avoid them and their blood. Though we don’t feed humans, there are circumstances when we can stop ourselves.
They can also see how unique we are from head to toe. We look like corpses. We have pale skin. It’s like the sun forgot to shine on us when we were kids. We don’t reflect on mirrors and pictures so we tried our best to hide ourselves from those things. Actually, sa unang araw namin sa school we let them fear us. We wouldn’t be Fear for nothing. We created rumors about us that would make them avoid us. Mostly, they would believe. But I’ve also met people before who never believed and those people became our real friends.
I sat on my favorite spot beside the window. Syempre, wala akong katabi. They usually avoided me kasi we spread rumors saying that we were once drug addicts and were taken into rehab. We created fights the first day we came here kaya ilag sila sa amin ni Van. As for Via, she can be friendly, after all she can play with memories so she sometimes created names for her like joining on pageants, sports, and other activities. After that, she would change their memories like she doesn’t exist.
My usual routine would be sleeping in class and still passing though I sometimes fail the other subject at hindi ko na lang pinapasukan. To tell you, I am getting tired with my life. I no longer know what my purpose in life is. I kept on waking up, and living but with no real destination. I envy people, because no matter how short their life is they know what they want in life.
It was a literature class and we were asked to read books. I started reading, there was no problem at reading because I always love books. Hindi ko nga alam kung bakit ngayon ko lang naisip na i-try ang course na ito.
I thought for a minute that there was no problem, until the professor went in and introduced the new student. I wouldn’t care. I never care. What made me look at her was the smell of her blood, it’s type AB. The strongest and most delicious blood of humans. I have never seen one of her kind for quite some time.
But it wasn’t the blood that made me stare at her.
It was the fact that she was the girl who disappeared last night.