It was already two in the morning. I find it hard to sleep. 23 degrees in yellow LED was the only light in my room. I slightly brushed my fingers on my mac's touchpad, slowly the light touched my skin. It glowed like it always does when it's dark. My mom used to say, "pinaglihi kita sa singkamas, bata ka pa lang maputing maputi ka na.". I'm not convinced. Something was eerily unexplainable to me. It went beyond the glowing skin. I haven't told anyone but sometimes I do feel like I'm different. Ten minutes have passed. I should be sleeping already, tomorrow's work is gonna start at 1:00 pm. As I stared on the computer screen I couldn't help but click on the fortune cookie icon on my FB page. So I cracked it open and it says, "You have a mysterious smile.". Ha! I hope that's all that is mysterious about me. I brushed the touchpad towards the left top corner of the screen and the mac started its flurry screen saver. The colors always mesmerized me. Then suddenly it was pitch black.
Red dark clouds. The breeze is ice cold. I'm falling fast towards an abyss. Great red canyons surround me. As I go down I can see giant stalagmites protruding from the ground below. I'm falling so fast that I could not get sense of time. It seems endless. Then suddenly I see sharp pointed rock stakes. Any moment now...
"Guadalupe!" yelled the bus conductor. I'm all sweaty yet cold. Was it what they call "bangungot"? I shouldn't have stayed awake late last night. I wouldn't normally want to sleep while riding the bus but too much lack of sleep made one do so. As I looked on my right side, a boy in white was staring at me. He was standing right beside a street vendor who was also a bit oblivious about the boy. I can't make out his facial features. It was all a blur but his stance and the brilliance his white clothes emitted is blinding. I tried to take my glasses out of my bag and put it on. But when I looked back he was gone. I couldn't find him anywhere. Was it a ghost? an angel? or was it the all too popular reason to everything that is paranormal, a "guniguni"? His presence made me snap out of my "bangungot". Had I stayed a few seconds more in that dream, it would have been gruesome.
Five minutes before one in the afternoon. I would be late for the meeting. From the bus stop in Pioneer, it was still at least a ten minute walk towards the office. I so hate this place. We shouldn't have left Ayala. I've always felt unsecured here. So stressful with so many people and the lack of trees made the place quite hot. Which reminded me how come it felt like summer when it was almost the Christmas season? I guess it was not only me that was weird, the weather was pretty much so.
Just in time for introductions. The new team I rolled in to was quite small. A group of 10 people. From the org chart on the screen I could see that we have two teams, each with 3 developers, 2 team leads, an AM and a manager who they said was currently in the US. I'm quite thrilled to work in a corporate setting. This was something new to me as I grew up from the province. My cousins would joke around when they find out I worked in a big time company. But I know deep inside they would be just too envious of me. "Shaeeelam? Did I pronounce it correctly?" my team lead asked. I said, "you can just call me Shay for short" and flashed my brightest smile. "Okay then, welcome to the team Shay." he said. The person right beside me nudged at me and said, "You're not a Muslim aren't you?". I almost said, "Does it matter?" but I politely said "No, I'm not" instead. Here comes the awkward part in introductions. One of the team leads started to sound casual and decided we become comfortable with each other by sharing something unique about each of us. Some said something about activities you wouldn't think they do, like collecting antique stuffs. One of the girls said she sometimes help in their family business, a mortuary. Now that's creepy. Someone mentioned something about nude painting which really brought laughter from the boys and smirks from the girls. A person mentioned something about ghost hunting and I went last. I couldn't think of anything unique about me other than my color. So I decided to share one of my secrets which is not really obvious unless you take a better look. I have a golden crescent inside the iris of my left eye. It's not that obvious from afar because I have light brown eyes but one of the girls decided to take a closer look and said, "oohh creepy meron nga!, may lahi ka bang asong lobo?" which brought another round of laughter from the team, and then I said, "yeah, something like that."
It's "Sha-y-lam" I said. One of the girls who happened to be a team mate of mine was insistent to pronounce my name right. I said, "I really would prefer if you will just call me Shay". She said, "Ok, call me Avery, Avs for short.". "Doesn't it sound like six pack Avs?" I said, joking around. She was all laughters. She just said, "I wish, sa katawan ko ba namang ito, good luck if meron ka makapang muscle.". And it was instant chemistry. We became close friends right then.
At five in the afternoon, I started to pack my things. This was a weird start. First day at work and it was a Friday, Friday the 13th to be exact. I said goodbyes to my team mates and went straight to the rest room. I was splashing water unto my face and then he was there, the boy in white. I saw his reflection in the mirror and when I looked behind me, no one was there. I suddenly heard someone flushed the toilet and my team mate Mat went out. He said "Hey Shay, uwi ka na?". I said, "Yeah, mahaba pa biyahe." "Ah ganon ba, sayang Friday pa naman, gimik day. Next time sama ka samin mag-videoke." I said, "Sige pre, next time."
I still couldn't shake off the weird sensation that boy in white has given me. It was beyond creeps that I'm feeling. I felt more uncomfortable like I'm in trouble or something. I kept on thinking about a warning. Something about his gestures was giving me that vibe like he wanted to warn me. It was a nice sunset, as the bus passed by the Guadalupe bridge the sun is showering off a golden glow on the river. Then when I thought the weirdness ended right there in the office, there he was again standing close to the river banks, all in white.
To be continued...
Red dark clouds. The breeze is ice cold. I'm falling fast towards an abyss. Great red canyons surround me. As I go down I can see giant stalagmites protruding from the ground below. I'm falling so fast that I could not get sense of time. It seems endless. Then suddenly I see sharp pointed rock stakes. Any moment now...
"Guadalupe!" yelled the bus conductor. I'm all sweaty yet cold. Was it what they call "bangungot"? I shouldn't have stayed awake late last night. I wouldn't normally want to sleep while riding the bus but too much lack of sleep made one do so. As I looked on my right side, a boy in white was staring at me. He was standing right beside a street vendor who was also a bit oblivious about the boy. I can't make out his facial features. It was all a blur but his stance and the brilliance his white clothes emitted is blinding. I tried to take my glasses out of my bag and put it on. But when I looked back he was gone. I couldn't find him anywhere. Was it a ghost? an angel? or was it the all too popular reason to everything that is paranormal, a "guniguni"? His presence made me snap out of my "bangungot". Had I stayed a few seconds more in that dream, it would have been gruesome.
Five minutes before one in the afternoon. I would be late for the meeting. From the bus stop in Pioneer, it was still at least a ten minute walk towards the office. I so hate this place. We shouldn't have left Ayala. I've always felt unsecured here. So stressful with so many people and the lack of trees made the place quite hot. Which reminded me how come it felt like summer when it was almost the Christmas season? I guess it was not only me that was weird, the weather was pretty much so.
Just in time for introductions. The new team I rolled in to was quite small. A group of 10 people. From the org chart on the screen I could see that we have two teams, each with 3 developers, 2 team leads, an AM and a manager who they said was currently in the US. I'm quite thrilled to work in a corporate setting. This was something new to me as I grew up from the province. My cousins would joke around when they find out I worked in a big time company. But I know deep inside they would be just too envious of me. "Shaeeelam? Did I pronounce it correctly?" my team lead asked. I said, "you can just call me Shay for short" and flashed my brightest smile. "Okay then, welcome to the team Shay." he said. The person right beside me nudged at me and said, "You're not a Muslim aren't you?". I almost said, "Does it matter?" but I politely said "No, I'm not" instead. Here comes the awkward part in introductions. One of the team leads started to sound casual and decided we become comfortable with each other by sharing something unique about each of us. Some said something about activities you wouldn't think they do, like collecting antique stuffs. One of the girls said she sometimes help in their family business, a mortuary. Now that's creepy. Someone mentioned something about nude painting which really brought laughter from the boys and smirks from the girls. A person mentioned something about ghost hunting and I went last. I couldn't think of anything unique about me other than my color. So I decided to share one of my secrets which is not really obvious unless you take a better look. I have a golden crescent inside the iris of my left eye. It's not that obvious from afar because I have light brown eyes but one of the girls decided to take a closer look and said, "oohh creepy meron nga!, may lahi ka bang asong lobo?" which brought another round of laughter from the team, and then I said, "yeah, something like that."
It's "Sha-y-lam" I said. One of the girls who happened to be a team mate of mine was insistent to pronounce my name right. I said, "I really would prefer if you will just call me Shay". She said, "Ok, call me Avery, Avs for short.". "Doesn't it sound like six pack Avs?" I said, joking around. She was all laughters. She just said, "I wish, sa katawan ko ba namang ito, good luck if meron ka makapang muscle.". And it was instant chemistry. We became close friends right then.
At five in the afternoon, I started to pack my things. This was a weird start. First day at work and it was a Friday, Friday the 13th to be exact. I said goodbyes to my team mates and went straight to the rest room. I was splashing water unto my face and then he was there, the boy in white. I saw his reflection in the mirror and when I looked behind me, no one was there. I suddenly heard someone flushed the toilet and my team mate Mat went out. He said "Hey Shay, uwi ka na?". I said, "Yeah, mahaba pa biyahe." "Ah ganon ba, sayang Friday pa naman, gimik day. Next time sama ka samin mag-videoke." I said, "Sige pre, next time."
I still couldn't shake off the weird sensation that boy in white has given me. It was beyond creeps that I'm feeling. I felt more uncomfortable like I'm in trouble or something. I kept on thinking about a warning. Something about his gestures was giving me that vibe like he wanted to warn me. It was a nice sunset, as the bus passed by the Guadalupe bridge the sun is showering off a golden glow on the river. Then when I thought the weirdness ended right there in the office, there he was again standing close to the river banks, all in white.
To be continued...
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