1 b e g i n i n g

Beep beep beep

Carrie's watch sounded her 7 am alarm and with that she grabbed her bag, went out the door and locked it. Looking up at the clouded sky, she went ahead and used the hood of the white jacket she was wearing to stay dry from the upcoming drizzle of rain.

The pavement was still wet from the rain that night so her black shoes ended up damp from the puddles. She reached the end of their kalye and waited at the nearby waiting shed for a jeepney to appear.

The road in front of her was already busy thanks to Manila traffic. Cars, motorcycles, tricycles, buses, jeepneys occupied the roads while pedestrians occupied the sidewalks.

Seeing the jeepney that she was going to ride, she flagged it and said "Para!". The jeepney stopped and she went in. 

Carrie isn't claustrophobic or anything but getting in a jeepney at 7 am and the jeepney being filled makes her nauseous. Grabbing her vicks inhaler, she inhaled the eucalyptus scent, feeling her nauseousness fade a bit.

Twenty minutes later, she got off the jeepney. Getting her I.D card, she tapped it at the machine out front and waved hello and goodbye to the security guard, in turn he raised his hand.

 The university was almost empty, saved for the early students and teachers which is just a few. She made a beeline to the library. The librarian and a student (judging from her uniform) from the nursing department were the only people inside.

The scent of books filled her nose as she walked inside, giving a nod to the librarian as the librarian pushed her glasses that were falling from the tip of her nose upwards. She walked to the History aisle and scanned the books there, glancing from time to time at the girl a few meters away from her as she read a book about Algebra.

Carrie finally found the book she was looking for. She grabbed it and as she did, another book fell off the shelf, creating a thud as it made contact with the floor and a shush from the librarian. She bent down and grabbed the book as well, noting the dusty cover.

She went to one of the tables and sat on the chair, turning her back at the girl behind her. She placed her bag on the table along with the history book that she got. She also placed the dusty book on the table.

She grabbed the book and blew away the dust. Grimacing, she used her hand and swatted the dust away from her. The cover of the book was faded. Black may have been its color but now it just doesn't show well.

Carrie glanced at her watch and opened her bag. She took out a mirror, and used it to eye the girl behind here. Hmm, must really like algebra huh? Carrie thought. She placed her mirror back in her bag and stared at the faded book. 

Squinting, she found some letters written on the front cover. What the? She thought. The letters were actually symbols. Oh wait-- it's just written in Baybayin. There must be a book about that here, she thought. She stood up and went back to the History section. She eyed the spines of the many books staring back at her until she found what she was looking for.

Baybayin 101: Your No.1 guide at reading Philippines' Pre-Hispanic writing system.

Carrie went back to her table and opened the book and flipped to its pages until she found the actual symbols. She took out a notebook and pen, looking back and forth from the faded book to the Baybayin Script.

A few moments later she finally managed to convert the symbols into letters:

The Unpredictable One

Intrigued, she carefully opened the book. All the pages were written in Baybayin, much to her dismay. But thanks to her curiosity, she converted the symbols:

The unpredictable one. That is Corazon de Amor. A maiden fair and divine, intelligent and talented yet that's just the outside. Corazon was quiet and soft spoken and that intrigued a lot of the townsfolk of  Santa Alfreda, Corazon's hometown.

The townsfolk said that the maiden held many secrets. Some speculated that she was a mute. Some say that she was cursed. Others say that she was a diwata or a fairy. But that's just rumors, but it is true that she held many secrets. One of them was the fact she couldn't feel anything. She couldn't feel angry, happy, sad, anything really, even physical pain.

Her other secrets were caused by this one.