19 Chapter 17: The Awakening

Strange things had been occurring lately around Dex. This all began when he met that blind beggar who called him a Katalonan, since then, weird stuff was happening everywhere he went.

It happened first in the apartment building he's staying at. While entering the lobby, a strange figure caught his eye. At first, he thought it might have been his imagination, or maybe he was just tired from the run, which could be the case. However, that cannot explain the girl floating near the entrance of the hotel with a broken neck that dangled low on her chest. People just passed her by brushing their heads with her pale dead feet.

He made it to a point not to stare at it. He hurriedly walked towards the door, not minding the haunting specter floating on air. He successfully walked past it and acted as nothing happened, even letting it brush its feet with his head. He felt the cold dead chill tingling down his spine. However, he remained to be calm and just ignored it.

He made it to the elevator, and before he could close the door, the specter was right in front of him just outside the elevator, smiling at him with its upside-down head while blood and drool oozed from its mouth.

Dex was terrified, but he kept a Stoic face and closed the elevator door.

That was not the last encounter he had with the specter, as the days go by, the specter came closer and closer to his apartment until one day, as he opened his door, there it stood in front of him.

Dex let out a muffled scream as the specter stared at him with its dead, bloodshot eyes. Dex immediately closed the door and to his room where he tried to look for a crucifix he knew he hid somewhere in one of the stacks of boxes. He finally found the crucifix after looking all over for it for a good five minutes, which he felt like an hour. He nervously opened his bedroom door slowly to not to make a noise. He peeped out his head with his batted breath as he scanned for anyone around inside his house.

The living room was dark and cold but not as cold as his bedroom. It was as if somebody turned on the air conditioning unit to full blast. It was a chill that bites the bones and, considering that he doesn't own an air conditioning unit, he knows something was wrong. His heartbeats became audible to him as it echoed the beats in his ears.

Something brushed against his head. It was cold, wet, and dead. Dex tried his best not to look-up, but he regretfully did.

Three days later

Dex was never religious. He goes to church once a year, that's until he met Calista and Mae, who would drag him to Simbang Gabi to experience the Nine Mornings, now he counted it at ten. Sadly, after Calista's passing, he could no longer go to churches because it only gave him sad memories of his beloved. However, these past few days have been an exemption.

He recalled what happened THAT day. He remembered looking-up seeing the nightmarish grin of the specter hovering above him. He remembered waving his crucifix to the specter while reciting the Lord's Prayer. He recalled doing it plenty of times, but it never affected the haunting spirit.

The specter hovered closer to him as if to mock him, but that's when he did the impossible.

" GO AWAY!" he shouted at the top of his lungs as a last-ditch effort to put the specter away.

His shout caused his room to shake uncontrollably as if there was an earthquake. He saw his heavy cabinet fell along with some of the boxes stacked together and then saw the specter fade into thin air.

It has been three days since the incident in his apartment. Since then, he'd stayed in the church near his apartment, refusing to get out from there. He only bought food from the entrance of the church and even then, the specter would greet him every time he tried to stepped-out.

This messy ordeal made some church-goers wonder if he's losing his mind since he can be seen screaming out of nowhere, especially if he goes near the entrance. Eventually, the church officials stepped-in. He tried to reason with them and told him about his current situation, but it never helped at all. That night he was expelled out from the church and told to go back home, or they will call the police.

Dex hurriedly left the church paranoid and disheveled. He looked around to check if the specter was still there, to his surprise, the specter vanished! He composed himself and tried to cross the road leading back to his apartment when suddenly he caught something just beyond the corner of his eye.

This time it wasn't a lady floating around with a broken neck. It was more menacing than the specter. He tried not to notice its presence as he rushed to cross the street. Suddenly, the figure lunged in front of him. A hulking monster that looked like a creature straight out from a story. It had a horse's head, the body of a man and horse hooves as feet.

The creature was furious with fumes coming out from its flaring nostrils. It started coming towards Dex, slowly as if it was toying with him. He struggled to run away, but every time he does, he just goes back to the place where he stood. The furious monster took him by the neck and sniffed him before letting out a furious deafening neigh.

It opened its mouth and tried to devour him. The horrified Dex was too afraid to speak, let alone cry for help, that he resigned to the gruesome fate laid out on him by the monster. He closed his eyes and held his breath as the foul odors from the monster's mouth began to assault his senses.

" STOOOP!" yelled a voice from behind him.

The monster stopped on its tracks. The voice then commanded the beast to let him go, which it did with no sense of opposition.

Dex was still overwhelmed with everything that has happened at that moment frozen in bewilderment.

"What are you doing there?!", the disembodied voice exclaimed. "Run! Come towards me!"

The stunned Dex got back to his senses and ran towards the source of the voice. As he came closer to him, Dex realized it was the beggar.

"Who are you?" Dex asked.

"No time to explain right now, Boy!" he said.

Dex noticed that the beggar looked as if he was struggling with something. Dex looked back and saw golden laces bounding the monster to the ground.

"What's going on?" Dex asked again.

The beggar smiled at him and said, " We better get going then if you want to know more about your awakening."

The beggar whistled, and suddenly a portal appeared out of thin air.

Confused and hesitant Dex struggled to trust the beggar, but if he had to choose between the beggar and the monster, he knows who's the obvious choice. He took a step into the portal, expecting a safe haven from the creatures and ghosts that threatened to harm him and hopefully get some answers as to why they are targeting him.