Dawn of Eternity

Upon reaching the ground, I gently stood up with my bent knees gently straightening up high. There was a standing stone written over decrypted poetry in front of me, glowing bright crimson. It was as bright as the final stage of the blood moon phase, once in a blue moon every year in the apparent world, where I died and reached here in hell.

I walked towards the blood red beaming stone that seemed to look like a tombstone. Despite the darkness in the claustrophobic abyss, I made myself on the way to the only light source. But no, there was more. All around me were many standing stones in different colours.

And this one was red. I went to inspect the stone, and it reads in a complex rhyme scheme with ten syllables in each line or bar for its poetry. Its type of poem was a Shakespearean Sonnet, like the ones I usually write during my spare time in high school when I ran out of ideas for a novel. It says;

"Should thou come in this plane of existence?

Thou shall suffer the same fate as the last

Although thou can change the past in a sense

Thou had lost power in blood thou had fast

'Tis but the world of supernatural

Thy blood's thin, yet a witty vampire

A lunatic! That goes into spiral

Thou must avoid thy enemies' fire

Revive from life, to be among the dead

Lamia gives you a gift within a curse

Yet so! Be wary to protect your head

To you from Lilith, one of Devil's whores

Arise, Vampire! And Live through Madness.

To join the allegiance of the Darkness!"

As I skimmed through the poem, it gave me an ecstatic feeling of attraction towards it. Wherein, I slowly and slowly reached the palm of my hand towards it, and then held the stone's shining light. And once my palm finally touched the stone. It shrieked an incredible sound like the big bang when the universe was created.

That's when I felt my mind felt the most adrenaline, as I screamed the same as the stone's loud sound. I could not retract my arm away from the stone. And that's when I woke up from the terrible nightmare. While having myself touching something over me as I was lying down flat on some comfortable cushion.

I tried to move around whatever I was in. It was the tightest space I've ever felt and could barely move around inside it. It was just a dream, but where am I? I thought I had killed myself but I feel more than alive!

However, I am stuck inside this box and above me as I am lying back down. The texture I am feeling with my fingers is somewhat made of mahogany. That's when I tried to punch it and tried to crawl my way back up and realised that I've been inside a coffin the entire time. And I am in a cemetery.

The wind was blowing as it whistled, making the trees dance, and its branches wave around at each other, with the moon in its full phase that was bright and more yellow rather than just pale, the night was young and fresh, just like a virgin maiden's blood. And I was hungry for it.

With myself wearing a white 18th century Filipino suit, which we call it here a 'barong'. And I felt something in my mind that tasted like iron. Must it be blood?

I spat it out of my hand, and it was not blood, since I felt like it was thicker than mere blood. It was a coin.

Ah, my father does respect my occult beliefs despite the fact he hated my outlandish beliefs. Such as the time I told him that once I die, I need a coin in my mouth in order to pay Charon to pass through the river Styx to get to the Elysian Fields of the Underworld. Otherwise, I could have been a wraith, stuck in between the astral planes where the spirits rest, and the mundane world where the living walks. Yet, I was stuck in the purgatory between living and dead all at once.

Despite that, I did not get to pass to the Underworld. I thought I was going to Tartarus for hell's sake. But I was given a second chance to live as a true vampire. 'THE' true vampire.

Suddenly, the night guard of the cemetery saw me walking around the night's fresh air as I sat down on a tombstone. That's when he rushed in to tell me to get out, since it is closed until tomorrow morning.

That's when I saw the sweat dripping down his neck from all the work he'd been doing all this time. That's when I, in my primal instincts, rushed to attack him and had my fangs bit down onto his neck, penetrating his veins as blood bursted out of his skin, and I drained him dry, drinking every last drop. Then, his body and face turned from healthy, to pale, to black and old. Even his hair turned grey and white until they all fell off.

Then, I threw him off to the ground and felt refreshed. Then, I went to get a shovel, threw him into the same coffin as I was in. Buried him and left. Once my family comes to visit my tomb, they will just be crying over the guard instead of me, sadly.

But this is my new life now. As if my family even cared about me in the first place.

I sent myself out of the cemetery, stepping onto the grassy grounds, caressing my two fingers from one tombstone to the next. Then I went to the nearest sari-sari store, which is a mini-convenience store famous in the Philippines for selling all essential needs at the cheapest price in villages rather than having to go to town or the city just to buy one packet of instant noodles when you needed it.

It was a luxurious subdivision I realised I was in. It seemed all familiar to me, I must say. It looks like I've been here-, no, scratch that, lived here… before.

That's when I was thinking of wasting one cigarette stick using this single ten peso coin just to indulge in my addiction. Old habits die hard, despite you already died just to reincarnate back to life in the same body as a vampire.

I thought to myself that this coin is the absolute token left of my humanity now. But what is humanity when back when I was alive as a human being, being treated like a scum by everyone else? I was villainized for fighting back evil from the toxicity of society when I've done no wrong to provoke such. And I was known to be the villain, just for fighting back people who wronged me in the first place.

So, I just gave away the ten peso coin to buy myself one stick of a red-branded cigarette. The lady behind the counter that was protected by a cage lent me one cigarette onto the counter, as she took the ten peso coin. She told me I was familiar and asked if she knew me from somewhere before. Around half a decade back. I told them I have no idea what they're talking about. And she looked extremely charmed by my words and my appearance. Despite the fact that I just crawled back up from dirty soil underground. But no one has to know that, especially her.

Was it my British accent despite the fact that I'm a Filipino? Usually I've been made fun of for my accent by other Filipinos by saying "A BA O WO WA" which makes me feel a bit gutted, really.

Then she just stared into my eyes, looking dazzled by mine. I asked her if she was okay. She looked flushed than she was before when I asked this. But in response, she was quiet, and still kept on gazing. What is this effect I am giving to her? It sure did not work for the guard I just slaughtered a while back, in probably the least gruesome way possible. I could have done a million times worse, if I am being honest.

I just chose to ignore her and put the orange filter of my cigarette between my lips and took the lighter that was hanging by a thread, literally, in the store's cage. As I sparked the lighter's small flame and inhaled the fire through the front end of my cigarette, fire mixed with tobacco became a result of fumes and smoke into my mouth. I inhaled the smoke inside my mouth with my lungs, but not too deeply. Then blow out rings of smoke, then all of it from the tip of my lips.

That's when I already got what I needed. I put my index and middle finger from the side of my forehead and flicked to point at her as a greeting of me leaving.

"Toodles~!" I exclaimed to the lady by the store.

Then, I left to go to the sin city of Angeles City of Pampanga, here in the Philippines.