Note: I'm not an expert, so expect grammar errors. This is not the final product, so some things will change later. This blog host keeps on rejecting the indention and other stuff, so this isn't exactly my writing style. Message me on facebook, so I could send you the original MS word typed product, but I will only send the first 2 chapters.
Prologue
Up until now, I can hear parents, telling their children they have to create their own destiny. I used to believe the same. I am hoping I’ll have the same belief again, especially if my parents will tell me about it.
Let’s face the fact that truth is the perfect orchestra of our ears. Not even a slight wrong note will be detected, but right now, I want to hear lies. They said lies are evil, but it’s all what can save me right now. I want to grip hell’s mercy. If there is one.
I want fate to twist in every direction! I want to avoid this blood-bath that is written all over my blood.
My name is Michael. Don’t ask what my surname is. You’ll find out later why. I’m 18 years old, but my story started when I was 17.
This is my story. A story which I wish I could rewrite on my own will. Ready yourself. This is going to be bloody.
Chapter 1
Doves flew as I pulled my bike out of the garage. I hated taking the bus. I loved moving my feet. There was always certain energy in my feet that wanted me to like hop around. Summarizing everything in a dumb way, I just loved moving around.
I had to meet my friends. We needed to celebrate my Birthday’s Eve.
Birthday eve was entirely my mom’s idea. She said that if we could celebrate Christmas’ Eve and New Year’s Eve, we could celebrate our Birthday’s Eve. It’s not that I was totally against it; I had benefits for it like this day.
The day before my birthday (I’m sorry. I hate using the term ‘Birthday’s eve’), my parents would give me money to celebrate it with my friends. The morning celebration was for my friends; the night celebration was for my parents. I wonder where they would take me this time.
I stepped on my bike’s pedal as hard as I could.
Computing the time I might had spent burning my ass on that big orange machine, AKA Metro bus, would be twenty minutes. I got on our meeting place for eighteen minutes.
Save the jibber-jabbers. It was not impossible. My bike was a part of my soul. I was like a machine when I was riding my bike. Want a summary? Well, Let me just admit that I was an Extreme Biker champion. Call me big-head, but I got five trophies. I wasn’t going to tell you how many was first, second, and something place, okay?
“Mikey with his Bikey,” Gabrielle said as I hit the brakes of my bike.
Setting my foot down to support myself, crunchy stones munched.
“What’s up, Gabey the girly?” I replied mockingly. I gave a little smile to tell I was just kidding.
“Hey! It’s not my fault my mother spelled my name like that!” Gabe protested.
I guessed the smile was a failure.
I raised my hands in surrender “Jeez, Gabe, I was just kidding” I patted his shoulders.
Gabe was a halfie like me. He’s half Chinese(I was half Japanese, though). Seventeen years old. Gizmo of the group. He’s super smart, too. When I said super smart, I meant super scary smart. Breaking the stereotypes for nerds (I did not consider him one, though), He wasn’t the type who wear thick glasses, pocket protectors, and braces. He had the kind of hair like a member of a Korean boy band. Why do I know what a member of a Korean boy band looked like? Well, I got another halfie friend.
“If this is a lovers’ thing, I’mma leave now” Zeke said, getting between me and Gabe.
As cool as his real name, Ezekiel, he was our Korean halfie. I loved his name, but he wanted to keep it short. I had asked him about that, and he answered “It sounds like a buzzing bee”. Not wanting to argue, I just nodded. As a matter of fact, arguing was a big waste of saliva to Zeke. He was the mysterious type; he would only talk when he wanted to, but he wasn’t the boring type. Girls would always surround Zeke, but none of them made him interested. I asked one of the girls who used to follow him what was cool about him other than his name. The girl answered “He looks like a member of a Korean boy band!” I hadn’t seen a member of Korean boy band before, so I guessed Zeke was a big help.
I might sound like Sherlock Holmes, but here’s another short version of everything. We’re not the popular type in school. But for some reason, some people called us “A-cube”. My eyebrows crossed when I first heard about it. I forgot how I found out about it, but I it meant A3 as in “The Asian three”. Talked about stupid, and the people who invented that could start his own hierarchy of idiotness.
“Since you are the excited one,” I said, facing Zeke “how about you decide where to go” I put my arms in his shoulders.
Zeke rubbed his chin as if he had a goatee “I decided to give the decision to Gabe.” He pointed.
Eyebrows crossed “why me?!” Gabe exclaimed.
Voice cold “You’re the smart one” Zeke answered.
“I agree” I said.
I don’t know if it was the most popular movement of the year, but Gabe rubbed his chin like Zeke did “I know where to go” he decided.
“I wish that’s a restaurant you’re thinking” I said. I was hungry.
“Haha” Gabe laughed, facing me “I guess you’re the smart one, Detective Conan!”
“Good” my voice clearly revealed a sound of relief.
“First,” Gabe started walking “Let’s take the bus!”
ARRRGGGHH! I did not see that one coming!
Zeke saw the disappointment in my face. He smiled sarcastically and said “I hope you have your bus pass with you” He walked, passing me. Even from his back, I knew he was smiling at my misery.
Oh well, that’s what friends do, right?
Chapter 2
There was nothing special about this diner; the walls were the simplest. It was white. And when I said white, it was just white. However, the owner—I heard she was an Asian. It might be the reason Gabe was so attracted to this place-- might have noticed it, and decided to hang pictures that gave a retro atmosphere in the air. The floor was like a giant chess board; checkered.
What could you expect the smell of the air when you were in a diner? Burgers, fries and all those blah-blah. I have nothing against this place. I just hated that I need to go to this place riding a bus every time my freaky friends wanted to go.
It was really noisy. The place was packed—a mystery even Sherlock Holmes, Conan, and Nancy Drew could not solve. Fortunately, we did not have a hard time finding a place to sit. Zeke said, “Look on their plates. Stand beside their table if they are nearly done. They would get irritated by your presence and leave” A very effective thing.
“Just order what you want, and don’t be shy, understand?” Gave, handing me the menu.
I didn’t know if he just forgot that I would pay for this since it’s my birthday or what.
It was just the usual burger, fries, and blah-blahs. Gabe knew what I would answer but he’d still ask.
“So what do you want?” Gabe, leaving his gaze to the menu.
“Whatever you’re having” I answered.
“That’s a very long answer” He went back to the menu as if there were more choices to pick “just say ‘the usual’ if you’re gonna say that”
“I’m having the usual” Zeke said.
I loved the next thing happened. Gabe glared at Zeke. Zeke gave him a what-did-I-do-wrong look.
The waitress arrived just before World War III exploded. I looked at her, and I could not stop asking myself; why the heck was she working in this kind of place? She was about twenty years old. She had shoulder level as black as a coal hair, an hour glass body, medium olive skin tone. She could work as model in magazines or televisions. She might have earned thousands of money!
“May I help you, boys?” She pulled as back to reality. I saw Gabe and Zeke’s jaw were dropped.
“Are you new here?” Gabe asked.
“What’s your name?” Zeke asked before she could even answer.
“Are you Asian?” I realized I wasn’t giving him the chance to answer, too.
Her hand was still on the pen resting on her other hand that was holding the paper where would list our orders, ready anytime if ever we decided to order.
“Let’s answer that in a correct order” She smiled.
Damn she’s pretty!
“I’ll answer yours first” she pointed to Gabe, “then yours” to Zeke, “then yours” lastly to me.
“I’m new here” she said “And my name is Katrina” patting her name tag, which we hadn’t notice maybe because we’re busy staring at her face.
“Katrina” Gabe mumbled under her breathe.
“Yes?” Katrina answered.
“You heard that?” Zeke in a confuse tone.
I wondered what was the issue hearing Gabe’s voice.
I realized she hadn’t answered my question yet. I looked at her, hoping she would remember.
Katrina smiled when she saw my face. Damn! I wish I could borrow Hiro Nakamura’s time stopping powers.
“Yes?” She didn’t remember.
“My question” I reminded her.
“Oh yes. I’m sorry” She giggled.
“So are you Asian?”
“hhhmmm…”She started tapping her pen on the order pad “Depends on how you look at it.”
I saw Zeke’s expression that would only appear when he was interested. “What do you mean?”
She did the irresistible smile again “Some people don’t believe I’m Asian; some people call people like me Pacific Islanders”
“You’re from the Philippines” Gabe interjected. “That’s bullshit! People from the Philippines are Asians”
Silence.
Gabe finally deciphered them silence hint “I’m sorry about my language”
“That’s okay” Katrina accepted. “I would love to answer your questions boys, but as you can see, we’re kinda packed today. So are you ready to order?”
Gabe ordered three cheeseburgers and chocolate milkshakes, which we were going to call the usual from now on.
It was a packed day for the diner, so we expected that our order would take time, but Katrina arrived, carrying our the usual expertly in one hand. How long had she been doing this kind of job? I wanted to ask her, but I remember her, saying she couldn’t take any more questions.
“Anymore questions?” Our the usual in Katrina’s left hand. “You’re my last table, and I can have a break”
“Any special talent?” Gabe must have prepared that question.
Katrina put Gabe’s food in front of him. “I don’t know, but I can do palm reading”
“Sounds interesting.” Zeke said while Katrina is setting his food in front of him. “Would you mind giving us some readings?”
“Not at all,” she faced me “but I’ll do it to him, since he’s not the talkative type”
Zeke crossed his eyebrows to me. I could totally figured out what he was saying on his head; I’m the not talkative type, dude!
Katrina held my right hand. Her hand was a cloud. I wondered how she managed to keep it this soft while working this kind of job.
I was so shy to look at her face. I noticed she was still holding the tray on her left hand with my food on it. Her face turned from enthusiastic to suspicious.
“Where did you get these scars?” She asked from a tone exactly like you killed my mother, bitch!
I did not know why she was talking like that. All I know that she was talking about the scars in my index and middle finger. It was completely parallel and identical. It was an X sign. I had asked my mom and dad about it. All they could say was it was a birthmark. I could not believe at it first, because they really looked like scars, yet I realized, that if they came from an accident, my mom and dad would remember a scene that I was really bleeding. And I couldn’t remember anything about it, so probably I was very young if ever there was an accident that I got these scars. The bottom-line was my parents wouldn’t lie about it.
Katrina grabbed my shoulder and started shaking me. I recalled she was holding a tray, but the next thing I knew, the food she was about to give me was all over my shirt.
I expected that the place would be quiet, but the people didn’t give a thing about what was happening.
She held her face close to mine. She was pretty, but what she doing now was freaking weird.
“You’re not deaf, kid!” She shook me again and again. I wanted to hit her, so that she could stop shaking me, but I just couldn’t hold the image that I would hit a girl. A pretty girl. A freaky, pretty girl. “Where did you get this scar?” She asked me again.
“Woah! Woah! Woah!” A guy pulled Katrina from me. I guessed he was the manager. So the manager wasn’t even a She. He wasn’t even Asian. “This is your first day, Katrina. I didn’t hire you to do this!” The manager yelled.
Katrina glared at me. She left without even acknowledging the presence of her manager.
“I’m really, really sorry” The manager pulled out a handkerchief and started rubbing my shirt, which was as far as I could remember was white, and now, it was brown. “As my apology, you don’t have to worry about your bill”
“it’s okay” I said, pushing him slightly away from me.
He insisted and kept rubbing my shirt.
I grabbed his hand and gave him a reassuring smile “it’s okay. Really” I said before he got the idea to rub my crotch with his hanky.
“Okay” he said “I’m sorry, and please don’t pay your bill, for it’s free after what happened”
The manager left our table.
“That was kinda freaky” Gabe said.
“Your exact type of your girlfriend-to-be” Zeke said “So what now, chocolate boy?” he was facing me.
“Since you don’t need to wait for me to pay this,” I stood up “I need to go home and change clothes.”
“Here” Gabe handing me his bus pass.
I shook my head “I have my bike”
“See you later, Mikey.” Gabe put his bus pass back into his pocket.
I stepped on my bike and raced home as fast as I could. A decision that would change my life.
A decision that would reveal the curse written in my blood.
A decision that would start all the excruciating blood shedding moments of my life.
