The Caliginous Gateway

Manila, the capital of the Philippines, is one of the beautiful cities in the country. This is also one of the places where people are busy working both day and night. A twilight three days before the first of June, a very bright celestial body has landed somewhere in Paco, Manila. Nobody notices it. Nobody, but an old man who seems to be expecting this phenomenon. He mutters. “The time has come. My fears are finally realized. The danger is coming.”

Meanwhile, the celestial body landed somewhere beneath the Paco area. Inside it is like a big hall. Five creatures have just appeared. They look like human but their eyes and ears are different. Their eyes are like the eyes of a cat, and their ears are like the ears of a bat. Their dress and suits are like from the old Chinese empire. One of them is sitting on a chair like a chair for a king. And then, he speaks. “After a long time wandering in the universe where we were exiled, it is time for us to take the human world again.” He looks to another creature and talks. “Morgan, are you sure that we have landed at the right place?”

The creature Morgan replies. “Yes my lord. We are exactly on the Eye of Hell.” The creature sitting on the chair smiled, then speaks: “Hmmmm… It is time for us to invade this place first. However, my powers are still weak. I need to wait for the Eye of Hell to open again in order to gain back what was taken from me. But until that time, the four of you must create chaos to this place. The chaos you will be creating will increase the negative energy coming from them. Those negative energies will help us regain our powers quickly. Although humans become stronger now, there are still others who are susceptible to possession. Those with weaker faith can easily be controlled. We still have the power to summon dark spirits from the demon world, but be warned, creating this portal will drain your energy. So therefore, only one of you must perform the ritual one at a time until we regain our fullest power.”

One of the creatures speaks: “My lord, allow me the privilege of doing the first move.” But Morgan disagrees as he speaks: “No Mico… You are still weak to move after our long journey. Let me be the one to handle that.” The creature sitting agrees. “So be it.” After saying the words, the surrounding turned dark and the five creatures disappear.

Night time, around 7 o’ clock, many teenagers are playing in computer shops. DOTA or Defense of the Ancients is the most played game in almost every computer shop. One of the players who really like DOTA is a teenager boy whose name is John Edward Ang. He is a tall and a thin boy. His complexion is white because he has a blood of a Chinese. His father is a Chinese and his mother is a Filipino. His hair is thick and a little curly. He is a very skilled computer gamer that even browser games are his expertise. Many of his friends call him Joed and believe that he will stop at nothing with regard to computer games. “Hey! Use your SS, hurry!” Joed shouted to his team mates while playing DOTA. “Yes! Hahaha…” Joed’s laugh of satisfaction is heard all over.

When they finished the game at around 8:30 o’ clock, he and his team mates have gone in separate ways. “Hey guys! Nice game!” Joed said to his team mates. “Yah! We really are unbeatable. Hahaha…” His team mates replied while they were going through their ways.

On his way home, Joed has to pass through a street where street lights are few and the lights are dimmed. While he is walking, a black dog just jumped out from nowhere, blocking his way. Joed is startled. “Whoah…” Joed’s reaction while catching his breath. “Just a dog. I thought it was something else.” Joed said while trying to calm himself.

He suddenly looks at the dog’s face and notice that the dog’s eyes are red and the dog is uneasy. The dog suddenly positions itself like it is about to attack Joed. Joed suddenly feels the danger. He is like stunned that he cannot move his body. When the dog is about to attack, a cane is suddenly moved towards the dog, and he hears a voice. “Shooo!” The dog was not hit but it runs away.

Joed turns to look for the owner of the cane. He sees an old man, having plenty of white long hair, and wearing clean old clothes. Joed stops because he does not know what to say. In his mind, he is saying “Who is this old man?”

Joed is still staring at the old man and thinking “I owe him one.” After a while he finally returns to his senses and speaks to the old man. “Thank you, sir!”

The old man walks toward him. As the old man is getting near him, Joed started to see him better. The old man is a little taller than him. He is carrying a brown cane with a pointed tip. He is the old man who saw the coming of the celestial. The old man speaks. “Be careful young man.” Joed reluctantly replies. “Don’t worry mister. I can handle all the dogs by myself.” Then he smiled. “I’m just joking. But I appreciate what you did.” Joed added.

The old man just smiled. Joed asks the old man as he rubs his hands at the back of his pants because they are sweaty due to the incident that just happened. “Anyway, I’ve never seen you here before in our street. Are you new here?”

The old man replies, but not the answer to Joed’s question. “Very young, yet with big destiny.” Joed reacts. “Huh?!” Joed did not understand what the old man just said. He asks. “What do you mean? What are you talking about?”

The old man answers. “The darkness is rising. You have the power to stop them. At your hand, the caliginous gateways can be closed.”

Joed shakes his head as he is thinking. “What is he talking about? Is he crazy?” But he chooses to just say a joke. “Sorry mister. I’m not Spiderman. Great power comes with great responsibility. I don’t even have powers. Hehehe…”

The old man touches his shoulder and speaks. “Tomorrow, you’ll see, John Edward.”

Joed is shocked after the old man mentioned his name. “How do you…” But before he could finish his speech, a girl calls him from behind. “Shoti! Hey! Father is waiting for you.” Shoti is a Chinese term for young brother. Joed looks at the girl. It is his older sister Joyce. She is also thin but sexy with long hair.

Joyce asks Joed with suspicion. “You’ve been playing DOTA again, haven’t you?”

Joed just smiled then looks back to the old man. But surprisingly, the old man is no longer there. Joyce pulls his arm and speaks. “Hey, come on! Let’s go.”

After his dinner, Joed does his daily routine before going to bed. While lying on his bed, his mind is still wandering about what happened. “What did he mean by that I have the power to stop the… the… gateway… whatever?” These are the things that are circulating in his mind.

Suddenly, he remembers something. He speaks. “Oh! I just remembered! Tomorrow is my birthday.” He smiles and thinks about what presents his family will give him. Then, after a couple of minutes, he finally falls asleep.

The next day, Joed wakes up and does his morning routine. His parents and sister have already left for work. He cleans his room after breakfast. After cleaning the room, he does the dishes and then his laundry. He never did these things before. He is just doing those now to impress his family so they buy him presents. After doing the chores, he watches TV. He has forgotten everything that happened last night. His mind is set that his birthday will become meaningful. He waits for his mother to return so he can go and play DOTA.

After a couple of hours waiting, his mother arrives. Her mother greets and kisses him. “Happy birthday son!” He replies. “Thank you, mother!”

After that, he goes to play DOTA at the computer shop where he usually plays. After the game, he returns home, eats lunch together with his mother, and then falls asleep.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the street near the computer shop that Joed had just gone, Morgan appears behind a big tree of Acacia. He has black hair and green eyes like the cats. He is wearing a long trench coat with unique design. His complexion is as white as a snow. No one notices him because only few people are there and the other people are busy doing their works.

Morgan grins as he is thinking. “I can sense a huge amount of negative energy in here. A perfect place for the caliginous gateway to be activated. Hahahaha…” Then, he chants in gibberish.

When he finishes chanting, he raises his hand toward the big tree. A fist-sized misty red glowing ball has appeared. Morgan smiles and thinks “The caliginous gateway… Hehehe…”

After a few second, a black shadow-like creature comes out from the ball. It has a face like fire, and has a diamond-like object on its forehead. The creature is incorporeal and ordinary people cannot see it. Morgan commands the creature. “Go possession demon. Possess someone with weak mind and create chaos.” The creature flies after and looks for a victim.

Joed suddenly wakes up as he hears singing. “Happy birthday to you.” It is his sister Joyce who just came home. Joed replies while getting up from his bed. “Thank you Atse!” Atse is a Chinese term for older sister.

Joyce speaks. “Let us eat later. I will buy cake for you.” Joed replies while staring at the wall clock. “Okay!”

It is almost 6 in the evening. The sun is setting and the surrounding is getting dark. Joyce speaks to Joed. “Shoti, I think you should accompany me in buying so you can carry the cake. I am actually tired and feeling dizzy. I think I got overfatigue.” Joed replies “Okay! Let’s go.”

While in the street going to the main road, Joed notices that the surrounding is very quiet. There are no people around except for the two of them. Even though the street lights are on, the light is still dim.

Suddenly, a man comes out from behind. Joed and Joyce are startled as they heard the sound of the man. They look behind. They see the man with sharp red eyes and he is carrying an iron pipe. Joyce holds and pulls Joed away from the man as she speaks. “What the heck?”

Joed and Joyce run to the main road. When they reach the main road, they see plenty of people. Joyce is gasping as she takes a deep breath. Then, she speaks. “Thanks God! There are many people here.”

But her happiness is just for a while. The people look and turn to them at the same time. They have the same red sharp eyes as the man in their street. Joed and Joyce get terrified. Joed asks. “What is wrong with these people?”

Even though terrified, Joed pulls Joyce and they run away from those people. Those people follow them. Scared, running as fast as they can, they have reached the computer shop where Joed usually plays. They stop and catch their breath. Joyce is gasping. Then, she speaks. “I can’t go on much longer.”

Since she is feeling dizzy, her eye sight is getting fuzzy. Suddenly, the man with an iron pine comes out from nowhere and jumps to Joed. Joed falls down on the ground. Joyce screams and slaps the face of the man “Ahhhhh… You son of a…”

But before she could finish her words, the man pushes her strongly. With a great impact, Joyce falls down. She gets knocked out. Joed saw what happened and he felt angry. He quickly stands up and tries to punch the man. However, the man is quicker and hits Joed with the iron pipe in his lower abdomen.

Joed shouts in pain. “AHHHHH…” He falls again on the ground. Then, the man walks towards him. When the man is near Joed, he raises his iron pipe to hit him. Joed closes his eyes and just waits for the pipe to hit him.

But after a few seconds, nothing hits him. He slowly opens his eyes and looks at the man. He notices that the man is somewhat confused. He is like looking for something or someone. Joed suddenly turns his eyes down and he is shocked for what he discovers. He cannot see his arms and body. Only a white outline of his body. He cannot believe of what he discovered. He just turned invisible.

Without a second thought, he stands up and punches the face of the man. The man yelled and looks around as he speaks. “AHHHH… Where did that come from? Where is that boy?”

Joed does his second punch in the face of the man. The man yelled louder as he swings his hand with pipe. “AHHHH…”

Unfortunately, Joed is hit by that sudden swinging. Joed drops down near the acacia tree where the caliginous gateway was casted by Morgan. His body returns to normal and the man can see him again.

The man laughs. “Hahaha…” Then he speaks. “There you are boy.” The man walks towards Joed. Joed is terrified. He tries to crawl towards the tree. Suddenly, he sees the caliginous gateway near the tree. He has no idea what it is. His only aim is to escape from that man at that moment.

When the man gets near Joed, he raises his iron pipe again to hit Joed. But in the nick of time, someone hits the man in his face. The man yelled much louder this time. “AHHHH…”

A voice is heard after the man was hit. “John Edward, hurry! Stand up! Remember what I’ve told you last night.”

Joed recognizes the voice. It is the old man who he met last night. Joed speaks as he stands up. “You!? What is going on?” The old man replies as he points his fingers to the caliginous gateway. “There is no time for that now. Get that glowing red ball now.”

The man with an iron pipe is starting to recover once more. He shakes his head and after a while, he grins and looks at the old man and Joed. Even though Joed does not understand everything, he runs towards the caliginous gateway and grabs it. The man gets stunned as Joed touches the caliginous gateway. He speaks. “Impossible! Nobody is supposed to see the caliginous gateway.”

While holding the caliginous gateway, Joed notices that the color of it changes to bright light. After that, the light rushes towards the man. When it hits the man, the light engulfs him. Then, from the inside of the man, the shadow-like creature comes out. It is stunned and becomes corporeal. The diamond-like object is now more noticeable than before.

The man who had been possessed by the creature drops on the ground and let go of the iron pipe. Then, he gets unconscious.

The old man shouts to Joed “Quickly! Destroy the stone on its forehead.”

Joed is like a robot now, following what the old man is telling him to do. He quickly grabs the iron pipe and then smashes it at the forehead of the creature. The diamond-like object breaks. Then, the creature turns to black smoke and disappears.

The old man walks toward Joed as he speaks. “Very good, John Edward.” Joed replied angrily “Very good? What the heck is going on here? There are other people hunting us.” The old man replies “When you destroyed the creature, you released those people from being controlled too.”

Joed is speechless for a while because of what happened. Then, he remembers his sister. Worried, he runs towards her and attends to her as he speaks. “Atse!” Joyce gets her consciousness back eventually and stands up.

She shakes her head and asks “Ahhh… what happened?” Joed replies. “Are you alright Atse?” In Joed’s mind, he wants to tell her what happened but he waits for her to ask.

But Joyce did not ask. Then she starts to say things. “I must have passed out because of overfatigue. I thought I was imagining things.” Joyce starts to walk away, not noticing the man lying on the ground who was possessed by the creature.

As they are walking, Joyce speaks. “Sorry Shoti. I am really tired. I think we should go home.” Concerned for his sister, he walks her way back home. He looks back to the old man, but the old man is gone.

During suffer, there are many questions lingering in his mind. “Who is that old man? How did I turn invisible? Why can I see and touch the caliginous gateway while the other people can’t? What is the caliginous gateway?”

Those are some of the questions in Joed’s mind. And the last question is “Where is my cake?”