Monsterstruck

CHAPTER XXV: NIGHT OF REVELATIONS

        The Red Pistols was on fire as they performed their newest single “Velvet Tears”. The crowd bobbed their heads and moshed briskly along their music. Tyrone’s band did three encores that night, before The Clamor went to perform afterward. The Red Pistols smirked at the Clamor dudes as they headed backstage. Cameron, Jake and Alex mumbled something unintelligible as they brushed past them, and they could hear them snickering as they left. Paul just threw his former bandmates a morose look.

Meanwhile…

    “Hello my beloved niece.” Verona greeted as she hovered around Vygnet who was busily rocking out along the crowd.

    “What are you doing here?” Vygnet exclaimed, shell-shocked.

    “Tired of answering that question, would you like to give me a warm hug?” Verona prompted feistily.

    Shaking her head, Vygnet cast her a petulant glance when suddenly, Blaze hollered towards them.

    “Listen Vygnet, we will gather around tomorrow night at La Boracay garden. All yomas lurking around this area are going to be there. Don’t worry because they got some secret passage in the area, and it’s impenetrable by humans.” Blaze hissed cautiously, peering from side to side, careful that somebody might hear them despite of the loud music.

    “One more thing, you might be surprised to find out that Red Pistols dudes are our allies.” Verona clipped.

    Vygnet’s eyes widened in surprise. “You can’t be serious! I mean all of them?”

    “Yes, including this guy whose head over heels for you since ages, Paul.” Blaze retorted.

    Vygnet was stupefied upon the grueling revelation that Paul was also a yoma. It sounded cacophonous in her ears as the thought of him transforming into a monster made her feel nauseated as she was not used seeing him that way.

    “Since when he became a yoma and what are you talking about lately that he’s head over heels over me?” She probed in bewilderment.

    “Better ask that guy not me.” Blaze deadpanned.

    “But you’re the one who said that lately!” Vygnet shot back and eyed him for a fraction of seconds then pivoted in her heels to see Paul.

    “Vygnet!” Blaze called after her.

    “Just let her go Blaze, by the way where’s Vylet? I can’t see her here.”

    The crowd went wild as Craig leapt on them. Blaze cast his glance among the throng of people in the bar and found no glimpse of her.

    “I gotta head back to the hotel to check her out. It’s quite strange that she’s not here,” he mumbled as he glanced at Craig whose now back on the stage and did an encore.

    “Blaze, better tell Vylet that you are a yoma. Tell her now, before she hates you forever,” Verona chastised.

    Before she hates you forever, that latter statement was viciously ringing in his head, reverberating in his skulls, the weight of that wrenched statement made his stomach twist into a knot as he headed back to the hotel to check on her.

    Blaze knocked at her room “Vylet? Are you there?” He called outside the door but there was no answer. He hastily knocked again and but there was still no answer and when he turned to open the door, there was never a glimpse of her. A surge of panic filled him; he bolted out of the hotel to find her. He combed out along the shoreline, passed by the swinging discos, souvenir shops, but there was no trace of her. He pulled out his phone and dialed her number but all he heard was the operator’s voice saying that the number he was trying to call was out of coverage. He cussed loudly as he scampered around that made the people passing by threw him a dirty look.

     Suddenly, people started to file on the shade of the coconut tree situated beside a cottage. The collective gasps from them drew his attention as he ran towards it, with a heavy lump building in his chest. A dead body of a lanky teenager gaped at him; his mutilated body was contorted in strange position; his blank eyes bore wide open. There were also numerous scratches on his forehead down to his ribcage; his skin was in the palest shade of death, a deathly pallor.

        From the distance, he saw this creature with its catlike eyes dilating towards him, a wicked glint in its ferocious eyes held remotely at the crime scene.

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    “Oh, look whose here guys!” Tyrone crowed upon spotting Vygnet standing at their doorway. The Red Pistols were busily playing cards as they trooped around the table and all heads turned on her.

    “I know that we are all the same, a yoma, but I didn’t come here to befriend you all. I came here to talk to Paul,” she said flagrantly.

    Paul stood up and walked up to her, heaving a deep sigh.

    “You lied to me Paul. Why didn’t you tell me all of these huh?” Vygnet purred.

    Paul led her outside away from everybody’s earshot. His eyes smoldered, blazing fervently at her, as she anticipated for his answer.

    “I did not lie to you. Lying is different from keeping secrets,” he said in flat monotone.

    “And does it matter to you if I’m also a yoma? I bet not Vygnet,” he chuckled sinisterly.

    “Of course, it does Paul! Because you are my friend, you’re very dear to me that’s why I came here to hear it out from you!” Vygnet said in a hoarse voice.

    “I’m a yoma too Vygnet. Now you heard it from me. What else do you want?”  Paul asked acidly.

    “Why do I feel like you’re blowing me off? You became very distant, cold and now, a yoma. Why is that, Paul? What did I do to you to treat me coldly?” Vynet asked petulantly.

    “I’m not blowing you off. It’s just that things aren’t the same anymore and will never be the same,” he replied cryptically, looking away from her.

    “Is it because you love me more than a friend?” Vygnet asked casually and this stunned him.

    The summer breeze whipped past them as their figures stood stiffly against the cold pavement. The rush of nervousness flooded all over him. He leaned closer to her and held her face.

    “I have always loved you Vygnet, unconditionally. Although it kills me to see you perennially fancying Craig, but I’m willing to let you be happy if that’s what you want. Because I just wanted you to be happy, the genuine smile in your face whenever you talk about him is priceless, although I’m not the reason behind that smile. The tears you shed everytime you’ll lean your head in my shoulder as you share your lonely thoughts about your mom, it makes me want to kiss those tears away from your eyes. Yes, I left the band because I can’t stand the pain anymore. I need to get away, all by myself. Then with my string of bad luck, I woke up one day only to find out that I’m not completely a human. Could things get any worse?” Paul spoke in a forlorn tone.

    Vygnet could feel his hot breath fanning her face. His hands went rigid as he held her face, but the desolate look at his eyes pierced her soul.

    Abruptly, he pressed his lips gently against hers. With that, her eyes popped wide as her knees suddenly buckled. In the nick of time, he pulled away from her.

    “I’m sorry,” Paul mumbled apologetically.

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    “Noooooo, Nooooo, this ain’t right! I swear I didn’t mean it, but I just can’t help it. Arghhhh!!! Why do I can’t hold back anymore??” Vylet shrilled as she lumbered in an isolated area, with twinge of guilt flooded all over her.

    “Stop it Vylet, you are a monster, a yoma. It’s innate in us to kill humans whether we like it or not, whether we mean it or not,” countered a husky voice. There was a ring of truth in his statement.

    Vylet whirled around, the figure of her mysterious savior gaped at her.

    “You’re also he….re?” Vylet stammered as she gathered her wits.

    “We are everywhere Vylet. At all places and all circumstances.” He retorted.

    “Could you tell me who you really are?” She c****d her head tying to familiarize his figure behind his monstrous face.

    “I’ve been wanting to, but I think it’s now time to reveal myself to you,” he deliberated.

    “Forgive me Vylet,” he clipped, and he painstakingly shut his eyes close.

    The anonymous savior launched himself to transform into human form with his arms stretched outwards, now turning into a brawny one, his greenish skin, now in a russet tone. His black coffee eyes were still as smoldering shade of black blazing fervently on her. Vylet was lost in stupor as she slowly recognized the figure transforming into a human form. She could feel her heart beating hyperactively as she waited with bated breath.  The monster unveiled himself and now completely in his human countenance. It was Blaze.

    “B…laze,” she gulped trying to process on what she had witnessed.

    “I’m sorry Vylet for keeping it away from you. I’m just scared that things will never be the same if you found out, that you will shut me out of your life,” he confessed gloomily.

    “But we’re just the same Blaze! Both you and I are yomas.  I can’t believe that you made me look stupid all these times!” Vylet interjected as sting of betrayal washed all over her.

    “If you only knew how I’ve been wanting to tell you this Vylet. I’m really sorry I didn’t mean to make you feel that way, I’m just scared on what changes it will bring to us.”

    “You’re being irrational Blaze!” She flared up as she pressed her lips together.

    “So that woman who came up to us recently whom you just called lunatic is right, and she have also seen your aura which is gray.” Vylet countered icily as train of flashback flickered in her mind from the moment he showed up with his blood shot eyes, after disappearing without having a word for almost three weeks, the manly changes in his physique, her dream about him shielding her from Craig’s attempt to kill her with his cresclunar-- all of those made sense now.

     “I understand if you’re mad. I deserve it Vylet, but if only you knew how it hurts me to see you being tormented by what we really are. Sometimes I just wish that you didn’t become one, that I’d rather see you living in a normal life, not in this hideous immortality. But things have changed when Craig entered in the picture. I became thankful for what we both are, because if it is the only way to have you, so be it. You can’t fall in love with a human Vylet, you belong to me. It may sound selfish as it seems, but it is the reality.” Blaze asserted whole heartedly.

    “Oh yes, you’re really selfish Blaze. And what does Craig have to do with all these shits happening? I can’t believe you’re my friend. I don’t know what might come after all of these; the changes it might bring in our friendship or I don’t know if I can still call you a friend!” Vylet slurred and slipped away in the pitch darkness.