Behind the Mask

Chapter 4: The House (Part 1)

So yeah. Here I am, finally trying to get a valid ID after years of being treated like a ghost in my own country. I need it for digital banking—because apparently freelancing won’t even look at you unless you have documents proving you exist. Cute, right? I spent months researching how to get a job online, scrolling until my eyes felt like rice grains, and every “guide” was just some dude saying “just start freelancing.” Like okay bro, with what ID? With what bank? With what life?

Anyway. Passport it is.

The trip was hell. The line felt like it was made of centuries, not people. And the titas and lolos were so loud the floor could’ve cracked. Why do old people talk like they’re trying to summon someone from the afterlife? I wanted to tell them to shut up, but I’m the same—I can’t wait either, but at least I suffer in silence.

My stomach started crying, begging for ice cream. Outside was scorching—like God forgot the Philippines on broil mode. Inside the mall was cold though, the kind of cold that makes you forget your problems for 0.2 seconds.

But then… I saw something outside the window. A street.

Our street.

The one we lived on fifteen years ago.

And suddenly, something tugged at me. Not nostalgia—nostalgia is warm. This felt cold. Like a hand gripping the back of my neck. I remembered walking there as a kid… but now I’m older, and the place felt like it stayed the same age. Like it never moved on.

Something in me whispered: Go back.

Not “I want to go.” Not “I miss it.”

More like you need to go.

For what reason? No idea. Maybe to see our old school, that bridge we used to cross, the house. I couldn’t even tell if it was curiosity or something darker.

So yeah, I walked. Sun burning my skin, brain melting. I should’ve stayed in the mall but whatever. Oh, also—this is funny—I realized I forgot to pay the jeepney driver earlier. His jeep broke down, people started going down one by one, and I just… forgot to pay. Walked off like a stray NPC. And then karma slapped me because I ended up walking like 2 kilometers. I still laugh at that.

But then the laughter died.

Because the moment I stepped into that old alley, something shifted.

It looked almost the same.

But… wrong.

The kind of wrong you can’t explain. The shadows were longer than they should be. The houses seemed like they were leaning closer, like they had been waiting.

I took a step.

And another.

And the heat suddenly dropped, like someone opened a freezer door beside me.

And that’s when I felt it.

The shiver.

Not the normal kind.

The kind that feels like a fingertip tracing your spine from inside your skin.

I didn’t look back.

I didn’t want to.

But the air behind me felt… heavy.

Like someone was there.

Standing so close they could hear my heartbeat stutter.

It didn’t feel like nostalgia anymore.

It felt like I wasn’t supposed to be here.

Like something that lived in this alley remembered me—and wasn’t happy I came back.

My purpose for visiting didn’t matter anymore.

Either I’d see what changed…

…or something else would see me.