Prodigy.
The talents of this world are numerous. There are those who have talent in sports, academics, art, music, you name it.
But there are those who exceed talent, those who are a once in a generation. They say that "hard work beats talent when talent does not work hard" but what if talent does work hard?
The results~ are what we call "geniuses." These are people that cannot be surpassed by just anybody. They are, what we refer to as, world class.
Still, there is one level above those of "genius," these are once in a century talent. From the moment they were born to the moment they die, they are the best. No matter how skilled you are, no matter how much practice you do, somehow you can't surpass them.
If geniuses are world class, "prodigies" are otherworldly. They are those whose talents surpass those of "genius." They can be as lazy as they want, but still be the best.
They are the "Mozart" of this world. Not knowing where they get "it", not knowing where "it" comes from. As if "it" was coming from something out of this world, something unexplainable, something...otherworldly.
But in truth, we should call them by what they truly are~ Monsters!
They devour anything within its path, nothing remains. And when given a sliver of hope in breaking through their unbreakable wall, they cover it up in the despair of reality.
But, no one really thinks what's left after the massacre. Because what happens is that, when there's nothing left, the monster has no purpose. It has no meaning, and goes absolutely ballistic as a result.
Its gone "crazy!" little by little, it plunges in its own demise. That is until...until...UNTIL IT DE-- "drrring!"
-Alarm clock rings-
Paul wakes up sweaty in his small bed. It was a nightmare, and he felt sick and maybe even dizzy. It could have been from the nightmare, or the bottle of beer he had next to him.
Paul doesn't usually drink alcohol, but for some reason, he had an empty bottle beside him. He was hung over, "heh, I'm a total lightweight" Paul mumbled.
As he was contemplating, he noticed the time, the alarm clock was set late! Now he only has 30 minutes to get ready for his teaching job.
He hurriedly rushed to the shower, changed his clothes, and took his suitcase. He went down from his apartment 12 minutes later, and walked to school.
Paul was taller than average guy, with dark brown hair, black eyes, a handsome, manly face, and skin like that of most Filipino's (kayumangi).
He doesn't really have any close relatives, or anyone to call family. Yet, he has much passion for teaching, its always been his dream to be a teacher. Even though he only works at a local public school, that pays just barely over minimum wage, he was happy.
As he was walking down the street, headed to work, he saw a tree on the other side of the road that he had never seen before. He thought to himself, "has that tree always been there?"
It was quite big, but it didn't look too healthy. He was curious as to why he was so drawn by the tree, almost as if it was calling to him, like he had known the tree all his life.
Just as he was about to cross the road, the lights turned green. The vehicles started to move, and he could do nothing but wait for 90 slow seconds.
Once the lights turned red, he immediately crossed the street to get a closer look at the old tree.
But as he had gone closer, someone had bumped him, and his wallet had fallen. He exclaimed, "Hey! Watch where you're going!" He picked up his wallet, but as soon as he stood up, he saw that the tree was no more, it was gone?!
He was flustered, he thought to himself "am I hallucinating? if not, why am i seeing these things?" He looked left and right and saw no tree of the sorts. All he saw was an old man sitting at a bench, with a long beard reading the newspaper, right beside where he thought he saw the tree.
He asked the old man, "have you seen a big old, black tree with no leaves near the area po?" The old man answered, "I've lived in this city for 72 years, I have not seen such a tree near here."
Paul was confused, "am I still hung over from last night?", he asked himself. But once he looked at his watch, he realized he only had 5 minutes left to get to work. So he set aside the tree for now, thinking that maybe he was just imagining it, and focused on nothing except the fact that he'd be late!
He hurried to the school, and when he reached the gate, his face was dripping in sweat. The security guard asked him, "are you alright sir? you look so out of breathe!"
Paul answered, " I'm fine Gomez, I just...had a hiccup of sorts on the way." He went to the nearest comfort room to wash his face, and used his handkerchief to wipe it dry.
As he was walking into the classroom, all the students stood up and greeted him. That day, the lesson was about important figures in Philippine history. He sat down in front of the teachers desk and took something from his bag.
It was printed papers with names on them. He started with the paper that had Lapu-lapu. He asked the students, "can anyone give me characteristics of Lapu-lapu?"
Some of the students would reply with, "brave", "strong", "a leader", "strict." This is how they described Lapu-lapu.
Now they were asked, "why do we describe him in this way?" And most of the students answered, "this is what he was described in the battle of Mactan."
Now Paul told them, "yes, but did you know some historians believe that he was already 70 years old when it happened?" The students were shocked at the possibility that one of the greatest warriors in Philippine history was an old man when he fought his famous battle.
Paul also told them, "some historians even believe that he wasn't born in Mactan, and possibly not even in the Philippines itself. They believe that he came from the island of Borneo, an island that has never been a part of the Philippines."
They were baffled, or maybe they were confused, some could even call it curiosity. A student then asked, "could it be that they were wrong?"
Paul answered her, "the truth is we can never truly know, most historians are split about the life that Lapu-lapu lived. They may be false, they may be facts. But because the way history was written, we can only speculate about the amazing life of Lapu-lapu."
The students had a mire satisfied look to them, but there was still curiosity left on their faces.
A student couldn't help but raise his hand and ask, "sir Garcia, if that were the case, how do we know when or how he died?"
Paul replied with a smile, "good question, because the most confusing part about the life of Lapu-lapu is his death."
The students were astonished, by the fact that things could get more confusing, and yet they were interested as to why.
"It is so confusing that some theories sound like they came from a myth. Like the fact that his soldiers believed he turned into a fish, some believed he turned into a rock or an island. Some believed he had supernatural powers. And some just believe he returned to Borneo and died there," Paul said.
After the discussion about Lapu-lapu, Paul continued to talk about other famous Filipino figures like Gabriela Silang, Dr. Jose Rizal, General Antonio Luna, and other notable Filipino figures.
At the end of the lesson, he asked the students if they had any final questions about the days topic. The students were still fixated about Lapu-lapu, and so one of them asked, "do people really believe all that crazy stuff about Lapu-lapu?"
Paul looked at the kid, held his own chin, and answered, "it is written as one of the possibilities in history, even if it sounds highly unlikely, or more accurately, fantasy, its still history. You can never know a mans true story unless you live it yourself."
After the class, Paul continued to teach all of his other classes before lunch break. He went to the cafeteria and ordered the usual, pork noodles, coke, and a brownie.
He was enjoying his food, smiling as he tasted the broth. He took a sip from the coke bottle, "refreshing," that's all he could think. "Pwaa!" Paul uttered, as he put down the bottle.
As he was eating, Paul noticed someone sitting beside him. She was a gorgeous young lady, with black, wavy hair, a curvy body, wearing a school teachers uniform, and a face seen only in magazines. Her name is Jasmine, the schools beauty, and a history teacher that considers Paul as her rival.
"Hello there Sr. Paul," Jasmine uttered as she smilingly held up a test paper. "Look, one of my students got a perfect 50/50 in the test yesterday."
"Hello to you too Ms. Jasmine" Paul said back without even acknowledging the paper. "My my, you don't have to be so jealous Sr. Paul, it just means that I'm a better teacher after all!" Ms. Jasmine said, with a proud, smug, and satisfied look on her face.
Paul never really took their rivalry seriously, he just thought that it was cute how competitive she was when she had never really won against him. "Heh, is that so? Good for you then." Paul answered back monotonously as he continues to slurp his silky smooth noodles.
But at that moment, as Ms. Jasmine was rejoicing, she knocked down Pauls bag. "Oh come on, my papers!" Paul said to her while immediately trying to pick them up. "Oops, sorry about that," she replied, while kneeling down to help Paul.
But as she was picking them up, Ms. Jasmine noticed something about the papers, they were yesterdays test papers! "Ho-How?!" she shouted while looking at the papers. "How are they all perfect scores?!" She confusingly asked while looking at Paul.
"Not all of them, only around 15, the rest got average scores," Paul humbly replied. "Oh...oh, is that so?" She said while having an annoyed look, and being embarrassed that she bragged about only one of her students having a perfect score.
"Hmph! You've won this time Mr. Paul Garcia II, but I will triumph next time!" Jasmine said, while she handed back the papers to Paul, and turning her back to walk away. "Hey, what're you full naming me for? Ms. Jasmin P. Kalachuchi," he said mockingly, knowing that her weird last name annoys her when said out loud.
"Hey! You know I hate it when you call me that," Jasmine angrily answered Paul, not realizing he ran away knowing she would be mad. This only made her more irritated of him, exclaiming, "Paul, I'll get you next time!"
Jasmine was quite mad, but she saw that Paul had left his brownie on the table. Jasmine has quite the sweet tooth, she loves anything related to sweets. So she took the brownie and thought, "Hmph! I have his brownie, I'll take this as compensation for mocking me."
After school, Paul went to a nearby sari-sari store to buy a snack as he was going home. He went to the tindera and bought some sweetened bread, because he left his brownie in the cafeteria, and knew that Jasmine would take it, as usual.
But, as he was waiting for the tindera, weirdly enough, he saw the tree again. It was on the other side of the road. Almost as if it were calling for him, following him, looking for him, or at least, that's what he felt.
The tindera said to him, "here's your bread po kuya." So he took the bread, put it in his bag, and paid the nice lady.
Paul looked again, and yes, the tree was still there unlike last time. He frantically crossed the street to check out the tree. He said to himself, "why is the tree here? How did it move here?"
He was touching the tree, feeling out its old, dried out trunk. But then he noticed something, there was some bump in the tree, a very unnatural looking bump. It was almost as if the bump wasn't part of the tree, like a rusty, metallic object that the tree had consumed overtime.
As he was about to touch the bump, a light flashed in the corner of his eye. A loud, horn like sound, was heard at the same time, it was deafeningly loud, because it was the sound from a big truck.
Paul was irritated by the completely unnecessary noise that the truck driver was making. But then, his eyes grew, as he realized why it was honking so loudly. The truck driver, with a concerned, scared look, was trying to warn a kid on the road.
Moments before, the truck driver was annoyed by the kid because she was in the middle of the road. But he didn't want to hurt the child, so he tried to pull the breaks.
But to his shock, the truck wouldn't stop! He screamed to the top of his lungs, "KID, WATCH OUT!" as well as, "I CAN'T STOP THE TRUCK!"
The kid heard everything, but was paralyzed, at that moment, she didn't know what to do. She knew she could move, she wanted to move, but for some reason she wasn't. She wanted to cry for help, "someone, help me, please!" is what she wanted to say, but for some reason~she couldn't.
But Paul ran towards her, as fast as humanly possible. He held his hands forward, and was just in time to push her. But at what cost? His life flashed before his eyes, he saw the light at the end of the tunnel, and he heard death knocking on his door. "So this is it, huh? this is how it ends?"...
...Wait, something was off, how could he still be conscious? He opened his eyes, and saw the impossible, he was floating! And so was the girl he pushed away!
Paul was relieved, and yet confused at the same time. That was, until he realized he wasn't actually floating. Or to be more accurate, he wasn't "just" floating.
What he did realize was the fact that no one, no thing, no time~ was moving.
It was almost as if time had stopped.
It was almost as if...everything had come to a screeching halt!