"Mama! I'll be late if I don't go now!" Precious said as she looked on her wristwatch and sweated. She should not be late on her first day in College!
Tertiary level is tough in the Philippines.
But good thing! Either you finished College or University are viewed as a completion of tertiary level, so only experience and intelligence differentiates each graduate.
What an ordinary life, right? Yup! Very ordinary!
Precious ran towards the direction of the jeepney terminal and saw many passengers squeezing on the waiting line.
She sighed and counted.
"1!"
"2!"
.....
"3!"
As she then tried squeezing herself to immediately enter inside the jeepney.
"Sorry!" she said to the passengers who she had passed by as they yelled at her.
But for passengers, her word had no respect at all.
"Hey! We arrived first!"
"Be conscientious!
"This d*mn brat has no respect at all!
Precious put a headset on both of her ears and pretended on listening to music but no music came out of her headset.
'What can I do now? Go down and be late at school? Nah-uuhh!' she thought as she just let their words enter her right ear and exit on her left ear after apologizing.
The passengers even told the dispatchers but the jeepney driver already started the engine and ready to go.
"Just wait for next jeepney!" the dispatcher said and just let it be as the jeepney drove away from the jeepney terminal.
Meanwhile, Precious felt the contempt of other passengers even without looking around her.
She knew this would happen but she must arrived at school before the first class period started.
'Let me be the evil at this moment once' as she thought.
Then...
"Please pass" as the passenger at the back started passing his coin to the front until passenger next to Precious passed it to her because her seat located at the back of the driver.
Precious received it and gave it directly to the driver.
It was fine at first. Indeed! It's normal.
However, all passengers started passing their coins one at a time to her.
Even the passenger on her front, who seated located at the back of the front seat - which also located at the side right side of the driver, was not an exception to this.
She looked at that passenger and saw her smirking devilishly.
'Isn't this bullying!?' as Precious shouted on her mind but no word blurted out of her mouth.
She looked away from that passenger and an advertisement popped out of her screen caught her attention.
[★WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF ORIGINS AND SPIRITS★]
'Hmmmm? How did it pop out of my screen?' and a frown shown on her face.
'Odd' she added and swiped up the screen.
That advertisement was still there but shortcut center popped out which she could easily checked if the Data was either turned on or not.
'Really odd' she thought so and tried clicking any space on her screen so that advertisement will end up exiting on its own but nothing happened.
'Hmmm? Is my phone lagging?' she added and shook her phone thrice as it may be phenomenally return to normal.
Still nothing happens.
While focusing her mind on how to exit the advertisement that stubbornly stuck on her phone screen, she heard a loud screech in front of the jeepney and followed by screams and cries around her.
Meanwhile...
"WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE YOU DOING!?" a loud shout came out of the floating screen and echoed throught the house by an old man while a middle-aged lowered his head but his back stood still stubbornly.
He just let the old man yelled at him and accepted all criticisms thrown at him by the old man.
"ARE YOU CRAZY!? WHO TOLD YOU TO REDIRECT IT TOWARDS THAT PLACE?!" as the old man continued.
"I LET YOU USED IT FOR TRAVELING BACK AND FORTH SO THAT YOU CAN BE TOGETHER WITH YOUR WIFE AND SON! BUT NOT TO REDIRECT IT TO OTHER PLACE!!"
Still, the middle-aged man stood stubbornly as he clenched his fists.
Then, the old man saw this and sighed,
"Son, there is nothing we can do once a life is already destined to end. Even I become tired of continuing this. We have sacrificed too much. Let's end it here. We can no longer save him" as the old man sadly said with despair.
"B-But..." the middle-aged man tried to come up for more to continue doing it but the old man sighed deeply and anyone could see that his white hair grown so much.
"Dane... Please stop now. We have done so much we should not" the old man pleadinly stated.
The middle-aged looked up and realized that he was not the only one who suffered such despair and helplessness.
Tears started falling down from the middle-aged man's eyes and his legs slowly loosen its strength, kneeling on the ground but want to stand up to plead for more.
However, they have already done so much for 'it' to change and finally...
"Y-Yes, Dad" the middle-aged man finally given up.
The old man also teared up and said, "Let's wait for this time to end and you can come back home together with your mom"
The middle-aged man sniffed and nodded.
Suddenly, a six years old boy appeared behind the middle-aged man and called out in a mature temperament.
"Dad, why are you crying?" said, the little boy but the middle-aged man could still hear a trace of immaturity in it.
The little boy still stubbornly used a matured temperament as he walked towards the direction of the middle-aged man and wiped away the tears.
"Don't cry, Dad" said, the litle boy.
Then, the middle-aged finally given up and embraced his son.
"I am sorry but I still wish for you to have a long and happy life in this lifetime" as he whispered to his son.
Confused, the little boy nodded and hugged back to his dad.
On the other hand...
The old man was about to end the video call in order to exit the floating on both sides of each screen...
He suddenly stood up as his eyes narrowed.
Unbeknownst to the middle-aged man, the little boy stared at the floating screen sternly and intently but without hostility.
For a reason that... only those who have a connection with the future should be the only one who could see this 'floating screen'.
On the other side, there were calamities and accidents such as crashes of vehicles around the world like in dominoes effect.
When these accidents hit the Philippines massively, the entire Philippes surely felt the upcoming massive shockwaves and barely made everyone survive.
But when it was about to enter the area of the jeepney which Precious chosen to go for school, it stopped like a popping balloon and those from behind felt the refreshing air surrounded them.
Imagine, the earth is round and divided into diameter. The upper side was undergoing an apocalypse event while the lower side remained unharm.
But it happened after she clicked "DECLINE" in that advertisement on her phone and lost consciousness.
The shocking thing was that among all people inside the jeepney, only Precious lost consciousness while others and those behind of the jeepney vehicle felt nothing wrong but only refreshing air.
It looked like the world was suddenly split into two worlds apart;
First, the events infront of the jeepney made it look like an apocalypse struck the entire world.
There were some fortunately survive because of their quick reactions against accidents or turned into comatose state but shown no result of waking up.
While, those unfortunate ones died with mutilated bodies not only because of vehicle crashes but also because of other accidents such as; street light poles fell down in dominoes, sudden outbreak of fires caused by car crashes and etc.
As if telling the people of this world that there was a 'something' that causes these masses of accidents at the same time but it eventually stopped like a pause.
Then, the events behind of the jeepney were intact.
As if the time stopped at these people behind the jeepney.
Only silence.
Since they have witnessed such miraculous event and they could never forget.
As the time passed by...
Precious has been walking for hours and cannot see an end of this blackness around her.
On her sights, everything is black and endlessly surrounds her.
Since she wakes up, it already become like this and decides to find a way out.
However, there is no light anywhere but she can see her body.
She looks like a firefly on the lightless forest.
But unlike inside a forest that there is no light but it still has forest for sightseeing and shelter against wind.
However, there is nothing inside this blackness. No trees for sightseeing nor wind.
"Hello? Is anyone there?" Precious starts walking as she feels scared.
Still, there is none.
After another hour of walking around, she feels tiredness on her body and about to rest on the ground before starting again.
However, a weird tingling sensation enters her entire body. Not a painful one but the most soothing refreshness inside her as if she is reborn.
Then, she hears screams and cries of pleading for help from far away.
Next, the roars of the wild beasts.
Precious closes her eyes and focuses her hearing on those noises.
Suddenly, her mind emits light and a floating screen appears.
At this time, she realizes that the noises outside match the events happening inside the video of the floating screen.
She frowns and many questions start appearing in her mind.
However, this, sometimes, makes the video blur.
Then, her intuition intensifies as if telling her not to think about it and only focuses on the finding solutions of saving people in those video.
And realizes, "But...how?"
Unbeknownst to her, her soul is now entering a parallel universe.