Halo - 6. Chapter Six

I was standing there, everything except my beating heart was moving as I looked back and forth at Mike and the man who tried to sink his daggered teeth into me. I didn’t know what to do right then, but Mike helped me by placing a hand on my chest and pushing me back. My own guardian angel, come to my rescue.

“Stay back, Duncan. I’ll handle him,” Mike said, not taking his eyes off the man.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” the man said, dropping his hands, exposing the bloody gash on his forehead.

“Why is your kind even here? Who created you?” Mike demanded.

The man snickered. “I would ask you the same thing.”

Suddenly the black shadow that was extending from the man’s feet began to morph and when I looked back at him, I saw that his legs had changed shape as well. They looked like the hind legs of a fast animal. The sound of cracking bones made me cringe heavily. The transformation tore the seams of his pants and could see blood staining from inside the fabric.

Mike moved so that I was right behind him, protecting me with his discs, just as the other man leaped right towards him. However, before he could even make it halfway to him, two of Mike’s discs accelerated past him and sliced the man viciously on the torso and chest. Blood spewed in two sheets and I thought the fight was over just before it even started.

The man fell to the ground in a distorted mess, but he soon stood back up and when he lifted his jacket to reveal the wound on his torso, the wound quickly sealed itself back with the smear of blood being the only evidence of his injury. With his head bowed down, he then looked up at us, giving us a sinister smile and dark laugh.

A shadow then enveloped the man; his body sunk into the dark shadows of the forest. I stood still, Mike turned his body back and forth as the faint sound of something moving surrounded and teased us. Then Mike held me close to the front of his body just as the four discs spun horizontally around us at a fast speed and the larger disc levitated above our heads. The man soon reappeared and the spinning discs sliced him once again and propelled him backward to the ground.

Mike released me and proceeded to slice the man again just as he stood back up by punching the space between them with two discs used as an extension of his hands and arms, making bloody contact with the man’s body each time. He then became more aggressive, his punching motions became faster and each time a disc made contact, the more the man stumbled backward.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Were these the martial art skills that Mike learned and was displaying right then? I watched as the four smaller discs began spinning in a circular motion as a unified body before Mike extended his arm, the discs following his arm’s direction and attacked the man, slicing a deep wound between his neck and shoulder. I flinched, never have witnessed this amount of violence personally in my life.

Then before I knew it, Mike launched himself above the ground and the larger disc that was levitating above his head was then sent back towards the man. I watched as the disc sliced right through the man’s neck before spinning back to Mike like a boomerang. He then landed with one knee on the ground.

The man just stood there, still as a statue…and then his head slowly tilted backward, like the hinged lid of a jar, before falling off his body and landing onto the ground. The rest of his body followed suit as well before a small flame combusted onto the corpse. I saw embers rise from the body that quickly burned away into nothing, not even ash was left behind as remembrance to the man that he truly wasn’t.

“Let the grace of Maria set you free.”

I looked at Mike who slowly stood back up and turned his body until he faced me again. The discs that were behind him then glowed a bright white light before dimming away and vanishing from existence as well. I just stood there, awestruck from what I just saw, all I could do was mumble as there were no words that could convey what I was feeling right then.

Mike then approached me and placed both of his hands on either side of my face before saying, “Are you okay, Duncan?”

“I…I don’t know,” I mumbled, feeling Mike’s warmth from his hands permeating into my skin and soul. “How…Where…Where did you come from?”

“I was going to ask you the same question,” Mike said before embracing me.

Hugging back and nuzzling my face on Mike’s chest, I muffled voice said, “Who was that man?”

I had so many questions circulating inside my head that demanded answers right then and for a moment I thought I was dreaming. I legitimately pinched myself on the back of my hand to see if I was truly awake and from the sharp pain it was confirmed.

“I don’t think this is the most appropriate place to discuss this. I need to take you back home first. My main concern right now is keeping you safe,” Mike explained.

“Okay, but…I can’t go back home.”

“Why not?” Mike asked, take a step back and looking into my eyes.

“I…I just can’t. Dustin and I had a falling out and…I’d rather not go back to my home right now.”

Going back to my house was the last thing I wanted. I’d actually rather experience this whole ordeal with Mike using halo-shaped weapons to slice apart a man into nothingness again than to possibly encounter my brother anytime soon.

“Okay…okay, I’ll take you to my house and you can rest in my bed. I actually think that’s better idea since I can watch over you. Is that okay?”

I couldn’t have asked for anything better than to be under Mike’s protection and I nodded. “That’s okay by me.”

“Good. Let’s get out of here then.”

***

After a long walk to Mike’s house, I finally entered his bedroom again that brought back the surreal memory of having my vision restored by his hands. I stepped out of my shoes and then collapsed onto the bed, feeling completely drained of energy. I wanted nothing more than to fall asleep and forget all my troubles until I wake up again.

I snuggled my face into the pillow that smelled so much like Mike and I looked to see him taking off his shoes too before crawling onto the bed and lying down next to me. This all felt so unreal. I mean, if I would have told my past self that I would end up sharing a bed another man, I would have immediately dismissed it, not believing that could ever happen, unless I was dreaming. Add to that, being attacked and saved by that same guy, who just happens to have the ability to manipulate light to his will.

“I’m happy to see you again…even if it is under these circumstances,” Mike said as he combed his fingers through my hair and began to sooth his fingers into my scalp.

“Yeah…me too… Thank you for saving my life. Again. From that…thing… What was he?”

Mike frowned. “Do you really want to talk about that now? You should be resting instead and we discuss this tomorrow.”

“I won’t be able to rest since the only thing I can think about is how I almost lost my life, again, by that thing whose existence I can’t even comprehend right now unless I hear an explanation that can put me at ease…at least for now. Please, Mike.”

Mike was quiet for a moment, and then he breathed out and scooted his body closer to me. “Okay, if it will let you rest… That man who attacked you…he was an aswang. It’s a term used by the Laguna tribe, my tribe, to describe the people who have been possessed by demonic spirits, whether willfully or not, because of their weak conscience. It’s also a term used in Filipino mythology to describe any monstrous creature that lives and hunts during the night, but it has a deeper meaning to us. They can manipulate the shadows of the world, including their own which results in the disfiguration of their physical body that turns them into these monstrous beings. And they need to feed off human energy, so they can strengthen their abilities which they can’t do by absorbing light like myself and the people of the Laguna tribe. They will drink blood to do so, some resorting to actual cannibalism. That’s why that aswang attacked you. He wanted your energy and would’ve drained your body of all your blood if I hadn’t stopped him in time.”

“So…these people are just vessels for demons who are the true danger. Is that right?”

Mike nodded. “They are unlike the Laguna tribe who have trained their conscious to resist these demons. Our conscious, after transcendence, can involuntarily structure the light emitting from our body, or our auras as Western society might call it, as a repellant to these same demons. Someone with a weak or damaged conscious have distorted auras, auras that have weak spots and sometimes even holes that demons can take advantage of. The origins of these demons are unknown, even by my tribe who have an extensive history with exterminating these beings. They could be spirits of once living dictators or mass murderers, but we can only speculate.”

“And those eyes of his. What were wrong with his eyes?” I asked, so focused on what Mike was revealing to me.

“Well, to absorb light into our bodies, so it can be restructured for our purpose like into disc-shaped weapons, we need our eyes to allow light to permeate through our body and to our conscious. That man’s eyes have only seen darkness ever since he transformed into the creature that tried to kill you. They turn dark from the shadows that they control and begin to deteriorate. This deterioration begins with scarring to eventually lose them completely after a certain amount of time… From what I can tell, that seems to bother you, Duncan.”

I sighed. “I…I had a dream yesterday that I saw eyes like that man’s, staring at me with such hatred and anger,” I confessed. “It really surprised to see those same eyes on that guy. Is there any explanation for that as well?”

“Maybe…I was thinking about a certain individual who also possessed those same eyes yesterday, and maybe when I was thinking that, it somehow transferred to you in a form of a dream. To be honest, I could be wrong, but that’s only explanation I can think of.”

“So…you can also share what you’re thinking mentally with others?”

“Yes. With people in my tribe, often it was more appropriate to convey simple ideas or what we are feeling by forming a connection between our conscious by the use of low-frequency waves similar to that of radios and delivering information through that. You can also transfer more abstract ideas and even memories to a person if they are your significant other, someone who has melded their conscious with the other’s, so that even when those two are in different parts of the world, their conscious still has strong tendril-like connections that they can both use to share everything together… So, I find it strange that what I was thinking could’ve transferred to you, even though your conscious hasn’t transcended nor were we at a close vicinity for what I was thinking to be read by you at all.”

“Well, it could be something else,” I inferred. “Regardless, how did you appear just in time to save me?”

“For me, I was looking for a secluded area for where I could practice my martial arts skills in peace. I was at clearing close by when I sensed the dark presence that was the man who attacked you. So…why were you there? I understand that you had a falling out with your brother, Dustin, but can you tell me how that led you to be in the forest?”

“I shouldn’t burden you with the details. I’ll just say that after our falling out, I left my house and started walking through the street that intersected the forest. I was walking to your place, so I had someone to talk to. That was when I encountered him and where he began chasing me.”

“I see… I’m glad we were around the same area then.” Mike moved his face closer, so our noses were almost touching.

“Me too, and I know I keep saying this, but…thank you…for everything,” I said before yawning. “So…is your tribe the only people who can invoke these abilities, or are there others? And do they encounter creatures similar to the aswang?”

“There are, but I only know two and they’re both so secretive that little is known about either them, even to us. What little I have gathered is that these two societies are somewhere in Europe, both practicing similar ways in manipulating light, but have other practices that my tribe finds dangerous.”

“Like?”

“The first society’s culture is centered around mirrors that allow a person to look into their own eyes’ reflection and communicate with spirits by creating portals to other dimensions. They then allow these same spirits, depending if they were deceased family members, to take temporary possession of their bodies during the day before returning to their own dimension. The other society is centered around dreaming when their eyes roll back and instead of receiving light from the outside world, they receive light internally instead which carries mixed messages that then can be organized to form a perception similar to dreams that the person can control. These are both dangerous practices since they can allow demons easy entry into the body, so that’s why my tribe rarely practices these themselves. Any other questions, Duncan?” Mike asked, smirking from my intense curiosity most likely.

“Yeah, I was just wondering…”

I yawned again before I could finish my sentence and that signaled Mike to say, “I think that’s enough questions for now. I hope I answered enough of them for you to rest easier. Now…go to sleep, Duncan.”

I wanted to ask just one more question, but my eyelids felt heavier and then I finally gave up. I snuggled closer to Mike held me around the waist with a strong arm while he continued to comb his fingers through my hair as my conscious soon faded into sleep.

***

I rolled around the bed as I began to resurface from my slumber. I extended my hands across the sheets and then opened my eyes when I realized Mike wasn’t with me in the bed anymore. I took my phone from my pocket and saw on the screen that it was around eight in the morning, and on the same screen was a text message from Mike saying that he was in the kitchen, cooking breakfast.

I smiled, quickly stood up from the bed and went to the kitchen where the smell of something sweet and cakey entered through my nose and pleased me immensely. Inside the kitchen, I was introduced to a plateful of pancakes on the island with Mike sitting there as well.

“Hey, there, Babe! Come and eat. I cooked hotcakes. There just like regular pancakes, but fried Filipino style,” Mike said as patted the island counter where a separate plate of hotcakes was placed just for me.

“That sounds great! Thanks,” I said and sat next to Mike. Taking a bite from my plate, I hummed in satisfaction and gave Mike a thumb up. “Tastes amazing!”

“It’s nothing. I usually don’t cook or eat things fried, but I really need something like this to calm my nerves right now,” Mike said, taking a big forkful of hotcake into his mouth and chewing vigorously.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

Mike sighed and turned on the television on the kitchen counter. “See for yourself. It’s most likely all over the local and national news by now.”

Looking at the television that was displaying the local news, I watched a reporter discuss how the president of the largest gold mining company in the United States, President Shepard, had finally won the claim to an area of land in the Philippines where mining for gold would soon commence. Further, into the discussion, I realized it was the province of Laguna where the mining would occur and it wasn’t a longshot to believe that this was going to affect the Laguna tribe in a very negative way.

“Oh, God. Mike…”

Mike then changed the channel to another news network that was discussing the same topic but from a resident’s perspective. She was part of a protest against the mining of the land because she feared of how it was going to negatively impact the environment and the indigenous tribes in the area. It was good to see some pushback against this, however, the protest looked small and it didn’t look like it was going to have much impact in changing what seemed inevitable.

Changing the channel two more times, it showed the same thing before he turned the television off and huffed in response. I didn’t know what to do other than place my hand on his and mouthing sorry to him.

He gave me a sad smile and said, “This is one of the major reasons of why I’m back, Duncan. I love my father…however, I cannot let him destroy what my tribe has tried to keep hidden from the rest of the world by disguising it as just some simple mining operation.”

“What is he really after?”

“Have you ever heard of Yamashita’s gold?” Mike asked.

I quickly nodded. “I learned about that piece of history back in my World History class.”

“So, you’ve already been told that General Yamashita gathered immense amounts of treasure, mostly gold from Singapore and other parts of Asian and has hidden his stolen loot in the caves of the Philippines. However, that is not entirely accurate. Yes, all the gold that Yamashita had gathered was real, but it all originally came from the Philippines. Also, the gold was not merely found but was created by a single person and that person was Maria, the founder of the Laguna tribe. She used her transcendent ability to manipulate light to change the molecular structure of normal objects into actual gold. The gold she singlehandedly created was supposed to help the poor and working villagers in the area she protected, but when the Japanese discovered the existence of her gold after interrogating villagers who possessed them as gifts, they were quick to occupy the area, so they could use the gold to fuel their war efforts and most of all, their greed. Worst of all, Maria was forced to become a comfort woman for the Japanese army along with creating more gold that drained her energy almost completely. However, Maria herself soon led a resistance with other Filipino women against the Japanese soldiers in the form of guerilla warfare. This led to the surrender and eventual execution of the general who took the location of Maria’s gold to his death.”

Mike paused to take a sip of his juice before continuing, “It has been several decades since that moment in history and Maria’s gold has been relocated deeper into the caves of Laguna with beliefs of the gold ever existing becoming a myth, as it should be. However, undisclosed sources have reported on the existence and location of the gold to my father’s company and now with this claim official confirmed, I fear now that the rediscovery of Maria’s gold will only cause more conflict within the Filipino nation that is already deeply entrenched with other issues like the widespread corruption in its own government and the millions of impoverished Filipinos just to name a few. This gold will only add fuel to the flame and I’ve promised the Laguna tribe to seek a solution to this problem and being the heir to my father’s company definitely makes me the person, most likely the only person, to solve this.”

“So…what’s your plan?” I asked.

“My father’s going to be hosting a fundraiser to help Filipino children in need soon. He’s obviously trying to deter the negative criticism he must be receiving right now for his claim of the Laguna area, but I’m going to take advantage of this as an opportunity to talk to my father out of this claim. I don’t believe it’s going to be easy or that I’ll even succeed at first, but at least it’s something… I don’t believe my father truly knows the negative ramifications if he proceeds with relocating this gold, so hopefully, that’ll benefit me in removing my father’s interest in the Philippines.”

“That’s so honorable of you, Mike, and if there’s any way I can help at all just let me know.”

“I’ll definitely keep that in mind. Thanks, Duncan,” Mike said, squeezing my hand gently.

“Hey…what ever happened to Maria?” I asked.

Mike furrowed his eyebrows. “I don’t know. No one in the tribe knows actually. She disappeared after the war ended, leaving behind her gold and her teachings to the villagers she helped protect from those soldiers that allowed them to transcend their own conscious. Maybe she lost her remaining faith in humanity and decided to hide from the rest of world…or it could be something else. We may never know. It still doesn’t discredit her incredible heroism during the occupation of the Philippines and she should permanently be written into the history books because of that. However, I understand why my tribe wants to keep her as only a mythological figure to the rest of the world. Revealing her true existence also means exposing the Laguna tribe’s powers and I don’t believe the world is ready for us yet.”

“Yeah, I totally get it… Do you think the aswang have a connection to any of this?”

Scratching his chin, Mike then said, “My tribe has suspected that an aswang was responsible for Maria’s discovery. Maybe it hoped that the Japanese army would take away the gold that was originally made of ginger, both being the main repellants of their kind. Or maybe they wanted to take advantage of the comfort women who sometimes became pregnant and since their kind are known for the atrocity of feeding off fetuses… I just pray that those abominations were not involved, either back then or now. That aswang we encountered last night was hopefully just a coincidence and I can focus on changing my father’s views on the gold mining claim without more to add to the conflict.”

I nodded in agreement. “I wish you the best of luck.”

“Thank you, Duncan. Out of all the shit I’m going through right now from fighting that aswang to my father’s claim to my tribe’s land, I’m very happy to know that you’re the shining beacon in this storm I’m in right now.” Mike placed a hand behind my head and said, “Duncan…Babe…do you mind if you come with me as my date to the fundraiser?”

My eyes widened and I said, “Oh! Really?”

Mike nodded. “Yeah. We don’t have to make it obvious since I already have enough to deal with that having my father discover that I’m dating another man will only complicate things. I just want someone by my side when things potentially go downhill. I know it’s a lot to ask, but—”

“No… No, it’s not Mike. Not at all. I’ll definitely be your date,” I said, smiling widely at him.

Mike smiled back and said, “Awesome.”

Mike then leaned his face forward, stopping just when our lips brushed each other. After a moment of exchanging each other’s breath’s, I was the one to remove the rest of the space between us and kiss him. Mike’s lips were so soft against mine as we expressed how much we appreciated one another. Our lips pressed together felt like two puzzle pieces connecting, it felt that right.

When Mike slipped his tongue gently into my mouth, I just had to do the same and as we exchange our wetness and warmth, whimpers unmistakably escaped from my lips. Mike definitely liked that sound that caused a low growl to rise from him which only made me lean forward further to increase the intensity of our kiss.

All this time, I continued to hold Mike’s hand which only deepened the connection that was strengthening between us.

We eventually parted our lips, both of us breathing heavily. We looked into each other’s eyes, brown eyes meeting blue, and I somehow knew the connection between us wasn’t just in my imagination. It was something actually tangible and I knew that Mike felt the same way.

We both leaned forward for another round when someone said, “What smells so good? Did you cook breakfast because…? Oh, my God! Sorry!”

I turned around to see Miranda in her pajamas and with bedhead. She was in the kitchen with an embarrassed look on her face that she was shielding with her hand.

“Good morning, Miranda. I cooked some hotcakes if you want some,” Mike said nonchalantly.

“Oh, thanks… Just let me fix my hair first since we have a guest. Sorry again!”

Miranda quickly scurried away and I looked back Mike who was looking down at his lap. I followed his gaze and saw my hand was placed on the seat area right between his legs that was there when I leaned forward towards the kiss, my fingers brushing against his crotch. Miranda must’ve seen that and was why she looked so embarrassed. To be honest, I was embarrassed too as I snatched my hand away since I didn’t know if I was going over the limit. The only I did know was that Mike was as turned on as I was and he was definitely packing something big down there.

Scratching my neck nervously, I said, “Sorry for having my hand there.”

Mike chuckled and said, “Don’t be sorry. At least you know now what I have to offer when we’re by ourselves and things get a little rougher if you know what I mean.”

I blushed and said, “I…I hope I can do the s-same.”

Mike’s eyes then directed downwards and I knew that he was looking at my manhood that was still hard and pressing against the fabric of my jeans.

“I definitely won’t be disappointed.” Mike looked up and winked.

I just gave shy smile and decided to resume eating the rest of my hotcakes, my hand still clutched to Mike’s. The very idea of eventually having sex with Mike when our relationship had progressed to that point was causing my mind to buzz with also sorts of naughty imagery. However, I was content with just kissing Mike and hopefully when the time comes and the mood was just right, I would be ready.