Selene Terra Firma

01 : Dream

Selene was sitting at the window seat, tightly holding her black Jagger bag with her necessities in it. She was redundantly listening to a popular rock song on her iPod—it was her favorite. She leaned her head on the windshield, watching intently outside as the plane flew above the clouds.

It was early mid-summer, and the school year has just ended. When she went home from school to get her diploma from graduating in senior high school. She found out that their family has already packed for a long vacation in Manapla, Negros Occidental, her dear hometown.

That is where her maternal family resides. Centuries of their generations had been born and died there. It was also where she grew up, though she was originally born in the capital city.

Due to circumstances, her mother decided to take her to her hometown in Manapla, wherein she spent her childhood until she turned six. She could only recall the happy and exciting memories she had there, and the blurred scenarios that kept popping in her head. Of course, she would have a hard time remembering them since they have been constantly moving houses from place to place.

They had traveled through the sea when she was still a few months old and that was when her mother ran away from her father. She could also remember her mother's story where her little self-went missing aboard the ship, hence, traumatizing her and sworn never to ride a boat ever again.

As the plane ride continues, she was constantly bothered by the earsplitting noise you usually hear when you ride an airplane—it never gets old. It got her every time they visit the province.

"Are you hungry?" Her mother asked. She shook her head as a response.

Transportation wasn't fun at all. If it wasn't for her motion sickness, she would be more than happy if teleportation does exist.

"Ma, when will we arrive?" She asked, looking at her wristwatch.

She kept wishing this would finally come to an end.

"It will take more than thirty minutes. We just departed."

"My head aches a lot," she complained as her face furrowed.

"Why don't you try to take a nap? It'll make you feel better. I'll wake you up once we landed," her mother suggested. She willingly complied.

When she opened her eyes, the noise and the pain in her head stopped. Squinting her eyes, she frowned as she slowly realized she was in the same dream again. She was standing beside a very tall dead tree.

She looked around.

It was almost exactly like in the movies. It was set in a graveyard full of creepy gravestones wherein the dark lord and its underworld minions were nestling underneath.

"You're back."

A young man appeared out of nowhere. He was wearing a typical rich academic student attire of what looks like a set of black pants, black leather shoes, a white underneath polo, and a black blazer. His hands were covered with a pair of shiny white gloves that seemed like leather as well. She casually waved a hand at him with a blank expression on her face.

"Yeah, I'm back. Where are Phobos and Deimos?" She asked nonchalantly before taking a sit on a large black stone beside her.

"I don't know. I ran here as fast as I could the moment, I sensed your presence." He shrugged and walked closer to her.

"You left them again."

"They're too slow. By the time they could finally get here, you might have left already." He protested, defending himself for leaving his attendants behind.