Coming Out
Monday. Dusk. Brooklyn, New York. An alien sound breaks the darkening sky.
‘Wak… wakwak wakwakwak…’
You might imagine the sound is most likely heard in tropical jungles. But this is no bird, airborne yes but avian hardly.
The sound is emitted by a creature quite alien to the land. This strange creature traverses Kings Highway.
Suddenly a loud crashing like sound rocked the vicinity of the New York Community Hospital. A large delivery truck hit the side of a bus loaded with passengers, and toppling it to its side.
The creature is crouching on top of the New York Community Hospital. He looks very human and indeed a human in all aspects but not quite. Not anymore.
He does not know what he is or what he is doing. Acting and driven by a primal instinct to feed, he is attracted to the hospital by an indescribable odor.
The closest description might be the odor of a Jackfruit or at most of the times it smells like a Durian. The odor is repugnant and sweet at the same time, it has an indescribable odor.
The closest one can describe is a gas leaking with the odor of concentrated feces, but there is that one distinctive odor that goes with it… sweet sugary and fruity smell.
He does not like the odor but he is driven by it.
He finds his way into the hospital, going down and blending in.
“Dr. Burns, Dr. Burns, paging Dr. Burns, to the ICU…”
The sound of the PA system in the background becomes numb, as if it was muffled. He starts to lose himself with the maddening itch inside his head, the urge to feed.
The closest in describing what he feels is like the urge to just claw into it with your bare hands and eat it like you never ate for days. With that awful dreadful smell of something dead, pungent and heavily sugared candy, with the caramel or even that of a molasses.
The closest analogy would be that of a Durian fruit.
To those who had the fruit for the first time; it would be pure disgust because of the odor, but after tasting it and the next time around, they’d be craving for it.
The odor won’t be that repugnant anymore, but like the smell of honey in a bottle. Put it this way it’s like smoking marijuana, smells like shit, but you just keep coming back for the shit.
Resisting to the urges was futile, his legs arms in fact his whole body was autonomous it was taking him somewhere.
The Emergency Room
In one of the beds is a pregnant young woman, bleeding on her forehead and probably fractured her arm; the aftermath of the accident outside. The ER was full it was more like a war zone.
The hospital was taking in too many patients. The staff was at their brink almost losing their courteousness to one another.
A dark figure enters the pregnant woman’s room, inside it becomes dark and gloomy. While looking from the outside it is pretty normal.
He finds solace in the presence of pregnant women. An unborn child smells like a ripe Jackfruit that has a very sweet smell.
Like a meditating Zen master; he took time to size up his prey as if appreciating and savoring his meal.
More like a wine connoisseur exercising his 4S. Pausing… Smelling… Then a slithering slimy black pointed tongue comes out of the dark figure’s mouth.
It creeps on the bed, and slowly climbs into the pregnant woman then injects itself into her belly button. There he starts to suck the life force out of the unborn; treasuring the ever comforting fragrance, soothing his soul.
And from the mother’s belly button a glowing white light starts to climb out, something that would make one feel peaceful, it is so irresistible that anyone would be attracted to it.
From there it moves along the black slimy tongue, illuminating the entire length.
As the light enters this sick dark figure’s mouth and starts consuming it, he is filled with a high like how a crackhead feels smoking cocaine, but a whole lot better; a different level of high.
He is ecstatic as he sucks the life force out of the baby, he is filled with power all over his body; the top of his head feels like it’s going to blow, in fact all over his body is a glow.
The feeling is eclectic; more like a massage of electrical current is run through his body.
The unborn baby’s heart beat starts to weaken, he feels it but needs to complete the feeding process or else, all of what he consumed will be for naught.
The heart… ‘lub dub lub dub… lubdub… lub…’ beats weaker… and weaker… stop… the unborn baby is dead. He withdrew his tongue and stealthily removes himself from the room.
As he walks out he picked up a white lab gown, wears it and disappears into the hallway blending with the rest of the staff. A monster!
The Green Horn Monster
Stiff, frozen, confused and terrified the crouching creature from the hospital’s roof moves. His thoughts and mind full of fear, shaking, stuttering word thoughts.
Inside his thought he cries out, he screams yet no one can hear him.
What am I? Where am… I?
Oh shit, fuck what is wrong with me? My God, what is happening?
Am I on acid?!
I was flying and oh shit the crash…
He cannot move his body, he feels restricted like being inside a coffin, and wrapped like a toilet paper mummy. He can feel that he can break away but a secondary restriction prevents him.
The more he tries to move away from his target, the more he is brought near to it. Then he remembers something.
Man… must be one of those shrooms, but I don’t remember taking any.
Standing baffled in front of the Intensive Care Unit, there was one room that he felt interested in, he just stood there waiting and nobody seems to notice him at all.
For such is the power of this creature, spellbinding people of their presence or in this case absence.
A nurse comes out of the room; boldly he moves forward surrendering to his urges.
“Oopps!” A male nurse crossed his path.
“Woh… woh… woh woh…” The egressing nurse cried out.
Bwwaack! A crashing sound. Someone falls down to the floor.
He, the creature accidentally trips the male nurse crossing her path. Who stumbles in front of the egressing nurse. She tries to catch him, but only achieved in pulling his ID and drop it on the floor.
It says his name is Enrico Cañete, BSN-RN.
“Enrico. Are you alright?” She bends over, to help him up. Her scrub showed some of her bra and the cleavage. Which any guy would notice.
“Yeah, I guess so Matilda.” His voice; hinting apprehension, but he manages to get some confidence as he gets back up.
“I guess I am. Now that you are here,” continues Enrico flirtingly, smiling.
Matilda innocently flirts back brushing her hair with her fingers, “TTYL.”
The door closes behind them now. The creature is in full control of the room. With a sense of foreboding, he initially moves back. Then an invisible force restrains him again, controlling him, he feels being boxed in by an invisible coffin.
At the other end of the room, on the bed lies an old man, with heart monitors beeping, the resuscitating machine and the oxygen has been removed. His DNR bracelet is noticeable.
He is aglow with an alluring light trapped inside his body. Visible only to this creature the Visayans called a wakwak.
The room for a wakwak smells like the stink of a sweet durian, and death. In any case this patient is going to die soon but sooner quite sooner even with the life support machines, for these are what a wakwak smells and sees; when death comes near.
As he stares at the dying old man, he is again driven, not by the urge to feed, but his attention is focused on that seductive light that impairs ones judgment and weakened his inhibition.
That invisible box that held and constrained him suddenly fell apart; he is moved by the mesmerizing sensation of the light. Drawing near he breathes in air and sees the light from the old man going in him along with the air he took in. But it was not enough, it was not coming out; he merely got a whiff of it. He approaches closer and closer and close was not enough to suck it out.
A seasoned predator of his kind, waits when death comes to collect the soul. When the soul leaves the body, the wakwak snatches and consumes the life force. For what ends and purpose is a mystery. This way they believe it will not be seen as murder; perhaps they hope to go to heaven when death takes them. But this is no veteran, but a green horn, a virgin, hardly a rookie at all.
What does he do?
He touches the body; breaking away from the wrapping like force around his body. His hands went through, as if the patient’s body was all water or a gelatin.
As his hands breaks through the film enclosing the soul he fumbles for that white glowing substance. As he fumbles more all over the body, innocently, unknowingly, uncontrollably he is making tiger like scratch marks on the soul enclosure.
To him he was like digging through a garden plot, looking for an Easter egg. The body is not bleeding, but leaking with the life force – the soul, he manages to open a big hole, he dips his hands like one does when drinking water.
He starts drinking the soul, and realizes that it does not separate from the rest. He continues to suck the life force out of the dying old man, until he consumed it all.
Suddenly a long flat high pitch sound erupts, from the staccato of the heart monitor.
Flat line.
Beeeeeeeee…
The wakwak suddenly aware of his surroundings, awakened from the trance the glowing light has had on him. He panics and overtly bolts out of the door, almost bumping into Enrico who was followed by Matilda.
“Hey!” Enrico saw his face in a flash; he turns to Matilda looking for some acknowledgement on her face of what he saw.
“Hey…”
“Come on Enrico, I’m right behind you get in.” Matilda did not even notice the wakwak coming out.
“Matilda? What happened to Mr. Panete?”
“Looks like we need to call the next of kin. So where is Dr. Morrissey Blake anyway?”
“What are we looking at; I mean what do you see here?”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know, maybe anything out of the ordinary.”
“Nope, looks pretty normal to me. Dead.”
She may sound cold, cynical and sarcastic, but it is what it is, death. And she has seen many of them. These are only one of the few ways a nurse copes with dead patients.
It is a reality that they face daily. They need to detach themselves from the feeling of loss, its like losing a game or a battle. They must move on and move forward, if not it will be a spiral down to depression.
But it was not normal; nothing happened here was normal, the old man was taken out. He was murdered. Enrico could see what has happened in the room, it was a mess. Matilda could see frustration in the face of Enrico.
“Enrico, you seem to be a bit high strung right now. Is there something wrong?” Matilda expressing real concern in her face, why does he have to worry this patient has a DNR bracelet.
“Naah… I am just seeing things that’s all. Like a flash of black streak here and there, and white glowing goo like substance all over.” Pointing to the body of the dead patient.
“Must be that fall you’ve taken… maybe you need a little rest”, Matilda flirtingly replies.
Dr. Burns arrives for Dr. Blake.
“Mr. Panete”, thinking out loud with trepidation in his voice, his face twitched somewhere around his left eye unnoticeable to the untrained eye, he checked the heart and the pulse and there was a Do not Resuscitate bracelet.
“Time of death 7:13 PM…”
The nurses record the other particulars. There was a sense of fear, and agitation in Dr. Burns face when he saw the dead patient.
Dr. Smith arrives.
“Looks like you’re a little late Morrissey.”
“Late for what? For his death? I was trying to save another patient Justin. Besides what can you do with a DNR tag? Oh, yeah they paged Dr. Blake, Morrissey Blake. And they said this was my patient.”
“Maybe you could have written something down for the next of kin to console the family when they get here. I know I won’t be around with the mess down at the ER”
“Oh please! And have them call a pharmacist?”
Laughing; both left the room as Dr. Blake talked about the pregnant woman in the ER, who lost her baby as they left. The orderlies comes in and starts to clean up the room.
Enrico noticed something odd with Dr. Burns. Thinking out loud, “He rarely shows any emotion.” What is that odd faint dark aura around him? Is that an aura? And his leaving a… smoke trail?
Matilda not paying attention to what Enrico has just said, “What? Oh, as I was saying, you need rest, a vacation even.”
“Naah… it’d be a waste of time”
“How about some rest? You already have your 40 hours… I could come to your place.”
“Yeah, I could get some rest.” Geez! She’s never been to my place and I have never been to her apartment, this will be interesting. Hmmm… I’ve never been out with her let alone at my place.
Wow, I have never been on a date before. “You have my address; my cousins won’t be around until Monday.”
Off Duty
As Enrico went out of the hospital to his car parked at Avenue O. He felt that he just had to look at what is on the other side of the hospital on Kings Highway. He caught a glimpse of that figure he saw that same man he saw at the ICU.
Man this has got to be really weird. That looks like the guy I saw at the ICU. I wonder if I could talk to him.
His curiosity scared off the man as he walked towards the corner, in a flash he streaked out and disappeared from his sight.
Woh… that was just like in the hospital again. Man, am I really seeing things or this is really true. “I guess I will go now wherever you are, whatever you are, who…ever you are. So excuse me. Tabi lang.” Darn me… me and my superstitions, I guess it does not hurt to just do it even if I don’t believe.
‘Tabi lang’ is a Visayan phrase, it usually means excuse, but traditionally it can also mean excuse me when talking to supernatural creatures. It’s at most a sign of respect.
Enrico walks back to Avenue O where he parked his car.
Camry… oh well looks like it was worth it. I guess they won’t call me cheap now; I still don’t get it why I have to maintain an image or something.
As he is about to turn right on Bedford, the thing he thinks he saw from the ICU is standing on the left side of the street. He turns and goes home, and pays no attention to his supposed hallucination.
This creature that treads in the dark is known as Wakwak to the Visayans, because of the sound they make. However this wakwak, does not know what he is or what he has become, clueless of his current state.
Overtaken by instinct he goes home lest the dawn comes and reveals him. He does not seem to have any interest with Enrico but he watches from the distance wondering. He needs to re-assess himself.
