The Secrets of the Imperial Key: The Opening of a New Adventure

Chapter 1: The Lost Soul

Although Darvinos de Mariquina has seen a fair share of mysterious and mind-boggling dreams, some of which appearing to come true after a few months, he had never before woke up thinking that he would remember this day for as long as he lived. "What is that dream for?" he said while taking breakfast. He noted the details in a small notebook. "Is it time for me to begin a new journey?" he remembered saying in the dream.

After eating his breakfast, he went to the bathroom to take a shower and to brush his teeth. While brushing his overbite teeth, he looked at his straight short hair, his triangular arching eyebrows and his overall rounded face. He then remembered that in his dream, he was with two of his college friends watching a movie. Darvinos casually daydreamed the scene while travelling to the university where he's taking up his bachelor's degree. It was around ten o'clock when he arrived at his class, a minute just before their professor entered the room. While class was going on, Darvinos' seatmate and friend Paul John talked to him, telling Darvinos that the current lecture is boring. "Our professor is nice and most topics are fine but this particular topic is just so boring." he said, using both hands to support his head. "Well this topic is about some obscure caves near the La Mesa Watershed, and how it was hidden by some people. I don't see the connection either." Darvinos said, tapping his fingers softly against his notebook. His friend Paul John is one of the first persons Darvinos befriended during his stint in the university. Overly gregarious and always smiling, carefree Paul John is always ready to lighten up the mood. Paul John played with his semi-curly messy hair while Darvinos, paying only half of his attention, sparingly took down notes.

The professor decided to dismiss them five minutes earlier than scheduled, much to the delight of the students. Paul John and Darvinos went to an eatery outside the campus, three hundred meters from the building where they're taking their classes. While waiting for their meals, Darvinos, who was wiping sweat off his pimple-free forehead, delightfully smelled the aroma of roasted spring chicken being cooked in the open kitchen. His buddy, meanwhile, was blankly staring at the sky to pass time, ignoring the surrounding noise produced by the passing vehicles. The smell of the roasted chicken that wafted through the open eatery changed a little after a ketchup-like sauce was added. Darvinos loved the smell but midway in sniffing it, a memory was rekindled – his special dream. In the dream wherein Darvinos and two of his college friends watching a movie, Darvinos remembered that the main character, despite the actor's sloppy acting, was talking about a treasure hidden in a caves next to a large water reservoir. "Let's find these ancient artefacts and absorb their powers for the greater good, of course." the main character said to her sidekick. Darvinos then remembered another portion of the dream, in which this time he was speaking to a person sitting on stack of books. "Is it time for me to begin a new journey?" he said in the dream. He could not get a good visual on the person as it appears that a cloud of some sort is blocking the view. "Yes. Three years ago you were on a different plane – a different dimension. Now it's time to apply what you've learned there here on earth." the person said, smelling like the roast chicken. "How will I know that this is indeed a vision of some sort?" Darvinos remembered asking in the dream. "You'll find a way." the person said.

Before he could daydream the other details, Darvinos snapped out of the trance after his friend vigorously jogged his right shoulder. "You okay bro?" Paul John asked, "The food's here." he added, pointing to the plates.

"Yeah. I'm okay. It's just a little hot in here. Let's eat." Darvinos said, taking the utensils from the table.

"It's hot but I ordered some juice. It'll be brought here soon." Paul John said, slicing some meat.

After eating, the two students then walked towards the side gate of the university. The street was quiet, minimal traffic and only some street children playing around. Darvinos noticed one of the street children begging for alms – a child of around age seven, wearing tattered pants and a filthy shirt was holding a roll of newspaper. The child approached Paul John and asked for alms – greasy palms wide open. Paul John grabbed a small pack of crackers and gave it to the boy. Before the beggar was able to approach Darvinos, an older-looking street vagabond wearing a tattered black shirt and shorts grabbed the pack of crackers and sped off, nearly hitting a speeding motorcycle while escaping. Paul John became stunned and was not able to comprehend what just happened. Darvinos suddenly sprinted into action, chasing the thief and alertly avoiding passing tricycles. The vagabond thief shed his shirt and threw it behind but it missed Darvinos. While sprinting, a panting Darvinos heard three people shouting. He paused for a while and looked behind and saw two village watchmen (tanods) and a middle-aged man wearing a white kamisa de chino also chasing the now-shirtless thief. Sooner, a buff-looking varsity player whose expensive smartphone was stolen joined the chase. The petty criminal, glancing at the reflection of the windshields of parked cars, realized that he was now being chased by four people. He shouted expletives while jumping through a low fence, entering a vacant lot. Darvinos paused for a while, catching his breath, and while doing so realized that he may be able to catch up to the thief using a shortcut. The village watchmen split up, shouting at the thief and ordering him to surrender, an act that caught the attention of numerous bystanders and passers-by. The vacant lot was surrounded at all sides by buildings short and tall but a wide open canal can serve as an escape route to anyone flexible enough to swim through it.

Darvinos ran to the other end of the canal, the latter now covered by a concrete sidewalk. Focusing on a manhole, he unintentionally crashed through an empty monoblock chair and, later, partially colliding with a petite girl who was also distracted by a dragonfly. "Sorry." Darvinos said, pausing for a second before continuing the chase. The girl, who was looking at the ground, merely flinched and without a word walked away, taking no offense on the incident. Darvinos reached the other end of the canal, and found a policeman, who was stationed nearby, waiting for the thief. "The thief will come here." the policeman said, taking his glock pistol and loading it. A few seconds later, two more policemen, a uniformed and an ununiformed one, came to aid the first responding policeman. The ununiformed one kept a safe distance, hiding his police badge and touched his concealed weapon – a 9mm semi-automatic handgun. A minute later, a crowd of curious folk began to approach the scene. Then, as the policemen were looking around, one of them was hit on the back with a medium-sized rock emanating from one of the houses nearby. Scrambling to find the culprit, one of the policemen rushed to the house and spotted a suspicious adult man at the rooftop. Back in the end of the open canal, a man emerged – the thief – his hands waving upward, showing his dirty palms. He was tacked down by the ununiformed policeman and subsequently handcuffed. After being frisked by another policeman, items such as an ice pick, a small knife, and a rosary-like bracelet were taken from his pockets. An iPhone4 belonging to the varsity player encountered earlier by the group was also found. Darvinos, seeing that the situation appears to be under control, decided to walk back to the opposite side of the vacant lot. Noticing the heat of the day, he wiped of his sweat with a white cloth. As he was walking, the middle-aged man wearing a white kamisa de chino that joined the fray earlier recognized Darvinos. The middle-aged man adjusted the thin-framed metal glasses that aid his deep-set eyes before calling Darvinos' attention. The younger man noticed his gawk-like stare and paused for a second. The older man spoke first.

"Did you see what happened to the criminal?" he asked.

"Yes. The cops handcuffed him and took him away." Darvinos replied respectfully in Filipino.

"That's good to hear. I wanted to talk to him anyway. I know that man."

"You, what? Know him?" Darvinos quizzically asked.

"He used to be a worker in my company. I was his former foreman. We built houses in Greater Lagro for the employees of Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System. Five years ago, many of the residents were forced to move."

"I see. What happened?"

"His relatives also live in the area but nearly all of them, while on a homebound trip down south, perished when an extraordinary supertyphoon struck the province, wiping them out along with 2,000 others." the man replied, downcast. "I've been looking form him ever since, and when I found out he turned to a life of crime, I decided to try to reform him." He then continued walking to the other side of the vacant lot, prompting a still-curious Darvinos to follow him. "Surely there must be family left in him. Do you think..."

"Yes. His delirious grandmother Rhodora still lives in La Mesa Watershed." the ex-foreman replied.

"Poor man. I hope you'll succeed." Darvinos, still wiping sweat from his back, asked while walking.

"I hope so. The watershed settlers will be evicted soon; I must try to help this wretch." he replied.

After the two departed, Darvinos crossed paths with a promotional advertising agent handing out flyers from a popular fastfood chain. Darvinos absentmindedly accepted one and returned back to the side gate of the university, where he found Paul John being interrogated by a police detective.