Stranger Quiapo

Beat the Petra Doppelganger Back Home

Ekaterina Petra came out of the Black Nazarene walkway for the third time with an inner peace.  Thist told her she had crossed over into our world.  It was early afternoon, and from the looks of things around Plaza Miranda the place had changed so much in 10 years, for in her Stranger Manila dimension it was only three months since she had last crossed over.

Ekaterina took time to familiarize herself with how the real Quiapo looked before she ran her errand.  The candle sellers were still there on Evangelista right behind the Church.  In the real world Plaza Miranda the fortune tellers had aged quite a bit and there were some new faces.  Oddly, she hoped no one would recognize her since she put up a fit the last time a fortune teller charged her too much for revealing that she had a grand daughter in this world who was going to be a policewoman.

She immediately went to the famous Quiapo overpass and was disappointed to find the lumpia house now catering to take-out orders only, instead of allowing diners to take a seat inside and eat as much as they wanted for P15 per order of fresh veggie lumpia with lots of grated garlic and muscovado sprinkles.  She had one of her gold bracelets pawned nearby so she could use money from this place and she immediately had a big lunch of four fresh garlicky lumpias and a new small bottle of Coke called a Mismo.  She was going to bring back one of these small Coke Mismo bottle packs when she crossed back into her own time.

Now it was time to go to the police station and look for her granddaughter.  Last time she saw her, the girl was around her age, 14 and she was so proud that Jaycee turned out to be as pretty as her own mommy.  But crossing over from Stranger Manila did not have its double troubles lurking around the corner.

The Doppelganger  that  the demons from Stranger Quiapo conjured had manifested as soon as Ekaterina came out of the Quiapo Church.  It had the same thoughts as Ekaterina, and the same purpose, except  that it wanted to replace the real Petra Pandakekak and take over her life as its own.  It didn't really care for Ekaterina's own ridiculous policewoman granddaughter situation.  

Doppelganger Petra wanted to have the guardians of Stranger Quiapo church as her own personal playthings.  Torture and alchemical experimentation.  

Even a romantic affair with the priest or all the  sacristans, if they could handle her kind.  A promise given to her by the demons that made her.  She would always be like Ekaterina, think like Ekaterina, behave exactly like Ekaterina as a spunky young woman, but she had different appetites than real life Ness from Stranger Manila.

The Quiapo Church would still be protected from all the other odious maligno supernaturals but the faction that made her would have proprietary  access for crossing over into real life Quiapo.

The Doppelganger Petra immediately sniffed the air to track the real-life Ekaterina, aka Petra Pandakekak.  What a lousy name, thought Doppelganger Petra.

Why not Kawaii-Petra or Sweetheart-Petra like the gorgeous cheese they supposedly have in this world.  Why does it have to be as ugly as her brother's nickname, Pedro Penduko?  Humans are so revolting with their monickers for heroes, Pinoys being the most baduy and corny.  

Doppelganger Petra pickpocketed 10 consecutive Quiapo denizens right in the Church without them noticing and happily used the money to change her clothes to look more upscale urbane than real life Petra, get a pixie haircut worth P500, then lured some poor college wandering student into a motel with her wiles for her lunch. His soul.  And his body.  That would keep her intact for the next month until she completes  her mission and kills real life Ekaterina herself.  Or eats her soul. 

Real-life Ekaterina had encountered doppelgangers before and they were no mean adversary  to take  lightly.  Doppelgangers were vicious, voracious, and insatiable killers, bent on one thing.  Stealing your  life for their own.  She had the good luck of staying alive in her previous six encounters with doppelgangers, leading one into an open manhole during a big storm, leading another onto confessional in Quiapo Church and annihilating it into smoke with Holy Water, drowning another  in the toilet bowl of a Quiapo area moviehouse after it followed her there, then flushing its remains down.  Now there was another  doppelganger after her and she had only enough time to figure out what  it would like, a sixth sense she had with Stranger Quiapo monsters, and still complete her mission while meeting her granddaughter to ask her for some help.

Ekaterina rented a motel room for a  week, and started checking out  her old suki for  holy candles in Quiapo, buying two big boxes that  would last the Church in Stranger  Quiapo five good years before someone had to go back and replenish their stocks.  The candles had to blessed on Candelmas on February 2 or so to be of any use in Stranger Quiapo.  Something about the stars and the ritual being in sync with the Holy One.

She had been spying on her beautiful policewoman granddaughter Narya  Mina, as she made the rounds of her street beat patrols  and other routines she did like going  to the market or the groceries, Petra Pandakekak would be just at the right place at the right time  to be people watching and happily seeing her granddaughter do well after last seeing her  as  a playground monster running wild with her neighborhood kalaro.

Two nights before  she was ready to return back to Stranger Quiapo, shit happens.  All her candles were stolen, and to spite her the doppelganger melted half a box in her bathroom as a taunt to her to do something about it.  Ekaterina was low on funds already and couldn't afford to buy new boxes of candles, so the next best thing was to go to her granddaughter and ask her to buy her some.  

Ekaterina went  straight to the police desk of Narya  Mina, and coughed in the  tone that she used to when she and her granddaughter still  played with each other as kids in the Childrens' Playground in Pasay.  Narya looked up at her, incredulous that her childhood playmate was standing  right in front of her, and remembering  her as some sort of lola or aunt, but ignoring all of that and with slit eyed intensity, asked the squirt what  she wanted.

Petra Pandakekak wanted to borrow money  from her  to buy three boxes of a particular candle in Quiapo, and promised to pay her back, name dropping  her mom's name and her sisters to  reassure Narya Mina that  all was well, and that it was a normal thing  for her playground spook  to reappear right in front of her and ask her  for Php 2,500 for lots of candles from out of nowhere.

Ekaterina had a way of  talking people into  helping her out, as Petra Pandakekak, and it is only 10 minutes after she leaves that people realize they've been had.  Once Narya Mna figured out she'd been scammed, she burst into a rage and checked out the candle seller who told her she just saw Ekaterina hauling lots of  stuff on a kid's schoolbag  trolley and going into Quiapo Church in a hurry.

Narya Mina radioed her police partner Jaycee Park, a Korean-Pinay citizen and they set out to grab this enterprising thief and budding budol budol artist for putting one over her.

Ekaterina had spied her doppleganger tailing her that day as  she was about to cross over.  As usual, newly  minted doppelgangers were  too sure of themselves and  too bewildered by  the  trappings of real world Quiapo, enjoying the lumpia, Coke mismo, Chinese panciterias, local movie houses, marked down fashion in SM Quiapo, cheap knock-offs that they forget about their mission, stealing her life for their own  until it's too late.  Once she  makes the cross over into Stranger Quiapo, the doppelganger becomes smoke and cannot  exist in another plane without the  original  person being there.  This is how real-life Petra Pandakekak gets to trap the desperate Doppelganger  Petra.

There is a street  in the area notorious for having unattended kids  grabbed by a local crime syndicate for sale to either brothels or to families willing to pay for a child.  Ekaterina knew this doppelganger  was a  fashion victim and an easy prey for such creeps so she led her to the Tondo area, lost her in the alleys and while looking out from hidden corners until  a fat woman and her  companion in a tricycle pushed Doppelganger Petra inside and sped away.

Ekaterina let out a small laugh.  No worries, that thing will turn into smoke  once she crosses over.  It's just going to get a most inconvenient accosting by the shadiest characters in downtown Manila.  

Ekaterina scampered back to the candle seller, checked out of her motel with her gear, packed  them all on a trolley they use for kid's school bags, and was doing  the ritual for  crossing over back into Stranger  Quiapo when her own granddaughter screamed out her  name and gave chase to her three times around the Church in a figure  six, until both of them crossed over back  into Stranger Quiapo.