THE SIBLINGS
Inside the Great Hall of the Endless, six siblings sat around a rectangular marble table. One of the chairs is empty. The eldest of them – the host of the feast – who sat at the head of the table, looked around.
To his right is a tall, gaunt man with deep-set eyes that eerily sparkled like stars. His hair is wild and unruly, and he is wearing a long, black cloak with swirls of lifelike flames that line the hem. The most prominent part of his attire is his necklace – its fist-sized solid crystal looking very much like a ruby, only with more luster. Beside him is a slight woman with short ‘new-wave’ hair, wearing a pair of skinny jeans and a black, close-fitting shirt – clothes that are ahead of its time. Around her eyes is a thick patina of black eyeliner and just below her right eye, is a hook shape that seemed like a tattoo, while in reality, it is called ‘The Eye of Horus.’ She is also wearing a violet lipstick, skull earrings, and a strange-looking cross pendant that is actually called an ‘ankh’. Even though she is the second of the eldest, she looked incredibly young.
The eldest, who is wearing a brown robe reminiscent of the Victorian era monks’, sighed. The second always breaks the dress code.
Sitting beside the woman in jeans is the youngest of them – a little girl with a green and a blue eye. Her hair is shaved on one side, and long and multi-colored on the other. She is wearing mismatched gloves, a pair of similarly mismatched earrings and a colorful polka-dotted dress. To the left hand-side of the eldest are the twins, sitting side-by-side beside the single empty seat. One of them is a tall and beautiful androgyne – wearing cropped hair and a red lacey dress over a toned body. The other twin is a short, obese woman with a shock of dirty hair. She is not wearing anything aside from the barbed ring on one of her stubby fingers.
The eldest set a voluminous book in front of him – the book that has been shackled to his wrist since the beginning of time. He then let out a soft coughing sound to take the attention of his siblings.
“The food and the refreshments are coming in shortly. For now, let us discuss the matter that we have in hand,” the host announced.
“What’s with this emergency meeting, hmm, brother?” the androgyne asked.
The eldest opened the book and turned its old pages. “The book tells about a great event that will occur in an archipelagic nation by the rim of the peaceful ocean – the Pearl of the Orient, the Philippines.” He looked up from his book to look at the faces of his small audience using his eyes that were always hidden behind the hood of his robe.
“Brother,” the tall man uttered. “This always happens. I can not see the point on why you have to call us from our realms…”
The eldest raised a finger. “No. This has never happened before.”
Everyone fell silent.
The servants of the eldest entered the hall holding large trays of Filipino food.
“Oooh. A Lechon,” the youngest exclaimed, breaking the silence.
The eldest cleared his throat. “You are all aware about the very nature of this book: that everything that has happened, and everything that will happen is written here. What makes this event special is that none of its details are written.”
He then held up the heavy book to show the empty pages to his siblings.
“Weird,” the woman in the black shirt said, after taking a mouthful of halo-halo. “Hey. Brother. This one’s actually good. I like your thing with ‘themes’, really. Filipino food and servants dressed as traditional Filipino women… WOW.”
