Dreams & Nightmares (One Shots)

Mother's Birthday

At the age of 24 years old, Jherald Punzalan is a lovely, introverted, and intelligent young man who's studying Architecture at a popular university in Manila. But being intelligent has a big responsibility to hold plus the fact that he is graduating so he is juggling his time to finish his school works and his part-time job. One morning, his mom called and reminded him about her birthday held at their home in the province. He didn't take much time and promised her to be there before noon.

Few weeks passed by, Jherald packed his luggage and prepared his present for her. But he unexpectedly got a call from his boss informing him about the absence of one of the other staff and ask for Jherald to take its place. Jherald first looked at his schedule before agreeing. He immediately took a cold bath and quickly took off.

After the shift, Jherald was exhausted. As soon as he entered his room, he immediately slipped out of his clothes and lay on his bed. After a while, he lazily stands up and walked towards his bathroom to take a quick shower. Due to his exhaustion and the cold water running through his body, Jherald took almost an hour and a half to feel the cold water before deciding to finish and sleep.

The next morning, Jherald was awoken by several noises from outside of his room making him groan and cover his face with his pillow. But as soon as he put his pillow on his face, the pillow was thrown on the ground followed by Jherald's surprised face, who sat abruptly. He quickly looked at his wall clocked making him jumped out of the bed and ran towards the bathroom as the clock reads "12:50". He quickly got inside his car with his suitcase and instantly took off. On the road, Jherald felt something unusual. "Why do I feel like I forgot something?" he thought. After a while of thinking, he simply shrugged it off and focused on the road he's taking.

After few more hours, Jherald was stuck in traffic that made him frustrated. "Ugh, this is not the time for traffic." he growled followed by an irritated sigh. Because of the traffic, Jherald find and took a shortcut for a faster way to go home. He saw a street and looked at the maps for correction before taking a turn in a long eerie road surrounded by tall trees and abandoned houses. In the middle of the drive, the beautiful orange sky began to change into the dark. Jherald looked at the sky followed by a deep sigh, "Mom's going to kill me for sure." he whispered.

After many hours of driving, and yet, Jherald still hasn't yet reached his destination. Jherald was confused when he felt like he was driving in circles because he kept seeing the exact houses for the past hours. The moon was shining bright and the sky was pitch black when Jherald's car suddenly stops. "Shit!" He growled before slamming his body onto the chair with his eyes closed. He took a few deep breathes while thinking of a way to go home.

After a few minutes of thinking, Jherald decided to check on what happened to his car that caused it to shut down. As soon as he opened his car engine he immediately saw a pocket knife beside the cut wires. He took the pocket knife and checked who it belongs to and how it ended in his car's engine. He raised his head as soon as he felt a pair of eyes staring at him. He looked in all directions but none. He saw nothing but a dark, quiet, and misty road. Upon feeling that, Jherald took his phone from his jeans pocket and dialed his mother's number. But none. His eyebrows automatically knit when he saw that there's no service.

After attempting in finding a service, Jherald gave up and decided to look for a phone booth. He was walking for hours, but he still ended up finding nothing. Jherald then decided to knock at some houses he saw earlier. He had knocked at four consecutive houses but no one was able to help him. Upon walking to the next house, the rain suddenly pours. He immediately went to hide under a tree to, somehow, prevent him from getting wet.

Minutes more, the rain still hasn't stopped. Jherald was busy scanning the area, looking for a sign of help, when he felt a pair of eyes were staring at him followed by heavy footsteps heading his way. He then felt panicked. His heart began pounding heavily against his chest. Adrenaline was slowly taking his senses. He began running towards his car but ended colliding with someone that came out of nowhere. They simultaneously fell to the ground creating a loud thud that is pretty much audible even through the sound created by the splashing rain.