1 Nighty-night

WHY does people love to engage with violence? Why can't they just run away from it and never deal with those people who only thinks are to hurt people?

We were living in a world where the thought of believing the existence of darkness and light. These two both tends to fight what's theirs, but lot of people might be lost in this endless battle. Why fight for the thing that they can't win? I mean, both of them needs to co-exist for them to be able to exist.

I can't see the logic of being the bad, and being the good, if they need each other to exist. The selfishness that runs in their veins would only bring them to extinct. But what can we do if they're both blinded by anger and revenge?

The battle of yourself . . .

*****

TWO months before most people likely to celebrate—Christmas. But before that, people tend to celebrate the month of "kalag-kalag", which means Halloween. There's a kid name Harold Jay, he has frosty-hair, attractive hazel eyes, a straight-edge nose, wide pinky lips, and a bewitching face. He hates Halloween so much. His mother died in front of him during the celebration of Halloween in the first day of November. He was just twelve years old that time. His mother was murdered by a stranger and the murderer wasn't caught until now. He got traumatized as some normal effect to a child.

He was cheerful, friendly, and soft-hearted child back then before his mother died. But now, he is so different. Even his own father and grandparents can't no longer know him. His parents let him go alone by himself to recover, thinking that it could help the boy to move on from what happened. But they always tried to help him forget what was happened that horror night.

He is now a tenth grader in high school. Everything was fine in his first month, yet still acting like a mute for the past three years. He is known by a name in his school as yawa. The word or term yawa is from Cebuano language means a devil. Most of the students call him that because during his seventh grade, he almost killed a student—his bully boy classmate. He stabbed his classmate on its back using a new sharpened pencil for countless times. Luckily, the boy was saved.

He didn't have many friends, but there is one woman who's willing to help and inquire about him. Harold knows nothing about this woman. Her name is Teresa, they are also a classmate.

October 29

HAROLD was on his way heading to their home while riding on his bicycle. When he got passed through from a little rusty bridge that connects to the other part of the land, Saint Miguel Village.

It was gloomy that the surroundings were probably delirious the sky. Harold did not expect that there were his false friends waiting for him in front of the woods. And when they saw Harold approaching from their positions, they immediately spread out on the road to block him. Five men with beautiful faces but ugly traits. They were both students at Harold's school.

"Hey, it's Yawa!" Renz laughed. From the five, he was the tallest.

Calvin stopped him while holding the steering wheel. "Where are you going? The devil."

Harold stopped. Calvin is a bit taller than Harold. He was silent on what they were doing or what they were planning to do to him. He just crouched down and waited for them to pass.

"Are you going home? Is your mommy waiting for you?" Raphe said, pretending in a crying voice, while the others with him are just laughing. Raphe was the youngest of them all.

In that time, Harold decided to get down from his bicycle and forcedly pushing it, while Calvin is still strongly holding the bicycle steering wheel. One of them named Jade go to Harold's back and suddenly snatched the bag from its back. Jade had the most muscular body among them, that's why he could snatched a bag easily.

Grabbing the bag, Harold fell to the ground. He feels the severe pain in his buttocks as he fell and hit by a rock. He grabbed his ass because of the intense pain he feels while his oppressors just laughed at him. In his mind, he wanted to kill them because of his anger and because of the oppression they were doing to him. But he insisted on restraining himself from fighting them.

"Does it hurt? We thought that you are ... a devil! Why are you acting like being hurt?"

Calvin sneered as he approached him.

"I thought you were brave?" Jade said while holding his right shoulder. "Now do what you did to me when we were in grade seven!" he challenged to say.

Harold looked sharply in his eyes liked he wanted it to eat alive. But he can't move because of excessive chills. Jade noticed it, then he stood up and stand beside on Harold.

"Ah, you want to fight?" He stepped on it with great force and made Harold frown while vomiting blood. He also lost consciousness for a while. They are not yet satisfied with what has happened. They surrounded him and at once they pulled out their genitals and urinated him. Then they left Harold unconsciously.

Harold's father was very worried because it was getting dark, but his son is still not at home. So, his father decided to look for him. He took the flashlight to the storage room and left the house. He came out just in time and the child is already in front of the house. His father was shocked by his appearance. His white t-shirt was too dirty. It is full of mud and there is still blood on his face.

"What happened to you?" His father was very worried.

His father immediately let him in and closed the door after entering. His father followed him to his room. His father would like to ask about what happened to him, why he looks like that. But he immediately closed the door of his room. His father did not even plan to knock on the door because he could not do anything and get an answer from his son. So, he decided to go back to his own room to talk about the photo of his bereaved wife.

"Mary," he took a deep breath. "I don't know what to do with our son. I don't know if ... I can still handle him."

After it, he went to bed, slowly closing his eyes and wiped off his tears. Then he falls asleep.