17 January 2010

The Birth of Para

Horror was a lonely being by nature.

This aloneness amplified his need for carnage, and he fed it by biting, slashing, and tearing through anything that passed his way. He held no scruples about it, for he had understood the disposition of the wilderness and creatures around him. They all served to satisfy his impulse to inflict suffering.

One night, he chanced upon a weak-looking, yet mesmerizing, creature sleeping by the river. Her peaceful slumber under the moon confused him. Wasn’t she aware of the creatures of the night?

He spent the whole night observing how she breathed, and sometimes even smiled, during her sleep. At the rise of the sun, she laughed and twirled around with happiness. Her joyfulness flabbergasted him. More than anything, he wondered why he hadn’t attacked her yet. It could be because he couldn’t comprehend how a creature could be so carefree.

He decided to delay his attack until he developed an understanding of this very confusing being.

Days passed. Horror spent every moment watching her every move. He was consumed by her simplicity, and couldn’t fathom her disposition. She was the opposite of everything he stood for. He struck fear, while she evoked love, a concept so alien he shivered. Where he was active at night, she usually slumbered out in the open without a fear of the night and its creatures. Animals approached her while they fled from him.

Horror needed more information to understand her, because he believed he must do just that before doing away with her.

Time for a different approach, a direct one.

On that day, she was sitting by the river, playing with a rabbit while she twirled her feet in the water.

Horror took short stealthy steps toward her, determined to speak to her, but had to make sure she wouldn’t flee upon his approach. All creatures did that, she wouldn’t be any different.

She half turned toward him, her lips parted in a bright smile that reached her twinkling eyes, and she patted the ground next to her. Confused by her lack of fear, Horror plunked close by.

Had he lost his touch? Was he this observable?

“You’ve sensed me?” He frowned.

She laughed, her delicate, weak looking hands covering her full lips. “You’re silly, you know? You’ve been watching me for sometime.”

His frown deepened. “You knew?”

She nodded. How could eyes smile at him? He was used to eyes opening wide in his presence.

Watching the ripples her feet caused in the water, Horror was consumed by shame for losing his skill. “And you said nothing?”

She patted the rabbit’s head and shrugged. “I figured you’ll come to me when you’re ready.”

Her logic defied everything he stood for. She believed in chance, while he left nothing to it.

He eyed her. “What’s your name?”

She fed green leaves to the rabbit, now terrified and hiding behind her. “Roma, but I like Romance better. Has a certain powerful ring to it.”

Powerful? What was so powerful about Romance?

She was certainly a being worthy of investigation, if for nothing else, to satisfy this strange sensation of curiosity that surged through him. As days and then weeks passed by, he admitted that she was bewitching, and then even surrendered to the fact that she was charming. Until the day came and he acknowledged that he simply needed and wanted her for no explainable reason.

Despite all his wicked ways, Horror had allowed no harm to come to Romance, and she respected his dark streak, letting him go and do what he did best; terrorize other creatures. Same creatures came to her complaining, and she soothed and took care of them. In spite of all that, she never questioned his habits, giving him the space he needed.

But his night brawls were affected nonetheless, for Horror had a weakness now, and his enemies knew it. Little by little, his time became dedicated to guarding, protecting, and watching over her. There was something else growing as well; a certain desire to have her had ignited his veins with coursing lava.

One night, that desire took hold of him, and she welcomed him with open arms. Romance showed him on that night how deeply she felt for him. Over and over she displayed her willingness to be his mate, without changing neither herself nor him.

Nine months later, they had a baby girl, and they’d named her Paranormal Romance.

Para was a marvelous mix of both worlds. She was beautiful and appeared delicate, but when the going got tough, her talons would appear, and her fangs were deadly. All the creatures in the forest fell under her spell, for she had inherited her mother’s ethereal beauty, and her father’s viciousness, and being the crafty creature she was, she knew when to use which.

She had inherited all their strengths and none of their limitations.


Paranormal Romance reigned over the land, and there was no stopping her.

Cheers!