M.R.R. Arcega graduated from the University of the Philippines with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism. In 2001, her Filipino-language screenplay, Pagkatapos ng Paalam, took second place in the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards. In 2009, her short story collection, Post-it Notes from Far Away, was among those recognized by the National Book Development Board in their Galing Pinoy, Basahin! program. Several of her features, essays, poems, and short stories in both English and Filipino have been published locally and internationally. Currently, she works as a manager for a small Philippines-based translation company. Her story, Ang Mahiwagang Kahong Pamasko, was the first Filipino story published by PGS in December, 2011.
The streets around my home are flooded 365 days a year. The level rises or falls depending on the tide, but there’s not a moment when there’s no water.
We’re talking absolutely filthy water. Households and corporations have thrown waste into it for decades. On bad days it turns black. But really it chooses its own colors. Some days, it’s a brownish orange. Some days, it’s an algae-filled green.
And there’s an indescribable smell everywhere. When you wade into the water, you can expect to come across floating bottles, cans, or plastic bags containing God knows what. And no matter how many times children are told not to swim in the sludge, they still dive in, splash around, and get it in their eyes and mouths.
Trixia Marie C. Policarpio is from Marikina City, Philippines, and is a BA Creative Writing undergraduate at the University of the Philippines Diliman. She delves into both fiction and non-fiction, crafting stories and essays that navigate the spectrum of human experience. She explores various genres, blending imaginative storytelling with thought-provoking insights as reflections of her curiosity in the world. She’s had personal essays published in Inquirer Youngblood and Positively Filipino magazine, and a realist fiction piece recently accepted for Bente-Bente Zine Volume 3. “Reverse Frankenstein” is her first published speculative fiction story.
Image by Karola G on Pexels (All photos and videos on Pexels can be downloaded and used for free).
One. Two. Three months…They say the post-breakup slump is supposed to last three months, enough time to hide out, cry it out, and then come back glowing—especially if you were the one left behind.
But here I am, nine months in, still feeling like I’m barely holding it together. Every small thing just drains me. Every time I catch myself in the bathroom mirror, I can’t help but notice how awful I look. My hair’s limp, falling flat around my face like it’s given up. My forehead’s too wide, and my skin—god, my skin—looks dull, like it’s lost any glow it ever had. Pimples dot my chin and cheeks, not to mention the deep, purple bags under my eyes. I try not to look, but I can’t help it—the worst part is the way my body feels like it’s sagging. It’s like I’m torturing myself by not moving on, yet I can’t seem to stop. My head knows what I should do, what I shouldn’t feel, but my head and heart just aren’t in sync.
Meeting up and hanging out with people feels like a nightmare now. Just the thought drains me, and I dread those “Are you okay?” looks or the well-meaning bashing of my ex that feels hollow, as if scripted for the person who was obviously dumped. My only refuge, aside from my bedroom, is the library. The strict librarian with her zero-tolerance for noise—even a whisper gets a shush—creates the perfect silence. It’s the one place where I know I won’t have to fend off forced conversations.
Franz Austin V. De Mesa is a fiction writer with an unnatural appetite for horror, fantasy, and dystopian sci-fi stories. A certified anime and gaming enthusiast, he writes to explore the dark parts of humanity and indulge in his fascinations with the macabre, alternate timelines, and other what-if scenarios lurking in our world. For his undergraduate thesis, he wrote a collection of interactive short stories, which was awarded Best Thesis in Creative Writing. He is currently undertaking an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Santo Tomas. His story, IN(DE)CISION, was published in Philippine Genre Stories in May, 2023.
