iThink: Modern-day Vampires

Ask a learned kid about how much he knows about the world and he would immediately respond, without hesitation, with pride and affirmation that it's a planet, elliptical, almost circular in shape consisting of a larger percentage of water, arable and non-arable soil, minerals of unparalleled number and extensively populated by mankind.

If that's the way you picture this planet, considering the time you've spent roaming around its conspicuous or sometimes obscured corners, then you just have to admit that you haven't grown at all regardless of your age.

I must confess that time has left me somewhere where winds lack the strength to carry me away from the confines of innocence. 

A teacher from the school where I do my practice teaching once stressed that I have "an air of a genius" on the very first day she saw me. Adding more substance to her speculation, my classmates revealed that I have a good academic standing for I am bound to receive some recognition on our graduation. Well, it's not something that would give me enough money to uplift my family's economic status so, being proud of it might not be the right term to attach to it.

Talking about genius, for quite some time, I defined the term as having the knowledge about what respectable books claim to be true, being able to effectively apply them in real life and accepting the fact that it is something to be shared rather than kept. And so, I wormed my way out of orthodoxy and decided to follow the footsteps of the wise.

I'm under the impression that the latter two deserve a nod while my first notion is just a parcel of the whole I need to have.

I once thought that books or any other written accounts can answer every possible question a person may pose on a wide expanse of topics. It's because of the idea that writers, more often than not, recreate and immortalize real human experiences on paper only tapping them a bit to invite a wider audience at their feet.

Now, I came to the conclusion that I am missing the broader picture of the real world. Ignorant? Innocent? Call me both.

I live in a city so urbanized and progressive that it is fair enough to mention it being virtually close to the conditions of Manila particularly at daylight, or so I once thought. The hustle and bustle of the day for business transactions has never dawned on me to be similar to the night's silent trade. Money rolls day after day in our locality but it also does night after night, as I have recently learned.

If businesses related to economics are the main agenda for the day, businesses pertaining to personal human necessities, which is inexcusably an understatement, feed on the rays of the moon.

The trade usually satisfies Adam and "slightly" Adam's lot - the vampires if you'd permit me to refer. I now believe more than ever that mysteries do happen at night thanks to a couple of friends who opened my eyes to see the other, more furtive side of the coin. 

The feast begins as early as nine at night where these vampires, tired from the hassles of hiding under the professional wardrobe yet hungry for human flesh, hunt for the potential "snack" or "dinner" that could put their surging hormones at bay.

If you'd like to catch the best among the preys, you better make sure to hunt not later than midnight flashing your most attractive bait, which of course, is no other than cold cash. Otherwise, you'll have to settle yourself with the residues left behind. Well, that works fine if you're caught at the middle of some financial crisis. Just don't expect something great out of your prey for they might smell and look like werewolves or something.

You don't need to have abilities like running fast, reading minds, or predicting the future for they are inessential to your hunt. Your eyes are enough to pass the message of interest to your prey. By the way, you're a predator, remember? Something about you should invite your prey to fall right into your lap without exerting much effort. Good looks, wealth or both can sometimes do the thing.

On the occasion that your prey's eyes meet your gaze, you'd know if it's willing if it went to follow you. In the real world, preys have a say if they would agree to be your late dinner or not. And that's a rule of the thumb unless desperation comes in.

You'd have to stop at a corner, bargain its price, have a memorandum of agreement in your heads, verbally signed and close the deal if you settled the score properly.

After that, whatever you plan to do with your dinner, be careful not to go off the provisions of your MOA or you might get into  big trouble.

Pricing however, is not a fixed one for it is not monitored by the DTI. The authority is asleep while vampires do the hunting. If not, they themselves are closet vampires who usually join the coven as they move out of their office upon twilight - their safest part of the day. If you're a prey, you'd surely see some of the big fish either in a coven or just by themselves flashing their golden fangs.

Educated-looking preys normally have a four to five digit price tag. If these predators don't seem to have a thicker pocket for the night, street children who aimlessly wonder Eros' street might agree with a two-digit price tag.

The night is long for the vampires. They can choose to fatten their prey with alcohol before he do his thing. This I learned, is a key to unlock the barrier both parties have set at first in the MOA. The prey would be so much wasted as it would never remember anything that happened while predator eats his sumptuous dinner.

As the sun bids another day, the vampires immediately go back to their lairs as if nothing happened at all. They would put on their disguise - their professional wardrobe, wearing a sardonic smile and vigor, forcing a pretentious move they are so much accustomed with and hoping the day to end fast. The only traceable evidence of the feast and the hunt are dark-hued circles forming in their pale-looking eyes.

It’s hard to imagine that beside the world I thought to be, another one, more stale, more gruesome is lurking just around the corner when my frail body submits to the circadian rhythm at night.

What was once personal, intimate and divine is now posing to be the next big trade to hit the stock market – a reality we should all face. Sadly, where development gains ground, vampires lay their coven’s cornerstone with needy and desperate preys who were sank down by the high standard of living, as the primary commodity of the trade.

Solution? If the hunting stops, immorality can too. And I doubt this would ever happen. It’s human nature.