Her Mate, Her Cure

Chapter 3 -Those Deep-Seated Black Eyes

I

Grazziena went home with excitement rushing all through her veins. She was bubbling with merriment as she exploded the great news to her parents, who, like her, had been filled with happiness and excitement too.

Grazziena prepared herself for the upcoming contest. Nothing would stop her from achieving the very thing that will help her realize her dreams of finishing college.

She continued watching beauty queens as they paved their way to get their crowns. And then something hit her; willpower! That was what these beauty queens have aside from determination. They have the willpower to really win.

“Ga, look; I finished your gown already. I made it out of abaca fiber.” Grazziena’s mother said while showing her a blue princess flowing gown styled out of abaca fibers. Her eyes grew in awe as she looked at the gown. Her mother was able to make it so elegant; no one can tell that it was made out of cheap abaca fiber. The other things that she needs have been prepared already by Mel, her gay friend who also became her instant Manager/Personal Assistant.

That night prior to the beauty pageant, Grazziena was restless. Although she was excited, she also felt nervous, at the same time, fears were gripping her soul and mind. The beauty pageant will start at eight o’clock in the evening.

Grazziena shot the wall clock inside her room with her half-slept eyes. It is ten o’clock in the evening. She did not know if it was merely a dream, but after her eighteenth birthday, every time the clock ticks to twelve o’clock in the evening or midnight, her body shakes as if her bones were cracking, then she will see all over her body, yellowish furs and then a feverish looking wolf, as ugly as a stray dog with wounds and lice. Good thing she has her own room. Her parents never saw her like this. She would usually crawl down below her bed until she fell asleep and would only come out when the sunlight broke the night, when she was already in her human form again, naked.

It has been a couple of months that she has been suffering from this kind of shape-shifting every midnight and she does not want anybody to know it. She did not know if this was a disease, a curse, or what; all she knew was that people would kill her once they would see her in her feverish, ugly wolf form. In her young mind, aside from her dreams of finishing college, she also dreams of getting rid of this disease or a curse on her. She will find a cure; she will find the answer to why she became like this.

At eleven o’clock in the evening, Grazziena was drawn into the realm of the lethargic phase of life. She snored like a baby as the wind blew, trying every particle thereof to creep into those tiny holes in the window of Grazziena’s room. These bits of wind particles soothed the fair skin of Grazziena, giving her sleeping soul the calmness it needed.

Then the clock ticked and its two fingers darted into the twelve o’clock or midnight position.

Like lightning, a speeding ray of light enveloped the sleeping body of Grazziena and as the light faded, a feverish, ugly-looking she-wolf, with wounds and lice on its yellowish furs, jumped down from Grazziena’s bed. The wolf’s sagged eyes, which were almost getting out of its socket, looked around the room; trying to find a certain place for its solace. Then the she-wolf wiggled its tail and slowly crawled down below the bed.

II

“Ga, wake up; Mel is here already.” Lilia, Grazziena’s mother, came knocking at Grazziena’s door.

Grazziena had been awakened and, just like the many mornings that have passed, she found her naked body lying down below her bed. She hastily moved and dressed.

“I will be out in a minute Mamang,” she shouted while combing her long, dark brown, wavy hair.

“Hey, Mel! Wow, you are so early,” she greeted her gay friend as she saw him drinking coffee at their old wooden table.

Mel looked at her with raised eyebrows. “It’s eight o’clock in the morning. In case you forgot at ten o’clock in the morning, your talent competition will have started already. So be ready now; you only have thirty minutes,” he said strictly, with fingers twisting and flaring.

“Alright, alright. I am preparing now,” she replied while running to their small comfort room just beside their kitchen.

By eight forty-five in the morning, Grazziena was all set and ready.

Luckily, Grazziena was able to finish her pot dance without any glitches at all. His father’s six pots, made especially by him for her, lay flat and comfortable on her head. On top of the first pot on her head were five other pots thereon. As she swayed her hips and moved her feet for some graceful steps, the audience shouted in fear that the pots on her head might fall down. But Grazziena just smiled and confidently swayed her hips once more, making her long skirt made from strands of abaca leaves, moving with her hips in rhythm to the sound of the drum beats as it was being hit in careful harmony by Mel.

Grazziena and Mel went home with smiles on their faces.

The night came and the grand beauty pageant in search of Ms. Albaya 2020 is about to start already. It is almost eight o’clock in the evening.

Grazziena and all the other contestants dreaming of the crown were all set for their production number outfits. They are all wearing white shirts with prints of Ms. Albaya beauty Pageant’s logo and design, paired with black shorts showing all their legs. They top it all with white or black sneakers.

Grazziena danced gracefully and with poise. She made it a point to stand out from the rest at this early stage of the competition. She was, anyway, the tallest and most faired-skin among all the contestants.

From the lines of the Board of Judges, sitting in front of the stage and ramp, one particular, young and gorgeous man, who was sitting in the middle of the board of judges, had all eyes on Grazziena.

He never left his eyes on contestant number 8. He seemed to be mesmerized and drawn into the tallest beauty among the contestants, who were now strutting her long and fair-skinned legs with her catwalk, swaying her hips in its most seductive yet elegant manner. She carried her yellow one-piece swimsuit with a grace and style that none of the other contestants were able to do.

He shot her with an intense look when she posed at the middle-end of the ramp, a few inches away from where he was seated.

As Grazziena’s eyes locked into those intense-looking, deep-seated black eyes, something inside her growled and her heart made some somersaults.