by Franz Austin V. De Mesa

It was Saturday, 8PM. Tonight’s ulam was hotdog and egg. And in six days, I was going to become a man.

I sat across from my father who had just come home from work, and he ate like he hadn’t eaten in a month: eyes focused on his plate, specks of rice on his chin, a sweaty neck, greasy hands. Meanwhile, my cup of rice was only halfway gone, looking like a half-moon that was bitten off by the Bakunawa, only I wasn’t as hungry. 

No, there were more important things running around in my head than just eating. I had been thinking about it for weeks now. In my community, there was something called the Handugan that every boy must go through in order to become a man.  

The author of the featured story for PGS 2023 in April, THE PART-TIME APPRENTICE, is Daniel C. De Guzman, a 28-year-old office staff from Tarlac who started to love writing ever since he fell in love with Dan Brown’s novels. He later got interested in the horror genre through the influence of the works of H.P. Lovecraft. When not writing, he loves playing video games and listening to music that ranges from Deathcore to Japan City pop songs. His stories usually feature creatures from the mythologies of the Philippines, and here Daniel answers some questions about his recent story and his writing.

Where did the story idea for THE PART-TIME APPRENTICE come from?

The idea came when one time I was riding a bus going home. I saw this man on the bus who was actually holding what appeared to be a prayer book and I was expecting he was about to preach inside the bus. However, that realization suddenly halted when I realized that he was not like those bible-preaching passengers before who looked “religious” from head to toe. That’s when the crazy idea began stirring inside my head. I am into stuff about demonology and a big fan of John Constantine so I quickly took a mental note of a scenario about a roguish-looking man who expels demons in the bus by reading verses from the Holy Scripture. That is where the story THE PART-TIME APPRENTICE takes off.

by Daniel C. De Guzman

Yohan met Santino on a bus bound west of the city on the last day of their school year. That time, Yohan’s body was aching to finally have its much-coveted break after the monthly mental torture he endured just to get good grades all for the sake of barely maintaining his scholarship for one more year. His mind was riddled with too many concerns that made him realize that the vacation that was about to start would leave him exhausted yet again.

Remembering the plans of his A-list classmates for this upcoming break didn’t help him that much either. All he heard from them was that they would enroll themselves in short courses to learn new skills that would come in handy both for the academic and professional world. Some will even attend tutorial classes all throughout their vacation so that they would get ahead. These burned like hot rods inside Yohan’s mind as he began to feel the overwhelming pressure of his soon-to-be senior year in college. So instead of binge-watching his favorite shows or going for an out-of-town escapade, he decided with a long, heavy, and exhausted sigh to spend the vacation by squeezing the last of his brain juice for the next couple of months.

Marco Mañalac is a lover of fantasy and science fiction, a fanboy of combat sports and professional wrestling, and a self-diagnosed stranger to the real world. With more than ten years of corporate experience in Marketing and Public Relations, he is now trying to resurrect his long-gone creative juices by playing video games, reviewing comic books, and starting his own Dungeons & Dragons campaign. When he needs to clear his mind, he is usually boxing or sidelining as a Ring Announcer for fights. He also cosplays every now and then when he’s in a particularly good mood. “THE HISTORY OF THE END OF THE WORLD BY THE LEAGUE OF RESEARCHERS” is his first published short story and our featured story for March, and he happily shares with us his journey.

Where did the story idea for THE HISTORY OF THE END OF THE WORLD BY THE LEAGUE OF RESEARCHERS come from?

by Marco Mañalac

League of Human Researchers Official Journal, Entry #27, Day 2 of the Age of Wyrms, by Thanakros Zyus

They literally came from the skies. One might think of me as stating the obvious with that, but what I exactly mean by saying that is that they are definitely not of this world. 

Now, our human race is no stranger to the wonders of creation, and in fact, we may have gotten quite used to the surprises of the unknown. Too many times have we seen magic that can freeze seas, burn the skies, or conjure new life. We have seen beasts evolve into beings wiser and smarter than ourselves. We have also seen humans mutate into mindless demons. We have seen angels descend from the skies, and witnessed devils emerge from the ground. And it has all been recorded by this proud lineage of researchers. 

We continue to ensure this tradition of recording and transcribing is passed on from generation to generation. Every researcher, as part of their sworn oath, must choose a successor from their own family, whether it be a son, a daughter, a nephew, or a niece. They may pass it on to a sibling, or to a wife, anybody really, as long as they carry the researcher’s blood. As we all know, storytelling is magic in itself.

But this story I am telling may take a dark turn, soon.