"EMBRACING DARKNESS" When I was a kid, I dreamed of angels with wings of light and raised by heaven. I feared vampires for stories painted them as children of the cursed night. They called her evil, a monster in shadow, a creature of thirst and doom. And I believed them. I ran from the night, convinced that light alone led to love, acceptance, happiness... But the light though warm was always lacking. Something inside me stirred, a quiet ache, a soft voice rising from deep within. A whisper I tried to silence but could no longer ignore. Then I met her not in a dream but in stillness. A hush that wrapped around me like truth. No mirror could hold her image yet her beauty was the clearest proof of her flawless innocence. She didn't thirst for blood but for love, for acceptance, for someone who wouldn't run. There was a time when I was almost consumed, weighed down and breaking so I surrendered myself and fell into darkness. And just as I was about to crash, she caught me with open arms. I embraced her because when I had no one, she was there. She didn't devour me. She completed me. In her arms, I saw through the lies. The vampire was never a villain. She was the truth in the dark, the beauty unseen, the part of me I had long denied. Now I know, darkness isn't the enemy. It's not to be feared but to be understood, to be loved, to be embraced. © JEFFREY CEJERO Philippines