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[19:23 Buendia Station]

He looked like a character from a Tim Burton movie, I was frightened.

  
I got soaked from running my way to the MRT station under the rain and as soon as I stepped into the MRT train, I nearly froze to death. One of the huge fluorescent lamps of the MRT flickered. It felt like I entered a scene from a horror movie. That's when I saw him sitting in the far end corner, the star of this horror movie. 

 He was wearing black long sleeves shirt with a human heart drawn in front (and a blade slicing through it), he was wearing a black shorts with chains dangling from it, his socks were striped which covered his knee down. His hair was that of Justin Beiber's with it's ends covering one of his bloodshot eyes--those scary, almost red, eyes highlighted by a thick line of eyeliner and decorated with facial piercing. He had his nails painted black, he wore black lipstick and his corpse-like paleness added an eerie effect to his eccentric look. I felt a terrible chill pinching my very spine (and I still do, narrating how he looked). I looked into his black sling bag and I tried reading the three letter word splattered on it. I then saw him looking straight at me, too sharply I bled. I almost died of heart attack.

He was an emo, as what was plastered in his black sling bag. A Goth, a weirdo, a dead-kid, as other categorized them. The "misunderstoods". And there's a small gap between him and a lady carrying a sleeping baby. The seat was small, yes, but I could not handle the cold dry wind blowing straight to my scalp. I needed to sit.

I smiled at him and then looked at the seat beside him, sending signals saying "I wanted that seat, please move." But none of the signals reached him. The other lady smiled at me and moved so I got to seat beside her, and this kid. I looked at him again. He sighed, I had goosebumps.

I can feel all the negativity rising from his very skin, casting a dark aura on the place. It felt like I was seating beside a Dementor (a ghastly magical creature from Harry Potter that looked like death and feeds on the happy, hopeful energies of human and wizards alike), sucking all the happy thoughts in me. I felt cold, I felt sad, I felt so alone.

I researched about emos back when the emo culture reigned supreme in the Philippines (that's when they haven't killed themselves yet) and as I found out, emos are these group of young people who carried all the sadness of the world. They hated life, they hated living. They spread negativity through their punk sad music, their all black clothing, their hairstyle and their lifestyle of pure self pity. They're sick and tired of living that they want to waste their lives living a life like their already dead. They waste away their lives spreading their hate doing nothing but dread about their problems and in most occasion, try to end their lives by cutting themselves. They wanted to die and all their hopes depleted because for them, nothing right would ever happen to them. They quit in the slightest ounce of trouble. They wanted to die, as what some of them said but for me, they just don't know what they really want. They shout to the world that they're just misunderstood but had they ever tried making people around them understand them? Emos looked like people in mourning in their all black outfits, and as a requirement, they should sport bandages on their arms and wrist as if it were expensive bracelets--something they're proud of. I hated it.

I did mention a few articles ago that negativity disgusts me. Well, emos makes me sick. But who am I to feel that way to someone God really loves?

I've known friends who were emos. I talked to them, I talked them out of their suicidal nature. I even forced myself to understand them and their petty problems but they claimed that no one can help them, that their problem is their own, making them a breed of selfish and self-centered bunch of kids. Some of them are Godless, even satanic. Yes, they may have the biggest problem in the world. Yes, they may be in the worst possible condition any man could be, but do they really believe they're the only one who has problems? 

Friends of God, Jesus died in the cross so that we could fill our problems with His presence, our every suffering with His sacrifice. If the world suddenly became hostile to you, remember that heaven will never abandon you. If all your loved ones failed to love you, remember that Jesus will always love you. To live our lives with God is like living our lives like we already live in heaven. Emos forgot all about Jesus' suffering. They're just too obsessed with their own, too selfish to know that they could not handle it alone.  They totally forgot about God's eternal love. They live a life already dying and if in this lifetime they wanted death, they chose death, there is no way God will grant them eternal life.

I felt scared. I didn't know my seatmate's problems but God does. I felt a great urge to pray for him. It was still cold so I had an excuse. I closed my fists, done a praying position, closed my eyes and prayed for my seatmate. I claimed heaven for him. I claimed God's love reigning in his heart, and Jesus' peace overflowing in his soul. 

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23)

Everyday is a challenge designed by God to see if we're fit to live in heaven. And guess what God even sent to us the cheat code, the right answer to all the test and that is none other than Jesus Himself. We just need to follow Him.  We will go to heaven if we have Jesus in our lives to supply our every needs, a God to comfort us whenever were down, a Lord that reigns in our hearts and a king to rule our lives. Don't you ever wish for death. It's like slapping God, in His glory and power, right unto His face. Heaven is for the people who wanted life, who loves to live as hell is for the people who wished death. I choose life, for I live my life for God.

As soon as the train stopped at Araneta-Cubao station, my stop, I took a deep breathe, stood up and looked back at my seatmate. I heard my soul whisper, "I'll see you in heaven, friend of God!"

May God's love make your life heaven here on earth,

Rex Van Carlo E. Mollo

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam