The Magical Photo

There was once a fool who fell in love with the beautiful girl he saw on a framed
photo. His name was Draven Cruz. Draven was a typical teenage nerd who looked
unattractive (He was too small and
scrawny for his age [he was fifteen] and his hair was short, curly and black – which would have looked good for other people’s faces but funny for his.) and always wore eyeglasses and achieved a lot in school. He was a junior high school
student and was one of the brightest students in class so he always got honors.
He also had an exquisite singing voice so he always joined singing contests in
school and won first prize. He was a choir member and a tenor. He could be
well-liked by his schoolmates if he chose to be because he was smart and
talented except he did not. Instead, he chose to be alone and sit and eat during break time at the
cafeteria with only a few companions: his textbooks and favorite novel. When
there was a quiz on the next subject after break time he would just scan his
books and read a little for he had already studied at home in advance all his
subjects last night. When there was no quiz he would read his favorite novel
(at the time he was reading The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde). Draven
had no friends or girlfriends. He told himself he did not need people to be happy. He was already happy when he received achievements, read his textbooks and favorite novels and fantasized every day and night events that he wished would happen to him in his bedroom. He wrote his fantasies in his diary. He watched too much fantasy movies and cartoons and played too much fantasy video games. Because of this he was inspired to daydream about fantastic events. One afternoon he daydreamed that he was making out with Emma Watson in a beautiful beach and everyone was staring and cheering for them. He woke up sweating from head to pants, smiling.

He was strolling at a mall one hot lazy day and saw a bookstore that sold old books and home decorations at the entrance. Home decorations there included cherub figurines, lamps and photo frames. He grabbed a book but dropped it when he noticed something: a photo frame that held a photo of a beautiful girl. She was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. His brown hand reached it. He stared at her photo and was dazzled by a bright green light that came from it. His mind went blank and for a few seconds…

He was at a coffee shop with the girl but not near her. He approached her at her table.

“Excuse me, miss. Would you mind if I sit at the table with you?”

“I wouldn’t mind.”

He sat on the chair in the opposite side of the girl’s table and he looked at her.

He was staring at her drinking her coffee. She was shorter than him. She had long wavy black hair, light brown skin and Chinese eyes. She wore a red dress that accentuated her voluptuous figure, and a perfume that had a scent of strawberries. She was stunningly beautiful.

“What are you looking at?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

She seemed a bit conscious (or worse irritated!) at his stare. She stared back at
him.

“I… um…. I just think (‘I just think you are every pretty and hot!’ that was what he wanted to say)… I was just thinking if I’ve seen you before.” He lied even though he knew that she knew he was admiring her face and body.

“I have seen you yesterday morning. You were the solo singer during the mass at school.” She sipped her coffee. She did not compliment his voice nor smiled at him. He felt just fine. He smiled.

He was sure she was a new student because he didn’t see her in school before. He hoped that no one had ever told her how nerdy he was. He did not want her to know he had no friends. She just might think twice of hanging out with him.

“What’s your name? From what section are you?” He asked her these questions. She told him her name and section. Her name was Isabel Santiago and her classroom was next to his. He told her his name and section too.

“You know I should really go. I have a lot of home works to do.” she said as soon as she finished her drink.

“Would you want me to help you with your home works?” he asked. It was his first time to lend a hand for a schoolmate’s home works. The bullies usually asked him to do their home works and threatened him that if he did not he would get beaten up by them.

“No I can do them by myself.” she said curtly.

“See you tomorrow then.” he said embarrassedly.

“You know you can talk to Isabel all day if you will it.” A smooth male voice said. Draven woke up on his bed surprised by it. He looked around his bedroom to search who spoke to him. He saw no one.

“What a dream.” he said referring to his meeting with the girl in a coffee shop. “It felt real.”

“That’s because it was real.” The male voice started talking again. Its source suddenly appeared out of thin air, before his eyes. He was tall and handsome, had radiant skin and jade green eyes. He wore a long white gown and behind his back were colorful wings, like a butterfly’s. Except they were too large to look like butterfly wings. He was shining.

“Who are you? What are you? What are you doing here?” Draven bombarded him with these questions.

“I am Fabian, a fairy. I’m the one who gave you the picture of Isabel, the girl you’ve just conversed with.”

“You said I can talk to Isabel all day if I will it.”

Fabian nodded. “But that’s not all. You can make anything happen between you and her.

“How?” Draven looked curious.

“You just have to stare at her photo and imagine events that you would want to happen between you and her.” Fabian disappeared. Draven wanted to ask why Fabian gave the photo to him but he was gone. His meeting with Fabian had to be another dream. He pinched himself hard to awaken himself. Something appeared on his study desk. He approached it and saw Isabel’s photo. He looked at it and imagined having a long conversation with her in the coffee shop where they first met, stargazing with her on the roof of his house and making love to her in his bedroom for a long time. He was ecstatic after these events happened.

He looked at her photo and kissed it. “I don’t need anything or anyone else in this world. All I need is you. You made me so happy.” He confessed to it. Isabel smiled at him.

The following days he had been experiencing Isabel in a playful and lustful way. He brought her to rock concerts in which he wore a pair of nerdy glasses and a Stone Temple Pilots T-shirt and a pair of denim pants and she wore thick punk make-up, black sleeveless shirt and denim mini skirt. She brought him to parties and introduced him to her girlfriends who looked disgusted by how unnattractive and nerdy he looked. They reluctantly entertained him. He did not care about them. He just enjoyed Isabel. They danced and drank ten cases of beers and smoked tobaccos and marijuana until they got drunk and stoned. He imagined this just to know what a beer, a tobacco and a high taste like. He became addicted to them that he drained a lot of beers and smoked a lot of tobaccos and marijuana at every party. He made love to her every night. He felt he was the coolest guy on earth. He just enjoyed Isabel as much as he wanted. He was very in love with her. He thought he couldn’t live without her. But there was something he did not know that only Fabian did. Isabel was not
real and her photo was cursed. Since he started spending time with her bad
events already occurred to his family.

His aunt was injured in a car accident
and his mother was mugged by thugs on the street. He was aware of these events
but he was not aware that it was Isabel or Fabian who made them happen. He was
saddened by these events so he continued hanging out with her. He thought of
her as a consolation to his sadness.

One day he grew tired of being with her that he decided not to look at her photo after the school hours. He went to a park near his school. He thought of everything that happened between him and her. Was he glad to do it? He thought of her. Was it wrong to be with her? He knew that he should be the happiest nerd on earth because he was dating a beauty. Was there something that didn’t feel right? Yes, he knew there was but he was not sure what it was. It was getting dark. He went home thinking about what was something that didn’t feel right.

He was in his bedroom. He took her photo and stared at it. He imagined…

She was at her house precisely at the dining room eating a slice of cake. She was wearing a white sleeveless shirt and a pair of white mini shorts. A glass of milk was on the cake’s side. It was unusual to see this scene for him because he always saw her wearing all black and swigging beer and smoking dope. Well, this was what he imagined anyway. He was tired of seeing her do the crappy things she always did.

“Hi. Draven. Come and join me here at the table.” Isabel said. She took a box of cookies and a pitcher of orange juice from the refrigerator.

“I don’t want to eat anything.” Draven said curtly.

“What do you wanna do then?”

“I want to break up with you.”

She sobbed her heart out. “Please don’t break up with me.” she begged. “If you do I’m gonna kill myself!”

She took a knife from the kitchen and posed like she was directing it to her arm. He ran to her and took it away from her hand and kissed her on the cheek. He told her that he would not break up with her anymore. She smiled at him and whispered “You know I love you so much that I’d die if you leave me.” What she said felt so true to him. What she said felt right at that moment.

Draven realized one thing after the previous incident. Because he did not imagine the part where Isabel would threaten him to take her life, he realized that he couldn’t control Isabel’s feelings and actions. She could act by her own will, which she apparently did earlier.

She must have loved me from the start. He thought. He began to love her once more

And so he spent time with her once again. He went to parties with her, drank innumerable beers and took ecstasy with her, made love to her at the bars’ comfort rooms.

Bad events occurred again after their many rendezvous and sexcapades. When he and his family went to a family gathering at his uncle’s house, his uncle fell down from the stairs as his uncle was about to go down to eat dinner with them. Next day after that, his father was bitten by the neighbor’s chow chow. Two days after his little sister got
afflicted with dengue. One night he dreamed a dreadful dream. Flashbacks of the bad events that happened to his family came to his mind then an angel went down to his bed and whispered into his ear, “Stay away from Isabel. She made all those terrible things happen.” He woke up soaking in sweat. The truth that the photo was cursed sank into him, finally. He grabbed the photo from his study desk and uttered curses to it. “You’ve been making my life miserable! I shouldn’t have taken you in the first place!” he shouted at the photo. He threw it on the trash bin. He noticed that Isabel shed a tear.

A great black smoke emerged from it. Then Fabian appeared. His eyes were a deeper shade of green from rage. “Why did you give this photo to me!” Draven pointed at it angrily. He was shaking not only with anger but also fear.

“Because I want to avenge my daughter Isabel’s death. I am the father of the half-human half-fairy girl you were fantasizing about. We fairies have been giving you humans everything you wished for yet you treated our family like animals! Some human males raped and killed my precious girl in a field. It was unfair for them to do a very horrid thing when all we do is give them blessings. I killed them with my own power. I was sure that after I killed them the Lord of the Fairies would take away my power and ban me from the Fairy World as fairies are not allowed to punish humans. So I extracted all my power and created the photo and put a curse to it: a curse
that would ruin the life of a human male who would fall in love with Isabel and
use it to fulfill his folly fantasy. You are not the first victim, Draven. A lot of boys died because of that photo. I didn’t regret losing all my power just to take revenge against all human males even if for now all I can do is show up to humans.”

“So you extracted all your power to create the photo to ruin my life?” Draven grabbed the photo. He was about to tear it.

“Oh no, if I were in your place I wouldn’t do that!” Fabian shook his head and smirked jeeringly. “Your life has been miserable enough before you met Isabel. You have no friends and you were tired of living a boring life. You don’t need anything or anyone in this world but her. You can’t live without her.”

Draven knew that everything Fabian said was a lie. Fabian was just trying to coax him to not destroy the photo. Draven did not want his life to be destroyed entirely.

“That was before I learned the truth about her. “ Draven snapped. “Why do you have to kill innocent people? Why do you have to kill all other human males when they didn’t do anything to your daughter? Do you think your daughter would be happy if he sees you doing that? Would she be proud of what you did?” He tore the photo.

“Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!” Fabian let out a loud growl. He vanished with the black smoke.

Draven was in the home decorations stand in front of the bookstore.

He realized he was having a daydream and was holding the photo frame for hours.
He was embarrassed. He returned the photo frame on the stand. He walked away from the stand thinking about his fantastical daydream. It was some kind of an adventure. As he walked he saw a girl who looked like Isabel, strolling with a bunch of
other girls. She was wearing a baby pink sleeveless top and a pair of skinny
jeans. She smiled at him.