𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘-𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄:
All around the world
( 1986-1995)

A PEACEFUL SLUMBER INTO THE RABBIT HOLE OF DARKNESS that transports one to the wistful dreams of fantasy and escapism is one of the mortal privileges that was stolen from immortal beings when they succumbed to the shadows of death that made them, ironically, eternally awake, with little to no choice to face the ugly reality of bloodshed and gore for survival. The children of the night seek to close their eyes again, to drift in thousands of unique and unexpected possibilities that the mind fantasizes to create.

To Jasper, his reality felt like a dream. Feathery light kisses littered his arms, which moved to his chest, making his eyes flutter shut in pure ecstasy. An unexplainable electrifying buzz vibrated throughout his whole body, making him groan in response. Corazon kissed his scars, the silver crescent-shaped markings that will forever be embedded on his skin, a continuous distinct reminder of his past. Though invisible to humans, they are starkly evident to other vampires, particularly under sunlight, gleaming faintly like the rest of his marble-like skin. They are a testament to his survival in a brutal, unforgiving world.

But when Corazon, without qualms, kissed his scars, it felt like the world was a better place; his world with her would continue to be a lifelong journey full of love and self-forgiveness, a divine redemption.

Jasper took her hand as gently as a whisper; he cradled her fingers in his. Jasper lowered his head, pressing a tender kiss to her hand. He shifted his focus to the simple yet exquisite wedding ring that adorned Corazon's finger. A luminous South Sea pearl, cradled by a delicate gold band, intricately designed with an array of tiny, sculpted leaves. Nestled within the curves of the leaves were tiny diamonds, their brilliance like drops of morning dew that sparkled against the warmth of the gold. His own ring pressed against hers complimented both rings in harmony.

His ring was crafted from the same warm gold as hers but with a more understated, masculine design. The band was broad yet refined, its surface etched with a subtle leaf motif mirrored Corazon's ring's delicate patterns. At its center, a small South Sea pearl was embedded into the band. Their names are carved on the inside of each other's ring.

Jasper then pulled Corazon close, her weight against his, and he welcomed her. Corazon lay draped across Jasper, her body perfectly molded to his as if she were a puzzle piece designed to fit only him. Her head rested on his chest, her cheek pressed against his skin. Jasper's arms encircled her gently, one hand tracing soft, absentminded patterns along her back. Corazon closed her eyes, allowing herself to sink deeper into the solace Jasper offered.

Jasper's been using his gift with Corazon's permission to know the extent of his abilities after shifting from the animal blood diet to human blood to explore his gift other than what he was trained to use it for.

Corazon felt a subtle shift in the air, like the gentle rustling of leaves before a soft breeze. Still stroking her hair, Jasper allowed his gift to flow between them, weaving a calming thread of emotion that seemed to seep into her very being.

It started as a quiet warmth, blooming slowly within her, a sensation so rare and foreign for their kind that it was almost startling. The tension in her muscles melted away as overwhelming drowsiness began to take hold—not the foggy haze of exhaustion, but the tender pull of true rest, the kind humans knew just before slipping into dreams.

Corazon sighed softly, her body growing heavier as Jasper's gift worked its magic. She knew she wasn't truly sleeping, but the sensation was so vivid it felt real. Her mind floated on the edge of consciousness, caught in a peaceful liminal space that she hadn't experienced since her human days.

"If we could sleep, what would you dream about?" Corazon murmured against his chest, her voice a whisper, barely audible. She shifted slightly, nuzzling closer, trying to anchor herself even more to him.

Jasper answers softly, his deep voice resonating through his chest like a lullaby. "If I could dream, I think all I would dream about is you, and then I'd wake up to the reality of being with you. I think that's the best part of waking up from a dream. That dreams can also become a reality."

Her lips curved into a faint smile, lifting herself up and moving closer to his face. "Such a romantic husband," Her lips traced the outline of his nose, peppering his face with kisses that made Jasper lazily grin as he looked at her with hooded eyes and resting his hands on the small of her back.

"Always only for you, wife," Jasper captured her lips as his fingers traced up her spine, making her shiver in response to the back of her neck, his fingers tangling gently in her hair as he cradled the back of her head. The kiss deepened, deliberate and consuming. His hold on her was firm but tender, guiding her closer as if trying to erase any distance between them. Corazon melted into him as she placed her hand on his throat with gentle pressure. They got lost and found each other's embrace.

•| ⊱✿⊰ |•

IT NO LONGER FELT FAMILIAR OR WARM when she arrived in the motherland she once considered her dearest home. A strange emptiness crept over her. The humid air clung to her skin, and the familiar scent of saltwater mingled with the earthy aroma of rain-soaked ground. Still, none of it stirred the comfort she had once known. But it no longer made her feel sad. It was inevitable. She no longer lives here, and her most memorable memories are no longer created in this land.

Corazon reminded herself that she was here with one thing in mind. They'll leave immediately after it's done.

"Most of the packages were dropped off earlier by my staff," Zane informs her, "Only one is left on the list," Zane pointedly looked at the package in her hands. "It'll only take a day before it reaches the papers,"

Corazon nods. This was decades in the making, yet it all drowned out into one single day. It's been a long time coming. One she should have done years earlier. But a few years earlier wouldn't have been the right moment. But now, she's more ready to face the demons of her past and finally put it to rest. To bury it where it belonged.

The book in her hand felt heavy, ironic because, for a vampire like herself, she was meant to possess inhumane strength. But for this reason, it touched a particular heavy place in her undead heart that used to beat in rhythm—alive and human. It contained the journal entries that she wrote. Entries that vividly detailed what happened inside the Red House.

She was opening her part in the history she partook to the public. Letting strangers read right through her most vulnerable memories, baring the rawest part of her soul for everyone to see.

Everything has been done according to plan. The alias she used in the book was Crisanta Celina Salvador. This identity wasn't so subtle because she used her first name's initials of her real surname. Still, it was the sense of owning the identity in her own way that it is her story, nobody else's.

The forged documents of Crisanta, from the birth certificate to public records that would solidify that she had lived and was real, are planted with the help of Aika and Zane. Corazon couldn't afford the rumors that the Red Lady of the North haunted and brought terror to the Japanese army during World War 2 to be dismissed as fiction because Corazon was anything but a figment of imagination. She was—is— a force to be reckoned with, and everyone knew that, but not enough to completely dismiss the doubts.

No one truly knew the identity of the Red Lady. No one had managed to uncover it. But if there was anyone who dared to reveal it, it was Corazon, with her permission and control. She deserves it; it's her right to do as such, and no one will ever take anything from her anymore; she won't let it.

The government failed to properly distribute the so-called compensation the Japanese government had agreed on in the 1956 reparations agreement. For the victims who were supposed to benefit from it, the money was either pocketed by high-ranking officials in the Government or the money fell into the wrong hands of those who claimed to have been confined in the walls of the Red House. Not all the comfort women received compensation. It made Corazon furious that her anger could be compared to Mayon Volcano's eruption in 1993.

Corazon has been keeping up with the news as she should have been. In 1992, there was an announcement that all those who were forced to become comfort women by the Japanese military come forward. They watched a press interview tape of a woman named Maria Rosa L. Henson, who gave an account of her experience.

Rosa was assisted by LILA-Pilipina, a private organization founded in 1992 as part of a more significant movement to seek justice, accountability, and recognition for the atrocities suffered by comfort women. LILA-Pilipina provides a platform for survivors to share their stories, raise public awareness, and demand reparations and official apologies from the Japanese Government. "LILA" stands for League for Filipino Grandmothers (Lola) or Liga Para sa mga Lolang Pilipina, as many survivors are now elderly. The name reflects both respect and endearment toward these women and what they had endured.

The organization was created by The Task Force of Filipino Comfort Women (TFFCW), which was also formed by seven women organizations that were all organized and orchestrated by Corazon, Jasper, Aika, Alice, Rosalie, Emmett, Zane, and Garrett—yes, the two vampires joined their not-so-little group of justice bringers. But they all worked underground so as not to risk exposure. They had help from contacts who would do the field work and face the press. Likas, Rhona, Crisanto, Gregory, Charlotte, and Peter assisted them too.

Esme and Carlisle needed no further persuasion to aid them; Carlisle was the one who offered without hesitation; he helped them greatly, especially when it came to funding the cause; he had centuries worth of investments, stocks, and money. He's filthy rich, yet he looked so insanely modest. The Denalis also offered their support, which warmed Corazon's undead heart.

All hands were on deck. It was time.

On December 6, 1991, Korean comfort women filed a lawsuit against the Japanese Government at the Tokyo District in Tokyo Court that demanded post-war responsibility, compensation, and reparations.

It was the initiative that they were waiting for, the signal that they waited to be lit. It was too risky for them to mess or involve themselves with mortal laws that involved many countries.

Corazon and Crisanto drafted the paperwork needed to file the lawsuit. Once everything was done, they sent the files to their contacts. The lawsuit was filed. But it's been a tough battle. One, they weren't sure that they'd win. So Corazon decided to take matters into her own hands.

The book that she had written had been published. All the copies were personally discreetly delivered to every household, public and private establishments, and most importantly, each government establishment by her friends and family who spread themselves across the countries in Asia and the Pacific where the Japanese occupied and raided without intent of occupation or failed to occupy but managed to establish a system of sexual slavery.

Korea, both North and South, China, Indonesia, Laos, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Myanmar, and Papua New Guinea, including Guam, Vietnam, Cambodia, India, and the Netherlands, where Dutch women who lived in Indonesia at the time were also victimized in comfort stations, and to many countries and many ethnicities that were also in the wrong place at the wrong time like Corazon was—too many that they tried to account all of it, many of the women had already passed but they tried to spread the book around as much as they can.

And it initiated a movement from those countries. For Japan to finally face what they had done.

The figures, however, are based on estimations made by historians using a range of existing sources because Japanese officials destroyed records on the system after World War II. The history of Japan's enslavement of women was minimized as the country recovered from World War II, viewed as a repugnant relic of a past that people would prefer to forget.

Never forget, never again.

They had their chance to right their wrongs. They won't easily gain the perfect picture they try to portray and enforce. Everyone will know what they did. This generation and the following generations would remember, which will forever be embedded in history, one they couldn't cast aside.

Corazon made sure that she was the one who personally delivered copies of her book to Japan, especially at their current prime minister's house. Their censorship won't work anymore. Not only did it contain her journal entries but also background information about how Japan was the one who initiated the attack on Pearl Harbor and the brutality and violence that each country endured, including the Bataan Death March in the Philippines and what happened in the March First Movement in Korea.

"We'll be quick; we'll go to the cemetery afterward," Corazon informs Zane with a tight-lipped smile, her shoulders rigid and tense. Her throat was tight and constricted, and it felt suffocating; god, why are goodbyes so tricky?

Corazon and Jasper arrived in her childhood home, which was vacant for years and was now occupied by Joselito and his family after her Tatang passed away a few years back. He wrote in his will that it would rightfully be passed to the eldest child and would be responsible for taking care and maintaining the house, but would still be welcomed to anyone who's part of the family that it would never be sold and would remain in their family for the years to come. Joselito has a big family, seven children and fifteen grandchildren. Antonio has one child and twin grandchildren. Theodoro has three children and one grandchild.

Elenita passed away at the age of forty-five due to a heart attack; she left four children and a husband who never remarried and still maintained a good familial relationship with her family. Mirriam is a spinster, and she lived with Carmelita in the small house that their parents occupied due to old age, but now that their parents passed away, Tatang left the small house to Mirriam because she doesn't have a family of her own and Tatang was worried about her so he left her home. Their youngest, Carmelita, is a widow with one daughter who didn't marry.

They all gathered in their childhood home like they used to, but the family grew bigger and louder, in Corazon's opinion.

It's their mother's death anniversary.

They never once missed a gathering or an occasion; they were always together, just like the tradition their parents instilled in them when they were children. Joselito became the head of the family, continued the traditions taught them, and passed them on to their grandchildren. From visiting and commemorating the loved ones that had passed every Undas and gathering as a family every birthday and death anniversary to celebrating Christmas and New Year's together.

Corazon smiled at the sight, bright lights, laughter full of mirth, and the blazingly loud karaoke machine with the person behind the mic singing off-tune. But then her smile dimmed as she remembered why she was here; Jasper made sure there were no passers-by or anyone around to see them; the empty roads were quiet, contrasted with the noise her family produced. She hates to be the one to ruin the moment.

But they deserve to know what happened to her. She recalled the memory of regret and guilt that her father held. Corazon just wanted to give them a fraction of the relief and the closure they had been waiting for for years.

She knows her family believes in the souls that cling to the life of the living.

It's up to them to decipher the rest. It isn't a direct confirmation that she was alive but an insinuation of what happened to her. After all, she didn't use her name in the book.

Only Aika and Jasper knew that she kept tabs on her family. Carlisle still visited the Volturi when Aro called upon him to account for the growing number of their Coven and avoided Aro's gift; Edward had been offered a place in the Volturi as one of their guards—relentlessly over the years. But Aika, Jasper, and Corazon avoided the Volturi like a plague, not because of Jasper's history with them during the Southern Vampire Wars but because of what they were doing here in the Philippines.

Jasper wouldn't step foot in Volterra altogether. They still considered him a threat. Aika became overprotective of Alice because of her rare ability; once they knew of Alice, they'd want her too. While Corazon was offered a position in one of their vampire underground organizations that infiltrated the human government, she reluctantly refused it, or else she wouldn't be able to help the cause.

None of their family's minds were safe from the Volturi, from Aro.

Corazon knew too much. She had so much to lose once Aro knew of her activities. She couldn't risk the life of her human family.

"Tao po!" Corazon exclaims as she knocks on the iron gates, placing the package on the concrete floor. She heard footsteps approaching, and Corazon hid behind the trees where Jasper remained. They shared a look that made Corazon roll her eyes. It was amusing that she used tao po when she wasn't even human anymore. "You get the gist," Corazon whispers as she crosses her arms to her chest. Jasper only chuckles as he kisses the furrow of her brows.

"'Nay! Is Tito Jose expecting any package today?" Carmelita's daughter exclaimed in Tagalog, her face laced with confusion as she carried the package to her arms, examining it, looking for any piece of writing that claimed who the box was for.

Carmelita approached her daughter with a frown of her own, "Where did you get that?" asked Tagalog. Corazon's eyes observed her sister's form; it was a testimony of how much Corazon had missed over the decades. She hadn't seen any of her siblings; old age had caught up to them, but she remained the same.

"Someone called and knocked," Carmelita's daughter mindlessly shrugs. Carmelita looks at her daughter scoldingly as she pinches her waist hard.

"Aray!" Carmelita's daughter painfully exclaims as she moves away from her mother in annoyance.

"Corazon, I told you to never open the gate if you don't recognize the voice!" Carmelita angrily scolds, "You don't know if it's a bad spirit! There's no one here!" Carmelita looks around the dark, empty streets.

Corazon sucked in a breath as she blinked in surprise. She didn't know the names of her sibling's children or grandchildren. She didn't let herself know; the less she knew, the better. But now, knowing that Carmelita named her own daughter after her. It made Corazon's undead heartache.

"I know it's not a spirit. I have a third eye," Carmelita's daughter pointed to her forehead with a raised brow.

Carmelita clicked her tongue on the roof of her tongue. She shook her head in disappointment, "Ang tanda tanda mo na pero ang tigas pa rin ng ulo mo!"

"Mana sayo, anak mo ako diba?" Carmelita's daughter snickered when she saw her mother's exasperation.

"Hay, na'ko! I'm going to die early because of you," Carmelita replies with an underlying tone of amusement, "Who is it from?" She then asks, directing her attention to the package in her daughter's arm.

"Well, this is the only thing written on it," She showed it to her mother. Carmelita squinted her eyes until her expression turned into shock; she recognized that handwriting, that elegant, clean stroke of cursive.

Salvador Family.

"Call everyone and gather them in the living room. Now," Carmelita's earlier playful tone vanished, replaced with a firm order laced with urgency and authority. Her eyes, once dancing with mirth, now burned with determination, a silent warning that this was no time for delay or questions.

Her daughter didn't protest and nodded, noting the urgency in her mother's voice. She hurried inside as Carmelita lingered beside the iron gates. She shut her eyes, taking a deep, slow breath,

"Ate Cora," Releasing a heavy breath. Her hands balled into a fist as she placed it to her chest, where her heart resided. Then she opened her eyes, looking up at the night sky, the moon illuminating brightly. She cast one last suspicious look around her before reluctantly closing the iron gate.

"How are you?" Jasper asks behind her as he wraps her around her waist, placing his chin on her shoulder blade.

"It was difficult," Corazon timidly answers, "Carmelita named her daughter after me," She leans into him, seeking the comfort he always has. Jasper hums. He knows that he doesn't need to say anything.

"We should go and visit my parents and my sister," Corazon turns around and places a chaste kiss on his lips as she unwraps his arms around her and intertwines her hands with his. Jasper followed her as they walked towards the cemetery. She hadn't visited in years. The place where her mother and father were buried, which used to be tombstones on the ground, was now inside a large yet modest marble mausoleum that her siblings constructed, the words SALVADOR engraved prominently at the top of the entrance.

They entered. With their sight, it was easier to navigate the darkness. At the front center are two rows of wooden benches, an altar with a crucifix with candles, rosaries, and framed photos of her mother, father, Elenita, and herself. At the side were two crypts—her parents and empty drawers lined the walls, one where Elenita's urn resided, and an empty drawer with only a plaque of Corazon's full name, her year of birth with no specified date of her passing, then an old tarnished photo of Corazon that remained in the confines of a frame. Her family was here earlier. The melted candles and fresh flowers were a sign of their presence.

For a moment, Corazon and Jasper stood together in silence. Then Corazon traced her fingers against her mother's tomb, her father's, and then Elenita's, closing her eyes as she savored the moment, a bittersweet smile on her lips.

"Sorry, Inang, Tatang, El. I haven't visited in a long time." Corazon says with remorse, as if she were talking to them in person, "But this will also be the last time I'm going to visit. I won't be returning here anymore. I'm sorry, Tatang and El, that you'll never know what happened to me. I'm sorry, Inang, for burdening you with the truth. I know it wasn't easy to bear it alone." She crouched before the tombs.

"Thank you for loving me enough to let me go to America because I wouldn't have found another reason to live if I stayed. I love you all with everything that I am." Corazon then looked towards Jasper, who sat on the wooden bench, waiting for her; he gave her a soft smile that he only reserved for her. She stood up and walked towards him, offering him a hand that he took without a thought.

With one last lingering glance over her shoulder, she grasped Jasper's hand and told him, "I'm ready to go home."