in the philippines, it was still cool to disco in the 90’s. and george’s older brother was one of those who liked to go out and have a good time once in a while. his favorite disco house? ozone.

it wasn’t very big. george hasn’t been inside, so he actually doesn’t know if it expands from the door; but from the outside, george isn’t impressed with the place. but his brother loved it.

during one of the nights his brother was out, george decided to sleep early. take advantage of how quiet their shared room was. that was, until he got awakened by someone knocking on the door.

george didn’t lock the door, so he didn’t know why anyone would knock. but the knocking won’t let up, so he decided to get up from bed and check it out. as he neared the door, his hand almost touching the knob, he remembered an old superstition his mother used to say:

when someone knocks on your door after dark, don’t open the door. evil spirits will come in if you do.

at seven years old, george was still susceptible to these kind of superstitions. but in case someone really needed to get in, george decided to take a risk. he opened the door. and sure enough, it was his brother.

but there was something wrong.

for one thing, his brother wouldn’t come in the room. and his brother smelled. like barbecue left on the grill for too long. and george remembered that smell very distinctly as it had happened just earlier that day.

“stop me.” his brother whispered, and moved towards him. that’s when george saw that the smell was coming from his brother. flakes of skin were peeling off, and some parts of him were blackened—and smoking.

george backed away from his brother. backed away until he hit his brother’s bed. instinctively, he turned towards the bed. and saw his brother sleeping there. he turned towards the door again, and it was closed. with no sign of his brother having gotten up—or of his brother being burned alive.

“stop me.” his brother whispered in his sleep.

george turned to the door again. too shaken to go back to his own bed. on the floor, where his “brother” had stopped earlier, he picked up a blackened peace of paper. squinting, he was able to make out one word: ‘zone.’