The Forgotten Dark Tales of Negros

The Youngest Son of Don Godofredo, Evil Patriarch

In the southern town of Ilog, a municipality sandwiched by mountains and the sea, a powerful family once existed that was feared by everyone. The head of the family himself, Don Godofredo Vargas, was rumored to have killed ten people in his lifetime. Of course he wasn’t convicted. He bribed the authorities with large sums of money. His wife, Doña Juanita, was a racist and a sadist in one cruel package. Too proud of her Spanish heritage, she was known for her merciless swearing and slashing of her poor servants.

Godofredo and Juanita had three sons. The eldest, Sofronio, was a womanizer. At the young age of 25, he already raped seven women who rejected and detested him. Virgilio, the middle son, was an obsessed collector of lethal armaments. He was often seen in public with a pistol in one hand and an active grenade in the other. The youngest was Valentin, a sweet innocent boy who would soon change the fate of his notorious family.

In the late 1920s, The Vargas family owned a wide stretch of land in Ilog. Hacienda Vargas  produced sugarcanes, rice, corn, and some root crops which provided the different markets of the province. A portion of this land was being kept from the public, however, surrounded by some impenetrable walls. Within these walls grew a thousand Cannabis sativa that the family exported around the world. 

An old woman once prophesized of the end of Vargas Family’s ruthless reign. “When the third star falls and not lose its light, the land shall be free from darkness,” said the old woman. She had an Alzheimer’s Disease and those who heard her words never believed any of it. Well, the prophecy itself was contradicting and enigmatic. 

Assuming that the old woman meant the third and the youngest son of Don Godofredo: Valentin Vargas. When Valentin was two years old, his first word was ‘malo’, the Spanish word for ‘bad’. Those times when there was no television, he enjoyed watching his mother’s shows like when she would laugh at a weeping maidservant and slap her and spit at her miserable dark skin. He played with his brother Virgilio’s guns. He learned the words puta, putana, prostituta, furcia, and mujerzuela from his pervert brother Sofronio. And lastly, when he was 6 years old, his father made him memorize the Seven Deadly Sins.

There. How could a child raised by a family of devils be someone different? How could he be the answer to everyone’s prayer? He’s a son of Don Godofredo Vargas and sweet or innocent he may be, he would soon become a monster like everyone else in his family.

The education of Valentin Vargas was acquired thru his constant conversations with his family.

One rainy night, when he was five years old,  Valentin slept in his brother Virgilio’s room being scared of the thunder. Nobody could find comfort inside Virgilio’s room other than himself but Valentin knocked at his door which was the nearest from his room. Besides, Valentin had been used to it. Virgilio’s room was crowded with anything sharp, dangerous, and explosive.

“Why do you like guns, brother?” Valentin asked innocently.

“I don’t like guns. The guns like me. Enough chat already. It’s almost midnight Valentin.”

“Brother, guns are dangerous. Guns can kill.”

“What nonsense are you blabbering? Guns don’t kill. Guns defend people. And don’t you think I’m evil because I have a hundred guns. It’s God’s fault he didn’t give me something to defend myself. Life’s not fair, Valentin. Remember that. Now sleep!”

On his seventh birthday, Valentin received a wonderful show from his mother, Doña Juanita. In the middle of the party, a maidservant named Divina accidentally broke a tower of goblets. “Tonta! Idiota!” Doña Juanita screamed. Then like what she always did, she slapped and kicked the poor servant as she wept on the floor in front of a hundred people.