Summer, I'm coming home.
Two years has passed and now I’m only going to endure two days and finally I'm going home. I already imagined everything that will happen the day I go out of this living hell. I scrambled on my belongings and held the locket in front of my face. I opened it and slipped the ring inside it, good thing it fits.
The moment Summer turn twenty I’ll marry her. There will be no point in returning. I promise.
I already packed everything, clothes and all. Though I left my uniforms since I don’t want to remember being a soldier anymore. Everything has been too much.
“Harry. You got yourself a letter.” I smiled at my comrade and took it. The writing outside has been all too familiar that I can easily recognize it as Summer’s even if she only wrote letter a on it.
I opened the seal and read her letter.
Quote
Harry,
Can you believe it? Two years has already flown and in the next two days you’re coming back! Guess what! I learnt how to make your favorite dishes! I’ve been practicing them since last week I think it’s already close to perfect.
I talked to Stephan on the phone; can you believe that he’s going to be the main lead for their broadway show Rent? I thought it was all bluff, if I know he's just the lead in the props area. He said he’ll be coming home on the 21st too! Lorraine promised to go home as well!
Can you believe it?! (said that sentence three times already! I still can't believe you're coming home!) I hope Celine doesn’t show up. But mom said that it will be rude if I didn’t invite her since she’s a friend of my friends. I called her last night; she said she was excited to finally meet you again.
But it’s weird. You know, she asked if it is okay that she comes "since you know, ‘our’ history." as she puts it. I didn’t know we have a history so I asked her what she meant and she told me to ask you. What is she talking about? I hope I can just uninvite her.
Oh, and by the way I hope you don’t mind that I invited Jonathan too. He’s been begging me nonstop to apologize for what he has done years ago. But I know he’s only joking that you still haven’t forgiven him yet. I saw the letter you sent him just last month. I didn’t know you’re also writing to him. I think I’m starting to get jealous.
As of the moment mom is yelling at me that my mashed potato is already burned. I forgot to take it out of the oven.
I hope time will just pass faster so I can wait for you by the platform as always! Neon neomu, neomu, neomu, neomu bogoshipeo. (I really, really, really, really miss you.)
PS: YOU CAN’T EVEN IMAGINE WHAT’S IN STORE FOR YOU WHEN YOU GET HOME!
Love,
Summer
I laughed. “So do you Summer. You have no idea what I will ask you the moment I walk out of that train.” I looked at the locket and placed it back again on my bed. Only two days left.
As I was about to look for my roommates I heard a loud explosion just nearby.
“Harry!” I heard my father’s alarmed voice as he entered my quarter. “We are being attacked.”
After that everything else was a blur. The moment we step out of my quarter the whole places became chaotic. Soldiers running here and there, guns and ammunition packed in their pockets as it is their only weapon for survival. There’s a loud boom just near us and I was about to follow my father when I remembered that I went out empty handed.
The locket.
Bombs and guns are firing everywhere, the quarters nearby are already burning. Half of ours is already being eaten by fire. I found the locket where I last placed it and held it safely in my palm, the thick smoke starting to blur my vision as the smell of burning air started to suffocate my lungs.
I have to endure it, I told myself. I can’t give up now. Summer is waiting for me. The moment I stepped out of the quarters I felt a stray bullet landing straight to my knee. I immediately felt the pain and started to crawl the way out of our burning quarter.
I limped my way and saw my father rushing to my side, as I crawl I then felt something in my hands. When I looked at my father he seems to be yelling, telling me something, gesturing but my mind is already too weak to function.
That’s when I started to feel the thing that I’m holding. Rough. With mostly craters. A bit elongated. But it was too late the moment I threw it away it already exploded mid air and I felt my face burning.
I can feel my father’s touch but I can’t hear his cries anymore. I can’t see his agony. I tried to open my eyes but I can’t. I was surrounded by darkness. I felt the locket in my grasp and thought of Summer.
And slowly, as I let myself surrender into darkness I can feel the locket starting to slip off my grasp.
It’s better this way. I assured myself.
Its best that I let go.
