Renga Benga

32 - Danna

Third Person POV

Therese rolled her eyes at the clearly unprofessional newbie member of their syndicate group. She had told their leader many times to reconsider letting Mickey join, because of her compassion and pity for the victims they have to kill. It is obvious that her emotions always rule over every time they have to perform a task. "Yes, Mickey darling. They haven't done anything bad to us, but for the forty-seventh time, this is part of our job!" she hisses.

Mickey puts on her puppy dog eyes anyway, and starts pleading. "Therese, don't you have any love in your heart? Come on, give these two lovebirds a chance to live!"

"Why would I even bother?" Therese said frantically. "Who would you wish to die: these two people you don't even know, or our parents?"

"It doesn't have to be this way!" Mickey explained. "No one has to die! No one is the enemy! Our organization is the enemy: they make us kill innocent beings who haven't done anything to wrong us in any way. Why do we have to be the ones taking the life out of people? Why not them?!"

Her companion face-palmed herself for entertaining such an unwise decision. "If you are questioning this job and its very purpose, I don't see any reason to be pursuing this career any further! Why did you even enter this job in the first place?"

"I wanted a job! I wanted money! I wanted a better life, so I took this ad from the newspaper and applied without knowing what I had to do. And when I found out it was this and that betraying the society and defying its rules would cost my family's lives, I wasn't given an option to back out!" Mickey nearly yelled, her voice raising an octave because of her anger. "I have a feeling our stories are the same, Therese. You weren't given an option either, were you? You wanted a better life for the ones who loved, didn't you? That's how I know there's still a little bit more good in your heart to spare the lives of these people. What do you say?"

She closed her eyes and couldn't stop the response that came out of her mouth. "What if the society finds out that we didn't kill them? What are they going to do? Mickey, I have a four month old baby sister I haven't seen yet! I don't want them to kill her!" This time, tears were spilling out of Therese's eyes, which rarely happened as she didn't allow moments of weakness to occur in public...until now.

And just when Mickey thought her heart was taking a turn for the better, Therese looked at her with a gaze as sharp as daggers, and pulled out her gun from her back pocket. "I'm sorry, Mikaella dear. But, I don't think you're fit enough to be in ARMM. Quite frankly, I don't think you're fit enough to live." The stunned look on Mickey's face was beyond words, when she saw the gun pointed to her chest. Slowly but surely, she pulled out a similar gun from her back pocket and pointed it at the same level of Therese's body.

"Sorry, but I don't think cruel souls like you deserve death much more than people like me." Mickey said, her voice hushed like a whisper but contained with so much anger.

Therese threw her head back in laughter. "You couldn't fire a gun at a pillow during the training course. And a pillow just has fluff inside. But an actual human has blood and internal organs and a heart."

"I strongly believe you don't have a heart."

*BANG!*

Danna's POV

It's quite odd being the only person having to take her cat for a walk around the park. Here I am right now, being dragged by my cat Meredith for what seems to be our seventh round around this place. My feet feel like jelly already, but I continue to walk for the sake of my pet's physical activity. All of a sudden, my train of thought is interrupted by a ridiculously loud ambulance siren. My eyes also flickered to the countless numbers of police cars parked around the perimeter of the park. I saw policemen carrying clipboards, flicking their eyes around, examining every single detail to jot down on a notepad.

Being the curious person I am, and one who loves to collect different pieces of gossip, I decided to pass by, looking like I had no such intention to eavesdrop on whatever was happening. As I walked over, I found four bracelets on the ground. They read: Camille, Cedric, Therese and Mickey.

Why do they have bracelets on the floor? What happened to the four of them? Why are they drenched in...ew, blood? Who are they? And most importantly, where can I get a bracelet with my name on it? I really want one for myself with my name in red letters, wow.

The next day...

"Hey, Danna!" I was walking all by myself towards the screening gate, when my best friend Taylor came up to me and greeted me. She immediately noticed the puzzled look plastered on my face, and asked me what was up. I couldn't help but tell her all of the weird things I was able to witness last night, her comforting me and laughing at all the right places, which is exactly what I needed.

"Let's get ourselves some bracelets like that some time!" she suggested, just as we walked over to my classroom. "Well, I'll see you during recess?"

I pulled her into a bear hug, and did our secret friendship handshake before I finally proceeded to my classroom. I was just in time, and after the whole MOR and the daily sharing of our classmate SoNa, Ms. Soliman entered and gave us all a variation of her signature greeting, "Isang malamig na umaga, Diwa! (A cold morning to you, Diwa!)"

We let out a collective laugh, and once we had responded, she motioned for us to sit down. Looking around the classroom, she asked, "Val, sino ang liban ngayon? (Val, who are absent today?)" Our class secretary stood up, counted the number of empty chairs, asked who sat there, wrote down on her yellow clipboard and gave her final answer. "Tatlo po: sina Camille, Therese at Mickey po. (There are three: Camille, Therese and Mickey.)"

All of a sudden, the image of the four blood-drenched bracelets on the ground I saw last night flickered back in my mind, sending shivers down my spine. They must be absent for a reason. They must be absent...because they might just be severly injured or even, dead.

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yay for danna bc her best friend's taylor ((swift weyhey)) ++ im going to make an 8tracks playlist for renga benga when i get back to the phils!!!! para lang pag binabasa niyo to pampadagdag kilig and galit and stuff haha FOLLOW ME ON 8TRACKS: tbhangel ty - Admin 2