Feet To Where?

CHAPTER 4

Bottle of Aches.

Ahhh, what a quiet morning~

It was the first thought the float into my mind as I become conscious. The place was too quiet that I even heard the rhythm of tides from the sea.

Then, slowly, I lifted my eyelids, squished my eyes using both hand until every little detail of the room becomes clearer before me.

But, the serenity that I'm feeling did not last long than I expected.

Beep!

Instantly, consecutive scenarios rushed back into my mind. From the coinciding encounter, the agreement to have a photoshoot, how I overthink last night and was unable to sleep properly, and then the supposedly event today.

Exactly 12:00 PM!

Yet the agreed time for meet up was supposedly at 9:00 AM.

Ah, for heaven's sake!

Then my stomach grumbled, loudly requesting for food. "Eat now!" it shouted. I smiled absurdly and concluded that, despite the fact that I just woke up, misfortune was indeed clearly exhibiting its power to me.

I sighed, "What a great way to start my day!"

***

I arrived at the park around one o'clock in the afternoon.

I'm not the type of person na pwedeng madaliin ang sarili na magbihis at kumain. I'd rather take things slowly. At isa pa, tatlong oras na akong late kaya wala na ring saysay na dalian ko pa.

Alam ko na wala na ako ditong madadatnan dito sa parke. But I still tried, baka mapag-isipan niyang ring bumalik kinahapunan.

I waited.

And waited.

But after a few hours with no figure of him, I became uneasy.

My heart started thumping loudly, beads of sweats appeared one by one, eyes became weary for moving second after second, and my breathing became unstable.

Shadows, voices howling in pain, curses, betrayal. Flashed onto me at once.

I heard my mom's terrified voice behind my back.

But i didn't move. I couldn't. Terror consumed me as my eyes reflected the red light coming from the front of me. I was gasping for air to breathe. But all i could inhale was smoke.

I was half unconscious. I could barely see my mom's face. But I'm pretty sure that she's worried about me.

"Come here, Tul. Run to mama!"

But I didn't know what to do. I couldn't do anything. I only remained motionless.

Things became a little chaotic. And when I saw my mom getting near me with all her might, I heard a loud cracks from above before fully losing my consciousness.

Then, another scene appeared into my mind.

"I'm sorry but I can't let my father's name become tainted. So, you're gonna be the one to take the blame. You are that one who cheated, not me. Remember that. I'll make sure everybody remembers that. And the reason why you are here with bruises on your face was because you beat my bodyguards and you're a monster so that everyone's going to be afraid of you.

I abruptly stopped my thoughts from continuing by forcefully closing my eyes and stood up.

And then realized, I was searching for air to breathe.