["PLAY THE KING" IS ACT TWO OF THE "PLAY" SERIES. PLEASE READ "PLAY THE QUEEN" FIRST.]
It's been four months since Priam Torres, the once unpopular president of the Elysian University Student Council, assumed office. Thanks to his chief-of-staff Cas...
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CASTIEL
MY HANDS could not stop shaking. My knees could stop not trembling. My body was so shocked that any attempt to calm it down was futile. I put my palms together and squeezed my eyes shut.
Priam, please be okay. Please, live!
The last time that I felt this way was about a year ago, when my sister Cassidy was rushed to the hospital after being hit by Alaric the Prick's car. Priam was with me back then, praying and hoping for good news from the doctors. Now, I was alone here, praying for his dear life as he was clinging on to it.
Thanks to the presence of medics in the campus fair, Priam was given immediate medical attention. May naka-standby na ambulansya sa labas kaya agad siyang pinasok doon at dinala sa ospital. We were so lucky that we coordinated with Clark Medical Center for this event. Kung hindi 'yon na-arrange ni Lavinia, baka hindi na umabot si Priam sa ospital.
Hindi ko alam kung sadyang mapagbiro ang tadhana o nataon na coincidence ito. Dinala si Priam sa kaparehong ospital kung saan naka-admit si Cassidy. Both were lying unconscious in their beds. Both uncertain whether they would open their eyes again or not.
I lowered my head and pulled my hair out of frustration. This is my fault . . . This is all my fault! I was so consumed with the present that I almost forgot the people that we had to trample over in the past. Now, the past had caught up with the present to bite me in the ass! Bran did not stab Priam randomly. He stabbed him out of rage, out of vengeance for what happened to someone close to him. Back then, we found a way to disqualify his runningmate Candice Delavin in the last student council elections, which made her severely depressed. She even tried to take her own life. That's why Bran kept on screaming "Para kay Candice" while swinging his knife at the president.
I took off my eyeglasses and buried my face into my palms. My goodness, what have I done? What have I brought upon ourselves? I would not mind if he attacked me instead of Priam. Yes, Priam benefited the most from Candice's disqualification, but I was the one who initiated it. Yes, Priam had knowledge of my plan, but I was the one who insisted in executing it.
For months, I had been hiding in the shadows, trying the manipulate events in our favor. I thought that was a good thing—being unseen, being invisible to the eyes of the public. But I did not expect that I was unconsciously putting a target on someone else's back.
If something were to happen to Priam . . . If he won't open his eyes again . . . I had no one to blame but myself. If I had been careful . . . If I had been not too reckless . . . Valeria would not have to resign. I would not have been vice president. Fabienne would not have hated me. Priam would not have to be attacked.
What is it? Naramdaman kong basa ang aking mga palad. Inilayo ko ang aking mga kamay at napansin ang mga luhang tumulo. I touched my cheeks and felt the stream of tears from my eyes. I wiped them off with my bare hands, but the tears kept falling.
