LOGINThe hospital room remained chaotic long after Dera woke up, because once the initial shock and relief settled slightly, everyone suddenly seemed to remember all at once how terrified they had been for the past several days, and instead of becoming calm normal human beings about it, they all processed their emotions in the loudest and most emotionally unstable ways possible.Dion refused to stop clinging to Dera’s arm.Deya cried every five minutes even while smiling.Alexion kept pretending he was composed while secretly wiping his eyes whenever nobody looked directly at him.Lora somehow managed to cry and complain simultaneously.And Alex?Alex looked like a man who had survived the apocalypse only to realize afterward that he still had no idea how to breathe properly again.He remained close to Dera constantly, almost unconsciously hovering beside her bed like his entire nervous system still refused to believe she would stay alive unless he physically stayed near her, and every sin
For one terrifying second after Dera opened her eyes, nobody moved.Not Alex.Not the nurses rushing into the room.Not even Lora, who had spent the last several days talking nonstop like silence itself offended her personally.Because after so many sleepless nights, after too many moments of hope ending in disappointment, everyone had become afraid of believing too quickly, afraid that this would disappear the moment they reached for it.Alex stared at Dera like a man witnessing a miracle he no longer thought he deserved to see.Her eyes were still weak and unfocused from the coma, her breathing uneven, her body exhausted beyond imagination, but she was awake.Alive.Looking back at him.“...Alex?”Her voice came out barely above a whisper, rough and fragile from days of silence, but the moment Alex heard it, something inside him completely broke apart.“Baby…”The word escaped him like a prayer.His trembling hands immediately cupped her face carefully as tears filled his eyes so fa
At first, there was only darkness. Not the frightening kind. Not cold. Not painful. Just endless silence, soft and distant, like floating underwater while hearing the world from far away, and no matter how hard I tried to move, my body refused to respond, as if something invisible kept pulling me deeper into a place between sleeping and waking. I could hear voices sometimes. Familiar voices. Lora’s loud complaining. Alex’s trembling whispers. The soft cries of my children. But they all sounded so far away, like echoes drifting through heavy fog that I could never fully reach. And then suddenly a warmth feeling a familiar warmth. The kind that made my chest ache before I even opened my eyes. When I finally looked up, I found myself standing beneath a sky painted in soft gold and pale orange, the wind moving gently around me while flower petals drifted slowly through the air, and for a few seconds, I simply stood there confused because everything felt too peaceful compared to t
The hospital had become a strange second home for everyone connected to Dera, a place filled with endless waiting rooms, sleepless nights, cold coffee, silent prayers, and the constant fear that one wrong sentence from a doctor could destroy what little hope they were desperately holding onto, and while the younger ones tried to survive the situation through sarcasm, arguments, or distraction, the mothers carried their pain differently quietly, heavily, and alone.Dera’s mother looked older now.Not because of time.But because grief had a way of aging people faster than years ever could.That afternoon, she sat alone inside the small hospital chapel with trembling hands clasped tightly together, staring blankly at the dim light in front of her while tears silently rolled down her cheeks one after another, because no matter how much she tried to stay strong for her daughter, for the children, for everyone around her she was still just a mother watching her child suffer again and again
The moment Dera’s fingers moved, the entire hospital room erupted into chaos so quickly that even the nurses outside became startled by the sudden shouting, because after days of silence, after endless hours of waiting and praying and crying, even the smallest movement felt like a miracle nobody dared hope for anymore.“Doctor!” Alex shouted immediately, his chair nearly falling backward as he stood up too fast, his trembling hands still holding onto Dera’s weak fingers like he was terrified the movement would disappear if he let go.Within seconds, doctors and nurses rushed into the room while everyone else stepped back anxiously, watching every tiny reaction from Dera as though their entire world depended on it.Because it did.The doctor carefully checked the monitors before turning toward Alex and the others with a calmer expression than they had seen in days.“It’s a good sign,” the doctor explained, nodding slightly, “very good, actually… patients in comas sometimes respond to f
The hospital room was too quiet.Not the peaceful kind of quiet, but the kind that suffocated everyone inside it the kind that made every sound feel heavier, every breath harder, every second painfully longer because despite the steady beeping of the machines surrounding Dera’s bed, despite the doctors saying she was alive, the truth remained cruelly simple.She still hadn’t opened her eyes.Three days.Three painfully long days had passed since the incident at the facility, and not once had Dera moved, not once had she spoken, not once had she reacted to anything around her, leaving everyone trapped in a nightmare they could not wake up from.Alex looked worse with each passing hour.The once intimidating man who used to terrify entire organizations now sat beside a hospital bed like a broken soul barely holding himself together, his clothes wrinkled, his eyes bloodshot from lack of sleep, his hands trembling every time he touched Dera like he was terrified she would disappear if he
Maaga pa lang sana akong nagigising para maghanda papasok sa trabaho, ngunit bago pa man tuluyang mawala ang antok ko ay biglang nag-vibrate ang cellphone ko sa bedside table, kasabay ng mahinang tawag ni Lora mula sa labas ng kwarto na halos pasigaw sa kaba at excitement.“Girl! Gising ka na ba? N
Hindi ko alam kung malas ba ang universe ko o sadyang mahilig lang ang tadhana na guluhin ang buhay ko sa mga oras na medyo nagiging tahimik na ang lahat, dahil habang pababa ako ng building ng company at hawak ang bag ko, ready na sana umuwi at magpahinga mula sa emotionally confusing na araw ko k
Lunch break na at sa wakas nakahinga rin ako nang maayos mula sa back-to-back meetings na parang ginawa para sirain ang mental stability ko. Nasa pantry ako kasama sina Mae at Carlo, plus isang bagong staff from IT na si Japs na sobrang daldal at parang naka-three cups ng kape kahit wala pa namang
Hindi ko alam kung anong mas nakakabigla, yung salitang punishment o yung paraan ng pagtitig niya sa akin na parang ilang araw na siyang may gustong sabihin pero pinipigilan lang dahil sa pride, position, at kung anu-ano pang dahilan na siya lang ang may alam.Nasa loob kami ng office niya. Tahimik







