The time is near to claim another of her kind. This has not come to her understanding yet, even if it had, there's no way she can escape.
☪ ⚜ ⚜ ⚜ ☪
"Oh my! Maxine, did I just find a perfect dress for you?" My mom's eyes sparkled at the sight of a fitted, backless, black dress that looked effortlessly elegant on the perfectly-shaped mannequin. I rolled my eyes as it was so short, it won't even cover my knee. She swooped the dress and overlapped it on my black turtleneck sweater examining how it will look like if I wore it.
"Perfect!"
"I will not wear this, mom," I said dryly.
She made a sad face, making me feel guilty. Not that I was boyish or whatever, but wearing a dress, especially the one she was holding, would suffocate my soul.
"Aissst! Take a look first before you argue." My mom puffed an exasperating tone. Suddenly, her hands grabbed my arms; my legs started to move as she exerted force to drag me in front of the mirror.
"Now look and say it's not good enough!" I stared at the woman on the reflection. An ordinary girl with messy golden brown hair, with excess fats on her lower chin, big ebony-colored eyes, flat nose, and a skin as pale as a powder. I pitied myself for looking so ordinary. The dress was awesome, perfect as she said, but not on me.
"Mom, you should know better that I don't wear dresses like this, I prefer those that will cover my body. I'm more comfortable with it." I said, then held her arms and dragged her with me out of this inclusive room for highly fashionable dresses.
"But you are about to attend a very important gathering, you must look pretty!" she said while bustling her way back to the dress. Well, of course, I did not let her.
"Mom! I don't think I can match the beauty of other attendees by wearing that dress! So, instead of having a trying hard aura, it will be best if I'll be as unsophisticated as I actually am," I said coldly.
"Oh dear, why are you so harsh on yourself?"
"I am not mom! I'm just being truthful." I wore one before, but I ended up being bullied. I kind of forgot though, or better yet, I pushed myself to erase those unwanted memories.
"Believe me my dear you are beautiful! You just have to unleash that!"
"Mom, what for? I have made some friends in Canada just by being me, for sure there will be some who'll accept me as I am here in our country, and I hope you're the first one to."
"But—"
"Mom, you know your arguments won't work on me! So, let's just enjoy our time together, okay? I'll be able to find an elegant dress soon."
When she had completely given up, I phoned Baba to come over and eat with us in the restaurant.
"Baba's meeting is about to end, he'll come over," I excitedly announced. Mom, in return, just smiled.
Two weeks later
"Oh, you look pretty...." I was walking down our Brazilian Cherry Stairway, glancing at my wavy dress on the reflection from one side of the double helix with starlight glass balustrade, when my cousin dropped by and stopped to say that alien phrase. Honestly, I had just encountered those words, I wonder what it meant? I sighed a little in relief then she added, "...horrible!"
I looked down to examine my black off-shoulder dress. The sleeves were long, though there was a little peek at the waist level, I felt more comfortable with it. The fabric was soft and refreshing. It was beautiful, but as expected, it didn't shine because I was the one wearing it.
"Isn't it too tight for you?"
"Nope, just fit enough to display my curves."
"Curves? You have curves? Where?" She looked everywhere but me.
There was no way she could get into my nerves!
I leaned my face closer to her and uttered in a whisper tone, "Get out in front of my beautiful face if you don't want me to spill your dirty little secret, my dear." I played my hands and face in harmony just to add a little emphasis to the words 'beautiful face'.
Just when I saw the madness swelled on her eyes, I walked fast, jerked her, and didn't look back. I wondered how red her face became. Giving other people the privilege to insult and humiliate me wasn't in my dictionary, only I have the right to do that to myself.
I walked straight through our laser carved door and gawked at the sight of three black luxurious BMW X7 lined up on the garage.
My Mom was leaning her back on the first car, busy fidgetting her cellphone. There was a trace of dread on her face and I had no idea what was causing it.
I approached her; her face lightened when she noticed me.
"Oh, my precious daughter! Is that really you?" She smiled broadly and I could feel the amusement my appearance had brought her. "Thank you for wearing that dress, you don't know how happy you have made me," she said and wrapped her arms around me.
"I'm glad that I made you happy." I smiled and hugged back. In my mind, you don't know how much I'm enduring just to make you happy.
"This is the day you'll be able to see the world I and your father had lived for years. I tried to pull you away from it but there isn't any escape for this." I gave her a confused look as I didn't get what she meant by her remarks. Suddenly, I felt a soft caress when she brushed her finger on my face, she then cupped my cheeks with her two hands. It was cold yet full of warmth.
"This is your destiny and you'll be living with it for the rest of your life. Be brave enough to accept this reality."
"What do you mean, Mom?" I asked perplexed about what she was trying to say.
"You'll know it very soon." She placed her lips on my forehead for seconds. I didn't feel like I wanted her to stop. But when she did, when she pulled her hands away from mine, and as I watched her disappear and make her way into the car, I felt lonely and empty. I longed for her that instant.
My Baba and grandparents were also in the same car. I kissed and hugged each of them.
How I wish we're always complete like this.
My heart squirmed the soonest I stepped my way to the car next to them. My world stopped as my heartbeat became erratic. My intuition told me something was wrong, but without any clue what it was, I disregarded the thought. Little did I know that I will soon regret not listening to the warning sent by my psyche.
To be continued...
~•⚜⚜⚜•~ The Villa awaits, The Serpent craves, The Serdents prepare;The Oblates hot on the trail. ~•⚜⚜⚜•~ I hopped onto the second car and secured the back seat, pulled out my earphone, and took off my not so high heels. "Alissa, faster we'll be late!" my Aunt called her daughter. "Coming!" Alissa shouted. "It's good that you know your place." Just when I was about to put the earphones on my ears, the bitch entered and dared to mess with me. I showed off a sharp glare followed by a rough smile, "Unlike you, trying hard to secure what's not hers." I didn't have any grudges against this bitch, she was just so irritating. "Here come the two beautiful la
~•⚜⚜ Pain crashes the soul yet a burning fire fixes it. ~•⚜⚜⚜•~ A small chatty voice muffled into my ears, making me furrow my brows. Someone was too noisy. I tried to open my eyes to see who was disturbing my sleep. I blinked many times but the light was too bright; my eyes had a hard time adjusting. "Max, are you awake? Can you hear me?" I followed the source of the voice, though my head felt hefty. I squinted to see clearly. As the vision started to get clearer, a girl with long and slightly curled burgundy hair was plastering her bitter-sweet smile at me. Her caramel eyes glittered in happiness but ironically reflected some sadness. "Juliet?" I mumbled. My legs
I didn't know things would go this fast. If I had been at least informed that they will leave this world, I should have hugged mom longer, I should have at least took a good look at my father's face. I should have not been so rude to them. Why couldn't life or fate give us that privilege, that way, we wouldn't have many regrets in life? "Max, let's go! The weather looks bad, it will rain anytime soon. We'll go back here another day, okay?" Juliet tapped me on my shoulder. I placed my hand on her hand and looked her in the eyes. "No, you go. I'll stay here a little longer." I smiled, though it was a weary one, it was enough to let her feel that I would be fine. "Max, I understand your situation. I am also in agony about what happened, but it's painful seeing you like this. Your paren
"Are you sure you are going to apply to that company?" Lex asked while pointing at a convex 24-story high-rise building captivating his eyes from the window of his car. Its semi-baronial style and high-class structure were quite impressive that it kicked other buildings out from ones' sight. "Wouldn't it be hard for you to move on when you're there?" There was so much worry in his voice as he spoke, and I understood where it was coming from. But I couldn't think of him in that instance, there was something more important than what they feel, and that was my revenge. "I'll search patiently for pieces of shredded evidence they had left and work hard to form the picture-puzzle of the culprit. I will make them pay for what they've caused me. And this place shall witness my initial step." The seat belt was probably screaming as I tightened my grip on it and it wasn't far from the current state of my hea
After what felt like years of searching, I finally found an office named after Mr. Lleneda. I knocked, but no one answered. The papers felt so heavy on my arms and I got exhausted for searching his room, so I pushed open the steel door and decided to put the papers on the table. Facing it was a two rectangular-shaped sofa with a glass table in the middle. It felt so soft and tempting; right before I realized it, my body was already lying flat, lost on its cloudy like texture. A few minutes later, after I felt an increase in my energy level, I got up. No one is around yet, this is a good opportunity to start looking for information. My hand roamed around as it tried to feel the surfaces of each object, not really sure of what to look for. The office was clean yet covered with a thick cream-colored curtain which made his room look dim. There were more or less three portraits plastered on the
While waiting for our order to come to the table, Lexter started talking about his meeting with the private investigator. "Our investigator had been looking through various profiles your parents had a connection with. He couldn't find any suspicious individuals yet, but-," he cut his words short, hesitant if he should say it or not. "But?" I urged impatiently.
The dark and gloomy sky was bathed in magical silver light and I can't help but watch in awe from the comfort of the soft foamy front seat of Lexter's car. He decided to stop for a while on the near edge of the world so we could breathe from the stress and frustrations of life. "How's your back? Can you feel any crack on your spine?" he interrupted, worried about the condition of my back after I told him everything that happened in the room.
The vibrant hues of red blended with tangerines and purples painted the sky and sent a quite invigorating panorama that welcomed us as we landed in Narita International Airport. The rays touched down in the horizon behind the shadow of a mountain peak as the moon appeared on the other side to catch up with the escaping sun. No one but myself seemed to appreciate the nature-sent invitation as passengers moved swiftly out of the plane.