Cradle of the Valiant (Duyan ng Magiting)

CH 6 - DISCORDANT NOTES

The lights are drawing his eyes like the moths that circle it. He wonders what allure does the light pose to these creatures that they will dive even to a flame.

He tapped his pocket for a cigarette.

He found one.

The last one.

He took out his lighter and raised it to the moths.

"Come here, idiots. Burn yourselves," he grimly thought.

He felt like they were alike. He came from one of the harshest burns of his young life. Not that it will be the last.

Nor will it be the worst.

He doesn't know it yet but his future is a burning trail.

He smiled bitterly and lighted his cigarette.

The lights on the ceiling of the bus station flickered and he felt like someone was looking at him.

He discreetly looked around as if watching the smoke from his cigarette, playing with it with his fingers, making it dance and coil as it dissipated into the air.

There were several people sitting on the benches but none that looked suspicious.

If anything, he was the suspicious one.

He laughed inwardly at that.

There was never anyone that trusted him. He can't blame them. Even he didn't trust himself.

He sighed and plopped back into the bench. Not that he had anything worth stealing.

Except maybe for the guitar. He tapped its hardcase and drummed an incoherent rhythm.

In his life, this may be the only thing he ever loved except for the girl in the flower shop.

Or the girl in his school. The cute one with the hello kitty backpack.

Or the girl who gave her his latest burn. He giggled like crazy and immediately stopped himself and glanced if anyone noticed.

One elderly man was looking at him with suspicious regard.

There's a familiar look. He giggled again and looked the other way.

His cigarette is almost spent. He flicked it at the nearby trash bin; missed and got up to properly dispose of it.

So much for wanting to look cool.

The next bus is not yet due for another 10 minutes.

He took out the guitar and began strumming lightly.

The melodious tinkle of those chords were carried by the air towards the person who was looking at him earlier. That person closed her eyes and let the sonorous melody cover the melancholic silence of the bus station.

The young man stopped playing for a while and looked steadily at the name painted on the guitar's body.

Vince.

He flipped it over in the air and played again when it landed.

The song he was playing was a new song. It was never played before. Not in this world but in another.

He didn't know how he knew the song. He just played it like it's the most natural thing in the world.

It was the song he played for the girl he went to visit.

They met online and she seemed like the nicest, most beautiful girl ever. She did not want to meet at first but after he insisted, she reluctantly agreed to meet.