if guns can cry (bittersweet #5)

28 | Morrow

Suddenly-bang.

A shot rang out.

Yndra shoved me against a wall, shielded me with her body. Her side grazed. Dumugo.

"YNDRA!"

"Go," she grunted. "Doon-exit, five meters, right."

"No-"

"GO, GUCCI!"

Isa pang putok.

The echo split the air before I could move.

Yndra jerked back, a flash of red blooming across her side. My scream ripped out of me, but then, another sound, sharper and closer.

A body lunged between us.

For a heartbeat, I couldn’t process it her hair whipping, her eyes fixed on me, not in fear, but in some final decision. And then the bullets hit.

Hindi lang isa... Dalawa... Tatlo... At may mga sumunod pa.

I stood there, useless, feeling the years between them, the history I could never touch. The way Yndra’s hands shook as if holding Gianna was the only thing keeping her from shattering completely.

Blood smeared across Yndra’s sleeve, warm and dark, soaking through until it was impossible to tell which wounds were hers and which were Gianna’s.

And all I could think was, how many times had Yndra dreamed of this moment? How many times had I wished for it only for it to come like this, dripping and heavy and wrong?

I took a step, knees weak. “Gianna-”

Her gaze found mine, unfocused but soft. “Take care… of her.”

My throat locked. I nodded, even though I didn’t know if she could see me anymore.

Then her eyes closed.

And Yndra, she didn’t sob, didn’t scream. She just held her tighter, as if letting go meant admitting the truth.

I’d never hated silence more in my life.

Then there she is... Now lifeless at Yndra's arms.

Yndra was shaking. Not from fear, she’d stopped feeling that a long time ago, but from the kind of pain that makes your bones forget how to hold themselves together. Her hands pressed against Gianna’s wound, fingers trembling, blood seeping between them like the world itself was leaking out.

“Gia…” she whispered, but it was broken, like her voice was being dragged over glass.

She's already dead but Yndra still kept on calling her.

I wanted to move, but my knees didn’t understand commands anymore. I stood there, useless, watching the air die between us.

· · ─ ·ʚɞ· ─ · ·

Wala akong marinig.

Hindi ko alam kung putok pa ba 'yon o tibok lang ng puso ko na parang gustong tumigil. I was lying flat on my stomach, my arm pressed against my gut, trying to hold something in, heat, blood, sigaw? I wasn't sure anymore.