Collection of Short Stories

LOST & FOUND

One silent dusk, I was just sitting on one of the tables of our restaurant while watching darkness eat everything around me. The moment the sun hid itself at the back of the tall cliffs, I had my own kind of darkness eating me too. All those jailed tears fell like a prisoner longing for fresh air from this unfair world, I was tired-no, I was exhausted. Tired is an understatement for what I've felt that day.

Darkness ate me while sadness is taking control of my body too. I let the waves of emotion control me. And as my tears continued escaping its vessel, my hand started taking off my phone hoping that someone would mind calling me or asking me if I am fine. To my surprise, there are none. At that specific moment, I wanna shout all those rants. all those problems. I wanted to shout as loud as I could so the moon and the sun could hear me. I want those shimmering lights that are starting to twinkle in that black night sky be off for a while. I want them to die too while part of me is on death bed. I want all the planets in the solar system to just stop rotating and pay attention to me. I want the Milky Way to hug me that time and just let me go lost in her wilderness.

But don't get me wrong, I don't want to die. I am not suicidal. I just want to disappear for a while and see if someone will look after me.I don't want to be gone, I just wanna be found. But I am not lost, I was never lost, it is just that, no one can find me-even I, I can't find myself.

When the crickets started singing, that's the moment I knew I should stop crying. It's already 6:48 pm but my feet can't walk, I don't want to go to a house that doesn't feel like home. I don't want to lock myself inside of a crowded room that feels empty and lie in my bed pretending everything is okay when not a single thing in my world feels good. There are monsters in my room, I'm scared. So while waiting for myself to get bored, I opened chrome and went to an unfamiliar site. I don't want to go there but I was forced to, I need someone to talk to. I need a savior.

After some queues and some turns, I found one! I started the conversation with "M18" which means "Male, 18". Then she replied and I replied. The process of communication is being done continuously and spontaneously until we get into the part of getting to know each other. We've had several good topics but we settled in conversing about journalism because she is a live reporter of the Filipino TV Broadcasting team of Laguna last 2019 in RSPC CALABARZON. That time, I was the live reporter of the Filipino Radio Broadcasting team of Quezon. We were breathing the same air and didn't know it. So we extended everything and switched to Telegram, exchanging accounts and everything-keeping in touch and being good friends.

Time flew so fast like a bullet train. I didn't notice that it was already eight o'clock. I can feel the cold breeze coming from the calm waves of the sea while the boats on it are swaying as if it's dancing under the light of the moon. I can't explain what I am feeling but all I know is that I did smile genuinely. I smiled as if it's the happiest day of my life. I didn't rant. I didn't tell her what I was going through before the moment we talked but I think someone did understand my situation. Finally, I was found. But I am still scared of going home, I can't sleep on that bed where monsters inside me creep on it. Those gray monsters of overthinking kill me everytime I sit on that bed. It's not a place for me to rest, it is where I get to experience death. I am afraid of it. I ran from it.

But even if I don't want to go home, my feet brought me to the doorstep of our house. And as soon as I opened my room, my heart beat fast, butterflies started flying in my stomach, they went wild but even if I am scared, I cannot deny that this area is the only place where I can be.

I took a deep breath before pulling the big door in front of me. I was just standing as if I'm in the wrong room, the dark aura was gone, I couldn't feel the creeper-the monsters.

"This is not my room, it's weird." I whispered softly to myself.

I sat in my bed and continued chatting with the stranger I just met. That was the best moment of my life. I feel like I'm in the clouds, floating, flying up above. My foam did become the softest bed of all, for the very first time, it felt like I was on the fluffiest bread in the universe.

From that day on, I never blamed the moon for anything but thanked her a lot for giving me the best time of my life. I am now loving all the stars in the sky because they twinkle like the calm heartbeats when I'm talking with the stranger I met online. This time around, I want the planets to stop rotating so I can pause the time while talking to her. And I don't want the Milky Way to hug me anymore because someone just found me when I can't find myself.

I am lost in words but that is the most magical moment of my life. The end and the beginning of the new me. The unexpected start from the expected ending.

I am now happy with my life, living, and smiling. Letting the world rotate around me. But still, I believe in what I've been believing since the very beginning.

"I just want to be found."

And she found me.

- END