[ COMPLETED ] • [ EDITED ]
Nadia Valiente's disappearance has always been a mystery to her friend, Marina. By how her alleged suicide took place, up to the position that she was in whilst on that river, soaked to death, felt like an unsealed package...
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MARINA
Saturday.
I'm staring at the cream ceiling of my room. The atmosphere is so silent that it suddenly becomes deafening to hear nothing.
I stand up, and I can feel how hot my neck is. I don't know, maybe it's because of the medicines that I take almost every hour of my life.
Nakakasawa. I want to vomit every time I insert those circled capsules inside my mouth and digest them down there. But still, the hallucinations never left me. They still are coming more often lately. Like a visitor who isn't invited to attend an event.
I stare at the white paint of my walls. Nagkalat ang iba't-ibang mga painting dito. The first one is nothing but a red apple. The next painting is a tree that has no leaves, and the last one on the right side, the one that Nadia painted when I met her at the fair, a trophy with wings.
"What does that mean?" I ask and my saliva spits out of my mouth because I just lost my tooth yesterday night when I was eating a sandwich.
The girl glances at me with her black eyes and dark straight hair. "Are you talking to me?"
I slowly nod with a smile while clutching my paintbrush at my back.
"Oh, this? This means that not everyone can commit success. Only those people who are willing to jump while raising their hands to the air would be able to get the trophy," she says with a smile while pointing her painting. "Because you know what?" pilyang saad niya. "Come here, I'll tell you a secret." she motions her hand towards herself, so I scoot over her face.
"Success is flying everywhere. It could be here right now, actually," she whispers and I can feel her grin behind my right ear.
"Really?" I surprisingly mutter with shockness.
She nods. "Really."
"So how can we get it, then?"
"We just have to keep on jumping until it reaches where we are standing. And by that time, make sure to spread your fingers widely and grasp the trophy when you have the chance to."
"Have you... got the trophy?"
She shakes her head with a giggle. I noticed that she also lost two teeth, the ones located at the middle. "Nope. That's why I keep on jumping every now and then. How about you? I've only seen you here once. Is it your first time painting?"
"No. But this is my first time participating on an exhibit."
"Why? It's fun! You should try—"
"Mommy doesn't want me to. She always says that it's not safe for me to go outside. She only let me pass today because it's my birthday. And I'm currently surrounded by numbers of guards."
