The Deceit in Louvre Bridge (Black Knights #2)

Chapter 2

Y R E A

"Can you hear me, Eyah?" The voice outside the room seems to be real as I hear it the second time. "Answer me, please."

"Why are you here? Why now?"

I'm shocked to the core but I can still recognize her voice. To the point that everything hazy in the past few years become so clear in my mind again.

"Don't say that, Eyah. Please..."

"Leave."

"No. I'll stay here. I got his permission." Sa sinabi niya, mas lalong lumakas ang kutob ko. Fuck! That old man again!

"Bakit pa? What's the sense with you being here...now? Why not years ago? Nakakagago lang." I can't control the bitterness that came out from my mouth. It's like history gonna repeat itself soon.

It was damn silent for a minute or two, that I thought it was all just my hallucination and I'm talking to myself crazily. But when I heard her voice again, I'm near to losing my sanity. Why it has to be you? Who really are you? Why do you have to add up to my fucked up life? I like you. No! I liked you.

"Still, I like you too." I heard her chuckled. Did I blurted it out loud?

"You do know I'm being serious here." My tone says it all but she can't seem to stop. "What's your motive this time, Keizefica Flerio? Or should I say, Undercover Z88?"

"Oh, you knew?" Her voice sounded like it doesn't matter. "I thought were gonna have fun again like we used to have in---"

"Don't! I didn't want any of that!"

I abruptly stopped her from making me reminisce those memories together with the lingering feelings I felt for her before everything became chaotic. I can't afford to lose myself again in some abstract thing they call love. It's not even stupidity! It's illusion. That makes you feel jittery in a moment, then absolute nothingness after sometime.

"You really hate me that much, huh?" It was just a whisper but I immediately sensed the hurt in her voice. It's like she's contemplating about something.

"Kailangan ko pa bang sagutin yan?" The truth is, I can't give her a straight answer. "Umalis ka na. Wala kang mapapala rito."

Ilang minutong naging tahimik sa kabilang bahagi ng pinto kaya inakala kong wala na siya. Hahakbang na sana ko pabalik sa higaan nang muli ko siyang narinig.

"...kahit pa sabihin ko sayo kung sino ako? The real me I'm talking about. No lies and no pretentions. Just me."

Hindi ako kumibo. Naguguluhan pa rin ako kahit malinaw na ang sagot sa isip ko. Ayaw kong magkamali ulit. I can't afford to lose myself now, especially that my mother needs me.

"Just go away... like what you did that year ago."

"I did everything for you." That was the last thing I heard before the whole place succumb into total silence. I guess she's really gone.

For good.

I was about to go back to bed when everything became blurry. It felt like the whole room was spinning. My body was losing its balance. I forced closed my eyes and opened it again for many times, only to find out that I just woke up from a dream. Panting and sweating. From a fucking not-so-good dream.

Why? Why did I have to dream again of her?

Fuck that damn dream! No... It was a nightmare! That was the last conversation we had that I hated the most. It was over a year already. And I thought that I am fine now. But fuck... I'm just lying to myself.