🏆 LONGLIST - OPEN NOVELLA CONTEST 2022 🏆
Vincent Pareja longs for the day when his family won't worry about money and his siblings can go to school without skipping a meal. With his choices limited and with the wage, however small, promises to hel...
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The crowd's cheer was louder than ever when we arrived there with my brothers. Last night, I called Jessa up with the house landline and, while we talked, I didn't falter to notice the fine line of dust gathering over the receiver like it wasn't used for a long time. Did Gab break up with his girlfriend? Why didn't he tell me?
Jessa's voice had sounded the same from how it did when she called through the phone in the office. I told her about our whole family going to the rally and her elation could have leaped out of the handset if it could. We exchanged our expected location and spent the rest of the evening planning where we're supposed to meet up. "Panay Avenue sounds good, don't you think?" she said. "There's less crowd there compared to the highway so you wouldn't have to worry about missing each other."
"Sure."
"See you tomorrow, Vince," she said, her rare sweetness bleeding into her tone.
I smiled even though I knew full well she wouldn't see it. "Yeah," I said. "See you tomorrow."
When tomorrow did come, I left my family in the care of a few nuns who were present in the rally before dashing off to the avenue Jessa and I agreed to meet in. A huge transmitter tower loomed above the two-story buildings around it. The sky was bright and clear, with no clouds blocking the sun from blessing us with its rays.
Thousands of people in all kinds of clothes and all colors of shirts milled about. Some held hand-painted signs and raised it to the heavens while others bore the country's flag and waved it in the air. Music floated through the air as men and women with guitars and beat boxes paraded around with their songs. Something memorable was bound to happen today, I could feel it.
Radios were cranked up to their maximum volume where announcers were highlighting the key events happening in the streets which we couldn't see. My eyes scanned the crowd for Jessa's familiar frame as I tore through the crowd, muttering my excuse-me's and sorry's.
"Vince!" a voice called me. I turned and there she was, in a plain white shirt, khaki trousers, and a simple pair of gray tsinelas. Her hair was out from its usual bun, spilling from her head like a dark waterfall. I raised my hands, telling her I didn't have any weapons with me and she nodded. With eyes bright and a smile spread too wide, she started running towards me and I to her.
A gun fired, eliciting scattered screams of surprise and terror. The world slowed as I traced the trajectory of the bullet to somewhere familiar. Somewhere...
Time lurched forward as Jessa hit the ground with a silent thump. I whipped behind me to find Melchor in his constabulary uniform pointing his rifle at me with the barrel still smoking from the bullet he fired. My breath hitched as the gravity of what he had done settled into me.
He...
"I had to get rid of the rebels," Melchor met my eyes and dropped his words with such conviction. Before I could lunge to punch him or kill him or something, he ran north, yelling all the way for people to clear the way. More people got hit and fell down, brewing more panic on the crowd.
