destiny decried

the end before it began

Janine

Flashback...

"Welcome to the rest of your lives, Mrs. and Mrs. Navarro-Sto. Tomas!"

The once deadpan and despondent Mama looks radiant and ecstatic now.

The once bleak and doleful Tita Sen— now Mama Reese, looks beatific and blithe now, as if the thorn pierced in her chest was magically gone.

They complement each other, just like twin flames do. From posing the same obliviously, to looking in the same direction even when the least of attention is on the side they've switched their gaze to.

It's as if they were two peas in a pod.

It would be a shame to separate those peas, isn't it?

The pain reminds me of something so familiar I wouldn't dare utter its similarity to this. It's way too painful to even unearth it, but it's that pain my sisters, Mama, and Mama Reese knew all too well.

I haven't mentioned the news to the newly wed just yet.

I let the sadness simmer down.

It doesn't.

From across the table, Isabel stared at me in disbelief. Her tears were already forming and I had to hoist her from her seat to pull her outside because having shared the same sun sign, we knew all too well that the rain was about to pour.

Outside, the wind seemed to have felt the change that would destroy all of our lives. I regret rushing Isabel outside because I could feel my arm hairs rise up. The cold has always bothered me all the way.

"Ate.." Isabel's eyes were bleak.
"What happens now?" her long dragged breaths were evident and I had nothing in me to offer but to reach out to her for a hug.

"Their marriage is invalid," I gave her a reassuring smile, the only positive energy I could exude right now, "so they're not going to be exiled or anything."

It doesn't help Isabel. Or me.
We are helpless.

"How could God be so cruel to not even give them a one full day where they can be from from their woes and just retire in their slumber together?"

Issy asked and I had no answer because I, too, have the same question.

"Sis..." and I started weeping freely. One moment we were crying out of pure happiness, now, just like any other day before we were bonded together, we're back to grieving for another love that is yet to be lost.

"Martial Law," I spat out the words as if they were dirt in my mouth.

"He couldn't have been this cruel, could he? Martial law four years before his term ends and just two years in? and what? so he could kill more innocent people just like Narcos did? Just like what he has been doing for the last two years?"

And there was anger in Isabel's words that I wholly subscribe to. I feel it in my bones because how can you be so cruel, so greedy to simply take the freedom of the people who voted for you, the freedom that your parents have fought for to only take it away in a snap because you liked the power that you hold and you live to eradicate lives instead of poverty?

I could see Isabel's teeth clench and I could feel my hands shake like a club. I wonder if the people inside are already aware of this.

My heart shatters at the thought of my mothers finding out about this.