sampaguitas

a bad dream

"Ayan. Ms. Reyes told me that you bullied someone, is it true?" Asked his father.

"No. I was only asking him questions."

"..."

His father sighed, "dinner is ready. You two should go eat."

Ayan simply took his bag off and walked to the dinner table.

"Kuya! Kuya!" His brother tugged on his sleeves.

"How was kuya's day at school?" Asked Aratius, his younger brother, with a very cheerful tone.

"Kuya's day was good. What about Aratius's?" He said as he gently removes Aratius's hands from his sleeves.

"Aratius's day was not very good! Teacher Jovie was very very mean!"

Ayan slightly giggled at his brother, pulling out a chair on him as Aratius quickly hopped onto it.

...

...

...

"Ayan." His mother said in her Im-your-mother-so-you-
better-listen-or-else voice. "Let's have a talk after dinner."

"Is it about Antonio? Ms. Reyes told nanay?"

Ayan nodded and simply went back to eating his food. His emotionless facade then entered again and his brother was giving a why-are-you-so-masungit-
again look.

"Yehey! Aratius had finished his food!" The toddler said as he went down the chair.

"You didn't eat your rice!" His mother said, making the toddler stop in his tracks as he looked back to see his mother giving a why-didn't-you-eat-rice look again

Aratius started walking back and went up his chair, he shifted his head down to stare at the rice that he didn't eat.

"Just a little rice. Come on Aratius, you have to eat rice even if it's a little bit." His mother said, trying to persuade her son. "There's still alot of ulam. Aratius should hurry up before kuya eats all of it!"

"No! Save the chicken legs for Aratius!" He said as Ayan was about to grab the chicken leg.

"..." his brother was a bit reluctant whether to give his younger brother the chicken leg or not. Nevertheless, he still ended up giving it anyway which made Aratius very happy and hug him.

When Aratius had finished eating his rice, he quickly went upstairs, jumping to his bed immediately and obviously turning the electric fan on before doing so.

But he had a bad dream. A very bad dream.

"Huh?" Aratius looked around to see nothing but a dark void. There was no trees, no houses, no sun, no clouds. But he still managed to see.

He ran up until he was tired but it seemed like the scenery had changed not a tad bit. He sat down on the floor, feeling a bit panicked and nervous on what he should do.

Suddenly, a flashing light blinded him. What he saw was someone hanging, it looked like him older.

"Are you okay?!" Aratius ran up to the corpse, not knowing what happened until it dissapeared into nothing but exams, tests, math drills, assignments, and additional assignments.

"What's 2x(5x-7y+3?)!" Aratius thought, not knowing what in the Jose Protacio Rizal Mercado Y Alonso Realonda Jose Rizal was this.

Suddenly, the papers blew, forming a gravestone. It was simply a gravestone. There was no name on it. Just a simple tomb with flowers and a bunch of food placed on top of jt.

He woke up to her yelling, it seemed as if it was his brother's and mother's voice. He didn't seem to understand what they were talking about so he simply pulled his blanket over his head and covered his ears.