AMACon 3: Oikos - Home

Stranger - Chapter Six

'What do you mean?... You're lying.. How can she... How can she..' She looks between him and Baste, expecting one of them to laugh out loud telling her it was all a joke but nothing. Baste looks at her with sad eyes whereas for him... He looks completely lost. She realized he had loosened his hold on her. But for some reason she didn't want to escape anymore.

'Kuya is not lying Ate... His sister is really dead,' Baste tells her in a low voice.

'But how? When? Where, why?' she rambled on, trying to make sense of everything.

'She died two weeks ago Ate. They rounded off some rebels and she was one of them. They hanged her the very next day.'

And memories about reading the report came rushing back to her. Reading it while eating her meat sandwich.

Reading it in the garden. Where she met Faye.

Where she gave Faye her name, her sandwich..

It was too much. Too much to absorb.

Her feet buckled underneath her and she collapses on the ground. Had he not put an arm around her instinctively, she would have for sure fractured some bones of hers.

'Ate.. What's happening...'

'Newbie, you okay? Do you need water?'

Both him and Baste were busy worrying over her, asking her if everything was alright. But she just continues to stare at them blankly.

It was Faye who had made her more curious about what was happening in the country. It had made her question the government's actual motives, to look beyond their empty promises.

She was the one who made her feel sympathy the homeless and the hungry. The entire reason why she hadn't told anyone about Baste. In a way she was trying to look after him like she couldn't for Faye. It was another story entirely that Baste turned out to be a rebel and made her eager to seek him out to learn more about their group.

But more than that, unintentionally Faye had helped her to move on. She had made her realize how ungrateful she was being. At the tender age of 8, she had lost both of her parents and was a hungry, homeless kid who had a brother looking for revenge. Yet she wasn't busy moping around, being a picture of self pity. She was out in the world, trying to survive, determined to see the next day.

And then there was her. Who was better off than her in every way. She had a roof above her head, food on her plate and a bed to sleep in. She had people who genuinely cared for her. Yet she kept pushing back. Kept herself caged in the darkness of her misery. Letting her nightmares consume her. Purposely putting herself through this torture in return for being alive.

Just cause her parents died and she was a survivor, didn't mean that she didn't deserve a new chance at life.

Just cause she went through an emotional trauma, it didn't mean she couldn't smile anymore.

Just cause she was in the company of strangers, it didn't mean she would always remain the outsider. They were ready to welcome her with open arms and she refused to accept it. And to think there was Faye whose own people had left her to die on the streets.

The moment this realization dawned upon her, she stopped being a lone wolf. Sure she didn't suddenly become super talkative and outgoing. But at least she did not run away at the sight of them. She started joining in their conversations, listening to their tales, helping her Lola out with stocking the food. In some way, she wanted to show that she wasn't ungrateful. She wasn't taking anything for granted. She was learning to compromise.