"Jho, Please! Pucha naman oh. Please tell me bakit. Kahit kung bakit lang, Jho! I'm begging you. Please come b-back... Please, please... please!"
Bea's screams filled up the atmosphere. She was kneeling on the bare field at the edge of the cliff while her hands were holding on the grass as if her life depended on it.
This was her place. The place where she could pour out her feelings without anyone to stop her. She only brought one person here, the person she trusted the most, but now, that person is now the reason of her pain.
Since the day that she left her, she kept coming back to this safe haven of hers. Everyday she would always find time to go here, wanting to forget everything even just for a moment. But unfortunately, the everything she was trying to erase from her being was the only thing that made her heart beat, the only thing that made her feel alive.
After shouting for the last time this night, she sighed. Looking up to the vast night sky covered with shining stars, she grabbed a bottle of alcohol from her side and drank it empty.
That's what she does. A deadly cycle everyday without anyone knowing when it would stop.
But today, it was different. It was going to change.
Beatriz stood up, a bit tipsy, and took up all her courage.
"Ayoko na."
She said to herself. Taking few cautious steps forward.
"Dito nagsimula, dito rin matatapos."
Bea tried to hold herself back, but she couldn't. The power of pain took over her. The pain of trust, the pain of love.
"Goodbye, Jho."
She took her last step forward, and let herself fall into an unending abyss of darkness.
-
"Jho? Babe? Huyyyyy."
"Babe? Gising na please."
"Kalma lang babe... I'm here... sshhh."
Jhoana was sweating and panting hard. It was around 3:00 in the morning when she started getting uneasy in her sleep.
She thrashed around the bed, moving here and there. Every second that passed by, the harder her chest thumped. Her heart was beating faster by the minute and it wasn't in a good way.
You could tell it was a bad dream. Nightmare? A lot more worse than that.
"B-bhe?" Jho said as she was starting to wake herself up.
Ged sighed.
"Thank God," he said with a smile before engulfing Jho in a hug. He was happy. Relieved to be exact.
But he couldn't forget the fact that Jho still thought of him as her 'bhe' after all this time.
In other words, Bea.
It has already been years since the news broke out. Years since Ged saw the worst of Jhoana.
It was when Bea, out of the blue, took her own life.
Nobody knew when and nobody knew why.
They said that it was an accident, that Bea could not take her own life without any reason, but Jhoana knew more than what they thought.
Before the "incident" that led to a certain death, Jho and Bea had a little 'misunderstanding'. Well, in this case, misunderstanding would be an understatement.
A night after their 3rd anniversary, the couple had the best night of their lives.
Road trips to who knows where, to taking sips from any bottle of alcohols and wines that they could put their hands on.
They were on their highest at that time. The happiest. But one half of the pair didn't know that when tomorrow will come, it would be the worst.
That includes one's abandonment without any particular reason or sign.
-
The incorrect calls of Jhoana already happened before, a lot in fact, but Ged couldn't do anything about it so he would just shrug it off. But actually sometimes, it bothered him.
Hurted him would be a more proper way to describe it.
"It's a part of loving her." - his reminder for himself everytime.
He was snapped out of his thoughts when Jho hugged him back, tight.
"Namiss kita," she said with pure sincerity and longing.
"Ssshhh. Andito lang ako," replied Ged with a kiss on her hair.
"Dito ka lang."
"Opo. Andito lang ako. Di kita iiwan."
"I love you, Jho."
He accidentally added. Telling it as if it was said right from his heart.
But he didn't regret it.
When he was able to voice out those words, he felt Jho loosen up a bit. Relieved if you will.
"I love you too, Bea."
And then in that moment, with a little sting to his heart, Ged knew that Jho hasn't really woken up yet.
