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《Present Life》
August 18, 2022
Monday | 10:50 pm
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The hallway felt tighter now. Masikip. Mabigat. Tila ba parang kulang sa hangin.
Hindi na gumalaw si Laureen. Hindi rin siya agad nagsalita.
Pero ramdam ni Lorenzo kung gaano kabigat. Kung gaano sya kalito.
"...What did he mean... Sir?"
Her voice was quieter this time. Hindi galit, pero mas delikado.
"Wala," sagot agad ni Lorenzo. Too fast. Too practiced. "Tapos na ang duty mo, Laureen. It's getting late, you can go home." He said with authority and was about to leave but Laureen can't take it anymore. Para na s'yang sasabog. Hindi n'ya na kayang magpanggap.
She let out a small, humorless laugh.
"Wala?" she repeated. And that made Lorenzo stop. "You've been acting so strange with me these passed few days, Sir Lorenzo. But then, sa isang iglap..." bumuntong hininga sya. "...parang walang nangyari."
And finally, she've let that out.
"You left me hanging... Sir." That made him look back. Her eyes were trembling. Not just emotional, but tired. Drained. "You made me feel like there's something. But now you act like it's nothing."
Silence pressed in.
"I couldn't sleep at night," she admitted. Mas mahina. Mas totoo. "May mga bagay akong nararamdaman na hindi ko maintindihan... mga alaala na hindi ko alam kung saan nanggaling..." Her hand slowly pressed against her chest. "And then there were voices... that don't belong to this time."
That shook him.
"And now... that Raphael," she muttered. "He said something very specific..."
Lorenzo stayed silent.
"Sino ba talaga si Annys?" she asked. Diretso, walang takas. "Sino ba talaga 'ko?"
That question hit deeper than anything before. Lorenzo looked at her. Mata sa mata, malalim. And for a moment, he saw her. Not Laureen. Not fully.
A laugh that didn't belong here.
A voice echoing in another time.
A girl on a hospital bed.
"...You're you," he said. But this time, even he didn't believe it completely.
Laureen shook her head.
"No," she whispered. "That's not enough anymore." She stepped closer. Now there was no space left between them.
"Kasi kung ako lang 'to..." she continued, voice breaking slightly, "...Why do I feel things I've never lived?" she pressed.
Flash flicked.
A stage.
Lights.
A mic in her hand.
Her grip tightened.
"Why do I know how it feels to lose something I don't even remember having?"
Another flash.
Rain.
Running.
A name being screamed,
"Annys!"
She flinched.
"Why does that name..." she whispered, "...hurt?"
Lorenzo closed his eyes, for a second. Because this was it. The line he didn't want to cross.
But she already crossed it.
BINABASA MO ANG
The Life That Echoes
FantasiSome love don't end. They linger-soft, distant, and aching like echoes that refuse to fade. Lorenzo once had a love that felt like forever. Annys was his home, his future, his everything. Until death took her too soon, leaving behind a silence he n...
