The Paper House

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 1: 𝐌𝐲 𝐆𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐀𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐥

...

(Banggg!)

"𝐻'𝑤𝑎𝑔! 𝐻𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑒!"

...

I've been having nightmares again. Napagising ako bigla sa takot. At nakita kong bukas yung tv.

I'm Eva. But...before this story began, that wasn't my name. Ang totoong pangalan ko? Nasa balita ngayon.

'𝑺𝑼𝑺𝑷𝑬𝑪𝑻'𝑺 𝑾𝑯𝑬𝑹𝑬𝑨𝑩𝑶𝑼𝑻𝑺 𝑼𝑵𝑲𝑵𝑶𝑾𝑵'
'𝑶𝑵𝑬 𝑶𝑭 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑹𝑶𝑩𝑩𝑬𝑹𝑺 𝑮𝑬𝑻𝑺 𝑺𝑯𝑶𝑻 𝑫𝑬𝑨𝑫'

And that, was the love of my life. The last time I saw him I left him in a pool of blood with his eyes open.

We did 12 clean and perfect robberies with mixing love and business never works. But why?

While lying on the bed, my tears started to fall off when the incident came flashing back to my head, over and over again.

When the security guard fired, I had to change my profession. From robber to murderer. And that's when I started to run. Anyway, I was dead too. Well, muntik na.

10 araw na akong nagtatago. And my picture was in every police station in western Visayas.

I'd get 30 years of sentence. And to be honest, growing old in a prison cell isn't for me. I'd rather be on the run.

Body and soul...If I can't run with my body, atleast let my soul escape.

I had no time left. Marami pa akong dapat gawin pero may isang mas importante akong dapat gawin. Actually, just one thing.

While on the run, tumawag ako kay mama at alam na niya ang nangyari. I've told to mama that I will be running away.

*on phone

"𝐷𝑜𝑒𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛, 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝐼 𝑤𝑜𝑛'𝑡 𝑠𝑒𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛?" Tanong niya sakin.

"𝑁𝑜 𝑚𝑎, 𝐼'𝑙𝑙 𝑔𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑒𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑣𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑡 𝑚𝑒."

"𝑉𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑠𝑎𝑎𝑛? 𝑆𝑎 𝑠𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑜?"

Si mama nalang ang natitirang mahal ko sa buhay. Ako nalang ang meron sakanya. And we don't want to lose each other. So before I go, gusto ko sana siyang makita at mayakap.

Nag-desisyon ako na makipag kita sakanya sa huling pagkakataon.

And that day, the day I was going to the slaughterhouse. My guardian angel appeared. But you can never be sure what a guardian angel looks like. And you'd never imagine, he'd appear in a Toyota Tamaraw of a 1990's.

He offered me a ride. But instead of accepting it, I entered to his car and pointed him my gun.

"𝑊ℎ𝑜 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢? 𝐴 𝑐𝑜𝑝?"

"𝑊𝑎𝑖𝑡, 𝑤-𝑤𝑎𝑖𝑡... 𝑦-𝑦𝑜𝑢'𝑟𝑒 𝑔𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑎 𝑠𝑙𝑎𝑢𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑒𝑟ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑒. 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝑠𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑑 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎-𝑎-𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑡𝑟𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑐𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑓𝑜𝑟 6 𝑑𝑎𝑦𝑠... 𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑚𝑜𝑚."

He told me. But I never believe in a stranger.

"𝑊ℎ𝑦 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝐼 𝑏𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑣𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢?"

He showed me some pictures of my mama with the authorities and police.

"𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑦'𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑦 𝑖𝑛 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑚𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟'𝑠 ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑒. 𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑡'𝑠 𝑤ℎ𝑦 𝐼 𝑐𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑝 𝑦𝑜𝑢. 𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑎 𝑏𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑎𝑙... 𝑎 ℎ-ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑠𝑡, 𝑎 ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑠𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡'𝑠... 𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑞𝑢𝑒."
"𝐼'𝑚 𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑑𝑜𝑛'𝑡 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑚𝑢𝑐ℎ 𝑡𝑜 𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑒."
"𝐻𝑜𝑤 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 1.5 𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑝𝑒𝑠𝑜𝑠?"

No one has ever scored that big. So i thought, if my picture was gonna be in the news again, atleast due to the greatest heist in history.

That's how I met "The Maester".