wattys 2020 winner • mystery/thriller
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Everyone thinks she is dead. Even I thought so, too.
While the town spoke of her dead name, Amethyst Cambray is actually alive, and she is asking for my help.
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04
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EVEN THOUGH I insisted Amethyst to sleep on the bed, she still slept on the couch. She's small, so the couch is a perfect fit for her, but it still made me a little uncomfortable. We didn't talk after I agreed to help her. It's like she was giving me space, letting me breathe everything in, so she was quiet and still. I sat on the couch and watched TV, while she was on the kitchen actually cooking us dinner.
I admit . . . I miss someone else's cooking. We ate on the dinner table silently with the dim orange light, and realized how different everything is.
Today's Wednesday. Paggising ko, mayro'n nang pagkain sa mesa habang natutulog naman si Amethyst sa couch. I feel bad looking at her sleeping like that, but she insisted, didn't she? Damn. I finished the breakfast and went to the door. Before I even turned the knob, I stopped in my tracks when I saw bruises on Amethyst's arms.
Napakunot ang noo ko. Dahan-dahan akong lumakad palapit sa kanya. The bruises are big and purplish. Nanlaki lalo ang mga mata ko nang mas may pasa pa sa bandang hita niya. Why didn't I see this before?
Napakurap ako.
She opened her eyes.
Napakislot ako at napaatras. "A-Amethyst."
"Aalis ka na?"
I opened my mouth to answer, but I closed it again. "Are you sure about this?"
Amethyst smiled at me and closed her eyes, as if sleeping. "You agreed to help me, Vin," she said. "Sigurado ako dito."
I just blinked. "Amethyst. You could do anything with your money. Why . . . why stay here?"
"Because I don't trust everyone else," she said, her eyes still closed.
"But you trust me?"
"I chose to trust you because I don't know you," she said. Dumilat ulit siya saka bahagyang tumawa. "And I feel like . . . like you're a very kind person. I'm sure of it." She closed her eyes again. What a stupid reason.
I just looked at her bruises and something twisted on my stomach.
"If you trust me so much," I said, "lend me your ATM card and I'll buy you a bed."
Before I left the house, she spoke again. Tiningnan ko siya at nakaiwas siya ng tingin, bahagya ring nakakunot ang noo niya.
"A-And underwears, too . . ."
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I COULDN'T SKIP my shift again at 3 PM. I should have told Amethyst, but she said she trusts me, didn't she? After class, which was around 1 PM, I went to the shop for women and purchased some fucking underwear. At first I didn't mind, because underwear are just normal clothing to me but I just got weird looks from older women. It annoyed the hell out of me, so I just bought enough underwear so that I'll never have to return again.
