RICO SPADES

Episode 14

Episode 14

Instead of convincing Ratshi that he was not going to kill him, General tried to divert their conversation.

"Do you know how to get out of this place?"

"I have moved out of this place a few times already, but I always end up coming back here."

Ratshi pointed to his bathroom, then confided: "Whenever I sleep somewhere else, I find myself waking up there."

General stared at the bathroom for a while, almost missing out on the fact that the unit's renter was about to hit him with a hammer on his head.

He stood up as he took away the hammer from Ratshi's hands.

"We have a common goal, Ratshi," General began. "We both want to get out of this cursed place. We want our normal lives back, and I assure you, we will both have it back. You just need to cooperate."

General's words sounded familiar to Ratshi. Blurry memory flashes made him felt like he has also uttered the same things in a distant past.

"Nobody told me this, but I think we ended up stuck in this place because we are living our lives with regrets."

Noticing that Ratshi was closely following his words, General sat back on the monobloc and continued to share his thoughts: "I rented a unit in this complex because I wanted to escape the guilt I feel for hurting my sister and disappointing my parents."

"I understand you," Ratshi empathized. "I was once a theater actor. Things were going great for my career until I became a jerk after getting my girlfriend pregnant."

General nodded, encouraging him to go on while showing that it is okay to run out of words.

"I was financially ready back then to support her pregnancy. I am sure that the child is mine, but none of those things mattered because I was afraid of all the responsibilities that come with fatherhood. I decided to drive her away by letting her caught me having sex with one of our co-performers."

Ratshi paused for a moment before laughing bitterly: "I just realized that I don't deserve to live after what I have done. Why am I even afraid to get killed right now?"

Despite the uncertainties surrounding them, General promised: "Things will get better."

"You said you will tell General everything he needs to know!" Aling Shirley yelled at Trimmittee.

"He doesn't seem to know that you got five invisible tenants," he replied. "Why should I tell him about people he can't see?"

"You want him to fail, don't you?"

"Let me remind you, Shirley," Trimmittee began. "General's mission concerns only four people: Ratshi, Loida, Jotham, and Nicholas. As for the other five earlier failures that you had, he can carry on without knowing a single thing about them," he insisted.

Trimmittee entered General's unit by himself after knocking on its main door and receiving no response. He found its owner laying down on his bed, looking at his right hand covered with a white glove.

"Ratshi thought I was going to kill him," General said.

"Because of the Rico Spades?" Trimmittee guessed.

"Maybe," General answered. "I'm not going to cause his death by wishing for something on his behalf, right?"

The guide nodded, saying: "If you wish the right things in the next four nights, nobody will die."

"Why should anybody die because of me?" General asked, clenching his fist while controlling his anger.

"Everything here seems reasonable to me," Trimmittee answered as he removed the white glove from General's hand. "Trust me. You'd understand it all, too."

"How do I make a wish for Ratshi?"

"Try to stop thinking about his girlfriend and daughter."

He turned around, complaining: "So you knew what he regrets about the most but didn't tell me."

"I think hearing it from him directly will make a huge difference."

"How can you think like that when you just said someone may die if I mess up this wish-granting craziness?"

"You're the last person to be in the situation you're in right now. Aling Shirley believes in you so much she bet her life on your success."

Seventeen years ago.

"Smile for the cameras."

It was the last week of high school for Shana, and their graduation portraits were being taken that day.

She tried to smile while standing in front of the cameras, but the tears she was holding broke free.

Trimmittee, who was the next student to have his picture taken, grabbed Shana's hands, and pulled her out of the room.

"What's your problem?" he whispered to her while they were walking down the hallway, trying not to get unnecessary attention for themselves.

When they finally reached the stairs leading to the uppermost floor of the building, Trimmittee asked her to sit down with him on one of the steps.

"We're not friends, but let us pretend that we are," Trimmittee told her while holding her shoulders. "Okay?"

Shana forcefully wiped her tears and faked a smile. "I'm alright, Trimmittee. Don't concern yourself with me too much. You have a graduation photo to get today."

"I can have it some other time," he replied. "For now, I would be hanging out here with you."

"Why are you trying to be so cool?" asked Shana.

"I'm not trying," he denied. "I'm a natural cool guy."

She could not help but laugh at her former classmate. "You've changed, Trimmittee," she pointed out.

"By how much?" he asked.

"Just enough."