Love, Carmen

Prologue

"I'll write you letters until the last star ignites."

"That's it?" 

She asked the thin air, doubting the mystery of the worn-out book she just found in the dusty attic while cleaning. She rummaged through the pages of the book, looking for some writing other than the one she read at the front. To her dismay, there was nothing. Absolute nothing.

"Well, whoever's book this is, they must've disliked ruining the white pages," she jokingly said. "but they sure do have a good handwriting..." she added, amazed by how it was pleasingly written in cursive.

She placed the book at a stand at the corner as she was cleaning the rest of the attic. It was only her second day staying at this small cottage house so cleaning wasn't new. Moving houses surely wasn't her thing but there wouldn't be any other choice if your landlord had thrown you out, herself.

She finished cleaning the attic and was about to go down to clean more places in the house. She thought about the book, causing her to stop in her tracks, "I should definitely bring it with me," she whispered to herself, going back to the stand where she left it earlier.

She then left the attic, carrying the book with her. She kept it in a drawer beside her bed since it looked interesting. She thought that maybe she can use it for something later on. 

She cleaned the kitchen, the bathroom, and the living room. Just when she was about to clean the last part of the house, the guest room, her phone rang.

Seeing the name of the caller, she rolled her eyes and answered the call, "What?" she said in a tone that obviously showed how uninterested she was to talk.

"Good morning to you, too!" said the guy, chuckling. His voice sounded high and cheerful for her but most importantly, annoying. 

"What's with the call? I'm cleaning." she hissed, annoyed with the disruption of her cleaning hours. She tied her jet-black hair into a bun, ready to just get to work and ignore the caller.

The man giggled at the other end of the line, "How's the house? Do you like it?" she tilted her head to the side, not wanting to answer. "What's with the house?" she tried to act clueless.

"Oh come on! At least say thank you, Carmen." From his tone, Carmen can imagine him pouting, "This house isn't even yours, Jac. Why would I say thank you?" she answered, teasing the sulky boy. True enough, the house wasn't owned by Jac but a property owned by his adoptive parents.

"Did you really call me just because of this?" she added, now sitting on the floor. 

"If you already forgot, Young Miss, I picked you up outside your trashy apartment, which I clearly don't know how you lived through, I mean, it was almost like a dump-"

"It wasn't that bad." she defended, cutting him off.

"But it was! After enduring the sight of that place, I brought you to a house, gave you money you can spend for your necessities, and gave you a car you can use for your stay, how hard can it be to say-"

"Thank you." she plainly uttered, cutting him off for the second time.

"See? It isn't that ha-" the sound of disconnection came next, announcing how she ended the call even before the poor man finished his sentence. It looked like she had a habit of cutting the boy's statements.

This is clearly the reason why she never reconnected with Jac. He was annoying, pushy, and too bright for her liking. At least that's how she views him. She didn't want any sort of help or favor from him for the reason of him worrying a lot, she didn't wanna be a burden.  

She stood up, brushing the dust off her shorts. She then proceeded to clean the guest room and finished cleaning after lunch hours. She had her late lunch and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon watching Marvel movies. 

By the time the night came, she was already worn off with all the cleaning and binge-watching. She bathed herself and wore her pajamas, her favorite ones. She jumped on the bed right after, enjoying the comfort it provided. It's been a while, she thought.

She then remembered something. With drowsy eyes, she rolled to the right side of her bed, opening the drawer to find something. She grabbed the worn-out book and found herself in a comfortable position in the bed. She raised the book up and opened it to the first page, in awe of the familiar handwriting.

"I'll write you letters until the last star ignites." she read again, slowly glancing to the window at the left side of the room. There, she can see the stars in the night sky, ever so bright. It was a mesmerizing view. So mesmerizing that she felt as if she was one with the beautiful darkness of the night sky.

She then felt warmness on her face together with the bright light of what seemed to be from the sun.  She sat up, realizing that she had fallen asleep at the sight of the stars. She glanced to her right, finding the book beside her, open. There wasn't supposed to be something special about it but she noticed something. The opened page of the book was filled with writings, similar to the one written on the first page, the only difference was this one's longer. It was almost like a paragraph, a journal entry maybe?

"What the?" she squinted, trying to process things. She somehow thought that maybe she was daydreaming or hallucinating, she swore there was nothing written there the day before. She shut her eyes off completely, trying to refresh her sight but when she opened them, the writing was still there, written in black ink. Still shocked, she reached out for the book and started reading what was written.

"My dearest star,  

Have you seen me tonight?

I did just as you told me. I wandered beyond the trees when darkness came, dearest, to find your sanctuary. It took a while, especially when I don't know what I'm looking for. It took me hours, even the lamp I brought had already given up on me. You said you'll be there by the time I found it, feeding my eagerness. I wish I could look more into the woods but the night has gotten late and I had to come back home. My heart sank at the thought that I couldn't find you but it is too early to give up, isn't it, dearest? It has only been the first day and I promise, I will find you."

As she finished reading the passage, she then fixated her eyes on the name underneath it. She thought that the written passage was enough to freak her out but she might've been wrong.

"Love, Carmen..." She read it, her breath almost taken away by the circumstances.