PANAGHOY

Lock and Chains

Rome has faced nightmares as dark as midnight, but they were never enough to break him, until he opened the gate that has been locked in many years.

It started with a slow humming until the whispers grew louder and louder. He became curious as to whom the voice belongs to.

"Who are you?" His words echoed back to him. Then there's silence.

He should be scared but he knew that there is no other soul in the castle but his. He locked himself and promised to never open the gates. But the whispers were haunting enough for him to finally start walking right to where it is leading him.

 

"Hello there, old friend." He touched its body and the coldness reminded him of the very reason why he should not let go of his old friend.

The lock and chains kept him safe all this time. His only friends, true companion, the line between the whispers and him. His left hand touched his chest and the next thing that happened made his heartbeat faster.

The lock opened on its own. While the chains magically disappeared. He stepped away from the gate. He is confused as to how it happened, but his heart's desire made it clearer for him to understand.

He slowly pushed the gate open and the cold breeze touched his cheeks, welcoming him to the world he almost forgot. The night was calm and inviting. He stepped outside and was surprised by the beauty waiting for him. For a moment, time stopped, and the whispers became clearer. 

"Love at first sight," he smiled. "Cringy," He continued.

He has never seen the moon so big and bright. The moon seemed different from his last memory of it. He stepped closer to the beauty above and that is when the night became darker. The moon disappeared.

He wanted to go back and hide but the whispers became so clear he realized whose voice it belongs to. It is his own.

"Go, find the moon!" The whispers are gone, and the voice now is from within.

All Rome could do was scream. Each word echoed but his cry for help fades in the night. The only reply he gets every time is dead silence. The night seemed to go on forever. His legs now shaking, tired from many hours of walking and running. Breathing gets heavier in each step that he makes. 

With so little energy, he decided to take a rest. He looked for a spot, stumbled on a rock and fell to the ground. As he tried to stand, he felt something warm flowing from his forehead down to his cheeks. Blood. 

"This couldn't get more tragic," he said to himself.

He felt crazy chasing the lost beauty from the sky. Maybe that's just how people turn when one’s heart is at stake. They grasp in anything for hope. And the only thing he had that night was the moon. Despite the darkness of the night, there is the beauty, giving light to a lost wanderer. 

"My heart doesn't want to die," he cried silently. "I need to find you." 

His white shirt is now stained with blood. His head hit a rock with sharp edges. The wound is just too big. He wrapped his bandana around his head to at least help with the wound. He tried his best to move and found a place to rest. Beneath a tree he sat and gazed back at the moon. He could not resist, it is all that he wants, he could not take his eyes off it. He felt them getting heavier, then his vision became blurry, and just before everything became dark, he saw a shadow. A silhouette blocking the light from the moon.

"It's the end," Rome whispered.

He thought of a wild animal lurking in the woods. It might have smelled its way to him through the perfume of his blood. Then he felt something touch him. It felt nothing like from the wild. It felt colder than the night. What he thought was a wild animal started to speak. The voice was of a man.

"I know since the beginning," his gentle voice was soothing, but the words started to cut deeper than the wound that Rome already has. "But I don't feel the same way." 

"I love—" Rome stopped as he realized what the man just said. He wanted to cry but for some weird reason, the tears will not flow. It is as if they are stuck and now making his vision blurry than it was, then slowly everything turned black.

Sharp ringing sound filled the room. He woke up breathing just fine. He left out a huge sigh and smiled. He knows this room so well. There is no castle, no moon, no lock, and chains. This is reality now.

He opened the curtains and the bright sun blinded him, but his smile stayed. He feels warmer now. That dream used to be a reality, but he realized that it does not matter how many times he gets his heart broken. His heart knew that for some time, his moon made him feel alive again. So much alive that it made him break the lock and chains, he unconsciously made, to love again.