6 years later..."Good night, Callista!"Six years have passed since I met the six boys, and my mother shouted a greeting as I replied back with a smile. Everything was still the same, the church was renovated just a bit, still a peaceful village, and everything was fine, yet my father wasn't still there for my birthdays in my fifteen years in life, so I got used to itTomorrow is my sixteenth birthday."Good night, ma!" I shouted."Night, I'll leave you here in the church for a while, okay?" My mother said as she kissed my forehead and exited the church. I just sighed and got used to being left alone in the church, to the point where the darkness and eerie atmosphere no longer frightened me.I felt my eyes slowly drift off as I lean my head on the pew until I heard footsteps and my eyes shot open."Who's there?!" I stood up and checked the surroundings in the church."Allura," a voice called and my heart almost dropped, until I saw Zacharias."Zach, it's you. You scared me." I huffed
A few days passed, and the church was painfully quiet, the place was getting dirty. The holy mass is still held, yet both of my parents are absent, and I had to be the one attending.My mother is in the church's room, which is also considered a confession room, on the second floor all day. Even in the past few days, I felt worried every minute. I have to walk from my house to the church to knock on the door and bring her food every day.One time, I caught her creaking the door open, but her eyes widened as she saw me standing just outside with a tray of food, and my heart cracked as I saw her appearance; she has a black eye, bruises everywhere, fuzzy hair, dark circles under her eyes, and she was extremely thin."M-Mama..." I sobbed as I put the tray of food on the floor and hugged her."What did papa do to you?" I cried while wrapping my arms around her waist."Allura, I'm sorry. Callista, baby. Let me call you that... I'm sorry, Callista, come back." She said with a hoarse, cracked
"Marry...? That's ridiculous." My smile kept as I read the letter once again."Is that even possible for me?" I whispered while my smile faded."It's forbidden, everything I do is forbidden."I inhaled deeply as I folded the paper and stuffed it into my pockets, but my attention was drawn to the one spot in the chapel where the lights were swiftly flickering.I was about to fix the lights until I heard my mother call me, which caused me to remember that I'll still be checking on her."Callista!" My ears perked up as a ringing voice in my ears jolted that made me remember that my mother is inside the room."Ah, yeah, I almost forgot. I'm coming!" I shouted as I rose up from the pew and headed down the church's second-floor balcony to check on my mother after entering the narrow stairwell."Ma, what do you ne-" I said as I opened the door, but my eyes widened and my stomach dropped at what I saw."MA!" I shrieked as I knelt down beside her unconscious body on the floor. She has cuts all
202211:11Silence. Remorse.Only the ticking clock could be heard inside the room, especially the hazel-eyed woman, whose eyes were filled with void and blatantly stared into the frigid atmosphere."Allura..." Fernando said in a barely audible voice."Years ago, the young guys who are now a dangerous criminal organization known as Regio told me that if I don't show myself up to you, they'll help me get out of my case in prison, but they deceived me, and I willingly accepted my sentence." My father said."After your mother died, I've been having dreams, sometimes, even nightmares about her, and she never left me, she never did." He said."After you woke up from the coma, your stepmother... she took care of you, pretended to be your mother, and the one who helped you graduate.""Regio is dangerous, even if they were still a child." My father faces you with tear-filled eyes. "Y-Your stepmother... I had no choice... She- She plays a role in this. Without her... w-we're-" He added, but co
1 YEAR LATERBangI clicked my tongue as the bullet penetrated through the center target, and I sighed as I pick up more ammo and inserted it in the magazine's Glock. I lifted my arms once again, this time aiming for the center target while gripping the pistol hard and firmly, waiting for the perfect moment to fire.BangSmoke came out from the muzzle part as I blew it after the bullet landed perfectly on the target.I fixed my belt around my waist as I kept my Glock inside one of the belt's pockets. I'm wearing a tight black long-sleeve shirt and slacks with a belt around my thighs that has pockets and around my waist.A year had passed, and I knew about my heinous past which I never wanted to go back to. I decided to live with Araoluwa and move on with everything, especially when I left my father in a juvenile and cut connections with him, and now I'm starting to forget about everything.Even The Regio."Allura," I heard Raven from behind as he entered the training ground just outsi
FLASHBACKSAfter a week of knowing my past and from the juvenile, I decided to live with Araoluwa, since I had nowhere to go. Regio isn't an option. That one week was the worst in my life; I was staring at the wall for days, refusing to eat, until I finally decided to pull myself together, since being like that wouldn't help me at all, and now I'm here."So, have you decided, Allura?" Amanda asked while the two of us are standing in front of the training ground just outside the mansion. "Do you want to train to be able to be one of Araoluwa's members and be my right-hand man? Don't worry, you're free to refuse, Allura, no pressure!""U-um," I gulped in nervousness as I saw the training ground, people were being beaten up, there were gunshots everywhere, mentors were being ruthless with their trainees, members were being yelled at, and they were being forced to do laps around the training field if they made one mistake."Ah right, you're still a newbie. Don't worry, the mentors won't t
"Ooh, so this is how you reload this rifle?"I asked Raven who was smoking a cigarette while I was outside the training field with him, testing out guns."Mhm, there are more similar guns to that, like these," him said as he tossed a few rifles to me. "Catch."I quickly catch one rifle with a single hand with my quick reflex, and, of course, Raven also trained that."AKs? I'm not a huge fan of AK-47s. No, M4- my recoil control can't handle this! Is it really necessary to pair this with an Uzi?!" I pondered as I handed the other guns back to him. "Give me something more like an FN SCAR." "Chill out, we're not learning automatics yet—" Raven said, but he was cut short as I quickly continued to shoot at the target."Hah?! See that?! HAHAHAHA!" I grinned as I continued blasting the target as the ammo spread out and ripped the target completely off, leaving a gaping hole till it was worn out."Seems like you learned that in advance again." Raven muttered as he crossed his arms."Uh—? What
"It's more like a masquerade ball!"Amanda announced to Araoluwa at the long table while reading an email she received from a certain business organization that will host an event at the nightclub that would be similar to a masquerade ball."Really? We're invited to that?" Goro blinked. "Seems a little extra bro.""Nothing is extra, Goro," Hasen laughed. "My acquaintance owns that luxurious club in Tokyo. They're also hosting a little masquerade ball for their business event, and he decided to invite us, bringing us a special invitation letter.""Especially because Jin is the one who brought it!" Hasen laughed as he slung his arms around a certain man's shoulder who was sitting with them at the meeting table."U-uh, it's not really that necessary. I just issued the invitation. I can go home now!" Jin said as he scratched the back of his neck. He'd just returned after months away and is Araoluwa's most trusted friend. I had never interacted with him before, but I had seen him once just
Any person would freak out if they see this church, even the village itself. Anyone wouldn't dare to go here. But Zacharias and Allura? Why would they be? This place is what they call a beauty, yet none of them admitted that. They kept it to themselves like a secret. Just like before. As to why Zacharias regretted things now. He was indeed too late. "Let's enter?" I asked. "Let's go to the garden," but a different thing was in his mind. "A garden?" I tried to remember what it was. "I'll be left here alone, Ms. Marin. I'll just be waiting here." Willbert said and I just nodded but kept I phone with me. As Zacharias and Allura entered the church, he opened the rusty wooden double door, directing them to the church's garden. There, it shows an old patio, a rusty table and chairs, a cracked small stone fountain, a fence filled with webs now, and those fairy lights still hanging on the tree's branches. My eyes widened as I remember all of these in one place. Why was knowing my p
"She'll never arrive ten minutes early." Toshiro said as he looked at his wristwatch. Zacharias and the others have been waiting inside the van for over thirty minutes. They complain about the time, but they're always too advanced of arrival. Just like any other business trip, they'd all gathered to check that place discussed in the meeting the other day. "Ms. Marin is here," Kanji said, addressing me... formally. "Just came in time." I thought as I greeted each of them and also introduced Willbert to them, the secretary. As Zacharias continued to attempt to avoid her, he couldn't help but notice this one new behavior she developed. Allura never arrive early yet late, but instead, she's always arriving at the exact time. He just gave me a nod and a formal handshake as I then walked out to ride in my car to just follow them to the place. "Now I know the reason why you kept on rejecting Dias Corporation's offer," Kanji muttered. As the van began to drive toward their destination
"Mom, I'm sorry, I couldn't convince that large company to continue the partnership." I said on my phone while I'm currently in my room, and Eri is out of town for business matters, so it's me who's handling the company for now. Eri kept silent for a moment, and my brows furrowed as I looked at my phone screen to check if the call has ended. "Mom? Are you still there?" "Oh, yeah. I'm still here," Eri mumbled, and her tone was monotonous. "Is everything alright there? I should tell Secretary Willbert to escort you there. I can handle the company here." I said, sounding worried. "No, it's fine. I've already spoken to the company you've been mentioning for the past few days, too." Eri said. "Really?" My eyes shone. "I'll surely give you half of my shares when we continue the partnership, but of course, I need to give an outlook to their employees first. We can't just trust the human resources team sometimes." Eri really had no energy left ever since that day Allura asked her abou
They say everything that was done in haste will go to waste.Ever since he saw a glimpse of her, everything felt like reverting from the start.Last week, Friday night, the same exact night where he saw her again. No, he couldn't be mistaken. It was really her.He's at his firm's office, sitting in his office while gazing outside the glass window from the fifty-seventh floor."Sir Sano," one of his employees called.Expecting to sign a fresh set of documents on his desk, Zacharias turned in his chair and tapped his desk."Toshiro, just place them," Zacharias told in almost a whisper."How's your medication?" Toshiro was actually about to ask this. Not bombard Zacharias with tons of paperwork again.Zacharias just nodded and rubbed his eyes as he yawned. "It's alright.""Alright? I've heard from the doctors that you've been skipping your medication." Toshiro said."Then I'll take one today. You can go now, thank you." Zacharias simply said."Wait. Have you told Kanji about the new part
"More?"The bartender asked as I was getting myself wasted on the bar's counter."One more shot," I groggily said as my head was lying down on the counter.The bartender looked at me cluelessly at my state. "A heartbreak?""Hell? Fuck no," I scoffed."My bad. Usually the customers who get wasted, slumping themselves down on that counter are going through a breakup. I believe it's a curse now." He joked."Well, I am not. Just fill my glass up... Goddamn," I grunted as I clank my shot glass on the counter."Alright, alright," the bartender said as he hurriedly filled my glass up. I grabbed the glass from him, and he's just standing there as I gulp the shot of gin straight."Ma'am, seems like your phone has been ringing for minutes now," the bartender said as he noticed the constant dings and rings on my phone beside me.I raised my head lazily as I checked my phone with my squinted eyes.74 missed calls from Erianne Dhiore59 missed calls from Zane WilbertAnd more missed calls from my
"It's impressive, Madame Allura, the company in the meeting a while ago backed out of their contract."Secretary Zane Willbert said inside my office, and he's also the secretary of Eri."Yeah," I simply replied while I was busy signing the files."Uhm, do you know that company has been pestering us for almost a month? They kept on insisting on pushing this future plan of theirs and the partnership." Zane informed."Why am I only informed now?" I stopped with my work and looked at him."Madame Dhiore told me not to inform you since she wants the higher positions to handle this. She didn't want to add up more work for you." Zane said."Next time, tell her to have her inform me of every audit that takes place within the company." I commanded."Yes, madame.""Also, madame. Since you refused that company's offer, do you want to move forward with the next company?" Zane asked as he took his iPad out to list information."The background of their company?""They're also a company that focuses
"Madame Allura!"I woke up the next morning feeling nausea washing over me. As soon as I got out of bed, I heard frantic knocks on my door and someone calling me.Fixing my hair and appearance for a bit, I opened the door since it seemed like the maids were calling me in a rush."Secretary Willbert Zane has been calling you. Eight o'clock is close, and you're going to be late for your supposed meeting, madame!" The maids shouted."Fuck," I cursed under my breath."Tell Secretary Zane that I'll be there in thirty minutes," I hurriedly added as I closed the door and proceeded on getting ready.After forty minutes of getting ready, even if I'm told that I'll be finished within thirty minutes, I quickly prep myself and ate at least small portions of breakfast before going out of the house."Ah shit, mom will kill me." I thought. I know that my stepmother Eri is the one that holds the highest position in the company, and of course, there will be times when she needs to take her role. She m
Ten years later..."The rise of Dias Corporation! Cheers!"The workers of Dias Corporation clanked their bottles as they commemorated a special day for the company inside a restaurant."Madame Marin... All of us look up at her hard work." Eri's workers said with genuineness."I never doubt how I grew my daughter. She deserves the position in my company." Eri said as she sipped the glass of wine.After being admitted to the hospital ten years ago, Eri immediately entered my name in her company. Of course, it wasn't that easy. I had to attend therapy, take my prescription every day, and take extra lessons.It was like I was at university again, studying business courses for a brief period of time but also needing to join the civil service and earn a degree in business management to secure the position. Even though Eri, my stepmother, had to cover all of my expenses, it wasn't simple to attend classes while still keeping up with my health."Cheers to Ms. Allura Marin, our general manager
They say, at the end of the day, it's the people who are capable of achieving their wants, dreams, and affords that will only survive.And years later...It's only those people who are sane, and who still have a space in mind for serenity.They think it's okay to survive in this world, but what's engulfing them is the feeling of dread and loneliness as they grow old.It was a mixture of emotions, honestly. It's overwhelming."Kanji, how was it?" Toshiro asked as he entered Kanji's office in his firm.The two knew it was best for the group to disband. They felt like it was the best option. It's a horrendous era for them, and they have to end it.Kanji didn't notice that he was dozing off, so Toshiro had to call his attention thrice. "Kanji?""O-oh," Kanji shook his head. "Sorry, what was that?""I said, how's the convention, a while ago?" Toshiro asked."Ah, it's alright. Just a few errands here and there," Kanji replied as he placed his phone on his office table while turning his phon