LAST FAREWELL

[ 𝐂𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 ]

| 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡, 𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐰;

──────────────────────

A sheet of penumbra tarry on the forsaken road, lugubrious cotton balls of clouds fashioned the twilight sky as cheerless. The burdensome humidity coalesced in every corners of the surroundings, forming a mist that constrained the body of the lass— not a single noise, nor a breath of a soul are heard except for the faint thumping of the young woman's feet as it resounded throughout this vast space of nothingness, journeying this brisk road of endless times in pursuit for a passage. Each step and turn has made her breathless, frustration broadcasted on her porcelain face as she discerned that this phenomenon has been going on for at least an hour.

"𝑺𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒔𝒑𝒐𝒕, 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏"

After a countless of failures, the last ounce of strength she had depleted off, her knees collapsing to the frigidly doused ground as her cristine irises overlooked something. She was enrobe in a knee-length, black laced dress—a sort of fine array apt for a ceremonial 𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥. The distorted mind of hers processed this abominable juncture as a premonition to something catastrophic. As minutes pass by, the oppressive humidity began to torment the delicate body of the lass, leisurely seizing every breath she ejects. Droplets of hostile rain penetrated her flesh, afflicting more distress which terminated her system in a groundbreaking zero.

Flash of regrets submerged as the lass hoped for a 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐞 to be the last place where her putrid corpse will permanently reside, instead of the depressing road she was currently in. Her orbs turned black and forlorn, slowly accepting her demise, when a sudden rush of excruciating beam of light blinded her eyes that fully adjusted to the dark, now forced to blink. A blurred silhouette of an able-bodied man strides closer to the young woman and ends up kneeling in front of her. The unknown man concealed the view of the path with his rough yet huge palm, as the heavy rain made it difficult for the lass to recognize the face of the person that was present. She forced up a glance towards the stranger, and discovered that he wore the same attire as hers. A black matte fitted coat and a white polo shirt inside. 𝐅𝐮𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥 clothes.

"𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒔𝒂𝒇𝒆, 𝒎𝒚 𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒓".

The hoarse yet soft toned voice of the man melted the frost and cold that the rain brought upon her. A familiar voice, a sound that she has always heard but seems distant now as she can't recognize the owner of it. Somehow, she felt safe just by the lull of the other person's voice, her eyelids surrendering completely and embracing the darkness.

ıllıllı

She jumped off the bed with a gasp, her back soaked with her own sweat and her face surprisingly pale. She was having one of those nightmares again. A sigh of relief was let out when the lass recognized the pastel colored walls of her room, stacks of books beside the bed and dirty clothes scattered throughout the floor- she is back safe and sound.

A few more weeks had passed and the same dreams bothered her every night. It was starting to exhaust her out emotionally and physically, combined with consecutive doses of headaches. Wearing her nightgown, she covered herself with a thick blanket preparing herself for bedtime. She was almost in the brink of slumber not until she was startled by loud, frantic bangs from behind the door that might've cracked the wall, and then her mother entered her room with a distressed face and eyes dampened with tears. Obviously, she cried a lot. Limping her way towards the direction of the lass as her body collapsed, she caught the woman with her small yet fragile hands. The trembling hands of her mother reached for her arms and carefully stroked her daughter's long silky blonde hair. No sound came out. She tries to coax out a word once again, this time successful, but faint and croaky.

"𝑫𝒆𝒂𝒓, 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆'𝒔 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒘𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒈𝒐 𝒕𝒐."

Thousands of questions with no definite answer circulated the mind of the lass as they rode the car. Disregarding all negativities her corrupted head presents, she diverts her attention to the woman beside her, observing her actions. She never drove faster than 60 kph as she has always been a woman who sticks to the law of the 𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐝, but oddly, she does now.

It was midnight when they arrived in the nearest hospital of the city, her mother maneuvering the vehicle in front of the entrance of the emergency station. The woman roamed her panicked eyes around the rackety crowd and stopped particularly on a bed surrounded by doctors and nurses in white gown. The foul smell of toxic chemicals and sweat of the staff mixed and lingered around her nose. It's a smell that she despised.

"The patient is already 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐝." The long irritating sound buzzed the ears of the young woman. The heartbeat of the patient has stopped.

𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡: 12:30 𝐦𝐢𝐝𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭

𝐂𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡: 𝐂𝐚𝐫 𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐡

The woman hurriedly tends to the patient and argues with the healthcare staff hysterically begging them to resuscitate the patient once again. It was chaotic. Her screams reverberated throughout the white coated room, the most painful screams that she had ever heard. The situation in the emergency room is an exact resemblance of a tragic scene from a movie.

𝐀 𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇 𝐎𝐅 𝐀 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐃 𝐎𝐍𝐄.

Few days had passed and the woman is at the burial of someone deceased wearing the same outfit she had on her dreams practicing the ceremonial rites. Perhaps, this phenomenon is the one she foreshadowed on those nightmares she had. The mother of the lass enclosed her arms around the rectangular classy white coffin on bended knees quietly weeping, afraid to lose her grip on the man she had 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐝 for 30 years.

Leaving the scene with a burdensome heart, it was painful for the lass to witness her mother in such a broken state. She found herself wandering to the endless road again, replaying the exact scene that happened in her dreams, with her fragile body now collapsed on the moistened road, continuously being battered with harsh beads of acid rain. She starved herself for three days and mourned repeatedly, she may have cried a liter of tears and still wonders when will her tears run out? The miserable lass has already accepted her fate. She was prepared for death.

From what her memory remembers, the man will appear any second. And there he is...

The gentleman radiated a more refulgent light compared to her dreams, it was almost blinding as it contrasted heavily with the cheerless cristine eyes of the lass. He slowly kneeled in front of her, wiping out the accumulated tears that the rain had concealed. His hands that are soft and full of warmth brought salvation to the suffering lass, setting ablaze and smothering her 𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐰 into pieces. He enkindles her hope with 𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭, a dazzling luminescence similar to the moons.

Will the lass finally see the face of the man?

"𝒀𝒐𝒖'𝒓𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒇𝒆 𝒏𝒐𝒘, 𝑯𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒚."

Again, a voice enough to melt the frozen heart of the lass that is now beating so faintly. The lass looked up, and finally there it was. The face of the unknown man coming clear in her view. Surprisingly, it was the 𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐭 expression she has ever seen in her entire life. It's the face of her 𝐟𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫'𝐬. The man she had loved since birth, the only man she opened her heart to. The man whose warmth could be at par with the sun. Finally, to his last moments on earth, he bid his 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥 to her lovely daughter before he completely ascended to the paradise of heaven. It was the hope that she was waiting for, a 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 to 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞 again.

"𝑰𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒕𝒆𝒄𝒕 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒉𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒎𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓."

Those might be his last words on earth that he wanted to fulfill but failed as he encountered his 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡 on his way home. The only word that she was able to mutter before his soul vanished was "𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒌 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒂𝒅, 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒎𝒚 𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕."

⟶ 𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦: ᴀsᴠᴏʀɪᴀ