08:05 P.M.
On the other side of the National Road; in front of Reyes' Convenience Store.
June 21st, the year 2018. Thursday.
"How can I get home? It's too cold at night here," Margo whispered. She leaned over her car and skidded her shoes on the road.
Until she heard something like a metal tinkling on each other. She stood upright and looked at both sides of the street. Margo squinted her eyes as she saw figure-eight feet away from her. She saw the person was wearing a black hoodie and jeans. The person's ebony shoes are in match with his jacket.
Margo stared at the face, but it turns out. The figure was wearing a mask, covering his identity from her while chiming her keys on his gloved hands. She stood upright from her car and stared at the keys from the person wearing a black hoodie. She tilted her head to one side and got confused about why the person was holding it.
Margo heard the voice of the cashier, and she looked at her. She was panting from running over from her counter and gave back her money. She sighed first before saying something.
"You... you forget your money, miss," the cashier pointed out. Margo retrieved the 500 peso bill from her hand and stuffed it back on her jeans. She nodded and said thank you.
She glanced at the person wearing a black hoodie, but it vanished. Margo looked everywhere, darting her eyes, and searched for the person who was holding the keys in his hand.
Margo wrinkled her nose and bit her lip. She noticed the person was similar to a ninja moving from one place to another. She didn't even hear a sound when she was walking. The two of them must have known.
Margo can't seem to identify if it was a girl or a boy because of how enlarged the black hoodie was for that person. It was also wearing a mask. How can she recognize the face?
"You are... you are Margo Monteverde, right?" the cashier asked with caution. Margo shifted her eyes to the woman. The cashier bit her bottom lip and giddy about asking a favor.
"By any chance, can I... can I take an autograph from you?"
That took aback Margo by what she was hearing.
"I am a huge fan of yours. I wanted to see you personally. But your manager announced that you retired from the showbiz industry," she yapped. It made Margo gasp. She licked her lips in disappointment and creased her forehead.
"Are you, by any chance, gonna insult and say that you were siding with Katrina?" Margo retorted back.
"Oh no, no, not that. I will still be here even if you decide to not act for a while," the cashier muttered. Margo's stupefied face resulted in a scoff. She furrowed her eyebrows as she realized the truth tumbled out of the cashier's lips. Margo could feel it.
Margo cleared her throat and ordered, "Get a pen and paper. You will be the last one I will entertain with my signature. I finally don't have the passion to continue with acting. But, at least, I've got to sign a paper for the last fan I've known."
The cashier grinned. She jumped on the way inside of the convenience store while Margo tiptoed. She felt happy for the first time. It's long gone after Xian cheated on her, but the joy was there all the time. She just had to wait for that fan to come outside of the store again.
She realized her missing keys when she heard another tingle. The smile vanished from her face. She looked everywhere, searching again for that faint sound. She ran up straight towards the backside of her car, the sides, but nothing. Until something caught her eye across from her.
The person was wagging the keys on his left and covered hands. He was standing next to her, and Margo froze in her place. The person was a foot away from her, but she felt the fear as her heart thumped rapidly in every beat. It was the way he stands so erect, as if a straight tickle of it on the side cannot break it.
Margo swallowed, mustering braveness before saying something.
She scrutinized the metal keys in his hand first, before she knew it was hers. Margo's dandelion key chain was dangling from it and they showed it in the moonlight.
The lights from the store gave a twinkle on the side street. It was blinding to see.
"It was my keys, right?" Margo asked, dauntless but feeble inside. The person didn't have plans on moving. Margo stared at him for a full minute. He stopped the keys from moving and tilted his head from the side. Margo squinted her eyes and there was no luck in admitting who it was.
She wanted to say something, but it took a step towards her. Margo lost her breath for a while, the fear crept up in an instant.
She took a step back as the person ascended from his place and she reached the dead end. She leaned on her car as her breath quickened. The person stopped walking on the midway. Margo clutched her dandelion hoodie.
Margo couldn't know the reason she was shivering. Is it because of the chilly breeze or because of the person staring right through her in the mask? Margo heard a snigger from the person. He stuffed the keys into his pockets.
Margo thought about the threat that came from Katrina as she observed the eyes from behind that mask. She was so curious about why Katrina said that. She even came up with the conclusion that she would do it, even if Margo stayed away from her and Tristan.
"Katrina," Margo whispered through the air. The person's shoulders shook. It was laughing quietly that Margo couldn't hear it. She swallowed, looked straight towards his eyes. The tears in her eyes poured down, unnoticed.
The person wearing the black hoodie stopped laughing. He rotated his head slowly, as if stretching it from the pain. Margo closed her eyes and felt the emptiness in her body.
Seconds came later, a shouting erupted from inside the store. Margo huffed, ran over at the front of the store. She bulged her eyes out as she saw the cashier screaming in pain by the door. She was holding her abdomen as blood spilled out from it and onto the floor. Margo could not move from where she ran.
She got stupefied when she saw another person. Wearing the same thing, with a mask, the same with the person who got her keys. He raised a knife from above his head level and wielded it deeper in the cashier's abdomen.
The cashier had no strength left. Her body collapsed into the ground as Margo watched a murder scene. The person stood up from the floor and looked up straight. Margo knew it was looking right through her.
She took a step back rapidly and wanted to escape from them. When she stumbled upon the person holding her keys earlier, she knew she's dead.
She fell to the ground. Margo felt her knees get weak, seeing two people entirely covering their identities. The other one that killed the cashier from the convenience store.
She tried to stand up from the ground when the person across from her car sprinted to Margo. It stabbed her in the abdomen.
Margo lay down on the floor in an instant as she gaped. The unbearable pain that came from the abdomen was so much for Margo. She couldn't resist screaming in the middle of the night.
She heard the loud barks of the dog kilometers away as she held the right side of her trunk, close to her stomach. She looked up from the floor, raised her head a little. Margo saw the crimson blood spurting out from her body as the person watched her die out of the pain.