KNIGHT IN SHINING REGRETS (One Shot Story Contest Entry)

KNIGHT IN SHINING REGRETS

She was a stranger who made a fool out of my cold heart on the day we first met and that's why eventually, she caught it off guard.

I tortured her everyday, to get even. I tortured her with my love.

We laughed all our problems away. We guarded each other's heart from sorrow. There's something in her that made me want to protect her from anything or anyone who could hurt her. She made me believe in fairytales, in happily everafter, and in forever.

I used to see her face on my wall. Used? Yeah, I was used! Dammit! It hurts. The agony of being haunted by her memories had my heart frozen again, colder than before I met her--my once regal princess.

---

"Romeo Keanne Buenavente, we better get going. I will be meeting him in an hour." she whispered my left ear and then I felt the bed budge as she got up. She's gone.

I lazily pulled myself, scanned my room---jumbled up haggard king-size bed, debris of broken wine glass on the granite floor below my small wine counter, her bloody undies on top of my favorite beige long couch, her Louis Vitton bag with its contents lying scattered on the ruined carpet-- and walked across my messed up unit to get my clothes that I wore last night. This room looks so devastated, parang puso ko lang.

I sat back on my bed and waited impatiently, continously tapping the floor with my shaky toes. I glared at the fiberglass door of my bathroom. I could clearly see through it her shoulder above and thighs below. I could hear the sound of water that the shower continuously splashes on her bare beautiful body.

Not too long, the door opened and unconscoiusly, in just a glimpse, my hand rested on the doorknob. I mean, on her hand on top of it.

She scrutinized me with her mesmerizing emerald-like eyes as if questioning me of my motive but I just looked at her, blankly.

"Hey Keanne, you---oh, how rude?" she whined for I slammed the door close right after I've entered.

Just like I've said earlier, she's gone. The innocently crazy lady--I used to protect from those monsters who've always tried to kidnap her because she's their greatest nightmare--was gone. She who prefered to call me by my first name--because she believed our love is as strong as the protagonist couple's of Shakespear's play-- had vanished. And that woman I've spent a night with was just one of those desperate bitches who claims that she isn't one. She's gone. Definitely gone.

I opened the shower and let these cold drops wash away my frustrations and sentiments as if they could be.

I should be celebrating now, sa wakas naangkin ko na sya, pero sa t'wing iniisip kong walang kwenta kung ako man ang nauna dahil ang masakit na katotohanan ay hindi sya maaring maging akin kailanman-- Hindi nya ako pinili--parang gusto kong pumatay. Damn! It took me so much courage, to tell her that I'm dreaming to spend the rest of my life with her, to ask her if she feels the same. I asked her to marry me but she just told me to wait for her. Wait? Damn! With her bastard father forcing her to marry someone else, someone he said who's more deserving, I doubt to trust her anymore.

"Oh, anong ginawa mo kagabi? Saan ba yung sinabi sa 'min ni Greg na biglaang lakad mo raw kaya 'di ka nakasama sa gig?" Carl, my bestfriend asked me.

"Kasama ko si Juls." I saw amazement on his reaction.

"Oh, kamusta?" he leered. That malicious smile. Tch. That's what I hate with playboys.

"She just asked why I removed her pictures on my wall." I answered and lit a cigarette I took from him without his permission.

Why did I remove her pictures?! Tss. That woman on those picture is not her--is no more her and I can't bare to see those pictures anymore. They would just remind me of how I loved her yet she just used me. She used me to protect her through her journey of finding who she really is.