Crimson Hues｜English｜PREVIEW

Chapter 01

July 1990

"Emma, why must you end up like this?" You were looking at your friend's face under the glass of a white coffin's frame. You cried out with all your broken heart and showed a sorrowful face as if you were a ticking bomb that anytime would explode.

Emma Magtanong: she was your best friend since you were in grade school, and you were consistent classmates except in your last year of high school; you landed at the first section while she landed at the last one, and it has something to do with her sudden changes, which makes you ask, 'What happened to the Emma that I knew before?'

You kept on asking that, yet you still can't figure out any answers. Until this point came: this point where you are looking at her peaceful expression for the last time as she drifts into her eternal sleep.

"Why must you die, Emma?" Out of frustration over the unfairness of life, you almost resorted to berserk, but that's when your schoolmates came to stop you and take you away from your best friend who -for certain- will only remain as a memory that will forever be remembered through the distant times. Like you, their hearts were heavy with sympathy too, for they know that it is hard to accept that there would always be times that individuals should part ways. Then again, you started hearing their broken voices. They are trying to comfort you yet you feel like they're just making what you feel worse.

Under the sky that was matted with shady gray, the water globes became louder with their umbrella sonnets. As Emma's coffin finally and slowly goes down to the inside of her grave, the weather was continuously served cold. And you know it was so unfortunate of her for the investigating authorities still have not come up with a certain lead for almost a week already.

"I'm sorry..." It was the only thing you could do at the very least, as you fell on your own knees again that already had gone frail. At this moment, you did not do anything else but weep, while letting the muddy grasses gently kiss your knees over the scattering petals of chrysanthemums.

"Rest in peace, Emma Magtanong."

*****

THE sky was matted with mixing curves of purple and pink, and the cicadas in the woods are already crying as if they were mourning over the dying sun that was slowly defeated by the darkness.

'Til now, you kept on hearing things about the sudden death of your best friend, Emma, who was like you, a top-performing student in your batch, but only until your last year of high school, right after she landed at the last section of your year. Emma was a good friend, and you know she's always happily doing her best regardless of pressure. So, like what the tittle-tattles from your schoolmate contain, you will not believe that...

"She committed suicide."

Another girl in your class added, "Well, as far as I know, her performance level was declining after she unexpectedly fell to the last section."

"Oh, my gosh, really? That's so tragic of her."

"I heard that her parents hated her for that too."

"Oh, my goodness, now I understand why she resorted into killing herself off the stream cliff."

"Yes, and it's too bad she wasted her life over nothing. And want to know what my grandma who happens to be shaman told me about her death?"

"What? Come on, tell me, but slowly, lest we'd be heard by her wandering spirit."

"Well, my grandma told me that you-know-who was probably possessed by a suicidal demon."