Sunshine

XLVIII

THE sun is already in its peak. It stationed itself at the highest in the clear blue skies and angrily spread its rays heating the entire world and heads of sweaty people. As it is in the highest, the sun successfully gave light to every corners in this side of the world seeping through the windows and holes on ceilings and walls. But a certain mansion that refused to run with the world remained dark, almost void of windows. It stood in the outskirts of the city. The mansion was designed to block any source of light from outside. Its long halls and high ceilings screams luxury but it’s not the kind of luxury that blinds. It’s a luxury that only the most insane will want. The kind of luxury only the psychos will fight for. It’s a luxury where its golds and gems shined dark. Desires doesn’t hide in the dark. It grows there.

It’s always the night for the Queen’s Spear, and she adjusted her world according to it. The sun never shined and that will be forever. But she isn’t lonely in the darkness. In the darkness lies her happiness. And the sun will only melt it.

She is like an ice cream. And ice creams should be cold. Ice creams should be frozen.

“Those who have someone to protect is the most loyal dog. Because they are the most coward ones. They won’t bite back because they know they will not be the one who will receive the punishment but the person he’s trying to hide behind his back. What could a leashed dog do if he sees the punishment that he brought being imposed to the one he’s trying to protect? Nothing but cry. And that’s the worst thing for them.”

And that’s the wisdom the Queen’s Spear shared today. A wisdom she only is the most fitting to give, and a wisdom no one as insane as her should ever hear as it will only create another evil. But she is already at the point where she only spoke of evil like greetings. And she can’t distinguish it anymore as all her words were actually only evil. Her tongue could only roll out words of evil.

Is she trying to secure a spot in hell? The man in front of her wondered.

“And I know you hate crying so much, Juan Valencia.”

Juan, who just stayed staring at his own shoes all the time while silently clicking his tongue finally looked up. Only the darkness at the far end of the room was the thing that met him. But the voice came there. On the corner where red lights on the torch on both ends of the wall makes out the silhouette of a woman sitting at the chair in the middle of it. The silhouette is still, not moving almost frozen. But that stillness screams power. Power that don’t mean anything to him and will never mean anything.

Juan finally met the Queen’s Spear every evil in the society wishing for power wants to meet. The most needed support for evil to prosper, everyone with greed wants to catch the Queen’s Spear attention, growing themselves to little devils. But nothing matches the woman in front of her. Though he still doesn’t know how evil she could be. And there’s no use of testing it.

“Well, I’ll take your silence as a yes.”

The woman said, breaking Juan out of his own thoughts. Juan cleared his throat and stood straight, eyes straight at the silhouette.

“Just like I said on the phone, I am at your service.”

“You took quite a long time but I’m glad you’re finally here. What kind of a hunting dog would you be?”

Juan stared straight at where he thought the Queen’s Spear’s eyes would be. He wanted to say this while looking at each other straight. “That all depends on you.”

The Queen’s Spear laughed. Juan couldn’t see it in the dark but she is already giving her smile of approval. He’s interesting, as the Queen’s Spear thought. The way he talked, the way he stood in the dark like he’s not intimidated of it at all. It’s like he knows the dark well though he never lived in it. But he sure lived his life in the glimpse of darkness. It’s interesting how this man in front of her could offer his life to her― or to Olivia, the one’s he’s trying to protect.

He’s different from how she knew him. He grew up. Unlike his best friend.

“You sure know how to protect someone. Well I have something for you.”

A tapping noise, Juan guessed a long nails against a wooden table came next. It was the only noise that can be heard along with slow and steady breathing. Then a hmm came after from the dark side of the room.

“I need an identity. That identity that reflects on the National Statistics Office and the police. Not someone very simple, not someone grand, too. You can say a normal citizen of the country who enjoys helping people? Not a politician, though. I’ll give you the name.”

She ran her hands on the wall in back of her flicking the light switch open. The room that’s been dark since it was built slowly got bathed in the light from the small bulb on the top center of it. It was a bulb that almost got forgotten. The light source that never thought needed but put up just in case.

The Queen’s Spear always believe anonymity is power. And so darkness is power. Nothing could be more powerful than a person who can shake the world but stays unknown. Nothing is more powerful than the unknown but is scary to most and is a god to some. And a master to some more.

Juan flinched on the sudden light, his eyes taking a little time adjusting to it. He closed his eyes for a quick moment then opened it again. Finally he saw the woman in front of him, not wrong at where she was. Her black long nails blended well on the black wooden table. Her back straight on the well cushioned chair. She is also dressed in a black sexy dress showing off her pale skin and the canal of her well sculpted breast. Those are like mountains, standing high and proud. Her black, as black as it could be hair is stretched at her back. Those hair are like the pitch black night sky. Matching the eyes that never flicked of any emotion. Her lips are painted red. A real beauty.

“Stephanie?”

That made her laugh hard, her amusement over the shocked and confused man in front of her growing. I hope you will never fail to amuse me.

“So you remember, huh?”

EVERYONE enjoys being a kid. If you ask any adult they might say they wish to go back to being a kid even just once. Just for the sake of enjoying it for the last time. Most of these adults forgot how to live like a kid and is kind of regretful. Who would have known adulthood is just so damn hard to enjoy?

That stage in your life where you start to get aware of the world, that stage of your life where it’s obvious to you that you’re growing up. You start to notice the most obvious changes that it sometimes makes you scared or excited. It is the stage where you wonder a lot and is supposed to ask a lot. But still, enjoy a lot.

Teenage. High school.

Being a teenager is sometimes weird. It is when you still feel young but somehow you know slowly you’re growing up, getting older. But still it is the time where you should only focus on being young. But still keeping in mind that you’re not a kid anymore.

And you start feeling things you can’t define, too. It is in the hotness of the youth that makes you crave for freedom. Youth that still has all the strength and burning energy to run, climb and crawl. It is in the hotness of the youth that makes you want to fly. The glowing fire and dreams of the immature. The eagerness to try new things, the eagerness to feel new things. Then love.

It is also the age where you start forming relationships that either lasts forever or will just break apart later on. Meeting people of opposite and same genders, then you go defining what will be your relationship with this certain person you met and how long you want your relationship to be, if ever you get to decide. Some are called friends and some of them are the bests, while there are also some that are in some sort enemies. Of course there are also just casual acquaintances and plain strangers. While there are also the most special ones that get to called crush, first heartbreak, first love.

It is in first summer of high school that he got to know the word like after seeing this certain girl of his age for the first time. Fifteen years old Juan, now Juan Valencia is still adjusting himself to his new family and neighborhood as he got adopted to a childless couple looking for an heir to their small manufacturing business. Juan didn’t understand what was the need of an heir for when the business is not even doing well. He guessed it’s just for satisfaction and motivation perhaps. The couple might have needed another reason to continue their business and their lives. He for sure is not included in those reasons but he didn’t mind. He finally has something that he can call family.

Back to that girl that made his heart race for the first time. This young lady is dressed in black in the hot summer, her hair left hang lose on her back secured with an also black brim hat. But she still shined in the sun even in those dark clothes. Or she shined brighter. He never knew the dark could shine until he landed her eyes on her. She’s a deep mystery. A mystery under the yellow rays. Juan learned from his self-proclaimed best friend that this mystery is called Stephanie. This best friend is his first real friend in school.

No one knows where Stephanie came from. Was she someone who chose Kahilom as her vacation spot for the summer? Then that means she must be a family to a resident here, since Kahilom is never known as a vacation or tourist spot. But he never got to learned who that family was. And that was all right. She’s a mystery.

But then this mystery could also give clues of herself to someone. But that someone was not Juan.

A high school crush that never succeeded, as her interest was at his best friend.