A Serenade For The Innocent

"What I"m trying to is that," Veronica continued as she slowly leaned her body towards me, "I want you."

I chuckled, trying my hardest to conceal my already ghastly and muddle expression, "What? Like, dating?"

"You know d.a.m.n well I"m not here to ask you for something as small as that." Veronica continued with an unbothered expression, filled with conviction, unmoving and unfazed. "I came here for something bigger--something more substantial than the world we"re living in, a reality where all of us can enjoy a soulful life. I can give that to you if you just accept the love my family can bring you." She uttered as a distorted smile crept upon her face; perhaps, it was her way to rea.s.sure me, but all I am feeling as I gazed at her empty eyes is a hollowed fear that I could not quite understand. It feels like something inside of me has been stolen by the time Veronica had entered my room, and I think more than lonelier than ever.

"I don"t understand. What exactly do you want to do? What are you? What is all this?" I was starting to feel outraged, but my anger wouldn"t quite explode out of my already widened eyes. It feels as if my wrath remained in my head, contained in my nerves like a ma.s.sive set of chains shackled it.

"All you need to do to know everything—to know the truth away from the lies of the media and the church and the government—is to follow my lead," She then extended her hands towards me like she was asking me to take a leisurely stroll with her in the park. "and all answers you"re looking for will come running at you!"

"Everything..." I said as I gazed at her pale hands, white as the brightest light in the universe.

"Yes. Everything! The world, the universe, your purpose, your capabilities, everything is just an arm"s reach! Why are you here?" Her voice then started to deepen even more like she was trying her very hardest to sound like a bouncer in a bar. "Why did they leave? Why should you keep going? The only thing you need to do now is to confide yourself to me. Trust me, everything else after that will follow. Now, tell me, what is the question that you wish for me to answer?"

"I just..." I said as my hands twitched, trying my very hardest to heave a deep breath. "... I just want to know why I was the one who"s spared when a kind person like Mike, or, heck, even my mom is not such a horrible person, but why am I the one who"s chosen to live through this f.u.c.ked up world, you know?"

"I understand," Veronica responded as she gently placed her hand on my arms. "I know what it feels like to be in pain. We"ve all been there; I understand, really, I do. I know how dark it is that side, but I promise you, no amount of darkness is everlasting. All you need to do is find the light inside of you and discover a better world outside of your comfort zone that could offer the brilliance that you deserve."

I then moved my arms slowly before tightly wrapping my hands on her smooth, delicate limbs, feeling the warmth coming from her body as the cold gradually conquers my room.

"I still don"t understand..." I uttered under my breath.

"I will make you understand it all soon once you follow me. Everything else that you need will follow once you stepped inside of the Plural Heights family." She then started sniffing, indicating that the sadness she must have been trying to conceal has begun to get the best of her. However, no tears dropped out of her pretty big eyes. "If you really think that your life is dark and scary right now, then please, I want you to use me as the light that will get you out of this h.e.l.l that the world has thrown you in; let me in--allow me to care for you and give you a fulfilling life. Only then will you finally see that you are truly blessed."

"Blessed?" I said weakly as I shivered in the cold.

"Yes. You"re blessed, for you are my son, my child, my little blue sapling. To me and to the rest of your brothers and sisters in Plural Heights, you shone much, much more than any gold and jewelry in the whole wide world." Her voice then started to get hoa.r.s.e as I felt her hands getting warmer and warmer. "But... Right now, you"re filled with so much darkness, and your insides are tainted with a great deal of shadow that is resulted by the amount of poison and toxic you have received from the horrible people who caused your misfortune."

"You mean... Someone caused all of these sufferings?" I said like a lost child, finally realizing the right way to lead me back home.

"Absolutely, child. Absolutely! The government told you that your life is better if you have a good home. The church told you that your life is better if you have a wonderful wife. The media told you that your life would turn upside down once you become rich." She then started to grit her teeth as a wave of seeping anger, so malevolent and so grotesque, starts to spew out of her heart that it made her hands hotter than a steaming metal. "They are the reasons why you"re lonely and sad and alone, but you don"t have to be—because we, your family and friends in Plural Heights, are here. We will do all we can to save you from the venom spreading throughout your body because of the monsters that attacked your life and threatened the sanct.i.ty of your peace. We are here to suck the darkness out of your life and make the world know that no amount of dirt can ruin the brilliance of a jewel like you."

While Veronica spoke those words to me, I started feeling some kind of rough texture hitting the back of my head. I turned around to see that it was a frozen foot of a man, hanging from my ceiling. The man then started to blurt out an intelligible grunt as he opened his hollowed eyes to gaze at my ashen countenance. The corpse whose body is hanging on my ceiling is so foreign to me like this is the first time I have ever seen this person in my entire life. However, I know for a fact that the ghost of the ones I have lost started to haunt my mind once again.

"Son," Veronica whispered to me, which took me back to reality. I then turned my head to look at Veronica, so she wouldn"t think I"m being weird, but I didn"t see her in front of me. Instead, I lowered my head, and there she was, kneeling in front of me as she slowly stroked my face. For once in a very long time, I feel like a boy again. I do not even know anymore if I have ever known what it felt like to be a child, but when I look at Veronica"s captivatingly beautiful green eyes, I finally understood the joy of being loved by a parent. It made me remember that time... when my father taught me how to shoot a gun with a deer"s antler rooted inside of his stomach. "I will protect you from yourself, and I will be your shield away from all the monsters around us. I promise you that if you become a part of my family, no amount of harm shall ever come your way."

"Why?" I said with such a lifeless tone that I might as well be treated as a dead man speaking. "Why would you do all of this for a person like me?" I said as my body trembled in the utter sadness that I am feeling while I could still feel the roughness of the corpse behind me as it hit the back of my head.

"Because in my family," Veronica uttered while still stroking my cheek. However, her voice remained m.u.f.fled, for the only thing I could hear is the sound of my hair hitting a corpse"s skin. "you are treasured."

Everything around me feels like it was going through all kinds of h.e.l.lish doom...

Suddenly, I heard a thud coming from behind me, almost making me feel like someone had just broken my wooden floor. Then, I listened to the same gibberish that the corpse behind me was uttering earlier. Still, the only difference is that the corpse is now saying that unintelligible nonsense right into my ear. The corpse suddenly started yanking, pulling, and grabbing my body away from Veronica, which almost made me fell from my chair if it wasn"t for the fact that she"s grabbing my hands. A part of me wanted to let the body take me away from Veronica once and for all, so I could use my own hands to push it away from me...

"In Plural Heights, even if you think so lowly of yourself, you are still treasured."

... But when I heard Veronica said those words...

... For some reason, the corpse behind me had stopped pulling me away. Before I knew it, the ghastly apparition of a broken tomorrow had utterly ceased to exist from my back as I saw Veronica kneeling behind me.

She then stroked my cheek once more before placing my head on her shoulders. "It"s going to be okay, son."

Before I knew it, I was already embracing her, staining her leather jacket with my tears. For once, I was taught what it feels like to have a mother.