A Study In Crimson

"wat tym again?.."

His anxiousness was really so great that Jay could barely think straight, let alone choose what shirt he would be wearing. He had greatly anticipated this day, that’s why uto thathour he still could’t decide whether hs black tribal-printed T-shirt or his body-fit polo-shirt was special enough for the occasion. Just when he finally decided to wear the t-shirt, his cell phone rang.

Obviously, Janet was very anxious too.

They have agreed upon the time, but it seemed for them that time couldn’t go any more slower than this.

'7pm just w8 4 8, ayt?' Jay replied.

"cant we mit a bit earlier? At ru wearing? Ill wear a red blouse and denim mini."

'wearing red, too? ‘ll be wearing a red polo-sirt. We’ll mit, 7pm. Ok?'

"but it’ll b dark by then.  I jst heard der’s a ghost round hir."

'a ghost? Wer? Wud that b tru?'

"a neighbor just told me. Dey say its  red lady by d acacia tree"

Red.. lady..?

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9 years ago

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"Ja-Ja! Whynot give up! You’re the only one left! I’ll still find you, sooner or later!"

If they hadn’t been playing hide-and-seek, Jay would have already given his playmate Henry a sucker punch. "How many times do  have to tell him, not to call me Ja-Ja?", he grumbled to himself.

!5 minutes has passed ever since he hid behind a neighbor’s tree. "And Henry keeps on insisting he’sthe best seeker in the neighborhood," whispered Jay, "He could find me so he’s trying to flush me out through trash talk."

20 minutes...

"What’s keeping him?" He was waiting for Henry to go inside the playground and make a save. His legs were starting to itch from the mosquito bites.

30 minutes...

"Great, my legs are starting to get numb. "

40 minutes.

It’s nearly an hour, but his playmate still can’t find him. He couldn’t wait any longer, so he went out ofhis hiding place .

And that’s when it happened. Something he could never forget and haunt him the rest of his life…

It was like a dream, nay, a nightmare. He could no longer see the end of the street where he was in. He can’t see see his house, as if it disappeared. Or may be he just couldn’t see it, because everything around him was just a blur to his eyes. It’s as if his vision was being distorted with some kind of distorted lens. It’slike an eerie mist is obscuring his sight.

A outrageously boisterous laughter made the atmosphere even more ominous. A hair-raising sound that seemed to belong to the devil himself. A skin-tingling laughter that seemed to come from up the branches of the acacia tree.

He ran. He dashed and cantered because there was nothing else he could think of doing at that moment. But no matter how fast he went, he wasn’t moving an inch from where he was originally at.

He looked over his should end was even more terrified with what he saw. A lady, wearing a dress as red as blood. Her waist-length hair crimson as the setting sun. Her blood-shot eyes screaming terror to Jay.

He gave a shout. And suddenly he was awake. He felt sick, like a dengue patient in a delirium.

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Present Day

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Normally, tyn would be filled with disgust had she been told she had to go out at night. Not this time. Not when she's going to town to meet someone she's been dying to meet.

She was just 3 blocks away from the jeepney terminal when she was pullled into the shadows. In the darkness, she could see the glistening of the sharp shiny metal pointed at her sides.

"just try to make a fight and you sure would get a fountain of red wine!" the man whispered with his beer-scented breath. "Give me your wallet and your phone!"She couldn't move. The shock was too much for her. So he simply dug in her pockets and took her valuables.

"Wow! What a nice phone! You're really a catch, you know that? Haven't my friend sent me a tip from a guy he took a phone a few minutes earlier. I wonder if you'd be at his funeral. You guys seemed to be -"

He haven't finished his blabbering when he noticed something strange happening to his vision. It's as if piece of red cellophane suddenly covered his eyes. And the eyes of his prisoner. Sharp. Very sharp. As if his very soul was burning because of his stare. His skin felt cold, yet his perspiration made his body very wet.

He screamed.

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2 days later

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He couldn't remember how he got there, but he really was puzzled to wake up in a hospital bed. His mother was on his bedside, snoring gently.

On the table beside his bed, leaning on the flowervase, was a piece of paper, neatly folded.

"Big J,

I'm sorry i could't get to visit you. I really am busy with my band and my school projects. i just asked my neighbor, who is a nurse there to give you this letter. i heard the person that took your phone was just arrested by the authorities, when he tried to snatch a phone from a policeman's wife.

Tyn"

Hidden by that paper was the cellular phone that nearly cost him his life. And twirled around it were some long strands of hair, crimson as the sunset.