Strange Room

Charlie struggles to open her eyes. Slightly a little bit fuzzy, she is welcomed by two unfamiliar faces. Her eyes widens in fear. Her eyes examines the strange room—dim pale dark, but luckily there is a lamp on the side of the room, bringing the room at least a dim light—placed at the top of a small drawer and she can barely see. She knows that, this is not her room and most definitely, not the place she recognised.

Other than the lamp and the drawer, there are no more furnitures in this room.

"Nagising na siya!" Says by the unfamiliar voice of a girl from Charlie's left. Charlie turns her head towards the girl. She is scared. She is nervous. She can also barely see their faces.

Charlie straightens up, drags herself back and leans on the wall behind her as she switches her eyes both to the girl on her left and on her right. She is on guard. She is definitely not the person who will trust a person very easily.

"Ka...musta ka? Ano nararamdaman mo?" Asks by the girl on Charlie's right. The girl looks very uncomfortable but still, tries to act tough.

Charlie did not answer. She couldn't comprehend with what's happening. She then, noticed there are another two more girls on the other side, sleeping defenlesly. But, sure boy, Charlie was nervous. That was what pounded in her chest. Her breaths were unsteady. These things were very traumatizing to her.

She wonders, why she is here, how she got here and who did this but she can't think of anyone she knows. She know herself that she should not panic, but she can't help but be panicked. Especially in a situation like this.

She wants to ask the questions she's having in her head but, something is stopping her.

The girl on the left clicked her fingers in front of Charlie, making Charlie knocked out of her thoughts.

"Uh.. Hello? Nakakapagsalita ka ba?" The girl on the left asks. Tone is a little bit sassy. "..Or di ka nakakaintindi ng tagalog..?" She mumbles to herself, head slightly down. She then looked at Charlie once again with a smile, "I'm Thylane." She says, taking back her hand.

On the other hand, Charlie, can understand tagalog very well. Of course she can. She is a Filipina too. She is not just used talking to someone in person. She's feeling very uncomfortable plus she's scared. She can't forget the thought she is kidnapped.

"...I'm Rue.." Says the girl on Charlie's right.

'Hindi ba parang panglalake pangalan niya?' Charlie says in her mind.

Charlie, is an influencer and all of her contents are about women empowerment. On camera, she's strong and a willed person. But, in person? She's a total opposite. She have to use some kind of a mask to cover up her face. Her fans and viewers don't know her face nor do they know her real name. She goes by the name Arlie on social media. She does have a lot of followers on social media that to the point, she have someone to manage her career, which is a manager.

"..C-Charlie." Charlie stutters. She squeezes her body by her arms.

"Nakakapagsalita naman pala 'to." Thylane muttered. "Just so you know, uhm..uh...we also don't have...uhmm..an idea who did such a thing–"

"Nakakaintindi po ako ng tagalog..." Charlie blurts out.

Thylane, silenced for a bit second—her mouth opens and looks at Charlie in disbelief.

"Jusko... Pinahirapan mo pa ako magenglish–english. Pilipino ka naman pala. Jusko talaga." Thylane says in a deep voice. She shakes her head. "Anyway, as I was saying, hindi din namin alam kung bakit tayo nandito at sinong gumawa nito. Kanina pa tayo nakatengga dito pero wala pang nangyayare. Syempre, tayong lima ang biktima." She continues.

Charlie is amazed of her confidence and she doesn't sound scared at all. Thylane is very collected on Charlie's point of view, the opposite of Charlie. Charlie nods as a sign that she understands.

"..Pero.. Bakit naman tayo napunta sa ganitong sitwasyon? Sa totoo lang medyo nagpapasalamat akong may mga kasama ako.." Rue silently chuckles awkwardly. Her head is slightly down and there is a faint of an awkward smile across her lip.

"Aba, malay ko." Thylane answers. Almost sounds like she's brushing Rue off.

Charlie feels the same way as Rue. But, she still feels awkward with other people so she can't tell Rue what she truly feels.

Charlie tries to recall the events before she woke up in this strange room. She know she came back from school and slept like a log. How did someone kidnap her from second floor without being noticed by her parents?

Her face went pale. Thinking the kidnapper did something to her parents, terrorise the poor little Charlie. She hoped that is not the case. She loves her parents more than anything in this world.

"Ano na gagawin natin?" Asks by Rue, backs down a little away from Charlie and sits in an indian sit on the cold ground.

"Mukha namang walang alam si Charlie sa mga nangyayari. Antayin natin yung dalawa magising baka may alam sila." Thylane answers then followed by a disappointed sigh. She was expecting an explanation from Charlie.

Charlie agrees and so does Rue. The three of them waited quite a while. Unfortunately, there are no windows in this suffocating room so they have no idea if it's day or night. They are surrounded by fabricated walls. Then, a little while, it's starting to get colder and Charlie definitely can feel it. She starts to shiver. She cuddles herself with her arms and her toes moves relentlesly. Her shoulders moves back and forth—unkind behaviours and Rue noticed them. This is where Charlie realizes that she's barefooted and so does the other four girls. She also realizes that the four of them wears pajamas, and so does she.

"Nilalamig ka ba..? Kanina medyo mainit init pa dito. Baka gabi na..?" Asks by Rue then starts to speak out her thoughts. Strangely, it doesn't sound she's concerned at Charlie at all. Charlie felt it in her bones.

Charlie nods as an answer. She's still shivering from the cold and so does her lip.

"Eto. Hawakan mo kamay ko." Thylane states. She extends her arm and hands out her open palm to Charlie. Her palms are warm so it will help Charlie get warm too.

Charlie hesitatingly takes Thylane's offer. She places her hand slowly at the top of Thylane's palm. Their palms makes contact and the cold feeling instantly replaces by warmth from Thylane. Charlie silently sighs in satisfaction.

Charlie's body is weak. Physically, her skin is pale and she gets tired rather easily. Her body is pretty sensitive.

Charlie felt Thylane's hand gripped Charlie's hand and held them locked. It is much better. Charlie did the same thing though it's pretty embarrassing, she needed it.

"Mmhmmm!" Another unfamiliar voice mumbled out of nowhere. It came from the other side which means, it's one of the two. The three girls' attention are instantly grabbed by that single sound. Their eyes watches the girl as she slowly pulls herself up, stretches her hands up, something like anyone would do when they woke up. She heaved a loud yawn. Then, she finally opens her eyes.

"..Huh? Bat ang dilim..?" The girl muttered. She massages her shoulder by moving it back and forth and stretches her back by going side to side, probably having a back ache.

Then, the girl looks at the three on the other side of the room. She squints her eyes, thoroughly looking. At first, she's confused and instantly, she finally gets her situation. Her face changed. Her eyes widens and starts to scream.

"S-S-Sino kayo?!" She exclaims. She receives silence. "Asan ako!? Ano ito? Bat ako andito?!" She adds as if she's rapping. As she throws out her words, her head moves relentlesly across the room as if examining it.

No one dared to answer the little panicked girl who just woke up. Though, Charlie wanted to explain, her mind was overcoming with shyness that she just decided to keep her mouth shut.

"Ahh.. Okay. May kausap ako. Ang galing!" The girl sarcastically says. She shakes her head. She then looks at her other side, only to find out the last girl sleeping soundly. The girl looks at the girl who's sleeping soundly, examining her—the girl looks she's having a good dream.

Thylane sighs, "Obvious namang, wala din siyang alam." She muttered, only Charlie and Rue can hear it very clearly as they are the ones who are near the hopeless Thylane. Her body droops then leans her body forward, placing her forehead on her knees as she wraps her hands on the back of her head—looking very disappointed.

The girl instantly turns her head towards Thylane and makes an expression as if she didn't catch what Thylane just said. "Ano?!" The girl strongly asks.

Thylane, secretly rolls her eyes underneath. They can't see her face as her face are covered by her arms and legs.

And, the girl receives silence. Again. She is absolutely irritated. She growls before having to struggle on standing up. Having difficulties to see things in this dim pale dark room, she turns around and saw a door, the colour similar to the walls so she barely noticed it. She moves closer towards the door and reaches out for the door knob. She twists but failed—It's locked.

The girl small nods repeatedly. "Okay.... Tangina?" Those are the words that escapes her mouth.