Chapter 3

When my phone rang, Raho looked at me. He walked towards where I sit and gave the phone to me.

"Answer it in speaker mode"

I nodded my head and answered the call of an unknown number.

"This is Leila Mariano. I will be in-charge of the negotiation. May I know who am I talking right now?"

"Um...ah..."

I muted the call.

"It's a lady's voice"

Leila informed the police staff beside her and we can hear it.

"You may talk now...Is this Mrs. Nita Guillermo?"

"This negotiator is annoying. Can't you just speak to her?"

I gave my phone to Raho but he just covered his eyes with his big hands and suddenly bursts into laughter. It's a laugh of a sane person though.

"Hello?" --from the other line.

He gently flicked my forehead again.

"Answer her question first before you complain"

'What's so funny?'

I unmuted the call and answered.

"...Yes, I am Nita Castillo"

"We found her! Report to Sir Francis Guillermo immediately!"

I muted the call again.

"She is really annoying!"

My head is pounding crazy again, so I rubbed my temples and sighed.

"Mrs. Guillermo. Will you be able to tell us the situation? How many civilians are in there?"

Leila's voice got a little bit excited that it even annoys me.

'What kind of a negotiator is this?'

While I am blankly looking at my phone, squinting my eyes, I heard the voice of the man beside me.

"Hey, are you alright?"

Raho's voice seemed a little concerned.

"Hm. Just talk to this fellow or just kill her or whatever! Just make her shut up! She is so annoying!"

Raho grabbed the phone from my hand and he adjusted my seat comfortably, for sleeping.

"Sleep"

I closed my eyes after he said that and went to a deep slumber.

****

Raho unmuted the call.

"Hey. Bitch. Tell to your supervisors that I need one reporter and a cameraman inside the bus or else I will bring one corpse outside of this bus"

His cold threat sends shivers to the negotiator that made her speechless. Raho dropped the call before the Leila could negotiate.

****

1 hour and 40 minutes of negotiation.

"Nita! Nita!

When I opened my eyes, my headache was gone and saw an unfamiliar face of a man.

"Nita!"

I sat up from my seat and tilted my head, trying to recognize the man who called my name.

"Who...?"

"It's me, Biboy!"

"Biboy?"

I am still trying to recall someone I know when Raho's thunderous voice echoed the bus. Everyone flinched except for his men.

"HEY!"

The poor man who dared to talk to me in private froze.

"Get out"

Raho commanded. His eyes wanted to tear apart Biboy but he held back his anger.

"Francis is worried for you and...your unborn child"

Biboy said before he was dragged by Raho's men out of the bus.

'Bullshit'

"Nita! Stay strong! We will save you!"

Biboy's shout outside the bus is all about bullshit.

"We?"

I looked at him, feeling nothing. I don't know what expression I wear, but his enthusiastic act stopped when I looked at him and it was replaced by a shocked expression.

'You cannot save me anymore'

I went back to my original seat. The old woman was gone.

"Where is the old woman?"

I asked the middle-aged lady sitting beside me.

"While you are being treated like a princess here, all of us are suffering. Why should I tell you?"

I felt her grudge against me that it made me speechless because I do not even know her and yet she hated me.

"Just ask that monstrous lover of yours"

She added which made me irritated that I stared at her and she scolded me.

"What's with that rude attitude? Huh?!"

She pointed her fingers at me and it even touched my forehead four times. I grabbed that damned finger of hers and broke it.

"AHHHH!"

She shouted in pain and I shouted at her as a reply.

"WHAT?! YOU DAMN OLD LADY! DON'T EVER TOUCH ME WITH THAT DIRTY HANDS OF YOURS!"

"O-OLD L-LADY?! I AM JUST IN MY FORTIES!"

"WHO CARES?! OLD FOX!"

"YOU!"

The middle-aged lady grabbed my hair and I did the same to her.

'MY MOTHER RAISED ME TO FIGHT BACK TO BULLIES LIKE YOU! OLD FOX!'

I was about to raised my fist and hit her face hard but a large hand stopped me. It was Raho.

"Not her face. Go aim somewhere else"

He let go of my clenched fist and stepped back.

'Despite the age of this old fox, she looks young and fresh. Free from stress or doing hideous acts with those rich men?'

I smirked and spitted on her face, but she tightened the grip on my hair.

"HOW DARE YOU?!"

I was about to let go, but she is a bitch, so I strangled her neck really hard.

'I won't let go unless she let go first'

I did not noticed that the middle-aged lady is already pleading to me to let go her go until Raho stopped me.

"P-psycho!"

She coughed and gasped for air while cursing at me.

'What is that? I almost...killed her...!'

I don't know what happened, but it scares me that if Raho is a second late in stopping me, I might have killed that old fox!

"Nita, stand up and sit at the back"

Raho instructed and I followed him. He also sat one seat apart from me.

"Do you have your medicines with you?"

I shook my head and I heard his heavy sigh.

"Password"

He handed me my phone to unlock my password.

"Why?"

"I need to talk to that bitch"

"080817"

I returned to him my phone.

"It's just your wedding date. You should have used random numbers"

"Yeah. Pathetic, right? Remove the password after using it"

"I will change it"

"What?"

"The password"

He said while waiting for the negotiator to pick up the call.

****

2 hours after negotiation.

"Hello?"

"Hey. Call a psychiatrist named Elvira Javier and asked for the medications of Nita. Buy whatever is in the prescription and bring those stuff within an hour. That's all"

"Huh? What the hell is that?!"

I angrily grabbed my phone from him after he hang up but he sneakily put it in his pocket.

I sighed with irritation that I want to skin this man alive!

"What are you doing?"

He grabbed my wrists and I felt that my forearms are stinging. Then, I noticed that I can read the emotions of Raho through his eyes despite his mask covering his face.

'He is worried'

"I don't know...Let go"

I brushed him off and saw the scartches on my forearms.

'It is appearing again'

I know that my ASD has not been cured. I have been trying to seek professional help for a month, but as time goes by, it gettting worse.

'I am losing myself'

While I am slowly drowning in that complete darkness, I felt the gently flick again on my forehead and my surroundings slightly brightened up.

"You should not forget something important like that"

Raho's aggressive words to others, I never heard them when he is talking to me.

'Is it my imagination or is he treating me differently from other hostages?'

I felt something warm inside of me. Somehow his presence and his words helps me calmed down.

"Thank you"

I smiled while looking at him. He looked at me for awhile and gently flicked again my forehead.

"Who in their right mind would thank their hostage-taker?"

"Well, technically, I am not sane"

I replied and we giggled at each other's remarks.

'Since when did I genuinely smiled and laughed like this? To think about it, it's been more or less half a year already since I felt this kind of feeling'