1. Living In A Nightmare

Leona found herself walking towards the room with a pink door, it was left slightly ajar and the only source of illumination was the light from the lamppost outside the house that passes through the window, as well as the frequent flashes of lightning accompanying the thunder that rainy evening.

It was raining heavily and the sound of people grunting and fighting physically inside the room is giving her an ominous feeling that all she wanted to do was run away from this place.

She's been here before... multiple times, over... and over... again.

But just like Pandora who opened a box out of curiosity and ended up unleashing all the evil in this world, Leona opened the door and was greeted by the figures of people she used to know.

She dropped down on her knees, shaking profusely. the horrid sight in front of her made her unable to even blink, causing her bloodshot eyes to sore but she didn't mind since minutes after, they started to well and tears fell down her cheeks. Like a spectator on a deadly kickboxing match, she watched as the assassin wearing a black balaclava that is covering his whole head and face aside from his eyes, pinned one of her mom's arms with his knee and slit her struggling mother's throat in one swift motion.

'No! no! no!'

she screamed inside her head as she watched her mom's other hand that was gripping the culprit's wrist went limp and fell on her side.

She wanted to intervene but for some reason she's glued on her place... paralyzed and can't even find her own voice to shout. Leona is already on the brink of insanity but it's not over yet, she completely lost her mind when she realized that the assassin is already sauntering towards her father's direction who is currently sprawled out on the floor trying to keep his conciousness with shards of broken glasses and pool of blood around him but before he could gain his strength the assassin is already towering over him.

As he bent down to take the half conscious man's life with his dagger, Leona's body trembled. For the last time, her father met her gaze but he didn't display any fear on those eyes instead they were full of determination as if he was trying to convey and give all of what is left of his courage and bravery to her. She had seen this before and just like always, all she felt was helplessness.

"No pleaaaaaase, oh God stoppppppp!"

Leona finally found her voice but she's no longer in her nightmare, she's gasping for air as she sat on her bed and leaned on the head board trying to calm herself, covering her face with her hands. She relives her parents' death in her dreams every now and then, she was around 6 when it happened and she' now 22 and yet it feels like it just happened a couple of hours ago.

The pain in her chest feels fresh that sometimes she wondered if there is some festering wound that refuses to heal inside her ribs. She's been diagnosed with *PTSD* after the incident and she had to learn to make peace with herself and accept the fact that she has to live with it.

At least for now.

Leona wonders if all her demons would ever rest in peace once she serves them the justice they craved for.

She dropped her whole body on the bed and rolled to a fetal position, crying silently.

Several minutes later she snapped out of her misery when her cellphone rang, she weakly crawled down to the floor where her phone is at but it already stopped ringing before she could reach it.

Her forehead creased when she saw that there were already four miss calls registered on the screen. 'great! I'm too engrossed with my daily dose of sweet, sweet... dreams that my years of training in the military flew out the window and didn't even hear my phone rang'

Leona was cursing herself as she dialed back the number.

"finally! where have you been?! we're all waiting for you, we have an emergency! we need you at the hotel where Akio and Demitri were surveilling at" Li Wei blurted out in one breath before she could even say hello.

'As expected from her unit's goofball'

Leona can't help rolling her eyes but somehow felt a little bit better hearing her friend slash brother's voice on the phone.

"okay, okay! I'm on my way! you're too loud!"

And like a soldier that was awaken by a morning call, Leona swiftly wore her cargo pants under her nightdress, changed into a tank top and slipped on her combat shoes.

'oh well, what a good way to vent'

she thought and grabbed her car keys with a better mood.

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***PTSD - Post-traumatic Stress disorder***

a disorder that someone gets when she/he goes through a very traumatic experience that could not bear, the person ends up reliving the terrible experience from time to time.

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P.S: trust me this is supposed to be rom-com haha, just wanted to shed some light on mental health a bit. <3