Irene

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You know that state of sleep when you know your mind is already awake but your body is refusing to get up?

That's currently me right now. Nagtatalo ang isip at katawan ko. I'm so physically tired and my body badly needs to rest and sleep. For the past week, I only got less than 4-5 hours of sleep. It's been a very busy week for me and I'm pushing myself to work harder cause I have to meet the deadline given to me by my publisher. I am a writer, I have been writing books and creating stories for a year now. Writing stories is my passion since I was at a young age but I couldn't pursue it sooner cause my parents or more specifically my dad wanted me to manage our business. I was the only child so I didn't have a choice but to do what they told me to do.

I cared for my parents and I didn't want to disappoint them kaya sinunod ko ang dad ko, I studied business in the United Kingdom and soon after I got my degree I moved in California where our business is and where I'm currently residing at. I was doing fine managing the business until something happen a year ago that made me come back to my passion. I started writing as a way to heal and forget, hindi ko intensyon na i-publish yung ginawa ko but my friend convince me and I didn't expect na magc-click ito sa mga tao. Then that's how I started pursuing what I originally love to do.

The first book that I made become a sensation and popular that people are asking for another, they wanted a book two even though wala naman akong balak dagdagan yun. The first book was suppose to end like that, it shouldn't have a sequel pero kinukulit ako ng publisher ko na gumawa ng pangalawa they are persistent kaya pumayag nalang ako but on a condition na kakailanganin ko ng mahabang panahon. It's not that easy na gumawa ng pangalawa lalo na at kahit ako hindi ko din alam kung ano ang susunod na mangyayari sa kwento. They gave me half a year to create something and I've spent almost five months of that na wala pa ding nasisimulan. That's why I'm so stressed these past few days, I'm trying to find an inspiration para maisulat ang kwento. I've been to many places para lang kahit papano ay may masinulan ako but unfortunately I always come up with none.

I barely got any sleep and when I finally got to have some that annoying repetitive sound woke me up. I could have just ignored that and just go back to sleep pero kahit anong pilit ko ay ayaw makipagcooperate ng utak ko. So wala na akong nagawa kundi pilitin ang katawan ko to move and reach for my phone na nasa tabi ng kama.

My eyes still close ng makakuha ko ito but I force to open it para makita kung sino ba itong nang istorbo sa tulog ko. I was so ready to curse kung sino man sa contact ko ang tumatawag but my forehead furrowed when I saw an unknown number on the screen of my phone.

Who could this be? This person is calling me on my personal number and there's only a limited number of people na nakakaalam ng number kong ito. I have a different number kasi when it comes to work. Those people na nakakaalam ng personal number ko ay either family or my few closest friends and when I say few, I meant three people. They know na ayaw kong may ibang nakakaalam ng number kong ito maliban sa kanila, kaya nagtataka ako kung sino itong tumatawag.

I'm actually staring at my phone for a whole minute trying to figure out kung sasagutin ko ba ito or hindi. There's this doubt in me na baka kung sino itong tumatawag but at the same time I'm also curious about it. It may be something important and maybe just a prank by some people na walang magawa sa buhay.

Those thoughts are running on my mind until the call ended. So I guess there goes the answer- or not. Dahil wala pang limang segundo ay nagring ulit ito with the same unknown number. This must be something important if it calls me like this. So with that in thought, I press the answer button and pressed the phone against my ear.

"Hello? " I said in a neutral but firm voice. I waited a few seconds before a sof