I chose to leave my past behind the day I met her. Ever since then, I changed the way I live and chose to stay by her side. I was already fighting for my life when she saw me. At that moment in time, I never considered surviving. I could already feel Death’s scythe nearing, ready to take my soul away from my expiring body. I already gave up and closed my eyes because of the excruciating pain that was radiating all over my body when the soul that I expected, who will take my life, took me in her arms without hesitating, and observed my fully-blooded face.

“Hang in there.” Spoke her angelic voice.

With the remaining energy that I have, I opened my tired eyes and saw a seemingly like nymph in the middle of the city or an angel under St. Gabriel’s command, who was sent to take me to heaven.

Never in my life did I expect that I would enter the place they call paradise. I admit it that in twenty years of living in this world, you can count with your fingers the good things I did. Evil… That’s how I lived my life according to them. But for me, I only did what I had to do to keep on living.

Not long after, I felt my body lifted up from the ground I’ve been lying at. Soon after, I felt my back rested on a soft bed. I could hear bawls, but it’s only her voice that I could recognize.

“You will live… trust me.”

Trust? In my whole life, I never got the chance to learn that word. It’s one of the words that I avoided to learn and to do. Along with it is the word… LOVE.

--------------------------

I slowly opened my eyes and looked around me.

A dream.

It’s almost been ten years when I was given a chance to live a second life, as I call it, a second life that I chose to be by her side.

I quickly rose from my bed after knowing what time it is. It’s already four in the morning… just like before. I took a bath and went out my room to start with today’s work. When I got out, I also saw the other servants who are also preparing for a new day. After helping in the kitchen, I made my way towards the second floor to wake up the sleeping princess.

Of all servants, I was the only one whom she gave permission to get in her room at this time in the morning to wake her up.

Trust. This is the first thing that she taught me.

In almost ten years that I’ve been doing this, I’m still marveled by her unaparalleled beauty that is only fit for a princess. To witness her slowly open her eyes after I utter the words, “Wake up, my princess,” up until a smile was slowly drawn on her face, is what I consider as my most important memory of her.

I couldn’t help but smile with the scene I’ve been witnessing right before my very eyes. Creepy as it may be, I no longer care anymore because deep inside me, these eyes of mine adore nobody but her.

“Good morning Princess. The breakfast is already prepared downstairs. Your  older sister is also getting woken up at the same time. After two hours, you have to prepared already to go to work.” I spoke after I bowed down to pay respect to the person who gave me this second life.

“But I’m still sleepy.” She answered.

I suppressed myself from laughing with the way she behaved. Up ‘til now, she still acts like a kid sometimes. But I’m happy nonetheless… because aside from her sister, she only behaves like this when she’s with me.

I smiled at her before saying, “But you know that you have to get out of your bed whether you like it or not.”

“Carry me then.” She commanded.

Most of the time, this is what she do whenever she doesn’t feel like leaving her bed. I couldn’t remember anymore when this habit started, but deep down myself, I’m happy to carry her in my arms all the way to the bathroom. I closed the door to the bathroom and proceeded to make her bed and opened the curtains to let the blinding ray of light enter the room.

I smiled as I realized that the me in the past could be compared to a dark room. I shut myself away from the outside world, afraid of what it’s going to do to me. I locked all of the doors and windows from the inside. I stayed inside until I was slowly eaten up by the darkness that I myself created.

But she came into my life. Unlike other people who shoved aside a hopeless person like me, she remained persistent and reached out to me from the outside. She never stopped knocking on my already closed heart. I was thankful that something inside me told me to let her come into my dark world. As she slowly entered, she gave light to my darkness. She gave me hope… a chance to once again trust the world that threw me into an endless abyss. She accepted me and gave me a new name… a new name for a new me, who is no longer afraid of the world… of the light.

Amber.

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To those who have read the Filipino version, what do you guys think? Easier to read? Hahaha... But I like writing the Filipino ver. more >.< The ending was written already in my mother language :( But 'that' part was in English. Darn... It's so awkward writing in Filipino. Hahahaha... Why am I giving such hints anyway? *rolls away before I say something about the ending*