❋ p r o l o g u e ❋

“Chorong.” Torn, bruised and battered, he’s calling out for her. Softly, pleading, longingly…desperately.  Fresh tears are stinging his eyes, making his vision worse than just swollen eyelids but it wasn’t because of the pain. Not physically anyway.

“Chorong…” another voice – gentler, calmer and very much more alluring. He isn’t in any better condition but it’s amazing how he is still able to remain composed and level-headed. Perhaps, this is what he’s wanted all along. Perhaps he has seen this right from the very beginning.

And he…and her were just puppets made to be strung along.

“Chorong!” he struggles again, this time attempting to take another step forward even though the pain in his right leg almost jolted him back to the ground. He couldn’t succumb to defeat, not yet – not when she still needed to be saved, not when she is the one holding the gun.

“You know me,” he tries again and forces out a small smile, despite his stiff, cracked lips. “You know you can trust me. You have always trusted me.”

“Shut up!” she is crying. His Chorong is crying, she is breaking apart and there is nothing he can do about it. Even if they manage to escape from this place unscathed, the damage has already been done. He has ripped her apart, right down to skin and bones; her once whole heart is now shattered to pieces and even if it is to become a whole again – the cracks would always be visible.

And it is absolutely tearing him up knowing he had done so much to protect her but still failed.

“He’s lying, Chorong,” the other person speaks, tone completely unnerving. “Everything he’s ever told you, all the things he has said and done – they are all lies. You think you know him, but you don’t.”

“Give the gun to me, Rong.”

“Put the gun down, love.”

“Rong, listen to me – look at me! Ignore him; keep your eyes on me.”

“Sweetheart, I promise you – “

This has to stop. He’s only going to feed her with more lies and he isn’t about to let that happen. Even if his life ends here tonight, he wants her to remember him as that person – the man who truly loved her, without any demands or restrictions. The one who would do anything for her, who would die for her.

All of a sudden, he lunges forward at her. Caught by surprise, the gun slips slowly from her fingers, but not before they pull the trigger unintentionally.

Bang.