I M A G I N E
N A T I O N
All the hope she had was lost. She bent her knees toward her body and hugged herself in. She felt as if the world was against her. No fire to burn, no weapon to fight. She looked at her hands and saw blood running through them. Finally mustering the courage to accept her reality, she stood up. She wiped off the tears and the blood on her cheeks and dusted off her clothes. She began to move her feet, wiggly walking away from the room where she thought she had found the only hope she ever believed in. Still trembling and with heavy breaths, she then tried to make herself calm. She said, "At least I tried," as she formed a shaky smile. She let out a deep sigh as she entered another room, but this time, it was all too familiar for her. She didn't know what time it was, just that it was cold and dark, with only a glimmer of a small fraction of the moon's light that managed to enter her window. Silence. There was not a sound that she could hear except her own fast and loud heartbeat, echoing inside her, and that only she could understand why it wanted to stay. She's been here for almost four months now and has already memorized every inch of this tiny room in this big cabin. A prisoner, she hoped to be free, well, before that. She cozied herself up on the makeshift bed she had. She had no more energy left, nor any reason to plan an escape. "Maybe they were right," she thought, as she gently closed her eyes, preparing to doze off. Maybe I am a no-brainer, so naive to think that there's still hope when there shouldn't be anything to believe in. As long as I'm stuck here, I'm just another person who's a part of a "strong workforce"—a slave." She was too weak to stand or do anything. It has been hours since it happened. Blood was still spurting through her head. If only her mother was there, she would know what to do. She wrote her father a letter, but she knows he will never have the chance to read it. She kept herself frozen for a moment when soldiers of a familiar color suddenly picked her up and untied her already loose wrist. "Wake up, the Philippines has been completely liberated." Right then, she put a smile on her bleeding face because she knew it was their last day on the island, and so was hers.
50
