Chapter 8: Am I Dead?
Xia opened her eyes, she was welcomed by a sudden blinding brightness that for a moment she felt the prolonged stinging sensation in her eyes, making them look red and watery.
"Where am I? Did I die and go to heaven?"
She don't feel anything, not even the pain after the hard, cold metal dig deep into the flesh of her chest. She should feel something atleast! She should feel the wound to confirm she was alive. She began to panic. No! She cant be dead. She's too young to die. Tears began to fall down her porcelain cheeks as she stood in the middle of nowhere. She covered her face with her palms and began to sob.
The last thing she remembered was falling down into the hard cold floor then everything began to blur and the swirling darkness swallowed her up. Did the knife burried deep into her chest and pierced right thru her heart? Did she bumped her head hard into the floor causing her to die from hemorrhage? She want to know the answer to all of her questions but she can't.
"Wake up! Please wake up Xia!"
Xia opened her eye in an instant and raised her head, allowing her wet hands to fall down her sides. She continue looking for the location of the familiar voice but she cant. The brightness was blinding her vision. She can't even see her sorroundings properly for all she see was an intense brightness as if she was looking directly at the sun. She was not imagining. She was sure that she heard a familiar voice
Xia felt felt the numb and tingling sensation all over her body as if hundreds of needles were pressed deep into her skin. Is this what death feels like? Her legs began to buckle and she collapsed to the ground. She was too weak to even struggle, If it was indeed her last existence, let it be. She should atleast pray for her family for one last time.
'Lord, please protect my family away from harm and danger. I love them. Please take good care of Kim, I forgive her for all the bad thing she did to me. Please take good care of my parents, my aunt, my cousins, and those people who became a part of my life."
Suddenly, Xia's clasped hands was gently touched by a soft warm fingers. The blinding brightness vanished and Xia looked up, she was faced to faced with a girl with astonishing silvery hair and grey eyes that seemed to read anyone's darkest thoughts.
"Who are you?" Xia whispered. Surprise hit her hard after realizing that the girl was a replica of hers. Everything about this girl in front of her was similar to hers. The eyes, the nose the lips. Those are her own. Only the hair was different because it was an enchanting color of silver
"I am the part of your past and will be your hope in the future, I am your memories that have faded in oblivion." Her tone as she reply was warm and soothing. Xia found herself closing her eyes while listening to voice that seemed to caress her heart.
Xia's eyelids felt so heavy, she was drifting back to sleep. She wanted to ask the girl more question but her drowsiness was making it impossible to do so.
"The answer to all your questions was inside of you." The girl slowly faded and so Xia's consciousness.
****
Mark Gabriel Villamor slowly lifted her ex girlfriend's unmoving body from the cold tiled floor. She was still unconscious due to the effect of the Trichloromethane, a drug she inhaled from the handkerchief. She should be asleep for another 7 hours. For now, he was safe that he will remain unseen by her. He need to keep the truth from her. Xia was a very bright girl with an honest and blunt attitude that frequently landed her in trouble. If she know he was alive, she will not stop until she know the truth. The truth will drag her into a bigger danger.
Xia was lucky that the knife did not pierced into her or else she died right at the moment considering the aim of the knife was her heart. The knife if happened to stab her in the heart it could damage major arteries that can lead into massive internal and external bleeding. The worst part is, since her heart was still pumping, it will cause a catastrophic drop in blood pressure to the brain causing near immediate unconsciousness and death in less than four minutes. He arrived just in time and he thanked God for it. Of he delayed his arrival by a minute she should have died.
The man carried Xia with ease as if he was carrying a small child and not a twenty-five year old woman. His right arm was severely bleeding from the deep wound he received when the perpetrator attacked him with his sharp dagger. Atleast, it was him who received the wound. He won't forgive himself if she was the one wounded. The perpetrator did manage to inflict him a wound with his sharp armor but atleast he made him pay back by breaking his bones. Gabriel even saw him limping when he decided to escape after realizing he was not match to his abilities.
He should have followed the man to finish him but he was so damn worried about Xia's pitiful condition as she lay sprawled on the cold floor. Poor Xia. 'From now on, as long as I'm here to guide you, no one could hurt ever hurt you again. I swear to God,' he vowed to himself as his eyes flickered with undeterred determination. He became a top secret agent for no reason at all. Everyone in the agency look at him with huge respect and high regard. No one can defeat him in terms of mortal combat. Everything he achieved at the age of twenty-eight he did all of that for Xia.
"Mi, Amore, if someone hurts you again, and if it's necessary, I'll kill them with my bare hands!"
-- Gift
received