A Serenade For The Innocent

Chapter 4

I always wanted to be a city girl.

Living in the city and having a great time in an apartment across the flickering lights of the streets. Dreams like this were nice until I realized that I live in the mountains and my house is in the middle of nowhere. Don"t get me wrong, I love living here. Eating freshly picked vegetables and drinking the highest grade of dairy I"ve ever tasted in my life is the best! Everything is a countryside paradise until someone started bothering me. Every time I look down from the window of my room, I sense someone looking straight up at me. I can see them, not clearly but they are there. A dark figure, hidden behind a curtain of fog. I can"t explain why but I know they"re looking straight right through me although their face remains unseen. Here in the suburbs, it"s always foggy. One may never know what some people want or who they are or if they"re even real; needless to say, having someone looking up to you while your home resides in the middle of nowhere is a bit disconcerting.

I never suspected anybody in my neighborhood to be the culprit, not even once! All of them are great people, they"re all friendly, and they"re all amazing needless to say. Believe me, this place is all smiles! I am confident that whoever this person is, they are not from around here. No one would have the time to be spending most of their mornings looking up at me every day without a hint of stopping. I leave my home to do some work on my relative"s farm and I come home when the darkness of the night covers the entirety of the mountains. I can only check every morning but every time I do, they are always there: the dark silhouette staring at me hiding behind the comfort of his fog. I felt awkward to ask my neighbors about this matter. Not to mention, I don"t have the same confidence as those people in the city. I mean, jeez, I want some answers but I don"t have the strength to battle the anxiety needed to unravel it. I had no idea who they are but they made me shiver. Which is oddly comforting with me, I can"t see them thoroughly after all. They do not seem to harm me anyway, maybe they are just a shy suitor! Anyway, I can only work out their silhouette. All thanks to the thick fog here.

However, some days are not foggy.

One day, I was rendered speechless as I look down the window, terrified, but I know a huge chunk of me is excited. The fog has lifted. The fog is nowhere to be seen. The mountains strip itself with its satin draped frame. And, alas, after all this time I can finally see the face of the person dedicated enough to be looking at me every day! I ran towards my window and stuck my head out of it, expecting that the man is there to serenade me oh so sweetly. Oh, how naive I realized I was when the fogs have lifted. I was horrified to see a decomposing corpse stuck in a log with a stake in his stomach. I remembered how mortified I was when I saw maggots crawling from inside of his eyes. I was utterly speechless when I saw that there was no more blood in his body for it"s all already smothered in the soil. It bewildered me so to see mosquitoes flying all around him. The thing that impressed me was that I was able to look at it for a solid minute before I can respond from the situation at hand. I screamed, all I can do is scream.


I can still hear my breathing and my voice fused together as I ran towards the telephone to call the local authorities. I could still feel the adrenaline in my body when they asked me to hide under the bed. I remembered how my blood rises when I saw lights colored red and blue shone from the distance like in the movies. The hasty movement of the blood in my skin remains in my heart when I heard the siren rang from afar. Up until now, I still don"t know what to answer when they asked me how come I never noticed anything. The person has been dead for months, his corpse has been decomposing a few meters away from my home. How can I explain that I did not even remotely realize nor smell the corpse? So much uncertain in me. I know I"m supposed to feel cornered with a hint of vertigo swirling my head all over the place... But I feel nothing but a strange wave of euphoria. Is this how it feels like to live in the city? You will experience moments of your life where your sagacity gets tested every day? I wish this excitement! I wish to be in the city! Is this rush of blood what the city-folks feel?

How I wish that every day is not foggy.