Bahay-Bahayan

Family.

I grew up watching nothing by fiction, in the darkness of my bedroom with the volume blasting and door shut, never anywhere out, I've always believed that the bond with family you've chosen is stronger than the people you've been born into. It’s what they have told me. It stuck with me.

I liked that. It resonated with me. I wanted one. So I went and got one for myself.

Perhaps I was lonely. Perhaps I wanted a journey. Like a hero would have. 

So, I started one. I marched my little pale stocky limbs outside, like a train chugging through the storm. I was ready, I was excited. For once.

In a cold alleyway there I found one. It was my first brother. I stood there with him and patiently, caringly, tended to his wounds and brought light to the darkness of his confusion, offering the boy, no older than I was, a home. A people. With me. I declared to him with open arms, barefoot on the muddy bloody pavement, scraped and bruised for his safety, yet glad and welcoming.

He accepted, hastily.

I dragged him to our new home.

I stood in front of it, utterly disgusted. The dump was in shambles, barely holding on, just retaining a semblance of a house with 4 chipped walls, roof in split pieces, and a door missing. Pathetic and pitiful. Such a place can barely be called a house, but for me, for us, it was home.

But the hero never starts with everything they wanted. They work for it. The beauty of victory is in the perilous journey to it.

And this, this was the beginning of my hero's journey.

The others I stumbled on the same way. I saved them and they were mine. They were my family. 

Family protects. Family nurtures.

I thought making a name to fear was hard. That it would take more than bashing people on the head, or holding silly secrets above adults' heads.

"Why the frown?" Reign signed, hands carefully tugging at her lips, concerned.

I smiled, she's the sweetest little sister anyone can ask for. 

"This whole thing is too easy." I kicked the offending bat off the defeated baddie's hands. It's like they didn't even try. "It's so boring."

"Why?"

Reign doesn't understand. She usually doesn't.

I sat down as I looked at her to her eyes.

“You’re a big girl now, Rain.” His mouth was pulled at taught, eyes still on his phone.

A business meeting, he said.

“You should know all of these things.”

He’s never looked at me in the eyes.

“We’re going to be the strongest heroes, Reign and heroes have grand adventures, not this.” I stomped at the villain’s knuckles. He screamed. “These guys just suck so much they don’t even have real guns. It’s supposed to be exciting! Like Anime!”

Her nose crinkled, mouth almost a smile. “That’s so cheesy.”

It was. 

But that’s how dreams are. Reign didn’t understand yet, so I continued, because one day she’ll understand what families stand for.

Years passed and we were many. Plentier than the silly toys dressed in green lush that tried to stand tall to try and scare us down as though we were but little kids! As though there was anything wrong with giving children a home. It’s so silly. I’m making it happier, don’t they see? Heroes have enemies, and they were mine. They shouldn’t have tried to stop me. Heroes always save the day, don’t they see?

“You could’ve been part of my family.” I whispered to a villain, watching his eyes as he choked under my boot. “We all could’ve been happy but no, you villains just love ruining things, don’t you?”

“Sis, they’re all down.” 

I smiled, Heroes always win. “Then it’s time for a little celebration, yeah?.”

Justine, my first, and my big brother, he laughed, “You always have that look in your red eyes when there’s a party. It’s kind of scary.”

I huffed. “They’re pretty, you’re just being mean.”

“That’s true.” He paced to a villain, crouching to poke it. “So what’s next on our agenda, sis? Besides the partying, I mean.”

He’s acting like he’s younger than me, do I have to swat his hand like a child? “Don’t touch him, you don’t know where he’s been to.”

Justine huffed. He continued to poke and prod, what a brat.

“There are always plenty that we can bring into our family. Defeating them just makes it easier for us.”

“We’ll just continue on recruiting, huh? No end goal.”

I frowned. He’s being an annoyance again. 

Justine backs off, almost scrambling off. “I’m not trying to say anything, I just want to know what to do to help us better, okay?”

I stared at him, watching as he fidgeted and grew antsy as minutes passed. It’s quite amusing and infuriating to see him squirm. I smiled to myself. 

“C’mon, sis, speak up, will you? You know I hate it when you go all silent on me.”

“I do like initiative.” I turned, “Tell our siblings to prepare a banquet.”

“Right away.”

“Rain.” It was his big callused hands that were on my shoulders. Should it have been reassuring.?

“Are you talking back at me?”

“I was just explaining mys---”

Pig tails swooshed at the impact of a palm at flushed cheeks. His eyes, dark unlike mine.

“Are you questioning me?”

Justine has been quite impatient lately. He’s been asking a lot of things lately, as though I hadn’t protected us from countless villains, as though I hadn’t given them a home, as though I hadn’t been anything kind.

It’s getting on my nerves, quite frankly. 

However, Family is always patient.

I simply need to find a way to assure his unfounded and incessant worries.

How would I go about that? There’s not much that needs to be done. We already have everything we need. A shelter, food, and people. We’re strong, we’re many. I can defeat whoever tries to hurt them.

Reign tapped my shoulder, still the same dainty two taps, maybe she thought it was endearing. It was. 

I turned, “Ah, Reign. Just who I need.”

“What for?” She signed, twisting a pointed finger by her face.

“What do you think would make everyone happy?”

“Why?”

“Because.” I sighed. Must everyone test my today? “If family doesn’t make you happy, Reign, is it still a family?”

“I don’t know.”

Reign and I are so alike. Hair a dark ebony, straight and long enough to brush the hips. Skin a light olive and piercing eyes. We were both alone and helpless, overlooked. Though as much as we share the same physical appearance, we were different. Her eyes a deep amber and mine a shade of ruby. Hers yearn for a path I always serve to give, and mine to theirs and serve their needs. 

I rose when I was desperately put out, like a fire, ravenously lighting up because I know my purpose and I know what I am and the world that waits for me.

Reign needs my guidance. 

“You’re usually locked in your room, by yourself..” Carefully, she signed, a slow grimace at her face.

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“It’s just that---”

I rolled my eyes. “If someone asks you a question, answer coherently.”

“I’m not done.”

“Then what are you referring to?”

She sighed, brows knitted together as her hands twitched for the right things to sign. Rigid, frustrated.

“How about you join us at the banquet?”

“I always do. It’s how it is always started, with my remarks.”

She shook her head. “Stay the whole time. Like you used to do with us.”

A scowl tugged on my lips without meaning to, “I’m not going to do that.”

“Then you won’t understand.”

“How do you know that you don’t understand?”

Rain flinched, dropping her hands and drew them to her chest. She looked down.

“I do not appreciate the amount of questioning I have been receiving, Rain. I am capable and smart to handle us, I have cared for everyone here for many years. I have led everyone and have been successful. Shall I remind everyone that I am the founder and the protector?”

Rain tried to sign something, perhaps an apology, nevertheless, I am in no mood anymore. Just when it’s the biggest victory we have achieved.

“If anyone needs me, I will be at my quarters.”

Smooth, polished, and imposing. I remember the stone on his grave to be. It seems that even in death he never seems to miss the chance to make sure to declare who he was. 

Even him being enclosed in a golden casket was poetically telling.

Distant, silent, and haunting.

Hands, soft and aged. Supposed to be comforting. She’s supposed to be loving. Hands that were supposed to stay. I was surprised to see it was not his. 

A blurry face, but her voice vivid, a whisper that was a grievous scream to my ears,

“You’re just like him. I’m sure you’ll be alright, dear.”

Like him.

Right.

I am everything he never got to be. 

His empire, everything he worked for and slaved for, the companies built with his name, crumbled after its few seconds of glory, forgotten with him. He was nothing and built nothing. 

He came home again.

I used to wish he would do that often, when I was younger and made to desperately gobble up every attention a parent would give.

This time he was with her.

The door is locked, the tv is on, and I got everything I would want to eat while they pretend their child wasn’t in the room directly next to their shouting match.

I didn’t really care.

I have important things to read and watch.

Especially today where most of the series I’m watching are airing their finale.

At least they’re getting a happy ending.

They’re getting louder. I couldn’t hear the dialogues properly. Who knows they might say something quotable.

I turned up the volume.

“If you were the least bit of a proper Mother, she wouldn’t be like this!”

“Me?! What about you? You’re never around!”

It was kind of repetitive, actually. Whoever is giving them their script needs to be fired.

“She’s stuck in a stupid fantasy.”

He used to mock me.

Say that all that I did were just games, fictional. Unimportant.

What does he know? He’s just one in the countless sea of facelessof the millions of villains, too stupid to know that their selfish schemes are doomed to fail from the start.

A speech.

Maybe that was all that’s missing?

After all, the hero always gives inspiring words of wisdom in their victory.

There was a slight problem, however.

 “What do you even plan to say? No offense but you’re the least talented person I know when it comes to being charming with words.” Justine remarked, leaning against the wall by the doorway. 

He was correct. 

What do I plan to say? It’s never easy to make up something as big as a hero’s speech. It could destroy our image and their hopes if I don’t give them what they want to hear.

Sis, look.” He huffed, hands in his pockets as he walked across the white tiled floor. His shoulders pulled up, a sheepish look in his face. “I’m sorry about lately, I really didn’t mean to annoy you, I just wanted to help.”

He sighed at my blatant skepticism.

“You know me. I would never question you, and I’ve always been grateful for what you’ve done for us. I just want to help… Like you’ve helped me.”

I stepped back from the balcony, leaving the sight of ruins to see Justine in the eyes. He met mine. I could see that he was honest at least.

I gave him a smile, “That’s all that I wanted to hear.”

He grinned back, shoulders slumping.

“I apologize for being a tad bit much as well,” massaging the tension on my forehead I dropped on a swivel chair, “I don’t know what’s come to me lately.”

Justine sauntered behind me, placing his hands on my shoulders. “You should take it easy, yeah? I mean, leave it to me, after all, between the both of us, I’m with the higher stat on charisma. I’ve talked through every deal before you do bash their heads as a means of ‘persuasion.’”

I snorted. That was correct.

“I’ll write it. Go.”

“Are you ordering me around?” I left the room. 

Well that’s one off the agenda.

The Hall of Festivities is unusually silent. They were usually around here, mingling with themselves. I hadn’t heard such deafening quiet in a while.

“I’ve never been outside before…” Reign looked around, wide-eyed. “Everything seems so… Big.”

I threw the spent matches, kicking burnt rubble that rolled from the warehouse.

“Have you ever lived in a house so big it feels like outside?”

Finding this place hadn’t been hard, taking it hadn’t been either. I liked the most about it is this long open path that has direct access to the green lush of the well tended garden just by the pillars on every wall. It wasn’t like before, behind closed doors, it was vast and freeing.

As I walked, I saw Reign by the flower bushes, holding a basket and a pair of scissors. 

“What are you doing?”

Reign gave a face splitting grin, in her hands were flowers. I was never a fan of them, I only knew them by colors. Reign keeps them as though they were her children.

Excitedly,“I want to use them as decor.” 

At her hands she held flowers that were a gradient of red orange and yellow, its petals were wavy and bright. “Aren’t they pretty?”

Flowers weren’t interesting. “You’ve always had a flower with you, on your hair, on your clothes. Even before when you were alone. Why is that?”

“I used to see them by the warehouse.” Her eyes fogged as she looked at the distance. “Whenever they would let me out.”

“They were bright and full of color. I loved them a lot. The kind people who took care of them would always let me have them even if it was bad business.” 

“They were lovely and always made me happy.”

“Little Antonio would give me handful of his dandelions, Mrs. Florecita would give me several of her roses, and Mang Jose would say that I reminded him of daisies. They would give it to me in a bouquet like I was a princess.”

A sad smile crossed her face, “Although I was just a cinderella without The Ball.”

She paused, holding the flowers tighter, her eyes entranced at the bright flowers. “Then I was freed.”

“But…”

“Sometimes all I wish to have was the bouquet they warmly made for me.”

“Are you  trying to say something?” 

Reign flinched away. Hands waving frantically.

“I freed you, Reign. I freed you from that prison. I did that for you. Why are you wishing for something that had tormented you?” My voice was strained and hoarse, but the rage bubbled in my throat and clawed to be out. “I gave you everything and more than those stupid flowers could!”

“What does that mean?” Reign signed, eyes still glued to the screen.

“Family?”

“I’m sorry, please, stop.”

“Family stays with each other. They give them what they need.”

The basket flung away from my hands, flowers exploded everywhere. I despise them.

“Like being… Warm?”

I stepped on them until they were nothing. “Your stupid flowers are not important, Reign!”

“... What the hell are you talking about?”

Reign ran.

I stood alone.

Atop trampled flowers, inside empty and too big walls.

Reign doesn’t understand.

Reign wailed. 

I don’t understand.

Evening came fast and with it, we ate together at the table, as always. Plates, candles, and food were being set. It was in every sense, a feast. It was where people are to laugh and dine, it was one of the things family does to be with one another, no matter how hectic their day had been, they always were there. 

I looked from my balcony, the long table and many seats. We were together. It’s what I have always wanted.

“Sis.” Justine looked dishevelled and out of breath. Eyes darting frantically, he pulled me away from the balcony. “There are intel that the countries are rallying their troops to rise against us.”

Had they not learn?

“Are they stupid? We’ve conquered them more than their tiny brains can count.”

“This does not bode well, sister. We must hide.”

Lockeddoorsdarkroomonlymetrappedtrappedtrapped

“We must not.” I spat like acid. “We are with our kin. We don’t leave anybody.”

“Don’t be silly. We will be having dinner soon, you know how important that is to me.”

“More than your life?”

I walked past him. “Come, they’re waiting. Get Reign.”

I sat, and the candles were lit. I could take them, they never mattered. What does, is this.

But there wasn't any food. They were silent like the halls had been. Only three candles were lit and they stood.

“What is this?”

They passed a plate, their eyes all piercing through me. In the plate there was a treaty.

Surrender peacefully. 

They marched, closing in

trappedtraPPEDTRAPPEDTRAPPED

“It’s time to stop playing house, Rain. This is your end.”

nOESCaPE

Justine met my eyes from the balcony. “We surrender.”

How could he?

“There’s no other way, Rain. They’re everywhere.”

Reign, my sister. She squeezed my palm then resting her hand to my shoulder. 

“It’s for the best.”

“Fiction is not like the real world, Rain. Do not trust anyone.”

I was alone.