01K

Fresh fiction for this week! Our take on the teleserye amnesia trope, but cooler. Enjoy!

Kit wasn't sure--- it was hard to tell what was true from what was made-up lately--- but this is probably the first time she's ever been lost at the mall in all her 18 years of life. She let the realization crash over her like a wave. Lost. Lost with nowhere to go. All around her the crowd was  a swirling, moving thing. All she could see were backs of necks and elbows and all she could hear was the fierce thump of her heart against her chest. She felt like she was five. Her feet ached as she tried to retrace her steps to where Jen told her to wait while she talked to her friend. She didn’t know where she was going, and she didn’t know if the worst part was that she was lost in one of the biggest malls in the whole world, or that it was a midnight sale weekend in one of the biggest malls in the whole world.

She swore softly as her heart stumbled in her chest and her broken wrist throbbed in response. She tried to drown out the noise of the crowd as it milled around her, and it was all she could do not to get elbowed or shoved.

Dont cry dont cry dont cry, she swallowed, even as tears pricked her eyes.

Deep breaths, Kit, you can do this, you can do this

She glanced at the giant wall of glass on one side of the hall. Sea View Wing, the labels said. Okay that's a clue.  Beyond the glass, the sea was brightest blue under the afternoon sun, cargo ships bobbed at the light waves---it was big and beautiful and far away from her side of the island and she-- she's probably never going to make her way home----

Home. Oh no. Where was home? Kit mentally bleated in panic. Where--- wait, what was my address--- where--

She didn’t notice herself walking faster now, panic rising up her chest. She wrecked her brain, willing to think harder, to remember ---

Her throat was closing up and it was all she could do not to grab her hair in frustration. Stupid brain. Stupid memory.

Stop it stop it stop it.

She took a shuddering breath meant to calm her already frayed nerves and tried to swallow the lump in her throat.

People were everywhere-- all she could see were napes and elbows and shopping bags-- because Jen-jen dragged her here to buy them some clothes at the giant H&M store that had just opened. They’d been on their way to the store when they bumped into this guy--- one of those chinos-and-boat shoes type of guys--- that Jen-jen has been (secretly) texting and told Kit to stay right here I'll be right back, okay before hooking elbows with the guy.

She didn’t come back.

She didn’t even bother to remember that Kit didn’t have a phone and that her memory isn't working properly.

Kit swore under her breath again. She wished the stupid accident hadn’t happened. She wished her brain worked again. She can’t even remember why she collided with a jeep that one rainy summer day a month ago. Her bike and wrist smashed, her arm miraculously suffering but a hairline fracture. But her brain? No such shitty luck. Her memories from the past two years have been erased too, it looked like, because she couldn’t ever remember this mall being here the last time she’d been in this part of the city. No, this was all vacant lots and cables and scaffolding.

It was like putting a 1000 piece puzzle of a carabao lazing in the mud. Murky at best, confusing at worst.

Sometimes even small things like their address and phone number got mucked up, too.

Her arm throbbed, as if the tightness in her chest made the fracture worse.

Remember, remember, remember

“You okay?”

Kit jumped out of her skin.

There was this guy walking beside her--- a tall, very good-looking guy--- and he’s looking at her like---

“You look like you need some help,” he said,  his voice a drawl as lazy as the half-smile slowly creeping on his perfect face.

Author's Notes

OMG. Okay. Haha. Um, well, this is something that I've been working on for forever so I'm kind of giddy/anxious/excited to share this here. IDK. I'm too involved in the story line to back out of it now, so YOLO.

01K is also my favorite jeep route out of all jeep routes in Cebu, because it practically traverses everywhere. When you're aboard the 01K, you can literally go to a hundred places--- from Metro Cebu to Mandaue and back-- uptown, downtown, highways, backroads. The possibilities with the 01K is endless. Can you guess where the setting of the story is? Ironically, the mighty 01K can't reach this place, lol, but we can never tell. Maybe in the future, it can ply through the biggest mall in the island. Anything can happen after all, including encounters with amnesiacs. Ha. 

I hope I can keep this up!

Please let me know what you think!

All the love,

K x