Chapter 24: Proving points vs. Finding the rights

[ 3 days. ]

"Fuck it!"

He cursed.

He was sitting in one of the VIP seats in a casino tonight.

His eyes were heavy as he held the beer bottle that was as cold as his body.

The young man did not know what to do. It's now his turn to make a move in his billiards game— after De Guzman but so far he still hasn't made a move.

De Guzman was irritated when he looked at him. With his hand in his pocket, he slowly approached him.

"Hey, what's your problem?" He asked boastfully.

"We've been waiting for you for a while now. What are you planning? Just sleep here?" De Guzman added.

Rico Buenaventura and Dam Hontiveros spoke.

"Mak, that's alright. Let him be."

Rico tried to stop Mak De Guzman.

But the man laughed and continued.

"No, it feels like this man is so bossy, he thinks he can under everyone he meets. Is that right? Red-hair?"

"To think that she was never been found again and never called Bea for three days straight is a bit overwhelming... Goddamn!" He whispered.

"Damn you! Are you a gay shit hole?! I'm talking to you!"

"I've already done searching, to all the companies at Makati and Taguig. They never had a Real Estate Agent whose name is Scarlett Athena Agnelli..."

"Hey! You asshole! You're fucking full of yourself huh?! Here's what you get—"

"Mak! Stop it already! You're messing with the... Damn..."

Almost twenty people in the entire room of the vast VIP room stopped when Cox's hand caught De Guzman's fist.

In an instant the whole room went silent.

With their eyes stuck on them, their little trembles on their knees and sweaty palms started.

Dead silent. And deadly, his eyes showed no mercy.

If everyone is nervous, Rico and Dam's heart is doubly nervous for their friend.

He couldn't move, even if he wanted to help his friend, he couldn't do it. Something is stopping him to.

"You stinky shits is blabbering too much..." He said beneath his breath.

"I didn't allow everyone to leave already."

"S-Sir C-Clifford... We... We were sorry for what Mak did, p-please, pardon us!"

"Sir C-Clifford... what seems to be the problem?"

an elderly man immediately asked.

It has a big belly that is stuck in the belt. Although his hair is now white, there is still no denying the old elegance that he carried when he was the age of the two men in front of him.

"Son! what's going on?!" the old man asked the now wide-eyed man.

Frustratingly as he gets to see the cold-blooded eyes of the red haired man.

"I want to play with your son."

Clifford, with no one dared to state the happenings, spoke out in the middle of smiles.

"Pardon?" Mr. De Guzman asked.

"I said this man should be the star of this show. I didn't say everyone can leave. Twice. If it gets thrice, I'll make everyone be remembered."

The pounding feet approaching the exit door immediately stopped in their tracks.

They slowly returned to their seats and a smile rose on Clifford's lips.

"The show must start now. Young De Guzman, throwing fists at someone who helped a lot is a forbidden move, aren't it?" Clifford sarcastically asked.

He held off Mak's hand and stared.

"D-Dad... This weirdo started it first! He was so bossy and I... And I—"

"You asshole! You must stayed up in Michigan rather than be back here! You're only making my life harder!" Old De Guzman shouted.

It echoed around the corner of the VIP room as everyone is silently watching the scene.

"Rico, say."

"M-Me? uh... M-Mr. De Guzman... your... your son M-Mak...h-he..."

The line of noise coming from Rico's mouth was immediately cut when the bottle that hit it broke immensely the door made of glass.

Clifford's lips had a wide smile still focused on Mak.

The old man almost jumped in shock because of the loud noise caused by the breaking of the glass door.

And the person that was about to exit the door fall flat to the floor.

"It was your son who started it first! M-Mr. De Guzman, I'm sorry, we're really sorry!"

"De Mevius, please forgive my stupid son as he always were making troubles he can't finish himself—"

"Make yourself at the top of the billiard table. Right under the light. Undress yourself little by little just like a slut. That's the game."

After Clifford said that, he immediately returned to his couch and drank wine while looking deeply at the man who seemed to have lost himself when he heard what he said.

Little by little, Old De Guzman moved and gestured to the woman who was serving the wine in dismay.

"One bottle of tequila." He say, as he sat up next to Clifford.

"Cy, he's my son, you don't probably met him back at Michigan with your dad there."

"As if I'd like to? Never."

Mr. Maccle De Guzman took a deep breath and exhaled.

"Your dad must be very proud of where you at now. Can't even think that the baby I used to babysat before after work is now the 75% shareholder of my businesses and were the saviour of my beloved work."

"It's no use of remembering the old times since it's gone."

"Cy, De Mevius is your Mom's surname, while Frevar is your Dad's last name. And now you're using De Mevius—"

"Sca?"

Maccle immediately looked up at what the young man said and laughed a little.

"Ah, Clifford, she's Marah, not Sca... she's Mak's girlfriend —"

"Sca!"

--

"Scarlett!"

Cy kept shouting the name of the girl he spotted from inside the VIP room.

Even though his eyes were blurry due to sleepiness and the smell of alcohol in his head, Cy felt sure that the figure of the girl he saw in the mirror was Scarlett.

He immediately came out of the VIP. and now he was outside the Casino too—in a quiet place, in front of it where there was a wide road that served as the Casino's parking lot.

Surrounded by a pitch dark and cold grassy landscape.

"Sca!" He shouted.

All out of his lungs as he kept pulling his own hair in frustration.

"Sca! Stop making me crazy! Sca!"

He almost sat down on the wide cement of the parking lot while saying the girl's name.

A cold breeze touched the young man's arm. As it also slapped his face.

Cycy is very sleepy and feels weak in his knees.

—enough for him to sit on the cold concrete longer and weaker.

He smelled himself. He smelled alcohol, with smell of cigarettes, bounded with the smell of his perfume from Gucci and the addictive smell of illegal drugs that have mixed in his body.

And then he laughed, and then he thought.

"Is this the man they admire? Addicted to drugs, alcohol and cigarettes?" He whispered to himself.

"Is this the man everyone wants to be with... or is it because he's good at making money that's why everyone wants him?"

"Sca... Sca, stop playing..."

"Stop this game... Enough of this play... I can't play anymore, Sca..."

"Enough, enough, stop this already, I can't play anymore... I'm tired of this shits."

"From elementary, high school, until now... I thought all those things were crazy... crazily made of my daydreaming... the shits it lasted for almost a decade and seven... that it even made me a slut to someone,"

"enough of this game, I can't play it anymore, I can't play with it anymore, Sca..."

"God! Enough! Enough please!"

"The nine years old in me is shattering pieces by pieces, that was disguise by a strong man in his twenty-six."

"Enough Sca! Enough!"

Clifford Cox raised his hand in the air, holding a pocket knife and was about to bury it in his chest when he was stopped by a hot palm that covered his fist in an instant.

"Stop! What are you trying to do with yourself, Cy!"

"Stop this! You're crazy! You're fucking crazy, Cox!"

"Enough of this! Get up! I'm gonna drive you home—"

"Sca!"

Cy immediately wrapped his arm around the girl's small waist, at the same time as he buried his face in her neck.

Her eyes widened, feeling his hot breath on her neck, her body froze and couldn't make a move.

the young man lost his grip on the knife and it immediately hit the cement floor creating a momentary noise as it fell.

While Cy was on the cemented floor, sitting, Scarlett was on his side, with her knees on the floor while her hands were still in the air, not trying to put it behind Cox's back.

—burrying his face on the woman's neck, his hand touched Scarlett's waist.

"E-enough... I don't want it anymore..." He whispered.

It slowly dies... The noise of the wind, the noise created by the night insects around the grassy land.

It slowly fades, his coldnesd behind his touch, that coldness in his heart, the ineffable story of longing.

The night of wamps and glory. Meteorites falls, one after another, and Sca, witnessed it all.