Text by Ken Tipay | Graphics by Angel Chogyomon | Layout by Angilene Dableo
It was all still pitch black above the flaky shines of the star sky; the cold breeze that continuously howls in my window kept my eyes unclosed.
When all of a sudden, my ears got bombed by my phone, it greeted my drowsy head with thunderous vibrations in my bed.
"Hello? Sophie? Why are you calling me late tonight? it's still 1 in the morning," I complained with a raspy voice.
"Don't you remember?! You're supposed to take me out today for our anniversary!" she replied with a jolly tone.
Sophie was my woman. She embodies the peculiar fashion of anyone. Her whole body was always wrapped with sleeves, trousers, scarfs, and the main reason why she captured my heart was her personality, she is a mile different from the other woman I've known, she's perfect in every way and her lively personality was like programmed to her, and so as her hats.
Dating a girl who wears different hats every single day might sound a little strange, but for Sophie, being strange is normal if it is twinned with love.
And for our special day, our anniversary, I wanted to give her a present that I have no doubt she'll love, she also stamped a promise that she will finally unveil the truth on why she was ought to wear a distinctive style of fashion, specifically the reason on why she is prohibited to go out without a hat.
Ever since, I noticed that Sophie was obsessed with wearing hats. There isn't a single day that I did not saw her without a hat, and every time I ask her why, she strains me; since then, I disengaged myself on attempting to ask her ever again just to distance her from upsetting.
It's an unsettling feeling that made my curiosity reach its summit. Although she looks physically magnificent with her various hats on, the enigma plays within me.
While at the shop, my vision was glued to the book section as I saw Sophie's favorite book titled "The Green Ribbon." She said that it was just a short story book, but I am brain puzzled as she was reading it all over again every day. Whenever I attempt to ride in and read that book, she is a fire raging to decline and refuse to allow me.
My mind is still under the unconsciousness of what certain angle this book made Sophie very intrigued. I agreed to disregard that thought and continued my errand.
As I saw her at the restaurant, she's still wearing a brown leather hat—the beret hat that I gave her on her birthday.
"Hey honey, I'm sorry I'm a bit late." I said with a guilty face.
"That's fine, I also just got here." She replied, wearing the brightest smile.
Together that gloomy afternoon, we grasped every minute that we had. We also planned to have a movie night at my place after that lunch, which is the perfect time for giving my present to her that I'm sure she'll love.
It was a melancholic dusk driving down the road. Looking at Sophie's eyes, she lacks the stir of enjoyment for our movie night, it feels like a dull cloud surrounded her head, but when we got home, her mood swiftly lightened up, she became more delighted and excited.
"Look what I got," I enthusiastically said.
"What is it?! What is it?!" she replied with a thrilled and high-pitched voice.
"But first, take off your hat, hihi," I requested.
"Trying to deceive me, huh?! Well, you can't make me! we made a promise earlier, remember?," she insisted.
"Do I really have to wait until you fall asleep? then how am I supposed to know it? who will tell me your secret?!"
"You'll know... let's watch a movie first!"
Just by drowning my own mind with a stack of unsolvable questions about Sophie, the deafening silence banged me with the suspense echo from the television, battling and losing with patience, I trashed my forbearance, and I was determined to give my present to her, but...
Out of nowhere, I was starled that she stood in front of me — bent down head and her eyes with bags of bleach.
"What's wrong? Do you want to hit the bed already? the movie was just getting started. "
"Whe- When I stopped mo-moviiiiiiiiiiing and talking, take off my ha-ha-hat and you'll kno-nooooow" Sophie said with a low-tone and glitching voice.
My whole body shivered to death, and my hands were immobalized, so as my soul dropped down to my feet, and my mouth was zipped for a moment.
"Huh?! What?! Are you sleep talking?" I asked with a trembling voice.
A strange machine-like sound powering and shutting down tuned in and reverberating from Sophie's body.
The murmur of my heartbeat dominated the whole conversation between us.
The living room became ghost-quiet, and the petrifying vibe that roamed around tightly embraced me.
Sophie hasn't moved for a while, and that foreign sound that came from her body still lingers in my mind. But then I remembered what she said.
Bearing shaky legs, an afraid soul, and frosty hands, I was hesitant to take off her brown leather hat, although I have been yearning to know this mystery.
The moment I lifted her beret hat, my heartbeat suppressed, and I unconsciously dropped it.
"S-S-Sophie?? W-W-What is t-t-this?!" I asked with a terrified voice.
My body was thrown into misery, and I could not process any of the events that occurred.
At the back of her head, there I saw a bright green button, and beside it, a system port with a blinking red button with a battery icon with zero bars.
The voices in me consistently sketch the hell out of me. I was confused. I was scared.
My knees started to tenderize, the feared heart of mine began rapidly pounding as an alarm, and the next thing that I know is, I am frozen sitting on the couch, holding the red floppy hat that was meant for Sophie...
... repeatedly hearing a system of beeps that keeps haunting me until the dazzling light of sun and the whistle of the gust, harmoniously spotted me at dawn, watching the red-light blink, and blink, and blink.
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