By Krizza Nadine A. Calmerin
Fiction

June 1, 2017

On December 20, 2015, the trial for the murder of Bryan Mendoza, 20 years of age, senior in St. Thomas University, was dismissed due to lack of evidence for the accused, Laura Santos, his girlfriend. One and a half years later, the prosecution submitted a confession found in Natalie Perez’s diary to prove the innocence of the accused, as well as to demand a retrial for further investigation of the case.

*

July 10, 2015

Diary, can you keep a secret? 

I smiled at his pathetic body six feet below the ground, right before I grabbed the shovel and covered him with fresh soil. And it felt good. Like ecstasy.

Bryan Mendoza. Beautiful name, perfect face. The impeccable captain of the university’s basketball team. He was my person. The perfect boyfriend everyone dreamed of and yet chose a plain Jane like me. He was the best part of my life. WAS.

Why? Maybe because every fairy tale has to reach its finale, or some bitch disguised as damsel in distress has to interfere and steal away the prince, making him change and forget his happy ending with his little princess. Remember Laura, one of my best friends? It turned out she was smooching with him behind my back! And the worst thing was, he loved it! I hate them both, diary, but I hate Bryan more! He even ruined my reputation in school! All those nude photos of me that he loved to shoot, they all went to the phones of every boy in the campus! I knew that from Archie, my neighbor, when he showed me those on his phone. So, that’s why I felt like everyone’s eyeing me in school! That Bryan, the perv! The three years that we spent together, everything about our promises, he just threw them away like it was all just some sort of a high school fling. Knowing that, in the most humiliating way possible, I broke up with him. It’s a little funny how my one-in-a-million love for him turned into hatred so sudden. I felt so betrayed by the only person I thought wouldn’t! Laura got away with it as she went to Bacolod. But Bryan? No. Settle in, diary, you might wanna grab a popcorn as I tell you the happiest day of my life, in juicy details.

I spend my first week of June planning, and I executed it last 23. It was easy. I texted him to meet up, lying that I’ll accept his apology, and he replied, “Okay.” Psh. What a jerk. I got to our rendezvous 30 minutes earlier than our meet-up time wearing the first gift he gave me before, a knee-length royal blue dress, and paired it up with my favorite black boots and black handbag. A waiter in a maroon shirt and black pants greeted me with a smile and offered me a glass of red wine. I asked for two, saying it was for my boyfriend who was currently in the restroom. He bought it and went straight to the table next to mine. Watching the waiter retreating back, I fished out three benzodiazepine tablets from my purse to make him doze off and emptied its contents to the other glass. It bubbled for a bit and settled. Ten minutes later, he arrived and sat in front of me. He looked dashing, to be honest, wearing that black polo shirt and brown khaki shorts. Black, perfect color. Then he smiled. I suppressed the urge to break the wineglass I was holding to his face, and had a heavy gulp of the wine instead. We had a little chat, he kept blabbering his apologies, and I just kept quiet, bored and annoyed that it took a long time for the drug to work. I played along to his game until seventeen minutes later, when he finally had his precious trip to dreamland.

I asked the same waiter from a while ago to assist Bryan to my car (I made up a story about Bryan being drunk) and gave a little tip for his help. Alone, at last, I reached for my bag and started binding my ex’s hands and feet with tight rope until his skin redden. A smile occurred in my face, I was finally doing it, my little planned revenge. I kept him there on the backseat and started the car. It was already past 11:00 p.m. so the road was already not crowded, and driving with a bound ex-boyfriend in the backseat wouldn’t attract any unwanted attention. We reached my target place, a deserted house which had a little haunted ambiance with its big old trees and wooden structure and which me and my cousin Clyde found when we were 12. I parked the car at the back and dragged him inside with all my strength, cussing all the way. I positioned him on a rustic chair that had been waiting for him and slapped him hard on his left cheek to wake him up. He did, with a little jerk. I can still remember the horrified look in his face when he saw me waving a knife in front of him. Hahahahaha!

He struggled, (of course, who wouldn’t?) but when he realized it was no use, he stopped and begged me to forgive him and to let him go. Forgive him? Let him go? Nah. I’ve been played, cheated, and betrayed, for goodness’ sake! Enjoying my superiority over him, I kissed his cheek and whispered, “Ssshhh. The fun’s haven’t started yet. You’ll enjoy it later, Love. I promise.” And I saw his eyes dilated. By the way, I stuffed his mouth with his black socks. Creative right? After that, I started my little show. I skinned his right cheek with the scraping knife until pink flesh welcomed me. His muffled screams sounded like music to my ears as I got the alcohol from the table on my right and doused his flesh with it. I wasn’t satisfied. I used the same knife to reach his nearest shoulder and carved the letter N on it. Thick red blood oozed and stained the outline of the first letter of my name. Then, I removed his gorgeous shirt and let loose of my little fire ants to his chest and scooped some for his eyes. He screamed even louder and almost knocked over his chair. Enjoying my little show, I got a snake I bought from my uncle out the cage (by the way, I named the snake “Laura”) and placed it round his neck. Was it poisonous? Yeah right it was. I left the room with a smirk, letting the snake have his midnight snack, devouring his magnanimous amount of meat.

All the effort made me tired and sleepy. I had a little nap and woken up at 12:19 a.m. I better hurry before the sun would rise. I went to the locked room, and when I opened the door, Bryan’s face was awesomely unrecognizable! It was swelling, reddening, and was covered in his own blood. I checked his pulse and breathing. So faint I could hardly feel them. I let out a laugh, a loud and long laugh I almost sounded like Satan himself. Of course, I cleaned up my mess, I’m not stupid. I already dug a hole at the back of the house a week ago so I just dropped all evidences of my sweet torture to it. Next, the main course. I dragged Bryan Mendoza’s limp body and let him rest in that hole. I gave him a last smile and got the shovel. Well, I’ll leave the rest to your imagination.

It may sound evil, but yes, Diary, I enjoyed every little bit of it. That act satisfied me more than the years of our relationship or any gift I ever received. I bet he learned his lesson now, well, wherever his soul went.

Your one and only friend,
Natalie

P.S., I’m burning this diary this weekend, you know, just for safety reasons. Well, I hope you’ll remind me, you know how forgetful I am.

*

On May 26, 2017, Natalie Perez’s house was reportedly burned down. The following is the list of the recovered possessions:

1. Metal cage
2. Silver ring
3. Electric guitar
4. Sewing kit
5. Unlocked diary

No remains of Natalie Perez was found.

Submitted for evidence by:

Nadine A. Cortez
Case Prosecutor