Drip

Drip

Drip

Tiny droplets of water from the rusty metal roof slowly drip into the empty clay pot below, placed just right to catch them; it echoes softly. The surroundings are oddly quiet: soft rustling noises from the leaves of the bushes, birds chirping in the trees.

Lies; it's nothing new to humans. It's their nature. They lie all the time; whether it's a white lie, it's still a lie.

Going deeper into the forest, the silence of it is deafening. A gloomy, dark, shadow-like creature roams around on the bumpy and rocky ground, crawling as if looking for something. Critters of the forest rushed away from the shadow as it kept on going deeper and deeper.

“Hmm, that’s weird.” The mysterious voice muttered.

Drip

Drip

Drip

A girl walks down a long hallway, past classroom after classroom, the sun setting already illuminating soft orange hues going past the windows and curtains. Echoes of the girl's footsteps from the girl can be heard. 

Tap

Tap

Tap

Then stops.

The girl looks up and sees the classroom grade and section, “9 - Maginhawa.” She walks in, and a girl is in the room as well, fixing her stuff and dumping it all in her bag at such a pace.

“I’ve heard from humans that they call punishments on people who are doing something wrong. I wonder what kind of punishment suits you?” The mysterious girl says, making the other girl stop shoving her stuff in her bag and slowly lift her head.

As a punishment, their mouths will be sewn, and many vulgar truths will come out of their mouths. 

The mysterious girl smiles. “Emily, right?” Let’s go back a bit, three weeks ago. It was just another normal day. Students eating lunch in their classroom, gossip here and there,e and it was your typical high school scenario, just students being students.

Emily Rosario, Emily would lie; every single thing that comes out of her mouth is a lie. The audacity of hers- no shame; all she thinks is what she is going to gain through all those walls of lies she had to put up. It’s always the same tactic she would use on anyone: to get what she wants, she would always twirl that long dark brown hair of hers, bat her hazel brown eyes, paired with that pout of hers.

Lie after lie after lie. 

"You were friends with Javi, right?" A high-pitched voice whispers.

"No." Emily bluntly replies. She then sits on one of the tables, checking her nails as she scoffs at the mere thought of being friends with someone she didn’t know existed.

"I was never friends with that bitch." She adds. 

Meanwhile, another student is sitting slightly farther away from them, with short dark hair and long bangs that don't quite reach her eyes but are just long enough to cover them. Mei can’t help but hear them; they are just in an enclosed room, and she can’t help but eavesdrop.

Then Emily glanced back, seeing Mei listening in on them and just watching them as she ate her lunch. Emily clicked her tongue, changing her position to face her.

 "What are you looking at?!" Emily raised her voice as if barking at Mei. 

Mei didn't flinch at her voice, but the other girls with Emily did, backing away a bit from Emily’s side. Mei found it a bit funny how the other two reacted. She kept a straight face and just looked at Emily, pulling the edge of her lips into a soft smile.

"Lying really looks good on you." Her voice didn’t have that bite, but it surely hit Emily straight in the face, removing that smug look she had. Clenching her hand, nails digging into her palm.

Mei already knew from the start that it would backfire on her. Ever since she dared to call Emily a liar and all that, she knew what was coming her way, but that didn’t mean she was prepared for all the torturing that Emily had put up to Mei.

Bullies would ambush Mei now and then, even when she didn’t expect it or even when she didn’t think people would find her. Mei would always find there was no hiding for her. The usual bullying, putting tacks in her shoes, and the tacks they used were just filled with rust and alcohol. The classroom chair and table where Mei would always sit were filled with drawings, curses, and mocking words; the chair was filled with glue and glitter. It continues to fill Mei’s bag with heavy stuff such as rocks and even bugs; they didn't stop. The torturing kept on, and it got worse and worse as the days went on.

Then here we are, going back to earlier.

Then another day, but this is just one of those days where she catches Emily alone, with no friends or goons to protect her or even defend or have her back. Just here. Alone. The mysterious voice Emily heard came from Mei.

Emily looked up, seeing how beaten up Mei looked, not just the visible bruises on her face, legs, and arms, but her clothes all battered up and splattered, and spots of her blood visible on her white uniform. Emily got goosebumps seeing how Mei looked and still had the guts to show her face to her.

“What is wrong with this bitch?!” Emily thinks. As she bit her teeth enough to feel the ache of it, her hand clenched on her notebook, then she shoved the last one and zipped it up.

"What are you doing here?" Emily snarls. Slinging her bag on her shoulder, keeping a dark glare towards Mei, who looks unbothered at all.

 "Lying looks good on you," Mei says as she slowly opens her bag as if she’s looking for something. Still keeping an eye on Emily.

"I'm not lying. What do you mean?" She snapped at her and kept on a brave, smug face and attitude. As if trying to taunt Mei with how she speaks, raising her voice.

Then, after going through her bag, Mei pulls out a book; it looks like an ancient enchanted book, like those books you normally see with witches and stuff. Mei murmurs something before opening the book, and the moment she opens the book, a familiar voice can be heard from the book, and Emily’s face immediately goes pale. It’s her voice, Emily’s; all the lies she has said and all the things she mentioned were played in the book as if listening to a voice recording.

"These," Mei says with a smile.

"What... Are you guys playing a prank on me?!" Emily shouts. Clearly agitated and panicking at the thought of this book being exposed.

"Lying looks good on you, since it makes you look like a complete idiot," Mei says with a more stern and monotonous tone.

"But you know, I have a way for that. I can just sew your mouth shut, and you won't look like a complete idiot, just a mute." Emily’s face filled with horror as she slowly backed away, her back hitting a wall. Mei muttered something to the book, and a big needle appeared out of thin air, and so did a roll of thread.

Mei slowly walked towards where Emily was right now, her footsteps echoing in the enclosed room. 

"What do you want?!" 

"For you to stop lying. And for that to happen, all I have to do is sew your mouth shut. So you won't lie. Lying hurts, you know? Even those simple little white lies hurt." 

Mei slowly moves her finger in the air, the thread going into the needle, and she holds the needle and moves the book to her other side, now crouching down over Emily, who is now sitting on the floor with her back against the wall, panting. The book opens once more…

"We will be friends, just come  to the party!"

"I promise you'll have a great time!"

"You are our friend after all."

"How are you even- " 

Before Emily could even finish the sentence, Mei had already sewn her mouth shut. It wasn't a visible thread showing that her mouth was sewn, but Emily could feel that her mouth was shut, and Mei wrapped the excess thread around Emily’s neck, not enough to hurt or leave a mark, but just to put pressure. Mei slowly leaned in, next to her ear, and whispered in a low tone.

"You killed her. With those lies you fed her. "