“explaning things in a flash”

It was in December that I overheard a crime that would later be the basis of my flashfiction project entitled ”Stopped Delight.” It was a story, though not given much terrifying effect, based on a real crime. I had written an omniscient narrator who goes into the mind of the suspect.

My aunt and me were on a taxi bound for Don Julian Elementary School, where my aunt teaches. The driver and my aunt conversed about the threatening dangers that taxis pose(including suspicious drivers) until such that they came to a recent crime that happened in Ecoland.

The suspect was a taxi driver who had killed his neighbor. According to the findings, the victim came home bringing groceries from NCCC mall, he was surprised to see that someone(no not someone! for the dog was said not to have barked at the suspect when he was in) was inside their house. The victim was a father who has children studying in davao and was a blackbelter in taekwondo. there was a fight,unfortunately the maids from the other houses did not take heed when they heard “ANIMAL KA!.” The findings  said that a defense weapon of most taxi drivers called “the screw” created the 16 stabs found on the body of the victim.

“ingon gud nila murag naa jud daw killer instinct ang suspect ba kay halos tanan stabs kay mag-aagas ang dugo kada moginhawa ang biktima,” my aunt said.

“sugapa na jud to siya sa droga ba kay ngano nabuhat man to niya. Bisan aq nakasulay na jud ko mapriso. Lisod kaayo kung naa ka sa kulungan ba. Sus na lamang,” said the driver.

I sat at the back. My mind slowly difted to the time of the incident.

The man in death’s agony lasted for a few more minutes.

Near the intersection, he halted when the streetlight signaled stop. It shone bright red as that which flowed from his neighbor’s neck. He stared at it still. It shone red-as red as his eyes.

That line told how drug addiction was a vice he cannot escape from but my classmates and even Ma’am Jhoanna did not really quite get it. It was the thrill but not the mysteries inside it that caught their attention. I was quite wondering why the story was written with an unexpected sympathy towards the suspect. It was troubling how in the midst of being in the scene during that very moment when I was seated at the back, I became the suspect in the act. My story came out with my insights on and about the incident.

I wrote it to know if the story could move emotions in people be it disgust, anger or considerations and most of all sympathy..

“Kaila  ko sa iyang asawa si Joyce. Kanang iyang bana baya no kay hilomon ra na na tawo,” my aunt said.

I am in the story the omniscient narrator who was with the anti hero all the while on that four-lane street when he sped up as the green light shone.