SO YOU want to know what happened to her, don’t you? Why this room had never been occupied for years? Well, the last girl who lived here was Rinna, and in the beginning everyone thought of her as nuts, always complaining of flowers and all.
You see, she never really liked flowers. Never had a boy court her and give her bouquets a man usually gives to his girl during Valentine’s. She just might be bitter, for all we know, though she wasn’t really bad-looking. The first time she entered the dorm she said the room was “reeking” of flowers. She described it as an irritating scent that goes up to her nostrils and stays there, like a trapped insect. Oddly, nobody smelled any “reeking” odor. The only flowers in this house were the artificial gumamelas and tulips at the center table of the living room, and they don’t give off any kind of smell. There wasn’t even a garden, so we dismissed her as having some problem with her olfactory sense whenever she complained of smelling flowers. But other than that, she was very nice and intelligent. A Math major, she helped students having problems in their algebra. And unlike other girls who jump at the sight of a small cockroach, she was brave. She did not also believe in ghosts.
I think the first scare of her life came when she found flowers arranged in a bamboo stand, like those found in funerals beside her bed. It was an assortment of colors, from white orchids to purple jasmines to red roses and flowers that I do not know the name of. It came complete with a pink ribbon placed diagonally over the flowers, labeled, “For Rinna.” Really, it gave all of us the creeps. I mean, who would not freak out when somebody alive receives a funeral bouquet?
It took us some time to calm down the hysterical Rinna. Yes, she’s brave, but once she gets scared she’s like an unprotected kitten, a small, screaming kitten, if you know what I mean.
After the incident, Rinna stopped complaining about the flowers. I guess it’s because Aling Lorna, the landlady, decided to throw all the flowers away for good, although I think she wanted to decorate the whole dorm with it. But then, something else bothered Rinna. I don’t know how such a thing could happen, but she started seeing candles at the periphery of her vision. Aling Lorna prompted her to consult an ophthalmologist, Dr. Reyes, but he found nothing wrong with her eyes. He said that he had never heard of such a symptom for blindness, that it might either be a symptom of a yet undiscovered eye problem, or simply a result of too much stress. There was nothing he could do about it, and he advised her to rest. So what she did was lock herself inside her room and sleep when she could.
In the middle of the night, a scream awakened the whole dormitory. It came from Rinna’s room, and Aling Lorna had to fumble for a whole five minutes with her ring of keys until she unlocked Rinna’s door. What greeted us were a screaming Rinna and more or less a hundred candles surrounding her bed. She was trying to put out the fire from the candles with her blanket, which also caught fire. Good thing Mariel was there, who had enough presence of mind to get a pail of water from the CR and splash it on Rinna’s bed.
How those candles materialized there we do not know. Rinna would never admit that she surrounded herself with lit candles before sleeping, and I’m not sure if anyone believed her. She was the troublemaker in the house anyway, ever since the flower incident. But noble Aling Lorna let her stay in the dorm, attributing the incident as a sheer accident for lack of any other reason.
As expected, Rinna stopped having hallucinations of candles. Indeed, she regained her old self, minus the flowers and candles. Everyone who saw her found nothing wrong with her, although Rinna had one queer experience she never shared with anyone. One time, when she was going down the stairs, she had this sense of déjà vu, of someone falling down the stairs to his death. It was a man whom she recognized as the one she had seen in her recent dreams.
Her déjà vu happened only once, so she just dismissed it as a trick of imagination. For months, everything seemed normal, until one day when it all came back. That day, she woke up smelling flowers and seeing candles all over again. This feeling followed her to school, but she never said a word to anyone, only feigning nauseous to those who noticed her quivers. When she came home, it seemed like everything doubled up, which made her think that she probably needed some rest. I told you, this girl didn’t fear anything, even though the circumstances were very similar to her past experiences. She should have seen it coming, or could have done something, anything. But Rinna could be very stupid at times, and unfortunately, that was one of those times.
That was why it came as a surprise to her when she entered her room and found lots of flowers and candles arranged as if for a funeral. And lo and behold, an empty white coffin laid in place on her bed. The man of her dreams, literally, was there too, holding out his hand to her, as if inviting her to join him. He had a bouquet of flowers in his other hand, which he intended to give to her, if only she had not hurried toward the stairs in great panic, tripped on the third step, and fallen to her death. Pretty much like how the man had fallen to his death too.
Seconds later, Aling Lorna found her at the bottom of the stairs, but it was too late. When the police checked her room, there was no trace of the funeral. Her death was dismissed, again, as an unfortunate accident.
Nobody ever really knew the real story of Rinna’s death. No one, except me.
You might ask how I knew all about it. Didn’t Rinna carry the tale of her death to her grave? She did. But since I am Rinna, I have the right to recount the tale to anybody I want. And since you are the new occupant of the room, I think you have the right to know. Don’t worry, the two of us won’t bother you. I mean, he already has me, why would he need another one? Myla Jasmine U. Bantog
