Leonardo freezes as he stares at the female who meets his eyes. Confusion is etched upon the soft features of her brown face. He couldn’t let this expression change into something else, so he walks over in quick strides and grabs her by her curly hair. She shrieks, making Darryl move swiftly towards the door to close it shut.
“Great,” He mutters under his breath as he locks the door, “Which one of you left this open?!”
“Darryl?!” The young woman exclaims as she’s forced to sit down on the floor by Leonardo. She claws on his wrists in an attempt to get him to let go of her, but it only makes him hold on tighter. On the other hand, Goldie takes a couple of steps back and gets closer to a wall. His eyes darting back and forth on everyone’s faces.
“Why are you here, Katcha?” Darryl asks as he looks down at her, “And how long have you’ve been listening in?”
“Huh?! I just got here!” She replies loudly, “ I just want to get the flash driv
“Why did you let her leave?!” Leonardo began his angry spiels as soon as he stood up. He firmly places both of his hands on both sides of Goldie’s shoulders. The young man looks back at him in slight fear with his arms close to his chest and his eyes wide. “You were… you were going to…” He meekly says, trying to scramble together words that he knew so far. “She’s going to call the cops! You wanna go back to Bilibid? Do you miss being a dog so bad?!” Leonardo interrupts him. He then looks at the other boy who was sitting close by to the door, “You go after her! She can’t have gone too far!” Darryl looks at the two as if he were a deer in the headlights. As he glances at Goldie, the image of that harrowing room appears in his mind for a split second. He takes in a quick sharp breath and exhales shakily. Was it real? It didn’t feel tangible enough for it to be real. There were no drugs or hallucinogens before the interaction, but the whole
After nearly getting smothered to death, Katcha returns to her bleak dorm room. Each of the four walls has a single piece of furniture that is no more than three steps apart from each other. Some parts of the walls had a variety of notes and pictures of some sort of biological matter plastered upon them. Not very spacious, but the size of the room brings her a sense of familiarity that grounds her.Katcha heavily exhales as she slumps down in front of her study table. Not knowing what to do at this given moment, She stares down at the papers and pens cluttered all over the surface. As she sits in silence, she remembers the blow that was landed on her from earlier, making her wonder if she should get herself checked out by a doctor. The sound of the pan hitting her face came back to mind. Something had to be broken in her head. Darryl did not seem to hold back when he slammed her face. It could have been from the adrenaline, but she didn’t feel any pa
Goldie eyes Katcha up and down, taking note of her hesitancy. He pats on the empty seat beside him, inviting her to sit. The young woman stands straight up and faces Darryl. Looking at him with caution, she slowly takes one step backwards. “You said I wouldn’t…” She trails off, dread lacing her voice. “I lied,” Darryl promptly says. Noticing the position of her feet, he quickly grabs her arm and shoves her into the car, snatching her bag in the process. She yelps, and trips onto the floor of the car. Goldie lifts his legs and settles his feet on his seat to give Katcha a bit more room. Before she could try and leave, the door is slammed and is locked in front of her face immediately. “Darryl!” She exclaims angrily as she reaches over to the door handle in an attempt to unlock it. “Lay a finger on that thing and I’m starting the car to run you over.” With her hand suspended in the air, Katcha flinches at the gruff voice that she
“You three be nice alright? Don’t kill each other!” Darryl bids goodbye in a cheerful tone as he exits his condo unit. The three remaining people in the living room are all sitting on seats parallel to each other. Leonardo manspreading on the couch, Goldie relaxed on a cushioned chair with his legs crossed, and Katcha stiffly sitting with her arms crossed on yet another cushioned chair. Leonardo takes a good look at the female in front of him. She, in return, glares back at him. Everything about her is very noticeable. From her skin that is darker than average, her curly hair that just bounces as she moves, her short and stout physique; If she were to disappear, it'll be questionable. Making her an ally would be a double-edged sword as well. Certainly, people would begin to question their relationship. What business does she have with a student who is not even her classmate, nor even in the same department as her? “I understand that you immensely mistr
From the kitchen, a sandwich hangs from Goldie's mouth as he hears the sound of things breaking. He slowly chews, trying to determine if what he had just heard is something to be worried about or not. “Fuck!” Hearing Leonardo's distant cursing, he drops the sandwich on one of the kitchen counters, not even bothering to put it on a plate. Scurrying over to the living room, Goldie finally gets a good look at the scene before him. One person is on the floor, in a pool of blood, while the other is taking a pillow out of its clothed casing. Katcha’s head is directly facing Goldie, looking at him as if she were freshly caught tilapia on a hook. “The phone!” Leonardo shouts to Goldie. Unfortunately, it does not register in his mind yet. He watches Leonardo tower over the young woman and wraps the pillowcase around her neck, putting just enough pressure to lessen the flow of the blood. Katcha groans, her hands reaching out t
“There was no sugma in the hair sectio—” Darryl opens his door to the sight of his Godfather slumped down on the floor, unmoving. Katcha is leaning on a wall with a wet towel draped over her - uniform all ruined by a shade of red splashed unto her in irregular spaces. Goldie stood above them all, picking up the pieces of broken wood that were once a coffee table. The living room furniture is toppled except for the couch. A piece of cloth drenched in red liquid is discarded in one corner. The smell of iron fills the air, making the young man feel nostalgic despite knowing that this is always a bad sign unless the smell came from an enemy. In a haste, He drops his plastic bags and kneels beside Leonardo, turning him over so he could check his pulse. He lets out a sigh of relief as he feels a delicate throbbing under the skin of his neck. "What happened?” He shakily asks as he looks at Katcha. She blinks back at him a few times, a distant look glazin
Leonardo awakens to the feeling of a soft mattress under his back. From the sight of the ceiling alone, he knew that he wasn’t in the living room anymore. He can hear the humming of the room’s air conditioner, along with a few muffled shuffling from beyond this room’s doors. Knowing that he’s currently in the bedroom, he deduces that everything has calmed down. Even though he had awoken from a vicious fight, not a single part of his body is hurting or out of place. Raising the arm Katcha had stabbed, he took a closer look and could not find a single hint of scarring. It was clean and free from blood. The last thing he remembered was Goldie dragging him away. ‘Is it all because of him?’ The sound of something slowly creaking fills the room. Leonardo turns his attention to the door being opened by Darryl. “Hey, you’re awake,” The young man chimes in. Leonardo sits up from his bed and looks at Darryl, eye to eye. “What’s happening?”
Meanwhile, in the other room, Katcha collapses on the couch with a heavy sigh. She had just finished rubbing out the blood on the carpet and has left it soaking in laundry detergent in a bucket. Goldie walks up to her with a glass of water in hand and offers it to her.“Oh,” Katcha responds, confounded. She slowly takes the glass and takes a sniff at it.“It’s okay…” Goldie meekly says. She stares at him for a moment before handing the glass over to him.“You drink first,” She demands, “Spare half of it for me.”Goldie looks down at her in confusion but decides to take the glass back. He takes a good gulp off of it. Katcha watches the water visibly diminish from the cup, until it’s reduced to the amount she required.“Okay, that’s enough. Thank you,” She says.Goldie stops drinking and gives the cup back to Katcha. He then walks over to the chair from across
‘A broken hip or two is nothing compared to what is happening to me’ Katcha rationalizes to herself as she led Goldie through the narrow hallway of her dormitory building. ‘I can’t believe I’d even think about that.’ ‘No, if she just trusted me, her chair wouldn’t have broken.’ ‘I could have talked my way out of it. My lie sounded solid, right?’ ‘Goldie can barely talk. He would’ve been sent out of the dorm after she asked him about his major.’ ‘I could have said he was mute, or maybe he was a foreign exchange student. ‘ ‘But it’s all over now. Her hip should be the least of my worries’ ‘Ironic coming from a med student’ Katcha sighs as she stops in front of her dorm room. She pats the sides of her hips, feeling for a pocket and a lump where she expected her keys to be, but she realizes that she is still in a dress, one that she wore while she watched Charlotte spit out blood. Why her dress remained pristine was beyond her, though it hardly mattered to her anymore. There were
'Goldie?' The name fails to leave Katcha's lips as she catches him bringing his index finger up to his lips. Unblinking, her eyes follow his index finger move to her shoulder, and tap the sling of her backpack. With furrowed brows, she assumes that he was asking for her bag, so she reluctantly slides it off her shoulders and hands it over to him. He zips it open and rummages through it for a moment. Not long after, he pulls out her phone, picking it up with his index finger and his thumb, while the rest of his fingers stick out awkwardly. He brings it close to his face and looks at it with a curious glint in his eyes as he rotates the phone. “What?” Katcha beckons him. Goldie changes his grip on the phone, now grasping it with his whole hand tightly. The phone’s screen splits and cracks, earning a gasp from Katcha, She lets out a cry as she sees the device getting crushed and crunching in his hand. She lunges at him and grips his arm, eyes wide and desperate to salvage what was l
Katcha stares at her senior being wheeled into an ambulance, her head is lulling to the side as her eyes slowly roll upwards to the back of her head. Her bloody hand held those of her parents. Her jaw shook as her mouth tries to form words, but could only come up with more blood streaming down her lips. People began to gather around the building, murmuring amongst themselves about Charlotte’s condition, and how something like this could happen. The shooter has been long apprehended and came out of the building with his head low, the police keeping a tight hold on him. In the crowd, Katcha notices a face spectating as well, and his eyes were set on the shooter. She meets his eyes and catches him slowly disappear into the sea of people. Her half hooded eyes soon widened upon recognizing her hand unconsciously touches her chest as she comes to realize the sinking feeling that is starting to surface within her. ‘How could they? We had an agreement “Darryl?!” She
“I don’t know how to draw. This isn’t working.” Darryl buries his face in his hands in frustration as he lets Goldie stare at his chicken scratch scribbles on the notepad. He had spent around two hours trying to draw a man shoving Goldie’s head into a bucket of water, but he can’t quite figure out the anatomy and physics behind it. Goldie tosses the notepad back to him and gives him a thumbs-up, only to receive a scowl from the other male. “Don’t fucking patronize me,” Darryl sneered as he takes the notepad away. He looks back at his poorly done illustration and sighs. “Ugh. Just give me the shawarma. I’m hungry.” On the other side of the city, in the university where Katcha is currently spending time in, she continues to cut off ribbons, but her bandaged finger sticks out from her field of view, eventually making her lose focus yet again. She fiddles with her bandaged finger, tempted to peel off the gauze to see if the cut has healed. She tri
Katcha steps into a multi-purpose hall. There were around five people - all her upperclassmen - occupying the barren space, each of them tending to one part of the room with either decorations or cleaning. A girl with black shoulder-length hair is carrying a box full of decorations, picking them up one by one and putting them back again as if she were only checking their contents. Katcha walks closer to her to get her attention. “Hey, Charlotte!” The other girl looks up, her sleep-deprived eyes instantly light up upon seeing Katcha’s face. “Oh! Katcha!” she exclaims with glee. “Is there something I can help you with?” Katcha glances at the box in Charlotte’s skinny arms. “You sure you don’t have any lectures or requirements that need to be done today?” “Yeah. I’m free for today.” “I’m so glad. My batch-mates are either asleep or still have shifts in the hospital,” Charlotte sighs in relief, “Some of them are probably too
Ten in the evening. Katcha’s damp uniform hangs on the warm side of a fridge. An empty pizza box lays discarded on one of the kitchen counters. The trash can is filled with hair, plastic gloves stained with dark brown hair dye, and a one-liter bottle of mountain dew. Darryl enters the scene, seeing Katcha washing the dishes. “About Capiz…” he begins, “When do you want to go?” Katcha’s head turns a bit to the side for a moment and goes back to facing the dishes in front of her. “Is it fine if we go after the farewell party?” She replies. “So, next week?” “Yeah… We’re really going? I didn’t expect you to agree with me earlier.” “Goldie freaks me out. I need to know what he is before we all get in danger." Darryl leans on a wall and crosses his arms, “If you somehow got powers, and if I get to know the cause of all of this… I think I’ll be more relieved.” Katcha sets down a wet plate on the drying rack and turns of
“Hey, boss…?” “Katcha, you’re late! Are you stuck in traffic?” “Sorry, I’m really preoccupied with my final requirements for this semester. I can’t make it tonight.” “What? You should’ve informed me earlier! Y’know that this is gonna deduct your paycheck, right?” “Y-yeah… I’m really sorry. I’ll make it up to you guys next time.” “Counting on it.” With a short beep, Katcha ends the call. A heavy sigh leaves her lips as she thinks of the possible damage that’ll reflect on this month’s payday. She looks up at Leonardo and Darryl who were quietly watching her from the couch. “Don’t be so dramatic. I can buy that whole salon if I wanted to,” Leonardo says in annoyance. “Feeling confident today, Ninong?” Darryl speaks up as he outstretches his hand towards Katcha, “ Now that’s settled with, give me back the phone. We've got business to discuss.” As she was about to hand it over, Katcha notices the conta
Meanwhile, in the other room, Katcha collapses on the couch with a heavy sigh. She had just finished rubbing out the blood on the carpet and has left it soaking in laundry detergent in a bucket. Goldie walks up to her with a glass of water in hand and offers it to her.“Oh,” Katcha responds, confounded. She slowly takes the glass and takes a sniff at it.“It’s okay…” Goldie meekly says. She stares at him for a moment before handing the glass over to him.“You drink first,” She demands, “Spare half of it for me.”Goldie looks down at her in confusion but decides to take the glass back. He takes a good gulp off of it. Katcha watches the water visibly diminish from the cup, until it’s reduced to the amount she required.“Okay, that’s enough. Thank you,” She says.Goldie stops drinking and gives the cup back to Katcha. He then walks over to the chair from across
Leonardo awakens to the feeling of a soft mattress under his back. From the sight of the ceiling alone, he knew that he wasn’t in the living room anymore. He can hear the humming of the room’s air conditioner, along with a few muffled shuffling from beyond this room’s doors. Knowing that he’s currently in the bedroom, he deduces that everything has calmed down. Even though he had awoken from a vicious fight, not a single part of his body is hurting or out of place. Raising the arm Katcha had stabbed, he took a closer look and could not find a single hint of scarring. It was clean and free from blood. The last thing he remembered was Goldie dragging him away. ‘Is it all because of him?’ The sound of something slowly creaking fills the room. Leonardo turns his attention to the door being opened by Darryl. “Hey, you’re awake,” The young man chimes in. Leonardo sits up from his bed and looks at Darryl, eye to eye. “What’s happening?”