Chapter Seven: Malignobons

On the other side of the world, where the evil dwellers had settled, a man whose name was Hudlao was looking furiously at his subordinates, as if they were a bunch of useless trashes.

"Idiots! What do you mean it vanished? Are you trying to make a fool out of me?" he shouted to them with all his might. He even produced some force that knocked all of his subordinates out.

"We are very sorry, our Greatest. But we really tried our best to locate her zest. It's just that, some strange force was meddling and distracting us. And now, the sign has already vanished." A grotesque-looking man, who seemed to be the leader of their team explained everything to Hudlao. Hoping against hope that his master would somehow understood them. His name was Iko.

"I don't need your explaination, Iko. I need you to find that stupid girl as soon as possible!"

However sincere and accurate the explanation was, it was still pointless for Hudlao, thus causing Iko's group

to be frightened.

"We are very sorry, our Greatest. We will do our best next time. We will definitely not disappoint you."

"You better not. And make sure that before you present your useless selves in front of me, you are already bringing with you that stupid girl. Or else, all of you will suffer! Get out!" Hudlao bellowed.

Iko's group immediately walked away after they were told to. Hudlao was really fuming with anger and it seemed like there's nothing, even his wife, who was standing next to him, could do to lessen it.

"Take it easy, my dear. Just give Dayaw some time, and he sure will get that girl for us." His Wife, Maruja, told him but he seemed so angry that he did not even utter a word and just walked away from where she was.

~~~~~~

Back to the village, the boys downstairs were still chit-chatting about some things, when Mia appeared.

"He's now asleep, which I think is the sign for me to finally go home." Mia stated, arms crossed aboved her abdomen.

"He did not ask you for dinner?" asked Benjie.

"He's asleep already, didn't you hear me?" She just rolled her eyes and proceeded to the front door. The boys stood up and thought it was also time for them to go home. And so it was only Marco, once again, who was left in the house with V and Ligaya. But then, the thought of Ligaya and what she did earlier scared him really well, that's why he decided to just go home as well.

As V's friends and Mia went out of the house, Ligaya was left downstairs alone and hungry. She hasn't eaten for days already and her stomach was starting to remind her about that. She paced toward her sack bag to find something there to eat. But her candy had finally run out. She thought for a second and then she realized it's too late to go outside alone, so she now had no other option but to ask V about food. She decided to went upstairs but her plan was cut off when she V approaching downstairs. She stood at the bottom of the stairway and waited for him without any signs of anticipation or drama. And, as if he was reading her mind, he finally spoke as he was approaching the grounds, "the food is in the fridge, you can use the microwave if you want."

However, Ligaya just stood there, looking at him impassively.

"What? Don't tell me you don't know what a food is, or what a fridge or a microwave is?"

"Exactly," she addressed and she still wore that emotionless face.

V sighed. He may be really annoyed by everything but he knew it would be futile if he would use his anger for this sort of situation. And so he just ignored it and prepared the food by himself.

~~~~

V could not believe himself. The last thing he wanted to do was to be seated at the same table with a stranger. He ate as fast as he could so as to not spend a lot of time with Ligaya. They were eating processed foods, which somehow defined the way of life V had. No one spoke for a moment but it seemed nothing to Ligaya who had not even glanced V's direction. No one spoke until V decided to break the silence.

"I am only letting you stay here because you saved my life last night. Nothing more; nothing less. Also, a month is a month, so it means you're getting out of here this December 17." V stated. He meant business.

"I heard you earlier, you don't have to repeat yourself over and over again." Ligaya responded mattar-of-factly.

"Good, because I don't have nor will not have time dealing with you."

"You made yourself clear." She did not even look into his eyes but nonetheless, V's decision had been done. He was then about to stand and picked his plate but she immediately grabbed his arm and said, "let me do this thing. I don't want to be worthless in this home."

"You know how to wash the dishes?"

He was just trying to make sure, yet she looked so serious and dangerous, in a way. Plus V knew that there's nothing he could do about it anymore, so he left his utensils on the table and went directly upstairs without even saying a word. As he hurried away, Ligaya began to look at his retreating back in a very serious and impassive way. What could she be thinking by then?

~~~~~~~~~~

It was again 4 in the morning when V suddenly woke up involuntarily. He never wanted this sleep disruption thing but it seemed like he had no control over it at all. He laid

on the bed comfortably again while his eyes locked on the ceiling. Bad dream, he thought to himself. Of

course, it's hard for him to believe what had just happened last night. So instead of wasting his time on his bed, he sat upright at once and decided to check downstairs whether or not he's just dreaming. He went downstairs in a relax manner, as if he's really certain that everything was just a mere fruit of his sleep and imagination.

The living room was quiet and it made him feel good about the situation. Then he decided to go to the kitchen just in case, and as he did, nobody was there as well. A smile crept on his face. He was just dreaming! But his victorious moment was cut short by the sight of a very pale lady, through the kitchen's floor-to-ceiling sliding glass door/wall, who was sitting serenely on the edge of the swimming pool at the back of his house. She seemed performing yoga, for her eyes were closed and her body was relaxed. He couldn't believe his eyes. She was there and she was totally real. He did not know if he was annoyed or disappointed or both, but one thing's for sure, he did not want to deal with her as of the moment. He even got angrier for believing that everything was just a product of his imagination, so he decided to just return upstairs and forced himself to go back to sleep.