Chapter 3: Continuous Lies

I’m done preparing and I’m ready to go out now. A loud bang welcomed me; different things were swaying in the air, and I was lucky enough to dodge those. I continued walking towards the kitchen carefully when a strange thing caught my eye. It was a red room—just like the other one that I saw last night. But, it’s not the same tenant. It was an old woman, looking nice with a fan in her hand. She greeted me, and I greeted her back. She seems okay, I think . . .

I reached the kitchen together with the old woman, named Sarah. She has been a tenant here for almost a decade now. She added that she witnessed what happened in this apartment. We talked a lot, and we parted ways when she saw her husband in the kitchen. Wait... he was the guy from last night. The one that I thought would kill me. His wrinkled face lightened when he saw Sarah, his wife. His gummy smile seemed to be pleasing in his eyes. He offered food for his wife, but Sarah gently declined it. Her eyes landed on mine and plastered a smile on me. Why do I have this feeling that she’s not real? Is she faking her attitude towards me? After all, her husband is a scary one. What if she’s beyond that? It makes me shiver to think about her ability to carry out something she is eager to do. I smiled back and continued walking towards the table, I sat down restlessly when a bowl of dinuguan and rice landed in front of me. I looked up to see who was behind it, and I gasped when I saw Mr. Manore with his sweet smile.

“I’m glad that you came down here. Here is my specialty, dinuguan. It tastes good with rice and puto. But now, rice is the only available companion for this dish.” He said this after putting the bowl on the table and while sitting down beside me.

“Thank you for this, Mr. Manore.” I sincerely said and got myself a spoon, mixed the dinuguan together with the rice, scooped it, and directly put it in my mouth. I didn’t know that it was hot. What the hell happened?!?!I burned my upper lip and my tongue.

“Are you okay?” Mr. Manore asked, laughingly, while offering a glass of water to me.

“I-I am fine,” I said after I successfully managed to cool down my lip and tongue. I smiled at Mr. Manore and continued eating his specialty. Actually, he is a good cook. This dinuguan is incomparable to other versions around the country. My stomach was accepting food happily when I heard an irritating voice. He sat down beside me while whispering something in my ear.

“I heard you burnt yourself? Want me to cool it down for you?” he asked. What a total jerk he is. I wanted to strangle him up! Grrrr. I acted as if he was not here because his gibberish words were so undeniably irritating. His presence is just something that I can’t explain. I found him irritating, but I can’t deny that he’s attractive enough to me. His chiseled body, his black hair that goes accordingly to his almond shaped eyes, his perfect jaw line, and his kissable lips. How I love to taste them. I went back to reality when someone flicked my forehead. I looked at him angrily and was ready to burst out when he said that Mr. Manore had been calling me a hundred times already.

“I’m sorry, I spaced out. What was it again, Mr. Manore?” I asked politely, feeling sorry as I hadn’t heard from him earlier.

“Oh! It’s actually nothing. I just wanted to know if it's tasty," he explained.

“Yes, it is! I am delighted that I tasted your specialty, Mr. Manore. Thank you for this one!” I happily said and gave him my comments about the dish.

“That’s nice to hear. And how about your stay here? It’s your first month here, right?” he added.

“Uhm, it’s okay.” Actually, everything has been alright for the past few weeks, but when I found out about the mysteries here in this apartment, I started feeling something I can’t name. I am scared, and at the same time, I’m curious to seek the truth behind this one. The mysteries are waiting for me to solve them, but I don’t know how to start and where. I didn’t have the leads. Wait. I do. That man.

I stumbled on what happened last night. It was chilling. I didn’t know how to react to that. I’m glad that my mind was occupied with different things and I happened to forget it for the moment. But now, I remembered it again, the same intensity that I felt, blood rushing down through my veins, telling me to run and never look back. I’m lucky enough to be pulled by Taddeio. He’s my savior, and I’m thankful for that. I shrugged off the thoughts and finished what I was eating. After finishing it, I stood up and put the bowls on the sink and started walking back to my room. I still have a class to catch.

I arrived at school and it’s so boring. The professor sounded like a lullaby when discussing, causing me to gently close my eyes. The words were inaudible and I couldn’t seem to focus. This isn’t the first time, and I need to do something to kill the time. I started drawing to ease my boredom. I just freely drew what came into my mind, and to my surprise, it was Taddeio. The guy who saved me from danger. I had annoyingly crumpled the scratch paper and was about to throw it away when I realized I was in the classroom and this was not my room. I sighed in relief when no one noticed what I was about to do. I hit myself with a pen and continually remind myself how foolish and reckless I am. The class ended with nothing to worry about, aside from the recklessness earlier. I went straight home, changed my clothes, and lay down on my bed. It's been a long and tiring day and I have the bulk of things to attend to, but I’m tired and I wanted to rest. I’ll just skip dinner tonight for a good sleep. Maybe I will do it tomorrow or when I wake up later. I hope so . . .

I checked if I had locked the door, and to my surprise, I hadn’t. And so, I locked it and went back to bed. I closed my eyes, letting myself be devoured completely by the darkness.