Me Without You (21 page)

"Actually, I came here to tell him it
doesn't seem to be working anymore. I don't know but things are a
little different now."

"Jonah, please," Hugh said. "You can't
do this to X! X is getting better. Isn't this what you want back
then? Didn't you hurt for this? You pined for this moment,
remember? When all things were back to normal—"

"It's weird, Hugh! I mean you've seen
me throw myself all over him before. And now that I have what I
want, things seemed to be difficult," Jonah told him."I know it's
crazy!" she added laughingly. "But it can never go back to the way
it was. I don't know what's missing. It's not easy."

"Perhaps, you're not given time to be
on your own just like before. Whenever you see each other these
days, you were always interrupted. Sneak out in the balcony again."
Hugh advised. Although, he felt strangely uneasy about telling
her.

"But I don't even see X and me alone
anymore," Jonah replied sadly.

"It's easy when you don't think of
those moments when you momentarily parted," Hugh reasoned. "Try to
forget and move on from there."

"I—" Jonah began to say. Then, she took
a step towards the back of the Church.

Hugh fell in step with her and moved
along in the same direction Jonah was taking. He prodded, "Come on,
Jonah—just give X another chance. He may not—"

"Oh, Hugh—don't do this to me. I don't
want to run back to him because of anything other than I really
want to run back to him. Things are very complicated now." Jonah
answered and playfully swatted his arm.

"Then just go running back to him,
plain and simple," Hugh said. "Not because—"

Wow, where did that come
from?
A small, nagging voice inside of Hugh
asked. Surely, there was so much conviction for a lie. And it all
seemed right. And the truth—when the truth was, Hugh wanted to
say—
Well, I am here…Look at me. Let's work
things out between us.
And yet, the truth,
at the moment, seemed wrong.

Just a few feet away, Hugh saw her
parked car. He stopped walking and took her hand. Hugh examined
them. "It's all healing now," he said taking note of the dry skin
from what could have been the rashes.

"My skin asthma. How do you know I have
them?" Jonah said and grabbed her hand away from Hugh feeling
self-conscious about it. She had the dumbest urge to explain to him
that she had seen a dermatologist about it and it wasn't contagious
at all.

"Surely, there's more stuff that are
healing as well," Hugh said.

"That was wonderful—did you feel it?"
Jonah asked.

"What?" Hugh asked looking
at her bemused.
Did she feel it too?
Hugh felt a warm, tingling sensation ran through
his arms to the rest of his body. And yes it felt wonderful…and
sensual. Other than that, he did not feel anything
anymore.

"I think you did something to my
hands…some woo-hoo stuff," Jonah told him.

Hugh laughed. "What stuff?"

"Never mind!" Jonah said. For a moment,
Hugh saw an odd expression on Jonah's face. But it was gone all of
a sudden and was replaced with a smile.

"Close your eyes and give me
back your hand," Hugh directed. He groped for the
habak
in his pocket and
took it out.

Jonah placed her hand on top of Hugh's
hand with her palm facing up. However, she didn’t close her eyes
and continued to watch Hugh expectantly. "We will be staying her
until tomorrow if you expect me to close my eyes," she
uttered.

With his free fist tightly
closed around the
habak
, Hugh placed it on top of her palm and dramatically let go
off the jewelry. He waited for her response anxiously.

Jonah looked at the
habak
on her hand and took
a sharp intake of breath. It was the exact replica of the
stolen
habak
Jane
was keeping, only it was not broken at all. The ancient little
trinkets hanging around the chain were the exact copy. Although,
she couldn't be sure about the markings on each of the
trinkets.

Expecting to see the little glowing
lights Jonah had seen when she touched the broken one in Jane's
bedroom, she was quite surprised when nothing came. However, in
just a few seconds, there was the strong punch-like sensation in
the middle of her stomach which threw her on the ground in both
knees, pale and blue, gasping for breath and palpitating
loudly.

Then, Jonah had the strange knowing
that something terrible happened or will happen, even if she didn't
quite know what it was. And just as she feared, dark and
shadowy-like material started appearing out of nowhere from both
her sides, almost covering the periphery except for the view in
front of her.

The
smite
… Hugh was already down on his
knees when Jonah fell forward and was holding on to steady her. He
quickly recognized the frightening thing which appeared out of
nowhere from the corner of his eyes, heading quickly towards
Jonah.

Jonah's head slumped to Hugh's chest
but he could feel she had not lost consciousness. Hugh was ready to
pick her up and ask for assistance from the people inside the
Church's office, when Xavier arrived.

Xavier was panting heavily when he came
to the scene. He pulled his mask down to his chest and said
gruffly, "What happened?"

"I gave her the
habak
," Hugh answered. He
took Jonah's hand which was still holding on to the jewelry. He
took it back from her and placed it on his shirt pocket. He held
Jonah by the shoulder and gently moved her towards
Xavier.

"What are you doing?" Xavier asked
frantically.

"I'll go get water from the car," Hugh
explained.

"She weakens when she's around me,"
Xavier said and stood up. "I'll get the water. Hold on to
her!"

Hugh changed into a comfortable sitting
position and moved Jonah to sit on the ground as well. They were
seated side-by-side with her head still on his chest. He combed
through her hair and muttered, "What's wrong with your boyfriend?
Refusing the chance to hold you this way because you weaken by his
side. You just collapsed in front of me and I cannot not take
advantage of you."

Jonah smiled despite of herself.
Slowly, the breathing was coming with ease. The beating of her
heart was also abating back to its regular rhythm.

Seeing that the dark, smoky thing was
also vanishing little by little, Hugh continued, "I think you're
right. You should break things off with the guy. He is so—can't
think of the right word when we are seated this way."

"Lame?" Jonah chimed in
weakly.

"No," Hugh said and chuckled.
"Worse!"

By that time, Jonah was already
laughing at Hugh and feeling a little better.

Just then, Xavier arrived with a bottle
of water. He got on his knees, opened the cap and helped Jonah for
a sip. He squatted on the ground and watched Jonah with concern.
"How are you feeling?"

Jonah was able to sit upright. She took
the bottled water from Xavier's hand and drank more of it. Then,
she uttered, "I'm fine now!"

"She's the one, huh?" Xavier asked
Hugh.

"I think so," Hugh answered. "You saw
how she reacted to it. I'd say she's the one."

"I don't think we should tell anybody,"
Xavier continued speaking to Hugh.

"Wait a minute you two," Jonah
interrupted. "You talk as if I am not around at all. Is this how
you guys talk about girls behind their backs—in front of
them?"

"You won't understand," Hugh
said.

"What? That the
habak
could belong to my
mother? That it has some kind of an effect on me? That I could be—"
Jonah's eyes grew large when it dawned on her that Hugh and Xavier
were also searching for the new healer and they suspected she was
the one. "The new healer?" she finished off.

"So you know, huh?" Xavier asked
sheepishly.

"My sister has in her
possession half of the
habak
which looks exactly like this until it was stolen
last night," Jonah explained. "And yes, my family is searching for
the next healer after my mother was murdered."

"This must be the half of it," Hugh
said. "I had a jeweler fixed the broken one so that we can give it
to you."

"You said you are searching for the new
healer, too?" Xavier asked.

"I thought it could be your Aunt
Gilda," Jonah blurted out bluntly. "Jane said she was the last
person our mother saw before she died."

"Aunt Gilda was the one who
instructed us to observe how you are going to react with the
habak
so that we will know
who the new healer is. She doesn't know. It can't be her," Xavier
said.

"It can't be me either," Jonah said
vehemently. "I swear I didn't kill Rebecca Blood!"

"But the
habak
had an effect on you," Hugh
insisted. "There must be another way how the power was passed on to
you. It can be because you are the seventh child or
something."

"We will have to ask Aunt Gilda or your
Aunt about it," Xavier said. "They're both healers!"

"No!" Jonah and Hugh replied together
emphatically.

"Why not?" Xavier demanded.

"Healers think differently!" Hugh told
them. And the three of them sensed something cold, heavy and
threatening in the air.

Jervais'
Sacrifice

"I can't be the new healer," Jonah
said. Xavier and Hugh were escorting her back to her car. She
stopped walking and stared at Xavier directly in his eyes. "Don't
you believe me at all?"

Xavier grinned mischievously, "Don't
give me that look! Of course I believe that you don't have anything
to do with your mother's death. But I can see the signs and they
are screaming loudly at you."

Jonah had specifically parked at the
back of the Church where there was another exit route leading to a
backstreet. That way she didn't have to leave the place from where
she entered in case anybody, like Jervais decided to follow
her.

"Jervais," Jonah cried out
excitedly. "The other half of the
habak
had an effect on her, too.
Jervais heard something the other night and the
habak
caused it. Even Aunt Judith
heard it too. It is possible that Jervais is the new healer as
well."

"Well, we certainly can find out about
it," Hugh said. "But you have to be careful. Nobody apart from us
has to know that you are the new healer. We just can't trust
anybody."

"I am not the new healer, okay!" Jonah
answered angrily.

"It can be you or Jervais. The earlier
you accept the possibility, the better we can consider your
options," Xavier told her. They both continued to walk while Hugh
lagged behind them.

When they reached Jonah's car, Xavier
bent down to give her a kiss but instantly stopped. "Hugh will be
you! I need to see Aunt Gilda for now," he said and looked back at
Hugh.

Hugh quickened his steps and joined the
two. He stretched out his palm for Jonah's keys, "Let's talk to the
amazon, now!" Hugh said and chuckled.

"What did you just call Jervais?" Jonah
asked, eyeing Hugh with laughter in her eyes.

Hugh went around the driver's seat
without looking at Jonah. But he was still grinning from ear to
ear.

"Will catch you at the house," Hugh
told Xavier and waved off.

Jonah also waved off and climbed into
the passenger's seat.

Hugh put the car in first gear and
glided out of the building slowly. Jonah looked back to where
Xavier was standing and found the spot empty. She saw Xavier
heading back to the front and slowly disappearing.

Then, Jonah cried out, "Put on the
brakes!"

The tires screeched as Hugh put on the
brakes abruptly. The engine died too."What? Is something wrong?"
Hugh demanded looking worriedly at her.

It's working…
Jonah noted and grinned at her own
silliness.

It was crazy. Although, Jonah's
paranoia hadn't reached its highest gear, but ever since Jemmah's
accident, she had developed the act of going off slowly and trying
out the brakes if it worked.

"I'm sorry!" Jonah said apologetically.
"My bad. It assures me to try on the brakes especially after
Jemma's accident. You can drive off now!"

Hugh met Jonah's eyes compassionately
and uttered, "Hey, I understand completely. But you have to get
over the fear sometime."

Jonah just kept silent. She realized
Hugh was right. The past few days, she had been fearful of almost
everything including her own shadow. If she was the new healer,
then there could be more fearful things awaiting for
her.

Before Hugh speeded off into
the street, Jonah caught a glimpse, from her side mirror, a
Phantom Black Rolls Royce.
The luxury car, which was parked not far from her own parking
space, looked very much like the one which drove their mother when
Rebecca was alive. Although, Jonah knew perfectly well that their
Aunt Judith had prohibited anybody from ever using the car until
their mother was buried… and until they knew who the next healer
was. Jonah couldn't even remember the last time she saw it parked
in their driveway. However, she felt scared again all of a sudden.
Even the exposed skin on her nape felt tingly like someone had just
blew a breath of air on it, creating goose pimples all
over.