Me Without You (3 page)

Smiling from ear to ear,
looking pleased with himself, Hugh hurriedly said, "We will have to
use the
backdoor
to
get you out of here." He was already dragging her towards a trail
that will lead to the woods, a short cut route back to the Blood
mansion.

"Your
backdoor
will lead us back to our
property," Jonah informed him.

"Ah, of course, we're neighbors," Hugh
muttered under his breath. "That's even better. I can just go to
your house and give you the 411."

Has he forgotten the rift
between both families?
Jonah
reflected.

There were talks that Jonah's mother
put a curse on the Lively family because of a longstanding feud
with Gilda Byrne, which pushed them into hiding in different
countries, only to return when the children were grown up.
Although, Jonah wasn't really privy to what went wrong between two
families, she knew that Rebecca shared bad blood with Gilda Byrne
that even the mere mention of her name will likely set fire on the
Blood's house. To make matter's worse, Xavier and her dated without
the two families knowing until the former got sick and she kept
turning up in their doorstep.

Just the thought of Hugh in her house
giving her information about Xavier, with Rebecca Blood knowing
about it, gave her the chills.

"No!" Jonah said vehemently. "I will
set a place and time."

"Fine!" Hugh urgently answered Jonah
and resumed dragging her behind him.

Jonah stopped and whirled around to see
if the car was near the house. Then, she blurted out, "Tell me
something now!"

Hugh looked at her exasperatedly. Then,
he sighed and resigned to her, "X's got leukemia. He's on
chemotherapy now."

Although, the piece of information made
her worry about Xavier, Jonah managed to smile at Hugh and said,
"I'll be expecting for more!" she shook out of his grasp and
proceeded the trail to the back of the house. "I can manage from
here," she called out to him and ran off.

Half-way through, she realized she
didn't ask Hugh, "How bad is it? Will X make it?"

Chapter 3

The Smite

Hugh was thinking it was a backdrop of
a serene and comfortable place one could ever imagine. Fresh
flowers were almost in every corner of the room. There was a soft,
jazz music playing and the sound of water flowing from the
miniature fountain, in the background. And the colors around were
at play in hues of coffee-caramel and cream.

Hugh's eyes darted towards Xavier, who
slowly slid off the hood of his khaki cardigan, revealing a clean,
bald head. He looked right at home as he took his place in a
high-back recliner near the window.

"Is it okay if we close the blinds?"
Xavier asked.

"I'll get it!" Hugh offered, going
immediately by the window and pulled on the blinds, darkening the
room a bit.

Helen Lively was seated in a settee in
one corner of the same light-colored shades, pulling an ottoman, as
she rested her feet.

"Is there anything else you need, X?"
Helen asked, with a smile plastered across her face and looking
fondly at her son.

Xavier's eyes were directed towards the
side table where he placed his glass of water and Ipod. "Maybe
later," he told her, snuggling right into the big chair.

Helen took out a book from her bag and
showed it to him, "Got myself this," she added. Xavier took his
Ipod and waved it at her and smiled.

Forty-eight days, nine hours,
thirty-six minutes and ten seconds after they learned that Xavier
was afflicted with the most aggressive type of cancer of the blood.
However, it was the last round of chemotherapy session Xavier was
going to have. That was how everyone had been aware of the time and
counting down towards Xavier's recovery.

Xavier was supposed to go through four
cycles for a period of two months. His body can only accommodate
one session per two weeks. But the last round, Xavier had been very
impatient and he wanted to get it done and over with breaking the
two-week pattern. He could have chosen to be confined for a day in
the hospital but he opted to have his session right at the doctor's
clinic and go home right after he consumed bags of strong medicine,
which he often referred to as the venom for an already poisoned
blood.

Hugh took the seat next to Helen. He
pulled an ottoman closer and put one leg on top of it. In a few
seconds, he was slowly moving his leg sideways and relaxing a
little bit. Xavier's chemotherapy-session days were always hectic
for everyone, especially right after the whole thing. They were
always on their toes and they even lose sleep in the evenings,
particularly Helen, who never leaves Xavier's side. However,
nothing can be worse than what Xavier had to go through.

Hugh's phone vibrated from
his pocket and an instant message from
X-girlfiend
came up. It was the name
he registered for Jonah and it never failed to make him
snicker.

411?
The message simply said.

As promised, Hugh had been feeding her
with everything about Xavier. He had been seeing her for days.
Sometimes, there was nothing really new he had to report to her
about Xavier. It could be just as trivial as Xavier did not want to
take a shower that day or as big as he was itching all over his
body and couldn't stop scratching. There was even a day when he
reported nothing at all. But he kept coming to their designated
places. Sometimes, they would meet by the dried-up pond connecting
both of their families' properties. At other times, they met at the
church. And curiously, Jonah, too, kept meeting him.

Hugh grinned. He was
thinking about—
Jonah.
Her guts was something he couldn't totally like and totally
hate at the same time. He felt like shaking her hard to face
reality but at the same time hold her hand and teach her to embrace
faith. He looked towards Xavier and felt guilty. He quite knew that
what they had wasn't over yet. He shook the feeling off instantly—
only to be replaced by the green-eyed monster.

If he had gone to the same
school Jonah and Xavier attended, perhaps he had met her
first.
Perhaps, it was he—

But his past had made him begged off
not to go to the same school Xavier went to. It was really a
childish thing. He didn't want to have to explain to anybody. With
the age difference of almost months and the different surnames, he
was tired of people wanting to know if he and Xavier were real
blood brothers—because they were not.

Actually, Gilda Byrne was his true
mother…but he grew up with the Lively family, a distant relative,
when Gilda was too embarrassed to become a mother to him after she
got pregnant out of wedlock. The Livelys loved him like their own.
Xavier was like a brother to him. And there was nothing he wished
for than Xavier's recovery.

What would it be like to
have Jonah in this room sitting beside him?
Hugh was reflecting.
Happy
family
…Yeah, it would make for a
picture-perfect, calming portrait— Xavier, surrounded by people he
loved and who loved him.

Hugh saw Xavier fumbling through the
recliner to adjust it. Thankful for the diversion, he stood up and
said, "Here, let me do it!"

When Xavier was almost in a lying
position, he told Hugh, "That's enough." Then, he nodded
gratefully.

Hugh went back to the settee and Helen
rumpled his hair. She took another book from her bag and passed it
to him.

"No," Hugh told her. "I think I'll
sleep."

Just then, Dr. Lively and Dr. Moore,
Xavier's oncologist came in. They were already preparing the
medicines. Dr. Moore put on his mask and moved beside Xavier to
start the preparations on the Port-a-Cath.

Hugh remembered how Xavier's hands
suffered, turning violet and blue and almost unrecognizable the
first few rounds of his sessions. Along the way, when too many
tubes began to pile up and were inserted on either one of Xavier's
hands that even his veins were already complaining, the implant was
a big relief for him.

"I never knew you read—" Hugh moved his
head sideways to read the title of the book. "erotica!" he teased
Helen, pointing towards the book. Of course, it was just something
he had to do to take Helen's eyes away from what was going on. He
knew Helen was squeamish at the sight of needles.

"Oh, come on—give me a
break, Hugh! Sexy, sexy is nice." Helen complained and grinned.
"You can't expect me to read
How to Spend
Your Time Waiting through a Chemo Session,
can you?"

"Really? There's a book about that?"
Hugh asked, smiling at her.

"Silly," Helen answered and laughed. "I
don't know. Do you want to know some of my favorite
parts?"

"Mom, please! No!" Hugh
laughed.

When Hugh and Helen looked towards
Xavier, Dr. Moore was checking the highly-powerful drugs again.
Drops were slowly dripping from the bag, down to the tube
connecting to the Port-a-Cath on Xavier's chest, on its way to
killing the cancer cells.

One look from Xavier's face
and Hugh knew the serenity was broken. Xavier had always been calm
the past sessions he had. Hugh couldn't understand why all of a
sudden, Xavier was showing a slight inconvenience. And this started
to make Hugh uncomfortable as well, which he knew he couldn't
afford because of the
smite
…

But it was too late…Hugh had
felt the slight foreboding sense of dread to come. He subtly looked
around him, looking for anything unusual. He had not once seen
the
smite
, he
didn't know what to expect.

He jumped a little when he saw, from
the corner of his right eye, something that was shapeless and dark,
coming out from the marble-tiled floor. He looked directly in that
direction and nothing was there. But again, from the corner of his
left eye, the same dark breath arose from the floor heading towards
Xavier. And when he looked directly, the spot was empty.

"Hugh, is everything alright?" Helen
asked which made Hugh jerk suddenly.

It took Hugh a while before he could
stammer, "Yes! Fine." He was sensing more of the black movement
from the side of his eyes. And yet when he scanned the room more
intently, he couldn't see anything.

Although, nothing unusual
happened from the past sessions, Gilda was certain, they may just
come up. And Hugh regretted not listening to her to know what to
do. There was no doubt, the
smite
was all around him.

The smite
… Gilda had warned Hugh about them. According to her,
the
smite
will dash
to pieces anybody who were at their lowest state. They rip
everything a person has—his memory, his thoughts and his body. Not
visible to the naked eye, only healers can see them.

The sick, like Xavier, were
most vulnerable to the
smite
. As they become fearful and
desperate to hold on to life, the smite feed on this and slowly
devour the person from the inside. Gilda said that majority of
people die before their time not because of the disease they had
but because of the
smite
. More often than not, sick people become worse right after
the diagnosis. And it was because of the
smite
.

When Dr. Moore left them to attend to
his other patients, Hugh quickly left Helen's side while Dr. Lively
took his place on the settee.

Hugh dragged the ottoman beside Xavier
and checked on him, "You okay, man?" He fixed his eyes on Xavier.
He was eerily sensing the dark cloud beside him making the hair on
his arms stand. If he stood still for a moment, he could see what
looked like little confetti of different neon colors which seemed
stuck on one side of the dark shadow.

"I've had better days," Xavier said
softly, managing a thin smile across his lips. "You're not seeing
anything, are you?" he asked suspiciously.

"Seeing what?" Hugh replied rather
quickly just as Xavier raised a knowing eyebrow at him. "Oh, please
don't start now!"

Clueless to what the
smite
could be doing, Hugh
quickly looked back at Helen and saw from the corner of his eye,
the dark shadow enveloping Xavier and slowly entering his body. He
was thinking he needed to act fast before the whole thing swallows
Xavier and things will only get to worse.

"It's just that—" Hugh began to say not
really knowing what will cheer up Xavier. "I saw Jonah!"

A small smile appeared on Xavier's
face. "Yeah, I know. It has been days since I saw her talking to
you outside—on the porch. When are you going to get around to
telling me?"

"You know how mom feels—"
Hugh told Xavier, seeing that the
smite
was lifting up and hanging in
the air.

"She hasn't given up?" Xavier asked his
blue eyes lighting up.

Hugh laughed out loud, "Very stubborn—"
he told Xavier.