CONTENT AND TRIGGER WARNING:
This chapter contains references to trauma that may be upsetting to some readers. Please be mindful of this sensitive theme and other possible triggers. Remember to practice self-care before, during, and after reading.
LORELEI
WHAT WAS supposed to be a two-hour drive from Manila to Pampanga turned into a three-hour trip. Traffic on EDSA was moving so slowly, and to make it worse, there was an accident on the northbound lane. We had no choice but to endure the slow-moving traffic and waste our precious time on the road.
At five in the afternoon, we finally reached Angeles City. Compared to the busy streets of Metro Manila, this city did not have towering buildings left and right. The road was not as wide as EDSA, and there were no long queues of vehicles stuck in traffic.
The car pulled up on the side of a three-story apartment. I looked out the window to see the whole place. Its exterior design looked a bit old, and it seems like it has been renovated several times already.
"We're already here, ma'am," the driver reminded me after turning off the car engine. He pressed a button on the side door panel, and I heard a faint click from the door beside me.
We almost got out of the car at the same time. He opened the car trunk and pulled up my pink luggage. I was about to get it from him when he insisted on carrying it for me. He carefully placed it in front of the apartment's black gate.
"Thank you, manong," I said with a smile.
[In Filipino/Tagalog, "Manong" is a respectful term used to address an older man. It's similar to saying "Mister" or "Sir".]
"No problem, ma'am," he responded with a forced smile. The trip had taken several hours, so he was obviously already tired, and yet he still had to drive back to Manila. He will definitely get home late because of the heavy traffic. "Please be careful here."
He returned to the car and started the engine. I watched as the car drove away and disappeared from my eyeshot. Looks like it will be a while before I see that car again.
I faced the apartment and stared at it for several seconds. So this is going to be my new home, huh?
Seconds after I pressed the doorbell, the gate was opened. A middle-aged woman with curly shoulder length hair greeted me. There were few gray hair strands in her hair and wrinkles in her forehead. She beamed a sweet smile at me as our eyes met.
Meet my Aunt, Martha Henson, the owner of the apartment that I will be living in for the next few months.
"Oh, Lori! I've been waiting for you!" She hugged me tightly to the point where I could almost not breathe, before she kissed my cheeks. It had been a long time since we last saw each other. It has been 4 years, I think? "How was the trip?"
"The traffic is still bad in EDSA so I got here a little late. How about you, Tita? How are you?"
"Here! Feeling and still definitely looking young! Did your dad give you a ride? I was hoping to ask how he's doing. It has been a while since I last saw Walter."
I responded with a forced smile. It was as if she didn't know what kind of person my dad is. He didn't even have the time to say goodbye to me because he was busy.
"They had a meeting earlier so he couldn't give me a ride. He also wanted to see you," I added even though dad hasn't said anything about it.
"Ah, is that so? Alright, come here! I will show you where you're going to stay. I already cleaned the room earlier." I carried my backpack while she helped me carry the other one.
The apartment that Tita owned is fairly large, and based on my own estimate, there are about ten units on each floor. Of course, the rent is expensive since it is closer to the school and other establishments. Most of the tenants are actually students, especially those from faraway places who struggle with commuting every day.
"Would it be okay with you to share a unit with someone?" She looked at me, and hesitation was clear on her face. "All the units here are already occupied except for one that still has an available bedroom. You'd have separate rooms. You'd just see each other in the living room and the kitchen. If you want, we can even install three or four locks on your room."
My brows furrowed. "Will I be sharing with a girl?"
She stared at me as if she were having second thoughts. "With a boy," she said, before opening the door into the apartment building.
I gulped down my saliva and responded with her stare. I really do not have any problems if I will be sharing a unit with someone… only if it is not a boy.
"Your dad told me about what happened to you at your previous school so I am very aware of what you had experienced." Tita must have probably noticed the disappointment in my face that was why she was forced to give out an explanation. "I can't let anything bad happen to you while you're staying here. Trust me when I say this roommate of yours is different from the others."
"How can he be different?" I asked.
Tita went ahead up the stairs. "He's quiet as a rock when you are with him. He doesn't speak if it is not needed. Mysterious. Like he has his own world. He's not even fond of girls. The other day, I asked him if he had a girlfriend. He replied that he didn't have time for such nonsense."
"Uhm… does he like boys?"
My aunt left out a soft chuckle even though I asked her a serious question. What's with her reaction? "He doesn't have any interests in boys either. It seems like he doesn't really have interests in people in general. He's been living here for two years, but he hasn't brought a single friend or a classmate."
"But did he have roommates in the unit before?"
"Yes, there were tenants in the other bedroom, but after a month or two, they would suddenly leave. They said a ghost would bother them every night. When they were showering in the bathroom, they claimed to see eyes staring at them from the window. When they were relaxing in their room, they would hear someone calling their name.
Creepy. One of Tita's units can actually pass as a scene out of a horror movie. Whoever my roommate is going to be, I salute him for staying this long. If I were him, I would have already moved to a different apartment before the ghost could even visit me in my dreams. Either he was brave or he did not believe in ghosts.
"Do not worry. There's no real ghost here, your roommate told me." It seems like Tita sensed my anxiety because of her story. "He said maybe his former roommates were just imagining things, which is why they saw those things. He hasn't even seen or felt an unusual presence in the unit himself."
Should I feel reassured by what Tita said and trust the boy's words? Because as other people say, "to see is to believe." Unless I experience what the former tenants went through in the unit myself, I would not consider leaving this apartment.
Because of our conversation, we didn't realize we had already reached the third floor, in front of Room 302. Tita Martha knocked first before inserting the key into the doorknob and opening the door.
I took a deep breath as I prepared myself to meet my roommate.
The unit is exactly the right size to my liking and seems fully furnished. As soon as we entered, two long sectional couches and a center table greeted us in the living room. At the back is the kitchen, where a round table is surrounded by monobloc chairs. On the right side are two closed doors, likely the two bedrooms. At the back left, there's a slightly open door, possibly the bathroom.
What caught my attention was the boy who sat cross-legged on the floor and was focused on a giant jigsaw puzzle. The pieces were all around him. What's weird was that they had no design or color at all.
"Excuse me, Loki?" Tita Martha let out a forced cough to get his attention. What an odd choice of name, by the way. He has the same name as the trickster god in Norse mythology and the famous Marvel character. "I want you to introduce you to your new roommate."
He faced us and examined me from head to toe. I did the same to him.
The first thing I noticed about Loki was his hair, with his bangs so long they almost covered his eyes. He was trying to hide his gray, lackluster eyes from anyone's sight. His face had no reaction upon seeing me. He was neither glad nor disappointed.
I waved at him and introduced myself. "Hi, I'm Lorelei Rios. Pleased to meet you!"
"My name's Loki Mendez," he replied in a seemingly uninterested tone. "I'm in the middle of solving a puzzle here. Can you not disturb me for another five minutes?"
He returned his attention to the jigsaw puzzle. Great! The way he greeted me was indeed cold. At first, I thought Tita Martha had exaggerated her description of him. Yet as it turns out, it was exactly very much accurate.
Imagine, I would be sharing this unit with this guy for months.
Tita Martha and I exchanged looks before she shrugged. She was probably already used to Loki's cold demeanour whenever a new roommate was introduced to him. It might be just me, but he gave me the vibe that he never wanted to share his unit with anyone.
"So your room will be the one at the front." Tita Martha led the way to my room. As we walked toward it, I noticed the sticky notes stuck on the flatscreen TV. There were numbers written on them, like a bunch of mathematical equations. There was also a dartboard on the wall with a picture of a man pinned using darts. The face was barely recognizable from all the holes, but I noticed he was wearing a royal blue blazer with a metal badge on the lapel.
If it was Loki who put and did all of that, then he was indeed strange… and a bit mysterious.
Tita placed my bags beside the bed before handing the key to me. "Make sure to always lock your door whenever you sleep. Although I trust your roommate that he will never do anything bad to you. If you ever need me, call me in Room 101, okay?"
"Thank you, Tita." I hugged her once more that almost lasted for a minute. She also embraced me tightly. It felt like my own mother was hugging me back.
"I hope your father comes to visit and check on you," she said as we pulled away from our embrace. She gently stroked my face. "He will surely miss his única hija."
As Tita stepped out of my room, I could not help but smile. No, it was not a broad and genuine smile. It was a wry smile. Whether or not I left our home in Manila, it would not make a pennyworth difference to my dad.
I laid down on my new bed for a moment. The pillows, blanket, and bedsheets all smelled freshly washed and newly changed. Although I had been sitting throughout the entire journey earlier, I could still feel the fatigue settling in, so I decided to close my eyes and rest for a while.
It was already past six o'clock in the evening when I finished arranging my clothes in the cabinet. I changed out of the trousers I was wearing and put on knee-length shorts instead.
I got out of my room, bringing my slim laptop with me, and sat on one side of the sectional couch.
Loki had already completed the jigsaw puzzle, so he was seated on the opposite couch, reading a book titled And Then There Were None.
I wanted to watch television, but because of the sticky notes on the screen, I gave up the idea. They were probably there for my roommate's assignment.
Instead, I logged in my Facebook account and checked my inbox. As I checked my personal messages one by one, Loki stood up and passed behind me on his way to the bathroom. A number of my classmates—or rather, former classmates—from my high school in Manila were asking where I would be transferring. Even on my phone, some of them sent messages asking the same question. I closed their messages without replying. I no longer cared whether they noticed that I had seen their chats. Even my childhood friend did not receive an answer from me.
I harbored no ill feelings toward them. I simply did not want to reconnect with the past, as I wished to forget what had happened back then.
For me to move on quickly, I had to cut my ties with the past.
Several hours passed, yet Loki and I did not speak even once. As Tita Martha had said, he did not speak unless necessary. He was too absorbed in reading his book or assembling the puzzle. It seemed he had no intention of getting to know me at all.
Somehow, I liked this arrangement.
The same situation went on the next day. When I woke up in the morning, I greeted him with a "good morning," but he did not reply. Not even a simple "hi" or "hello." He remained focused on his reading and stayed in the same spot where I had last seen him the night before. Wait, had he already slept, or had he stayed up all night to finish his book? Ah, never mind! It was none of my business.
When afternoon came, I once again took my usual spot on the couch. Loki? There he was, writing numbers on a sheet of paper, seemingly trying to solve a mathematical problem. As I watched funny cat videos on YouTube, I glanced at him and observed what he was doing.
And then, a miracle happened.
"Your glances are starting to make me feel uncomfortable. Do you wanna ask me a question?" For the first time, he spoke to me. Apparently, there was something unusual about the dish Tita Martha had served for lunch, which prompted my companion to finally comment.
I first checked to see if he was speaking to someone on his phone, in case his question wasn't meant for me. Maybe he was on a video call that I hadn't noticed. Once I was certain he was indeed speaking to me, I closed my laptop and turned toward him.
"I appreciate the silence between us, but I don't mind getting to know you," I responded. He did not bother to look at me while I was speaking. Was he interested in this conversation or not? "We only know little about each other after all."
He stopped writing the numbers and raised his gaze at me. Finally, I got his attention. "Oh, I disagree."
My eyes slightly squinted. "Excuse me?"
"You're from Manila and you've decided to transfer here in Pampanga," he explained as he looked down and continued writing numbers on a piece of paper. "It's probable that you'll also attend the same high school where I do."
"Did Tita Martha tell you that?"
"Nope. I deduced it based on how you were dressed yesterday. The brands of your clothes, your bags, your suitcase, and your shoes are not that trendy here in Pampanga, but they're quite popular and common in Manila. How about the school? Most tenants here, if not all, are attending Clark High because it's the nearest academic institution in the area."
My mouth fell open as I listened to him. No wonder yesterday he seemed to be examining me from head to toe, as if with an X-ray. He tried to read a bit about me through my appearance. Impressive.
"But that's not all," he went on. I thought he was done with his show. "If my deduction's correct, you're trying to escape something from your past. That's why you went here, to seek refuge and solace."
I swallowed hard and blinked at him. There was no way he could know about my problems or past. I hadn't told him anything since we exchanged names yesterday. Could Tita have possibly mentioned me to him?
"You're mistaken. The landlady didn't tell me anything." It was like he had already read what's my mind. Was he a mind reader? "If she did, I was probably not listening."
"How did you now that I'm escaping from something?" I asked.
"Pretty simple. You ignored your friends' chat and text messages. Disconnecting yourself from people in your past is a possible indication that you wanna escape, if not forget, about them."
"And how did you know that I've been ignoring their messages?"
"While you were checking your inbox yesterday, I happened to walk past you, glanced at your laptop, and noticed how you deliberately left them on read. They sounded so concerned about you, but you didn't give them any reply."
He did not only peek at it, he actually read the messages that were meant for me! Where was his respect for my privacy?
"A new question then emerged: What are you trying to escape from?" he added. I wanted to reply, but his mouth seemed unstoppable. "Maybe an incident happened in your previous school—something that's deeply troubling you."
I clutched my knees tightly as I continued listening to him. I always felt uncomfortable whenever someone brought up something from my past. That's a conversation that I was not ready yet.
"The mystery now is why would you transfer here in Pampanga? Judging by your high-end laptop and phone, your family's quite well-off. You can afford to study anywhere in Manila. Why not go to those prestigious schools? Maybe you were traumatized so much, just being in that city can easily trigger your bad memories. That's why you have to go far away."
I looked away and wandered my eyes everywhere. I instinctively placed a hand on my chest, feeling it tighten gradually. How did he know all of this? Could he be some kind of psychic? He sounded as if he knew about that incident. I took deep, repeated breaths, as if doing a breathing exercise to calm myself. I was beginning to have trouble breathing. Yet he still hadn't stopped.
"Enough . . ." I mumbled.
"I can only think of three probable scenarios. First, you were a witness to a gruesome crime. Second, you were involved in a scandal—"
"ENOUGH!" I could not take his nonchalant remarks anymore. I shouted for him to stop. If he had any idea how serious the incident I was involved in was, there was no need for him to tell me. He could have simply kept his mouth shut and dealt with it himself. Did he have to show off how good he was at deducing a person's history?
"Did I say something wrong?" he asked his question without even flinching at my reaction. It seemed he even wanted to continue enumerating the possible scenarios. How could he be this insensitive?
I closed my eyes briefly and struggled to catch my breath. When I opened them, I grabbed my laptop from the couch, stood up quickly, and headed straight to my room without saying a word to him. However, before turning the doorknob, I faced Loki once again.
"Now I understand why no roommate ever lasts with you. You're even worse than the ghost that haunts this place."
I locked the door and lay down on my soft bed. I closed my eyes and repeatedly inhaled and exhaled. I began to hear voices around me even though there was no one else in the room—voices I had not heard for several weeks. Whatever happened back then, I did not want to remember anymore.