Me Without You (12 page)

Xavier heard scraping of chairs from
the inside of the room indicating that the people inside were in
the move. So, he tiptoed away from the den. As he rounded a corner
to another room, he heard the man's voice again, saying, "I will be
in touch, Gilda!" And footsteps leading outside echoed through,
until they slowly faded down.

It was the first time to dawn on Xavier
that the healer stuff was a serious business after all. Everybody
seemed to be trying to find the new greatest healer. And if it
turned out to be Jonah, Xavier was unsure anymore what they would
do to her if they found her. Gilda had once mentioned that healers
think differently, that they can kill for the power bestowed upon
the new one.

Even Aunt Gilda can do
something drastic
… Xavier realized.
Jonah is in danger
…

"Xavier, dear boy! Is that you?" Xavier
heard Gilda’s voice calling out from the half-open door of the
den.

Xavier was shocked that Gilda knew he
was around. He cleared his throat and noisily came out of the room
he was hiding.

"Yes, it's me, Aunt Gilda!" Xavier
answered.

"There you are!" Gilda said, peering
with one eye from the door frame of the den. "What are you standing
there for? Come quickly and let me take a look at you."

Xavier entered the room cautiously
following Gilda and closed the door softly. Gilda sat on her high
chair. Xavier glanced momentarily at his mother who sat opposite
the older woman. He stopped right in front of Gilda and got down on
his knees.

"My," Gilda uttered. "I have only seen
you a moment ago and you seem to have grown another
inch."

"You have already blessed me earlier,
Aunt Gilda!" Xavier reminded her.

"It doesn't mean that you are healed
then the healing must stop. On the contrary, it must continue even
more. You need blessings every waking moment you have. Healing is
eternal, my dear boy Xavier. It does not cease as long as I breathe
life. Otherwise, it will be to your own detriment." Gilda
said.

Gilda inhaled deeply. She closed her
eyes, placing both her hands a few inches away from his face, both
her thumbs pointing directly towards the bridge on his nose where
his eyebrows almost met.

Xavier felt like he had his hair back
and was standing on its ends and his eyes were burning hot. Deep
within him, he was feeling feverish. He looked down and saw his
fuzzy reflection through the shiny surface of the tiled floor and
everything looked normal to him.

Gilda had never failed to scare him
even as a little boy. It wasn’t just the way she looked with her
pure white hair, her light bluish-grey eyes and the web of wrinkles
that seemed to jump right out of her skin. It was her very
presence…her healing touch… that made him fearful. There was
something in Gilda’s character that made him feel uncomfortable.
Only two other people can make him feel that way…and they were
gossiped to be sorceress—Jonah’s mom and aunt.

"Xavier, dear boy— you have got to keep
what’s inside of this alive, lest you will be weaker by the minute.
The heart is your source," Gilda started slowly, lowering her hands
a few inches away from his chest. She opened her eyes, looking
perplexed. She placed her hands once again, a few inches away from
his chest. Then, she pressed gently right on his chest."What is
wrong, my dear boy, Xavier? Something is different."

Helen stood up and went to stand behind
Xavier. "Gilda, what do you see?" she asked reaching out for her
son’s hand.

"The poison in his blood is stuck in
his heart," Gilda blurted out insistently. "But you have been
touched by a healer, my dear boy, Xavier!"

Helen gasped loudly, squeezing Xavier’s
hand. "The new one?"

"Maybe," Gilda said. "Why don't you
tell us, my dear boy, Xavier."

"It's Hugh! He was fooling around
earlier wanting me to see. He said something about making me feel
better," Xavier quickly explained, keeping his fingers crossed and
hoping nobody could see through him and what really
occurred.

Xavier stood up avoiding the stares he
was getting from the two women. He wasn't about to tell them about
his encounter with Jonah earlier. After overhearing the
conversation in the den, Xavier didn't know whom to trust
anymore.

"So Hugh has decided to learn it,"
Gilda said, impressed. "How did you feel?"

Xavier hesitated for a moment thinking
Gilda may find a way to determine if it was indeed Hugh he was
talking about or Jonah. So, Xavier simply said, "Fine! I felt
better afterwards."

"Really?" Gilda said gaily. "But still
you must find the new healer. Rebecca's curse is very powerful. And
the new one is the only one who can heal you properly," she
added.

Just then, Dr. Christopher Lively
entered the room and took his seat opposite the two women. Xavier
walked to where his father was seated silently.

Dr. Christopher Lively cupped his son’s
face lovingly with both hands and motioned for Xavier to take the
seat next to him.

"Find the new healer? Xavier? Please,
Gilda," Dr Lively said. "Let us stop this! The boy is responding to
his treatment well." His weary face of sixty years attempted to
lighten up with a smile.

"That’s because Rebecca is dead!" Gilda
interjected. "But we cannot be complacent, Christopher! Xavier is
not totally healed."

"I totally agree with Gilda!" Helen
said moving towards Xavier and sat at the arm of his chair. "I need
to really be assured that Rebecca’s curse has been lifted out of
X’s body—completely."

"X wasn't cursed!" Dr. Lively
said.

"He is!" Helen and Gilda both
said.

Dr. Lively had to stop himself from
rolling his eyes at both women. He smiled at Xavier instead and
gave him a playful wink.

"We need to find the next healer in
line," Gilda said. "The healer is our cure. Whoever she
is."

"She?" Helen asked curiously. She
lowered her voice and added, "Rumor has it that her seven children
killed Rebecca."

"I believe one of them did…yes! And
whoever that is…is the new healer. Xavier, dear boy, where is
Hugh?" Gilda said. She directed her attention towards Xavier,
staring at him meaningfully."I think it is imperative that we
discover the truth— the cure."

Xavier squirmed in his seat
and tried to take his mask off. His mother reached out to stop him
from removing it. Speaking through the material, he said, "Hugh had
the
habak
fixed,
Aunt Gilda!"

"What
habak
, Gilda?" Helen asked.

"It is for the new healer, Helen,"
Gilda answered. "I have asked the boys to give it to one of
Rebecca's daughters. I believe, our dear boy, Xavier, is close to
her."

"That girl Jonah!" Helen exclaimed. Her
eyes grew large with alarm. "You can't mean she's the
one!"

"We are not talking to each other
anymore, Aunt Gilda." Xavier said.

"Gilda, X does not have to deal with
the Blood family," Helen said.

"He does if you want him totally
healed. By the way, you tell Hugh to see me immediately," Gilda
said, her eyes looked like they had turned sparkling white all of a
sudden.

"He told me he had to finish
a few stuff for his summer program. But he said he'll be back as
soon as possible. He never said anything about fixing a
habak
," Helen
said.

"Xavier, dear boy—you need to get close
to that Blood girl again for your sake. Or let Hugh do it. Know who
the healer is."

"I heard about the
Andalusian
Hunters
earlier, Aunt Gilda. Who are they?" Xavier asked. Gilda, Helen and
Dr. Lively were exchanging each other skeptical looks. "Are they
looking for the new healer as well?"

"I don't think you should concern
yourself with them, X!" Dr. Lively said.

"No, Christopher!" Helen declared. "I
think it is alright for X to know about them."

"They are very dangerous people," Dr.
Lively insisted.

"But they don't concern X at all,"
Helen said. "Why bother keep it from him?"

"Anyway," Gilda butted in.
"You heard right, my dear boy, Xavier. The
Andalusian
Hunters are also looking
for the new greatest healer after Rebecca Blood. But they are out
to get her at all cost. They thirst for the healer's blood. They
are going in for the kill. According to oral tradition, in the
beginning, the
Andalusian
Hunters received the mission from the Blessed
Virgin Mary to hunt down Muslims in any way they can. They were
given the authority to kill them if needed. And it seemed they saw
the need all throughout these years. Later on, they extended their
hunt to healers, witches and non-Christian believers. During the
Inquisition, it was said that the Catholic Church, which they
vehemently deny up to this day, supported this secret society to
hunt down witches. These people are brutal. They feed healers
to—not just one, but many wild beasts…hyenas—tearing their bodies
apart and dissolving their powers to these lower forms of
creatures. And making it hard to transfer the healer's gift to
another person."

There was anger on Gilda's face which
she couldn't mask and a faraway look in her eyes as if she was
seeing something sinister from the past.

"What is it Gilda?" Helen asked. As if
contaminated by a virus, the tale had also greatly terrified
Helen.

"It's just that I had witnessed one of
their hunts. I was but a young girl. It was my biological mother in
that particular lifetime. People were already gossiping about us
being witches. But of course, it was only me in that family with
the gift. But my mother sacrificed herself instead. She had offered
herself to the hyenas. And I saw—never even thought it was possible
for someone to have such loving eyes despite a torn limb—but it was
the way she looked at me even at her fatal death," Gilda recounted.
"The myth about the hyenas is true. They've always been associated
with witchcraft and their body parts are often used as ingredients
to alternative medicine. These are the healers' blood the beasts
carry within them, whose power had been wasted because of some
apparition which could have never took place in the first
place."

Everyone jumped in surprise as the door
burst open and came in Hugh, who was looking amusedly at all of
them.

"What did I miss?" Hugh blurted
out.

Chapter 13

The Witch Hunt

It had been long since the Blood family
became complete, gathering together in their study the way the
siblings came together that day. Jonah noted.

If mother hadn’t died, we
wouldn’t have been together again…there was indeed something better
that came out of her death
. Jonah mused.
She was lying on propped-up throw pillows with her legs dangling on
the arm of the antique divan rattan sofa.

"Let us wait for Bricius. There’s no
changing him—he is late as usual," Jane said. She took the tall
seat where Rebecca usually sat even when their father was still
alive.

"So, can you still feel her in that
chair?" Jervais remarked her blue eyes twinkling with amusement.
Her long, blond bangs which almost covered her face unsuccessfully
hid a naughty smirk. She shivered dramatically before joining Jonah
in the divan. She cleared all the throw pillows before lifting
Jonah’s head into her lap. At twenty-two, Jervais was the close
buddy Jonah ever had. Aside from Jane, Jonah had always liked
Jervais among her other siblings.

"You are talking about your mother,
Jervais!" Jane chided.

"And your mother, too!" Jerone
interrupted, her pale blue eyes momentarily leaving the daily. She
awkwardly tucked her newly-dyed ginger hair behind her ears before
she proceeded reading the paper.

Jemmah laughed out loud in the
background. She was standing right by the window, puffing a
cigarette. Jonah joined in a snickering laughter which earned her a
loving, soft tug on her hair by Jervais.

"What?" Jonah complained playfully.
"You started it," she teased the older sibling to which Jervais
only frowned.

"Jemmah, you are making a mess," Jane
scolded, referring to her cigarette butts.

"You don’t even have an ash tray here,"
Jemmah complained, flipping her dark curls, her coffee-colored eyes
becoming rounder by the minute.

"That’s because nobody smokes here,"
Jane responded.

"It was for your own good. With your
mother still around, the air was already polluted!" Jemmah said.
"All of you wouldn't have survived at all."

There was a momentary, eerie silence
which passed through the atmosphere. It felt like an unknown
presence had kept them from saying anything, only prompting them to
listen to the grave stillness of the surrounding. All of a sudden
the air felt heavy and gloomy that the hair on Jonah’s arms was all
standing on its end.

It was the arrival of Brice which broke
the strange moment. And Jonah sighed with relief. With the rhythmic
accompaniment of his fast and short steps, he blurted out upon
entering the room "I’m here. Don’t anybody say anything—my car
broke down twice on the way here!"