Me Without You (4 page)

"Did you ask why she's doing this?"
Xavier inquired hesitantly.

"Do I need to ask?" Hugh answered
Xavier. "Isn't it obvious? You are very important to
her."

Xavier smiled once again. "You think
so?"

Hugh slowly nodded his head. Somewhere
within his chest, he felt an uncomfortable tug.

He was
jealous
… But everything was true. Jonah was
still very much concern about him. She was still very persistent in
knowing how Xavier was. Indeed, it was very clear that Xavier was
special.

From the sidelines, Hugh
could see the
smite
, still lingering in the atmosphere, heading towards him. In
between trying to lure the
smite
away from Xavier and him and acting as if
the
smite
wasn't
there at all so that Xavier and the rest wouldn't be alarmed, the
panic arose swiftly. He had no idea what to do anymore.

Calm down…don't
panic
. Hugh told himself as if it will get
a grip on him and whip his thoughts about Xavier and Jonah.
Calm down…
he repeated the
line to himself.

What seemed like a foot away
before the
smite
was over him
,
his phone vibrated doggedly.
He stood
up and almost ran for the door.

"I'll just answer this outside," Hugh
told Xavier, getting his phone out of his pocket.

X-girlfiend…

There was still the shadowy movement on
Hugh's side, following him, when he reached the corridor outside of
the clinic. Although, he was having goosebumps all over and any
minute he will begin to involuntary quiver the odd feeling he had
inside, the seemingly black breath was just suspended in the
air.

"You're not answering my messages,"
Jonah's voice came through from the other end. She sounded really
angry and impatient. "Would you like me to camp outside of your
door again? This time, I will be putting chains on
myself."

Hugh couldn't help but laughed. He felt
good hearing her voice even when she was not in her best mood.
Slowly, the horizon cleared from behind the corner of his eyes. And
he felt warm all over.

"I don't think you will be
getting the 411 from me anymore. Just wait for X to tell you
himself. He's getting well. This is the last of his session and so
far so good." He told her brightly. Then, he frowned a bit. In
case, the
smite
returned again, he concentrated on hearing Jonah's voice on
the other end of the line.

"So why haven't you bothered
texting me back?" Jonah demanded. Hugh could almost imagine her,
pouting like a little girl. And the smile was on his face again.
The
X-girlfiend
was
growing into him.

Chapter 4

The Recluse

Hugh carefully tugged at the sheet to
free from Xavier's hard clasp as he sat on the bed. Hugh heaved out
a sigh of relief. Xavier must have thrown up everything he had
inside of him. And what was to throw when he hadn't eaten
anything.

It must have
hurt…
Hugh reflected aching for
Xavier.
But X never cussed…never
complained
.

Then, Xavier had the worst chill ever
until he had fallen asleep. He had gripped the edge of the bed
sheet during the convulsions and he never let go even when he had
fallen asleep. He was lying on his left side, curled like a crooked
hook.

Fortunately, it was the last of the
chemotherapy sessions that Xavier had to undergo ever since his
diagnosis of leukemia. But there will be future round of cycles and
radiation therapy if things did not go well. And things can not go
well. Even then, what Xavier had to go through was something nobody
could get accustomed to, not even after undergoing a thousand
cycles.

"Hugh, don't get too close—" Gilda
Byrne hissed. She was in her mid-sixties. Her white hair shone even
from the dark corner of the room where she sat. "You'll make it
worse for our dear boy, Xavier."

Helen went to stand next to Hugh and
patted his shoulder fondly. "Gilda, can't you see X calms only when
Hugh is around."

"Hugh is a healer, Helen!" Gilda said.
"There's no way it can agree with what people call medicine now a
days. It will only bring havoc to our dear boy, Xavier."

Helen ran her hand through Hugh's hair
and smiled. "Did you take something for your headache?" she
asked.

Hugh bent forward and got the tablet
from the bedside table. He raised it for Helen to see and grinned
slightly, "Guess, I forgot about it," he said.

"Well, take it now before things get
worse," Helen left her spot and went to close the heavy
curtains.

"Okay, Mom!" Hugh answered to pacify
Helen. Ever since, Xavier got sick, Helen got strained out even for
the slightest pain.

If it hadn't been for
the
smite
Hugh
encountered earlier, he wouldn't have been suffering from a
throbbing head that seemed to have a bug running inside it,
bursting with pain. And Helen wouldn't have to worry about him when
she had already got a lot on her plate.

"You, yourself can do something with
your little complains. Those are little toxins," Gilda niggled. "I
don't understand today's medicine. They are designed to
kill."

Hugh looked at the woman exasperatedly
before he sighed and said, "Please!"

"Don't use that tone on me!" the woman
seethed. "You're such a lazy boy! You never cared about practicing
your healing muscle. You might as well not have been endowed with
the gift."

Hugh raised his hands in surrender and
shrugged his shoulders indifferently. "Fine," he said in between
his teeth as he continued to toy with the little tablet in his
hand.

Gilda was right about his healing
prowess. For then again, there were instances in the past which
really affirmed to him about his gifts, even if he never really
took Gilda or about his healing abilities seriously. Hugh got it
from her. She was also a healer. And Gilda always prodded him that
he was lucky to have the gift because not all of the healer's
children were endowed to heal. In fact, some of these children
killed their own parents to have the gift of healing. But Hugh had
to seal it yet.

In this world, this type of healing was
crap. For this reason, Hugh was motivated to go to medical school
to back up the woo-hoo stuff with the sciences and Gilda never
approved of it. It was his dream to introduce such an alternative
way of curing sick people and being rationally accepted for
it.

How can Hugh take it seriously? Even if
Gilda was his biological mother, a lot of rumormongers considered
her an old, spiteful crazy recluse. And a lot of times, Hugh had to
agree.

Tales behind Gilda's back had made its
rounds why she had chosen to become elusive to the public for
almost two decades. Some people claimed she would burn when exposed
to the sun because of a severe illness in the skin. Others assumed
she was really a witch who needed to stay away from
daylight.

Hugh had his own judgment why Gilda was
not quite visible outside of her mansion. He was convinced she
really took it to heart that she bore a child at an age when she
was supposed to be wiser, without a husband to show for. The
humiliation was probably too great that she had lost face to live a
normal life.

Hugh contemplated. He had never asked
anything about his father. And nobody even dared. It wasn't that he
was not interested to find out about his father. It was just that,
he would bet his head off if he can extract the information from
Gilda. Even asking around from Helen or somebody else was
frightening, in case Gilda found out about it.

There was also the rift between the
Blood Family. Even though Hugh didn't have all the details and it
may be a hush-hush reality but it was possible that could have
accounted for Gilda being a recluse. While Rebecca Blood can be
seen almost everywhere from the newspaper to socialite functions,
Gilda had opted to bury herself inside her house until she was
almost as white as snow.

"It is not a coincidence that this is
the last chemo session that our dear boy Xavier has to take," Gilda
addressed Helen , who took the chair near the window. "He is on his
way to recovery."

Helen smiled and said, "Oh, Gilda! God
has answered my prayers. Xavier will be well soon."

"This has nothing to do with God,
Helen," Gilda said triumphantly. "Rebecca is dying and Xavier will
be free from her curse."

As Hugh listened half-heartedly to the
conversation between the two women, he looked at Xavier's outline.
There were some things that he envied about Xavier like having
Helen as a mother.

And there was
Jonah
… Hugh thought.

Bringing Jonah back into Hugh's
thoughts made him winced and smiled at the same time. His nose
wrinkled as he remembered. He quickly looked around him, noting if
anybody noticed his reaction.

Meeting Jonah was probably one of the
more complex events in his life. He did not know whether to cherish
it or delete it from his memory altogether. When Xavier knew of his
sickness he just dropped her off like a hot potato.

And Hugh had been there wanting to pick
her up. Unfortunately, he burned himself in the process. Her anger
had become his pain…her pain—his sorrow.

Even though, he wanted to take care of
her himself, he thought Jonah would prefer Xavier by her side.
Xavier was getting well and everything will go back to the way it
was once before he entered the picture.

And before it became too painful for
him, he knew he had to let go off her.

Yeah, leave her
alone
… It was even timely because he signed
up for a program in school that will get him away from the
house…away from Gilda…away from Jonah.

"Ugh!" he blurted out before
he could stop himself.
She would really
hate me…it was exactly what Xavier did—left her.

"Is something wrong?" Helen asked him
suddenly, looking alarmed.

"Nothing," Hugh told her, feeling the
embarrassment running like a hot flash all over his
body.

"Please, Hugh—take something for that
headache of yours. Or do something before it gets—" Helen started
to say.

"Heal yourself—" Gilda interrupted."Be
prepared. I had the same dream of the falling teeth for several
days now. And it has never failed its message every time I
do—death. The greatest healer is to die soon. I am going to need
you then to find the new healer in line."

Without looking at Gilda, Hugh asked,
"How can you be sure that your dream pertains to the greatest
healer?" He looked at Xavier meaningfully. "It could be someone
else—"

"No!" Helen said, her lips
trembling.

Hugh closed his eyes momentarily before
he whispered, "I am sorry, Mom. I didn't mean—"

Helen stood up from her chair and went
directly to Hugh. She cupped his face in her hands lovingly. "Sshh!
It's okay! Sometimes, I get the same feeling. But we need to stay
strong for X's sake," she said in a low voice.

"I know! But it's not just about X,"
Hugh said and kissed Helen on the cheek. He stood up and added
carefully, nervously looking at Gilda, "It's just that I saw
something earlier. It looked like—"

"The
smite
," Gilda finished for him. "Sshh!
Quiet there and be careful." She looked around her as if there were
other people listening, who were hidden from her view. She took in
a deep breath and exhaled. Then, she muttered a few unintelligible
things to herself. "Tell me what you saw?"

"What is it?" Helen asked looking
alarmed.

"I am going to fix myself something to
eat," Hugh announced, trying to ignore Helen's question.

Before he reached the door, Gilda stood
up and intentionally blocked his path, "Good Lord, it was also
after you!" she cried out. "Tell me what you saw."

"Hugh?" Helen inquired, inching closer
to both Gilda and Hugh.

"Nothing!" Hugh said. "I couldn't even
see it properly because it just looks like a swift black thing that
creeps at the side of my eyes."

Gilda ran both hands through
her arms to rub them, "It was indeed the
smite
," she uttered.

"I haven't seen the
smite
before," Hugh said.
"Why now?"

"The
smite
is everywhere choosing to show
itself especially to people who choose to see it," Gilda
quipped.

"For heaven's sake, I didn't choose to
see it—" Hugh cried out angrily.

"Oh, yes you did," Gilda insisted. "You
choose what you feel, what you think—you chose to see
it!"

"For a moment, it was only after—" Hugh
looked back at Xavier meaningfully before he continued, "Then, the
next minute it was going after me." He felt like a school boy
telling his mother he was being bullied. There was a part of him
that was embarrassed about it. However, there was also the
vulnerable part of him which desired concern and
protection.