JINX

EPISODE 19

"Mom... Mom, please don't let me die here—"

"Sweetie? Sweetie, where are you?" Lerissa's voice is trembling as she hears her son's pitiful voice calling for our rescue. And all she can do is just talk to him in the

"Sweetie? Where are you? Can we talk?" Her voice echoes around the open field, making her wonder how and why she got there in the first place.

"Mom, I don't know about everything! I can't remember anything, and I am so afraid I don't know what to do next, or is there a bomb hidden under this ground I'm even standing!"

"Sweetie, you have to calm down, okay?" Instead of hearing the reply, she wanted to hear; a never-ending evil laugh echoes back into her ear. It sends chills down her spine, the exact moment she realizes how cold the breeze is as it brushes off into her skin.

"Miguel? Miguel! Stop laughing and tell me what's going on! You're making me worry here!" She shouts, praying that the evil laugh might disappear along with the echoes of darkness.

And it did.

The laugh soon diminishes until it already sounds like a lullaby to the ears, until it just faded entirely. But instead of feeling more comfortable, the skepticism continues to grow inside Lerissa.

That's when she got to learn that silence can be noisy too. It could be ironic, but only through the silence, she could hear something. And it bothers her more than earlier.

"Miguel! Talk to me! Please, where are you, sweetie? I'm already here—"

"You'll be only here when you're too late, mom."

"What... What does that mean?" She responds as she curls her hands onto her chest, trying to fight the cold breeze.

"That means that you already know, and you pretend you don't! What kind of mother are you!? You wanted me dead, don't you?"

"No, no, no! Please don't say that, sweetheart. That's why I'm here now, okay? I don't want you to die—"

"THEN LET ME UNDERSTAND WHY—"

=

She opens her eyes wide. Luckily, she didn't react like what she has seen in movies. She heaves a deep breath as she comes back to close her eyes, feeling a tear coming out of her eyes. She feels guilty; Lerissa feels like she's like a scratch of paper being torn piece by piece; she feels like her nightmare and has battered her heart, watching it bleed over and over. And just by hearing her son's voice, Miguel's words were like daggers, aiming at her eyes.

"F*ck. It's just a dream." She mumbles as she turns sideways, her eyes meeting the clock placed on the bedside table. It was already five o'clock, making her comprehend something.

Valentine's Day.

For the last few days, she has noticed the gap between her and her fiancee Carlo. Ever since the incident, all they would do is talk less as if they're living in their worlds. Lerissa being too busy with her calls while Carlo spends most of his time inside her room? She knew that something is wrong. And today is the day she has thought of sorting things right.

Lerissa turns to the other side to check on Carlo. A smile crept on her lips just by starting at Carlo's peaceful face. Her hand travels into his skin as she caresses his cheeks using the back of her palm, but she makes sure that she won't wake him up.  She doesn't want Carlo to bust her surprise in no time,  and she doesn't want him to spoil the fun because of her carelessness. Taking another good deep breath, she rushes out of their bedroom; she grabs her robe to cover her lingerie, getting down and going straight to the kitchen. Lerissa starts the day by washing her face in the kitchen faucet, her hands the second. After that, she takes out the vegetable and necessary meat slices as her ingredients for the dish, both of them have been loved ever since.

"Lobster Linguine in blushing Saffron Sauce... I can already smell the aroma from my imagination!" She exaggerates, but the smile soon fades when she remembers her son.

Miguel.

She sighs as she taps the faucet off from filling her pot for boiling the pasta. She stares off into the empty brown wall where she faces a straight fence with three frames hanging from it. But, it wasn't just an ordinary painting, flawlessly clipped into the wall—

"His paintings," Lerissa mumbles under her breath as she breaks the eye contact to the painting, her eyes landing on the table where the pot is located. She can see her stressed, sad, lifeless, and lonely reflection. That's when she realizes she has not been herself for the last few days. She rubs her forehead with the use of her palm in hopes that she will manage to ease the frustration she had just discovered today. She sighs as she admitted that she had made bad decisions, and one is for acting like everything seems fair when it is not.

The anxiety quickly envelopes her, making her rush to the telephone currently placed by the dining table. She hastily dials a specific number that she managed to memorize for a short period.  It put her up with three rings before the person she's trying to contact decides to respond.

[I told you not to call me at this time, Larissa!] The man from the other line seems to be surprised and pissed at the same time by the sudden call she made. Larissa bites her lower lip as she closes her eyes intentionally, remembering what they have talked to before.

"Oh, sh*t. I'm sorry I forgot about it. I should just-"

[I know something is bothering you, so spill the beans immediately and quickly.]

"I was just... I'm sorry. I'm just worried about Miguel and—"

[I'm sorry, but I can't tell you anything... But I promise you not to... F*ck this.] He sounds so tense, and she knows that he's hiding something. And she wanted to fig more.

"Valentine, I know you're hiding something—"

[I've been hiding everything from you. And you will never convince me to tell you anything, so don't try convincing me because it won't work—]

"I know, but I also know that something is wrong, and I have to ask you again... How is Miguel?"

[Miguel is... He's fine, Larissa. This test will be over soon, just a couple of days more—]

"And you promise me he'll be alive, right?"

There's silence on the other line, and the silence quickly creeps her out.

"Val—"

[I got to go.]

And with short notice, she hears the phone beeping as an indication that the conversation ends there. And instead of getting relaxed, she somewhat felt the growing suspicion base on the phone call. But instead of staying negative, she decided to apply displacement (defense mechanism) towards the ingredients. Brushing the negativity off, she decided to focus on the dishes. She opens her book of recipes as she scans the pages until she stops on page fifteen.

She loves cooking, and every time she cooks and does her experiments and loved the outcome, she will write it down on her personalized cookbook to not forget a single ingredient.

Lobster Linguine in Blushing Saffron Sauce

One large steamed lobster

8 ounces dry linguine (if you can get fresh, even better)

large pot with 6 quarts of water and 2 tsp salt

Two tablespoons minced shallots

One tablespoon butter

One pinch saffron

1 1/3 tablespoons unbleached flour

1/3 cup white wine

1/3 cup clam juice

Two tablespoons tomato paste

1/4 cup whole milk

1/4 cup heavy cream

salt and pepper to taste

Double-checking and done, she starts preparing the food, still checking into the stairs to see if Carlo is already up. Thirty minutes later, she's done and to her surprise, Carlo didn't even seem to wake up.

'He probably just like to sleep well since the wind is a bit cold.'  She convinces herself. Adding the final touches of the dish for breakfast, she cleans her hand and went upstairs to wake Carlo up for breakfast. But as soon as she's standing by the door and about to knock, she hears his voice from the inside. She furrows her brows as she froze there, doubting to knock by the moment. And instead of going down, she decided to squeeze her ear into the door.

•••

"I know you're hiding something, Val." He decided to not beat around the bush. Valentine is quickly silenced on the other line, surprised by what he just said.

[What are you—]

"Don't you f*cking dare to pull any lies to me. You're being suspicious."

[How can you tell this to me? Did something happen?]

"You're asking me that!? Of course, something happened! My fiancee's son is what happened! What do you expect from me? Just sit here and drink my coffee comfortably!? Because no, I won't do that!"

[Carlo, I want you to calm down and tell me everything is complete details because we won't understand each other if this—]

"Calm!? You don't dare mention the C-word in me because I'm secretly screaming on top of my lungs here! My fiancee is acting weird, you are ALSO acting weird, so how about you tell me what's happening with all of this sh*t!"

[Bro, maybe it's just a coincidence that she happens to act strange and so am I?]

"AS I SAID, DON'T F*CKING PULL ANOTHER LIE WITH ME!"

[Carlo—]

Hearing it turn into a heated conversation, Lerissa decided to knock on the door.

"Carlo? Baby?" She calls out, acting as if she didn't hear anything. There's dead silence after, and it took her three exact seconds to knock again. "Baby, are you awake?" She asks but still, silence is the response she got. She then presses her ears once again, hearing light thuds and footsteps. She withdrew her ear from the door as she stood in front of it, about to open the door when surprisingly, it swings open, revealing Carlo who is squeezing his eyes.

"Good morning baby!" She excitedly greeted, even if her heart tells the opposite. The excitement in her would be gone the moment she heard the conversation earlier, and her putting up a happy face is the only option she got for him to not grow any suspicion. "Happy Valentines Day!" She greeted.

"Is it... Oh right, I'm sorry I forgot today's 14!" He exclaims as he cups both of his cheeks. Lerissa giggles as she hugs him by his torso. It took Carlo almost two seconds before his tensed muscle relax to her hug, him wrapping his hands around her as well.

"Happy Valentines Day too, love."

"Come, I've prepared something." She smiles as she intertwines both of their fingers, as she starts walking, him following her. When they're already in the dining area, Carlo closes his eyes as he enjoys the aroma he's currently smelling.

"What did you cook? It smells delicious." He sounds so excited by now.

"Ta-da!" She opens the lid covering the food, revealing the pasta.

"Did you just—"

"Yup! It brought me about thirty minutes to prepare this and I was pretty scared earlier that you'd wake up and spoil my surprise suddenly! Luckily, you've taken longer than I expected." She explains, and manage to pull off a small lie on the plate. Carlo cups her cheeks as he planted a kiss on her lips.

"Yeah, I'm happy I didn't spoil the fun either." He gives her another kiss, but this time it is sweeter, more passionate, and longer than his first kiss. Lerissa responds to his kiss, as she opens her mouth for his tongue to enter. Their kiss ended up as a heated one, but both of them separates to catch their breath.

"Well, I think I'm already full." Carlo jokes.

"Silly you. Then my effort in cooking this would be put to waste." She pouts, riding along with the joke. Then, the sad face suddenly appears.

"Baby, are you okay?" He asks as he reaches out for Lerissa's hand, squeezing it lightly. She decided to wipe off the sadness.

"Of course I'm fine! Let's eat?"

Both of them are seated opposite to each other as they start devouring the food, as well as starting to have a good conversation like they're not having any problem. They start raising jokes to each other, laugh at each other's embarrassing childhood stories, and complement each other on how they enjoy each other's presence. Until they mentioned someone that completely brought them back to the sad atmosphere that they're used to.

"And Miguel would always come home and the first thing he'll do is just glare at me? But I can't seem to find any reason to hate him."

"Well, you shouldn't because I'll probably hate you if you hated my son—" when Lerissa finally realize who they're talking to, the same sadness came masking her pretentious smile. She looks down on her food as Carlo chooses his next utterances to not hurt both of them, especially her.

"I'm sorry—"

"It's okay... I just... I just missed Miguel so much. I mean, he would always take me out for dinner every Valentine's or my birthday or his, or he would ask for this dish during his birthday when he doesn't feel like getting out? I just... I just miss my son so bad, Carlo. And I know I've been a b*tch for the past few days for acting like I'm not worried about him because I have this feeling that if I wordy too much, I might lose my mind and not think properly! I know Miguel... And he wanted me to be strong for him at least. I just—" Carlo stands up as he kneels on her side, squeezing her hand.

"Shhh... Cry on my shoulder babe, I'll be here with you no matter what. And I'm sorry if I thought you don't care for him because maybe I love your son too. I'm sorry." And with that, Lerissa kneels in front of him, as she wraps her hands around his hips.

"We'll find him and he'll be okay. I'll always be here for you baby, always."