Under the Steak
2230 Words
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Jasper waits for Sayuri's words. This is a rare moment where she shares her thoughts. He could not miss it for a second. If he had a thousand ears, they would all be focused on listening to her. If he has thousands of eyes, they would all be watching her closely.
She parts her lips for a second and he leans forward a little. “They will grow to become the most important men in the Realm,” she says, turning around to walk to her corner.
Wondering and thinking deeply, Jasper watch her until she sits in the corner to sleep. “Damn…,” he mutters. “she never complimented anyone before. I'm jealous.” Looking through the glass pane, he can see the reflection of his smirk. He is excited to see what is in store for all of them in the future.
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I wake up. Well, I couldn't even call it that since my mind is awake the whole night. Mom, Dad, Hera, Sander, and Macky are in my head the whole time. No matter how I try to stop thinking about them, they still make their way into my mind, preventing me from sleeping. Also, I feel bad if I stop thinking about them. As if they will haunt me if I stopped. A sleepless night is not rare for me these times. I got used to it. Then I'm jealous of Darius. He slept soundly the whole night without worry.
Getting off my bed, my head feels dizzy. Although unnecessary, I need to groom myself for another day. Treating this as another normal day kinda makes me feel a little better. We have no toothbrushes and toothpaste so I have to endure my own bad breath. I haven't brushed my teeth for a month. All I had to do and all I could do is to wipe them with a towel like what I'm doing right now. I'm looking at the mirror just above the sink. As luck would have it, we have clean water today. In the past days, there are little to no water. Most of the time, the water is murky.
I sigh on my palm and smell my breath. “That smells like crap!” I say to myself. I better not talk to anyone directly facing them.
Darius wakes up. We didn't bother greeting each other because we don't feel that we have to. Shirtless, he walks to me while I am busy cleaning my face. Looking at the mirror beside me, he cleans his eyes then goes on his way to change his clothes. He doesn't care about cleaning himself.
“Damn, I'm hungry,” he says, putting on his shirt.
“Yeah, me too. Let's see if today's breakfast is delicious.”
Yawning, he says, “Nah… I figure out it's some kind of a ground bean soup again. I hate that. WARRIORS NEED MEAT!!!” he screams early in the morning.
“Hey, be quiet. Others are still sleeping.”
“Wait…,” he says checking his pockets. “Where is that?”
“Where's what?”
Climbing back to his bed, he checks the sheets of his bed. “Oh, here it is.”
It looks like a sachet of seedlings of a plant. It's obvious that he tries to hide it from me when he puts it in his pocket. I only have a glimpse that the picture on it has the color red. I wonder what that is.
He is leaning beside the door as he continues his rants, “Where was I? Oh! I don't care about their sleep! Thanks to us they get to sleep all they want without having to do all that dirty work on the stinky surface.”
After wearing my clothes I argue, “Don't say that.” I don't even have the mood to be angry.
“It's true. Lady Mila told us that everyone here depends on us. Well, I don't like it at all! I remember how they treat us before this stupid fallout. Even if they do everything to make us feel better, I won't let them forget about it.”
I walk towards him and face him. “That's the past. Try to live today and for tomorrow. Right now, we depend on each other for survival. We must do the best of what we can to help everyone else.”
He scoffs as he looks to the side. “We can take care of ourselves. They should be thanking us every second of their safe lives here.”
He's beyond convincing so I let him be. “Let's just have breakfast.” I open the door and make our way to the cafeteria.
Lady Mila, Lady Juliet, Hyeon, and Cairo are already there. I guess Lady Aurelia is out again. They are in their usual spot—in the corner but near where the trays of food are placed for everyone to take from. Then something is bothering me. Why are those deities that we don't know but we know they are from Olympus, looking like they are waiting for me and Darius? There are seven of them and their smiles… I feel uncomfortable. Darius seems to be not minding them at all and just frown at the sight of the available food.
“Scram!” he yells at them so they made a way for us. He talks past them with his hands in his pockets. So rude...
I shake my head and just follow behind him until a god grabs my shoulder. “Good morning, God of Gravity!” he greets in an exaggerated manner. “How's your day?”
From afar, I notice Lady Mila and the others are looking at me. They too, feel uncomfortable with my situation save Darius. He is mumbling about the bean soup as the chef puts it in his bowl.
I look at the god and say, “I'm fine.”
“Splendid! Have you eaten yet?”
“I was just about to get mine from the station.”
“Well, you don't need to because we have food for both of you, our beloved warriors!” I couldn't help but narrow my eyes. They show me two plates of steak. “They're yours, enjoy!”
“I'll take that,” says Darius, coming from nowhere. He's so fast in forgetting how he treated them. “Thank you…” Passing by Shui and his friends, he smugs at them. They look affected. Then he sits with our friends.
The deities look at me with their forced smiles as their leader says, “Don't be afraid to ask us if you need anything.” He is wearing a white tunic and golden wreath around his black curly hair. The rest of them wear white tunics without wreaths.
“Uh…huh...” I answer. “Okay… thanks, I guess.”
“You're very welcome.”
Eagerly, I walk away from them, not daring to see their disturbing smiles again. I feel relief as I sit on the chair with my friends. I sit beside Lady Mila at my right and Darius at my left. Lady Juliet is right in front of me. At her right is Cairo and at the left is Hyeon.
Except Darius eating the meat ravenously, the rest of them look at me closely.
“What the hell?” I react. “Don't look at me like that, you guys… geez. You're making me uncomfortable.” There are a knife and a fork on the plate. I use them to eat the steak.
“Did you check under the steak?” asks Lady Juliet. I lift and flip it but there's nothing under it. Then she says, “There could be motives hiding under it.” and smiles at me.
So it was sarcasm… I should've known. I didn't mind her and just continue to eat my food peacefully.
“Leo,” says Lady Mila. “do you realize what they're doing?”
I have a slight idea but I'm too tired to reason with them why I want to eat this steak so badly in front of me. “I do,” I answer after swallowing. Damn… this tastes delicious!
“They're planning to-”
“Nah, we don't mind,” Darius cuts. “This is the reward we get for our hard work. It's just and right that they give us this kind of treatment from time to time.”
“It's clear that you're a fool, Darius,” she bursts out. “so it's okay for you but not for Leo, right?” she asks me.
“Huh?!!” he grunts.
This is such a drag. “Darius is right,” I nod. “we deserve this. Why refuse? Just let us eat, for goodness sake.”
Then they look at me with faces forcing themselves to hide their disdain. Cairo is about to say something. Stopping our chewing, I and Darius just look at him with our plain faces, begging him to stop right there. He looks down to the table and takes it as if we are threatening him. We didn't mean to imply that we do. We just want to eat. Explaining that we don't threaten him is tiring and not ideal for the mood we just created so we didn't bother.
We basked in the sorrowful silence after that. Minutes later, we finished. Darius finished earlier than me so he went away to go somewhere I don't know. Maybe to check his little sister. Cairo—who is at the moment, feeling down and not looking at me in the eye, stands up from his seat with Hyeon and Lady Juliet. They are preparing to leave as I also am. I don't bother with Lady Mila beside me of why isn't she preparing.
“Let's go,” says Lady Juliet.
“You guys go,” says Lady Mila, holding my wrist. “Leo and I will have a talk.”
I don't like where this is going. Even so, I stay but keep one seat apart from her. Frowning is all I could do to give her a clue that I don't like this. But instead, she went on with what she wants to say.
“What's the matter, Leo?” she asks in a kind way like she never saw our rudeness from earlier.
I lean back against the back of the chair and sigh. “Nothing,” I answer. There is, but I don't want to talk about it.
“You can tell it to me. I won't tell anyone.”
“I told you it's nothing so if you'll excuse me, my lady.” I stand up but she reaches for my shoulder to press me down. So I sit back.
“Please, Leo.”
I look at her in the eyes. She looks worried over nothing. “You don't need to plead for anything.”
“Cairo was just trying to say something and-”
“We were eating. He could've waited after we finished. And we didn't mean to make him feel bad. We were just trying to have a peaceful breakfast first thing in the morning!” I couldn't help myself but raising my tone.
“I understand that it's been hard for you and Darius so we are trying to help you.”
“You're not helping!” Oh, crap… Slip of the tongue. She looks at me and does not like what I said. “I'm sorry,” I apologize, trying not to sound too apologetic and sounding like I don't mean it too much.
“That god is one of the new House leaders. They will try what they can to be in your favor. You have to-”
“Let's talk about this in some other time, my lady,” I interrupt as calm as I can. Then I stand up from my seat, readying to leave. This time, she didn't stop me.
She stayed behind and I'm afraid to look back. I'm sorry, my lady. Indeed, I feel I need to talk to you so you can help me but not this time. I can't show you more of my patheticness. I must remain as sturdy as I can be. That time when you saw me crying, will be the last time. I must carry myself first if I want to help others.
No sense for a boat to try carrying others but sinks in its own weight.
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Glistening under the sunlight, her silver cape flails in the wind of the desert. Silva marches alone on the sand with her eyes staring at the western horizon. The desert is cold instead of blazing hot. This is Mars, a planet farther away from the sun than Earth. The lack of moisture and the constant blowing of the dry cold air rendered the land dry to the bone—but not as dry as her motivation to hunt Tsar. For no reason at all, she is smirking.
“I'm coming for you, Tsar,” she says to herself. “You better prepare a grandiose party for me or I will have a tantrum.”
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- Writer
