IF: Life and Death

Chapter 6: Waking Up in Vega...Err...Stranger's Bedroom

Waking Up in Vega...Err...Stranger's Bedroom

People say dying gives you the feeling that's from a whole different dimension. Death lets you feel and see even the most impossible things***'s cloud nine before the perfect storm.

Eyrin opens her eyes and sees stars that seem to be so near she can almost reach them. She extends her hand trying to get one but stops when she's realized she's so close to them and that they glow green.

"Am I dying?" she asks herself. "Am I in heaven?"

A chuckle snaps her out to reality. "No. You're in a stranger's bed." There's a lot of humor in between those words.

No one can imagine how swift she pulls her dizzy self to her feet, clutching the covers to her chest before she lets out a short but loud scream.

"Who are you!" she asks the man seated too comfortably on a single leather couch. Wandering her gaze around the cozy room, she knows the man is not lying. She's indeed inside a stranger's room**** wait, did she just call it cozy?

She can't make out the features of the man's face but she knows he's looking at her, lips partly curved to his left cheek. "Who are you?" she asks again, stepping back until she's on the other side of the bed, obviously agitated. Now there's a bunk dividing their space.

The man heaves a deep sigh before the couch makes the familiar sound of leather's deep screaming when someone's getting up from laying on its comforts. Eyrin almost chokes on her own drool. The man slowly walks from out of the darkness and gradually, his features are coming to Eyrin's senses.

"Well, I'm sure you know me." The gloomy radiance of the sun emanating from the open window reveals the man's identity. Brown eyes, messy hair, a dimple on the left cheek, his unorthodox tone of speaking**** remembers it******* she knows his voice isn't really that unconventional.

The coldness of the weather could not prevent sweat from beading on her forehead. The short strands of hair at the back of her neck stand up as if wanting to pluck their way out of her scalp. She knows her body temperature drops as well at that moment that her knees almost couldn't stand it any minute they'd fall.

"Yo****?" The word almost never comes out of her mouth but when it does it just shows how terrified she is. As if the scenario she's caught up into isn't already a horror for her, the wind blows and the chimes of the dream catcher hanging atop the window frame sings to what she can infer as melancholic.

The man chuckles. "Yeah," he looks to his side, away from Eyrin's gaze, and scratches the back of his head and coyly smiles, "me."

Eyrin's heart skips a beat. She's not sure whether it's because of how beautiful he smiles when he's shy or because she's standing in front of Leo Hernandez.

"What...How...Why...When** mean*" Eyrin obviously can't find the words to say.

"Yeah about that," his face lights up and his smile grows wider his cheeks almost fall out. This time, it's Eryin's turn to look away. "I died," he says so casually Eyrin's brows furrow. What's the positivity in his voice? That's why she thinks his tone is unorthodox.

Is it just his voice?

"I know but how are you here?" Questions dawn on her for a second until she looks his way again and sees his back turned against her. "Eh?" she utters in confusion.

"I'll tell you after you get dressed," he says before walking out.

"Eh?" she utters again before looking at the covers she just unconsciously dropped on the floor. She's not wearing anything except her baby...errr...sports bra and her cycling shorts.

"YOU PERV!"

That time, Leo and his neighborhood just heard the loudest scream anyone can make out in spite of the heavy rain.

The house is quiet. The sound of her bare feet touching the slightly creaking wooden floor scrapes the stillness. She cringes but at the same time she questions herself as to why she's sneaking from a stranger's room and then downstairs. Maybe because she wants to take her time and wander her eyes around that unfamiliar space.

Eyrin doesn't have friends. Well, she had one. Her name is Eva. It was her first year in college and Eva was that kind lady during orientation who lent Eyrin a spare pen because Eyrin forgot one. Who forgets to bring a pen during orientation anyway? But that's not the point. The point is that Eyrin had Eva as her best and only friend, but she was never invited for a sleepover. Eva didn't have a chance to anyway. Her family moved away before sophomore year.

But that's not the point again.

The point is that it's Eyrin's first time to be in someone else's house. The smell, the feeling, the sight, and the memory of it, it lingers in every step she takes. She's savoring the moment but that's already an understatement.

Eventually, she's made her way to the last step and with that she closes her eyes and slowly inhales the scent of the air around that new space.

"What the heck are you doing?" She opens her eyes and the first thing she sees is a stranger, brows furrowed in an amused way, giving her that smile she now finds weird.

"Well, um," she's flustered and for a moment she thinks of either she'll tell a lie or just the truth, "I'm making memories," she tells him, proud of herself.

She thinks Leo will just scoff and make fun of her existence again but she's surprised he just nods. "Interesting," he says, before walking back to the kitchen.

"Wait, what?" Eyrin is ironically the one full of disbelief now. She follows him inside, leans to the counter as she watches him pace around, waiting for an answer.

"I said it's interesting," he repeats. "You're interesting."

Eyrin feels her heart skip another beat. She clutches her chest but doesn't make him aware of it and instead keeps silent.

"So," Leo's the one who breaks the ice, "how do you make them? How can you make memories in this," he looks around, unimpressed of what he sees, "cranky old house?"

"I remember things by scent," Eyrin speaks and as she sees that Leo is quite confused about it, she adds, "For example right now, I smell eggs and garlic rice. I will remember the memory of being here when I eat breakfast."

This time, Leo laughs. "There's not even eggs or garlic rice in here."

"I supposed it's not really the smell that makes me remember. It's the scent that comes with the feeling I have when I want to remember something," Leo is confused again. "Sometimes I take it literally but most of the time scents are just metaphors."

"Well aren't you the poetic type?" He says but before she can even speak her rebuttal Leo changes the topic. "I'm hungry."

Eyrin realizes she feels the same thing as well. "Yeah. I'm kinda hungry too."

"So cook for us," Leo says and yet with his ever so casual tone. It's as if they have known each other for a long time.

Eyrin is caught off guard. She didn't know what to say for a second. "What? Why me? It's your house, you should do it."

"I can't," he says quite abruptly.

"Why can't*" Eyrin cuts herself even before Leo does it.

"I'm dead, remember?"

The mood changes like the pulse of her elevated heartbeat. Eyrin is lost for words while Leo just stands there seemingly lost for a moment before he speaks again.

"So cook for us okay?" he says in his usual amused tone. "What's good to eat during rainy days? I know just the thing." He points towards the built-in cabinet hanging just overhead.

Without another word, Eyrin obliges and the scent of dried fish penetrates her nose the moment she opens the shelf.

"Tuyo?" she asks, holding the plastic bag of dried fish. Leo just nods and like a small kid he rubs his palms together in excitement. "How are you going to eat anyway?"

"You'll see."

The battle between the raging hot oil in a pan and Eyrin lasted quite longer than expected. It turns out that she can't cook, to Leo's dismay, and ended up having toasted rather than just simply fried dried fish.

"I realized I'm not that hungry," Leo says, looking at the burnt food on the plate in utter disgust.

"I never said I could cook, anyway," Eyrin says, trying to save herself from humiliation.

"Will you still remember being here with the smell of eggs and garlic rice? Maybe you should change your mind."

"It doesn't work like that! Once I remember something with something, I can't just take it back and change it," she explains and then notices how Leo's mood changes once again.

"So how are you going to remember me?"

Silence.

Eyrin starts to get nervous. She's not used to situations where she can't find the words to say, and multiple times that day with a stranger, it happened.

Before she can even muster a word Leo breaks the ice yet again. "Biro lang," he says, telling her he's just joking.

Then there's silence again and it's getting awkward for Eyrin. Part of her just wants to go home but another part of her just wants to stay. So before Leo can utter his one liners again in an attempt to break the silence, she did it this time though she's not sure if it's appropriate.

"So how'd you end up like this?" she asks. She hopes Leo does not take it the wrong way because pissing off a lost soul is the least she wants to do with her life. She remembers when she did it when she was a kid but that's another story.

Leo smiles, dimple showing on his left cheek. "I didn't know at first but then I met this old man in a tux and explained , quite vaguely actually, that I am lost."

He laughs as he seems to remember that time. "It's funny cause you know what lost means? It means I don't have the map to cross over. I'm stuck here."

"It also means you're yet to complete one unfinished task," Eyrin explains further.

"See that's another funny thing. I have tons of unfinished goals for Pete's sake! I mean I'm nineteen and who knows what that one final task is!" He laughs again but it is evident in his tone that he's disappointed.

The light bulb hovering over them also flickers a couple of times before it becomes stable again. That's when Eyrin knows he's calmed down.

"I only have forty days to complete it. Today is my eighth and I can't do that deciphering because it's my freaking funeral tomorrow. Who attends their own funeral? Well I will." The light flickers again. Eyrin gulps the lump on her throat. Staying there is getting scarier and scarier. The scent is getting gloomy and she doesn't want to remember it so she does what anyone shouldn't have done when they're feeling upset:

"I will help you," she says, biting her tongue, questioning what in the world she is doing.

The light becomes stable again as Leo looks up, smiling. "Really?"

"Yes," Eyrin nods, " I haven't done this before but I will help you."

"I promise."