"Poor little girl. What happened here?"
Those are the words I can hear behind closed eyes. I am weak. The drug has gotten to me too. I may have only taken a sip, but that was enough to weaken me. I know that it is worse for Mateo. He drank at least three shots of it. I do not have the strength to stand. I am lying on the floor all helpless as I observe who will see the deed done.
"I have told you once and I'll never say it again," the man says angrily. "Stop being obsessed with your plans"
I can hear a lady and a gentleman talking about this catastrophe. As I try to recognize the lady's voice, I remember the phone call we had earlier. I know that this lady next to me is the woman that called and threatened me into submission. I, however, cannot recognize the man's voice. It seems eerily familiar, but due to the heightened anger in his voice, I cannot recognize who he is.
"Shut it, pastor," the lady says crossly. "Anyway, the boy is certainly drugged, but the girl is pretending to be one. Haven't she learned from her other friend?"
"By God, I swear, if you do anything to harm these innocent men, I will – "
"You'll what?" the lady demands instantly. "Curse me in God's name so that He might smite your enemies because you asked it in Jesus' name? Don't fool yourself, David. You are no King David."
David? Is the man Professor Diwa? I have no strength to stand. I tried opening my eyes and I can see a blurry vision field of a lady wearing scarlet red and a man wearing a full suit with glasses. So, it is him. I cannot process the vision clearly. It was too blurry. The man comes draws himself near my face and I can see him clearly. It is indeed Professor Diwa. My love. . . he has come to save me. He wants o help me and save me from this condition.
"Miss Aguinaldo, get up," he says as he urges me to stand. "Stop pretending. Run, and get away from here. Call help. Go!"
He takes my arm as he helps me to stand, but it is all too blurry for me. My legs are like noodles – soft and easy to be broken. As I take a step, I can feel the world around me move about like circles around a pattern. I cannot. I'm too weak. All I do is just stumble and fall to the ground once more. I catch myself near a table and try to stand, but I am too weak. It is helpless. I cannot run to ask for help.
"Sir, I do not understand. What's going on?" I say weakly to him.
"Just go, child," he says as he urges me to stand. "Run!"
I look into the scarlet lady but I cannot get a glimpse of her face. It is too unclear to me. I cannot stand. I cannot walk. I cannot do anything. Professor Diwa tries to guide me to run, but I stop him from doing so. There is nothing he can do. Whatever is happening right now, nothing will get better. It is a disaster and I can feel that this is my death. The lady can just shoot me if she desires my death. That way, she can kill the story and get what she had been asking.
"Oh, she's not running away!" the lady says crossly. "David, you still truly cannot see how dangerous I am. I'm sure you now regret the decision you made five years ago."
This captured Professor Diwa's attention. He stands to face the lady with a blank and serious face. Whoever this is, I cannot bear to see how this would end.
"I have no regrets," Professor Diwa says blankly. "Anyway, what will become of me? Am I to be shot just like how you do to achieve your goals?"
"Oh, trust me, you are far too valuable to be threatened into silence," she says cunningly. "I, however, do have a task for you. Maybe after what you have seen, you might want to see fewer deaths. Make them forget their investigation. Do it. After that, I'll tell you what you want."
I can tell that this was too hard for the young professor to swallow. He slams his hands on the table out of anger. By now, everyone had left after seeing the intensity going on. Even the bartenders and the bouncers ran away out of fear. The bar is all but empty except for us.
"Damn you!" he exclaims in anger. "Damn your cursed ambition and damn all those who follow you! Damn you for your avarice!"
"Damn me for all I care!" the lady exclaims. "But, now, I shall have to take care of some business."
The lady takes Mateo's backpack and she begins rummaging for something seemingly important. And then, I realized. . . Mateo has the notepad and the list of evidence we gathered! I feel so helpless. I want to stop her, but I could not even stand. I force myself to stand, but all I do is just stumble back to the ground. I was as if the world has fallen on me once more. In my mind, I pray the five decades of the rosary once more. I know that even in this situation, the Lord could not save me. It has all gone awry. She found the notepad. It's over.
"So, you think I bribed them all or forced them into submission," she says with a sly smile. "Well, you're not wrong about that. And, you also think I orchestrated the plan to kill Rex de la Rama. Ah, journalists will always stick their noses on where they should not be."
Then, out of anger, it seems that she pulled a pocket lighter from her purse and burned the notepad in front of my face. We lost. There is nothing we could do. Mateo was right. We should have just waited. This is all my fault. If I have waited and listened to him, none of this would ever happen. It is over.
"I burn the notepad in front of your face and you do not even flinch," she says suspiciously. "Have you given up so quickly?"
"I may have already given up," I say weakly. "We have nothing. But even if we lose that notepad, that doesn't change that we know what happened. As we journalists always say, 'the truth will always prevail'. This is over for now, but we will rise. We will rise."
"Foolish girl," she says. Suddenly, she pulls a gun from her purse and points it at me. If I die right now, I did it all in the name of the truth. If there is one thing I know, I did not give up when others did. I will die with honor. "Goodbye, mademoiselle."
I was prepared to die. I did not expect that in a sudden moment, Professor Diwa takes the gun away from her and proceeds to forces her to drink the shot I took away from Mateo. It is indeed payback. I did not expect that he would save me. And just when I try to stand to take him, the drugs get the best of me. My vision finally dimmed to darkness and all I could feel was nothing but numbness. It was as if I am drifting off to sleep.
I woke up with an IV needle stuck in my hand. I feel a little headache, but I can finally see clearly. I feel myself laughing at the moment. I'm alive. I cannot believe that I am still alive. Many IV bags are hanging on the stand. It seems that those are the different drugs that help drain the poison out of my body.
While I think things through, I cannot believe that I survived what happened. Who was that lady? I did not manage to get a glimpse of her except that she was wearing a red scarlet dress and has her hair into rich locks of curls. It was a blurry vision. It was as if it was nothing but a vague dream.
A nurse comes into my room with a clipboard. I wonder where Mateo could be. I see that the lady nurse is checking whether I am receiving enough medicine to treat the drugs that got into my system.
"Miss Aguinaldo, it is good to see that you are finally awake," the lady nurse says brightly as she finishes writing on her clipboard.
"What happened?" I ask.
"The professor that called the ambulance says that you took a little sip of a laced drink," she says. "If a sip could do this much, I think it is far worse for your friend stuck at the ICU."
"What?" I say incredulously.
"He took three doses of the drugs," the nurse says. "You only took a little dose, but look at what happened. I'm afraid you will be stuck here for another day though you have seemed to be recovered."
"Nurse, how is he?" I ask seriously. "Tell me the prognosis. I am his friend. I have the right to know."
Hesitantly, she changed the page of her clipboard. I can tell that Mateo and I share the same nurse to tend to us. I mean, we share the same case, but mine is much worse.
"He is in a coma," the nurse says hesitantly. "In truth, we do not know what kind of drugs got into your system. It was a new type of drug that not even medical institutions know about it yet. We are currently draining your system of the drugs. Yours was just a small dose, that's why your recovery will be speedy. As for Mister Macedo, I do not know how I can put his fate in the simplest of words. It might be painful for you."
"Nurse, speak plainly," I say bluntly. "It does not pain me. I have faced another pain of having a friend bedridden. Having another can't hurt me now. So, when will he wake up?"
"The question is 'if', Miss Aguinaldo," she says lowly. "The doctors do not know if he'll ever wake up. Anyway, Miss Aguinaldo, the professor that saved you is waiting outside. He wants to have a word with you. Would you like me to send him in?"
Professor Diwa knows the name of the woman. What am I to do now? I need to know her name; however, I doubt anyone would tell it to me now. He has to tell me now. I have to get the truth from him. Still, this will be difficult for me, undoubtedly.
"How are you feeling, Miss Aguinaldo?" he asks as he goes in.
He is carrying a bouquet of various kinds of flowers. There's an orchid, sunflower, lily, tulip, and other kinds of flowers. He set it on a vase beside me. Somehow, this does not affect me. I know that he only gave it to me so that he would brighten up this dreary room. He could never be a lover to me. He will never see me as such.
"Flowers, how typical," I remark bitterly in a whisper that even he could not hear.
He pulls a chair from the dining table near my bed and sits beside me as if he is a true friend to me. We are not friends. We are not even acquaintances. He is nothing more than a stranger that saved me from death. I should be thankful, but I cannot. I have always loved him but he is too blind to see that.
"Miss Aguinaldo, I do not know where I shall begin," he says awkwardly.
"Just tell me the woman's name, sir," I say bluntly. "I need to find that woman and bring justice to Mateo and Rex."
For a moment, he is stunned. It was as if he is trying to be cool and collected. Whatever happened last night, I know he knows something. I know he knows everything. I have to squeeze everything I can get from him. And then, I truly did not expect that he would say a name I do not know.
"Ysabel Javier."