KIX:
I admit it. I was taken aback by what he said.
“I know you didn’t kill Jade.”
I wanted to laugh, but I only smiled back. “Yeah, man… I thought so too, but that seems a very complicated story to tell…”
That was three f*cking years ago when I thought I could trust my own mind and memory when it came to my innocence, but the pieces of evidence against me were too compelling that even I started to doubt my own self…
In those three years, Jade never showed up too… If she was alive somewhere, it would have been nothing but a miracle…
“Hey,” I said, turning a bit excited. “You’re working for Brooklyn and Burke now, right?”
He nodded.
“I think Jade mentioned that they granted you a scholarship there before… Do you know anyone by the name of Gary Eduardo?”
He nodded. “Gary Eduardo went to the same school we went to… He was the one Jade was chasing after as Marian’s killer,” the rat replied as he tried to remember this part of the past.
“The night Jade went back to the dorm without you… We encountered him.”
Liam’s ordinarily bored face became more animated. “What happened back then?”
“He attacked Jade, so we got into a bit of a fight and…”
“And?”
“And he died,” I said.
“But how did he die? There were no bodies aside from yours and Jade’s that were ever recovered from the dormitory.”
“Well, he really won’t have a body. It turned to nothing but ash…”
“What do you mean? How did he turn to ash?” I can see in the way his eyebrows twitch that he was thinking of fire. I wanted to laugh like the madman that I was.
“He turned to ash because he was pierced in the body with a stake.”
While Jade tried her best to pull me upwards when I was falling from the third floor that day, I saw with my own two eyes how the shards of metal and wood came crashing down on the vampire that attacked Jade. He had instantly turned to ash by then just like how vampires do…
Liam the rat looked at me like I was high on drugs. I would have thought so too if we were to reverse our roles.
“That boy – Gary Eduardo – he’s not human… Ever heard of the undead, those things that suck at your blood and live an annoyingly long life?”
His face lit up a bit. “Do you mean to say he was a vampire?”
“Yes. What’s more, he was acting under a leader. Although I have no clue who his particular leader was, I’m sure he was after Jade… Who knows, he might really be the one who kidnapped Jade and set me up after all…”
For what seemed like a long time, Liam and I only eyed each other behind the glass wall, neither saying anything…
“Is that your theory,” he asked in a serious tone.
Finally, I can’t keep it all in. I started to laugh uncontrollably.
“Did you… Did you really believe my story, Mr. President?” I laughed so heartily I was already wheezing by the end.
He smiled a bit back at me. “Well, you sounded very serious, Mr. Sarmiento…”
“Did I?... Did I really pique your interest with my story? Well, if you knew the reality of my world, maybe my story wouldn’t be too hard to believe,” I said, a bit sarcastically.
Actually, I used to believe in that version of reality too. Why else would Jade disappear after our encounter with those vampires?
The undead tend to harbor hatred for a long time. They never let a prey go when they have locked eyes onto them.
It would be more likely to believe that they kidnapped her and pinned everything on me to cover up their crimes...
I began to laugh once again. Those conjectures seemed too absurd especially after learning that I was insane from fifteen different psychiatrists.
“How about this theory, Mr. Sarmiento? Say, the vampires really did kidnap Jade. Why would they do that?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “Who knows? Maybe they’ve fallen hard for her the same way I had…”
To be honest, I would have preferred that than the fact that I had left Jade to die by my own hands… Ultimately, I’d rather see her alive than dead.
But of course, that’s not the case… I lost my mind and probably took her somewhere. She had probably lost her life waiting for me to come back…
“Well, I don’t think reopening the case would be of help, Mr. President, so why don’t we leave things as it they are?… At the end, it is only when Jade appears that everything could become clear.”
I stood from my chair and was about to hang the receiver back on its proper place when I heard Liam speak again on the other line.
“Do you still love her?... After all this time, do you still love Jade?... Would you still do anything for her?”
I looked at his face, trying to read the emotions that might have come with his questions.
Even back in college, I have never been able to fully read this guy’s mind when it comes to anything else except when it concerned Jade.
Right now, he was wearing an anguished look.
“I would always love her. Even if she could be the source of my pain, I would always do anything for her…”
With that, I left Liam standing over, the telephone receiver still clutched at his hand as I retreated.
**********************
That night, I couldn’t get any sleep.
I had an uneasy feel in my solitary cell as I repeated my conversation with Liam earlier on that day.
There was one thing that had bothered me, but I was not able to ask out of him since I was far too distracted with the memories of Jade that came back to me…
Despite his nice and luxurious appearance, why the hell does he still smell like a clump of dead leaves?...
I had only smelled that kind of smell twice in my lifetime: the first was when I met Liam and the second time was when I battled with the undead who tried to harm Jade…
Was it a coincidence? Was there something wrong with my nose?
Suddenly, I heard the sound of light footsteps somewhere.
The prison guards never made it a habit to check on me in the middle of the night. So why was someone here?
Could it be that they had come to collect me for my execution?
I was ready to embrace death, but my heart still pounded wildly, and sweat began to form at the top of my forehead knowing that it was near…
Suddenly, the door of my cell burst open so violently I had to cover my head instinctively from the shards of metal that came flying about.
When I raised my head, my cell door was destroyed, but there was no one there…
Just then, the smell of dried flowers began to fill my senses, and before I could react, something, or someone came on top of me.
I can’t believe my own eyes! It was Jade…