Chapter 22: Curses and Stolen Innocence

Barney woke up to an empty house. Before he can curse at them leaving him behind, he saw Matthos and Lumi through the window.

"They look like idiots," he snorted and went to make his morning coffee. The hell were they staring at the sky?

Sensing that someone was staring at them, Lumi looked behind her back and saw Barney sipping his "coffee," a questionable term for that awful smelling thing he made her drink.

"Matthos, you'll make caramel macchiato for me, right?" she pleaded.

"Of course, I'll make it for you every day if you want," he offered, wondering why she suddenly thought of coffee. He looked in the direction of Lumi's distraction, and he wanted to laugh. She really detested Barney's coffee.

"Let's go inside," he beckoned her, and they arrived at the scent of bacon waft through the air. Of course, you can question Barney's taste in coffee, but he did justice in the food department.

"I'm making avocado toast," he said as he set some plates.

"Avocado?" Lumi looked at him questionably, as she always remembered eating avocado with milk and sugar. He was cooking eggs on the skillet, and it just looked so confusing to her.

"Trust the chef," Barney grinned.

"The chef is hard to trust with his choice in coffee," Lumi rebutted. Matthos almost choked on his glass of water as he saw the two proceed into arguing about how instant coffee sucks. To be fair, Lumi hasn't had Moccona yet. That might change her mind. He needed to buy that for her next time.

"Just try it," Barney begged, his hands in prayer as Lumi groaned at the sight of the toast. It didn't look appetizing with the mashed avocado. She ran behind Matthos, her eyes begging, 'Please don't let me eat that.'

To prove that it wasn't poison, Matthos took one toast and ate it. "It tastes fine, Lumi. You can eat it."

Lumi looked betrayed and sulkily walked back to her chair. She was hungry, and so she picked up the toast. With that, she took a nibble. To her surprise, it did not taste that bad.

"It tastes fine," she admitted. Of course, Barney wasn't going to let it pass up.

"What's that you hear, Matthos? Is that defeat I hear?"

"Thank you for the breakfast, but don't rub it in her face," Matthos warned.

"Before I thwack you with this board," Lumi laughed. Matthos truly let her get away with everything.

"Matthos won't let you hit me, right Matthos?" Barney asked confidently. When he didn't reply, he looked at his friend, who wasn't by his side anymore. He gave Lumi a cup of caramel macchiato, and she stuck her tongue out like a child.

If this were a child, Barney would've whooped its ass. However, with Lumi, it was just his instinct to let her walk all over him. Aside from his fear of Matthos, there was something about Lumi. In Filipino, they would explain it as *kawawa. It was like he just let her act young, even if it meant she always went against him.

When they turned on the television, the news was still on. It was on City A, and it didn't look too well.

"The situation in City A continues to worsen as the hospital's psych ward are overwhelmed with patients. The source of hysteria is not yet found, and investigators are claiming that this is not a simple carbon monoxide poisoning," the reporter stood in a hazmat suit with a dilapidated church as her background. For something that was only reported days ago, the church really went into ruins too fast.

"Because it is not a carbon monoxide poisoning," barked an irritated Barney.

The reporter continued, "The city is in a red state of alert. Classes from kindergarten to college are suspended, and only essential jobs continue to operate during the quarantine. Travel and trading bans were imposed by the government. The small group of people who tried to hold a protest ended up in hysterics."

"The police and the representative of the mayor's office declined to comment on the matter. Reporting."

"Oh wow, your parents are fudged. Like chocolate about to be stretched, they are fudged," Barney commented.

"I know my parents. If they were in danger, they'd already call me on the scene," Matthos replied.

"Matthos, are you going there?" Lumi's eyes were still on the screen, she didn't notice it, but her eyes were already watering.

"No, Lumi," he sighed, "My mission involves research. I'm needed away from there." Then he looked at her and saw her crying. The two guys froze for a bit and then scrambled to get a tissue. Barney was cursing under his breath as he handed a frantic Matthos some tissue as he planned to wipe Lumi's tears with a roll.

"Lumi, we're not going there," Barney cooed as Matthos wiped Lumi's tears. It just shows how inexperienced they were with the opposite gender. One tear, and they lose their minds.

"I'm sorry. I don't know why but my eyes felt wet," she said as she held on to Matthos. The person in question patted her head.

"Yeah, it's okay. Emotions work that way. You end up feeling it," Matthos comforted her.

"That place, that's the curse taking effect. I don't know, but it feels just like yesterday when the people were there. We were all laughing and talking about how we would enjoy eating *inartem na mangga (picked mangoes). It was as if it was in a blink of an eye when the village chief said we needed to burn them," The tears kept falling.

The hazmat suits reminded her of the rough, white robes they forced her to wear. It was itchy, and she hated wearing it. Then they told her that her friend was no more, she was gone.

Matthos didn't realize it, but he held her tight. The curses stole her innocence. If he can give her a little taste of normalcy, he'll do everything to do that.

*Kawawa - a Filipino term for something that invokes pity.

*Inartem na mangga - a special type of pickled green mango, made of water, vinegar, sugar, and salt.