Her Condition Worsened

Raja wakes up early this morning. After praying, she helps her mother cook for herself and her siblings since her parents already drive to their respective workplaces at 6.31 to avoid jams. Her mother tells her to cook vegetables as well for dinner later. She says okay while nodding and heads to the kitchen as well as start to make breakfast.

She makes scrambled eggs and grills sausages with butted slices of toast for her three sisters, one brother and herself while playing her favourite song on her phone. All Japanese songs in a playlist. Aside from that, she makes a jug of tea to perfectly making the breakfast. Once done, she sits at the dining table and eats them and subsequently takes a cup on a rack and pours the tea she made earlier, sipping it until it is two over four.

She drinks while thinking about what to do, making a list of various house chores from vacuuming all rooms to cleaning the spider web on the ceiling. But her assignment is due next week.

"What to do first?" She asks herself, standing up, covers all the foods with a red food covering and walks to the fridge.

"Wash the garments first I think" She carries on. She takes a bottle of detox and pour it into the cup after washing it and moves back to the seat near a washing machine.

So many thoughts run in her brain right now but she chooses to ignore them and think about her assignment instead. It will be her first choice after all. She has to send all of it by Wednesday morning which is on another 3 days, thinking about the last art she needs to draw and colour. She pushes the start button on the washing machine containing yesterday garments and sits back on the dining chair. It is going to take more than half an hour.

"What should I draw?" She carries on thinking questioning herself while hands on her chin tapping it like a detective.

"Sir Azlan said to draw any fruits so... I guess apple and rambutan?" She guesses while thinking another suggestion.

"Wait... no. Rambutan has too many colours. Hmm, what fruit has only one colour other than apple? Um, haa! Orange??! Yeah... orange. Let's go! Orange, it is" She smiles while nodding her head up and down fivefold.

"Okay! A set of an apple and ow-range! Hope I could finish it early. By today or might be tomorrow? I bet tomorrow. But wait... why did I say let's go? Ah, whatever" She shrugs her shoulders and swallows the detox little by little. While drinking and staying put for her washing machine to stop, she looks at the wall, the clock and washing machine twice back and forth. It is already at rinse and spin level and another 1 minute to wait.

Once done, she put all the clothes in a basket and brings them outside. She begins hanging all shirts, trousers, uniforms and Baju Kurungs on the hangers and clips the remaining clothes which are undergarments on the clothesline. While hanging, her eyeballs travel around at her mother's plants such as Tomato, Papaya, Berry, Etlingera elatior, Screwpine and Lime.

"Hope they live much longer than I do" She whispers, thinking how she has been enduring the past. The hurtful memories.

"I should go inside. The assignment is waiting" She heads to her room upstairs and starts to work on her assignment. She finds and collects the art stuff first in her hands before putting it on her desk.

8.01 a.m

The task starts. But before that, she opens a video and presses the play button on her phone after she picks one of her favourite playlists. A sad Japanese song begins playing on her speaker. Her head follows its beat each second joyously. Her hands moves on the A1 paper and starts to draw an apple and orange. It takes her two hours or so to draw them perfectly in a nice shape to make it looks 3D.

She takes a box of 24 pencil colours and begins colouring after. She colours the apple with a green colour all over it and a little bit of white in the middle on the right side. Plus, a tiny black colour on it. She then colours the orange with an orange colour all over it and a bit of black line in the middle on the left side. Also a tiny white colour next to the black line.

"Raja... oh Raja!" First one calling her name with a deep voice.

"Assalamualaikum, Raja!" The second one with a quite high pitch voice.

"Raja!" The last one with a gent voice at first but deep at the end.

She is so into it that she did not hear people are calling for her outside with the videos playing non-stop. A pop song echoes next making her halt from her work thinking about the lyrics as it is familiar. She startled when the unwelcome guests shout her name one more time. Her eyes narrow as she thinks maybe it is one of her sisters' or her brother's friends. "What are they doing here? Mak aih, don't they have things to do at home?" She sighs.

All of her sisters are watching a thriller series on an app in the second oldest's room beside her room while her brother playing games downstairs in his room. There are so many Raja in this house yet she is the one who opens the door every time(everyone in this house has Raja as the first name except for her mother). The responsibility of the eldest itself is such a headache adding this makes her infuriated. Everyone has responsible. Why do they act like they don't even have one? "Which Raja? Oih! Why does no one answer? Yeah, good. Am I the only one who have ears in this house? Such irresponsible and useless siblings"

She is upright and descends downstairs heading towards the front door with a frown on her mug. They know she has an assignment to do. They know it but the serial and game are more crucial. 'I am tired! Sh*t! Why... Aargh! This is not going to change anything if I keep nagging' She thought, hastily unlocking the door and surprised to see her best friend none other than Anne ahead of the gate. Wait, just one person?

She heard like there are 3 people out there. 1000 per cent sure. But neither did Anne says anything about going to her house for visiting nor for other intentions. She is clearly befuddled. Anne seems fine as if nothing happened between them. The latter smiles and gives her one box containing two slices of moist chocolate cake with two pieces of chocolate almond topping for each slice and caramel. Before she left without saying goodbye.

'Why didn't she utter a word? I guess because of THAT incident. But she... she called my name earlier. Didn't she wanna talk to me? But...' She thought while sitting on the chair in her room.

'I'm supposed to apologise to her when I had the chance just now. Why it didn't come out of my mouth? Now I feel bad since she gave me this' The scene earlier begin to flash on her mind.

Her mouth opened but then closed again. She was supposed to say sorry but nothing came out. She looked into her eyes steadily but the latter started to withdraw little by little. Only inhaled and exhaled oxygen she could do. She opened her mouth again to bind the rope of their friendship back yet closed it after Anne showed her back, treading away leaving without saying goodbye. So dramatic. Is she sulking?

Speechless. She just murmured thank you but the latter was gone in a matter of seconds. She sighed not knowing what was wrong with her as the latter will always wave hi and bye to her. Or at least bidding goodbye. Peepers wandered on her surroundings finding Anne but not even a single human was on the road upfront her house. She craned while shrugging off her shoulders, walked to the main door, twisted the knob, shut the door and walked straight to the kitchen.

She grabs a fork in the rack and excitedly brought the cake upstairs. Feeling peckish, she put it on her desk once she reaches her room before sitting on her chair and passionately opening the box. With glint orbs seen in her eyes, she looks at the cake and praises Anne as well as drooling.

"My bad, I'm stunned. Couldn't wait to eat this. Yay! Sweets! Bismillah" She forks a tad and eats it, humming as it tastes good as always.

"I'm sorry, Anne. I'll apologise and thank you after I've finished eating this, okay? Sorry" She mumbles, taking another bite and resuming doing her art.

She picks a light brown pencil colour and colours the stick of the apple adding a bit of white colour on the right side to boot. She does some stretching after that as her fingers feel numb as she draws non-stop and the colouring makes her feel it further in-depth. Thanks to Anne for coming by. If not, she would sit on her chair and immensely colour the apple and orange for who knows how long it is going to take. Not even going to stand up unless for the loo and water. She takes a deep breath, keeping on with her work, puffing out the moment she picks a black colour for the line of the fruits and colours it with eyes closely gazing at the line.

She feels thirsty later thus she goes to the kitchen. She picks up a glass in the rack and treading to the water dispenser near the sink. She pushes the cold water button till her glass is full and sips a tad. She brings the glass and goes back to her room freely sitting on her chair in a cross-legged position. She gulps down half of the water and continues consuming the last fork of the cake.

It is too good to finish the cake so she decides to save one for later. She goes to the kitchen and put it in the fridge while yawning. Her sudden yawns make her sleepy and decided to take a nap before she resumes her assignment. She reaches her room shortly laying on her bed shutting her eyes slowly. Dozes off. Unbeknown to her, the same figure who made Anne collapsed, watching her moves ever since she mentioned her name. He smirks thereupon goes away after she sleeps.

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3.01 pm

Still, she working on the art with black colour to make a thin line all over the remaining part of the fruits and a bit of shading under them. It takes more than one hour to complete it all with concentration. Cracking her neck left and right, she stands and links both hands, stretching her body while pacing to the stairs descending downstairs to the kitchen to get the last slice of chocolate moist cake as she is craving to eat it again. Woo! Anime time!

She takes it from the fridge with a glass of water, brings it to her room and put it next to her laptop. She sits, opens and switches on her laptop as well as takes a glimpse of the cake. "Fork? Ah, I forgot to put it in the sink after I ate earlier. Adoi(Groan)" She facepalm, going to the loo to clean the fork, rinsing it until it is clean and walk back to the room. While walking along the path, she hears her sisters shouting and swearing. She shortly covers her earlobe with her finger as they ring her f*cking ears. Might be playing multiplayer games. But why the h*ll they have to shout and yet swear? She yells at them for being noisy and sluggish.

"No need to scream b*tches! Bingit, bodoh! (Too loud, morons!) Do your work la, slothful! Ya Allah!" She closes the curtains after entering her room, sits leisurely on the chair and presses the play button. The anime starts playing on the screen with one gigantic red monster and a quite small human wearing black clothing in its hand as a thumbnail.

"Ah, I forgot about the cake. I should eat it a tad while watching this" She whispers.

While watching after several minutes, she forks it in her mouth until it becomes one over four with eyes keenly on the laptop. Without looking at the box knowing where the cake is positioned, she lifts the fork to consume another one yet she unconsciously glances and suddenly sees about five faggots moving on the left side of the cake trying to move out as they are somewhat stuck in it. She automatically screams. Flabbergasted. The fork flying on the carpet. She immediately steps back being erect but when she looks at them one more time, they disappear. Perfectly gone.

It is real but her heart says otherwise. She searches for the fork on the table and bed but it is not there. "Huh? Where it's gone?" She wonders while scratching her head. Her peepers travel on the floor right after finding it on her closet and makeup table.

"Where do I throw it? Odd. I should have found it by now. Ha! There it is" She walks to the soft brown carpet behind the door, picks up the fork and paces to the loo to wash it.

"I really saw it with my eyes! How they appear and gone just like that?" She mumbles, twisting the pipe to save water after rinsing it thrice.

'Bit*h, how?!! Huh? It's somehow surreal. Maybe... I was just dreaming? Hallucinating?' She thought, treading back to her room proceeds with the anime and cake. Indeed freakish and uncanny.

"Ya, I guess it's just a phantasm. Ya ya, it is" She says to appease herself after just about passing into her room but hears someone watching the television as the volume is audible. An action animation to be precise.

She thrusts her shoulders and her eyes roam at her desk, scanning the cake but the laptop catches her attention. Realising it is her anime that makes noise, not someone is watching the tv. She heaves, sitting on the chair, pressing the back button till where the faggots moment start and pokes the fork on the cake. It is upright on the remaining cake as it is her intention and subsequently pushes the spacebar and the anime starts playing then feeds the last fork in her mouth.

Organ of sight directly and closely watch the screen. Upper and lower body immobile but lips. Chew, munch and chew. She feels nothing for the second chew but the third one makes her pause from munching. Feeling bizarre as she bites something hard like a stone. She stops in her tracks as it becomes odder the moment she tries to taste what it is and hastily spits it out in the cake box. Mouth agape and gasping. Flabbergasted is an understatement as she could not believe her eyeballs with what she sees.

A rusty nail.