LATEST magazine used to be Philippines’ biggest company in its field. They released new issues monthly and signed a lot of big celebrities to pose for their covers and for interviews. But years before the pandemic, their glory days were over. Digital reads and free stories platforms took over, a bandwagon which the magazine could not ride on.

Financially speaking, the company metaphorically dangling on a cliff, clutching on its sharp edges for their dear life. The only reason they still existed was because people were too depressed and anxious by the epidemic situation. They needed something entertaining to tone down those emotions, hence Latest magazine’s chance to shine. Their office was fortunate to be situated within Citadel, making them completely monopolize the publishing industry once the city was enclosed in a giant glass dome. Yet, people have weak purchasing power, so the magazine publisher had to settle with very little earnings.

To make do with the poor income, they had to let go of some of their employees and assets. All that’s left for them were laptops and outdated editing softwares for designing. To save on printing and paper, they showed the pages of their magazines at select establishments through large PowerPoint presentations, but mostly, at the huge LED billboard at the center of the city where the public could see. Before an issue was publicized, an assigned government official had to approve the content of the visual magazine that was shown with voice overs that read its articles.

Cjay’s group took big strides along the white, narrow hallway of the building that Latest was renting along with various other companies. Latest was located at the 5th floor. The hallway felt more tight and crowded, thanks to Cjay’s security that fenced him in with his assistant, Natalia, and his driver, Kuya Quintin. His guards may not be in the armored van with him, but they followed in cars that formed his usual convoy.

Taking the lead in their little procession was Miss Arena, one of Latest magazine’s staff. She was a tall woman with slender figure, wearing a black suit with a black neck tie. Her sleek black hair was tied in a low ponytail, the tips only reaching the middle of her shoulder blades. Her eyes looked sharp due to her winged eyeliner.

Natalia followed Miss Arena, then Cjay, who was surrounded by white-uniformed guards.

They walked past the open door of a small photoshoot studio. From the door, they saw the busy staff of Latest in the middle of setting up everything from the lighting to the reflectors. By looking around, it could be seen that the walls were only painted white on the area where the photos were taken. The rest of the studios’ walls were still bare—gray and smooth.

There was no ceiling too, making the crisscross of metals and wood visible overhead the photoshoot area, followed by hollow darkness on top of it all.

Cjay’s group walked past the studio because they would be heading to the dressing room first.

Since they walked the hallway up to this point, Natalia kept on talking to Miss Arena. The staff was trying to sound nice but Cjay could notice her growing inpatience because Natalia came with so many questions. She obviously didn’t have an inkling about how photoshoots were done, hence, the curiousity but the staff seemed to take it differently. For Cjay, maybe the staff thought that Natalia was doubting their professionalism and nitpicking on everything.

Miss Arena stopped walking, she gestured a hand toward the open door to let them inside first. The dressing room was big and pleasant. Maybe the size of the room gave an illusion of width due to the clean white walls and lack of furniture. There was only a line of three vanity tables with mirrors circled by lightbulbs.

“Do you have a makeup artist?” Natalia faced Miss Arena as soon as she got inside the dressing room. She also stepped aside so that Cjay and his guards could get in.

“Obviously, we have,” Miss Arena answered in a flat, lifeless voice.

Natalia looked around. “Where are the make-up artists?”

“They’ll be here in a minute.” Miss Arena smiled politely, but it did not match her bored eyes.

“Thank you.”

Before Miss Arena left, she stole a glance, or to be specific, she gave him a side-eye. Cjay could already sense her disgusto with him.

On the other hand, Natalia kept on inspecting the whole room with her eyes. When she looked at him, he was already sitting on one of the chairs that faced the vanity mirror. He aligned his legs and arms to the arm rests and legs of the chair. One of his guards started cuffing his arms and legs on the chair.

Natalia rushed to him with wide eyes then turned to the guard. “Why are you cuffing—”

“Easy, Assistant” Cjay cocked his head, smirked. “This is the protocol.” To be honest, he was enjoying the shock and worry on Natalia’s face. “Looks like losing your chill, human.” He mimicked to what she said to him in the armored van earlier.

“I’m not!” she blurted defensively and stood straight. “I just didn’t know that this is part of the . . . the protocol thing, zombie,” she narrowed uer eyes at him.

“Seems like you need more briefing. I can’t blame Dad though,” he stared straight into her eyes while several of his guards were still busy taking turns in cuffing him. “He’s always in a hurry because he’s always busy. His mind is always preoccupied with the state’s affairs so . . .” Cjay shrugged.

“But you already had your immortality pill. So what’s the use of getting cuffed?” Natalia put a hand on her hip as she watched the guards cuffing him.

“Precautionary measures.”

She fell silent. Her eyes followed the movement of the guards.

He smirked wider, but deep inside, Cjay was already wondering what she must be thinking.

Eventually, the guards stepped away from him and scattered in and out of the dressing room. Most of them guarded the door.

Natalia propped the side of her ass on the side of the vanity table. She put her canvas bag on it as well then roamed the room with her eyes.

“What’s taking them so long? Aren’t the stylist and makeup artist supposed to be already here?”

“Wake up, Natalia. I am a different case.”

She glanced at him, baffled. “What do you mean?”

He stifled a chuckle. “Up to this very minute, I bet you, they are still pointing fingers as to who should work with me.”

“Pointing fingers? Aren’t they supposed to have already assigned a staff for you ahead of time?”

Cjay smirked wider. No wonder Miss Arena was annoyed with Natalia. The way she constructed her questions always stated the obvious that could make anyone feel too dumb for not realizing earlier. But Cjay was unaffected by that. After all, the questions were not about him but the magazine company’s staff.

“They certainly assigned someone ahead of time. But since they’re scared of zombies like me, they must have had some last minute jitters and second thoughts. By now, other staff were trying to convince them to do their job.”

Natalia crossed her arms. “Weird. They invited us here then they’re acting up?”

Cjay chuckled. “Well, welcome to my world, Natalia.”

She glared at him. “Sorry but I refuse to be a part of your world.”

“Unfortunately, you already are a part of it.”

“I’m just an assistant.” She widened her eyes at him in a threatening way. He was unaffected though. He found it funny than threatening.

“The more you’re a part of my world,” he teased.

“So is that it? Is that your best shot at trying to piss me off? By being cringey?”

He pulled his head back for a hearty laughter. “You’re cringing? So, I affect you that much, hmm?”

“It’s not that I am affected.”

“I know the truth, so denying is futile, Natalia.” He sat straight, smiling mischievously. “But you know what? It’s normal. It’s alright. I am used to getting big reactions from people.”

“Maybe, I should go out and check where’s the makeup artist.” Natalia stood up straight.

“Great. You can’t take my breathtaking presence so you have to go out and breathe.” Cjay leaned back to follow Natalia with his eyes.

“Shut up!” she snapped while already getting out of the door. “The only thing that’s breathtaking is your nasty, rotting smell! I’ll choke to death if I don’t stay away from you!”

He got a little pissed by that. “Then stay here and just use the damn menthol rub!”

The only response he got from that was the dressing room’s door gently closing.

***

NATALIA wondered what’s taking the stylist and makeup artist too long. Cjay couldn’t stay in this building for too long. Being a zombie was enough reason for her and his guards to make sure that he never overstay in places where other people were. The immortality pill tamed his urges to attack humans, but that never stopped him from having an appetite for human flesh. He should be already in Malacañang when he starts feeling hungry.

The first place that Natalia reached was the studio. There, she saw Miss Arena talking to a woman who seemed distressed based on her hand gestures.

Natalia slowly approached them, her presence unnoticeable. When she eas close enough, she realized that the woman wasn’t distressed at all, but having a hysterical laugh while Miss Arena just smirked in response with her arms crossed.

“It’s their job, right?”

“Yeah. I just can’t tell her how it works. She looks new and clueless, but also pretty defiant.”

“Defiant?” Natalia bravely spoke, gaining the women’s surprised gazes.

“Oh, you’re finally here,” Miss Arena turned her heels to face her, but her arms remained crossed.

“Yes. Because I’m wondering how long are you planning to make my boss wait.” She looked past Miss Arena for a second before returning her eyes on her. “It looks like the set’s ready.”

“Here’s Miss Mae,” Miss Arena introduced without moving or glancing at the woman beside her. “She’s going to brief you about the makeup and styling.”

Natalia threw her hands on her hips and gave the two women a sarcastically executed interested look. “Why? I thought there’s an assigned makeup artist? And a stylist?”

“Oh, they won’t make it. They’ve got . . .” Miss Arena stole a meaningful glance at Miss Mae who smirked devilishly. “. . . valid excuses.” Miss Arena returned her eyes on her.

“Seems valid,” she scoffed. “Or maybe, there’s some discrimination going on here. You can’t give my boss a proper treatment, even just in the guise of professionalism, because he’s a zombie.”

“You’re brave, girl. Are you even human?”

Natalia was taken aback by Miss Arena’s trivial question.

‘Are you even human?’

“It’s normal for my staff to feel scared of a zombie. It doesn’t matter if they can think straight. In fact, that’s what makes them more dangerous. When they can think, then they can make smarter decisions on how to catch their prey. Right?”

“Then you shouldn’t have invited us here.”

“Desperate times, desperate measures, dear.” Miss Arena clicked the toe of her shoe, a mark of her impatience. “The government wants the presidential son to be featured. We have to survive so we took the offer.”

‘It wasn’t them who wanted Cjay here after all!’

“So,” Miss Arena feigned a feisty air of dominance toward her, “let’s just make it quick and easy for the both of us, can we?”

“What do you want me to do then?”

Miss Arena slighly looked puzzled. She tilted her head to the side and examined her face. “Are you not going to put up an argument?”

“No,” she slightly shook her head while jolding her gaze into Miss Arena’s eyes.

“You’re not going to demand or force us to send the stylist and makeup artist in your boss’ dressing room?”

“Why should I?” she was getting a little irritated. “Just like what you said, they’re afraid. So why should I force them?”

Miss Arena’s face softened as she stole a glance at Miss Mae. Their eyes seemed to share a silent conversation—one that asked for assurance while the other was showing confusion, uncertainty. Miss Arena looked back at her with disbelief and puzzlement evident on her strong, feisty look.

“You can drop the act now. You don’t need to act tough just to get your point across.” Natalia sighed. “I understand that sometimes, we have to pretend to be hard and feisty so that other people will stop pushing past our boundsries. Some people show attitude when provoked or their safety felt threatened. But today’s your lucky day, because I am the same as you. I don’t want anyone to cross my boundaries too, so I understand the attitude.” ‘I just hope Cjay does as well.’

Miss Arena held on to the little pride she got left. She kept her head up. She dropped the tough attitude but still seemed unfazed. She behaved with authority and composure. “Then listen carefully to Miss Mae’s instructions.” She turned to the woman beside her. “Miss Mae?”

Miss Mae lost that haughty liveliness that she was displaying earlier. She seemed to have a different opinion from Miss Arena because at this moment, she suddenly seemed embarrassed. Unlike Miss Arena, Miss Mae actually wanted to get away from doing her job not for her safety, but out of her laziness. She could not even look Natalia straight in the eye.

“I-I’ll . . . I’ll show you a collage of the looks that we conceptualized for Mr. Cjay in this photoshoot. Follow me.” Miss Mae bowed her head lightly to bade goodbye to Miss Arena before walking ahead.

Natalia nodded at Miss Arena before following Miss Mae into a small room with five cubicles that divided the seats for the five remaining staff in the company. Other employees were busy as Miss Mae went to her desk where some clothes in hangers draped over one of her cubicle’s partition wall.

Miss Mae picked up a green sliding folder and handed it to her. Natalia immediately flipped the pages open and gave the printed out collage images a quick look.

“It’s a summer special to be released next month,” Miss Mae explained slowly, as it she was being careful with her words.

“You know how Cjay’s skin looks like, and your want him to pose for a summer issue?” Natalia frowned. ‘Damn it! I will have a hard time putting makeup all over his body! This photoshoot will expose a lot of his skin!’

“We know. But there’s makeup, right?”

“You also know that I am going to do the makeup all by myself, right?” she glared.

“Y-Yes,” Miss Mae lowered her eyes. “But that’s the only time-consuming part of the process. Dressing him up will be easier since he’s going to wear few pieces.” She made a mistake of lifting her eyes because she was shocked to see that she never looked away from her. The eye-contact forced Miss Mae to reciprocate her glare with a sheepish, uncomfortable gaze. “Y-You should know, that Mister Cjay usually poses for our magazine every summer. It’s what his father wants. We can’t object because, they might shut down the company.”

Natalia reconsidered by looking back at the pictures printed on the papers. While studying how the styles and clothes looked like, she recalled Cjay’s usual getup. He wore loose clothes because they tend to chafe or to stick and get accidentally peeled off when he wore tight clothes and sweated on them . . .

Finally, she understood why Cjay had to get his photoshoots for the magazine’s summer issues only. It was for his own sake, for his comfort.

Natalia took in a deep breath. ‘Cjay’s right. The president haven’t briefed me enough about my job.’

She closed the sliding folder and nodded at Miss Mae. “It’s alright. A summer photoshoot is a nice concept for my boss. Let the work begin.”