NATALIA peeked at the gap on the window. It was already deep into the night yet the president’s guards were still patrolling around the yards of Malacañang.

‘Now the going gets tough. I thought, being close to the higher ups would make it easy for me. I didn’t think about the possibility that my movements will be limited once I live in Malacañang.’

Natalia closed the sliding window completely and looked around her new bed room. The floors and walls were shiny and made of varnished wood in pale brown color. A four-postered bed was centered against the right side of the room with white sheets and a soft mattress. The room was so neat, she was getting worried about the possibility of defacing it soon. She could still recall that time when she was still in Aunt Hilda’s apartment. She was only in Citadel for a few months. She still had some energy back then and tends to throw a fit because of her hunger. As a result, he broke some fragile decorations and tore the sofa . . .

The very thought of Aunt Hilda made her eyes water.

On the outside, she was pale and lifeless. It was as if she was a cold, unfeeling corpse, but deep down, her heart was crushed at the thought that she will never be with Aunt Hilda again. In spite of being this monster, she still grieves for losing the only person left for her. The person who helped her sneak in Citdael. The only person left who understands her true nature . . .

The door opened, making her jumpy. She did not lock it, because she was still planning to sneak out and find a corpse to eat. She had dinner earlier, courtesy of the president, but it was only human food and not the kind of food that the monstrous side of her was asking for . . .

She saw Cjay, propping the right side of his body by the door’s frame. Natalia immediately covered her mouth and nose. She should not smell him! She shouldn’t!

Cjay glared at him. “You’re really enjoying this, huh? Showing it to my face how I smell like crap?”

“Why are you even here?” she asked instead of answering him. ‘You didn’t even bother to knock!’ she continued at the back of her mind. As of this moment, she was trying to be a little nicer to him. Natalia was reminded that she was already his assistant, and she wouldn’t want to risk her chances and be kicked out of her new place by being rude to this idiot.

“The Hilda died?”

What a foul-mouthed idiot. Was it that hard for him to call her ‘Aunt’ Hilda? How dare this idiot to address her aunt as if she wasn’t a person.

“Is it that hard to be a little more respectful and call her Aunt Hilda?” She put down her hand that covered her mouth and nose. An inexplicable courage ran all over her body that shut the despicable man, her first achievement against that idiot which she was going to make sure that wouldn’t be the last. “Yes. My aunt just died. Do you want to know why?”

“Why?” He had the audacity to lift an eyebrow at her while crossing his arms.

“Because of a zombie like you,” she spat spicily. “She got bit by your likes. That’s what killed her.”

His eyebrows knitted together while his eyes intensely glared at her.

“See? Innocent people get harmed because of . . .” ‘Shit. I’m salivating again!’ She was about to blame zombies again but in her fear of drooling in front of Cjay, Natalia immediately turned away from him. Loads of spit were starting to rush up her throat, filling her mouth.

Meanwhile, Cjay found the way Natalia turned her back on him a little dramatic. He thought that she was hiding the vulnerable look on her face, her being emotional, because of Aunt Hilda’s death. He had no clue that it was his scent that made her look away from him . . . the hunger that his mere scent and presence intensified.

Cjay smelled of rotten flesh, but why was he so appetizing for her?

A realization made Natalia’s eyes widen in shock. It was getting hard for her to accept the things that were running on her mind . . . She was starting to visualize herself ripping off Cjay’s clothes, roughly grabbing his arms to pull him close, then dragging her pale, chapping lips along the peeling, rotting flesh at the side of his delectable neck.

She was already in the middle of fantasizing her mouth clamped on his neck like a sucking kiss when his softened voice interrupted. Natalia wondered why Cjay sounded so compassionate all of a sudden. Moreover, she did not expect him to extend this conversation! She wanted him to go away already!

“I know it will be hard on your part to assist me, because I will just remind you of what happened to your aunt. Add to that your poor, sluggish little moves, like you’re in a slow-motion movie or something. Once I lose my control, you’re dead. I’ll . . .” he licked his lips, “. . . eat you up.”

‘Eat me up?’

Her lips lopsided.

‘You’ll . . . eat me up . . . Cjay?’

‘Can you?’

A creepy smile cracked on her lips. Natalia’s aura was now hooded by a dark shadow. Her smile grew more sinister as she caught her dripping saliva with her shaky palm.

“Do you think, you can eat me that easily, zombie?” she chuckled lowly.

Her tiny chuckle should creep him out, but Cjay was naturally oblivious to everything that happens around him, so he hadn’t taken note of how Natalia’s chuckle sounded.

“Duh. Obviously, yes,” he scoffed. “That’s why if I were you, move on from your aunt’s death and leave.”

Natalia wiped her lips and when she faced Cjay again, she discreetly wiped her palm at the back of her jeans.

“And why should I leave?” she mocked while reciprocating that staring competition that Cjay’s sharp, intense eyes started. “You want to be alone? Don’t you want an assistant?”

“Is there a normal person who wants to be tailed around?” he sulked.

“So, what are you planning to do then?” There was a silent threat in her menacing smile. “Are you going to scare me off,  just like what you did to your past assistants?”

He let out a groan. “Oh, please! I’m not scaring them! They are just exaggerating everything I do because I’m a zombie!”

“Then—” she swallowed back a ball of spit that formed in her throat, “—we’ll see about that. Now get out.”

He did not move an inch. Worse, he stared at her heavily. Was he hungry? Does he want to eat her already?

‘Try me. I’m not going to back down!’

What was Cjay even thinking? He had been quiet for a few minutes already and would not even break away from this long, uncomfortable staring onto her face. She turned her back on him to manage her salivation, but would steal glances at him just to find him rooted to where he stood.  She got so tired of glancing back, Natalia simply decided that she would keep her back turned on him until he leaves.

It lasted for a few seconds more before she heard Cjay close the door. With her chin and jaws wet with spit, Natalia turned around and confirmed that she was finally alone in her bed room.

***

IN the middle of the night, Natalia clutched on the bed sheets, struggling to control the involuntary contortions of her body. She forced herself to curve into a ball, squeezing in her stomach until she ended up bent over on the bed. This was followed by a quake that made her whole body tremble.

It was Cjay’s scent. He left it here and it still lingered in her room, filling her senses with delusions of having a feast.

Her imagination brought her to his chafed, rotting chest down to his stomach wrapped in white bandages. In her mind, she was slowly unwrapping his bandage as if she was pulling away a strip of green banana leaf to reveal a tasty suman (sticky rice and coconut milk cake) . . .

“Ah!” Natalia threw her head back and clutched her stomach against the fabric of her shirt. No matter how deep her fingers seemed to dig against her skin, the twisting pain caused by her hunger just wouldn’t go away.

Natalia kept her eyes shut tight, deeply etching the lines on each corners of her eyes. Long threads of her sticky spit where already hanging down from her lips and chin. Her fingers were starting to stretch longer, her nails were getting sharper and growing as narrow as pointed needles. She suppressed her groans by biting her lower lip until it bleed.  When she opened her eyes, they revealed her yellow eyeballs and narrow iris. The skin at the corners of her eyes pulled back to her head which made her eyes look bigger. She gaped and sharply inhaled.

Natalia weakly jumped off the bed and carefully probed the surroundings with her wild, alert eyes. Her long, black hair draped over her body’s frame, especially over the width of her shoulders. Her body was hunched as she walked sluggishly with her one arm dangling while the other clutching her stomach. Her colorless spit that glisten at every faint hit of light and hung down her mouth and chin swung in her every step.

She dragged her feet along the hallways of Malacañang, looking for anything to eat. ANything. It could be small animal that she could kill and eat when it was already a cold corpse. Natalia sniffed. Her eyes dilated when she inhaled a familiar scent.

‘That zombie! How come his scent is so strong here?’

She followed the scent slowly in spite of her desperation and hunger. A few more steps later and Natalia got in front of an open door that led to the kitchen.

‘Cjay’s here? He eats at this hour?’

Natalia was too weak to use her invisibility powers. Thankfully, the lights were off, so she hid herself among the shadows of the dark room. She inched as close as she could to where the soft glow of light was coming from. She saw Cjay hunched over the meat freezer, greedily munching on the pulsing human meat stored in there. That meat freezer was right beside the refrigerator that she was rummaging earlier when Cjay found her in the kitchen. It was hard to tell though, that it was a meat freezer, because it was placed inside a wooden chest that looked like a kitchen cabinet. Natalia could smell those meats earlier. If Cjay did not show up too soon, she could have located that meat freezer!

Cjay suddenly stopped. With lips, chin, and cheeks smeared in blood, pieces of meat, and juices, he glanced over his shoulder. Natalia cautiously stepped back to hide deeper into the shadows. She heard his rough grunt followed by the squishing of raw meat.

Her nose tingled. ‘That’s human meat . . .’

“Natalia,” Cjay gargled on blood a little bit at the mention of her name.

Being called by her name alerted Natalia. She pressed her back on the wall at her attempt to sink her form completely among the shadows.

“I know it’s you,” he continued. “I could smell you, stinky.”

“Urrr . . .” Natalia covered her mouth. She tried to talk, only to realize that it was impossible. She could not talk to Cjay in this form. Her transformations make her voice raspy . . . monstrous.

“Ha. Ha.” Cjay fake laughed in a mocking tone when he heard her noise. “You’re now a certified heavyweight champion at ticking me off, you stinky. But don’t trip on me right now, or I’ll add you to my midnight snack.”

Cjay probably said that because thought that she was mimicking a zombie’s groan earlier. His remark was followed by his energetic, watery munching.

‘I’ll wait for Zombie to fall asleep, then I’ll sneak back in here and take some of his human meat,’ Natalia thought before she swung left and right while stepping away from the kitchen. She would be looking for a place to hide in, somewhere close to the kitchen, but safe from the roaming guards and Cjay’s sharp sense of smell.

She could not help feeling more light-footed and optimistic. ‘Even if I’m unwilling, I took the chance and agreed to be that zombie’s assistant to survive. Seems like I just made the right decision. My identity is at risk to be discovered here, but I guess there’s no other choice for me but to stay with Zombie . . . I’ll survive much better in here.’