CHAPTER 26
Sheila is so makalat
“I don’t understand how you can be so organized in the rest of High Tower, and still be so makalat (disorganized) in your own office, Tita She.”
Pike picked up a box in the middle of Sheila’s top-floor, ex-storage room office. It was filled to the brim with old textbooks, stationary supplies, generic spare trophies, picture frames, tabletop decor, pillows, bed sheets… and other items that made him wonder if the rest of the university used this top floor as their personal storage space at one point in time.
Actually, each subsequent container he moved off to the side only strengthened his impression of that passing thought. Why was there a whole box of unused toothbrushes up here?
Sheila walked up next to Pike, setting another of the boxes down and off to the side. “Eh naman, ubos na energy ko (Well, I’m out of energy) by the time I get up here. Things would be cleaner if I had kasama (a companion) all the time like you.”
She flashed a mischievous grin at her nephew. “Are you making her ligaw? (Are you courting her?)”
It was a remark Pike knew was coming, but it still caught him off-guard. Sheila had that tendency with him. Anticipating the remark wasn’t the same as hearing it. And being prompted to think of how he might sweep his copper brown-haired, green-eyed constant off her feet in some small or grand fashion was… farfetched? His reflex was to laugh it off.
“Who, Mindie? She’s my best friend, Tita She. I don’t know if I can think of her in any other way. I don’t think she can either.”
Sheila sighed, shaking her head. “Sayang, ang ganda pa naman niya. (What a waste; she’s pretty attractive too.)” She moved away to start shoveling some loose picture frames and old stereo speakers off to the side.
“Sure, but it’s not that kind of love.”
“Sige, sige, bahala ka. (Sure, sure, whatever you say.)”
Sheila began tucking a book away onto a bookshelf, briefly glancing over her shoulder. Her nephew must not have noticed that small smile on his own face. That’s how she knew. But still…
“How could you know if it’s love…” Her teeth clenched. “…when it doesn’t even hurt.”
Pike looked over, curious. “Ano daw? (What did you say?)”
By that point, Sheila’s attention was turned fully to the bookshelf as she slipped the tome in her hand between two more. She raised the volume of her voice this time so he could hear her more clearly, a twinge of indignance in her tone. “Sabi ko nga (I just said), have you even imagined her na walang damit?”
“Na walang—?!”
There had been a handful of times when Pike hung out in her room, and Mindie felt comfortable enough to change her shirt in front of him. Even her pants. Her figure was… exceptionally attractive, to say the least. Well, anyone could see that even when she was fully clothed. It only became more apparent in her underwear. And to imagine her in anything less than that…
Pike felt his entire face flush hotly, his forehead immediately perspiring. He turned away again. “Don’t make me think weird things!”
Sheila nearly lost her knees in a fit of laughter. She braced herself against the top of her desk before she could fall completely over. Her nephew didn’t find it very funny. He huffed indignantly and gave another box a slight kick, sending it sliding a few inches out of the center of the room.
“Sorry na, sorry na! (All right, all right, I’m sorry!) I really appreciate that you two came to help today.” She wiped a tear from her eye as her laughter subsided. Then she walked around her desk, her hands tracing along a single book that had been left there. “I’m actually planning a bit of an experiment, so I need as much floor space as I can get here.”
“Huh? What are you gonna do?”
His aunt lifted the book, standing it upright on top of the desk so that he could see the title: Methods of the Occult. Pike walked over to her and adjusted his eyeglasses reflexively as he scrutinized the cover.
“What’s this got to do with your experiment?”
Sheila gave him the slightest leer, signaling a moment’s offense at his ignorance. It was quickly replaced by a hint of devious pride in her dark eyes. “This is the solution. Did you know, when a luminescent becomes a Shade, and that Shade is destroyed, a kind of… rift… is left behind?”
She turned away from him, cradling the book in her arms as she cracked it open. “Why do you think that is?”
Pike didn’t have the slightest clue about it. The one time he would have seen it was…
He shook his head. What he did clue in on was the worried pit forming in his stomach. He didn’t know where she was going with this, but his aunt’s eyes seemed to glaze over as she perused the book in her hand.
“I’ve been thinking,” she continued. “I’ve been getting this… nagging idea. Those horror films? Stories of people summoning demons? There might be some wisdom in those.”
“Yeah—that wisdom being, don’t do it.”
Pike eyed her warily. The pit in his stomach constricted further into a knot, and he felt himself starting to tremble. He had to know.
“What are you planning, Tita She?”
Sheila paused and tilted her head slightly, glancing over her shoulder towards her very special nephew. The look in her eyes was one of… determination? It could just as easily have been one of disregard. It could even have been a look that conveyed she had just uncovered a forbidden secret, and that no one could stop her from unleashing it on the world. Perhaps that was the most likely one—the look that all else came second to what she had decided.
When she finally responded to his question, Pike felt a dizzying daze wash over him.
“To bring back Soren Park.”
