XV - News

"How did you do that?" Naria suddenly spoke, her voice was deep and rash, full of smoke and somber. Before the hazel-haired girl would take a sip from her bottled cola she questions, "Do what?"

"Everything." The celebrity answers, after her near death experience Naria was rushed and given hospitality to a nearby street food restaurant.

And after how well Denise treated the poor actress, she somehow still couldn't find an answer to that question. "I just-" she paused, a waitress had to interrupt with meals she brought on her hand, "Here you go, ma'am and sir." On the table are crispy meals of fried tilapia with rice, served with soft drinks and water in cold steel glass.

'Sir.'

Disrupted, both of them are, she has the chance now to take a better look on Naria, longer and way more properly. She observes from head to toe, widening her eyes noticing its full of astonishing changes. Aside from her voice, it starts from her long hair that was once admired by girls and boys, now it's wrecked cut short above the shoulder length.

Her bangs and the ends of each strand were cropped and unaligned, as it was forced to cut it off only with a sharp glass mirror. Her unusual change in attitude applies to her look, like her obscurity, as the way the shadow enshrouded her blue eyes.

But what caught her attention is down to Naria's hands, slender and vein-bulging. Those hard-working hands she used to hide all the time during the event, except she never saw it have a bandage wrapped on it now.

"What happened to your hand?" Completely forgetting Naria's question beforehand, the celebrity instantly hides it back in her pockets "Don't change the topic now, I'm asking you first."

"How did you do it, how did you recognize me?" She asks one more, Denise, struck by Naria's sudden strictness but she can't blame her. Naria is incredibly unrecognizable on her new look, especially that she had her face mask worn.

She scratched the back of her neck; it was difficult to explain.

The scene where she had images of a snake, a winged creature and a woman that looks closely like the celebrity popping up in her mind happened again at the middle of the road.

But this time, it wasn't about the two animals fighting. It was the woman only, instead of blue, she had big brown eyes full of pity, pleading for help. Causing Denise to instinctively take risks in a second to grab Naria to safety.

But telling her that would definitely make the celebrity call Denise crazy.

"Uh, well... " She stutters, taking a quick look on Naria's androgynous appearance to think of another answer.

Then bingo, "Your earrings, it was pretty shiny, so I noticed it.." present right behind the veiling of her dark hair, "You wore it earlier at the museum, and I remember the earrings looked quite identical with the artifacts."

While she had the earrings mentioned, it made Naria panic, forcing her scarred hands scuffle immediately to have it removed from her. The jewelry was made of pure gold and the gemstone was very well polished; she carefully placed the earrings on the table's served napkins.

"Woah what's wrong?'

"These are the special kind that you'd never see the same design in all different brands." As placed neatly, she'd blanketed too with another piece of tissue.

"My earrings were a gift; I shouldn't have brought them here." Naria would slide the pair across the surface, secretly showing the jewelry and let Denise herself unfold to her curiosity. "So, these were?"

"A family emblem, the wings symbolize an owl's flight of wisdom, the gem was customized for me." The pictures come back, remembering that the winged creature turns out to be an owl this whole time, attacking on a snake.

"And what does the gem supposed to mean?" Bringing the earrings back to Naria, she had her chin resting on her palm as she deliberately tried to recall the pair's origins.

"I always loved the color blue, so my lola picked the gemstone for me. Sodalite. Lola said it brings order and calmness of mind. And well..." She halts, before she could continue, a television plays out a breaking news channel with an image of Naria had her long hair back with her dress on, planted in the background of the reporter.

"As for the reported commemoration of the family's long history for the Arcangels, celebrating their 100th Year anniversary today by the National Museum of Anthropology, it didn't quite end well with this viral hit video shown just a few hours ago."

Embarrassed, Naria's already looking away, though Denise wanted to see how the situation earlier was portrayed.

"Your grandmother, she may rest in peace."

The video starts with Cheska's voice.

"She died? Since when?"

Then followed by a perplexed tone in Naria's question.

"You... Don't know?"

"Nobody does." The dialogue that made the other customers in the restaurant gasp dumbfounded.

Denise grimaces that no matter how the reporter shows the context, it's still as bad as it is. "Naria, I'm really sorry about what happened earlier..."

"Why are you apologizing?" By a split second, Naria had already picked up a new cigarette and lit it up like nothing happened. "I didn't know you smoke-"

"Answer the question please."

"I-i meant to apologize on behalf of my colleague." Astounded by her completely different behavior.

"You guys are law students, right? Last college year and graduate about this month. That was pretty hard to believe, especially coming from your friend over there." The two are both uncomfortable, and they expressed it differently.

"She's not really my friend anymore."

"You and I probably had the same friend who asked me this stupid question." Naria jokes as she exhales a big smoke, making Denise swat her hands around to avoid the smell.

"My friend used to ask me, would you rather be poor but happy or be rich but sad," she adds, "I said don't choose wealth over mental health if you have absolutely no clue on managing your finances, because either way you're gonna get fucked up."

"At least that's what's happening to me right now, in conclusion: I look like a man with a broken future." The place suddenly went uncomfortably silent, let alone the clanking of utensils on the plate and the noisy revs of motorcycle driving by, fill in-between their conversation.

The event's bad ending kept overwhelming them with a mess that they don't know how to fix, however Denise doesn't want to keep it that way "I don't think you look like that kind of person at all." As she wished to break the silence.

"Oh, you don't know me, darling, yet it's strange how we've bumped into each other twice now, I wonder when we'll see again."

"I want it often." To reply to Naria's sarcasm, she brought her notebook out from her bag, quickly flipping the pages until her autograph was shown. "I noticed you've drawn a tiny Morse code on the autograph, and I understood immediately that it said S.O.S, I kept looking for you right when you left. I want to help."

Naria stopped at a split second, stunned. "Are you actually serious?"

"Your changes definitely say a lot, miss Naria, so yes I am." Denise remembers how the dress narrowly embraces the celebrity's feminine silhouette, an alluring combination of a sweet younging image with a luscious hourglass grandiose. It was tight, like she was forced. A crazy comparison now to Naria's drenched suit from the rain, loosening for her comfort as moist in the fabric forms her slim and big padded shoulders, giving her a taller and bulky build.

That is not something she has seen before in the local environment of fame, when famous people feel negative, they act as if happiness will soon replenish them, it's like it's in their blood, but for Naria that rarely is in her case. "You're just different, like an ensheathing treasured enigma." Denise leans close, interest blooms in her eyes.

Naria being locked into it, no matter how much the smoke blocks their view. "And you're remarkably observant, I didn't expect anyone to respond to that, I never got your name either so what is it?" She distanced the cigarette away from her face, seeking a clearer perspective for Denise, with her elbow onto the table leaning close too.

"It's Denise, to be honest this is kind of exciting so how can I be at your service?"

The more she looks down, the more her droopy blue eyes remain hidden "I don't want to let you down but," She sighs, shortly bringing back the cigarette closer and get another huff of smoke, "I don't know how, they can easily take you down if you get involved, they're too powerful."

"But we can collaborate, you're an Arcangel, beating you won't be too easy!"

"Shhh, not so loud!" They skulk together after Naria alarmed Denise. Looking around, thankfully people don't seem to notice, the restaurant is an open area and the outdoors itself is too loud for anyone to hear.

"Denise," She called, watching over the girl cower with her hands on her mouth taking cover, "I really appreciate your effort but even if we collaborate, what can we do?"

Puzzled by Naria's statement, she straightened herself up with her hands back down on the table. "I'm confused, you have to tell me what's there to worry about anyway?"

Naria looking back at the television is enough to answer her question, this time the news shows a recent photo of the grandmother, aged, wrinkled but fancy with white-teethed smiles and an elegant dress. "The alleged death of Historia Cruz, the famous athlete star and actress, Naria de-Arcangel's grandmother, still hasn't made any updates to prove her status."