The House of the Bruja

When he saw how vacated the place was, he realized what Judy had been saying was completely true. Lissa's place was vacated that it looked like a ghost town. Specially during this hour. Fallen leaves were all over the place, and there were bits and pieces of trash everywhere. The place looks like a complete mess.

Even the neighbors are missing. Maybe during this hour, everyone was still at work or was still hanging out with friends. Some parents may be fetching their children at a nearby or faraway day care. Or maybe everyone had some prior plans or schedules to leave all at the same time.

Does that even make sense?

Anthony had been knocking constantly at the door as well, yelling out and calling for Lissa's name, but no one answered. Not even a glimpse. A part of him wants to leave.

He wanted to leave the bag full of ingredients that he bought from a store, and maybe Lissa could just get it by the door. He even thought of the possibility of throwing the plastic away at an open window.

Also, he bought six pieces of Advil and six pieces of Paracetamol. He doesn't want to throw away these things. Thinking that may Lissa does really need to have them. He looked at his wrist watched and winced when he looked at the time.

Thirty minutes had passed since he arrived and still nothing. He gazed at the direction where his car was parked, it was getting tempting to hop inside and simply drive of. Lissa didn't really have to know that he came all the way here, does she?

So this is what it feels like to be left hanging. It's a very irritating feeling.

For the nth time --- mainly because he doesn't remember how many times he did it and he lost count already, plus his knuckles were hurting just from banging at the door --- but he wanted to give it a last shot.

"Lissa?!" He shouted against the door while he placed his ear against the door. He pressed his face closer, just to hear even a hint of breath or a footstep from inside.

With a heavy sigh, he closed his eyes. Maybe he let his impulsiveness control his actions a little too much this time. Not only did he buy raw ingredients for him to cook, he even asked his mother for the ingredients. And he even bought soup at a diner and waited for 30 minutes just for a single serving.

Now he feels like a fool.

Anthony clicked his tongue in annoyance. He lets go of the two plastic bags for a brief moment, placing it on the floor. He grabbed his phone from his back pocket and swiftly searched for his contacts.

He immediately dialed Lissa's number... But then again, even that futile attempt failed.

"Cannot be reached, son of a bitch." He hissed mentally. Now he's totally frustrated.

Not knowing what else to do, he checked out the doorknob and asked himself if there's a possibility that it's not locked.

'Lissa maybe be butt-shit crazy, but she isn't a fool to let the front door unlocked, right?' He thought. He turned the knob slowly, expecting it to be locked.

However, sometimes unexpected things and odd turn of events happens in life. Surely, Judy called Lissa prior to telling her friend that she and Nina will visit.

"Of course..." The door was unlocked. And somehow, he feels utterly stupefied. He felt like he wasted his precious time.

He facepalmed at the sheer stupidity of it all. Mentally slapping himself hard right after. Curse his parents for teaching him proper manners. But now is not the time to be so self-loathing for wasting his precious time.

He quickly picked up the bags from the floor and looked around if there are any witnesses on the place, fearing that someone will call the police since he's not from this area.

He feels like a burglar. With a swift sneak at the door, he quickly entered the house and closed the door at the same time. His back leaned against the door frame, and wondered why he was so out of breath.

He looked around the room and the place seems so dirty.

He eyed the place and it looked like a regular household. A living room, and television on the middle. Picture frames were displayed all over --- even the graduation pictures of Lissa and what seemed like her sister. Their resemblance is uncanny, and because their age gap isn't that big.

There's also a few unique decorations in the house. Colorful painting and skulls. It shows the Mexican background of the family living there and it was evident.

The other thing Anthony noticed was how dirty the place was. Lots of pieces of trash was on the floor and the kitchen counter was filled with unwashed dishes.

"What a mess." Anthony said out loud and his face scrunched in disgust.

And this is bad. Because he is a total clean freak, he can't help but look for a vacuum and clean up the place a little. He was about to walk straight to the kitchen and clean --- God know's what kind of mess is in there --- but then he heard three consecutive noises coming from the second floor.

It awfully sounded like a person's cough. Or maybe a dog.

He stood still, and a frown immediately showed on his face "Hm, did Lissa ever mention of having a pet?" He asked himself loudly, then he listened carefully again. He walked closer to the stairs since the sounds was obviously coming from the second floor. He then placed one of his feet at the second flight of stairs.

'That's definitely a person.' He thought to himself as he heard the similar noise, then there was a loud sneeze that resounded right after.

Now there's no denying it. Lissa really is not feeling well, and by the sounds of it, she has dry cough or something like the flu as what Judy told him before.

Anthony decided to go up and check on her first. He eyed the food that he left on the kitchen table. 'Hopefully, there are no rats here.' He thought to himself, his lips curving down to a frown. He then runs up to the second floor, and checked while listening intently where the coughing sound was coming from.

A few more seconds and he saw himself standing in front of a very dark colored and old door. This is one of those doors that's frequently used in horror movies. And from afar, it looked like it was stained with blood. But still, even though he was butt-shit scared of ghost and spooky dolls, he let himself in the room without warning.

And there she was. Lissa was covered with a thick blanket. On the side table there were bundles --- almost a small hill of used napkins and wipes that's probably used to wipe off her snot away.

'Disgusting.' He mentally noted.

A disgusted expression on his face showed when he looked and stared at Lissa. Her once curly and bouncy locks looked so oily that if you tried to press and squeeze it, for sure it was oily enough to fill a small bottle of baby oil.

Her eyes and nose were red, even her cheeks were red. And she looked like she haven't bathed in days. If she was starring in an anime, there's a high chance that there will be squiggly lines on top of her head.

He never saw Lissa so unpretty.

Well, how could she? She looked so sick that she looked like she needs immediate medical attention.

He was still stuck on his own world that he did not notice that Lissa had been shooting death glares at him and was screaming and call for his name.

"Anthony, what the heck are you doing here?! Avert your eyes from me, now!" Was her angry and muffled screams at Anthony. There was so many snot and mucus on her nose and sinus that even her speech was affected.

She took a small pillow right below her feet and throw it on his stupid looking face.

Anthony yelped when the soft pillow hit his face. "Ouch!" Was his loud protest. "What the heck was that for... totally unnecessary." He grumbled under his breath. He grabbed the pillow from the floor and placed it on the footrest of Lissa's bed.

"What are you doing here?" Was Lissa's question, riddled with irritation and she was clearly unhappy with Anthony's unprecedented visit. It's not that she's not happy to see him, it's just that...

"How did you get in here?! Did my Mom call you to check on me?!" Her continuous accusations resounded around the room. "How did you know that I'm sick?!"

Anthony smiled at the current state of Lissa. "Can you try to slow it down? Try to speak slowly." He said with a crooked smile. "I can't understand a thing you're saying. It sounds so gibberish... maybe from all the snot on your nose."

Anthony smiled when he saw a line of mucus was beginning to drip from Lissa's nose. "Oh... that looks pretty."

Lissa furrowed her brows then squinted her eyes, staring at Anthony who is obviously trying to hold onto his laugh. "What is your problem?" She asked.

Anthony did no speak, instead he pointed at his own nose and laughed.

Lissa's eyes shut wide open after realizing what it meant. "Oh, fuck!" She screamed then grabbed a paper towel. "Avert your eyes, or see it all!" Was what she said before she expelled mucus from her nose.

And after hearing that, Anthony never laughed so hard in his life.

============================

The relentless fighting and bickering ended after Lissa had enough of Anthony's teasing of her looking like Shrek's mistress. Anthony apologized, making sure that he tickled Lissa's good side. Lissa was still pouting, and Anthony mused that she looked like a duck.

A lot of pillows were also thrown at Anthony's face. Lissa only stopped because she realized that she has no pillow left on her bed, and only a few stuffed toys were left.

Anthony stopped picking them up and throwing back on Lissa's bed, she'll just throw at right back to his face, so why bother.

It took a few minutes before Anthony could heat up the soup he bought for her. He even served it, not asking Lissa to go down since he figured the more she rest --- the sooner she'll get back on her feet.

He brought the soup bowl up, placing it on top of a big plate so it would not spill. He placed the plate on the side of Lissa's bed. "Eat up." Was his expressionless order.

She didn't protest his demanding order since she's hungry and she also needed to drink her medicine. She can't miss anymore of her working hours since she's all alone and no one is going to pay her bills by herself. God knows how long Lolita will be staying at Mexico.

It's a blessing and a curse, Lissa thought.

She thanked Anthony for the meal. Yes, they were both quiet, yet they did not feel any awkward silence around them. It was just silent. And both of them liked it.

This is probably the first time they've stayed silent like this, and Anthony is actually feeling alright about it. Even though it's highly unusual for the two of them to act like this, he is open minded and with open-arms... Perhaps he's slowly accepting that something is changing between them.

Not for the worst, but hopefully for the better.

"What is the reason why you went here anyway?" Lissa asked so suddenly that it snapped Anthony from his own inner thoughts.

Lissa's question wasn't implying anything, she was just curious. "From what I know, there is no contract between boss-and-employee which fits what you're doing right now. And I can clearly remember that there is no statement that when an employee is sick, the Supervisor should be visiting the said 'sick' employee..."

She stopped talking mid-question and as usual, that smile of hers shows up. "...unless, you're starting to like me... maybe you're even in love with me."