The drive home from HVIS was a heavy, suffocating blur of gray. Jay Jay leaned her forehead against the cool glass of the passenger window, watching the neon signs of Manila bleed into long streaks of red and blue. Every muscle in her shoulders ached from the effort of holding herself up on those metal sticks all day.
Percy glanced at her from the driver's seat. He saw the way her jaw was set, the way her eyes looked like they were staring at something a thousand miles away. He hated that look. It reminded him of a bird with a broken wing that had simply stopped trying to fly.
He cleared his throat, adjusting his grip on the leather steering wheel. "You know, baby sistah ," he started, his voice casual and smooth, "I noticed a few of the girls at your school gates nearly tripped over their own feet when I pulled up."
Jay Jay didn't blink. "They were probably just shocked to see a car that old, Percy."
"Ouch. Low blow," Percy chuckled, though his eyes remained watchful. He reached up and adjusted the rearview mirror, but not to look at the traffic. He struck a pose, tilting his head to the side to admire his own jawline. "But let's be honest. It's not the car. It's the driver. I mean, look at this bone structure. It's a gift to humanity, really. I should probably start charging the public just for the privilege of looking at me."
A tiny, almost invisible twitch appeared at the corner of Jay Jay's mouth. It wasn't a smile, but it was a crack in the ice.
"Don't worry," Percy continued, seeing the small victory. "I know it's hard being the sister of the most handsome man in the Philippines. The pressure to live up to these genes must be exhausting for you. I'll try to wear a paper bag over my head tomorrow so you can actually get some attention."
"Please do," Jay Jay whispered, her voice raspy. "The glare from your ego is making my headache worse."
Percy laughed, a warm, genuine sound that filled the cramped space of the car. "See? There's my girl. Still got that sharp tongue, even if the leg is temporarily out of commission. Just remember, Jay—even if the whole world is acting like a mess, your big brother is still a ten out of ten. Everything else is just background noise."
But as they turned the corner into their neighborhood, Percy's smile faded into a sharp, focused line. He saw a black SUV parked two blocks away. His hand dropped instinctively to the space between the seats. He wasn't just a "ten out of ten" face; he was a shield. And he knew the war was getting closer.
Inside the house, the air felt different. It was the smell of sinigang—the sour, comforting scent of home—but to Jay Jay, it felt like an intrusion.
Tita Gemma was a whirlwind of nervous energy. "Jay! You're back! Come, sit. I made the broth extra sour, just the way you like it. Percy, help her with the chair!"
"I've got it, Tita," Jay Jay said, her voice flat again. Step. Crutch. Swing. The sound of the metal hitting the floor felt like a countdown.
She sat down, propping her leg on the stool Angelo had set out. Aries was already there. He was staring at his bowl, his spoon moving in slow, mechanical circles. He didn't look up. He didn't say "Welcome back." He didn't even breathe in her direction.
"So," Tita Gemma said, her voice shaking as she ladled soup. "How was the first day? Did Ci-N ask about your notes? I bet the boys were happy to have their 'Mutya' back."
Jay Jay looked at her spoon. Her hand began to tremor, a slow, rhythmic shake that made the broth ripple. "They were... fine, Tita."
"Just fine?" Kuya Angelo asked gently, his eyes scanning her face for signs of the vertigo he feared. "No drama? No Keifer causing trouble?"
The name hit her like a physical blow. Jay Jay's hand shook harder, the soup splashing onto the tablecloth. She looked at Aries, begging for him to look back. She wanted him to scold her for being messy. She wanted him to tell her to sit up straight.
But Aries just stood up, his chair screeching violently against the floor. "I'm not hungry," he snapped. He walked out of the room, his footsteps heavy and angry, leaving a trail of cold air behind him.
Jay Jay stared at the spot where he had been. The "Quiet Exhaustion" she had felt at school returned, heavier than before. She pushed her bowl away.
"I think I need to lie down," she whispered.
"But Jay, you haven't eaten—" Tita Gemma started.
"Let her go, Tita Gemma," Percy said, his voice unusually grim. He watched Jay Jay hobble toward the stairs, his heart breaking at the sight of her small, lopsided shadow on the wall. "She's had enough 'family time' for one day."
At keifer's house, the boys had agreed to stay there and look after Jay using the app OTJ101 ,the sun had set, but the room was bathed in the sickly blue light of a dozen monitors.
Edrix and Rory were sitting in total silence, their eyes fixed on the OTJ101 dashboard. Ci-N was curled up in a swivel chair, staring at the ceiling, his usual bright energy replaced by a dark, brooding stillness. David and Yuri stood by the window, watching the empty parking lot.
"She's in her bedroom," Edrix reported. "The GPS hasn't moved in an hour."
"Heart rate?" Keifer asked. He was sitting at the back desk, a laptop open in front of him, but he wasn't doing any schoolwork. He was looking at a high-resolution map of Jay Jay's room.
"72 BPM," Rory said. "It's stabilizing. But the 'Stress Indicator' is still in the yellow. She's awake, Keifer. She's just... sitting there."
"We're monsters," Ci-N said suddenly, his voice echoing in the quiet room. "We're sitting here watching her heartbeat like it's a stock market. Don't you guys get it? She's not a 'target.' She's Jay Jay. And we broke her."
"We're keeping her alive, Ci-N," Keifer said. His voice was cold, but if you looked closely, you could see his hands were tucked into his armpits to hide the fact that they were shaking. "My father's men are already in the city. If I don't have this link, I don't know where to send the guards when they come for her."
"You think Percy can't handle it?" David asked, turning around with a scowl. "Percy is a professional. You're just a kid with a tracker and a guilty conscience."
Keifer stood up, his eyes flashing with a sudden, violent fire. "Percy is one man! My family is a network! I'm not losing her because I was too 'polite' to watch her GPS!"
"You already lost her, Keifer," Kit muttered from the corner. "You saw her eyes today. She didn't even see us. She looked at us and saw a blank wall."
The silence that followed was heavy. Keifer looked back at the screen. He saw the blue dot. He saw the heart rate. And then, he saw the battery level: 4%.
"She didn't plug it in," Keifer whispered, a flash of genuine panic crossing his face. "If that phone dies, the link breaks. Edrix, find a way to remote-trigger the power-save mode. Now!"
In the darkness of her room, Jay Jay didn't care about battery percentages. She lay on her back, staring at the seventeen cracks in the ceiling. The room felt too big, the shadows of the trees outside dancing across her walls like ghosts.
She closed her eyes, but the "Disease"—the Post-Traumatic Syncope the doctors had warned Angelo about—was waiting. Her vision started to pulse. A high-pitched ringing started in her ears, sounding like a distant siren.
"It's part of the plan, Jay."
"I used you"
"I didn't love you"
The voice was so loud she thought Keifer was in the room. She sat up abruptly, a wave of nausea crashing over her. She reached for the glass of water on her nightstand, her fingers fumbling in the dark.
Smash.
The glass hit the floor, shattering into a thousand glittering shards.
"Tita?" Jay Jay tried to call out.
But her throat felt like it had been filled with concrete. She pushed the air from her lungs, her chest heaving, but no sound came out. The "Silent Gift"—the temporary vocal paralysis caused by the trauma—had locked her voice in a cage.
Panic exploded in her chest. 130 BPM. 140 BPM.
Across the city, Keifer's phone began to vibrate violently. [WARNING: EXTREME HEART RATE DETECTED].
Jay Jay tried to get out of bed, her hand reaching for her crutches. But her left leg was a numb, heavy weight. She took one step, her crutch hitting a wet patch of spilled water and glass.
Her world tilted.
She hit the floor with a dull thud, her head cracking against the leg of the nightstand. The pain was a white-hot flash that blinded her. She lay there among the shards of glass, her breath coming in ragged, silent gasps.
On the nightstand above her, her phone lit up one last time.
[BATTERY 1% - SHUTTING DOWN]
Before the screen went black, a single message appeared.
King of ulupong : JAY? ARE YOU OKAY? JAY RESPOND TO ME PLEASE. JAY?
But Jay Jay couldn't respond. Her eyes drifted shut as the darkness finally won. She was alone in the dark, her voice gone, her link to the world severed, while miles away, a black car tore out of the school parking lot, headed toward a blue dot that had just disappeared from the map.
Keifer couldn't stay at the school. He drove to Jay Jay's neighborhood and parked his car under a large tree at the end of the street. He jumped out and ran toward the iron gate of her house. He just wanted to see her window. He just wanted to be near her.
But he was stopped dead in his track when Percy saw him
Percy walked toward the gate, his shoulders slumped as if they were made of lead. The "National Treasure" charm was gone, replaced by dark circles under his eyes and a shirt wrinkled from a long, stressful day. He looked at Keifer not with anger, but with a deep, bone-weary exhaustion.
"Please, Keifer," Percy said, his voice quiet and raspy. "Not tonight. She's finally resting, and the house needs to be quiet. Just... go home. Please."
Keifer opened his mouth to argue, but his phone suddenly buzzed with a frantic call. It was the head maid from his estate, her voice trembling. "Sir Keifer, please come quickly! Master Keigan has locked himself in his room again. He's shouting, and he won't let anyone in. We're afraid he'll hurt himself!"
Keifer looked at Jay's dark window, then at Percy's tired face. With a cursed whisper, he turned and sprinted back to his car.
At the Keifer estate, the hallway was a scene of chaos. Kieran was banging on the heavy oak door of Keigan's room. "Kuya! Open the door! It's me, Kieran! Please, just talk to us!"
Keifer pushed past the crying maids, his face hard. "Keigan! Open this door right now!"
For thirty minutes, it was a battle of wills. Keifer's voice was stern, then pleading, while Kieran sat on the floor against the door, whispering memories of when they were kids. Finally, the click of the lock echoed through the hall. The door swung open, revealing a disheveled Keigan. Keifer grabbed his brother in a tight, silent embrace, his heart breaking for his fractured family.
But while the brothers finally stood together in the hallway, miles away, the silence in Jay Jay's room had become deadly.
-
When the sun finally rose, the house was very quiet. Tita Gemma walked upstairs with a tray of breakfast, humming a little song to herself. She opened Jay Jay's door.
"Jay, sweetie? Time to wake—"
The tray hit the floor with a loud crash. "JAY JAY!" Tita Gemma screamed.
Percy was the first one in the room. He ran through the door, his face pale with terror. He saw Jay Jay on the floor, her skin as white as marble. He saw the blood from where her head had hit the nightstand and the broken glass all around her.
"Jay!" Percy dropped to his knees. He checked her neck and felt a very weak, very slow pulse. "Angelo! Get the medical kit! NOW!"
As they lifted her limp body onto the bed, a small black device fell out from under her pillow. It wasn't her phone. It was a second tracker—one that was much smaller and more hidden.
Percy picked it up. He recognized the symbol on the back. It wasn't Keifer's. It belonged to the "Vipers"— him and jay's father's worst enemies.
"They're inside the house," Percy whispered, his voice shaking with a cold, terrifying anger. "They've been watching her from right under our noses."
He looked at Jay Jay's silent face and made a promise. No more jokes. No more games. The war wasn't coming anymore—it was already here, and Jay Jay was the first casualty.
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HIIIIII I missed u alll
I'm sorry for taking long to post chapters it's just that I'm taking my time so I can write u a chapter filled with emotions
I want to thank you all for ur comments and supports yall have no idea how much that means to me !!!!
Love u all 🎀✨