by Rona Go
"Gosh, Jonah—I am scared. There's a killer on the loose and we don't know who the new healer is. Who will be next?" Jane said. She was almost in tears with her lips trembling a little.
"Please don't say that, Jane," Jonah told her older sister. "It could all be a case of mistaken identity. Jemmah may not be the person they were after."
"Jemmah may not be," Jane contended. "But the woman who paid the guy to do it sounds so much like your mother, it is impossible to consider it merely as a coincidence."
"It is impossible, your mother is dead!" Jonah replied. "You said it so yourself. What can she do?"
"This healer stuff is also impossible," Jane said. She looked out the window and looked like she was contemplating on what she was going to say next. "The thing is—because of your mother's image in the picture, it is impossible for Jemmah's accident to be an accident. It was premeditated. The way I see it, Jemmah became the first target because your mother was in favor of her, Jonah! Even if they never really came to terms with each other."
"Oh, Jane—" Jonah expressed her alarm. "They may go after you next. Your mother had entrusted to you a lot of responsibilities regarding the household and her children. You need to be careful."
"That's what I am scared off," Jane confided. Both women became silent all the way home, swallowed in their own worlds.
Jonah was just rounding the curve to their driveway towards the front door, when she caught a glimpse of a shadowy outline in the bushes. The figure was no doubt Xavier.
Hoping that Jane was too preoccupied to notice him, Jonah allowed herself to dilly-dally when the car finally came to a stop. Pretending to have a hard time finding her things at the back of the car, Jane left her as the older woman dashed off hurriedly inside the house.
Jonah immediately scampered to where Xavier was. With an accusing tone, she told him, "I told you I was going to meet you tomorrow. Why did you have to come here?"
"I didn't trust you would show up," Xavier said uncomfortably. "So I decided to camp out here no matter what."
"You're crazy!"
"So what?" Xavier said and smiled showing off his perfectly white teeth and boyish expression.
"We can't talk right now," Jonah said.
"Who says I came here to talk," Xavier said. His hands smoothly went to the sides of her neck and smoothly pulled her face close to his until they were lip to lip.
Then, Jonah felt his soft lips parting a little and taking little bites of her upper lip. Her hands had automatically wrapped around his neck until her senses left her totally. The tingling sensations all over her body were the only remnants left of her awareness as she parted her own lips to kiss him and accept his familiar scent which pulled her even closer.
Then, wham! The same smashing feeling in her stomach rushed forth. Worse, another scent invaded the atmosphere as the hair on Jonah's back suddenly stood on its ends—it was the menthol scent that she was getting familiar with.
Pulling roughly away from Xavier and feeling frightened all of a sudden, Jonah said, "Get out of here, X!"
Looking befuddled with his brows in a scowl, Xavier stammered back, "W—hat? What are you saying?" He looked around him as if he was trying to figure out where he was while running a confused hand on his head.
"Go home, please!" Jonah urged. "I don't feel safe for the two of us!" She started to make her way towards the front door when Xavier stopped her from behind, holding her by the shoulders.
With her stomach being squeezed like a coil, Jonah leaned her head on Xavier's chest and took in a long, hard breath, her eyes darted to the second landing where Rebecca's room was, just in time to see the light turning off but still catching a glimpse of the back of a woman with long, black mane down to her waist—just like her mother.
Unable to get any words out of her mouth, Jonah began trembling, much to Xavier's dismay.
"Jonah, are you alright?" Xavier asked in a loud, panicky voice.
"I—just saw—" Jonah started to say, trailing her sentence off and unable to stop herself from quivering fiercely.
"What?" Xavier said, shaking Jonah softly. "What did you see?"
"Jane—is upstairs!" Jonah began screaming. "Jane, Jane, Jane—get down!" Then, she started running in the direction of the front door, with Xavier following closely.
The front porch flooded with lights and Jane came out. Seeing the two together, she charged towards them and got hold of Jonah immediately.
"What have you done to her?" Jane screamed at Xavier.
"I didn't do anything to her. I swear!" Xavier said confused. He was looking from Jane to Jonah and back again.
"No, Jane, I—" Jonah stuttered.
Another figure came out from the bushes and joined them. It was Lucas, the Lively's driver.
"You get out of this property at once or I'll call the police," Jane threatened, pronouncing every syllable of the words in a stutter. Jonah had never seen her sister that angry before. The older woman had been shaking all over she could barely talk.
"Please, Madam—" Lucas said politely, albeit nervously, "We are leaving immediately."
Without hesitating, Lucas pulled Xavier from whence he came from, to the trail leading towards the woods connecting both properties.
"Jonah, what? Will you be alright?" Xavier demanded.
"Please go, X!" Jonah pleaded. "We'll be fine! Just go!"
Without a backward glance, Jonah entered the house with Jane, who had regained her old self and was already breathing easily.
Jonah held on to her sister tightly. "Let's get out of here and go back to the hospital, Jane!" she whispered.
"There's something you need to see," Jane told her mysteriously.
All the more, Jonah was trembling with fear. There was only Jane and her inside the huge mansion with Xavier and Lucas gone. The household helpers and the driver had their own quarters outside of the house. If anybody attacked them, it will take minutes before anybody could reach them alive.
"What is it, Jane?" Jonah asked, tugging at Jane's sleeves like a child. "Let's see it in the daylight and when everybody's here. Let's go back to the hospital."
"We need to go to my room," Jane said. "We've been ransacked!"
Jonah stopped on her tracks and held Jane's arm firmly. "That's it! We're not going up there on our own. Let's call the police. We don't know if the people who did it are gone. For all we know, they could still be inside the house."
"Damn it, Jonah!" Jane said, sounding exasperated. "I have been upstairs. I have seen the room. There's nobody up there. Let's go!"
The thought of Jane going up by herself and being left alone urged Jonah to follow Jane reluctantly to the second landing. Jonah got her phone and dialed Jervais' number.
"Who are you calling now?" Jane asked.
"Jervais," Jonah answered.
"Will she be able to help if anything happened to us? Think about it, Jonah!" Jane said. There was no doubt that her patience was running low.
"At least she can hear what's happening to us," Jonah argued. Just then, Jervais had picked up her phone. "Jervais, hello?"
"So, how's it going out there?" Jervais said jovially. "Did anyone get killed?"
"Jervais, Jane said the house had been ransacked," Jonah said while walking hand in hand with Jane towards the bedroom. "We are going up Jane's room to see! Please stay by the phone. It would make me feel comfortable knowing—"
"What?" Jervais was screaming on the other end of the line. "Why are you still in there? Why haven't you called the police? Are you two daft or something? Let me call the police—"
"No! No! Don't hang up!" Jonah said urgently. "Stay on the line, please!"
"Okay, I'll stay! Will tell Brice to call the police—" Jervais said.
Jonah could hear a muffled silence on the other end of the line. Jervais was probably telling Brice what happened and to call the police.
Rounding the bend towards a corridor that led to a line of almost six rooms on the left wing, Jonah almost drop
ped her phone and shouted in fright.
Damian, the family driver, was also rounding the bend to the stairs and almost collided with Jane and Jonah.
"Hello! Jonah, are you alright?" Jervais' voice came on top of her usually tone. She was sounding frantic.
"Damian, you scared me!" Jonah said addressing the driver. Then, she turned to her phone and told Jervais, "It's only Damian!"
"Damian? What's he doing there?" Jervais asked.
Rebecca had made it a point that the driver and house helpers except for Mara, who had served the Blood family for almost fifty years were not allowed on the second floor. Not unless they were summoned by the matriarch. Even guests to the mansion only occupied the right wing.
"What are you doing here, Damian?" Jane demanded, looking over the driver in a bossy manner. "Have you forgotten that this area is strictly prohibited?"
"Of course, Ma'am!" Damian said, bowing his head a little. "I have not forgotten!"
"Explain yourself then!" Jane commanded authoritatively.
"Gosh, I can hear Jane's being hard on the guy from here—" Jervais said.
"Quiet! This is not our stuff," Jonah hissed.
"I received an unusual summon, Ma'am!" Damian started to explain. "I couldn't believe it myself. I was in the quarters having a quiet dinner when I heard it. I wanted to ignore it. But I had to come up here to see—because it won't stop! You can ask Mara about it. She was with me when it happened—"
"What happened? What summon? Who would call for you and why?" Jane inquired quickly.
"The Madam!" Damian answered fearfully. "Madam Rebecca herself!"
"Good heavens!" Jervais blurted out.
"Did you hear that?" Jonah asked out loud. Jane threw her an annoyed and put-that-thing-off look.
"Yes, I heard everything!" Jervais answered. "My goodness, that's spooky!"
"You can't expect us to believe that, can you?" Jane asked incredulously. "How?"
"Her phone, Ma'am!" Damian responded. "The Madam usually called me if she wanted me to drive her around even in the middle of the night. You know how the Madam had an erratic schedule. You can check out her phone and the last call she made."
"Where is the phone?" Jane urged and proceeded to Rebecca's room followed closely by Jonah and Damian.
They found the phone by Rebecca's bedside table. When Jane re-dialed, Damian's phone rang and Jonah couldn't help but jumped as her skin crawled instantaneously.
Looking calm and collected, Jane told the driver, "I will see to this tomorrow, Damian! But I do believe, it's nothing but a prank."
When the driver left to go down, Jane dragged Jonah to her room. The place was in a total mess. The mattresses were slashed open with the fiber everywhere. The lovely cushions of her stuffed, oversized chairs were turned upside down. The pillows and the comforter were carelessly strewn on the floor. And the drawers of her bedside tables were pulled and left hanging open.
"The call to Damian was just a decoy," Jane announced. "Whoever did it was only after one thing—the habak. It's stolen!"
Chapter 20
The Bloody Duo
After having spent half-asleep and half-awake last night, Jonah was quite sure she would be suffering the repercussions the following day. The night before, she woke up in the middle of the night for a couple of times. And it was physically painful on Jonah's part when she was on the verge of losing her senses to slumber, only to be awakened with a start. Every time she heard a small movement anywhere near her radius, she stirred awaked.
It was probably the work of her subconscious mind to keep awake for the slightest noise because she had to sleep back in her room finding Jane's room not quite usable for the night after it had been violently turned inside out to search and steal the habak.
Jonah wanted to go back to the hospital, but Jane had reasoned there was only one available couch. Jervais didn't come home as expected because Brice didn't want to be left alone in his place after hearing everything that transpired back in the mansion.
So Jonah was with her Aunt Judith who occupied the entire basement for herself, which for her did not count much for company. Her Aunt Judith could be sleeping right next door but she still would not feel protected. That left her alone to take the responsibility to protect like a bulwark the whole second floor with at least twelve rooms for the right and left wing and the library.
Worse, her Aunt Judith did not show any concern when she learned about the break in. She did not even suggest to bring in the police to investigate.
"What will you tell the police?" Aunt Judith reprimanded. "Everything in the house remained intact except for Jane's room and nothing has been taken? No locks were broken. Nothing. That's a big joke. The treasure and valuables are all over the place especially at our dear Rebecca's room. Why didn't the people responsible for trashing Jane's room touch the other rooms? Unless there's something more valuable than anything else Jane's hiding in her room, isn't there?"
Jane and Jonah exchanged worried looks. They had not shared with their Aunt Judith that the broken habak had been the only thing stolen by whoever was responsible for messing up Jane's place.
"You are right, Aunt Judith," Jane replied in acquiescence. She caught Jonah's eyes, gave a little shake of her head, signaling for Jonah not to say anything anymore.
"Whoever did it is from the inside of this house," Aunt Judith proclaimed with certainty. "And we will certainly not catch him or her tonight. If nothing's been stolen, let's just let it go. But let's not let our guard down and be vigilant especially after what happened to Jemmah. People who are after the healer's blood will go for the kill. They don't trash things to give people a fright. So, let's not worry too much on what happened tonight. Let's be wary about Jemmah."
So, when Jonah woke up the next day, she looked at her hands expecting to find her skin asthma worsening. However, for the first time, she noticed that not only the itchiness was unnoticeable but the ugly rashes were also gone. Even the scars were no longer evident. She could not even remember the last time she had a strong attack of itch. She smiled to herself. There was one hopeful area in her life at the moment after all.
Jervais suddenly barged inside the room and plopped herself on Jonah's bed.
"You have got to tell me everything!" Jervais demanded.
"Good morning to you too, Jervais!" Jonah greeted her sister, allowing herself a big yawn and a stretch of her arms."You've heard me on the phone last night, right?" Jonah added.
"What did Aunt Judith have to say about everything?" Jervais asked.
Jonah bent forward and told Jervais in a low voice as if sharing a top secret, "She didn't seem concerned at all! It baffles me why."
"But that's her, right," Jervais said. "Nothing is new!"
"Oh come on, Jervais!" Jonah argued. "She's usually the one who provokes and stirs all of us to fear. But with what happened to Jane's room—calm is an understatement."
"So what are you thinking?" Jervais replied.
"She did it!" Jonah said matter-of-factly.
"Why?" Jervais asked, her brows in a scowl. "Why will she do it? Does she think Jane's the new healer?"
Without breaking Jane's confidence since Jervais did not know about the stolen habak, Jonah hinted as best as she could about the jewelry without divulging everything."Remember the night she visited Jane's room and caught the three of us—well, there was something there. She looked rather suspicious to me. And I think she doubted the three of us. She was probably looking for something in Jane's room."
"Did Jane say something was missing?" Jervais said thoughtfully.
Jonah attempted to deter the conversation away. "It was a rather busy night last night—" Jonah said leaving her sentence for Jervais to fill it in.
"Jane still doesn't know if anything has been stolen?" Jervais said. To this, Jonah just shrugged her shoulders silently.
"What about you? Are you still in character?" Jervais asked.
"What character?" Jonah asked, getting her brus
h from the bedside table and running it on her short hair.
"Juliet!"
"Ha-ha-ha! It's not funny anymore, Jervais!" Jonah said.
"You bet it's not. Jane told us everything," Jervais replied.
Jonah had totally forgotten about Xavier and his near confrontation with Jane because of the succeeding events that night.
"You know what, all of you are overreacting to this! It didn't matter to all of you whom I dated back then. Why all of a sudden, everyone seemed so against X and me?" Jonah told Jervais.
"You brought it upon yourself, Jonah. You have shown that you can't handle yourself when you're with him. That's why!" Jervais answered. "Why do you have to see him again?"
"It's not that!" Jonah said hesitantly.
"We've all witnessed how you were because of that guy," Jervais continued. "You are driving yourself physically ill and crazy."
"That's not true—" Jonah protested. "Well, that was before. What is happening now is different, Jervais. You guys just have to trust me!"
"How different can it be? Jane said you were trembling all over and you were crazily screaming out her name like you needed help or something. You looked so scared. What is all that? You've been there…done that. We've all seen it. Snap out of it." Jervais said sounding annoyed and hurt at the same time."I've just been going along with you because I thought you can already take care of yourself. But I was wrong. So please, Jonah—stop seeing that guy."
Jonah stared at Jervais for a moment, wanting so much to tell her about what she saw. And yet she debated against it. Jervais might think she had really gone nuts. Or she could be accused of using the woo-hoo stuff to avoid putting the blame on Xavier which was actually worse.
"I don't know why I still react to him that way—" Jonah began.
"I don't have any way gentler to say this, but you may need to start seeing a shrink. These people can put you under medication, Jonah," Jervais reasoned out.
"I don't need medication, Jervais. There's another reason which I can't tell you for now, other than my stubbornness, to see him again, Jervais," Jonah told her older sister.
"Try me—" Jervais challenged.
