Me Without You (16 page)

Jonah was about to go down when she was
tempted to look inside Rebecca's room. She entered the bedroom
hesitantly. The sheets were all new and fresh. There were even
fresh flowers everywhere. But the vision of Rebecca's dead body
with her eyes open, lying on her bed was still visible in Jonah's
mind.

She opened the heavy curtains and a few
of the large windows to allow light and air to come in. Even with
the wind blowing in Jonah's direction from the outside, she could
still smell the faint scent of Rebecca inside the room. She
trembled inside.

"This was a mistake," Jonah murmured
and turned to leave.

But before Jonah could reach the door,
she saw movement from the corner of her eye. She wasn't certain at
all, but it looked like a shapeless and dark shadow coming out from
the floor. When she tried to look, there was nothing
there.

However the sense of the dark, shadowy
thing Jonah saw was still very much present and she could feel it.
It even seemed to have followed her from behind, pushing her to
glide towards the door in a few hurried steps.

As Jonah opened the door, she heard
Aunt Judith's stilettos at the end of the corridor coming towards
the direction of Rebecca's room.

Not knowing what was more
frightening—Aunt Judith or the shadowy thing which could be a
figment of her imagination, Jonah opted to back away and used the
door to her room to exit Rebecca's bedroom.

Jonah slipped out her own room and went
down for breakfast. She had wanted to go down early to avoid
bumping into anyone. But it seemed she was the last one up. She
passed through the grand, empty dining hall where they usually
gathered for meals when they were complete as a family. It had been
years, since the room was put into good use. She proceeded down the
kitchen where they usually take their meals on their own. It was
frustrating for her to find out that Jervais and Brice were already
having breakfast in the kitchen.

Jonah would have skipped breakfast and
slipped back from where she came from without being noticed when
her phone alerted her for an incoming message.

"Brunch!" Jervais called
out.

Brice motioned for Jonah to join him
and Jervais when he, too, noticed her.

"I'll get this first," Jonah said,
walking around the two who were already seated in the tall,
four-seater bar. Without looking at Brice, she added, "Did you
sleep here last night?"

About tym u go 2 Church. Wil
c u there…Pleeasseeee.
The message read. It
was from Xavier.

"No!" Brice replied, digging into his
sausage hungrily. "I just got here. Jane has something in
mind."

"Who's it from?" Jervais inquired,
looking up from her orange juice.

"Nobody!"

"Oh, it's from your boyfriend!" Jervais
concluded which made Jonah blushed. "So, did he tell you where to
meet him?"

"Oh, young love—so romantic!" Brice
said. "I thought you almost went crazy when he broke up with you.
Now, you're back with him?"

"Of course not! That's so exaggerated!"
Jonah grabbed herself a banana as the bantering became dangerously
drawn to Xavier. She was going to excuse herself when Jervais
instructed her to sit.

As Jonah pulled herself up the tall
stool, Jervais added, "Eat!"

"All of you are turning us into Romeo
and Juliet. We're nearing the end of the world and I am still not
free to choose the guy I want to be with," Jonah complained when
asked about her and Xavier."What if we end up like Romeo and Juliet
and killed ourselves instead?"

"Juliet!" Jervais jested."We're nearing
the end of the world as you've said. Nobody does that anymore. The
ratio is 1:10. For every one Juliet, there are ten Romeos. Why kill
yourself over one man—who's dying by the way!"

"Jervais! That's so mean," Jonah
gasped. "And besides, it's not true."

"I have to agree, it is not true!"
Brice chimed in. "Or I won't be into bromance only of
late."

"We're talking about Juliet here,
Brice—" Jervais mocked.

"Child, you are too young to be a
sexist!" Brice answered. "Didn't your mother teach you
well?"

Jonah began to laugh and said,
"Apparently not!"

"Ha-ha-ha!" Jervais said
sarcastically. "I learned my morals from watching a lot of
X-men
!"

"And I got mine from
Spongebob
!" Jonah teased
back.

"Girls, you're both pathetic!" Brice
said, unable to hide the grin that spread through his
lips.

"So, Juliet—where are you meeting him
today?" Jervais asked.

"I am not—" Jonah said truthfully. She
was still undecided whether to meet Xavier or not. Although, a
bigger part of her really wanted to be with him, the other part
remained incurious. Her mind was trying to find the best reason to
see Xavier even when she didn't need any. "If I were, it will be
for one thing only—to find out if his Aunt is the new
healer."

"What?" Jervais and Brice said at the
same time.

Tik…tak…tik…tak…
The rhythmic staccato of stilettos approaching
warned them that their Aunt Judith was heading towards the
kitchen.

"Aunt Judith!" Jervais mouthed. Jonah
slid down her chair and grabbed hold of the banana, preparing for
her exit.

"We can't leave at the same time,"
Brice said in a low voice. "It's so—not nice!"

"Don't worry, people can blame it on
Spongebob!" Jonah said.

"You stay then," Jervais said.
"Entertain her for a while."

"You, too?" Brice asked his eyes
registering momentary panic."You can't leave!"

"X-men!" Jervais answered, trying to
keep a straight face.

Just then, their Aunt Judith entered
the kitchen. Both girls bowed their heads a little. It was Jervais
who said, "Good morning, Aunt Judith. We were just
leaving!"

Aunt Judith looked at both girls with a
scowl."It's already happening. You can't leave," she commanded.
"Jane is on the phone—something terrible has happened to
Jemmah!"

"What?" Brice gasped.

"It sounded as if Jemmah was in a car
mishap," Aunt Judith said. As if she was in deep thought, she bowed
her head and stopped moving for a while. She wasn't even
blinking.

Jonah followed her Aunt Judith and
became still. In a matter of seconds, she saw from the corner of
her eye, the same dark, shadowy thing she saw in Rebecca's room,
rising from the floor and gliding towards Brice and Jervais. She
shifted her position and walked away from Jervais who was nearest
to her. As Jonah was doing this, she could see the dark shadow on
her side following her.

"Don't move!" Aunt Judith commanded
sharply.

Although, it was difficult feigning not
to see the dark, shapeless object, Jonah stopped on her tracks and
attempted to stay unruffled. She was carefully observing her Aunt
Judith.

Aunt Judith was quick to move as she
approached Jonah first. She put her hands together like she was
scooping something out of the air. Then, she placed her hands an
inch away from Jonah's shoulders. She began tracing Jonah's
outline, occasionally taking something out from the imaginary
circumference and putting something back in while mumbling
unintelligible words to herself.

When her Aunt Judith was down to her
legs, Jonah caught Jervais' eyes. Her older sister was restraining
herself from laughing out loud. To avoid from the temptation of
joining Jervais, Jonah directed her attention to Brice who was
looking at the whole thing with fascination. Then, Jonah fixed her
eyes on Jervais' face again. From her side, she watched just as the
dark breath of shadow started pulling away from her.

"Woo-hoo!" Jervais mouthed quietly
towards Jonah. She was gesturing with her hands on the air as if
seeing something spooky.

Brice playfully slapped Jervais' hands
and signaled for her to be quiet. However, there was a naughty
smile on his face.

When Aunt Judith finished what she was
doing, she stood up and halted once again. She was concentrating
hard and had stopped moving. Jonah could see the perspiration
trickling on her Aunt Judith's forehead down to her
face.

"The
smite
!" Aunt Judith
declared.

"The
smite
?" Jonah echoed.

"Not a friend nor a foe, but very
dangerous," Aunt Judith said."Jervais, do keep on being childish.
It has its benefits sometimes!" she added sarcastically. She dug
out a handkerchief from her pocket and wiped her face.

"I'm—I—was just," Jervais stammered,
her face flushed hotly with embarrassment.

"You will never understand!" Aunt
Judith said and dismissed Jervais with her hand. However, she threw
Jonah a peculiar look.

Jonah did not dare pursue
questioning her Aunt Judith about the
smite
even if she wanted to. It was
strange that she could see the
smite
from the corner of her eyes and Brice and Jervais
couldn't.

There were a lot of weird
stuff starting to happen around the house and Jonah was clueless.
She didn't know until when she can turn a blind eye to it all.
The
smite
…the
ruckus Jervais heard…the effect she had on the
habak
…even her effect on the woman and
Xavier.

Could I be the new healer
that they were all looking for?
Jonah
reflected
.
But I
didn't kill Rebecca…

With Jonah's suspicion that her Aunt
Judith had a hand in Rebecca's death, there was no way she could
approach her and tell her everything. Worse, Aunt Judith was the
only person who knew things.

Jonah walked back to where she sat
earlier in the bar. Jervais followed reluctantly. Brice offered
Aunt Judith a glass of water which she took in her quivering
hand.

Just then, Jane entered the room. With
her puffy eyes, it was obvious she had been crying.

"Jemmah's in the hospital. But the
police want family members to go to the station. They wouldn't tell
me why on the phone," Jane announced. She dabbed at the fresh tears
as they glistened at the brim of her eyes. "They think there's foul
play."

"Of course, there is!" Aunt Judith
uttered strongly. "The timing doesn't suit if all is an
accident."

All of the four Blood siblings'
attention were glued to their Aunt Judith. It was Jane who spoke
first, "How do we go back to our normal lives?"

"Normal my foot! This is your normal
now!" Aunt Judith said. "The ripple effect of murder! Get used to
it."

"We didn't ask for this!" Jervais said.
"We didn't choose this kind of family."

"Oh, people like you whine about your
roots. Why don't you do something with your fruits?" Aunt Judith
scoffed.

The Rendezvous

It was almost too difficult
for Xavier to breathe inside the Church. It wasn't the Port-a-Cath
that was inserted on his right chest. He was beginning to get used
to it after having all his chemotherapy sessions and blood
transfusions done through it. In fact, it even made him feel cool
sometimes, thinking he was Robert Downey Jr. in
Iron Man,
with this gadget inside his
body.

It was the atmosphere. The air was
thick just like the day he learned he had the kind of cancer of the
blood. The pregnant, prolonged silence cannot be broken even
perhaps by a jackhammer—mainly because of waiting.

Waiting for what was to come,
especially anticipating a negative outcome, painted the air
heavily. Xavier stood up again and went near the door to take a
peek if Jonah had decided to show up.

Please, God. Let her
come!
He silently uttered a little
prayer.

Xavier was never huge on prayers. But
when he got sick, there was nothing else to relieve him but his
one-way conversations with God. After some time, the silence on the
other end did not seem disheartening anymore. For he was able to
talk and pass on his burden outside of himself—to the air and a
seemingly watchful but indifferent universe.

I need to see her.
Xavier whispered again but the tensed-filled air
still remained unbroken. He edged his way back to the long narrow
bench by the door and sat on it.

Seeing that Xavier had returned to his
seat, Jonah sauntered through the carpeted floor leading to the
balcony. In ordinary days when she and Xavier had their rendezvous,
she would have wanted to go through the main door to evade
inquisitive eyes and detour to the second landing. Unfortunately
though, the entrance to the balcony was located outside of the
building. For once, Jonah was grateful she didn't have to pass
through the huge main door to reach the balcony.

Jonah had told Jervais that her sole
purpose for seeing Xavier was to put a closure to whatever they
had. And for this reason, she would rather avoid Xavier than tell
him to get lost forever.