Me Without You (19 page)

"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 dropped 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!"

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.