"You keep watch, Mark." I say as I leap out of the car as it stops at the parking.
With more dismay and everything that fear depicts mounting in me every step that I take, I start running towards to door, but my urgency is cut off as Mrs McCall makes her way out of the house together with Terris and some female servants aiding an agonizing Ellie. She is groaning in immense pain.
I detested the way she hugged her belly until today, but now I feel like hugging it for her to ease the pain she is nursing.
So, it is her voice that I heard through the call? Hang on! She still has two months to go before her due date. What the heck happened?
"Take her to the car." Mrs McCall orders.
"Mother?" I call because no one seems to notice me. I understand them though. I am as scared as them with Ellie's condition. "What happened?" I implore as I rush towards Mrs McCall.
"Go and stop that beast inside before something worse happens, Tessa. I will accompany Ellie to the hospital." That is all she says before she strolls away in a rush to the car awaiting at the gate.
The beast inside? Heck! Did she mean Jerol?
I pick up my pace inside, but again, a very unnerving voice hampers my hurried pace at the doorway, but I keep walking albeit the tremor.
"I will ask you one more time, Grego! The truth, or I swear I will kill you right now!"
Amidst the crowd staring in the sitting room, I squeeze my sight through them in awe to follow that dreadful roar! I know it very very well. I do not need anyone to tell me who it belongs to, but it has been so long ever since I heard that harshness in it. It is so scary!
At the settee, I catch a glimpse of the appalling scenery of Jerol squeezing the life out of his brother who is pinned on the sofa. Grego is struggling to suck in any possible little air he can get to sustain his life. Aside from being struggled to death by Jerol's beastly arms, Grego's face resembles a pool of blood. I doubt if he can even see through the curtains and moulds of blood clogging his face. Neither his little lobored struggles to jerk Jerol off him nor his endless gambles to gasp for air are bearing any fruits.
"Speak up, you bastard!" Jerol grumbles yet again, his rich autocratic tone adding more terror in the house as he jerks Grego up.
He is a flaming beast! His husky voice can be heard from the far that I am. I can trace his chest movement from here. He is enraged. I don't know if he is aware, but he is nearly killing Grego. How long can the poor thing hold on?
And why the hell is nobody stopping them for God's sake? Why is everyone at a standstill like they are watching wrestling? This is not entertainment for...
"Don't, my dear!" Father stops me. I did not even know I was hurrying towards what is about to become a crime scene.
"Father! I can't stand and watch my husband committing murder." I whimper.
"We have tried, my dear, but this is beyond us. Ellie has been rushed to the hospital for trying to get close." He explains.
So, she was a victim of this.
"I ran into them outside. What happened?" I query, adding. "Is she okay?"
"We will know in a while. She was trying to stop them, unfortunately, well, these beasts are totally out of control." Father says.
"But they will kill each other if no one stops them, Father!" I yell as a punch echoes loud in the room, the spectators closing their eyes as blood spills from Grego's mouth.
"All of us have tried to no avail, Tessa! There is nothing we can do. I have called the police!"
Forget the police. By the time they get here, Jerol will be a certified murderer. The family will be mourning a death. No way! I won't allow that.
"He will definitely listen to his wife." I whimper as I thrust my way forward, manoeuvring through the crowd and ignoring Mr McCall's voice as he howls my name in an attempt to stop me.
"Jerol!" I howl as I run towards them. He is reaching for Grego again who looks like a cabbage. Dismantled and unable to even support himself.
"Speak up you, jerk!" Jerol howls again as he launches another blow.
"Jerol!" I howl his name again since my scream did not reach his ears the first time. But sadly, not even this time around did he hearken to my pleading howl, and I was too late to do anything.
The last blow sends Grego to the floor, and he discharges a terrifying growl as he lays flat like dead person, screams of terror erupting in the crowd of servants.
I was about to succumb to the astonishment and the freezing chills, but when I saw Jerol making a move towards Grego, I am fueled by a very compelling force howling his name as I rack before him.
"That is enough, love!" I cry, and he snaps at me, making me tremble from his dangerous glare.
He looks so scary this way.
"Tessa?" He whispers, and it is not a plea. And if it is, then it is pleading with me to stay out of his way.
Whatever is in control of him is so strong, but I am not allowing it to turn him into a murderer. My husband will not become a murderer much less in front of my eyes.
"Get out of the way, Tessa!" He says.
"No, love. That's enough, please. Stop this." I plead.
"He needs to confess." He says.
"How can he when he is barely breathing? He is almost dead, Jerol!" I scream the last part.
Why did he let himself get consumed like this, huh? Why did he allow the beast in him to resurface and take control of him like this? He is that beast he was months ago.
With shaky legs, I take slow steps towards him, until I rack before him. He is smudged with his brother's blood, and I hate to see him this way.
He closes his eyes, perhaps summoning the beast back where it was lying until it was stirred up.
"Jerol?" I call when he doesn't speak or do anything. Just shutting his eyes as if he is scared of opening them. Maybe he indeed is. Maybe he is afraid to see what his anger has done.
I reach out my hands, reaching for his jaws to soothe him the best way that I know how to, but to my shock, he jerks off, shaking his head continually as if he is warning me.
I swallow hard and dry as that numbing feeling take start surging in.
He peels his deep orbs which are so red today, his head still wiggling, while I'm astounded as to what his gesture means.
"Lo..."
He did not even wait for me to finish. He does something I never expected. He turns his back on me without even saying a thing, and like a storm, he strides away as people make way for him.
I watch his sweet frame until he vanishes from my sight, and it is now that reality just struck me - my Jerol just walked out on me. He didn't even want me to touch him. My own sweet Jerol? I fall totally numb!