House of Jara CHAPTER 17
Rufus was standing in the doorway to Alfie and Jerome's room with a menacing grin on his face.
"Oh my god" Jerome uttered almost inaudibly, he stood up immediately causing Mara to almost fall onto the floor, this woke her with a jolt. "Sorry" Jerome apologised, helping her to her feet.
"Hello Jerome" Rufus said again in a menacing tone, stepping forward slightly.
"Amber wake up, we have a problem" Alfie whispered to his sleeping girlfriend, she quickly obliged – waking to the horrid sight of Rufus.
"What do you want Rufus?" Jerome asked, acting brave to impress and protect Mara… and Alfie and Amber.
"Oh no, nothing… yet; I just wanted to let you know that I know you and your Scooby gang have been watching me. Just know that I'm watching you too" Rufus disclosed with a grin playing on his lips as he walked towards Jerome, Mara was stood slightly behind him and gripped his hand in order to let him know she was there to comfort him.
"Leave us alone Rufus we haven't done anything to you" Amber said, stepping towards Sibuna's greatest enemy.
"Oh I beg to differ, Amber as Alfie here should be dead, seeing as I drank the elixir, taking his life in order to gain eternal life for myself and as you can see he is very much alive meaning I can't have taken the real elixir of life" Rufus explained everything they already knew.
"You're twisted!" Jerome yelled at the man he feared most – the one man that haunted his dreams.
"Yes Jerome I suppose I am which makes tormenting you much more fun" Rufus chuckled and immediately left the room and by extension the house. The four members of Sibuna just stood there in shock.
"I changed my mind, he is scary" Mara said in disbelief to break the silence.
"He's horrible, why does he hate us so much? What is he even doing here?" Amber said stupidly, as she usually did.
"Fabian thinks it's something to do with the Mask of Anubis… whatever that is" Jerome answered – they were all still staring at the door.
"I think I'm gonna go to bed, we'll tell the others tomorrow" Amber said, leaving without saying or kissing (Alfie) goodnight.
"Jerome? What are we going to do? He knows we've been watching him…" Alfie asked stupidly.
"We know Alfie, we were there in case you didn't notice but I don't know what we're gonna do, sorry Alf" Jerome snapped, all three of them coming back to reality.
"Jerome I'm kinda scared to walk back to bed alone" Mara squeaked.
"I'll walk you, I'll be back in a sec Alfie" Jerome told his friend and left with his crush to walk her to bed, they stopped outside her bedroom door.
"Thank you for the movie and for walking me up here" Mara said looking deep into Jerome's luscious blue eyes.
"You're welcome, I really enjoyed watching the movie with you" Jerome told the small girl standing in front of him, looking down into her eyes. They both smiled and began leaning in, Jerome hesitated slightly to ensure she definitely wanted to kiss him and they kissed – passionately – pulling away after about two minutes.
"Night Jerome" Mara said with a very wide grin on her face – from ear to ear.
"Night Mara" Jerome replied after Mara planted a loving kiss on his cheek, he made it successfully back to his bedroom where Alfie was already asleep, he however, could not get to sleep from worrying about Mara. He worried that Rufus hadn't left the house and was going to kidnap Mara. It seemed selfish as he could kidnap Amber as well but he wasn't As worried about her because she knew Rufus and Mara didn't.
The next morning (Saturday) came and Mara, Jerome, Amber and Alfie were at one end of the dining table whispering about what they were going to do about Rufus. Everyone found this very odd as it was usually Amber whispering with Nina and Fabian but she was at the other end of the table whispering with very unlikely whisperers.
"How are we supposed to tell them he knows? They'll freak" Mara whispered, sitting at the head of the table – opposite Nina, who was staring at her weirdly.
"I don't know but if we don't tell them, they could get caught off guard and it would be our fault" Amber told the trio intelligently.
"Fine we tell them today, we get them alone and we tell them in your room Ambs" Jerome confirmed for the group and with that they stopped whispering, getting on with breakfast in a normal fashion – as if nothing was wrong but everything was wrong, all four of them were now equally paranoid – as paranoid as Jerome had been before they actually saw Rufus. They heard a loud bang on the front window and the four of them shot up from their seats, the colour draining from their faces. They all had identical looks of terror on their faces. Everyone else just knew – or assumed – it was just the wind and stared at the Sibuna members as if they had gone mental.
"It was just the wind" Jerome whispered to himself "I have to go to my room" he told the household and quickly ran to his bedroom. He entered closed the door and slid down the wall, Mara, Alfie and Amber barged in as soon as he hit the floor.
"We need to handle this way better" Mara said when they were stood in Alfie and Jerome's room. She knelt down to Jerome and put her hands onto his arms, he looked at her – the terror still shadowed on his face and in his eyes. They all whipped their heads towards the door when they heard a knock but all relaxed when Trudy poked her head in the room.
"Are you four ok? You all seem a little worried" she asked, looking at each of them in turn. Alfie and Amber looked to Jerome for help as he was best at lying under pressure.
"Sorry Trudy, we broke the rules last night and watched a horror movie down here after lights out" he told their house mother, it was only half a lie, they did watch a movie after lights out, it just wasn't a horror movie.
"I'm sure it seemed like a good idea at the time but please don't do it again – if Victor finds out you'll be in big trouble" Trudy advised with a cheeky smile and left, back to the kitchen.
"We seriously need to find a way of telling them, they'll be asking questions now" Mara reasoned just as Fabian, Nina and Patricia came barging into the room.
"What the hell was that?" Patricia asked frantically.
"We need to have a meeting, there's something we need to tell you" Amber announced, looking at Mara, Alfie and Jerome to confirm they were going to tell them the truth. They sat in a circle on the floor after Fabian had closed the door.
"What's going on?" Nina asked, getting anxious when no one answered.
"Last night when we were watching a movie in here after lights out, someone came in here to tell us something" Mara began; she really didn't know what to say.
"It was Rufus; ok let's not beat around the bush. He knows we've been watching him, I don't know how but he does and he's been watching us too" Jerome said, almost in rare hysterics, Mara scooted closer to him and rubbed his back to comfort him. He leaned into her and she hugged him slightly. Sibuna looked at them shocked, Patricia even looked scared as did Fabian but Nina showed no emotion.