House of Jara CHAPTER 24
"Has Jerome's disappearance got anything to do with Rufus?" Victor questioned the gang harshly.
"What? Why would you think that? He's gone to visit his dad," Patricia lied through her teeth knowing one slip up and he would know.
"It takes a week to visit someone who's in prison, does it?"
Meanwhile, Jerome was now slumped against a wall of the room he was locked in, Rufus had basically beaten him half to death; he had kicked and punched him the stomach, thrown him around a bit causing him to hit his head on the wall and he had some bruises and cuts on his face. All because Jerome wouldn't shut up about Rufus being delusional and the mask not being real. Jerome has lost all hope of being rescued, he believed they had forgotten about him or had left him there to rot just like his mother. Just being there alone in the dark made him think about Mara, he hoped she wouldn't leave him there, that she still loved him; he knew Alfie wouldn't but he could never be sure about everyone else. Rufus brought him out of his thoughts by pulling him up from his position on the floor.
"Come on Jerome, your little friends have some answers for me so I better take you along with me," he told him, immediately dragging him to his van and throwing him in the back. They all met him in the clearing in the woods, only Mara and Alfie appeared to be there until the rest of Sibuna circled the horrid man. "Hello children," Rufus said upon arriving with the battered looking Jerome.
"Oh my God," Mara whispered and tried to run to Jerome's side but was stopped by Alfie.
"Well then, what do you have for me?"
"Nothing, we just thought you should know that your leverage is useless, you can't blackmail someone with something they don't care about anymore. Life is great without Jerome, no pranks and it's quieter. Why would we want to change that?" Patricia stated from behind the pair, she looked at Jerome when Rufus looked at her and saw the pain at hearing that, it was just as he had suspected.
"What? Alfie you care about your best friend right?"
"Nope," Alfie said heartlessly. Jerome's eyes went from being pained to plain betrayal, he looked to Mara as his last way of getting out of this alive.
"Mara, this is your boyfriend. Don't you want to save him?"
"No sorry." Jerome finally looked broken, his whole life he had literally fallen apart in those few minutes. Suddenly, Rufus threw Jerome to the ground in anger and looked around at each member of Sibuna hoping to find some slight look of wanting to save Jerome so he could carry on with the blackmail. He was unsuccessful, he decided it would be a bad move to try and take one of them as he had left his gun at the warehouse stupidly; he stalked away to his van leaving the kids alone in the middle of the woods at midnight.
A/N: I know it's a really short chapter, sorry!