A Little Mad

Chapter 14

Mercedes took a deep breath sitting in the van outside the house. Jerome gently squeezed her hand. 

"Are you sure you want to this?"

Mercedes nodded.

"Let's get this over with, please." She stared at the house, stepping out the van. Jerome stood next to her carrying the boxes. He followed her silently to the front door. It was locked. Jerome smirked. 

"Ohhold on." He set the boxes down and grabbed his gun from his holder. It blew in the door. 

"Thank you." 

They could feel the coldness of the house now possessed. Mercedes stared at the blood splattered on the wall. She looked to the floor and a huge stain of blood stood out. Jerome tensed when he noticed her looking at the blood.  Mercedes didn't show any emotion. Jerome followed her around and she walked into every room, filling up each box. She stopped once they reached Ethan's room. Her breath had left her. She felt a pain she could never be able to explain to anyone. She set on his bed and looked around. Jerome had seen pain in her eyes walking into every room, but this was a different and deeper pain that actually pulled at his heart. 

"My brother.... Ethan... He was my joy, my smile. He was my actual best friend. I loved him more than life itself. He was my favorite person. I would have done anything for my baby brother. He came to me with everything. Even that he was gay.. He knew I'm bisexual and would never judge him anyway."

Jerome watched the tears well up in her eyes. He looked away to avoid it, but her muffled small cries still pained him. 

"It was my fault."

 For some strange reason unknown to him, these words were the worst he had ever heard. 

"I'm not always a light sleeper... but that night I just had to be.. I was supposed to protect him... If I had woken up..." 

Jerome knelt before her. 

"Don't do that to yourself. You had no way of knowing." 

For the first time in his life, he completely regretted his actions. 

"Look. Let's go to the office and see if you'd like anything in there." 

There was a box in the closet with her name labeled one it. Mercedes eyed it confused. She set it on the desk and opened it. Jerome raised an eyebrow. 

"What is this?"  He helped go through the box until they came across two self record VHS tapes. 

"This is a lot of information we don't have time to go through right now." 

Jerome picked up the tape with the number one written on the front. 

"Maybe we should see what this is though. Just this and I promise we will leave doll face." 

Jerome motioned to the VCR connected to the tv in the corner. Mercedes nodded giving in. She took the tape and placed it in the player. Jerome turned on the tv. Her parents appeared on the screen. Mercedes's eyes grew wide. Her mom spoke first. 

"Mercedes.. my dear sweet baby girl.. If you are watching this.. that means your father and I did not make it.. We want to tell you that we love you so very much... When we first got here and saw that man on the news we got worried... We knew something would happen.." 

Jerome tensed, knowing she meant him. He watched Mercedes, who he could tell just wanted to her mother on the screen. Her dad spoke next. 

"There are some things you are not going to understand right now and that's okay, but we want you to take care of Ethan..." 

Muffled sniffles drew tears down her cheeks. 

"He looks up to you... he loves you.. We need you to protect him and love him like you always do.. You always said he was your greatest gift... and you were certainly his. My beautiful little girl.. There is a safe in the basement... there is four thousand dollars for you two... the code is 152608..." 

Mercedes couldn't help her tears and she almost screamed. 

"Turn it off! Just turn it off!" Jerome quickly pulled the tape out and Mercedes buried her face in her hands. Jerome headed to the basement and came back up with the money. 

"How did they die?" 

Jerome stood still. He did not want to answer that question.

"Doll face, you shouldn't...."

"How did they die Jerome?" 

There was a seriousness to her voice that scared him. He cleared his throat. 

"Some of my cult followers, they shot your mom and dad in the head.." 

Mercedes looked away.

"What about Ethan?" 

Jerome felt a headache approaching. He tried to change the subject.

"It's late. Let's get the boxes in the van and go home doll face." 

"Jerome! How did my brother die?" She watched as he tensed. Her heart began to sink. 

"No... Jerome... please tell me it wasn't you... You didn't kill my brother.. one of the crazy cult members did it right...?" 

Jerome couldn't even turn around. He stood there silently. He also couldn't lie to her. He slowly turned around with regret in his eye. Mercedes shoved him. 

"How could you?! He was a child! A kid! How did you do it?!" 

Jerome regained his balance. "Doll face.." 

"How the fuck did you kill my brother?!" 

Jerome looked away. "I stabbed him... in the chest.. and left him on the floor.. to bleed out.." 

He turned back to Mercedes and the pain in her eyes was more than he could handle. 

"You left him there to bleed out?! He suffered! How could you do that to him?!" 

Jerome gently grabbed her arm as she stormed past him. 

"Let go of me! And I was just starting to..." 

Jerome looked at her hopeful. 

"I hate you!" 

Mercedes ran out of the house and down the street. She heard the faint sounds of Jerome running and screaming her name. She stopped by a house to catch her breath and then everything went black.