FicWad

Scene 2-The Threat and the Heartbroken
The family heads, wives, cousins, and servants of both Duke and Hargreaves gathered around to the steely eyes of Lady Grace.
She shook her head in disapproval, “Duke. Hargreaves. Three times have you both made public brawls from bitter and petty insults. Kept on disturbing the peace. If either one of you ever disrupt the public again, you will be put to death for destruction of property and disturbing the peace.”
She turns to the servants and cousins, “All of you can go. Duke, come with me now. Hargreaves, come later on this afternoon so we know this case in my mansion. Now go, the rest of you.”
Lady Grace walks away with Burgess Duke in tote. Everyone else leaves in separate directions except Alexis, his wife Augusta, and his nephew Jezebel Disali.
Alexis turns to Jezebel, “Who started this? Where were you when all this happened?”
Jezebel clears his throat, “The Duke servants and yours were shooting at each other when I came into the scene. I shot a bullet in the air to stop them. That was then Cassandra came and shot at me. We fought until Lady Grace showed up.”
Augusta listened to this, turns to Jezebel and sighed in a mixture of sadness and relief, “Oh, where is Cain? Did you see him today? I’m grateful that he wasn’t in this fight.”
Jezebel nods once, “Aunt Augusta, before morning came, I saw your son lying underneath your sycamore tree. I walked towards him but he saw me and left.”
“He’s been there every morning,” Alexis explained to Jezebel. “Watering the grass with his tears and adding more clouds in the sky by sighing. Just as the sun comes up, he comes inside and locks himself in his room. Shut his curtains and makes his room as dark as night. There must be a reason for this behavior.”
“Do you know, Uncle Alexis?” Jezebel asks.
Alexis shakes his head, “No, I don’t.”
“Have you asked him?”
“Yes,” he said. “Me, Augusta, and his friends. But still he tells us nothing. He only trusts himself. If we knew what’s wrong with him, we’ll help him through it.”
Just then, all three see Cain walking down the pavilion, draped in black like a mourner. “There he is,” comments Jezebel and then turns to his aunt and uncle. “Please excuse me. I’ll know what’s wrong or I’ll be ignored.”
Alexis nods, “I’ll be glad if he tells you anything. Come along, Augusta.”
They leave and Jezebel goes up to the pavilion to find Cain staring at the shining ripples caused by the morning wind and the dark unseen depths of the water. His black hair matches the long coat he’s wearing. Jezebel’s refection appears beside his in the water. His long silver hair neatly tied and glasses shared the water’s shimming ripples.
“Good morning, cousin,” Jezebel greets him.
Cain looks up at the clouded sky, “It’s still morning?”
Jezebel checks his watch, “It’s nine.”
Cain starts to walk, with Jezebel following, “The lonely hours seem so long.” Then his head turns to his cousin. “Wasn’t that my parents leaving in a hurry?”
Jezebel nods, “It was. What’s been bothering you all morning?”
Cain trudges on, “Not having it makes the days seem long.”
“Are you in love?” asks Jezebel.
Cain shakes his solemnly, “Out”
“Out of love?” Jezebel stops and stares at him with confusion and concern.
Cain stops also and sighs, “Out for her, not me.”
Jezebel shakes his head, “Ah, that love. So gentle in your appearance, should be so control and rough in him.”
Cain turns around to face him, “Ah, that love, whose always looked blindly. But what I feel in hate, I feel more in love. This love I feel, feels no love in this.” He comes closer. “Do you laugh?”
“No, Cain” said Jezebel. “I rather cry.”
“At what?” Cain asks, unsure what to make on that comment.
“At your heart’s oppression,” he said.
Cain then walks to the grass and sits down, “It’s love’s transgression. My griefs lie heavy within me. It grows within me. This love that you show adds it more to mine. Too much. Love is a smoke of sighs. Being in love, fire sparks in your eyes and in your lover’s eyes. Being scorned, your eyes turn into a sea of loving tears. It’s also a judicious insanity, choking and preserving.”
He gets up and turns to leave, “Goodbye Jezebel.”
Jezebel hurries after him, “Wait, I’ll go with you. If you leave me here, you would insult me.”
Cain sighs again, lowly like a whisper, “I’ve lost myself. I’m not even here. I’m not me. Oh Cain, where you are?”
Jezebel places a hand on his cousin’s shoulder, “Tell me seriously, who are you in love with?”
Cain stops again and slightly narrow his eyes at him, “What? You want me to groan and tell you?”
“Groan? No,” said Jezebel. “But tell me.”
Cain takes a deep breath, “I love a woman.”
“I figured as much.”
“A target, plainly in sight, is hit but I missed. She doesn’t believe in love or marriage and doesn’t want to be. She’s beautiful but I’m afraid she’ll now die that way.”
Jezebel raises an eyebrow, “So she wants to remain celibate?”
Cain nods, “It’s a huge waste, really. She is too beautiful, too wise. She vows not to be loved by me and I’m practically a walking corpse.”
“Forget about her,” Jezebel advises him. “There are others who would want to be loved by you.”
Cain shakes his head sadly, “Try to make me forget her and think about other girls. Show me a girl that she supposedly beautiful that can surpass Meridaina? Now I have to go. You can’t teach me to forget about her.”
With that, Cain hurries off, leaving Jezebel alone in the cold pavilion. He watches him go.
“I’ll help you forget about her, Cain,” Jezebel said to Cain’s back. “Or die trying.”