The Life of the Wife

chapter thirteen

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

JOHANNA

Garnet withdrew herself from most things after Mark didn't come home. The first month she searched, the second month she cried non stop, and the third she accepted  that he was gone, but spent most of the day in her room or the prayer chamber.
I felt really bad for her. When Aiden came home without Mark, Garnet broke down. Aiden said he had came with Aiden to the prayer chamber, and then abruptly left halfway through without explanation. Although it never explained why Aiden was so uncomfortable every time Mark was mentioned.
'What are you thinking about?' Aiden placed his cold hand on my shoulder, ripping me from my thoughts.
'Poor Garnet, she hasn't came out all day.' i sighed and rolled the dough i was kneading into a ball and placing it aside.
'She will find someone else to love and things will be back to normal soon.' Aiden was frustrated already by the conversation.
'But Mark was your childhood friend, don't you ever want to know what happened?'
Aiden leaned closer to my face so that eye contact was forced.
'Jo, i already know. You need to forget about him.' He hissed his words and a cold shiver sped down my body from head to toe. Aiden did something to him.

After making bread and delivering it to Tom, i made my way to the fields to pick fruit. The pear trees were boasting large, soft green bulges of fruit and were ready to be given to Tom. I'd grown into becoming just another community member and i loved every moment of it. Sunday night prayers were still hard to take in, but i was getting used to seeing blood.
'Beautiful.' George had started picking with me every Thursdays for a while now, and it gave us the chance to talk about the things we missed about the outside world, like microwaves, and mcdonalds.
'They are, and today was the perfect day to pick them.' i smiled warmly towards him while continuing to work.
'Yes, the pears, right.' he corrected his posture and continued to fill his basket as well. I knew he admired me, and i him, but i was married, and still hopelessly in love with Aiden, which we both knew so we would silently eyeball each other on moments like these to remind ourselves that in another lifetime, maybe.
'You know what i really feel like today?' George quickly changed the topic to our habitual retreat of conversation.
'A big bowl of gummy bears, and a terrible daytime movie!' he chuckled and i did too.
'Have you seen the one about that girl, that falls in love with that guy, but he has commitment issues, so it takes him a while to realise his love for her?' i had just realised i just explained every terrible romance movie ever, and we laughed even louder.

After handing in the pears to Tom, George slowly walked me home.
'So tonight you find out huh?'
'Yep.' Tonight i was to find out if Gabriel was to accept women as correctors, and i had never felt more nervous.
'Do you even want to be a corrector, Jo?' his paced slowed even more.
'George, lets not talk about this.' My voice barely a whisper as i lowered my head.
'It's your choice, not his.' George sounded angry.
'Drop it, George. I'll see you tomorrow. I can walk myself from here.' I hurried off, leaving him to stand in the middle of the road. Aiden did everything for me, including making the choices so i didn't have to. He was taking care of me, not advantage. George was wrong. wasn't he?

As i opened the door i found Garnet on top of Aiden, screaming and hitting. Without a second thought i ripped her off and held her back as Aiden stood up and wiped the blood from his lip that had been split. Garnet cried out and kept trying to get to Aiden.
'Jo, he killed him! He killed Mark!' She spat, trying to loosen my grip.
It took a minute, but Garnet finally calmed down enough to not attack Aiden and we stood there in silence, staring at each other.
'Garnet, I'm sorry but it had to be done.' Aiden remained calm, but Garnets eyes grew cold and her lips thinned out. She was more aggravated then i'd ever seen.
'Had to be done? He was your best friend since birth, and my husband! How could you break this family apart!' Her tears fired down her face viciously but she didn't seem to notice. At first Aiden was silent, and he shuffled around for a little while. He was trying to tell us something bad.
'He did something. Something unforgivable and ungodly.' He let out a sigh of relief knowing it was finally out, and seen that both Garnet and i were staring at him confused.
'Sit down girls, i have to tell you but you cannot tell anyone else in the commune.'
we both quickly shuffled to the lounge room and dropped onto the couch, holding each others hand. Aiden slowly stepped over to the coffee table dividing us from him and remained standing. He controlled his breathing then went on to explain the night Mark went missing.
'Mark took you up to bed, so you wouldn't fall over and i stayed downstairs to help Garnet in the kitchen. We were all drunk so i didn't think much of it when Mark didn't come down for a while. Garnet if you can remember you just wanted to have a bath so you went back to your room, and i went to do the same.' Aiden then proceeded to sit down, holding his hands on his head.
'I came into the bedroom to see mark violating you, Jo.'
'By now Garnet had let go of my hand and jumped up from her seat, staring at me in shock. I had suspected it, but hearing it and knowing it was really the truth was something else.
Garnet ran to her room repeating "no, no, no!" over and over. i just sat there in disbelief.
'He is dead?'
'Yes, Jo.'
'Good, he deserves purgatory. I can truly see that the devil can reach us anywhere and that needs to be stopped.'
Aidens body language had changed from defeat, to excitement.
'Aiden, i want to help on the next cleansing on Sunday.' i was truly ready to defeat the bad spirits.
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