Art Entwined In Blood

5 - Unwanted Memories

"Frank, I'm glad that you've been staying home these past two weeks, but why are you so uneasy?"

Jamia had gotten home early from work and was preparing dinner for her husband and herself. She placed a ceramic plate in front of Frank and dished out vegetables, potatoes, and, for the sake of Frank's vegetarianism, a tofu steak. She continued with the same contents on her own plate, instead with a real meat steak.

"Thanks," Frank mumbled, ignoring the question.

"Are you upset? Are you constipated?"

Frank gave her a confused look, and began to pick at his food. Realization dawned on Jamia as she moved all of the plates and food away from herself and Frank.

"The fuck, Jamia?"

"It was that guy."

"Gerard."

"Yeah, Gerard. You haven't been going to see him."

"I know," Frank droned, reaching for his dinner plate. Jamia pushed it away.

"What did you do?"

Frank frowned at his hands resting on the table and turned to glare at Jamia.

"Why do you always assume I did something? He could have done something just as easily as I could. I always seem to be blamed for every robbery, every murder, every broken heart, and all I do is go to work and try to spend quality time with my wife!" Frank stood up, grabbed his plate, and stormed into the bathroom; virtually the only room in the house with a lock.

"Frank, it's not like that," she followed behind him only to get the door slammed in her face.

"Frank, please. Don't be like this. You know I love you; I didn't mean to blame you for anything, I just..." she trailed, ending with a sigh. She leaned her back on the door and slid down so she was sitting on the hard-wood floor.

"I'm sorry, Frank."

Frank sat in the bathtub, no longer touching his food. He knew he had overreacted, but he didn't want to face the conflict while it was still simmering. He laid down in the tub and thought through every mistake he's ever made, as far back as he could remember. When he reviewed the day two weeks ago at Gerard's mansion, he analyzed what was going on; in fact everything that was going on since he met Gerard. He didn't like when Frank talked to Jamia; he was so excited to read to him; he always gives him a heart-warming smile, even if he just woke up.

He was disappointed and angry when he found out that Frank was married.

Frank snapped out of his thoughts and groggily climbed out of the bathtub. He checked the clock, which read 9:23 PM, and he unlocked the bathroom door, momentarily forgetting about Jamia. He paused and slowly opened the door to find Jamia curled up in a ball on the floor outside of the doorframe. He carefully stepped over her and pulled a blanket out of the closet. He kneeled down by Jamia, covered her with the blanket, and gave her a light kiss on her forehead.

"I'll be right back."

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Frank pranced up to the front steps of Way Manor, only to be greeted with an empty house. He walked inside, closing the door, of course, and managed to look about a majority of the house, not finding anyone except Esmerelda. Confused, he stepped into Gerard's library office and took a seat in the giant luxury chair. It wasn't very comfortable, he didn't understand what Gerard loved about it so much. He shut his eyes, just hoping to get a little rest until he started searching again; Way Manor is bigger than it looks, and it looks enormous. His fingers trailed the etching on the arms of the chair until he felt a crude etch, something that didn't seem to belong. He opened his eyes to see where his fingers were and found a word scratched into the wooden arm. He lifted his fingers to, surprisingly, see his own name; well, at least, the name that Gerard had given him.