Breathes were held and the entire brawl was brought to an abrupt standstill. The silence was deafening as the sudden sight of Ethan Goodend calmly taking each step took them by surprise. His appearance had brought an eerie calm to the storm already brewing, with the clergymen taking a step back away from his bruised and battered son. Then, in a sign of solidarity, he picked Remus up and dusted his shoulders. Tears welled up in his eyes as he felt the fatherly love that he had been robbed of for many years finally bestowed on him once again.
'What's this whole thing about?' he whispered to Remus.
'It's...it's..the pendant.'
Ethan's eyes and expression reflected his shock. The sheer audacity, he thought, to rob a man of his last memory of a woman he had loved all his life. Of course, his thought processes weren't as straightforward as that. Fury was welling up within him and any belief that this man would choose a more diplomatic approach to easing the tension evaporated at that instant. That instant that the light of gold and jewels struck his twisted face. That sheer radiance that sparkled spoke wonders to him. It transported him back years in time to a single moment.
'Do you remember what you said when they were born?' a soft, gentle, but more importantly, feminene voice spoke inside him.
'Yes. Every word. My emotion has never affected my promise.'
'They're hurt Ethan. Torture does not simply manifest in its physical form.'
His eyes close and his lips mutter in inaudible whispers all this while nonplussed to the stench of utter discomfort and fear released by his audience of boys and men. For a second, for a minute they wait. Sweat fills their eyes and they begin to feel the itch and irritation of their awkwardness and inability to counter the rather unprecedented situation they are in.
Suddenly, his eyes open and he looks back at the pendant. He sees a simple metal structure simply protecting a picture.
'Can I, please, have that back?' A rather sincere and meek voice appeals softly.
Silence.
'I would like that back' This time a little bit firmer with a tinge of anger.
Silence.
In that second, the same man that had been pinned down a while ago, was wrestled to the ground once more. The two men fought like ravenous wolves and each man took and gave an equal amount of pain. Smashing plates and cutlery, they announced their arrival into the kitchen. Heartbeats thumped so rapidly and loudly that one could not be faulted to have thought that it was machinery producing those noises. Screams, expletives and gargled grunts were heard as the fight continued. It stretched on like piece of elastic. Stretching to a point of no return, it continued to move in opposite directions as every thread of fibre was pulled to limits unknown. Alas, it snapped. The duet of heartbeats slowed down. Dropping and dropping until only one was heard.
'
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