"Jerome!!" Ravea cried from inside the room.

"Ugh, yes! What is it this time?" He leaned against the room door.

"I want fried potatoes."

"What?! But you just said you wanted fried plantain five minutes ago!" Jerome was incredibly frustrated. He had woken up to Ravea complaining about wanting to eat porridge yam, luckily, his mum had made sure to teach him how to cook so that wasn't a problem. The problem was that Ravea kept changing her mind every 10 minutes or less. First it was porridge yam, then roasted yam, then fried plantain, now it was fried potatoes. The kitchen was already littered with both half cooked and rejected meals.

"I'm sorry, it just keeps changing", she sincerely apologized. "One minute it's this, the next it's that. It's like I'm actively going through an inn's menu. I can't help it."

"You know what, I think I'll just wait till you settle on one thing." He sat on a stool inside the room.

"What?! But I'm hungry!" She revolted.

"What do you want me to do? I can't keep making a meal every five minutes, and the kitchen is a mess. A mess that I'll have to clean up." Jerome complained.

She started whining, "Jerome please, I want fried potatoes."

"No!"

"Please."

"I said no!"

"Please!!"

"Ugh!" he sighed. "Alright! But I need you to at least give me your word that you'll actually eat it this time."

"Okay, I will, I promise."

15 minutes later, Jerome was done. He served the potatoes and then sat on the stool. Ravea stared at it awkwardly, a slight disgust written on her face.

"What is it?" Jerome asked rhetorically, he already knew what the problem was.

"I don't feel like eating potatoes anymore", She whispered.

"What?"

"I said", she started loudly, "I don't feel like eating potatoes anymore", then she dimmed her voice.

Jerome gave up. He got up and sat beside her, grabbed the plate of potatoes, then picked one up and gently shoved it into her mouth. "Taste it, it's good."

Ravea moaned like a little child as she reluctantly chewed on the potatoes. "I'm sorry."

Tired, frustrated and pissed as he was, It didn't sit right with him to see Ravea in such condition. So he set the plate aside and asked, "Alright, what do you feel like eating this time?"

She didn't respond.

He raised his eyebrows.

"Meat", she replied.

"Okay, I think there are some left from the stew I made last night." He got up and was about going to get the meat.

She replied immediately, "No no no, not that type".

He stopped, "Then what type? And mind you, It's just beef and chicken that we have at home right now."

"G-Goat meat", she stuttered.

"Of course, goat meat. Because there's a whole pot full of garnished goat meat just sitting around somewhere."

"Actually, I'd like it raw", she corrected.

"What?"

"Don't cook it, just bring it raw", she clarified.

Jude was dumbfounded and tired of complaining. "I'll be back in a while."

"Thank you", she smiled, "Don't take too long!"

He picked up the plate of potatoes and began heading out.

"No! Leave it! Just in case."

He sighed then dropped it back.

"Don't be angry please!"

"I'm not angry", he replied then shut the door behind him.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

On his way out, he heard a knock on the front door and immediately rushed over to open it. "Oh thank goodness, you're here", Jerome heaved a sigh of relief on seeing his mother. Behind her was one of the helps.

"What ails you? You look exhausted and I can't remember the last time you were this happy to see me." She asked then walked in. The help followed.

"Don't worry about it Mom, I'm okay now that you're here." He immediately shut the door and led them towards the room. "Okay so she's fine and ready to go, fully dressed and all. The only problem is that she's yet to have breakfast. But I figured you guys would just get something for her on your way there." Hilma had scheduled a pregnancy check-up with a distinguished midwife inside the village and was willing to pay her enough to come attend to Ravea at home, but the midwife thought it best that Ravea walked there instead so she could get a little exercise.

"Why hasn't she eaten? You know she's eating for two?" His mother asked concerned.

"Because she wouldn't settle for one food for more than 5 minutes!" He pushed open the door and found Ravea staring at him with her mouth filled with fried potatoes, then she started crying.

"I thought you said you weren't angry?" She asked when she heard Jerome refer to her with a raised voice.

"I'm not, okay sweetheart?" He quickly walked over to her and kissed her head, then her belly, then walked back to the door and looked at his mother, "She's all yours", and then left to go arrange the kitchen.

A few minutes later, Hilma came out of the room with the help and Ravea. The bulge in her stomach was now much bigger. It was like she swallowed an overgrown melon, most probably because she was now 7 months into her pregnancy. Her approaching due date made Jerome extremely nervous.

"Jerome!" Hilma called out, "We'll be back before high noon okay?"

"Okay!" He replied. Then he heard the door open, two seconds later, he heard it close. About a minute later, he heard a loud scream outside. He immediately dropped the plates and ran to it, all the while thinking, "No no no no, not now, not now! it's too early!!"

But then he got outside and it was the help screaming. Ravea just stood behind Hilma crying softly. Hilma on the other hand was a lot calmer even though she looked terrified.

"What's the problem?" Jerome asked then started walking towards them.

"Stay back!" Hilma said.

"What is it?!" Jerome was getting nervous, then he instinctively followed the direction of their eyesight, turned left then came face to face with a full grown panther. He immediately looked back at his mother, "Wait, so Ravea's due date is still two months from now?" He asked, but she didn't answer, she was probably too terrified. So he looked at Ravea, "Still two months left right?"

She nodded her head.

"Oh thank goodness!" He sighed and started laughing. "I thought you were about to, you know", He continued laughing.

Hilma got angry, "How can you be so relaxed when there's a Panther in front of us?!"

"Because I know this goofy cat, I've seen her a couple of times over the past few months. She even helped me catch the antelope I brought over that one time I came visiting. She's a good girl, she's probably just hungry, hold on, I have some spare meat inside. You'll see, once she eats, she'll be on her way." He calmly explained then strolled inside. 30 seconds later, the sound of rattling plates and pots could be heard from the kitchen, then Jerome ran out of the house with an empty pot in his hand. "I can't find the meat."

Hilma began to panic, "What do you mean you can't find the meat?! You just said you had meat!"

"I did! But now I can't find it!" Jerome was panicking as well.

"So a ghost ate it then?!"

"How am I supposed to know?! It's just me and Ravea in this house and she hasn't left the room in a while!" He looked at Ravea. She was weirdly agitated, and it wasn't because of the Panther. "Right?"

She said nothing at first, but when Hilma and the help both turned to look at her as well, she couldn't handle the pressure any longer. "Alright I took it! I'm sorry! I desperately needed something to eat last night."

"Ughh! Ravea!!"

"I'm sorry!"

"This is no time to point blame at anyone!" exclaimed Hilma. "Jerome, you said you recognize it, correct?"

Jerome nodded.

"Okay, does it recognize you?"

He looked at the panther curiously, as if asking if it recognized him. It growled and slowly began approaching him. "It's hard to tell", Jerome replied. "But that doesn't matter, you guys go inside. And don't make any sudden movements or you'll startle her."

Though it was terrifying, Jerome had to draw the attention of the panther towards him and away from the women. He wasn't an expert in hunting but circumstances had made it compulsory for him to learn a thing or two about the art, one of them being how to maintain eye contact with a predator.

He stared knowingly into the eyes of the panther. They sparkled dimly as the early morning sun reflected on them, and for a second, just a second before it fabricated a menacing snarl, it looked divine, but he quickly broke eye contact with it to check if the women had gotten inside safely, and then suddenly, the panther pranced out of the shade where it was crouched, it's majestic figure resembling a big black shadow, one capable of ripping him in half.

Jerome lept back and fell on the ground, missing the Panthers paw by a few meters. He immediately got up and tried to make eye contact with it again to make the panther believe that he was just as dangerous, but it was too late, the panther already knew it had the upper hand. It lunged at him again but it missed, Jerome barely managed to dodge again. He knew if that whole process went on any longer, he was going to get caught sooner or later, especially since it was becoming incredibly pissed.

At the moment, Jerome knew the panther was more dangerous, it had jaws powerful enough to break his bones in one bite, claws sharp enough to easily tear through his skin, teeth strong enough to skin him alive and eyes keen enough to follow all his movements. It was unmatched. If only he had his own teeth or claw, something to fight back with, he would at least manage to even the playing field a little bit.

"Jerome!" Ravea screamed when the Panthers claw came in contact with the left side of Jerome's face. It razed it, tearing chunks of his ear out in the process. But he could barely feel the pain. He felt something else, a steaming rage building up inside him like a pressured pot. He was angry and soon started making unwise judgements which caused him 4 more cuts to his right arm, thigh and belly.

Nevertheless, it didn't matter to him, he wanted to get back at the panther, he wanted to pound it to a pulp. But just then, his vision became blurry and his head began spinning. He looked at himself and he was covered in his blood, he was bleeding profusely. It was then that he was able to hear Ravea scream even more loudly, his mother as well, and all he could think of was, "Shut up", as he wedged himself against a log of wood.

Their screams soon drew the attention of the Panther, it ceased it's attack on Jerome and looked back at them, but it didn't move. It just growled and turned back to face Jerome, who immediately swung an axe by the side of it's face, chopping its ear clean off.