Jack's Descent

CH 4: Moving On

It had now been a week since the horrific murders at the Napier household, and Jack was still nowhere to be found. Since his blood was also discovered at the scene of the crime, the police were beginning to believe that he was either dead or coming close to it.

Sitting on her bed with a crumpled up tissue, Rachel sniffed as April gently rubbed her shoulders.

"You want something to drink?"

"No."

With a grim look on her delicate features, April gave Rachel's shoulder a pat before suggesting, "I figured that after the service you and I could come back to my place, curl up with some hot cocoa, and watch season one of Moonlighting. Craig wanted to come along, but I figured you wouldn't be up to seeing him just yet."

"Yeah" Rachel softly agreed, "I don't think I can pretend things are normal the way he can." Brushing back a lock of her hair, she hurriedly added, "Now don't think I'm not appreciative of your offer, but I'd really rather just go home afterward."

April frowned in concern. "You sure? Moonlighting always cheered you up in the past..."

"Well yeah, but you're forgetting that Jack was the one who introduced me to it" Rachel miserably reminded her. Now placing her face in her hands, she sobbed, "Oh God, I can hardly say his name, April -- how the hell am I supposed to live like this? It just hurts so much..."

Pulling Rachel in for a firm hug, April tucked her friend's head beneath her chin and held her tightly as she listened to her weep. "Shh" she gently soothed, "it's alright...you just cry as much as you want."

Rachel laughed bitterly. "Cry as much as I want? My God, I feel as if I've cried a full year's worth of rain as it is! It's like no matter what I do or say, he's always on my mind with his impish little smirk. He had such a beautiful outlook on life, April, and it wasn't long before I realized that I wanted to experience that beauty for the rest of my days."

April swallowed the lump in her throat. "Oh, Rach, I had no idea..."

"Yeah, I don't think he knew how I felt, either" she mumbled, her eyes glistening with guilt. "I didn't tell him I loved him nearly enough..."

"Well maybe so, but most men don't need that sort of reaffirmation."

"But I wanted him to know" Rachel insisted, her brows furrowing as she hugged herself for support. "Hell, I know this is awful brash to say, but I seriously feel like I want to just curl up and die right now."

April gasped. "Rachel don't say that! I know things are hard at the moment, but I promise things will get better."

"And how do you know?" she bitterly growled out. "Did you ever lose the love of your life?"

"No..."

"Did you ever wake up and feel as if you no longer had a reason for being?"

"Well no, but..."

"Then don't you tell me how to feel!" Rachel snarled, her eyes like frozen ice chips as April quivered beneath her gaze.

"Rachel, I'm so sorry..."

"Yeah, I'll bet you are" she bitterly choked out. "You've got your perfect life with your perfect looks, your perfect family, and your perfect boyfriend. How the hell do you expect me to feel now that the only perfect aspect of my life is gone!?"

"Rachel, please..."

"Shut up!" she sobbed, "Just please, get out! Get out!"

Appearing as if she'd been mortally wounded, April moved to console her friend, but Rachel cruelly lashed out at her before she could be embraced. With a tearful sniff, April whispered a hushed farewell and left the poor girl sobbing across her bed.

--

'Did you mean it, Jack? Will you really keep Papa away from me?'

'Yeah, of course I will, Squirt.'

'You promise?'

'I promise.'

"Liar" Jack whispered, unaware that he'd spoken aloud as he continued to lie on his side. The pain in his cheeks had considerably subsided, he'd noticed, but it couldn't possibly compare to the physical pain in his heart. Little Penny was gone now because of him, and it was all because he'd wanted to get to second base with Rachel. By God, the very thought made him want to retch.

Whimpering, Jack curled in on himself across the dusty floor, his eyes blearily taking in his surroundings as he briefly forgot where he was. If he remembered correctly, he'd fled his home and taken refuge inside a building under construction. Using some black thread that he'd snagged from his mother's drawer, he'd also taken care to sew up his lacerations. If at all possible, this hurt even more than the actual incisions, but somehow Jack reveled in the pain since he deserved it; he knew he did.

Running a finger along his black-threaded smile, he winced when he realized how dry and itchy his lips felt. Licking repeatedly at the chapped flesh, Jack grumbled to himself when he realized how unaffective his saliva was.

'Soooo, how does it feel to be a, uh...mur-der-er, hmm? Didn't we just rev-el in the taste of that cocksucker's buh-lood?'

Jack jolted to attention, but as he gazed frantically around him, he discovered that there was no one within the immediate vicinity. "H-hello?" he called, wincing at the hoarseness of his own voice. When moments ticked by and no one came forward, Jack moved to lie back down when the voice spoke again.

'My, my, we really are new to this, aren't we? No or-gas-mic response? No smiiiiile?'

"I'm dreaming" Jack declared, nodding once to reaffirm this, "my God, I'm actually dreaming..."

A chilling laugh rang throughout his ears in response, the mystery voice 'tsking' once before admonishing, 'Now, now, now, if we keep that sort of talk up, people are bound to think we're cuh-ray-zy.' Before Jack could even think to reply, the voice coldly added, 'Now that the cocksucker, the bitch, and that lit-tle blonde brat are out of the way, we can fin-al-ly come to fruition!'

"Shut up!" Jack snarled, beating his head with his fists, "Just shut up!"

'Whoo, we like our spunk, Jack, we do, we do! Hit us again, Jack, c'mon! Hit us!'

Releasing a gutteral wail, Jack gripped at his hair and bowed his head in between his knees, his breathing coming in sharp, uneven breaths that left him considerably light-headed. Drooling from his parted, aching lips, Jack's eyes went slightly out of focus as the voice taunted, 'Aww, feelin' sorry for ourselves, are we? If you'd just quit pissin' around, we could actually, uh...a-venge lit-tle Penny.'

Jack finally seemed to perk up at this, his head rising from his hands as he asked, "Yeah, well how? I've already killed my father..."

'No, no, no, you fool, think a minute! Lit-tle Penny was worth at least a thousand lives, don'tcha think?' When Jack nodded dumbly, the voice pleasurably sustained, 'Well then, don'tcha think we should, uh...take at least a thousand lives for her oh-so-char-ming memoryyyy? Just think of it, Jack! All that buh-lood...all that chaos and de-struc-tion!'

Trembling, Jack doubled over on all fours and began to retch. As bile rose in the back of his throat, he closed his eyes and gagged on his vomit, the acidic mixture burning along his stitches until tears of pain came to his eyes.

'Penny' he thought, 'Oh God, oh God, oh God...' Sinking back onto his rump, Jack rubbed at his face and realized that he was once again in control of his own faculties. By God, had he really imagined that chilling voice? Because Lord knows he was stressed enough to have suffered a small hallucination...

Laughing to himself, Jack rolled his eyes as he jokingly declared that he was going insane. Unfortunately for him, he'd failed to notice how his expression of mirth had mimicked the strange laugh in his head.

--

Threading her engagement ring through a gold chain, Rachel secured it around her neck before stepping forward and gazing back at her reflection. Her eyes were blood-shot and lined with smeared kohl, the hair that she'd so carefully swept back now falling across her red and blotchy cheeks like a gnarled aegis. This was a face in mourning, she decided, and yet this didn't help the fact that she looked like hell. Even though everyone at the service had been incredibly supportive, she was still well aware that they all viewed her as something to be pitied. She was no longer Rachel Dawes, but "that poor thing who lost her fiancé to some heinously cruel act of fate".

Fingering the ring in between the swell of her breasts, she found herself briefly contemplating suicide when a sudden 'thud' echoed out on the fire escape. Abandoning the mirror in a panicked rush, Rachel thrust open the window and peered outside, her eyes widening when she discovered nothing but a playing card...a Jack. With trembling fingers, Rachel lifted the card off the grated platform and held it up to the light, her brows drawing together as she read the words 'Goodbye doesn't mean forever.' Now glancing about her as if expecting to find her mysterious caller, Rachel sighed and chalked it up as the joke of a cruel and merciless prankster. As she closed the window and went back to her incessant brooding, she failed to notice the dark figure huddled by the foot of the fire escape.

A/N - Yeah, so that sucked major you-know-whats. I'll admit it was a filler chapter, because the next one takes place six years into the future. If you're squeamish about non-con, violence, language, and all that "fun stuff", you may not want to keep reading, because CH 5 definitely takes on a dark turn. There will be comic relief peppered throughout, but probably not enough to make this a light-hearted story. Anywhos, hopefully you enjoyed this despite the short length (THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID!).