10-11-2018, 11:12 PM
Eyes scanning the lake, with its ripples and wakes of passed boaters, they had the same idea. It wasn’t the first time he imagined skinny dipping with Natalie, in the most honorable and respectful sort of way of course. But even someone who endured the harshest of training in waterway maneuvers, finding that flimsy wallet on the bottom of a lake bed would be searching for the invisible. Not to mention that diving 30 feet deep may require gear he didn’t have handy.
Not to mention that he didn’t exactly favor another chat with Alistair. Actually, he kind of liked that slick bastard, but probably wasn’t going to work out. Besides, the deal was done. Alistair was out of the picture and out of Natalie’s conscience. They’d find another way.
Thing was, the days were counting down. He was suppose to be in Africa, and there were enough of a horde pounding down his door to deal with currently. Adding Ascendancy’s messengers to that pile was downright daunting. The whole thing was a huge fucking tangle that no manner of hands squeezing into his scalp was going to unravel. A pharmaceutical company. Diaz. Jenkins. Amengual.
They had names. Someplace to hide. Days to figure it out. “Should be doable.” He shrugged on a morbid laugh. There was only everyone’s lives riding on the outcome. “I’ll look at the papers after. We have about a ten hour drive ahead of us. Hope you can sleep sitting up.” He grinned unapologetically. She deserved better than this mess. For some reason, she wasn’t so willing to shuck off. Damned loyalties planted on the wrong person. But he’d protect them, to his dying day if possible.
His own wallet blew up about then. He glanced, only to flinch at the images coming through from Cayli. There was a huge mess back at the cars. Stuff all over the ground. He frowned, showed it to Natalie like she might decipher the chaos. Mom and dad were.. tugging on something? What the—?
Then a sinking feeling carved a fresh pit in his gut. “Oh no.” He looked at her aghast for a moment, licked his lips and took off at a sprint. Though he glanced to make sure Natalie wasn’t left completely behind, he was a fast runner when he wanted. The hat flew from his hair in the wind, but despite how much he loved that Stetson, it lay abandoned in the grass.
He skidded around the vehicles, coming to a dead stop, face pale. Yep. It was exactly what he thought.
Mom and dad were literally pulling on the dark cloth of his Custody’s uniform. Well, ain’t this whole family reunion thing a fucking carnival of horrors?
Shocked by his sudden appearance, dad wrenched the uniform from mom who had seemed to attempt to protect it. Instead, dad turned the sleeve, face red with rage, the patches flashing orange and gray.
A fresh new onslaught of accusations were hurled. Jay just stood there in silence, wishing Cayli weren’t there to witness the bloodbath. She wasn’t anything near as dogmatic about the CCD as dad was, but she wasn’t ignorant either. She took history class. The Custody was everything the States weren’t – the antithesis, really. Enemies.
Jay tuned dad out. Dusty blue eyes went from face to loving face a moment, until he knew what he had to do. There was a place on the edge of the power’s grasp that teetered with one foot on both realms – the physical and the beyond. Straddling both, he lived fully in neither. It was a place, like a void, that cloaked him with a strange sort of new armor. The power called its seizure. A siren sound he ignored for now despite the crushing nearness of its lure.
“Get in the car.” He said far more calmly than he expected to hear himself.
Mom swallowed, unlocking her frozen self and attempted to pick up the belongings on the dirt. Jay’s bag had overturned and somehow the contents tumbled out. A box of ammunition lay sprawled around it.
“Get in the car, please.” Jay silently pleaded with her. When dad literally thrust the uniform in his face, it was his turn to wrench it away.
“I’ll explain on the drive.”
“Explain now. Is this yours?”
The cloth felt heavy as chainmail in his hands. But there was basically no denying what was waved before them all. At least Natalie’s presence probably made more sense. “Yes it is.” He said. Again, that place where the power called just out of grasp deadened what hurt might otherwise sweep him asunder.
Dad looked outright rejected. He scrubbed at his hair, much the same way Jay tended to do. He clenched his jaw the same way. Eyes veiled to what he wanted to see. Ears hearing nothing but silence despite the sounds of explanation trapped in Jay’s chest.
“I thought you went to Africa! What are you? Some kind of defector? A double agent or something? A traitor?”
Armor was actually a nice metaphor. Jay rather wished he was wearing some at the moment. He picked up the bag where it had overturned, deposited it in the back of the vehicle. The remainder of their things were transferred over. So it went wedged in with everything else.
The ammunition, on the other hand, he just stared at.
“Well? Do you have anything to say for yourself?”
That’s when he was pushed over the edge, plunged into the darkness. The power swirled like a storm for that one moment he looked into the eyes of people he loved. Simultaneously, the golden-kid they knew was gone.
The power swept the debris together. Mom hopped like a snake was striking. Cayli gasped. Jensen watched, all too aware. Natalie- he didn’t even want to know what Natalie was thinking.
He channeled in front of them, swept everything back into its case, and lifted the heavy box like it was a bag of feathers to the vehicle. When it was done, he crossed his arms, and said again. “Everyone get in the car.”
He meant to explain himself along the way. Hand to God he really did want to tell them the story. But the first few miles were all too silent. When the silence stretched like the highway drenched in darkness before them, he didn’t break it. This was going to be the longest ten hours of his life.
Not to mention that he didn’t exactly favor another chat with Alistair. Actually, he kind of liked that slick bastard, but probably wasn’t going to work out. Besides, the deal was done. Alistair was out of the picture and out of Natalie’s conscience. They’d find another way.
Thing was, the days were counting down. He was suppose to be in Africa, and there were enough of a horde pounding down his door to deal with currently. Adding Ascendancy’s messengers to that pile was downright daunting. The whole thing was a huge fucking tangle that no manner of hands squeezing into his scalp was going to unravel. A pharmaceutical company. Diaz. Jenkins. Amengual.
They had names. Someplace to hide. Days to figure it out. “Should be doable.” He shrugged on a morbid laugh. There was only everyone’s lives riding on the outcome. “I’ll look at the papers after. We have about a ten hour drive ahead of us. Hope you can sleep sitting up.” He grinned unapologetically. She deserved better than this mess. For some reason, she wasn’t so willing to shuck off. Damned loyalties planted on the wrong person. But he’d protect them, to his dying day if possible.
His own wallet blew up about then. He glanced, only to flinch at the images coming through from Cayli. There was a huge mess back at the cars. Stuff all over the ground. He frowned, showed it to Natalie like she might decipher the chaos. Mom and dad were.. tugging on something? What the—?
Then a sinking feeling carved a fresh pit in his gut. “Oh no.” He looked at her aghast for a moment, licked his lips and took off at a sprint. Though he glanced to make sure Natalie wasn’t left completely behind, he was a fast runner when he wanted. The hat flew from his hair in the wind, but despite how much he loved that Stetson, it lay abandoned in the grass.
He skidded around the vehicles, coming to a dead stop, face pale. Yep. It was exactly what he thought.
Mom and dad were literally pulling on the dark cloth of his Custody’s uniform. Well, ain’t this whole family reunion thing a fucking carnival of horrors?
Shocked by his sudden appearance, dad wrenched the uniform from mom who had seemed to attempt to protect it. Instead, dad turned the sleeve, face red with rage, the patches flashing orange and gray.
A fresh new onslaught of accusations were hurled. Jay just stood there in silence, wishing Cayli weren’t there to witness the bloodbath. She wasn’t anything near as dogmatic about the CCD as dad was, but she wasn’t ignorant either. She took history class. The Custody was everything the States weren’t – the antithesis, really. Enemies.
Jay tuned dad out. Dusty blue eyes went from face to loving face a moment, until he knew what he had to do. There was a place on the edge of the power’s grasp that teetered with one foot on both realms – the physical and the beyond. Straddling both, he lived fully in neither. It was a place, like a void, that cloaked him with a strange sort of new armor. The power called its seizure. A siren sound he ignored for now despite the crushing nearness of its lure.
“Get in the car.” He said far more calmly than he expected to hear himself.
Mom swallowed, unlocking her frozen self and attempted to pick up the belongings on the dirt. Jay’s bag had overturned and somehow the contents tumbled out. A box of ammunition lay sprawled around it.
“Get in the car, please.” Jay silently pleaded with her. When dad literally thrust the uniform in his face, it was his turn to wrench it away.
“I’ll explain on the drive.”
“Explain now. Is this yours?”
The cloth felt heavy as chainmail in his hands. But there was basically no denying what was waved before them all. At least Natalie’s presence probably made more sense. “Yes it is.” He said. Again, that place where the power called just out of grasp deadened what hurt might otherwise sweep him asunder.
Dad looked outright rejected. He scrubbed at his hair, much the same way Jay tended to do. He clenched his jaw the same way. Eyes veiled to what he wanted to see. Ears hearing nothing but silence despite the sounds of explanation trapped in Jay’s chest.
“I thought you went to Africa! What are you? Some kind of defector? A double agent or something? A traitor?”
Armor was actually a nice metaphor. Jay rather wished he was wearing some at the moment. He picked up the bag where it had overturned, deposited it in the back of the vehicle. The remainder of their things were transferred over. So it went wedged in with everything else.
The ammunition, on the other hand, he just stared at.
“Well? Do you have anything to say for yourself?”
That’s when he was pushed over the edge, plunged into the darkness. The power swirled like a storm for that one moment he looked into the eyes of people he loved. Simultaneously, the golden-kid they knew was gone.
The power swept the debris together. Mom hopped like a snake was striking. Cayli gasped. Jensen watched, all too aware. Natalie- he didn’t even want to know what Natalie was thinking.
He channeled in front of them, swept everything back into its case, and lifted the heavy box like it was a bag of feathers to the vehicle. When it was done, he crossed his arms, and said again. “Everyone get in the car.”
He meant to explain himself along the way. Hand to God he really did want to tell them the story. But the first few miles were all too silent. When the silence stretched like the highway drenched in darkness before them, he didn’t break it. This was going to be the longest ten hours of his life.
Only darkness shows you the light.