Fandom [CLOSED] Tokyo Ghoul: Dead Enmity

[yaint]

The last of Adrian's words were cut through with a heavy sigh; this time Jackson had not been able to restrain himself from openly expressing his despair. The pen was no longer twirling in his hand, but resting lifelessly on the mangled clipboard below. 


He knew what this was. Adrian lost himself and his voice in thought often, but there was a glaze in his grey eyes that told Jackson that his friend wasn't panicking - on the contrary, he recognised this look and at once felt a tiny spark of impatience. Was that supposed to be an explanation? Needing to 'do some stuff' was painfully vague, almost not even worth saying - but Jackson bit his tongue instead of retorting or whining about the reply. Strange things had been happening, and he wanted his answers. Upsetting Adrian with one of his stupid outbursts would not bring him closer to his objective.


"It's fine, I don't mind. Jason's a good man," Jackson carried on, plastering a smile across his otherwise-stiff face. What could he say now? If Adrian was being difficult, simply elaborating or repeating the question would be pointless. His friend had to be cornered, figuratively pinned up against a wall so that his only escape route would be the path of the full truth. "Anyway - what sort of 'stuff' are you talking about? It was supposed to be your first day of training with the Quinx, so something that could pull you away from work so early and for so long must have been important. Was there an emergency?" Jackson continued to prompt, "A fight?"

 

[Yoki]

Upon hearing Jackson sigh Adrian tilted his head to the side, it seemed he hadn't given the man a satisfactory answer. He'd tried to make it as vague as possible whilst still answering the question, and he'd answered the question, what more did Jackson want from him? It wasn't his intention to upset the man, he just didn't want to talk about it, but...he'd never say that. 


"U-Um..." What sort of stuff... "W-Well...um..." Was there an emergency? "Yes, ah, no? I..I..." He didn't know whether to class it as an emergency or not, he did go to Quinx he just left early. Adrian didn't like having to process more than one question at a time and Jackson had thrown three at him, or was it four? He couldn't quite work it out. "There...There wasn't a fight, well- no... Not really..." He looked down once more, "And I did go to Quinx training, I was there and we were doing things, but then something happened and so I left because I was scared."


He started messing around with his sleeve, did he have to explain this? He'd fought with Claire and Taylor, then Lee was going to beat him up...but Claire started crying, they all had to move because there were investigators around, things were a little hectic... It was strange, he honestly didn't remember all of the details... He just knew that he'd been starving and rather hostile. Adrian hadn't been himself during that time, he hadn't acted anything like he usually would, he'd been much more wary. 

 

[yaint]

Once again, Adrian's answer was not the one he had been expecting - or hoping for, rather - but still Jackson allowed himself a tiny smile. The technique was slow, but it looked like it could work. In fact, he even went so far as to liken his method to that of a boa constrictor; every time Adrian let his guard down and let some information slip, Jackson would close further in on him, narrowing in on the end result. It was an old trick, but one of the best in the book. Adrian was already struggling to keep up.


'Doing things' and 'something happened' once again were useless on their own, but the thing that caught Jackson's attention this time was Adrian's unsteady little murmur of 'I was scared'. Scared, huh? he thought, turning the words over in his mind repeatedly. And he left. That alone meant several things: it had something to do with the other squad members, the thing that happened was bad and Adrian felt that he was personally in danger. Something bad happened that made Adrian afraid to be around his squad. That, he could use.


"What happened?" Jackson suddenly blurted at Adrian, raising his head to meet his roommate's eyes before quickly averting his gaze again. That was too direct, Adrian wouldn't answer that. He had to take a different approach. Use the information! "You said you were scared, right? So I'm guessing there was some kind of danger involved. But you had to be on your own. Why?"

 

[Yoki]

Adrian shifted his position awkwardly when he was asked what happened, he didn't really answer, instead just looking down and deciding what to say. Then Jackson fired a different question at him, making him think of that instead of the previous question that he'd asked. Couldn't he just ask one at a time? 


"U-Um... Kinda..." He replied, chewing on the inside of his cheek. There was danger involved, a lot of danger, but he didn't want to speak about it...did he have to? "I-I...just... They might have hurt me..." His voice was quiet, whilst he didn't know if his squad would have hurt him, he'd been aware that there was something wrong, and at the time he'd just needed to get away, leave before they figured anything out. "Or...been angry, plus...I didn't feel good...so I left." He'd panicked, that's what it was. Knowing something was wrong, he'd panicked and left them before they could take him anywhere that would confirm his suspicion. He'd rather not know what happened. It was easier that way... Take things as they came. 


"Jackson I don't like this." Adrian looked up at his friend, rubbing his arm, "Can we talk about something else?" He wouldn't have normally said anything, but he was feeling very uncomfortable with the whole thing, he didn't want to talk anymore...he didn't know that Jackson was going to bring this up... 

 

[yaint]

Jackson was listening intently to Adrian, clinging on to his every word and nodding vigorously to urge him on as the boy began to reluctantly explain the event with just half of the vagueness from before. Just how close was Jackson to getting the full story? He must be almost there, Adrian was stumbling over his own thoughts now, surely he would loosen his lips now.


Can we talk about something else?


The man's face fell when he heard these words. Oh. There was suddenly a tiny twinge of guilt dancing in the base of his throat. The look in Adrian's eyes was not what Jackson had been expecting to see when he looked up at his friend. It was hard to pin down exactly what it meant, but whether it was sadness, tension or simple discomfort, he realised now that he had pushed the boy too far. Idiot. Whatever it was that had happened, maybe it was just too upsetting to talk about. Jackson wondered why he of all people was not allowed to know, but... No, stop. He should just give up and move on before he did anything else stupid to get Adrian down again.


With a fresh and false vitality in his voice, he forced himself to abandon the answer he had fought so fiercely to wheedle out, though it pained him to do so now that he knew he had almost won. "Oh. All right, then, okay, err -" Suddenly it became very difficult to think of what he could say. That question was his whole point. What was next? The list, it's on the list, look on the list.


"We'll... Move on, then... Uh, to the next point," he mumbled absent-mindedly as he screwed up his face to try and decode the scrawls on the second line of the paper. There was something there that looked like a double-O, perhaps if he could just make out that one word... 'Oo... F - oo... Floor.' Floor. The time Adrian had disappeared and left Jackson on the floor all night and morning. Was it a good idea to bring that topic up? Adrian was already uncomfortable, this would likely not help matters. Maybe I could try if I don't bring up the part about me, he reasoned, thinking that perhaps if Adrian didn't feel guilty then he would be more willing to oblige. I'll ust get to the point and drop it if it doesn't work. "Oh... Okay, I've got it. Yesterday - not last night, yesterday morning and the night before that - remember? Mum and Dad weren't around then, we were on our own, and you... Started crying in the middle of the night, or something like that."


Jackson glanced up quickly to check Adrian - this time not only to make sure that he was listening, but also to determine whether or not it was safe to carry on. He ached to prompt a more detailed response by digging deeper, but in the end the man decided that he did not dare to elaborate any further. He could wait for Adrian's reply first.

 

[Yoki]

Adrian smiled when Jackson immediately abandoned the topic, he seemed a little more comfortable knowing that if he asked they didn't have to talk about it. He knew that Jackson had a lot he wanted to mention, and he knew that there was a lot the other was probably confused about, but it would only upset him if he knew anyway. They could go without discussing what happened that day, because...in the end Adrian wasn't even completely sure himself. He still only knew that something went wrong, what though he had no clue. He was here now, and he was fine so there wasn't a problem, right?


He listened for the next thing that Jackson brought up, but...it was even more uncomfortable to talk about than the first. Of course he remembered it, if he could have forgotten it he would have, but he couldn't. He'd started crying because he was in pain, and he couldn't sleep, and he couldn't eat, it had been hard to function properly at all... If he'd been left there all night...he might have eaten Jackson. Oh god. 


The boy swallowed, moving his legs to bring his knees to his chest, he had his broken wrist resting in between his thighs and stomach, whilst his other arm was loosely wrapped around his legs. Adrian laid his head on his knees, looking away, he felt back about that night... Why would he even think about eating Jackson? It was an awful thought, he didn't want to do that. Of course, he could still answer the question quite vaguely...was it even a question? It didn't sound like a question, more like a statement. So...was he meant to answer? Jackson seemed to have paused...so probably. 


"I..." His voice was slightly muffled as his head was turned inwards, towards his legs, "I was hungry..." He mumbled, "But...I couldn't eat anything...and it hurt." That was as much as he seemed willing to give away when first asked, but...it didn't just hurt, he'd been in agony... Claire ended up being the person to help him out with that, after he'd been beaten by Lee a little...Lee really didn't like him... That night had made him panic so much, he thought that he was dying or something, he didn't understand why he was throwing up all of the time...but...Adrian guessed he'd kind of accepted why that was now...even if he didn't want to say it. 

 

[yaint]

Jackson tensed as he watched Adrian curl up into some kind of defensive position. His wrist was in no danger here, and yet the boy for some reason felt the nees to curl his entire body around it. Had his subconscious been tricked into believing there to be danger? It could just be his ordinary fidgeting again, but now that Jackson was being more careful, he could not afford not to assume the extreme.


"You were hungry," he echoed numbly, the fingers on his right hand twitching as though they urged to join with his left. It was neither a question nor a prompt nested within a simple statement - just a thought that could not remain silent.


 Hungry.


Jackson wanted to shiver, but stopped himself before the movement arrived. Yes, he had been anticipating that... Whatever had gone wrong had caused Adrian to suddenly become intolerant to ordinary food and to then have an extreme reaction to his own hunger. Even now, Jackson could still hear those unearthly howls of agony. The boy must have been in some extreme pain - and he think he knew why. It was a truth he had been pushing away for too long because he was too much of a coward to even glance at it with his mind's eye, but the longer they ignored it, the more it would gnaw away at them both.


It briefly crossed Jackson's mind as to what he should say next. Ask about the hunger, and what might have satisfied it in the end? Maybe why he had once more returned late stinking of blood. Or even the root of all the problem.


Would it hurt Adrian to probe further? 


It probably would. 


Not even Jackson wanted to say it, but getting it out now must surely be a better option than biding his time. He braced himself for tears and swallowed hard before saying, "Err... Sorry..." He suddenly had a mind to abandon the pursuit altogether. But I can't! I can't be a coward, he thought furiously. It might hurt Adrian... But we can't just hide from it! "Uh, Adrian? There's... Th-there's something else I've - something I've been thinking about for a while. Are you okay? Um... The surgery." Here we go, he thought, licking his lips as his mouth became dry again, "Something went wrong, didn't it? Do - do you know what happened? Sorry. It's just - oh, I have an idea, but... It would help if you could tell me."

 

[Yoki]

"Mhm." Even though it hadn't seemed like a question Adrian still felt the need to answer Jackson with something, so he just nodded his head and hummed something out. He didn't like repeating that, he was hungry...but...not for normal food, if he was then he would have been able to eat it and everything would have been fine. He'd needed something that he shouldn't have...when Claire fed him she gave him a leg. A human leg. That was the only thing that was able to satisfy his hunger out of everything he'd tried. 


He chewed on the inside of his lip whilst thinking about the whole night, it made him feel nervous and he didn't like that....he didn't want to feel anxious about it. Jackson wasn't going to get mad at him, was he? He didn't think so, but he knew how much the man disapproved of ghoul's behaviours, if he worked it out...would he abandon him? 


Hearing Jackson start another round of questions, Adrian turned his head towards the man, he couldn't quite keep up, he didn't really know what to answer first...but at least he was trying. 


"I-I'm fine." He replied, he was fine, sure...something had gone wrong with the surgery, he'd known that since the first day, but he was okay... He bit down harder on his cheek when Jackson asked if something went wrong. He knew...he knew something went wrong didn't he? He knew there was something up? Adrian swallowed and curled himself into a tighter ball, keeping his eyes down the entire time. Jackson said he had an idea, but...Adrian didn't understand what that mean. About what? Did he know what had happened? Could he tell him? Because...he was still confused on that. 


"I...don't...know..." He replied, his distressed gaze flickered up to Jackson for a moment, before falling to the couch once again. That was the truth, he didn't know what happened, he guessed...tell Jackson about what happened with the Quinx squad might help...but he didn't want to say. For a few seconds Adrian started to grind his teeth, deciding what to do. It would be beneficial to tell Jackson, but at the same time he didn't really want to remember it.... Well, it was already brought up now? He was already extremely uncomfortable, he was already thinking of it.


"Metal got stuck in my back." His speech was quick and rather muffled, since he made an effort to turn his head and press his face against his knee whilst he spoke. Part of him didn't want Jackson to hear, but he'd said it now, he couldn't take it back. Could they just stop talking about this? He didn't want to address the issue, he wanted to leave it alone... Everything would be okay if they just didn't think about it too much. 

 

[yaint]

Metal got stuck in my back.


Jackson froze. The pen fell from his hand, rolled down his lap and dropped to the carpeted floor with a thunderous whump. Did he hear that correctly? Adrian had spoken into his lap, making it difficult to work out the individual sounds he had made, but there was little room to mistake those six short, sharp words.


Metal. In his back. Had he not already known where it most likely came from, he would have thought to ask Adrian about that - but endless hours of research had taught him everything he wanted to know about the Quinx procedure, and everything he didn't want to know.


 Something must have happened to the frames which were supposed to stop the kakuhou from releasing too many red child cells into the bloodstream. Without those bars of steel, that surgery... It's identical to the original ghoulification procedure. 


 For a thousand seconds Jackson sat, frozen in time as the gears turned in his brain, and yet at the end he could not think of anything to say but, "Oh." 


 It took far too long for Jackson to realise that he had dropped his pen, but now it was far out of his reach. Still, he thought, I ought to move on. Just thinking about what Adrian had told him just now was giving him chills. His body had changed much more drastically than it was supposed to for a simple Quinx surgery, but.... He was still human. Absolutely never in his life would Adrian be a ghoul, not even if his body said otherwise. Surely if they kept researching, somebody would find a way to cure the condition. But that's enough. They had lingered on this topic for long enough.


 What was the next point? It looked like - oh. The ghouls, the real ghouls who kept coming to the apartment. It was on the list, but somehow, with Adrian in the state that he was in, talking about this all of a sudden seemed inappropriate. Jackson decided to skip over it and conclude his part of the discussion.


 "Anyway... Err, we can talk about that another time. Didn't you have something you wanted to say? Do you remember what it is?"

 

[Yoki]

Adrian's eyes locked onto the pen the minute it began to drop, he'd shocked Jackson, that much was obvious. He hoped the other wasn't upset, after all he was fine now, the metal was gonna do he was completely okay... He promised... He just didn't want Jackson to hate him for this, he hadn't meant for it to happen...if just...did... There was nothing he could do, he couldn't help that. 


The 'oh' the other managed to breath out didn't make the situation any better. It just told Adrian that he didn't know what to say, or how to react, then again...who would. He thought Jackson knew what happened, did he? Could he tell him? It would be good to know what exactly went wrong. 


However, before he could ask that question to Jackson the man had brought up the fact that Adrian had something to talk about. His interest once again piqued, the boy lifted his head, silently staring at Jackson, in the last few minutes there had been more silence that Adrian was comfortable with...but he needed just a few more seconds to think of what to say first... After all, how did he explain the situation? 


"Yeah...I...I remember." He blinked, grey eyes suddenly taking on a much more hopeful look that before. How could he not be? He'd been devastated after he was told his brother had died...and now he'd seen him again, and he was about to tell Jackson about it! They might be able to find him! 


"You..." Once again Adrian shifted his position, although this time only slightly, his good hand playing around with his trouser legs. "You know that fight?" He looked Jackson directly in the eyes, trying his best to make sure the other knew that he wasn't seeing things, that he wasn't crazy, because...this was going to sound insane. "It was him." For a second he seemed to smile, but it was gone within seconds, "It was Leo. It was! I swear it, I saw him." 

 

[yaint]

Adrian's words were met only with silence for what must have felt like an eternity. Leo. Prince. That was what Adrian had wanted to talk about? Jackson's left hand balled up into a fist so tightly that if he had still held the pen it might have cracked.


"N-no, Adrian," he forced out eventually, averting his eyes when he noticed Adrian's attempt to lock gazes. He didn't need to see that glimmer of light now, that tiny flame of hope which he knew he would have to put out before it consumed his friend whole. Did Adrian really believe that monster was Leo? It couldn't be; the way that ghoul had treated the boy, first attempting to strangle him, then crush his ribs and spine, then snap through his wrist... Even if that thing resembled Jackson's old friend in appearance, it could not be him. Leo is a dead man. "It's not. Leo is d- Leo's dead, don't be silly."

 

[Yoki]

"N...No...No Jackson he's- he's not. Really, you have to believe me." Adrian leaned forwards, moving his legs out of the way so that he could get closer to Jackson. "Really, it was him, I promise, I promise it was. It really was." He didn't seem to want to let this go, he had to convince Jackson, he just had to. "I wouldn't be able to mistake him for anyone... It was his eyes, and his voice Jackson. He was the same height and everything, it had to be him." His heart was beating ten times faster than it was meant to, his brother wasn't dead, he was alive...he was actually alive. 


For or a few seconds Adrian stayed quiet, before looking down. "Leo isn't dead, he...he isn't... I knew he wasn't, he couldn't have been, they've done something to him but he's alive Jackson. I need to find him, I need to." There was no doubt in Adrian's mind anymore, he knew his brother voice, he knew what his eyes looked like, and he knew that that ghoul recognised his name. It was Leo, Jackson just could see it.

 

[yaint]

"No you don't," Jackson snapped sharply, realising only afterwards with what kind of harshness he had spoken. There was a quiet shuffling noise as he pushed himself out of a slouch with one arm, then slammed his hand down on the clipboard to stop it from falling like the pen. "S-sorry."


Oh no, he kept thinking between pulses of confusion and guilt, Oh no, he actually believes... What was he supposed to do now? What was he supposed to say? There were too many options and too many things to consider which made the decision so impossible. Leo was dead, that was the truth. Adrian would not be appeased by being told that he was wrong; that was another truth. But which of the two did Jackson dare to choose?


Realising that he had not spoken for an uncomfortably long time, Jackson broke the silence with, "Sorry, it's just, err... You - it was years ago, you know? It's been years - s-since Leo, uh, died. We were kids, Adrian, it's... I bet it's your memory. You're delusional, or something." Great, he thought glumly after realising what he had just said, Go call him dumb while you're at it, why don't you? "Sorry," he said quickly, making a feeble attempt to cover up his badly-phrased reasoning, "I mean - uh... It looks like him, but it's not. Okay? It's a ghoul. Leo is - Leo was human."

 

[Yoki]

Adrian was immediately taken a back by Jackson's tone, it made him recoil, his back hitting the couch cushions behind him. Jackson....didn't seem to like that idea, but why? He thought Leo and Jackson were friends...why wouldn't he want to find him, why didn't he want to have hope? To believe that Leo was really alive.


Jackson continued to talk about how they were kids when Leo died, that Adrian's memory just wasn't working properly, and that he was...delusional... The boy seemed hurt by this, Jackson didn't believe him because he hadn't seen his brother since he was little. That didn't mean he didn't remember him, he remembered the man perfectly, there wasn't a single thing he didn't remember about Leo. Adrian swallowed, dropping his gaze, the excitement seemed to dwindle out of his eyes. Did Jackson really think he wouldn't remember his own brother? 


"It is. It really is Jackson." His tone was desperate, Adrian had moved his legs back into a crossed position, grabbing his ankle with his good hand again, but tighter than before. "Something must have happened to him... I-I know my...my memory isn't...good...but I didn't forget, I know it's him, I know it. He recognised his name, I saw it in his eyes. It was Leo. You saw him too, didn't he look familiar? Did you hear him speak? It was Leo's voice. I swear." 

 

[yaint]

"Okay, okay, okay, okay!" Jackson stammered over and over, flailing his hand at Adrian as a wave of panic rose within him. He had hit a nerve, he knew he had. Idiot. Even if Adrian was wrong, he didn't need to be upset like that. Remember who you're talking to. "L-look, I'm sorry, okay? Adrian. Look at me, I - I believe you," he lied, grasping at the fabric of his trousers with the fingers of his left hand. 


A single bead of sweat rolled down the side of his face and then trickled past his ear. Already Jackson's hair was curling at the ends, his glasses had slid halfway down his nose and his face was turning a shade of red that looked a lot like the colour of a tomato. It was quite clear at this point that Adrian's negative reaction had provoked a flurry of anxiety, but still he attempted to make ideas meet in his mind.


I just said I believe him, he thought, gazing absently past the rim of his glasses, which were continuing to slide to the end of his nose. He had considered doing that earlier, and then decided against it for good reason. It would make him a liar. It would hurt Adrian to find out the truth. Adrian might lose trust in him after finding out. And yet, in his moment of panic, he had gone and taken the quickest exit route from an incoming tear-tantrum.


 "It - it did sound like Leo, you're right, it could be him - but we can't be sure, Adrian," he tried, making an effort to weasel out of the hole he had dug for himself. "W-we can't prove anything."

 

[Yoki]

"R-Really?" Adrian's eyes lit up once more when Jackson said that he believed him, so was he really willing to listen then? He didn't even consider the option of Jackson lying to him, he wouldn't do that so why would he think about it. The boy's lips upturned in a slight smile, if Jackson believed him then they might be able to find Leo. He wanted his brother back so badly, he'd spent years without him and now he might actually get to see him again. The thought was more than a little exciting.


He rubbed his eyes, continuing to listen to Jackson. So he was saying they couldn't be sure, well...all they had to do was find him, then they'd know. Maybe this time Leo would have an actual conversation with him. 


"Well, we find him then...right? He works with whatever that group was....I could ask Claire...or we could find someone that works for them, then we'd know! We just need to find him!" That was the plan, Adrian had been thinking about different ways to get to Leo since he'd seen the man. He'd find him. He had to. If he didn't then he'd never forget about it, and if Jackson really believed him then they'd be able to do it together. "I wanna see him again Jackson... He...He promised he wouldn't leave me...so...so why did he?" 

 

[yaint]

Find Leo? Go looking after Prince!? No, oh no, this was not what Jackson had intended to happen at all. What was this? His plans normally worked, but maybe Adrian simply didn't have the right kind of brain to be fooled by his socially-constructed mind games. 


They could not go out in search of a dead man. Absolutely, unquestionably not. Firstly, their efforts would be fruitless, not to mention the fact that if they did have a run-in with Prince by themselves then they would both be killed immediately. But just as Jackson was about to cut Adrian off with his own words of hush, he too was interrupted before he even opened his mouth by a sudden, jarring noise that jolted him in his seat.


Bleep-bleep-bleep, sang the landline in its too-cheerful ringtone. 


Jackson, suddenly stiff as wood, had to force his hand down to his side so that he could push himself awkwardly in the direction of the coffee table, where the phone had been rested earlier that morning. Who was calling now? It wasn't work... Was it? He recognised the number.


A trembling hand tightened around the plastic body of the phone, lifted it to Jackson's ear, and then... His face turned from red to a frosty white. Without saying a word, the man clicked a thumb at the red button which would end the call and then placed the phone silently back on the table.


 "Help me get to my room," Jackson barked abruptly at Adrian, a note of urgency ringing in voice, which was now lowered almost to the level of a whisper. He was attempting to turn himself away from the lounge, but with only one arm he could get no further than a couple of metres before he began to swerve irritatingly to the right. "Uh - please. I've - I need to get to my PC. Now, it's urgent," he kept insisting, drumming his fingers impatiently on his own lap where the clipboard rested, forgotten along with the rest of what Adrian had been trying to say just moments before.

 

[Yoki]

Adrian waited for his friend's response in suspense, would Jackson agree to search with him? The two of them together would be able to do it, it might take them awhile but in the end finding Leo would be worth it. Maybe he didn't recognise him, maybe that's why Leo had attacked him the last time...they were in the middle of a fight after all and Adrian had just jumped at him. He hoped it was that, the alternative was that he made his brother angry, and that was the last thing he wanted to do. He loved Leo too much to upset him. It was probably the former, it had to be. Leo would never hurt him if he knew...and he hadn't seen him since he was twelve...it wouldn't be surprising if the man didn't recognise him...


The boy's eyes were locked onto Jackson, he rocked back and forth a bit, but apart from that he did nothing at all. He just waited. That's all he could do, he was excited and not knowing Jackson's answer was killing him. He had to say yes, surely he'd want to see Leo as well, they'd both missed him so much. 


As Jackson looked like he was about to answer there was a noise that interrupted the two. The sound of a phone.  Jackson had moved to pick it up, and Adrian's gaze had been broken, grey eyes now looking towards the ringing object that his friend was holding. The other male put the item to his ear and seemed like he was listening, a second later he put the phone down. Was it...a sales call? He looked like he'd seen a ghost... What was going on? 


Adrian stared at Jackson in confusion, head tilted to the side, he was about to ask when Jackson ordered to be taken to his room. He was trying to get there by himself, but he just couldn't. He seemed panicked. What was wrong? Who had called? Was it serious? He said it was important, what did he need to do? 


"Um...okay..." Adrian stood up and took hold of Jackson's chair with his good hand, before starting to push him towards his room. "What's wrong?" He asked, "Has something happened?" Was it his parents? Were they okay? He sure hoped so...Adrian liked Jackson's parents. 


The two got to Jackson's room fairly quickly, Adrian pushed him towards his computer and then let go, going to sit on the other's bed. "What do you need to do?" He asked, swinging his legs, "Did they ask you to sign something?" He was trying his best to figure out what the phone call was about, but...he just couldn't do it. "Has there been a disaster?"

 

[yaint]

A disaster? "Not yet," Jackson muttered in that same whispering tone as he was released before his desktop computer. With his single hand he grabbed at the clipboard and flung it across his desk, ignoring the great clattering noise it made and simply throwing his crossed leg back to the side. 


At the touch of a button the somewhat small screen flickered into life, and letter-by-letter Jackson tapped in a series of codes and passwords. No disasters yet, not as far as he knew. But judging by that call, there was a chance that something close to one was brewing. Just how close were they to being buried alive in trouble? Time would not tell, but if he knew how then perhaps his computer would.


The words, 'Commission of Counter Ghoul' flashed at the top of the screen. Jackson swallowed and bent his head downwards so that he could push his glasses back up using the movement of his shoulder; his hand was still either busily running across the keyboard or sliding the mouse frantically from left to right, pulling the cursor across the width of the screen and clicking almost blindly on a series of very specifically-placed buttons that would be unfamiliar from Adrian's memory of the website.


Only after he had managed to open a long list of files on his web browser did Jackson finally drop his arm and remember that he was not alone. Adrian was still here, so he should probably explain himself - after all, it didn't sound like he was anything but apprehensive for whatever horrifying mystery was being kept from him. Besides, the call had everything to do with him. It was the boy's right to know.


"I shouldn't have picked up that call," Jackson solemnly admitted, eyes failing to meet Adrian as they were still busy tracing over lines upon lines of names and photographs. "It - it was work. W-well, sort of - the medics. You know them, right? There, err, they said they want to see you." That was right. They wanted to see Adrian, they had asked for him and offered a visit 'in case he is too unwell' to leave home. Maybe hanging up so soon was not a good idea either. The phone began to ring again, probably a second call from some confused nurses wondering if the line had been cut by a burst of rain. If they continued to ignore them, they would get suspicious. But they would get even more suspicious if he answered and refused to let them speak to Adrian.

 

[Yoki]

Not yet? Was there something going on that could develop into a disaster? Adrian was thinking more about natural disasters, maybe ones that someone Jackson knew had gotten caught up in and he was worried about, but it seemed that Jackson thought he was talking about another type of disaster. He hoped that is wasn't going to be too bad, he'd seen people cry disaster about a lot of things so it could just be something like...an every day disaster? Hopefully...


The boy had watched as his friend started to hammer at keys with his one good hand, going back and forth from mouse to keyboard. He was on the CCG's website, but Adrian didn't recognise what he was doing...half of it didn't look like it made sense, still he didn't say anything. So...this disaster had something to do with the CCG? Had they done something wrong? They weren't getting fired were they? Adrian pouted at the thought, he enjoyed his job, and he liked the people he worked with...plus there was this guy that he'd seen...back after the Prince fight, the one that dragged him away, he wanted to talk to him... He'd never seen him before. 


Eventually Jackson started to answer his questions, mentioning that he shouldn't have picked up the call and that it was the paramedics asking about Adrian. Oh...so they wanted to see him? Well, he guessed that wasn't so bad...they only wanted to see him. 


"That's okay." He replied, playing with his shirt and swinging his legs, "I don't mind. What's wrong with that?" It didn't occur to him that they might want to do more than check his wounds and vitals. If they found out that Adrian was a ghoul then they were both done for. "So...why'd you put the phone down on them? I could go see them, I really don't mind." 


Noticing soemthing interesting on Jackson's screen, Adrian pushed himself off of the bed and walked over to look at the man's monitor. Was he...going through files? They looked like files... Why? Did he have access to that? Adrian didn't... What exactly was he looking for? There were too many questions in Adrian's brain and not enough answers. "Hey, isn't that-"


In the middle of is sentence the boy heard the phone start ringing from the living room, his head turned and he stood up straight once more, looking at the doorway. "Should I go get it?" He asked, "It might be work again..."

 

[yaint]

"No," growled Jackson, abandoning his work for a moment just so that he could jab a finger at Adrian as a warning to 'stay exactly where you are'. The phone continued to sing its lonely song which echoed quietly through the corridor. Earlier he might not have thought before answering, but this time - after some experience - the man had enough sense to know that picking up that call would be the worst of all their options. Arousing suspicion was inevitable, but at least if they could not prove that they were home then the explanation would be left up to the operator's imagination. He could not let Adrian get to that phone.


"No, Adrian, you d- you don't understand," he preached again, trying his best not to sound too frightened or patronising, though his attempt to iron the tremors out of his voice was failing with every word. Adrian didn't understand, and all the time he didn't understand, he would become less likely to do as he was told. Jackson would have to spell everything out for him, letter-by-letter, until he knew exactly what kind of danger he was in. "It probably is - it is work. Don't answer it. R-remember what happened - to your body, okay? Their tests won't work on you anymore. Not - uh, not the blood tests or anything, anyway, they won't be able to pierce your skin. Basically..." Quit rambling! Jackson scorned himself as he felt a longer speech incoming. He wasn't supposed to be reading Adrian an essay here - just telling him that picking up that phone could get him killed and nothing more that could complicate things. "Just - just don't answer it. They're going to find out, and then they might do, ah, 'bad things'. I'm trying to f-find out how much they know, that's what the computer is for."

 

[Yoki]

Again Jackson was telling him now, but Adrian just didn't get it, it was only work...they weren't going to do anything. He liked going to work, and they seemed to like him, well...most of them, so why would picking it up be a bad idea. He still didn't get it, and it was bugging him, he wanted to move to pick up the phone, but Jackson had told him to stay put, so he would...for now. It was just annoying, he didn't understand what was going on. Jackson was panicked, the phone was ringing, they were meant to go into work but they weren't going in. None of it made sense. He just wanted some clarity, he wanted to know exactly what was happening. 


As these thoughts rushed around his head he heard Jackson speak again, this time he was talking about the tests they would do and about how they wouldn't work on him anymore. They wouldn't be able to pierce his skin. Oh, so it was just like the hospital, that was why he couldn't go in. Still, he could just tell them that he was fine and they didn't need to worry. He could find a way to avoid it. Of course then Jackson went on to tell him not to answer it again, saying they were going to find out and do bad things...which was why he was on the computer, to see how much they knew. 


"Bad things..." The boy mumbled, moving over to sit back on the bed, he sighed as the mattress sunk under his weight... What bad things? "Are they gonna hurt me?" He asked, looking up again. Adrian didn't understand that...he'd never done anything to them...and they knew who he was, yet...because something had gone wrong, because something had happened to him, they might hurt him. 

 

[yaint]

For once, Jackson did not have an answer to the question that he had been given. Whether it was for honest loss of words or even simple protection of his younger friend's vulnerable mind, he neglected the question and sat stone-still in a thick, ringing silence.


Things worse than 'bad' would happen to Adrian if somebody found out what had happened to him. Even Jackson wasn't entirely sure that he was correct, but there really was no other plausible explanation for such drastic changes - and if it turned out that he was correct, it would mean nothing but trouble. What would the CCG do about a human who can only survive by cannibalising? Kill him, was the simple answer. Rid the world of that beast, treat him like a monster, like the ghoul he had been forced to become. Or they could choose to imprison him sheerly for the sake of keeping something that used to be human alive - if he didn't die, they wouldn't be accused of murder. Or... Worse yet... He could be taken in as a specimen for an experiment. Imagine the fun that the scientists would have picking apart everything in his heart, his body and probably also his mind. That boy would not last a day.


Adrian did not need to know that. It would only frighten him more - and he wouldn't need to know about it anyway if Jackson did his job properly and shielded his friend from being sought out. That was all that Jackson had to do. Just... Protect Adrian and keep on protecting him for as long as he could keep up.


The first step was getting that information. 


What did he need? He had to remember... Or even imagine exactly what kind of data the offices might have on their investigators. He had managed to access a list of names, some photographs, but was Adrian there? He should probably check for himself, too, just in case somebody came looking for the traitor who was harbouring a ghoul. It had not even crossed the man's mind that he too could be in danger... But with Adrian so reliant on him for guidance, what choice did he have? Abandonment was never an option, and it never would be. Jackson needed that data.


He was chewing furiously on his lower lip as his eyes continued to roll from left to right and then flit back again, drinking in every word that passed into his gaze. There were things that he needed to know, and none of them were here. He had the names, he had squad codes, all of the details he could quite easily figure out by himself if only he would bother to try and remember. What he wanted was the items that ordinary members couldn't access; items that he couldn't even determine would be found online at all but rather stored safely in some dusty dinosaur's hard drive.


His hand had barely even touched the mouse again when the image on the screen was unexpectedly blanked out by a pop-up. Expectantly he leaned his head towards it, but when the page loaded, it displayed only two lines of simple black text: ERROR 403, FORBIDDEN.


"Shit!" Jackson hissed at the computer, his nostrils suddenly flaring and jaws clamped together. His one hand grasped blindly around the desk and curled tightly around a small, clear plastic bottle, which had once contained piles of white pills. In his frustration he flung the tiny object at the wall with such immense force that it bounced back and caught on his shirt, then clattered back to the floor to sit among knife-long shards of shattered glass. 


No access, he thought, the only two words that came to mind in that instant. No access. So close, he had come so close to getting into that database, only for his lifeline to be snatched out of his reach again. It looked like being a lab member could only get a guy so far - if he wanted those files, if they even existed, he would have to search elsewhere.

 

[Yoki]

Adrian simply sat on the edge of the bed, eyes focused on his swinging legs, as he waited for Jackson's reply. And waited... And waited... And...waited. Did the man even plan on answering him? Had he heard him? Maybe he hadn't heard him, that was possible, right? But...they were in such close proximity, and it wasn't like Adrian was speaking quietly. He could just be focused, what he was doing was important, or at least the boy assumed that it was, it seemed that way. Sometimes when you were that focused you forgot that there were people around you, so it was possible that Jackson had heard him, he'd just not been listening properly. 


He thought about repeating the question, just in case Jackson didn't quite hear him, but decided against it, he'd just sit and wait, that wasn't really a problem. Hopefully Jackson would be done soon anyway. 


Whilst his friend hammered at the keyboard and rapidly clicked the mouse's left button Adrian played with whatever he could find. He'd tried just sitting there and waiting, but he'd gotten board extremely quickly, so resorted to walking around the room to find something to do. The place was a mess, after last night there was glass all over the floor, and blood outside that he'd have to go clean up...but he'd do that when he got around to it... It was dried anyway. 


Oh glass. That was right. 


His curious grey eyes locked onto the thin blades of broken glass, that was dangerous to leave on the floor, someone could stand on that. He carefully walked over, kneeling down beside a rather large shard and going to pick it up. Broken glass had never bothered the boy much, he picked up things that were sharp all of the time, and usually ended up accidentally cutting himself. This time, however, when he picked up the glass it didn't even cut through his skin. He had his hand wrapped around it, yet it did nothing to him. 


"Huh..." Adrian held the glass up, turning it this way and that, he guessed this whole business had some benefits to it. He couldn't get cut anymore, and he healed faster than normal people... Although...he did have to eat humans and Jackson didn't like that. Examining the glass was oddly interesting to Adrian, and he would have kept doing it had he not heard Jackson's exclamation. His head snapped in the direction of his friend just as an empty bottle fell inches away from him. What was wrong now?


"Are you okay?" He asked, turning his head to the side and standing up. Jackson didn't seem very happy, did he not find what he wanted? "What's wrong?" Whilst walking over to the computer screen, his eyes locked onto a rather large message on the screen. ERROR 403, FORBIDDEN. What did that mean? He knew what forbidden meant, but why was the computer telling him that? Did he click on something he wasn't meant to?


 "What happened?" Adrian was just full of questions, he leaned one hand on Jackson's desk, still staring at the screen. Was there a way he could get around it? Because he didn't seem happy with what he had... What exactly was he looking for anyway? Sure, he'd said he was trying to find out what they knew...but would that be there? Did they keep that on their files?

 

[yaint]

Jackson was still so consumed by his failure that he almost didn't notice his own hand almost smack Adrian away - luckily, however, he jerked awake moments before he would have made contact, saving his friend from that unnecessary and undeserved streak of violence. 


It wasn't comfortable to have another person leaning over his shoulder whilst he was trying to work his way around a firewall, but this time, after calming down and allowing his heart rate to slow, he allowed Adrian's presence and silently permitted him to watch. Jackson did not even notice the glass dagger clutched in the boy's hand.


"It - it's nothing," he lied, quick to guard his friend's oblivion. He clicked the message away and returned to the page lined with rows upon rows of investigator files. Several images popped up on the left side when he began to scroll down, revealing several more names - most of them strange, some familiar. So he wasn't allowed to see each member's individual data files... That was irritating. More than irritating, in fact, it made him want to lash out again, but there were no more empty medicine bottles within reach that he could throw. For now he could simply keep scrolling through this version of the list and hope that it gave him everything he needed. "I'm just looking. It - I don't think it should take too long, it's all in a-alphabetical order."


It took him only a few seconds for Jackson to recognise the portrait of a dark-skinned, slender woman wearing the same deadpan expression as every investigator in the database. Irene Garcia, the sharp-tongued, kind-hearted lady from the Quinx squad. 'Alive,' read the white-lettered string of text suspended in the 'status' column.


More and more familiar faces were cropping up now alongside their matching names. An old squad member, Zachary Gillespie, was still alive. So was Dylan Harris. There were more people loading to the page now. 'Rita Ivory*' and her twin sister 'Gwen Ivory'. 'Charles Jameson'. And then...


'Jackson Lambert*, Alive.'


The man dared to lean closer as he spotted his own name among the hundreds of others listed above and below. Of course only his most basic information had been displayed online, even if it was inaccessible to the major population. It had his name, his photo, date of birth, blood type, rank... For some reason he was still listed as an investigator - a rank three, as always. Maybe his transfer to the lab had not been registered on the system yet. Either that or Minnie had let him keep his title and salary out of her own Minnie-style pity; she was stern, but she always did seem to look down at Jackson with a twinkle in her eye.


Nevermind that. There was nothing suspicious-looking, at least not from this list's perspective. If there was anything known to the CCG about Jackson that might arouse some suspicion, it was not shown online. It was ordinary. 'Jackson Lambert*, Alive.'


After a few seconds spent inspecting his data, Jackson swiped a finger over the mouse wheel to scroll down. He bypassed the rest of the familiars without bothering to examine them - though he did allow himself a moment after seeing the word 'deceased' written alongside Teddy's name - until he landed upon the first investigators listed in the S-category. Adrian would be somewhere near the top.


Sure enough, Jackson found his friend's name in the third row down, but the emotion that swept through his body when he saw the word 'alive' was not relief. He had stopped dead, eyes frozen on the name, blood draining from his skin until it had turned pure white.


'Adrian Sanister, Alive,' it read, in a striking shade of bloody scarlet. There was no picture. His rank had been erased and replaced with the phrase, 'NOT AVAILABLE'.


"Adrian," Jackson began, his voice dry and quiet, "D-do you know why your name is in red?"