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Fandom [CLOSED] Tokyo Ghoul: Dead Enmity

Jackson had still been heatedly thumping his fist against the side of his chair when Adrian had finally taken the initiative to change the subject, but as soon as the words had clicked in his mind the man's hand fell very still. Plans. He had almost forgotten.


"Err..." He felt the sharpness of his front teeth biting down on his lower lip. His eyes lazily tracked across the scenery, watching as civilians drifted by in dribs and drabs. Now that the two had parted with Daryl and his crony, fewer passersby were turning their heads; the people from before had only been interested in the scene involving two men shouting and swearing at each other, resisting the pulls of their less-interested companions as they threw insults back and forth. All was quiet now. Adrian and Jackson had suddenly become far less fascinating.


Okay, he thought, tearing his gaze away to settle on his lap. We can talk here. Nobody was there to listen - at least, not that Jackson could see. If they spoke quickly and quietly and kept their lips covered, a discussion should be safe enough. 


"Come here," he stage-whispered rather loudly, hissing out the words so that they would reach the boy's ears despite their restrained volume. He beckoned Adrian in eagerly with his arm, reached out, patted the boy on the shoulder and then cupped his hand around the side of his mouth. "L-look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sound so pissed off, it's fine, okay? It's fine. J-just listen to me, this is important. Our plans, right? We, uhh..."


Jackson bit his lip again. Adrian wouldn't take this well - even if he had already pieced the hints together and worked out that they were not going home tonight, would confirming it make it too real? Would it be too hard to swallow if Jackson spelled it out right there? Even if it was, it would be too late now to try and bullshit something else. They needed to stay away from the apartment for at least one night, and Jackson was already halfway through his explanation.


Oh... Adrian, please don't hate me, the man prayed silently before finally swallowing his anxiety and choking out the rest. "...Ah, Adrian... S-sorry, this is going to sound really weird, but - well, err... We're playing a game. You with me? Hide-and-seek, th-there are people looking for us and they think we're at home. So we have to stay away for a day or two... It's okay! It - it's fine, we'll find somewhere else to sleep, so don't worry. We're just going camping. In the city."
 
Adrian had immediately tried to bend down slightly when Jackson asked to speak to him, why did he need to be so quiet? Was it that important? Their plan...he wondered how big this was going to be, how long were they going to be out here? Jackson couldn't have expected him to not piece it together by now, the way the man acted, how he wanted everyone to go away, something had happened at the CCG, they were both terrified... Of course they weren't going home, so where were they going. 


In Adrian's mind Jackson really didn't need to apologise for being mad at him, he hadn't really listened and that's what he got for it, that was just that. So in reply the boy just smiled and nodded, he planned on listening either way, Jackson didn't need to tell him that one, he wanted to know what they wee going to do... 


"Ahuh." He kicked the ground with his foot, playing with broken cement as Jackson spoke. They were playing a game... Hide and seek... What if he didn't want to play anymore? He knew this was a little bit more than hide and seek, but Jackson always tried to explain things to him as simply as possible, which was fair enough...he didn't always understand. "But...I don't wanna play." Adrian mumbled, standing up straight again, "I want to go home..." It was already obvious that they couldn't go home, but he didn't want to play any sort of game, he wasn't in the mood or mindset for it... Especially not when it meant sleeping on the streets. 


Adrian had slept outside before, he hated it. He didn't want to stay on the streets... They could have just gone with Daryl, if they'd gone with Daryl then everything would be okay. He would have whined or complained, but he didn't dare to upset Jackson more than he already had, he really hated upsetting him. That had been done enough today. 


"Jackson." Adrian started, playing with his wrist slightly as he did so, "If we're camping in the city, where in the city are we camping? Because you can't camp on the streets like this, it would upset people..." Which was true, that wouldn't be allowed. So where would they go? He knew that there were quite a few homeless people in London, but he didn't know where was safe and where wasn't... It was dangerous to be out at night anyway. 
 
Jackson's eyebrows knitted together in a tight frown. He began to rub thoughtfully at the nape of his neck, then nodded absently to himself, almost as though he were confirming his agreement with his friend's concerns. Even somebody like Adrian could distinguish the most important flaws in a failed explanation. "Oh, well..." 


There was a faint sigh as Jackson forced himself to look at Adrian eye-to-eye. This wasn't working the way he wanted it to, but he supposed that would have been inevitable when he tried to make things simple. He had crossed a line, gone beyond the border of Adrian's understanding and given him the illusion of choice. 


Obviously they could not go home... But how did Jackson make that apparent to a person other than himself? "...Well - oh, leave your wrist alone - anyway, err, you see," he began, taking his hand away from his neck to instead push up at the round frame of his spectacles.


 It would make his heart sink to have to say the next part out loud, but he had to, there was no alternative. Adrian would never understand if he didn't explain, and that would get them into even more trouble. He didn't want to hurt the boy - quite the contrary, but this time it might be necessary. For the greater good, Jackson reminded himself to try and curb that gnawing guilt. "We're - uhh - it's not somewhere bad, okay? Look, Adrian - it's... It's more than a game, okay? I was, uh... You know what, nevermind. Just trust me, okay? It's fine. Let's just look around for a bit, I - I'll tell you when we get there."
 
"Sorry." Adrian dropped his hand from his wrist when he was told to stop playing with it, instead he cradled it, trying to keep it in a position that didn't hurt too much when he walked. Daryl was right...maybe he did need something around it to help it heal properly... It wasn't doing good at the moment. How long would it even take? He healed pretty fast...so would he have to wait as long as normal or not?


For a moment he thought that Jackson might actually explain the situation to him properly, that seemed to be the direction he was going in, but that didn't happen. Instead the other started to explain and then just told him to trust him, which he did, of course he trusted Jackson, more than anyone. They just had to look around for a bit and then he would tell him when they got there. The boy nodded and smiled, pushing the man down another road, wherever Jackson wanted to go they'd get there soon enough...hopefully... 


---


It had taken awhile before Jackson had finally decided on a place to stay, it was getting dark by that point and the two were in a back alley that seemed relatively untouched. It was very clean and no one seemed to go down there, so they were oddly safe sitting there. Though Adrian couldn't say that he didn't still want to go home, they'd set everything up to stay outside for the night, but it was just awkward... It was awkward having to stay outside at all, he wanted his bed, he wanted to go to sleep in it. He was comfortable there, not here, but still, he stayed quiet...deciding against saying anything that might upset Jackson. 


"Hey...Jackson..." He yawned, sitting against a wall and looking at his hand, "We're definitely not gonna be out long...right? We're gonna go home eventually...right?" Adrian looked up, he needed the confirmation, he was in an unfamiliar place and he didn't feel at all safe, he could deal with it, but he hated it. 


---


Step. Step. Step. 
 
Although Jackson could not truthfully say that he was satisfied with his effort's bearings, he somehow managed to keep his lips sealed to complaints for the majority of the afternoon and evening. Several times he managed to distract Adrian from his worries by pointing eagerly at city monuments and stopping in whichever shops he thought he could afford to browse in. In truth there was not much left to purchase, and Jackson's wallet was becoming uncomfortably lightweight, so the journey did not last long before he had run out of things to say and do.


Night had already chased the sun away by mid-evening, and Jackson was beginning to have second thoughts about his plans. Whatever shelter they had stumbled upon had been private property, too small, infested with rats and spiders or otherwise inaccessible. Was this why those without a home slept outside? Maybe they simply had no other option... It certainly threw a spanner in the works, but now they were out of time. Wandering around at night would do no good for their hopes to remain hidden from the public eye. Somebody might mistake them for criminals.


It wasn't ideal... The walls on either side might have sheltered the man and boy from the worst of the bitingly cold November winds, but there was no roof over their heads. Nevermind. It was the best thing they had seen all day, too good to pass up at this point.


Jackson had just reached behind him for the new backpack when he heard Adrian's sudden query. "What? O-of course, of course we will, this is just for a night or two - you know - like I said earlier, it will be fine," he promised, unravelling one of the waterproof jackets as he spoke. They could use those as blankets for when they slept... But would Adrian manage to sleep on the floor? At this point Jackson would not put it past him, Adrian seemed able to do anything nowadays, but it would still be uncomfortable. Maybe he and Jackson could swap places. Adrian could snooze comfortably in his wheelchair, and Jackson would take the floor. After all, even if the ground was rough he wouldn't be able to feel it... The best solution out of too many duffs.


He had barely opened his mouth to pitch his suggestion out loud when he let his hand and the jacket lay still for a moment. The silence following the rustling was enough for him to hear it.


Step, step, step.


The man froze for a moment, even held his breath so that he could listen more closely. It wasn't his imagination. There really was a noise there, and he had watched enough films to know the sound of footsteps when he heard it. It didn't sound quite as loud or disorientating as he had ever imagined, but even without magnification it was enough to strike Jackson with a sudden, pulsing sense of apprehension.


"Shh," he hissed at Adrian, despite having not heard another word from the boy since his last question. "I heard something."
 
Adrian had only been half listening to Jackson, he'd nodded in reply to him saying everything would be fine, but he didn't know how much of it he believed... How were they ever going to get to go home if people kept looking for them? And nothing was ever fine, nothing ever stayed fine, someone always ruined it. The boy sighed and stared at the ground, running his finger along the broken concrete. What were they even going to do for a few days, where were they even going to go?


It wasn't until he heard a noise, along with Jackson shush him, that he finally perked up. His hearing was good, better than it had ever been, and so Adrian could tell where the footsteps were coming from. The...right? Yeah, but...there was a wall to the right. Wait...were they-


Before he had time to even think about where this other person could be a figure jumped down into the alley in front of the two, from their view they could probably tell that it was an adult male, but only due to the rather wide shoulders and lack of curves. The person was faced away from them. 


"Hey. Felan." Someone hissed from one of the rooftops, immediately attracting the other's attention. The voice was female, that was for sure. Hanging over the edge was another figure with long, dark hair that covered their face. "Catch." She threw something down in a bag, it thumped onto the floor and the male walked over to pick it up. They didn't seem to have noticed either Jackson or Adrian at that point. 


"Careful Ilia, you ruin that, you pay." The man's voice was deep, and he didn't bother to talk as quietly as the woman. His stance and voice portrayed confidence, but an oddly...sly nature as well... It was just something about it. 


"Yeah, okay. Fuck off." With that the figure on the roof hopped over the ledge and landed on the floor next to him, "If I cared about ruining it I would have jumped with it, anyway, we can always get more. Jester is so easy to steal from. He just doesn't watch." 


"I understand that." The male walked forwards, "But if you happen to get caught by him..." He sighed, "Just remember who you're dealing with, I've heard he's not easy of thieves." 


"They guy's soft, never got caught yet, never will." She walked up to the male, placing both of her hands on his cheeks and then gently slapping one, "So don't worry too much, okay? I can handle myself, sugar." 


Adrian had watched the interaction in both confusion and fright, he didn't dare move or make a sound, but his eyes were fixed on the woman and man before him. Already from this conversation he'd managed to deduce that they were ghouls. No human could jump from that height and not break something, plus they talked about stealing from Jester, no human would need to do that. 


He'd noticed the woman moving positions and instinctively he'd moved slightly as well. It seemed that that was enough to grab attention.


Crimson eyes had locked onto him in seconds as the woman raised an eyebrow sniffing their air as she watched the boy. Of course as that moment she noticed there was someone with him too. Her grin seemed to widen noticing Jackson, her tongue taking position on the side of her lip as she chewed it. 


"Hey," By this point she was practically whispering in the man's ear, "Turn around." Hearing his counterpart say that and following her gaze, the man spun his eyes also meeting that of Adrian's and Jackson's but instead of end on Jackson like the woman, he'd focused on Adrian instead. 


"Oh. Seems we have spectators." 


"Mhm." As she almost stood at the same height as the man, the female ghoul wrapped her arms around him, leaning on him as she stared keenly at the two males. "Do you smell him... Maybe we could go back with more than we expected t'night." Her words were hushed and slow, "What do ya think huh?" 


"Yeah... Yeah, I think that's a great idea Ilia. Now get off." His voice was calm, collected, yet authoritative, he brushed the woman aside and she simply let go, taking a few steps towards Jackson and Adrian. Although, still neither of them addressed either of the two. "Can you work out the smell?"


"Hm?" The woman had already approached Jackson somewhat, her features were visible now. She looked to be in her late twenties, dark brown hair, hazel eyes, she was conventionally good-looking, but there was something about her gaze that made her seem like someone to avoid. It was hungry, yet it masked that with something...else. "Which one? This one's human pretty sure." 


"Not that one, the other one." The male had also moved forwards, his appearance also visible. Unlike his female counterpart, his expression said very little, hers was more excited, his was calm, reassuring almost, yet you could tell there was something underneath the surface, something much more...sinister. "Smells strange."


"Well if he doesn't smell human then-"


"He doesn't smell like a ghoul... Not completely."


"Ever smelt that one guy." 


"Which 'guy'? There's plenty of them."


"Okay, okay smartass. That Aegis goof, y'know, the one with one eye?" 


"Yes. I know of him."


"Smells kinda like that, unfamiliar." She turned her attention to Adrian for a second, "Hey, kid! You a ghoul?" 


Adrian mad met eyes with her again, but had curled into himself upon being addressed.


"Don't be silly, Ilia. He won't answer you." Adrian was now being studied by the male, just like you would study a piece of fine art, "Do you think Shania would appreciate him." 


"Hm. Possibly." 
 
Jackson's breath caught in his throat - suddenly, for some reason, he had forgotten how to breathe. His chest seemed to have tightened in on his lungs. He felt deaf to the world for the sound of blood pounding through his head. Perhaps that was for the best - if he had only clearly heard what was being said, he might have cried out.


The waterproof jacket hung suspended in Jackson's hand, frozen in the grip of his stone-stiff fingers. His eyes tracked and searched the images of the things before him, looking for a sound, a promise, any sign that these people were not what he thought they were. But whatever dwindling, pathetic hope he might have been holding onto was quickly snuffed out of life when he heard the name he had feared for months.


Jester.


These people - things - whatever they were knew Jester. It didn't sound like their relationship with the ghoul was anything close to positive, but the way they spoke sent chills down the back of Jackson's neck. Whoever these people were, they knew Jester. They had met him, possibly even had a face-to-face confrontation and survived. What human could ever pull that off in the face of an S-rated ghoul?


Not a human with black and red eyes.


Jackson swallowed and jerked back in his seat as he locked eyes with the female ghoul. He didn't like the way she looked at him. That grin, that ghastly smile tainted with hunger reminded him of... Something he didn't want to think about anymore. Something frightening that he could not bring himself to recall. 


In his panic he broke eye contact, forcing himself to look away, to find anything else to fix his gaze on instead so that he didn't have to look at that face. Within seconds he found Adrian, then the shadow of their new male enemy looming above. It was so close to them... Even if it could not reach out and touch them with its hand, any of the four kinds of kagune would easily be able to thrust forwards and pierce either Jackson or Adrian straight through the gut. The sheer thought of it brought a sting to Jackson's eyes. Oh no. Had he been so blind as to lead Adrian into a ghoul's hunting ground?


They were talking now. Neither ghoul sounded particularly panicked, although there was a tone of some breed of anticipation hidden in the female's voice. They were correct. Jackson was human, the ghouls had worked that much out - but the hesitation displayed when the subject turned back to Adrian is what triggered the next pang of rising panic.


There was something else, something they had said before that when they had first spotted Adrian mere seconds ago. What was it? Something about taking things somewhere. They had said that right as they found their two onlookers. Did that mean... These ghouls, too? 


Jackson gulped in a quick breath of chill night air, having begun to feel very light-headed after remaining frozen for such a long time. They wanted Adrian. Everywhere they went, every person or ghoul they met, Jackson just kept putting Adrian in danger. It wasn't fair. It was frightening. These ghouls didn't give off the same vibe as Daryl, and something about that woman's aura gave Jackson the impression that she had the potential to do far worse than what else they had faced that day.


He could barely even look at his opponents, but at this point Jackson had accepted the firm belief that this situation could end only one of two ways. Either he and Adrian could die or they could escape. Unless he stepped up and did something, the latter would have to be some kind of miracle.


It was difficult to speak, difficult to choke out his words when his chin wobbled so much and his tongue had turned numb, but after another deep breath Jackson finally piped up. "St- why- y-you... A-Adrian - it's - he's - who are..?" No good. There were too many questions in his head for Jackson to be able to decide on a single thing to address, and it was making him stumble and stutter terribly. Frantically he searched for an anchor, something that he could focus on, if only for one second. Something that could help him spit out his words.


Finally he caught sight of the heavy-looking bag which had been thrown down from the roof. He had a feeling that he already knew what was inside, but he didn't care. Instead, Jackson simply jabbed a finger at it and queried, "Th-that, what's that, wh-what's in it?"
 
The two ghouls were fixated with both Jackson and Adrian by the looks of things, they just couldn't take their eyes off. The male's gaze was more inquisitive, wondering, whilst the female looked about ready to devour anything in her path. Still, the two came across as much more...sophisticated than any other ghouls that either Jackson or Adrian had come across. They both had a strange confidence, almost like they felt invincible. 


This intimidated Adrian, much like Daryl's 'I'll beat your face in' demeanour, he was intimidated by the unknown. You couldn't tell their full intentions, and that alone was enough to terrify you, he felt much more unsafe in front of them than he had done the ghoul earlier that day. 


"Hm?" The female ghoul's attention was back on Jackson as she heard him stutter, "Oh?" She waited until she heard a coherent sentence before letting her head turn to the item on the ground, "This?" With no urgency she walked over to the bag, picking it up and bringing it back over to Jackson. It looked heavy, but she held it in one hand like it was nothing. "Would you like to look?" A large grin upturned one side of her lips as she pulled on the cords that held the bag shut, of course she was just teasing, she didn't seem like she was actually opening it. 


Adrian could smell it. He knew that scent, was there...something human in there? To him it did smell good, he couldn't lie, and he was hungry, he wanted food. So the slight opening of the bad immediately drew his attention, which in turn drew the male's attention as well. 


"Hungry?" He asked, bringing Adrian's attention back to him, "We could feed you." He crouched down in front of Adrian, "Would you like that?" 


Of course Adrian instinctively nodded, his attention taken. He wasn't starving, but with his injuries he could definitely use something to eat. 


"Ilia, pass that over for a moment." 


"Alright." 


The woman halted teasing Jackson with the bag and instead passed it to her counterpart, he took it and swiftly placed it down next to himself, reaching in to take something out. When his hand was taken out of the bag it was in a fist, knuckles turned upwards. He held that out to Adrian. 


"Here, boy, take it."  Adrian had reached up, and the male was about to drop whatever was in his hand into Adrian's when there was a crash from behind all of them. Both the male and the female's attention turned to the person who had just crashed into the alleyway off of the roof. In the darkness it was hard to make them out, but what was very obvious was the kagune that protruded from their lower back, a kagune that Jackson and Adrian would recognise. 


"You have got to be kidding me." The male muttered, standing up straight, leaving the bag on the ground. 


"He...chased us all the way out here? I didn't think.." With a sigh, the woman spun around, crossing her arms, "Jeez." 


"Are you bastards gonna give me my shit back or what?" The newcomer stepped forwards, coming out of the shadow of a building and into moonlight. Jester. Jester had decided he'd also make an appearance that night, and he looked less than happy. 


"Oh yeah," The sarcasm practically dripped from the woman's mouth, "Definitely. We'll just hand you it and be on our way, shall we?"


"Preferably." 


"Not going to happen, bub." 


"Ilia, let's leave." The unknown male chimed in, stepping forwards, "No need to argue with this barbarian."


"Don't even start that." Jester growled, "I'd fuck you up. Give me my shit and no one gets hurt." 


"Not happening, you want to fight, I'll give you a fight baby."  The female had now spun around to face Jackson, walking towards him, "But I think I'll have a snack fi-" Suddenly she was forced to jump out of the way as a kagune pierced the wall just above Jackson's head. If she'd stood still it would have gone right through her. 


"Hey! That was awfully rude!" 


"'Fuck up." With that Jester started to launch attack after attack at the female ghoul, but the area they were in was small, they were bound to clash into either one another or someone else soon enough. There wasn't enough space to keep their distance. 


"J-Jackson..." Adrian squeaked, he'd gotten to his feet and the strange male ghoul had moved to back up his friend, "What're they..." He swallowed, the fight in front of him had turned into two on one. The female seemed to have a rinkaku, whilst the male had a koukaku, they made up for each other's losses...and whilst Jester was strong he definitely didn't have the space to move. 


As the woman jumped into the air to prepare an attack she was knocked straight out of the way, hurling backwards and into Jackson due to the small space in which the ghouls were fighting one another. Whilst that happened, the male had managed to pin Jester against a wall for a moment, but he'd be lucky if he could keep him there. 


Seeing the woman hurtle into Jackson like a bowling ball, Adrian jumped out of the way. Of course now he had to do something, that ghoul was way too close to his friend for his liking, he wanted to help Jackson, but he had to get hold of her first. Well, Jester was fighting, why shouldn't he. 


Just as the ghoul was standing up, Adrian hurled a kick towards her, but she blocked his foot with her hand, smirking at the boy. 


"Oh? So you want to play too, huh? Okay, Okay we'll play." She kept hold of the boy's foot, throwing him towards the opposite wall, then she grabbed the bag that was on the ground and threw that towards him as well, hitting Adrian right in the stomach with it, causing him to grunt. "You should really leave the fighting to the adults, kiddo." Her tone was very condescending, she obviously saw Adrian as less than a challenge, but he wasn't going to just give up. 
 
Jackson's mind seemed to be working more and more slowly by the second, almost as if there were so many questions and thoughts stuffed in his head that there was no longer any room for it all to move. It didn't make things any easier.


He had barely had the time to register that his question had been responded to when something rather large and dark had slinked to his front, obscuring his line of sight but for the edges, which were lines with the numbing patterns of bricks and twilight. "Snack," he mouthed stupidly, his jaw dropping open as he finally managed to piece the puzzle together. "You..." He was a human. She was a ravenous ghoul. This was a hunter-prey situation, no doubt about it, and this time Jackson was not the one to initiate the attack.


He had almost begun to push himself away from the woman's path when another, more vicious movement shook his hand back down to his side. Instinctively Jackson craned his neck back to look up at the wall from which tiny flakes of brick and mortar were raining down. A kagune. A kagune had done that, it was only inches above the line of the man's scalp. That could have killed him, and he knew that he should have been worried about that - but for some reason Jackson could not help but dwell on the weapon's image.


He knew that kagune. Every ghoul had a claw as unique as their DNA, and whilst most of them were plain and dull, Jackson recognised the shape and colour of this one in less than a second.


Jester.


Why the hell was he here!? Taking something back, perhaps? The red eyes that glinted behind the mask did not twinkle with happiness; whyever he had shown up, he had not come to make friends. Not with humans, nor with ghouls. Was Jackson about to witness a fight?


His question was answered almost before Jackson could even piece it together. He wasn't just going to witness a fight - he and Adrian were going to get involved, and that started as soon as he felt something large and heavy barrel straight into him, sending his chair skittering a few inches to the side before finally settling again.


"Argh..." Jackson sucked in a forced breath and struggled with one arm to push the ghoul off. He had not expected to be winded so early - but that was beside the point. Just as the woman shifted positions to relieve the man of her weight, another image came into view that sent Jackson's heart straight up into his throat. "Adrian, no!"


Too late. He had tried to call out for Adrian to stop, there was no way the boy could fight in the state he was in. Tired from walking all day, no use of his broken wrist, probably hungry after so much time spent without eating. Even if his only intention was to take the danger away from Jackson, doing something like this would cause more trouble than good. Adrian was fast, but his enemy was faster.


There was nothing that Jackson could do at this point to stop the inevitable from happening - all that he could do was try not to look, then feel a pang of horror when he heard Adrian's grunt of defeat. 


He couldn't do anything.


Jester was here. Two ghouls were here. He and Adrian were here. Both of them were going to die, and Jackson couldn't do anything.
 
The woman laughed as Adrian's attempt to stand up again, he stumbled, but he was there, holding his wrist with one hand. That hurt more than he wanted it to, with his damaged wrist and arm, any hits just hurt twice as much as they normally would. He blinked watched as the female walked towards him like he wasn't a threat, then put a hand on his shoulder, grinning. 


"You're a silly boy, you know that. Now, whilst that oaf is busy with my friend, let me eat." She moved her hand under his chin, before bringing her foot back and kicking Adrian back into the wall, "If you know what's good for you you won't get back up. Be a good boy, okay?" With that she spun around and walked back towards Jackson, her eyes were hungry and she was licking her lips as she reached out towards the other. "Now, where was I before I was rudely interrupted?" She grabbed hold of Jackson's arm tightly, chewing on her bottom lip. She took her sweet time, but eventually she did open her mouth and go to bite down on Jackson's arm. 


Seeing this, Adrian suddenly bounced back into action. He'd forced himself to his feet again, eyes wide, she was biting Jackson, she was actually biting Jackson. No no no...she couldn't do that! Upon watching this happen to his friend he launched himself forwards, grabbed hold of the woman around her neck and pulling her back. She grabbed hold of his wrists  to get him off, which cause Adrian to scream out in pain, she hadn't just grasped them, she'd squeezed. 


Upon feeling the boy's rather squishy wrist, the woman grinned once more, she was going to take advantage of that. She squeezed harder until Adrian was forced to let go of her, but still she kept hold of the damaged wrist. "It hurt huh? Does it?" Raising an eyebrow, she turned, bending Adrian's arm back, "You should have just listened to me." Again he tried to kick out, but she stopped it and twisted his arm. "No. Stop that." Her tone was rather serious, "Sit down." Of course Adrian refused the command, as if he was going to listen to some woman telling him to sit down, but then she twisted his wrist further, causing him to whimper. "I told you to sit down." This time he had to do what he was told, unless he wanted to risk more injury, so he did. He sat down on the ground and just looked up. 


"Good boy." With a satisfied smile, she turned to Jackson again, reaching out and pulling at the man's arm, when something hurled into her, knocking her off her feet. Jester had thrown the male into her, knocking them both to the ground.


"Hey!" 


It was an inconvenience, though it didn't seem like either was that hurt as they stood back up, in fact it seemed as they stood back up the male whispered something to the female, which made her grin widely. "Okay...let's go." She caught Jester's eye, who was approaching them again and ran for him, but in the process she kicked at Jackson moving him to face the wall, completely obscuring his view.


 "C'mon, fight me if you want your stuff back, don't you have people to feed?" She started to taunt Jester, running past him and forcing him to follow her. The male of the two was now completely out of sight. 


 All Jackson would have heard was silence from Adrian and the shouting and fighting coming from the fight between the female ghoul and Jester. It went on for quite a few minutes before anything changed. 


 Jester slammed the woman into the wall, she managed to dodge his kagune and climb to the roof, at that point she'd just started laughing, watching Jester from above. 


 "Aw, tough luck this time, sweetie!" With a wave she turned and ran for it, disappearing from view. 


 "Shit." Jester sighed, turning around, as he looked around he noticed there was only one person in the alleyway... There had been four to begin with...wait...and did he recognise that man? What? He took off his mask to try and get a better look around, but no, he was right. There was only that one person, all alone now, and he did know him. He knew that wheelchair. He'd argued with the guy earlier in the day, wait...did that mean....


 "Oh fuck." 
 
Jackson had been expecting to die; he had not braced himself to watch and see Adrian's feeble resistance end in injury and failure, and he had certainly not been ready to defend himself from a move so quick that he could barely follow it with his eyes. "Adrian!" he began to cry out, but whatever else he was about to call out was suddenly forgotten.


A shrill, warbling howl of agony suddenly filled the alley, drowning out a few seconds of every other noise with its sheer volume. His eyes were wide, but Jackson could not see, nor could he hear the sound of his own scream. He could only feel a pain that should not have existed. My arm, he thought, his eyes rolling backwards as he felt the sharpness of teeth slicing through his skin and flesh. The bite may not have been big, but it hurt, and when he could finally find his sight again Jackson could see that there was blood quickly welling between the banks of his broken skin. 


"Shit," he shakily breathed to himself. Slowly he turned his head back up and blinked away the tears that blurred his vision, revealine in the passing seconds the results of the female ghoul's attack. Adrian was getting involved again. The boy's courage was admirable, there was no question about it, but Jackson could not slow himself down to appreciate the favour that was being done for him. 


Sit down, please just sit down, Jackson begged silently, wincing as he saw every touch of his wrist, every hold and twist of his arm. He wasn't as strong as this ghoul, and he was already hurt. Resisting was the worst possible thing he could do in this situation, and it was only going to make things worse... But then, beneath all the panic and horror, there was a tiny flicker of relief. He had done it. Adrian had finally caved in, he had sat down as he was asked. Jackson didn't like it - but if it kept Adrian safe, he could not ask for more.


Jackson flinched as his arm was touched again. It still burned like hell, it seared worse than anything he could ever remember feeling, and he could almost hear another screech rising in his throat when the sensation of the woman's hand suddenly disappeared with a noise. He saw the woman topple to the ground beneath her male companion, but had no time to decide how to feel about that, because seconds later there was a sickening lurch and his view vanished, quickly replaced by the plain, disorientating pattern of endless bricks stacked atop one another.


No. No, he couldn't be stuck like this. He wanted - no, he needed to see Adrian now. Where was he? Was he still sitting, or was he fighting - was he even still alive? Over and over Jackson pushed back at his left wheel, gravity sending tendrils of hot, dark blood trickling between his fingers, but he must have been kicked over a ledge or heavy object. There was something behind him that was stopping him from being able to turn. Oh no. He could not turn his head around far enough to see anything other than a few flickers of movement.


For several minutes he could hear what was occurring behind him, and for several minutes he tried to imagine the pictures to match the sounds. He could picture Jester exchanging taunts and challenges with the female ghoul, he could hear the scuffling of feet against the ground. Who was that? Adrian? The male ghoul? It was impossible to tell, but he didn't like what was happening in his head. 


Jackson wished, not for the first time, that the noises would stop - and when they finally did, he regretted his prayer instantly. The silence felt like it was ringing in his ears. It screamed the absence of the ghouls, but what about Adrian? Was he dead? Injured? Sprawled across the ground, unable to move?


The only thing that could finally stop Jackson from imagining one terrifying scene after another was the sound of a voice he knew. Having forgotten that he was cemented to the ground, he pushed back again and hit whatever had been blocking him before. Damn it. He had to see this time. If Adrian was hurt and Jester was still here, Jackson had to be able to do something... Right?


He craned his neck to the left and blinked. Out of the corner of his eye, he could just about catch a sliver of what must have been the ghoul's face. He saw barely any of it, but there was something odd about the way Jester looked, something a bit off. He wished that he could see again.
 
"Well that's bad..." Daryl sighed, looking around the alleyway, yep, they'd taken him. He was gone. Should have expected that. They'd distracted him, grabbed whatever they could, and ran. He should have expected that of all people they'd take that guy, why didn't he realise it? He seemed pretty sweet, and he was innocent enough, he wasn't going to cause them problems... "Fuck." He knew he was an idiot for not realising sooner, but it was too late for that shit now. There was no telling where they'd gone. 


Now... Daryl looked in the direction of the wheelchair, what did he do with this guy? He could always kill him, but if that kid called Adrian returned he'd be heartbroken by it, so...maybe he didn't kill him. What did he do with him then? Maybe Bella would have a better idea... Though he didn't really want to take someone like that back there. Whatever.


He walked over to the wheelchair, running his hand through his hair before sighing, now...how did he say this? It wasn't going to be easy. Shit. His friend was gone and Daryl knew too well what those guys were like, they may never see him again... 


"Did no one tell you that being in a back alley at night was dangerous?" Grabbing hold of the handle of Jackson's wheelchair, he spun him around rather suddenly, "You're fucking crazy! You could have been killed, y'know that?! Those guy'll eat any goddamn thing that moves!" He looked Jackson over, noticing the blood running down his shoulder, so Ilia did actually bite him... "You're lucky she didn't tear your arm off. In fact, no, you're lucky you're alive." Jackson wasn't so much being shouted at as he was being scolded for acting so foolishly, "And don't think you wouldn't have been if I wasn't here, those guys're ruthless. They would've killed you and made off with the kid, which...they did anyway, by the way." 


So maybe it wasn't the best way to tell someone that the person they cared about had just possibly been kidnapped by ghouls, but Daryl wasn't great with sentimental stuff, or telling people things in a soft way. He just told it how it was, he couldn't do it any other way, but it didn't mean he didn't feel bad about it. He'd seen them take smaller, weaker ghouls before, and he'd never seen them again, nor had anyone. The chance that Adrian would ever return was minuscule, but it was there...at least he hoped it was there. 


He stayed quiet for a moment or so, letting it sink in for Jackson, it was gonna hurt, so he might as well give him a moment, but only a moment. He didn't want to spend too much time dawdling outside, and deciding what to do with the guy was hard. 


He didn't have anywhere to go right? Adrian had asked for help before, which Jackson didn't want to take, but who cared what he wanted at that moment, no one, that was who, no one at all. He seemed injured, how deep he'd been bitten Daryl didn't know, and hanging out here was going to get him killed, so there was really only one option. He didn't want to...but he had to. Why did he even have to care?


"Yeah, he's gone, and I know you're gonna ask questions, so ask 'em, but I'll tell you now, you probably don't wanna know the answers. So if I were you I'd just keep quiet." With that Daryl started to drag Jackson's wheelchair along, he was addressing all issues this guy might have before he said anything, he didn't want to listen to whining and complaining. "And no, I'm not taking you so that I can eat you at my next barbecue, you're hurt, I know someone who can help, and without me you ain't going anywhere so don't even bother complaining." He was expecting more panicking about the boy who had just gone missing, or demands to follow whoever had taken him, but Daryl wasn't about to do that, he could follow them to the ends of the earth and back and still not get Adrian, eventually they'd just bring in more people to deal with him, and then he'd be screwed. "And one final thing, I'm not going after them, so cross that off your list. We won't catch them." 
 
Stiff, trembling, bloodied and distraught, Jackson continued struggling to hurdle whatever invisible obstacle was blocking his escape from behind. He couldn't stay there, he had no idea where Adrian was, no idea what the enemy could be planning, no idea what to do or say about Jester, who was becoming uncomfortably close. He had to somehow get himself out of this corner by himself before the wrong kind of help presented itself.


Needless to say, the man failed to meet his objective, and the words he heard next brought less than even a pinprick of hope. Jackson released a breathless bleat of dismay as he was turned around rather roughly. It took him far too long to find his bearings - whether it was because of the movement, the blood loss or both, there was a sickly heaviness in his mind that made it hard to think. By the time Jackson had realised what was happening, Daryl was halfway through his rant. But Jackson was only half-listening.


Daryl. That ghoul which has threatened them earlier in the day, the one who had grabbed Adrian and called him an idiot... Was Jester? It didn't seem right. Jester was a ruthless killer, an S-rated enemy who could wipe out entire squads alone. Daryl was a foul-mouthed, filthy animal who hung around with girls on the streets. No... It made no sense, and yet at the same time it was impossible to deny.


Jackson began to stammer, "Y-you - but you're not-" whilst trying to create some kind of ridiculous explanation for everything, but nothing seemed to fit together. Jester-Daryl was here. The other ghouls were not. Adrian was nowhere to be seen.


Adrian is gone, Jackson thought. The ghouls had tried to eat Jackson, and then Daryl stopped them, and when Jackson looked again his friend had disappeared. Maybe he was lucky - by pure chance an interruption from Jester himself had saved his life. A ghoul saved my life... By accident, he added at the end for reassurance. That was hard to take in, but there was no time now to dwell on irrelevant details like that.


Where the hell did Adrian go!?


Daryl had said that the ghouls had 'made off with the kid' - the kid undoubtedly being Adrian. Oh God, that could mean anything. They were going to eat him, kill him, keep him prisoner, starve him, torture him, whatever sick and disgusting things ghouls got a kick out of these days... Adrian couldn't survive that. He was barely more than a child, too young and naive to take care of himself in the human world, let alone the hands of ghouls. 


Adrian was gone and it was Jackson's fault. He had said he would protect his friend. I promised him I would keep him safe. But now this had happened, on the first day no less, and Adrian was the one who would have to pay for a failure which was not his own.


Jackson's thoughts were torn apart by another sickening lurch that turned him back towards the wall, but instead of being rendered completely useless and immobile, he gasped upon noticing that he was moving. There had hardly even been a moment to register everything that had been said to him, but Daryl clearly had a plan and no patience.


Though try as he might to spit out a question, Jackson found that all of his efforts were interrupted by answers to inquiries that didn't even exist yet. The start of 'where the hell are you taking me' burned out to a tiny whimper, as did 'get the fuck away from me'. This ghoul wouldn't really help him... Jackson couldn't imagine it, ghouls were evil, untrustworthy... But maybe if he let Daryl cart him along a little way, he could find some way to escape.


He didn't notice it, but there was a physical tightness in his chest when Daryl said he wasn't going after Adrian. What... What did he mean, they wouldn't catch them? They had to! Adrian was probably suffering unmeasurable amounts of pain just as they begun to move, they couldn't just leave him there.


"Why?" Jackson finally challenged, the colour returning to his face with a prickling heat. He raised his arm upwards to push up his glasses, leaving a smear of blood on the bridge of his nose in the process, and tried to stop himself from trembling as he looked Daryl in the eye. "Y-you can't just - he - wh-what's the hell is your problem? Fuck - let me go, he needs help, I can't... I can't just leave him with them."
 
"Gah." Daryl pulled the two of them out of the alleyway and into the dark streets, "I was kinda hoping to avoid all the questions, if you couldn't tell." He'd heard this sort of talk one too many times, they were lucky if they ever got anything back from Zeplin, it was rare that they'd save a person. If he could have done he would have killed those bastards already, they were always getting in his way, yet, they never wanted to fight him head on. Maybe if he asked some of Aegis... Nah, it was very rare they'd bother with a bunch of rogue ghouls. If they weren't bothering them they wouldn't care, someone might, but he couldn't be bothered to search around until he found the right person. 


"Look." He pulled Jackson over curb after curb, the sound of wheels against concrete was rather loud in the silence around them, after all, it was late, and the streets they were in were never very busy. Mainly just the odd gang of teenagers coming back from or going to parties. "My problem is we're not gonna find them and it'll be a bunch of wasted time, and you'll get killed. So no, I won't let go of you and you're not going anywhere." He knew he should be more gentle, but there really was no time to be, Jackson needed to get it into his head that there was no going back for Adrian at that moment. 


"Besides, even if you found them and somehow managed to survive, you're not gonna make anything any better. Those guys are savages." Daryl didn't sound as angry and blunt anymore, his voice had softened slightly, he knew it could be hard to come to terms with, but that was just the way it had to be. Trying to find Adrian tonight was going to make them tired and waste too much, plus Jackson was hurt. "Just shut up for a minute will you, I'm so sick of your voice."


He continued to drag Jackson down street after street, deciding it best not to say another word to him as that moment, it was just going to make things worse. There was nothing he could say that would make anything better. 


Eventually the two ended up in a large street filled with houses that all looked relatively the same, Daryl dragged Jackson down to the end of the street before turning into the path to the house on the left. Once they were right in front of the door he rummaged around in his pocket for a moment, letting go of Jackson, he produced a key and placed it into the lock, turning it. 


"Okay, don't freak out please, you're gonna wake up a hell of a lotta people if you do." With that he grabbed hold of the back of Jackson's wheelchair again and opened the door, dragging him inside. The male placed Jackson by the door, closing and locking it behind himself. "Wait here." With that Daryl disappeared into a room to the left calling the name 'Bella' as he walked.


The house that Jackson was in was definitely well kept, the walls were a pure white whilst the carpet below them was a beige colour with a lined pattern on it. The stairs were near the door, leading up to another floor, there seemed to be several floors. Next to the stairs there was a short corridor which led directly into a modern looking kitchen, to the left there was a living room looking area, and at the back behind the stairs there seemed to be another room. 


There were several pairs of shoes on a box in front of the door, all of different sizes, obviously a lot of people lived in the home, and by the looks of it there were both children and adults. 


"Yeah, I know but shit happened okay." Daryl's voice could be heard coming from the living room area, a few seconds later he came out of the room with the red haired girl that Jackson would know as Bella from their previous encounter. 


"So...you just brought him back here?" Bella stared on at Jackson, sighing, "Well, shit." She shook her head, looking Jackson over, noticing the blood on his arm, "Yeah, that needs patching." She turned her attention up to Jackson's eyes, smiling for a moment, "Hey, sorry about this, Daryl can think rather rashly, he probably didn't explain shit to you huh?"


"Daryl..." There was another voice that came from the stairs, a smaller individual was standing on them. A child, male, brown hair, green eyes, he definitely had an odd resemblance to the green haired man standing in front of Jackson. 


"Nate, why're you awake? Go back to bed kiddo." 


"But you're..." He turned, noticing another person in the house and blinking, "Who's that?"


"Don't worry about it, why did you say you were awake again?" Compared to how he'd been with Jackson, Daryl was oddly soft with the younger male. He walked up the stairs to the boy and placed his hands on his shoulders, ushering him away. 


"Kedin woke me up." 


"Well tell Kedin she shouldn't be awake either, was she on her phone?"


"Yeah."


"I thought Dane took it off of her."


"He did, but she told me she got it back."


"Okay, well tell her that she shouldn't be waking you up because of her phone. C'mon, I'll go tell her." Daryl turned his head to Bella for a moment, "Deal with that?" He motioned to Jackson. 


"Yeah, I got it, wake Caleb up, get the kids to bed." Bella sighed, turning her head back to Jackson as Daryl and Nathan disappeared up to the second floor, "So, where were we." 
 
If Daryl was trying to calm Jackson by describing the motives and actions of their new enemies, it wasn't working at all. Telling the man that his own survival would be a miracle was bad enough, but saying that those two kidnappers were 'savages' was enough to make him feel weak and dizzy. Savage. If they were savage even by ghoul standards, Adrian might be in more danger than first imagined.


Kill him, Jackson thought as he silently watched the ground speed by beneath his still legs. They wouldn't just kill Adrian if they were savages, it would have to be worse than that. Some kind of neverending torture? They could have Adrian pleading for death by the break of dawn, and neither Daryl nor his new hostage would ever know. Adrian... Whatever they were doing to him right now, it must be horrible. 


It's my fault.


By the time Daryl - Jester - whoever it was had pulled Jackson up to the door, the man had closed his eyes and reached over to wind the fingers of his right and left hands together in a prayer that felt as though it had lasted hours. The sudden jolting sensation of being pushed to a halt prompted him to drop his bloodied arm back to his side, and his eyes peeled wide open again to investigate the new surroundings.


His new awareness was met with a warning from the ghoul: 'don't freak out'. Too late to say that, Jackson whined in his head, turning his head from left to right to examine the entrance of this new house. Maybe he should have been comforted by the sight of a very human structure, but even in a building as homely as this he could not help but let his mind wander, and he was most definitely freaking out - even if in silence. Was this where the ghoul lived? Were there more of them? This was a big place, and the 'hell of a lotta people' couldn't possibly mean the neighbours... It had to have at least two upstairs floors, plenty of space to hide a small army of monsterous allies, perhaps a few humans, too - dead, alive, each possibility was as frightening as the other. At least Daryl had disappeared; as long as Jackson could stop himself from wondering where he had gone, he would have some more space to breathe, more room to think.


Having allowed himself to become a little too comfortable in the house's pleasant warmth, the voices which broke the silence almost shook Jackson out of his seat. He had not been expecting to look up and see a red-haired woman crouching in front of him. "What the-!?" Jackson pulled his head back out of the way. Bella. Was that Bella? The girl from earlier... It must be. It looked just like her, and she was still hanging around Daryl. "Bella... Uh, explain? N-no, he-"


Jackson was silenced by the sound of another interrupting voice that sounded as though it had come from above. His head whipped upwards to check the source of the noise - what was it? Upon first sight the man's heart gave a great flutter - that looked like Adrian! But then, upon closer inspection, this child had hair too light, eyes too colourful. Oh... His heart sank again. Stupid. Adrian was gone, there were plenty of kids about with brown and black hair. This wasn't his friend - just a child. A child... Was he a ghoul, too? He couldn't be, no way, he looked far too young and innocent to be related to something so evil, and yet they looked strangely similar, him and Daryl.


Despite the lingering disappointment dragging down at him, Jackson made a point of listening closely to the words that passed between the child and the ghoul. It sounded like there was more than one stranger living here - Nathan, Kedin, Caleb... It was difficult to keep track until Daryl finally disappeared up the stairs with the brown-haired boy and leaving Bella with Jackson all to herself.


The man took a moment to squirm in his chair. His neck seemed to crawl every time he looked at this woman. She was beautiful, she looked and spoke so much like a human, but the fact that there was such a gruesome truth beneath that fair skin set Jackson on edge. He was injured, frightened and trapped - what was she going to do?


"I don't know," Jackson admitted in the voice of a mouse, staring fixedly at the woman and trying not to quiver in fear at her very appearance. Where were they? The question was rhetorical, but it did make Jackson wonder. He had kept his eyes closed in prayer for the whole journey here, he had no clue where in London Daryl had taken him, no clue about how to get back home or back to the alley where Adrian had been kidnapped. "I - I don't know..."
 
"Huh?" Bella furrowed her eyebrows for a moment, "Oh! Sorry, no, no, you don't need to actually answer." She replied, standing up and moving to the side of Jackson to check out his arm. The man was scared, that was perfectly fine, she knew Daryl wasn't the nicest to people, and he'd argued with this guy earlier in the day, plus this was a human around a bunch of ghouls. Being scared out of his mind was normal. 


"There's no need to worry." She assured, "No one here plans on hurting you, the most that'll happen is you'll probably get caught in the middle of an argument between Daryl and Dane, they're reckless boys who think they're tough. They like to shout at each other from time to time, but I wouldn't worry about it. Also, don't take any notice of any of their threats, they're almost always empty." 


As Bella was speaking she went to grab Jackson's arm, before retracting her hand at the last second, "Sorry, do you mind if I..." Really she was just warning him that she was taking hold of the injured arm, as she soon after went to gently grab and move it slightly. "Daryl told me what happened," Her voice was a lot softer than her male companion's and she seemed quite a bit more sympathetic to the situation, "I'm sorry. Zeplin are a...cruel bunch." She moved Jackson's sleeve up slightly to inspect where he'd been bitten by the ghoul earlier than night, "Huh, you're lucky, it's not too deep... At least not as deep as would have expected, I can fix this up." 


"Bella?" Another voice came from the upstairs of the house, but this didn't sound like anyone else Jackson had heard that night, it was a male, but his accent and the way he spoke were nothing like Daryl, not even like the child that had appeared earlier. 


"Hm? Oh, Caleb, thank god." Bella held her hand lightly over the bite in Jackson's arm, "Do you have any medical supplies? Did Mari bring any over the last time she stay?"


"Um..." The male that was walking down the stairs looked less than comfortable, he had a hand on his arm and looked extremely tired, smiling meekly at Bella, "Maybe ah...I'll look for you." His eyes kept flitting from Jackson to Bella and back again, before he'd disappeared down the corridor. 


"Thank you!" Bella called, turning back towards Jackson, "I don't know if you'd want to risk not stitching it or... Your choice." She held her hand down, trying to stop the blood flow, it wouldn't be good for him to lose too much blood right there. 


"Bella, I...uh found some." The new male had appeared again with a small kit in his hand, he knelt on the floor, undoing it and passing various supplies to Bella. 


"Okay, thank you, I...may need your help though, could you stick around." 


"Couldn't...you get Daryl to do it..." 


"He'll be so much help won't he? I'd be surprised if the guy even knows what a bandage is, he never uses them. You can go back to bed straight after just please, please I need your help for two minutes." 


"Okay... I guess I can stick around..." He stood up, taking a deep breath in and sighing, slightly nervous blue eyes moving between Jackson and the ground, "What exactly to do need me to do?"


"Just get antiseptics ready and the sort, it's awkward, we never use them, but we'll need them right now." 


"Okay, I can do that." Running a hand through dirty blond hair he got back down onto his knees and started to rummage through the small kit. 


"Your name's...Jackson right?" Bella asked, turning her attention back to the male in the wheelchair, "Yeah, I remember the younger boy um...Adrian, was that it, saying your name. How old is he anyway? I couldn't quite tell. You know, Daryl might tell you stories, but not everyone is weak, if he can fight he might have a chance." 
 
"Okay," Jackson mumbled to himself at such a volume that even he could not hear his own voice; perhaps the trained ears of a ghoul would have been able to make out his tiny note of agreement, but in the chaos he had forgotten that not everybody here was human. "O-okay," he croaked again, this time at a slightly louder volume at which he could comfortable hear the tremors in his own voice. 


The man could not understand why he was so easily trusting the word of a ghoul. He knew that he shouldn't. It was a monster, a cruel, hot-blooded killer that was probably just using its knowledge of human language to deceive. Jackson would surely make for an easy meal, not one that such a large household could pass up... Surely this would not end well. But somehow he simply found himself agreeing. He was lying, saying that it was okay. He simply could not muster the energy to argue anything else: he was hurt, he was tired, for reasons he couldn't put a finger on there was a heavy headache brewing inside his skull and it was making him feel ill. 'Okay' was all that he could manage, despite the fact that everything in his mind was screaming at him to get away from this woman and her house.


At Bella's touch Jackson instinctively pulled his arm upwards, touching his palm against his chest where he could feel his heart hammering. He still had an inkling that there was something more to this woman than her kind words. She was talking to somebody else, somebody Jackson did not particularly want to look at. He heard it all. The reluctance in the boy's voice. Bella's question. He did not even try to answer - after all, even if he could somehow say what was in his head, did he even have a choice? If these 'people' really were ghouls, probably not. Definitely not. As if they were even going to do anything to try and help... The best thing they could do now was to just let the man go. He had things to do. He had to go and find Adrian before it was too late.


Shut up, Jackson thought. He had to think about what he was going to do now, and it did not help when there were people throwing their questions and commands at each other over his head. Shut up, shut up, you're not helping! They were trying too hard to keep up this act. Antiseptics, my foot... It wasn't like Jackson would let them do anything. He could still throw a punch - couldn't he? A punch, a scratch, maybe lean up and break their neck if he could get close enough. That would be enough...


"Oh..." Several seconds and a few slow, absent-minded blinks later, Jackson realised that he was being spoken to. He had not even noticed. What the hell was that? The girl was trying to make some kind of small talk, a weak tactic to earn trust ready for an ambush. Instead of answering, Jackson clamped his jaws together, closed his eyes and turned his head away and to the side - he knew that he was behaving like a child, but being immature was a better option than conforming to the ghoul's wishes and getting killed in the process. He could not risk dying now. Adrian needed him to stay alive. Adrian needed somebody to come and get him.
 
"Okay then..." Bella could tell that Jackson obviously didn't want to speak to her and so she decided to get on with dealing with his wounds instead of bothering. There was no point in talking to someone who didn't want to be spoken to. He'd get used to it, eventually he'd let up. 


Caleb and Bella worked on getting Jackson stitched up for quite some time, it was rather awkward for the two without anyone talking, but Caleb wasn't complaining, it was more just Bella. She wasn't a big fan of such silence, especially when she'd just met someone, she'd rather get to know them than just stand there awkwardly. But it was whatever. 


After finishing with Jackson's injuries Caleb was sent to put the medical supplies away, before disappearing back upstairs without another word. Once he was gone Bella took Jackson onto the room behind the stairs, which was a snug, the group usually just used it to watch movies and things. It had a mattress on the floor already and various pillows and blankets thrown around. She helped the man down onto the mattress and then removed herself from the room, heading back to bed herself and leaving Jackson to think about what had happened that night. 


---


Bella sighed as she leaned against the kitchen table, sipping out of the coffee mug in her hand. She was tired, and she'd woken up early to make sure that that human guy hadn't died overnight, which he luckily hadn't. He seemed like hard work, it was obvious he didn't want to be there, but they couldn't exactly just let him leave, he was hurt and by the looks of things he couldn't even move that wheelchair on his own. She didn't really know what they were meant to do, but they'd figure it out. 


After helping him out of bed, the woman had left him to his own devices, she didn't really want to force him out of the room, but she'd left the door open. Not that he could really go very far with just one arm, the other one was very much broken by the looks of things. 


Daryl had explained to her what had happened and who he was, he seemed adamant about at least attempting to search somewhere for the kid that had gone missing, but he knew better than anyone that finding him without drawing Zeplin out again was going to be an impossible thing to do. Still, he seemed to want to try, and once Daryl had made up his mind it was hard to change it. 


"You tired?"


A voice broke the woman out of her thoughts, bringing her back to reality. Her tired eyes met the gaze of another individual, Dane. A tall, powerful looking man with dark eyes and dark hair, she didn't expect to see him so early. 


"Just a little bit."


"Daryl told me what happened, you know, keeping some human guy here really isn't all that smart. They'll be scared out of their mind." 


"I know, I know, we don't really have another choice right now though, he's hurt. Coffee?" 


"Sure." 


"I managed to find some cereal and stuff from the last time Caleb brought Mari over, it's not much, but we should probably feel him something."


"Yeah, if you want to deal with that I could deal with everything else. You not seen Caleb this morning?"


"I had him up late last night, he's probably asleep." 


"Ah I see, Daryl will probably be up soon. Get him to deal with this shit, and get some sleep." 


"Ah, maybe, I don't know if leaving him in charge of this sort of thing is a smart move though. You know what, don't worry about it, I'll deal with it as it comes. Let me take this through." 
 
All evening he had spent telling himself what he was going to do. All evening he had spent promising Adrian that he would find a way out of here and back to him, he would escape by whatever means he had... But isolated, he was useless.


Jackson stared up at the blackness of the dark room's ceiling that night. He was alone. Isolated. For some reason, none of it felt real, and whilst he could not lie that he was no longer afraid, he could not help but wonder: why? These ghouls... He had been too exhausted to stop them from doing anything to him, but even as vulnerable as he was, nothing had happened. They had patched up his wounds as they had promised, then tried to settle him in what they called a 'bed' on the floor - of course the ghouls had received no thanks but some struggling and ignorance, but miraculously Jackson was still alive.


He had time to think that night. Just a few metres above him there were so many other ghouls lying in bed, asleep, comfortable or not... Were they really liars? Could he really trust them?


I...


There were times in Jackson's life in which he had made the mistake of trusting ghouls. He knew that he did not trust these ones yet, but somehow knowing that these monsters existed, and knowing that they knew he existed, made him feel a twinge of the strangest sort of kinship.


No, he thought eventually, pressing his head farther down into the mattress, I can't. 


There was nothing left to do that night. He was too ill, too tired to think. There was always the chance that if he fell asleep here then he would never wake again... But before he could even decide that he was going to stay awake, his breathing had slowed and his eyes had fallen closed. Jackson was no longer awake.


***


There was no daylight filtering in through a window to wake Jackson the next morning. Instead he was roused by the presence of another person - it was that woman from the night before. The pretty girl named Bella, the one with the red hair who had helped stitch his bite wound. 


Whilst Jackson did not contest with the woman this morning, he did not dare to speak to her. He had to remind himself over and over: she's a ghoul. He could not afford to drop his guard, not even if she had helped him, not even if she was helping him this morning like Adrian usually would.


Adrian... The thought of the boy brought a horrible sinking feeling back to Jackson's heart. That was right, he had failed to protect Adrian. He had been taken by a pair of maddened ghouls, kidnapped mere metres out of Jackson's reach - and he had not even noticed until Daryl had appeared to deliver the news. What kind of guardian was Jackson to allow that? Adrian had not done anything wrong but exist, and people had hunted him down for it. He must have been so scared. His wounds must have troubled him all day, but Jackson could not recall hearing a single complaint. He must have been so goddamn scared, he was scared and I didn't do jack shit... Now Adrian was being held somewhere he would likely spend the rest of his life howling in pain. And it was all Jackson's fault.


It was only after he had seen Bella again that the man realised that there were tears streaming down the sides of his face. Desparate not to look as weak as he felt, Jackson hurriedly wiped away the wetness and sniffed hard to clear his nose. He wouldn't cry in front of these ghouls. He had to try not to think about it.


Something else, he urged to himself, think about something else. What about... He had had an interesting dream last night. It was about himself, and Adrian, and Leo was there, too. It felt familiar, perhaps it was even a memory rather than a true nonsensical work of the human mind. He began to try and remember what had happened during the day of his dream.


***


"Hey - what happened to your hand?" 


Jackson wrinkled his nose and cast a quick glance down at one outstretched arm. He turned it over to examine the palm, which looked rather plain and ordinary but for a few flecks of dried mud plastered to the skin. "Wh-what do you mean? I can't see-"


"No, no, the other one!" A chubby set of fingers with pastel-coloured, polished nails reached up to grasp the boy's other wrist, but Jackson raised his arm far above the girl's reach so that she could not touch him.


"Shitty-shorty," the boy mocked in a low, drawling tone. He made a point of straightening his back to raise himself another inch away from the ground. "Alice, try jumping!"


"No, nevermind. What does the writing say?"


"Writing?" Jackson frowned at the hand he had been holding up in the air. There were rows upon rows of quickly-scrawled letters tattooed over his skin in a smudgy black ink. "Oh. Uhh... About that. Is - is Will in today?"


Alice stopped walking mid-step to rub at her temples. It took a few seconds for Jackson to realise that he had left his friend behind, but when she spoke again he made sure to quickly skip back a few metres. "Why, he sick?"


"No," Jackson said quietly, "I thought - he could walk with us."


"Jackson, you're not-"


"Yeah..."


"-Again!?"


There was a strange grumbling noise from the young boy, and he flashed Alice a dark glare before looking quickly away. He muttered something that sounded similar to the word 'sorry'.


"All right, well who was it this time then?" the girl interrogated with a tone of deliberately melodramatic sarcasm. She hopped up in front of Jackson to try and meet at eye level with the taller teen, but every time she jumped up he could only see the bright blue of her eyes for a fraction of a second. After a while he slapped a hand down on Alice's shoulder to keep her out of his path.


"Nobody," he said rather quickly, instead tapping a finger at the writing on his hand to distract her, "A-anyway, that doesn't matter. Uh, let me know if we get any homework, okay?"


"Even English?"


"Actually, nevermind."


"I still don't understand you. If you could pick one subject to skive, couldn't it be something worse? Science?"


Jackson snorted. "English," he confirmed, then kicked gently at Alice's knee to indicate that he was over this part of the conversation. Alice puffed out her cheeks and sighed, but after a few minutes of silent walking she made another attempt to strike up a chat again.


"So if they don't want you in," she began slowly, "Where else are you gonna go? I thought your parents work."


Jackson licked his lips and leaned slightly to the side so that he could point at a turning at the far end of the street. "Friend's house." He glanced downwards again to check whether or not the girl's expression had changed, but to the boy's dismay she was only fiddling boredly with her dark brown hair. "H-he's eighteen. And this writing's all the directions, I think he lives just over there."


"Oh."


"Yeah," Jackson said, his ears beginning to burn a bright red. "Uhm, I'll see you later, then. Gotta go."


Alice pulled a sour face at Jackson as he began to stammer his goodbyes, but her glare was replaced by a big, white grin when she caught sight of the boy nearly trip over backwards. Jackson retorted silently by jabbing a middle finger at her, then skidded around and began to sprint to the street turning where, according to the map scribbled on his hand, Leo would surely be waiting.


Here, he thought, puffing out his chest as he craned back to read the number on the front of a house he had only ever pictured in a verbal description. This should be it...


Slowly, nervously, Jackson raised a hand and knocked at the wooden door, one, two, three times in a row.
 
"Leo...the door's making a funny noise again." There was a small voice from the other side of the door, one from what sounded like a young child. 


"Huh? Oh, yeah. We went through this, remember? That means someone's on the other side." Another voice, male, but much older sounding than the first. 


"Oh..." 


"Yeah, c'mon, move here, I gotta open it." 


There were footsteps as multiple people moved around in the apartment, then there was the sound of a hand on a door handle, before the door was pulled open. A tall, brown haired male that Jackson knew as Leo opened the door, smiling down at the smaller male. 


"Oh hey." He leaned against the wall, raising an eyebrow for a moment, "Aren't you meant to be in school?" There was still a smile on his face, he probably already knew what had happened, but he didn't bother to bring it up any further, instead shrugging and standing up straight again. He was about to say something else when there was a quiet whisper from somewhere behind him. 


"Is it there?" Round, grey eyes peered out from a slightly ajar door to Leo's left, they were staring on at the door, though they couldn't see the person behind them. 


"Huh? Yeah, you wanna say hi Adrian?" Leo pushed himself away from the door for a moment, about to walk over to where his little brother was hiding, but as he started moving the door was closed awfully quickly with a loud and unnecessary slam. "I...guess that's a no then." Leo didn't walk over to the door to try and force the boy out or anything, instead he just headed back towards Jackson, letting Adrian be for the moment. 


"So, where were we? Oh, yeah." He swung the door pretty much open, "I'm guessing you came here because you don't have anywhere else to go, huh?" It wasn't often that Leo had visitors, Jackson knew that, he also knew that the reason for that was because of his little brother. As he'd demonstrated moments ago, Adrian wasn't a massive fan of people, he didn't do well around them and so Leo tried not to give the kid a heart attack by constantly having new people around. He didn't mind Jackson coming though, it was only one person, plus he trusted the other wouldn't do anything too extreme. 


Motioning with his head to the younger male, Leo turned around, leaving the door open. "You remember what I said right? When I gave you my address? I'd just be...mindful if I were you." He looked towards the door which Adrian had slammed only moments ago, before smiling again, "Anyway, yeah, come in." 
 
Jackson seemed to shrink on the spot when the door finally cracked open to reveal Leo's towering form. Even if the younger boy was tall for his age, compared to an eighteen year-old he was about as good as a child; tiny, a little speck on his friend's shoe. Almost without thinking Jackson found himself rising to his tip-toes to try and level with the taller teen, but it made barely any difference, so after a few seconds he rocked back to his ordinary height.


He was about to greet Leo with a wave when he noticed the older male turn around. "Huh?" Jackson leaned forwards to peer in through the gap between man and wall. There was another door in there that seemed to close all on its own.. "Is this house haunted?" he asked rather loudly. Seconds later he remembered the little brother Leo had told him about, and the small blond boy's face began to redden. "I - I mean, he's basically - basically a ghost, right? Like, I've never seen him, so he's invisible," he quickly spluttered out in an attempt to cover his mistake. 


By the looks of things, Jackson was not going to be seeing Adrian here, either - not even in his own home. The boy had thought that his friend was exaggerating when he warned Jackson about Adrian's shyness, but maybe he should have taken the words more literally. Nevermind, then, he thought, continuing to stare at the door as he slipped inside after Leo and kicked off his trainers.


"Um, anyway," Jackson continued, rubbing his hands together as he held his arms in against his stomach. He had never seen Leo's house before, and whilst it wasn't particularly impressive - it certainly lacked much of what his own home had - the boy could not help but gaze around, fascinated by the unfamiliar layout. "It - it's an inset day, I don't have to go to school," he lied finally, removing his hands from his front to tug at the collar of his white uniform shirt. "It's fine, uh, my parents thought they would teach me at home but then they went to work."


He knew that his reasoning was weak, so rather than dig himself into a deeper hole, Jackson decided to distract Leo with something else. What could he talk about? There wasn't much here that could prod his imagination... So he slumped down on one end of the sofa and threw his backpack forwards, then began to rummage through its contents with one hand "Oh, ah, Leo, how old is your - how old is Adrian again? I forgot," he admitted after pulling out a bar of chocolate packaged in bright-orange wrapping.
 
"Inset day... Right." The way Leo drew out the 'right' in his sentence showed that he didn't believe Jackson in the slightest, but he was just teasing the other, he really didn't care. He moved towards the kitchen just after replying to Jackson, the sound of a tap running could be heard at Leo started to pour water for them all. 


He came through a few minutes later with three glasses somehow held between his fingers, he placed two on the table in front of Jackson and then walked closer to the closed door, placing a third in front of that. "Adrian should be in school too, but he didn't want to go...so he didn't." With a shrug Leo looked back to the blond sitting on his sofa, "What're they really going to do if he's not in for like one day? They'll get over it." 


After speaking the older male brought a knuckle up to the wooden door and knocked on it, "Adrian?" He waited a few moments, but there was still no reply, "Everything okay?"


"Yeah..." The reply was quiet and nervous, but Leo still smiled when Adrian managed to reply to him at all. 


"Okay, good. You know, you can come out if you want. No one scary is here, it's just Jackson. I've told you about him before, remember?" He looked at the ground for a moment, kicking at the white carpet that covered the main room of the apartment. "Are you thirsty? There's a drink outside your door, but you'll have to open it if you want to get it." Again he waited a little while, but when there was no reply from his brother he nodded and walked away from the door, "Well, if you want it it's there." 


Leo did do almost everything for Adrian, but he wanted to encourage at least some type of social behaviour, if that was simply leaving a glass in front of a door for the boy to open and grab that was good enough for him. At least he'd step outside the room for a minute. 


"Huh?" Hearing Jackson's question, Leo moved over to the sofa and sat down, motioning with his head to the glasses on the coffee table in front of them before picking one up himself and taking a sip. "Ten." He replied, "Three years younger than you." 
 
"Right," Jackson agreed eagerly, fiddling with a rogue tuft of short-clipped blond hair curled out past his left ear, "R-right, one day, right? What are they gonna do about it?"


The young teen spent a few moments glancing back and forth between the chocolate bar and the glass of water before finally deciding to take the drink. He carelessly dropped the snack down on his lap and leaned forwards to grab at the glass with both hands. In almost one huge gulp Jackson had downed the whole thing, and he had to catch himself before he could release a rather loud and surely unpleasant belch. 


Ten, he thought blankly as he made a move to wipe his mouth with the back of a hand. It was true that the number of years between Adrian and himself was as small as three, Jackson could not help but think that Adrian seemed younger. It might have just been the way Leo spoke about his younger brother, after all Jackson had never seen him, but would a ten year-old still hide behind doors when a visitor comes to the house? Whatever... If the boy did not want to come out, that was fine. He would probably just get in the way when Jackson and Leo were trying to hang out.


Instead of dwelling on a subject in which he was starting to lose interest, Jackson glanced down and found the orange-packaged chocolate bar on his lap. He laid a hand across the item and then stared back at Leo. "You like chocolate? Um, you can have some - if you want - or the whole thing," he offered, trying to remember his manners, "I can't remember but I think there's more in my bag. Dad thought my lunch was too small, so..."
 
As Jackson started to speak again Leo grabbed the remote to the television, going to turn it on. He moved himself to the edge of the sofa and pointed the remote down at the box that sat on a wooden shelf under the television. Once it was turned on he dropped the device on the floor next to himself and turned back to Jackson again. 


"Uh, yeah, I'll have half, I don't really want to take the full thing from you." He smiled, "It's your food after all." That was the thing about Leo, he never really liked taking anything from anyone, even when he was offered, he didn't mind offering other people things but it was awkward for him to accept generosity. He'd much rather just do something for the other person. 


"So, you wanna play video games or something? I had money left over this week so I kinda bought some more, even though it probably would have been smart to save, but whatever." The male stood up, placing a hand behind his head and smiling awkwardly, "You wanna have a look?" He asked, walking over to the cabinet under the television box and bending down to pull it open. On one side there was a large pile of plastic boxes, whilst on the other a console sat on the wooden bottom of the cabinet, controllers piled on top of it. 
 
The small boy nodded quickly at Leo's words, but when it was his turn to act he suddenly didn't know what to do - what were you supposed to do or say after that? He had been half-expecting his older friend to refuse the offer entirely. "Uhm, hang on a mo'," Jackson insisted as he began to dig through the contents of his bag with a single hand. He grabbed hold of a plastic lunch cooler and cracked it open, then flung another brand of chocolate out onto the sofa. He didn't want to eat all that; Leo could take it or give it to his little brother to eat later.


The mention of a game brought Jackson's attention back to Leo, and almost without thinking he pushed himself from the sofa to the carpet and kneeled forwards over the cabinet. His nut-brown eyes were wide with wonder. Leo had videogames? Jackson didn't know he could even afford the TV! This was amazing, they could play every time the boy came to visit, and he could even bring his own games over to show off his high scores. 


"Is it a PlayStation Two?" he wondered aloud, staring intently at the silvery logo branded on the front of one of the controllers. It had the logo, so it must have been the right model. "Cool! Oh, um, do any of your games do multiplayer, though? If not, I could walk home and get one of mine, and then we could have a race." It was apparent that he was eager; though he tried not to bounce on the spot, there was a flickering light of excitement dancing in the young teen's eyes. 
 
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