Fandom [CLOSED] Tokyo Ghoul: Dead Enmity

[Yoki]

"Can you give off for like two seconds?" Daryl sighed as Adrian skipped around him once again, this kid just wouldn't let him walk off, would he? He'd been trying to grab his attention since he walked into the room, and every time Daryl walked away it seemed like Adrian just wanted his attention more. 


"Mmn... Then stoooopp for two minutes, please!" Adrian whined, grabbing the man's wrist and turning them both to get him off balance, before letting go and shoving Daryl against the wall, both of his hands resting on the other's chest. The boy was used to playing rough however, and so the shove might have been a little stronger than it should have been, but it was just playful, not aggressive at all. Grey eyes stared up at Daryl and that grin that had returned to the smaller individual's face caused the man's the scrunch up slightly. 


"C'mon kid, let me fucking walk will ya?" He muttered, rolling his eyes. Of course, he'd have no problem moving Adrian, but he'd rather the other just moved himself, that way he knew that he was finally giving up and wouldn't follow him. This guy was peculiar, he probably didn't mean to seem so creepy and over excited in his behaviour, but it happened... He didn't seem to get social cues either, still, he was intriguing. 


"I don't know why you keep calling me 'kid'." Adrian pouted, tilting his head to the side, "I'm eighteen y'know." 


"G-...Wh..." The green haired male's eyes widened as the smaller of the two mentioned his age, "There's no fucking way you're eighteen." He replied, shaking his head. Did Adrian really expect him to believe that bullshit? If he was eighteen then Daryl was fucking thirty nine. 


"I am!" Grey eyes widened as Adrian moved to stand on his tip toes, attempting to square up to Daryl. His right hand gripped hold of the other's shirt, pulling it downwards slightly as he attempted to keep balance, "I swear it!" The creepiest thing about it all was that that strange, hard to decode look never left the back of his eyes, no matter what else appeared alongside it. The best way Daryl could describe it... Sadistic? Disturbed? Deranged? 


"Okay, kiddo." It was obvious that Daryl didn't believe a word he said as he put a hand on the top of Adrian's head and pushed him back down onto his heels, he then practically picked the boy up, moving him to the side, before putting a hand around the other's thin wrist and attempting to pull it away from his shirt. 


But Adrian didn't let go. 


"Oh... Okay, so we're gonna do this? Riiight..." No answer. He sighed, pulling again, "Goddamn, just let go." Again, no answer. Adrian just stared up at him with a straight face. "Okay, whatever kid." He tried to turn, assuming it would force Adrian off, but instead the boy stepped backward, pulling Daryl the other way and causing them both to stumble. "Oh c'mon! Let go!" 


The green eyed male clamped his hand around the smaller's wrist again, pulling, but in response Adrian placed his own hand on top of Daryl's wrist. The result of it was them both stumbling around the room in an attempt to pull the other off. Adrian just ended up laughing, whilst Daryl kept his focus on trying to pull the other off of him. 


It was the younger of the two that heard the door click, his head turned in that direction, a mischievous smile crossing his face as he checked to the side and then at what was behind him. The sofa. Hm. Adrian's gaze moved down and he tripped Daryl up whilst leaning back himself and simultaneously letting go of the man's shirt, although Daryl still had hold of both of Adrian's wrists. The result of that was both of them falling backwards onto the cushions below, Adrian was on his back looking up at Daryl, still with that same mischievous smile, whilst the green haired man had unintentionally pinned both of Adrian's wrists next to the boy's head and, in an effort to stop himself falling on top of the other, had one leg on either side of the smaller male. It didn't help that Adrian had almost pulled his shirt completely off as he tripped him. 


Both of the two glanced towards the door as they heard it completely open, Daryl accidentally ended up locking eyes with Jackson, which...was just awkward. He gritted his teeth, frozen in position for that brief moment. 


"Hi." Adrian on the other hand was more able to speak, he grinned up at Jackson and then giggled, finding all of this to be hilariously entertaining. 

 

[yaint]

There were several things that Jackson would have been prepared to see upon crossing through the door: an empty room, a child playing a game, two girls bunched up together on a sofa conveniently ready to hear the man's request. What he did not expect to see, however, was a flash of green from Daryl's guilty eyes followed by an image that slowly built up before him as he looked around.


Adrian was there. He was on his back, pinned down against the sofa by his thin and fragile wrists by Daryl's stronger grip. The older of the two had kneeled over the boy, one leg anchored down firmly on either side as the room was filled with uncontrollable giggling.


"Wh- what - D-Da-" Jackson's first instinct was to look away. He turned his head to the side so that those wide brown eyes could stare at something other than whatever on Earth he was seeing. His ears were burning, his white skin was starting to flush a deep red and there was a definite wrenching tightness in his chest. He had no idea what to say, let alone think. Daryl was on top of Adrian with an incredibly sorry look on his face. The smaller boy, on the other hand, had appeared - and sounded - quite the opposite of whatever 'guilty' could mean here. He was still laughing, and rather than gasp or shout or scramble for safety, he had simply greeted Jackson with a simple, 'Hi!'


Whipping his head back to examine the scene again like he had seen something that was not quite real, Jackson swallowed and went to hold at the nape of his neck with one hand. They were still there, it wasn't a dream. It wasn't just some weird and sick trick of his mind. Daryl was actually on top of Adrian. Daryl is on top of Adrian, he thought as blood started to rush in his bright-red ears again; there was an odd bubbling of something not quite the same as anger brewing inside him, and that sensation was telling him to dive forwards and tear Daryl away from Adrian. 'What in God's name do you think you're doing!?' Jackson could imagine himself roaring as he flung the man aside as easily as if he were a rag-doll. But rather than have an outburst of violent action and language, for the first time he was lost in his own confused agitation.


Lips trembling for reasons he could not describe, Jackson glared with lowered brows and widened eyes at the two males before him. He neared them both and then reached out with a hand, keeping it away from them slightly as if unsure as to whether or not he should continue with that action. Eventually he decided not to, and simply placed both palms against his head. His glasses were sliding down against the sweat on his nose.


"A-Ad-Adrian," he finally jabbered, shaking jaw dropped low as he stared forwards in complete stupor. "What - I - y-you - you c-c-ca-"


Useless. He could not speak when there were no words in his mouth. His hands dropping to his sides again, he instead began to back away to the edge of the room, knocking over a small ornament on a table as he went; Jackson was not looking where he was going, for his eyes were still glued to whatever Daryl was doing kneeling over Adrian like... Like something he did not want to think about.

 

[Yoki]

This...seriously couldn't be happening. Daryl had no idea what to do, he could hear Adrian laughing like this was the funniest thing in the world, little bastard, he'd done this on purpose...hadn't he? He could feel his face heating up from embarrassment, and of course catching Jackson's eyes really hadn't helped, luckily the other man turned away so he didn't have to. 


"Mmn...Can't what?" Adrian asked as Jackson seemed to move forwards, when he had he started to turn around? Daryl didn't remember that? What was his head doing right now, he should probably let go, that would definitely make this situation less awkward... Maybe...probably... Well, explaining himself would also help, but letting go was the first thing he needed to do. He hadn't moved an inch since Jackson had entered the room. 


Jackson just seemed to be in utter shock, as was Daryl, but it couldn't just end there, someone else had to come into the room as well, didn't they? 


"Hey, guy what's with the-" Bella had casually been walking towards the room, a rather tired look on her face, however turning around the corner and into the living room caused that expression to change immediately. Her jaw dropped as she also thought about what she had just walked in on...was that...Daryl? And...Adrian? Right... "What...the hell..." 


"Oookay!" Upon seeing Bella Daryl managed to move himself, standing up and releasing Adrian's hands, his own hands in the air beside his head like he'd just been caught committing a crime by the police. "This really isn't what it looks like. I swear!" The only person in the room who didn't look like they'd just seen a murder was Adrian, he'd sat up casually and rubbed his wrists, crossing his legs. All the shock and confusion in the room just made him laugh. 


Bella had no words, she wanted to say something, but she really didn't know what to say. She stared at Daryl, and he stared back, for around thirty seconds before any words came out of her mouth. 


"Daryl...he's like twelve." Her words were slow and it was so obviously that she was judging him, oh she was judging him so very hard at that moment. 


"I'm eighteen." Adrian muttered, laying his arms on the arm rest of the sofa and then putting his head on top of that, his grey eyes flitted over to Jackson, "Jackson, tell Daryl I'm eighteen." He sighed, but that cheeky smile was still on his face, "Beside I-"


"No, you shut up." Daryl held is hand out towards Adrian in an attempt to make him be quiet, the kid was just going to dig a deeper hole for the older of the two. "Look, Bella, it was not like that at all, I really do swear. I wasn't-"


"Then what the hell was it like, Daryl?" Bella raised an eyebrow, crossing her arms, she wanted a full explanation, not just some excuse. 


"The little bastard set me up, I was tryna leave the room and the fucker wouldn't let go of me, then he heard that bloody door and tripped me up." Daryl glared at Adrian for a second, who only smiled in return, oh god he was irritating. 


"Really?" Bella rolled her eyes, looking over to Adrian, "You really expect me to believe that that kid had some devious plan to make you look bad? Get off it." 


"I'm telling the fucking truth, he's the fucking devil." 


"Daryl." 


"Bella."


"He's like twelve." 


"Eighteen!" Adrian chimed in again, "Jackson!" 

 

[yaint]

Petrified in his seat by a mixture of confusion and anticipation, the once-babbling Jackson could do nothing but sit and stare straight ahead; he could not even force himself to turn his head so that he could watch Bella's rather quiet and undramatic entrance. In fact, the man did not even notice that the red-haired woman was here at all until he heard her voice.


It seemed as though she had been at least half as confused as Jackson was. Every word she said seemed to ring true with several different thoughts which had been swimming through the man's head. What the hell? What was it like? He wanted to know just as much as she did, and he kept listening eagerly for answers... Until Adrian started to batter him with a command.


That sudden change jolted Jackson awake. He shook himself out of his frozen state and blinked owlishly back at the boy, the man and the red-haired lady ahead. "What?" he mouthed, attempting to deliver a question but failing to make a single noise louder than his own restrained breaths. There were chills running up and down his neck now. Impossible, he thought, but then pushed that idea away quickly to correct himself. No, not impossible. Unbelievable. Adrian never, not once had given Jackson a straight-up command. This development was so abrupt, it made the man queasy. Not normal, this was not normal...


After realising that he should probably try to say something, Jackson stammered a few meaningless bursts of gibberish until his lips could cling on to the only truth he could think of at that moment. "H-he's eight - he's eighteen," he confirmed, staring between the boy and Daryl rather than towards Bella. That probably had not helped the situation, and he knew that well enough, but it was all that he could think to do.


What the hell was going on here?

 

[Yoki]

"See."  Adrian yawned and closed his eyes, still smiling, "I'm not twelve." He curled himself into a corner, staying as calm as ever in this situation. Bella was amazed, was the boy really not bothered by any of this? She decided it'd be best not to question that too much, after all, she didn't know him, Jackson did...and apparently Daryl did too by the way he was holding the guy down on the sofa.... 


"He's...eighteen..." Daryl shook his head and looked at the kid again, "You're sure about that?" He asked, turning his head to Jackson. Adrian looked very young for his age, not one could really say otherwise, but...eighteen...seriously? He would have put him at a bunch younger age than eighteen. Just two years younger than him.


"Well okay, whatever. In that case, I don't even want to know!" Bella put her hands up in the surrender position and started to walk out, "I'm going to go drink thirty cups of coffee and forget this ever happened. If you want me I'll be in the kitchen." With that she started to walk out, hands still up in the same position. 


"Bella!" Daryl gritted his teeth as he called after his friend, there was no way he was leaving it like this. He turned his head to the boy on the sofa, just to find he had his eyes closed, but just as he was about to turn away one of those grey eyes opened and stared straight at him. The look... Daryl glared at Adrian, looking at him as if to say 'I'll get you back', then he turned and quickly made his way out of the room. "Seriously Bella! It wasn't like that!" 


"Mn." Adrian rolled onto his back, stretching out his legs and rubbing his eyes, "They're really loud Jackson, why're they so loud?" He sighed, blinking as he removed his hands from his eyes and stared over at the older male. Jackson was still probably startled, but Adrian didn't even seem to realise, he just waited silently for an answer. 

 

[yaint]

The one sure truth in his arsenal having been worn after its single use, Jackson had no choice now but to squirm about in silence as Bella's interrogation continued. It was easy to understand why, in this situation of all those possible, Adrian's age was of such importance that it could even trigger something of an argument. Understandably, the girl in the room appeared just as flabbergasted as Jackson was.


It was only when Bella announced her leave that Jackson finally woke up. Bella, he thought, his pink face burning again. He had wanted to speak to her, or Rachael - one or other. Now was his chance. But could he really leave this situation? For a moment his eyes traced back to where Adrian was. "Uh..." Surely he would not have to be around to supervise the kid all the time. It was true, he was eighteen. But also atypical, said a voice inside his head. He wasn't a normal eighteen year-old.


Whatever. There was no time to consider it. He either stayed here and missed his chance or went to Bella. Someone else could look after Adrian for a while... Surely Rachael would, maybe even Kedin could help. Dane would be better whenever he got home, too. "Y- I - A-Adrian, how about this," he began finally, ignoring the boy's question for the second time that day. "I'll... Uh... Hey - y-y'know what, why don't you just - err - go upstairs? You can find something to play with up there, or something - uh, I th-think maybe other people will be up there too. You can talk to them!"


By the time his last word was out, he was already halfway out of the door. With a tiny click, the handle twisted around, leaving Adrian isolated in the living room. Who the boy would pester next was a mystery... Jackson just hoped that he would keep away from Caleb, hopefully Nathan and... Definitely Daryl. He didn't even want to think about what had been going on between those two when he had come in.


***


A long, pointed finger jabbed through the air at the rising shape of an enormous building just a few blocks away. "There," he said, and then curled a thumb in to beckon Bella to follow.


It had been difficult to try and forget about the strange events of the morning, but once he had got over that initial bump in the road, he found that his timing had been quite fortunate. That coffee Bella had promised herself made it easy to speak to her, and by some miracle Jackson had ended up reverting to his original plan, for the woman had agreed to drive him to the site of the warehouse.


Unfortunately, the streets were becoming too narrow for a car, so they had had to park a walk away from their destination. Now they were approaching that huge building only before seen on a screen, and every inch closer they came was adding another beat per minute to the man's heart rate.


They were almost there.

 

[Yoki]

"Huh?" Bella looked up on Jackson's call, following the finger that had pointed in the direction of they destination. Honestly, she wasn't looking forwards to being so close to someone Zeplin supposedly hung out, whilst Caleb had never told her much directly, she spoke with Dane a lot, and he had told her some rather gruesome and nasty things about that group. It made her feel sorry for both Caleb and Adrian for ever having to be near them, and although she didn't know what had happened whilst they were there, she knew how they were now. Caleb was a mess, he wouldn't stop hating everything he did, and was probably only alive because of Dane, and Adrian...well...there was something off about him, his head had been fucked with, anyone could tell that, but it wasn't their fault. They never asked for any of that. 


The woman sighed and crossed her arms, walking around Jackson, "Okay, so...how close exactly are you wanting to get to that thing?" She asked, "Personally I don't think you should go within a ten meter radius, who knows who's there, and...well..." She looked over to the man, "You're not exactly going to be able to run, and if we get out numbered..." Bella shook her head, she shouldn't think about things like that. It was unlikely there were people fumbling around there in the day time. 


Zeplin were an interesting bunch, a messed up bunch, but definitely interesting... What led them all to be so fucked? Well...obviously not all of them were, Caleb was a clear example of that, and she was sure there were others who were forced to act rather than working on free will. "What do you think they've got in there?" She asked, taking a few steps forwards, "It could be anything..." 


Honestly, Bella didn't know why Jackson didn't ask Daryl to come with him on this, they all knew he was the strongest, if they got attacked he was the most likely to get both himself and Jackson out alive. Well...actually she did know why Jackson didn't ask Daryl, but it still would have been a better choice than anyone else, at least he knew what he was doing when it came to fights with both humans and ghouls, plus there's no way they'd take him hostage, or even kill him. Going up against a ghoul such as Daryl meant it was possible you got someone else...and that someone else was someone they definitely wouldn't want to deal with. 

 

[yaint]

"H-hey, look, I know what I'm doing, okay?" Jackson insisted, pausing for a moment to frown up at the red-haired woman tailing him as he wended through the narrower streets, which were appearing to become increasingly more rugged-looking. The area was not completely abandoned - there had been a pharmacy located a few corners ago, and every now and then a voice rang out through the otherwise-empty air.


Ten-metre radius, the man echoed in his mind with a rolling of his eyes. He could not lie and say that he was calm; he knew well the sensation of fear, and that familiar tingling in his fingertips was sending buzzes and spasms through his arms and shoulders. It was true, there could be all kinds of patrols or gaggles of savages lurking around the corner in wait. But Jackson was here for a reason, and he was not going to stay away from his goal for something as trivial as safety. As if they hadn't lost all of that as soon as they had stepped out of that car.


It was just outside an abandoned corner shop with its display window missing that Jackson finally came to a halt. He backed in through the hole where the door should have been, reached back for the rucksack slung over his chair and grabbed a plastic bottle with his fingertips. That last upward slope had left him out of breath, and the inside of this empty building seemed like a fair, sheltered resting point. 


As he unscrewed the top of the bottle and begun to sip at the sweet water inside, he added on to his previous statement, "Besides... I've got it covered. We - uh - I won't need to run if everything goes right. I know what's inside..." He paused for a moment to drip some water into his palm so that he could smear it against the hot skin on the back of his neck, cooling himself down somewhat before finally twisting the lid back on. 


Should I tell her? he wondered as he started to chew on his lip. Caleb clearly didn't like talking about Zeplin, so maybe Bella would not have heard anything about the prisoners Adrian had explained about to him. It's not like there was any point in keeping it from her... The less she knew, the more wary she would be, and then she would only try to restrain Jackson more. Yeah, he thought. I should tell her.


"W-well, uh, I dunno if anyone told you this yet or anything, but Adrian said that - th-they have prisoners. Or, uh, I think so. He just said 'people', so I don't know, but look - that's what we're finding out, yeah? What's really inside. Uh, let's... Keep going."


Pocketing the bottle filled with water back in his backpack, Jackson stretched out his arms and then began on his way back out of the tiny shop shelter. He had barely even rested for a minute, and for that his unpracticed arms ached and throbbed, but there was no time in the day for dawdling. They were almost there, just a couple more turns and it would be right in front of the warehouse.

 

[Yoki]

He knew what he was doing, everyone always said that before something managed to mess up, even the most careful people had slip ups from time to time, they couldn't but sure that nothing would go wrong...but they were here now so there was no point in stopping. She'd agreed to come, so she might as well go through with what she said she would, it wouldn't take too long, it wasn't like they were trying to fight Zeplin all on their own. 


"What?" Bella turned her head and furrowed her eyebrows, did he just say that he knew what was inside? Well, if so then why didn't he share the information with her, she'd like to know what exactly they were scouting the place for. What was it that Jackson wanted out of this? He knew he couldn't take Zeplin alone, right? And he'd be lucky if he could get anyone to help him fight them... Even if they had done some horrendous things to Adrian, the man couldn't expect to get revenge against a group so savage. 


Almost as if he'd read her mind, Jackson started to talk about what it was that he wanted to find from inside. Adrian said there were people...most likely prisoners, Jackson didn't plan on trying to let them all out, did he? That would be crazy, what if they tried to kill him? Or worse, Zeplin caught him and all of them? That would just be one more person in their clutches... What if they weren't even there? After all...was Adrian really a trustworthy source. 


"Okay, what?" Bella quickly followed after the man, making sure to keep pace, "You don't plan on doing anything to get them out do you? If there even is people in there, because...that'd be crazy. You could get caught!" She shook her head, eyes darting around to make sure they weren't being watched. "Anyway, Adrian might be wrong, you know that as well as I do, the boy seems a little...out of it at the moment." She didn't want to offend Jackson, knowing that Adrian was someone rather close to him, but it was true, he was acting extremely strange and it wasn't just her who had noticed it. "And how do you plan on finding out what's in there from this? We're not going inside, we can't go inside, someone will see us!" 

 

[yaint]

"Nobody's gonna see us if nobody's there," the man snapped back, whipping his head around to face Bella for a moment. He glared up at the woman until the redness in his ears had faded away, then mumbled a quick, "Sorry."


As much as he did not like to admit it, all of the fatal flaws that had been picked at in his plan were as apparent as Bella made them feel; there was no sure way of telling if there was anybody nearby or not. If they were, they could be hiding - around a corner, inside a building, maybe they were already lying in wait within the warehouse having been notified about the arrival of two spies. It would not be surprising to find out that a ghoul had heard, smelt or felt the footsteps of these intruders before they had even got out of the car.


Nevertheless, Jackson was not ready to drop his pursuit here. They had come this far, and he trusted the quickness of his trained mind to build the plan as they moved.


This was for Caleb, for themselves, and most importantly, for Adrian.


A few minutes of silence later, Jackson finally came to a halt at the inner edge of the closest wall to the warehouse. He did not dare to peer around the edge for fear of being seen by the ghouls he had insisted would not be there, but it was easy enough to tell that they were here, for the warehouse was now towering above them. He could even see the crows lined along the edge of its roof.


After a quick glance to check that Bella was still with him, Jackson leaned his head against the bricks and held his breath to try and listen. Apart from an angry 'caw' from one of the birds, there was nothing to be heard. Damn it, he thought, pulling his head away. That could either be good or bad, that could either mean nobody was there or that somebody was waiting to ambush them. He would be able to tell if only he had the ears of a ghoul. But unfortunately, surrounded by those not like him, Jackson was reminded how incompetent being a human being could make him.


Suddenly, a truth so obvious that he wanted to hit himself in the face dawned upon him. A ghoul's hearing? He had a ghoul with him. "Hey - Bella," he started, his voice so quiet that not even he could hear the words. Bella would be able to make them out. "Look - uh - w-we're here, yeah? If there's anyone here... Well - well, look, you're a ghoul. You c-can use your super-ghoul ears - or something - and check it out, yeah? If you can't hear anything then I'm going in, so listen out for stuff for a moment."

 

[Yoki]

"Mn." Bella sighed again, simply following along, this was a bad idea and she knew it, she was stupid for agreeing, but she had done, she couldn't go back on her word now. However, the woman couldn't help but feel uncomfortable as she surveyed her surroundings, any number of ghouls could be there, they were way out of their depth...this was not their territory to invade. Jackson was absolutely crazy for wanting to do this. 


It wasn't until Bella realised how close they were to the warehouse that she started to get worried, Jackson was right up against the thing? What if someone heard him? These were ghouls! He was human. he wouldn't know where they were before they knew where he was... She wanted to tell him to be careful, but she didn't dare to speak, just in case someone happened to be nearby. Better safe than sorry. 


The man put his ear to the building, but like he was really going to be able to hear anything... That was brick, he wasn't getting through that. Of course, he didn't expect to, as it was Bella he addressed next. He wanted her to listen out, if she could hear anything then they could probably go, but if she didn't... He was going in?! What? 


'You're crazy.' She mouthed, shaking her head, but proceeded to get closer to the wall to listen. It was about thirty seconds before the woman made any sort of move away from the wall, she wanted to make sure there was definitely nothing there, but finally she sighed and backed up again. She wanted to lie to him, tell him that she heard something and that they could just leave, but she wasn't going to do that. 


"It's clear as far as I can tell." Her voice was quiet, but she was risking speaking out loud to Jackson. Maybe she could persuade him not to go in...it was extremely dangerous, "But that doesn't mean there isn't someone in there, what if they're just quiet? That's...super dangerous..." Bella didn't want him to risk it, it was basically putting his life at risk, "They could find you." 

 

[yaint]

As soon as Bella gave the word, Jackson finally peered around the corner to see nothing but the empty space between themselves and the old warehouse. It seemed as though the woman confirming that her comparitively excellent hearing brought nothing to fruit was as good as 'the coast is clear' for him.


"If you can't hear them then y-you can smell them," he pressed on as he began to slowly roll across the ground. It was eerily quiet as far as he could tell, but that might not necessarily be a bad thing. He had a ghoul with him, a ghoul on his side who had keen senses and a reason to keep him alive. Somebody had his back, so he could afford to be a little careless... He could afford to focus solely on what he came here for, and that was to scout the area and learn whatever he could about this place where Zeplin supposedly kept their prisoners. "Uh - yeah. Just tell me if you think someone's here, okay?"


After a pause and a quick check of the area again, Jackson dared to edge closer to their destination. Luckily, being a supposedly abandoned building the doors were wide and open, so he had little trouble finding his way inside. Bella would not like where this was going, but he did not want to hesitate and give the girl a choice. As long as she knew that there was no chance of them retreating back to the car like a couple of frightened rabbits, they could look.


The sheer size of the room was incredible. The floor was wide, empty, just like he would have expected for a warehouse. The shelves which had once held many stacks of valuable goods had all but disappeared; they were nowhere in sight, save for a couple of rusted items stacked in a heap to one side. The lights in the ceiling were no longer functional, and the air was thick with dust. It was an unpleasant place to be in, but Jackson was hungry to see more of it.


It took him a while to fully take in what he saw around him, partially because his eyes had to adjust to the darkness, but mostly because he was in complete and utter awe. This was a warehouse, yes... But it was also the place where Zeplin supposedly made Adrian fight. He could almost confirm that just from the stickiness he could feel when he touched his wheels and felt half-dried blood on his hands. That realisation made his heart skip a beat.


"Well," he breathed finally, trying to ignore the sweat which was starting to trickle down the sides of his neck. "This - this is it, right? It looks... Empty... No prisoners. Uh - l-let's look around, yeah?"

 

[Yoki]

"Yeah...but that doesn't stop them from attacking us," Bella explained, turning around for a moment, "Like imagine if- Jackson?!" She turned back towards the man just to see him moving towards the warehouse's open doors, this guy... "Jackson, don't go in there...what if they're-" But he was already gone, he hadn't been listening to her, could she really have expected anything less for the guy? He was set on finding out what was inside. 


After a few moments of hesitation, Bella was forced to follow Jackson in, she couldn't leave him alone, they'd have a much better chance together, even if she didn't want any part of messing with whatever was inside the building. Zeplin could be doing anything, did they really want to see that? Or...risk becoming a part of it. 


The minute she stepped inside the building she already wanted to move out again, it was a warehouse for sure, but it didn't smell like a warehouse...it smelt like rusted metal, blood, and sweat, three things that were bad enough on their own, never mind together. What did they do in here? Fight each other? She supposed they couldn't rule it out, Zeplin were all crazy, they'd probably do anything and everything. 


"How about we don't..." Bella mumbled, shuddering and crossing her arms as she followed. Her eyes darted backwards and forwards, covering every side of them, she wasn't having someone jump out at them. "Do you really need to see? This place is disgusting, let's just get out before someone finds us." She hissed, staying a little further behind Jackson. They were inside Zeplin's building, they were actually inside. It made her think...if they could find them so easily, if they could just walk in like this...how ease was it to find them? If a secret organisation was so easy to sneak into then how quickly could Zeplin discover where they lived? Where Caleb and Adrian were. If they knew...would they kill them all? She didn't want to think about it anymore... That was...way too creepy. 


All of it just felt too easy, like Zeplin wanted people to find them... That couldn't possibly be right, why would they want that? It just felt like they were being teased... Taunted even. 

 

[yaint]

Rubbing his hands together to try and remove the smears of blood stuck to his fingers, Jackson nodded vigorously towards Bella. "Yes," he asserted quite plainly, "I do need to see. Look - Bella! We're not going to get anywhere if you just want t-to - to run away every time we get close. This is the only way I'm ever gonna find out what the hell they did to Adrian."


Unlike the girl behind him, the creepy aura that seemed to linger in the room like a cold, numbing blanket did not seem to bother Jackson in the slightest. He was already feeling all the feer that his body and mind could contain. Nothing more could add to the rate at which his heart pounded in his chest. 


Eventually his eyes settled on a dark shape looming overhead. There was an incomplete upper floor, a second storage area barricaded by a metal railing. Surely there was something up there... But how could they see? If goods were once transported from floor to floor then there was most likely an elevator nearby, but there would be no point in searching for it. Whatever company was supplying power to this place had cut their connections years ago. Not even the lights worked. 


There are stairs, the man realised as he squinted to make out the shapes of several loose-looking metal steps leading up to the edge of the next floor up. "Look," he said quite loudly to try and get the woman's attention. He flapped one arm about for good measure, then pointed quite violently to his new discovery. "There - there's another floor, right there. You've got your ph-phone, right? I want to see it. Err, could you go up there and take some photos for me? There might be something important there."

 

[Yoki]

"If there's no one here, how are you ever gonna know?" Bella questioned, "Do you think they just leave plans around to their secrets everywhere? Because for some reason I feel like there isn't just going to be a file laying around somewhere here that says 'What We Did to Adrian', do you?" Yes, she was being a little impudent, but it was true, they weren't going to find much if they didn't see anyone, and they didn't want to see anyone. 


Again she sighed, this wasn't getting through to the man, why was she even trying at this point? She might as well just follow silently and hope for the best, hope they didn't die. They wouldn't die, there was no one here, no one at all. Whatever, they'd be out soon enough anyway, she just needed to humour Jackson for a little longer. 


"Second..." The woman looked up, "Okay, yeah." She put her hand in her pocket, pulling out her phone and walking towards a set of stairs that were behind the two to the right. She didn't see that floor as very safe, and it didn't look like there was anyone up there, but she might as well check. So, she unlocked her phone and opened the camera, holding it up in front of her. Just take pictures of anything, this floor wasn't all that wide or hidden anyway. 


As she walked she was about to shout down to Jackson, but realised that that was a rather bad idea... She could get them caught. So she shut her mouth and just kept walking, looking towards the man now and again to make sure nothing had happened to him. For some odd reason she felt watched, maybe it was just the eerie feel of the place, but it just didn't feel safe, it probably wasn't, she couldn't wait to leave. 


Soon enough another set of stairs appeared in front of her and she made her way down, the floor seemed to be split into sections, why she wasn't sure, but they were all probably the same, nothing interesting up there. Making her way back to Jackson, she shook her head and held the phone out in front of her. "Not much." 

 

[yaint]

Without so much as pausing to thank Bella for her effort and her risk, Jackson reached up snatched the phone from her clutches. His wide, ravenous eyes devoured each image that flashed up on the screen before him as his thumbs swiped busily through the album. She had not lied; there was little on the upper floor of interest, but it was no less valuable all the same.


Railings, walls, pictures of the ceiling from which hundreds of long-dead lights hung... He saw them all and made a strong attempt to burn every image into his memory. Unless he was prepared to try and climb up those stairs himself, these photographs were the best - and only - view he had of what was up there. 


Eventually, after flicking through the taken photos one last time for good measure, Jackson handed the device back up to Bella. "I want those printed - printed on paper. When we get back," he said as his eyes wandered upwards. He could make use of a file... Photos, notes - if he carried all of his knowledge with him on a clipboard, it would give his mind more space to fill with new ideas.


Now... Nevermind that. Where were the prisoners? Adrian had promised them that there would be other people trapped here, whether they were human or ghoul was a mystery, but the more important enigma to solve here was the question of why there was nobody else nearby. They clearly were not hidden away on the first floor. If they had been, Bella would surely have found them, and Jackson would have seen it all in the photographs. They weren't on the floor above...


What about the floor below?


"Hey - is that a cellar?" Jackson pointed towards a strange extension visibly attached to the outside of the building. He had moved around to an angle at which he could see the exterior through the warehouse's second open door, and sure enough, there was a gaping hole where a pair of small double doors should have been. If all of the films he had watched were not liars, there would surely be a staircase leading down to a hidden floor below the ground hidden just inside.


He did not bother waiting for Bella to follow his lead. Within seconds he had rolled out of the darkness and back into that harsh, scorching sunlight that had made him shudder and shake before. That hungry look returned to his eyes again as he leaned in towards the gaping black hole.


"Yes!" he mouthed to himself, feeling a flicker of triumph. There was, just as he had expected, a basement to this warehouse.


Hmm, now, what to do? He could send Bella down to get photographs again, but that would leave both of them alone and vulnerable in open and frightening places. At least, that's what Jackson reasoned with himself. In reality he was simply masking his sudden, unexplainable urge for adventure with a logical excuse; every time he looked down into that abyss he felt a tingling sensation in his fingertips. He wanted to go down there... He wanted to see what was there, see what those bastards had done to Adrian with his own eyes, breathe the same air he did when they kept him locked up down there like he said they had. Then he could plan for his next actions with all the fire of a freshly-kindled lust for revenge.


"Bella!" he called over to the girl. Once more, he pointed, this time down into the blackness. "Look, th-there's a basement. Can you - shit-" In readiness he was beginning to shift about in his chair, leaning down to throw his feet aside so that they would not catch on anything. He had already gone so far as to lock in the wheels. "Okay - look, they've got a - a basement, right there, probably with... Something in it... I - anyway, I want to look. You take me down there, neither of us are gonna be on our own, right? It's safe, you just have to keep listening and I'll look around."

 

[Yoki]

"Yes boss." Bella muttered, sarcasm dripping from her words. Why Jackson wanted such things printing she honestly didn't know, but he was talking to her as if she was just there to provide for him, so if he wanted to do that then she'd gladly be sarcastic towards him until he got over it and asked her properly. 


Of course, that wasn't the end of their little adventure, however, no, not at all, the next thing he wanted to do was go down to the basement... Which Bella was more than against, she didn't want to go down those creepy steps into who knows what...there could be anything down there! But Jackson didn't seem about to go back, she could just refuse, but she had an add feeling that he was going to throw himself down those steps if she did. She could pick him up and leave, but he'd probably throw a goddamn tantrum, the guy was too set on revenge... God, he reminded her of Daryl, both of them got too angry, they didn't see anything other than getting back at people... It was going to be both of their downfalls someday. 


"Okay. Whatever, but if it starts to get too late I'm leaving and I don't care what you say, I'm taking to with me." She didn't give the man much time to react, as seconds later she'd grabbed hold of him and picked him up, then jumpily made her way down the stairs. He at least deserved that for bringing her to this place. Why was it so empty anyway? Where was everyone? 


As her foot hit the bottom step she could hear it echo down the long, stone corridor. This place as been done out...or...doors had been put on the rooms. They lined the walls, equally spaced, large, silver doors with do way of seeing into them. It was creepy...really creepy, like the kind of thing you'd see in a prison. Were there people inside of those? Could they get into them? A door next to her was open, but you could clearly see that the room was empty and that there was not much in it... It wasn't a big space, smaller than she thought, you could see the entire thing from the door. 


A few more doors were open further down the row, they should probably try those, the big doors didn't seem to have any handles that could be tried, so they'd just have to push them and hope the opened...or...they could go back. 


"Okay. This place just gets creepier the further down you go. Can we go back to the top now? It doesn't look like you can get into any of them anyway." Bella wanted out, she felt out of place there, plus there was no exit, what if someone found them in this hallway? They'd never escape! They'd probably get locked in one of these rooms and then killed. The simple thought made her shudder. "You've see it, let's go."

 

[yaint]

"We'll leave when I - hey!" Bella's voice had been laced with the spice of sarcasm, and Jackson had been about to deliver his own sharp-edged retort - but before he could even finish the first sentence, the words were knocked clean out of his lungs. The girl had lifted him up out of his seat before he even knew what was going on, and in search of some kind of anchor he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and clung on as tightly as he could.


Deciding with a frown and sharp intake of breath that he would thank Bella for that rough treatment later, Jackson waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness and then started to squint around.


It was not what he would ever feel like calling a pleasant experience. Like any ordinary cellar the walls and floor were all made from the same flat, flaky stone which both looked and smelled quite damp and as close to rotten as something so cold and hard could be. The air was thick and heavy, worse than it had been above ground. It was difficult to breathe. And those doors... Those doors, flat, silver, spaced evenly along the walls. They felt so cold to pass that they even brought about shakes and shivers.


What was behind them?


His thoughts were abruptly cut off by an interruption from Bella. Jackson scowled into the woman's neck and deliberately tightened his grip on her shoulders as a warning. "Just - just wait a moment," he pressed, shifting his weight to one side to try and slow her movements. He could not affort for Bella to get spooked here; if something frightened her and she ran away, she would take him with her or leave him on the ground with whatever was crawling around in here. He could not let her so much as think about it. "Bella, we - look, there are doors here, I haven't... What's behind them, huh? Look! Look, th-that one's lock is turned sideways. It's open, let's go in, look around - t-take some photos of the place and then we can go if you really want."

 

[Yoki]

Bella did not appreciate being ordered around by Jackson, if he kept this up she'd be tempted to just drop him and leave, of course that wasn't something she would ever actually do, but she wasn't afraid to threaten him with it. She'd brought him here, he should appreciate that, she could have said no, and he probably didn't want to go with Daryl, the only other person would have been Dane, who was very unlikely to take him, he wouldn't hurt Caleb like that. 


She looked around upon hearing Jackson talk about one of the empty cells, they had to go inside? Couldn't they just stay where they were? They could see it from outside anyway... There was a door near them to her right that she hadn't looked into, might as well start there... To think, these rooms might have people in, they might be in a room filled with victims that they didn't even know about. She felt awful for them...if there was any way of getting them out without causing enough noise to attract people she'd want to do it, but she doubted there was now. 


"Yeah, yeah, okay. Just this one. Then we'll go. We can't even get in the other rooms." Her eyes kept moving to the locked doors as she walked, if Jackson had some sort of plan, she hoped it involved saving those people... If they were even there... Who knew. 


When she walked into the room Bella hadn't been looking, he'd been thinking about how shit it must be to be locked up in a tiny room and used, to be taken from everyone you love, to possibly die, but never know when... It must be awful for them. However, looking at her surrounds should have been the priority, as when she finally turned her gaze back to the room in front of her she got a nasty shock. 


"Oh...god." The woman stepped backwards as her eyes widened, she almost dropped Jackson out of shock, but luckily managed to keep hold of him, he would not appreciate touching the floor in there. The first thing that really hit you was the smell, an overwhelming metallic smell, the smell of blood, and too much of it. Looking around it was easy to notice that that smell came from the contents of the room. The whole place was covered with blood, but...it wasn't just thrown around...


The walls had faded, red handprints on all over, randomly scattered, in between these hand prints there were what looked to be words. Some of the words were legible, other's weren't, whoever had done this had written over them time and time again. The handwriting was messy, the blood had dripped whilst they had been writing. Although there were a lot of smaller phrases and words scattered about the thing that really caught her eyes was on the wall to her right. 


A giant, smiling face had been smeared onto the cold, stony surface, expect instead of eyes it had crosses, there was an arrow point to one of these crosses coming from the left side, although it didn't say anything next to it, it just had a small drawing of a circle. Below the face there were large words written, a question. 


'What's my name...'


Bella's attention had been captured by that simple sentence... Why had they written that on the wall? What... She didn't understand, not that she really could, none of it made sense. 


All of the drawing were relatively low down on the wall, whoever had drawn and written in blood was either rather short or somehow couldn't react any higher, even Bella could reach up a little higher than all of the drawings went. 


If that had been the end of the eerie room she might have been okay, but it wasn't. As the girl turned to look forwards again she noticed something in the corner, a pile of something. It was pinkish in colour and stacked up, blood covered it. 


"What's that?" She scrunched up her face and took a step forwards, but upon realising what the pile was of her eyes widened and she jumped back once more, having to bite her tongue in order to stop herself from scream. "Oh my god. What the hell?! What the fuck! No, no, no, no... What the fuck is this place? Hell! That's disgusting!" 

 

[yaint]

'I'll come back later and pick the locks,' Jackson suggested - or he had been about to suggest, at least. It wasn't like these doors would be impossible to open if only one brought the right tools, but there was no need even to wonder what was inside after a sudden jolt from Bella. 


Shocked by her sudden stop and a jerk like she had been about to drop him, Jackson whipped his head up and craned his neck to peer past Bella's annoyingly large head. When he finally caught sight of what lay ahead, he wished that he had not.


Blood. Everywhere, every place he looked there was blood smeared and drawn along the floors and the walls. It was horrible... He could even smell a hint of that iron tang, taste it when he opened his mouth to take in a gasping breath. It made him gag and choke, and within seconds he was spluttering and struggling to breathe without convulsing and making a noise similar to retching.


"B-Bella..." His voice barely more than a wheezed croak, Jackson swallowed and swallowed again. Arms still wrapped tightly around the woman's neck, he uncurled a single index finger so that he could point the thin, trembling appendage around. What he was trying to bring attention to, he had no idea. The heap of glistening, bloody tongues piled up in one corner? The smears of dried blood glistening on the floor? The writings on the wall surrounding that huge, staring face with crosses for eyes.


Eventually, seeing that there was no point in trying to choose one horror over another, Jackson curled his finger back in and gripped tighter at Bella's shoulders for some kind of comfort. He wanted to vomit and he wanted to leave. But something about this cell - or whatever it was that it was called - made him wonder: who?


Of course, he was beginning to have very frightening ideas of 'who', but refusing to believe what his mind kept barking back at him the man simply swallowed his distress and began to babble in Bella's ear again. "W-we - it - I - i-it's a cell," he finally managed. "B-blood, there's - it's - there's b-b-blood. Writing. Bella, it's t-too dark, I can't read it, wh-what does it - what's it s-say?"

 

[Yoki]

"Yeah...I kinda noticed that already Jackson..." Bella breathed, unable to remove her eyes from the disgusting pile in the corner, she didn't even want to think about where half of them came from...or why someone who was in a cell would be keeping them. Who was this? Why was it open? Did the person die? Were they gone? Someone did this...and she wasn't sure he wanted to meet the person responsible for it all. 


Jackson was asking what the writing said, but there was so much, which bit did he mean? She didn't want to read it out, it was distressing, awful, the person who wrote this sounded like they were in a lot of pain...or...they'd just lost it completely... You had to be crazy to write in blood on the walls of a closed off cell, right? You wouldn't want to make the place you had to stay this unclean... How did they live in this? 


She saw many different things scattered around the walls as she looked harder. 'I'm sorry', 'Why?', 'I didn't mean to', 'Sorry', 'Kill me', 'Please', 'Make it stop'. They'd written the same things over and over in random spots, now and again there was something different, then something she couldn't read for it was just too smeared or had been written over too many times...but...she decided that those small things, well, Jackson probably hadn't even seen them properly. 


"The-...The one under the face?" She asked, swallowing, "It...um...It says 'What's my name.' But...there's no answer." Did this person ever figure out their own name? Had they ever even forgotten it? Maybe it was best they didn't get answers to these questions. "Jackson...who the hell would do something like this?" She knew he probably had as little answers to that question as she did, but it was worth a shot, someone had lost their mind in that room, she couldn't even start to imagine the pain they must have been in to end up so broken... 


The more she looked, the more new things she uncovered. There were smaller drawings on the walls, stick men holding hands, like the sort of things little kids drew for their families, but simpler, there were other small drawings too, but it was a little dark to make them out. 


She already knew what Jackson would want out of the room. So, she grabbed her phone, trying to hold Jackson and take some sort of picture in the meantime. She turned on the flash, hoping that they'd be able to see better on the photo than they could in real life, then she just started to take pictures of every corner of the room. Honestly, it was just so they could get out of there quicker...she didn't want to view this for more than another minute. 


"Can we go. Oh god, we really need to go." 

 

[yaint]

So... Whoever wrote this forgot their own name? Jackson's entire body seemed to shudder at that thought; a violent spasm almost shook him out of Bella's hold. Had he not quickly grabbed back at the woman's shoulders, he would have fallen and landed face-first in the dark, glistening blood on the floor. No, surely not. To mess with someone's head so badly that their memories were twisted and convulsed to the point of forgetting their own name was unthinkable, to say the least. What the hell did they do to whatever poor prisoner had been kept here?


There was other writing, too. Jackson could not read it in the darkness, but Bella's silence told the man that her ghoulish eyes could see the words clearly. The flashes from her phone's light did give him several split-second glimpses, however - not long enough to take in any single meaning, but the nonsense he did see sent yet more chills down the back of his neck.


This place was awful. There was blood. There were pieces of other people's bodies piled up. There were writings on the wall that glistened and stank and made the air taste of iron. 


He had to get out of here before he saw something else. They had photos, that was enough, they could look at those later, but every muscle in Jackson's body was screaming at him to move and get out of here.


A couple of times he tugged at Bella's shoulders, almost like the girl were a horse with reins he could pull on the guide her. "Y-yeah," he agreed quickly and quietly, his voice once more reduced to a whisper. "Come on. We - w-we can ch-check out the others tomorrow, let's get out - let's get out of here, we can go home b-before someone - before Zeplin shows up."

 

[Yoki]

"Mhm." Bella didn't think twice about backing up, her eyes were off of the scene in seconds, and she'd raced up the stairs like she was running for her life. That was no pleasant, and she wouldn't be going back in there for a long time. She just wanted to get Jackson into his wheelchair and leave, they were lucky no one was guarding the place...or they could have been the ones to join that person in madness. 


---


The two hadn't talked much on the way back, in fact Bella had avoided talking about what they had seen that day at all. She'd gone back with Jackson in the last few days to check some more of the things out, but every time she'd avoided looking at that room. The other cells weren't as bad, thank god, they were a little...cleaner, less blood-soaked. She was lucky, they didn't scar her near as much. 


She'd managed to get thos picutres printed for Jackson, but she hadn't asked what he was doing with them, she hadn't asked much at all about what he was doing...she just let him get on with it. It was nothing to do with her anyway, she just helped out from time to time, she didn't want any other part in his shenanigans. 


In good news, Adrian seemed to be settling in alright, he was a bit of an energetic guy, but he was nice enough. Honestly, she'd expected him to be...shyer, like Caleb had been, but he seemed to alternate a lot, sometimes he wanted to speak to everyone, sometimes he didn't want to be near anyone at all. He also seemed to have made a habit of bugging the quietest of the group, or the people who wouldn't listen to him. Kedin was a favourite target, along with Caleb, Bella didn't know exactly how they felt about him, but they didn't seem overly annoyed. That was good. 


"Hey," Dane tapped on Bella's shoulder as he moved around the sofa to sit down, "Alright?"


"Oh, yeah." She smiled, taking a sip of the drink in her hand as she looked towards the television, "I'm good. How're you?" 


"Fine, fine." The man yawned, placing a hand behind his head, "Tired, but fine." 


"Work?" 


"Kinda." 


"How's that going by the way? Do you still enjoy it?" Bella turned her head, putting the mug down on the table in front of her. 


"Hm, yeah." Dane chuckled, "I suppose so, though I don't think you can really enjoy work completely."


"How come?"


"It's work, gets repetitive, y'know?"


"Mn." Bella leaned back, nodding, "I suppose so. Just, try not to stress yourself out too much, I know it's a little difficult, working and then coming home to have to deal with this bunch." 


"Yeah, they're a handful for sure. I don't know how you do it all day." 


"Oh, well, you know." She grinned, "Practice. Nathan and Kedin are at school most of the time anyway, and you know Daryl, always coming and going, Jackson mostly deals with himself, I just help him from time to time. Rachael has never been a problem. It's mostly Caleb and Adrian that you have to worry about." 


"I suppose so. I think Caleb's been feeling a little better recently." 


"Really?"


"Yeah, I mean, he's still a little unnerved by that kid, but apart from that he's been alright, he just needs to know someone's there, y'know?" 


"Yeah." 


For a moment a two they both sat in silence, watching the television. 


"So," Dane started up conversation again, "How is he anyway?"


"Hm?" 


"Adrian, they guy Daryl managed to pull off the streets. I've been around a little bit to watch him, not much."


"Oh, he's alright, a bit of a handful, but he's dealing with everything a lot better than you would have thought." 


"Huh, strange." 


"Maybe it's a good thing, it wouldn't be good for things like that to weigh on his mind anyway." 


"Yeah. You're right." 


"Though," Bella picked up her mug again, taking a sip, "He's awfully dependant, he needs someone around. You couldn't leave him in this house alone." 


"That so? You said he was how old?" 


"Eighteen I think." 


"And you can't leave him alone? I'm sure you could." 


"Maybe, but I don't think he'd like it much, and Rachael told me that sometimes if Jackson doesn't tell him where he's going before he leaves he gets a little distressed too."


"Hmn. It's probably just because he's in a new place, it'll be his way of dealing with things."


"Yeah, I guess you're right." 


"Anyway," Dane reached a hand out, taking the mug Bella was holding and downing the rest of the coffee inside. 


"Hey! Dane!" She snapped, reaching out, but he'd already moved away, "I swear you just live to steal from me." 


"What use would I be if I didn't?" Dane grinned, placing the mug on the table. 


"You're a dick, you know that?" 


"Yes, yes I do." 

 

[yaint]

It was not a choice he had made; every night since their scouting trip to the empty warehouse, Jackson had closed his eyes only to be transported back into that room again, stuck clinging to Bella's back as he squinted through the blackness to read the blood on the walls. It was dark, but he could read. 'Sorry,' said the blood. 'Kill me,' 'Make it stop.' He saw it all, those haunting messages which seemed to press inwards, closing in on Jackson and the faceless woman carrying him until he could no longer breathe.


With a jolt the man awoke only to be blinded again by the glare of a warm, yellow light blinking at his bloodshot eyes. "God," he muttered to himself, squinting ahead again. He must have fallen asleep in his seat again, and he hoped not for long; though he was inside his tiny bedroom, he was not in a private place, for the door had been left open to let in some light. Somebody might have passed and seen the photographs piled atop his lap... And that would have been alright, had Adrian not been one of the potential 'someones'.


There's a point, Jackson thought to himself as his sleep-numbed hands found their way to the corners of the printed photographs laid out over his legs. He had to make an effort to be more careful - somehow, over the three months he had spent in this house, he had lost his touch for caution and become somewhat careless. He could not afford to skim over thoughts now. What if Adrian found out about where Bella had been taking his friend? Oh, if he had been kept there for so long then it should take no more than a quick glance for the boy to realise that they had gone quite a ways farther than the local pharmacy. 


"Careful, careful..." Once more mumbling to himself, the bespectacled man pushed up his glasses and then leaned over the images. He had not seen these properly as of yet; Bella had taken her phone up an outdoor flight of stairs where Jackson could not reach. This was a new perspective altogether for him, and the scenery was more than intriguing.


At the bottom of the photograph was the tip of Bella's shoe, and directly above the point of her toes was the corner of the warehouse which they now knew all too well. From here, though, the warehouse looked quite small and distant - merely a blip in the wide-angled view of the surrounding area. There were shops - abandoned, of course - and the shells of old, burnt-out cars. One car, however, looked quite new and sleek. It was bright red, polished and waxed to a gleaming shine. Its tyres were almost untouched, and oddly, there was the silhouette of a person inside. 


It was doubtful that the person inside the car would be one of Zeplin's grunts. They were being too careless for the level of stealth that group seemed to use, so almost immediately Jackson shrugged it off and counted it as an ordinary passerby who just happened to be travelling through a rougher area of town. His eyes instead tracked across the image before coming to rest on a tall, clearly-printed wooden pillar with a poster taped across it.


It was difficult to make out the small lettering when looking at a piece of paper in the half-light, but Jackson could instantly make out the words written across the top: 'MISSING PERSONS!!'


Another lot of us, the man thought at first; he remembered passing a few posters detailing his own disappearance from society along with his younger companion Adrian's. The CCG had clearly put some hefty effort into making it known that the two males had gone missing, likely due to Adrian's odd change. But then, when Jackson looked again just for the novelty of seeing his own mugshot in a public place, his heart stopped.


That wasn't him.


That wasn't Adrian.


The details of the faces printed out were blurry and undefined, but those ambiguous shapes seemed ominously familiar. Whoever these two people were, they had short, white-grey hair and pale faces.


Jackson thought for a moment that he could make out the backbone of his own surname written in the white space beneath each picture. "No," he whispered out loud. He dropped the paper so that he could rub fiercely at his own eyes, thinking that perhaps he had been asleep too long or that the room was too dark. He was seeing an illusion. No way, this was too much of a coincidence, his paranoia was just making its return... But then when he looked again, the words were even clearer.


Twisted into a sudden frenzied panic, Jackson threw up his arms and darted out of his tiny room, the files on his lap almost catching on the door as he raced outside. He paused for a moment. Bella. Bella was the one who had taken this photo, and she had better eyes than Jackson did. Surely she would be able to look at the picture, read that poster in a low and drawling voice and tut at his lunacy like she often did so that he could sit back and sigh, knowing that it really was just a trick of the light. 


"Bella?" He began to call the woman's name before he was even close to the living room, but that did not stop the trembling in his voice from betraying whatever stupid nerves he was trying to conceal. A shaky, cold and clammy hand curled around the door's handle and he swung it open with as much force as he could muster. "Bella!" he said again as he passed inside, his eyes seeing Dane sat next to the woman but mind not registering the other man's presence. All he did was wheel around the sofa to where she was sat, pick up the photographs on his lap and slap them down on the table in front of her. The movement knocked Bella's empty mug onto its side.


His voice turned somewhat weak in an attempt to cover the quivering, Jackson glared up at the woman and jabbed a thumb down at the photograph. "Look - I - I need to talk to you for a moment, just a second, it's not gonna take long."

 

[Yoki]

Bella wanted to reply to Dane, insult the man some more and tell him how he should stop being lazy and make his own coffee if he really wanted some that badly, but then she heard her name being called by a very familiar voice. Jackson? What did he want? It sounded urget, she could hear the panic in his voice, what had happened now?


The two sitting on the sofa turned their attention towards the door as the man appeared, he didn't really given either of them much of a chance to say anything as he wheeled himself around to Bella and slammed the photos down on the table. 


"Whoa. Hold up." Dane reached forwards, grabbing the mug that was rolling towards the edge of the table, "No need to be so violent with it." He muttered, although Jackson obviously wasn't addressing him, he was addressing his female companion instead. The man said that they needed to talk, probably trying to get Dane out, but he didn't need to be asked. "Alright, I'll let you two...talk." He stood up, saluting to Bella and then heading towards the door, Bella knew that if she needed him he'd either be upstairs or in the kitchen anyway. 


Bella was just as confused as Dane when Jackson entered, dropping the photos down in front of her really wasn't much of a surprise, they'd taken them together after all, there was probably something he wanted to discuss about them. Asking Dane to leave would have been awkward, so she was relieved when the man just simply got up and left without saying much. She smiled, towards him just as he moved out of the door, then immediately turned her attention back to Jackson. 


"Okay. Yeah, what is it?" She asked, looking towards the photos in front of her, they were just pictures of the warehouse, not even the inside... What could he possibly be so worried about with these? "Is something wrong?"