Fandom [CLOSED] Tokyo Ghoul: Dead Enmity

[yaint]

It felt childish to admit it, even to himself, but at that point Jackson was so desperate to abandon the thoughts and questions he had about today and just think of anything else that he clung to Adrian's question with every ounce of strength he had.


"Y-yeah, I think..." He closed his eyes and took himself back. The age when they first met... Adrian had been ten. Where was Jackson when he was ten? His mind searched and searched, and the first image that came into his head was exhilarating. The man remembered sprinting alongside his young dog Daisy as they skirted the beaches of Portsmouth, a number of other children whose names and faces he could not recall bounding after him like they had never had such a chance to run in their lives. The sunlight rippled and glittered on the tides as it began to sink into the golden sea, and he could hear the shouts of his friends calling his name.


'I've gotta go home!' he insisted in the memory, and then the world went swimming by. Roads, houses, people on their bikes. He dodged street lamps and pedestrians as he raced through a familiar path, and then the enormous entrance to his home yawned open as he approached.


He greeted his parents, darted up the stairs and sank into the softness of his bed, and yes, there was a little box-shaped television with a video cassette player taped on top sat up behind the footstand.


Jackson nodded, and then his childhood memory seemed to dissolve into the starkly real image of their modern world. "Yeah," he said absently in response to Adrian's question, though silently he begged to be taken back to that time. "I had one in - in my room. It was small, it - there were videos, and..." He trailed off, lost in the memory again, but he knew that he had to move on. Weak. He had thought for a moment that he could escape the consequences of his own cruelty by running away to the past. Did he seriously want to start over?


For a while he thought about what he had done and how much he loathed his own cowardice, but then when his head started to nod by itself, he realised there was something else to respond to. He scratched at the back of his neck, then cleared his throat weakly like he was going to announce something - but in the end, all he said was, "Okay. Okay, yeah, let's - we'll go in and find out."


He decided not to wait for Adrian when he rounded the pavement and turned to go indoors; even after a moment of conversation, he could not dismiss the thought that he needed Adrian to stay as far away as possible. Jackson knew exactly what had riled him up, but he couldn't remember how that assault started or how presicely it had ended. Alice was still dead. He could still get angry if he thought about it too much, and he couldn't risk any of that happening again.


Jackson closed the door behind him as soon as he had space to turn around, just to create an extra barrier between himself and his younger friend. That would keep him out for all of about half a second... But every little helped. He veered towards the kitchen and called out as he sniffed for the scent of something edible, "Bella?"

 

[Yoki]

"Mmn..." Adrian nodded, "That must've been...nice..." He would have loved a television in his room, but he knew there never was one...even when Leo moved them to London there was only one in the living room. It would have been nice to have had one to himself. He would have liked that, he would have never left his room. 


Jackson replied to his question about going inside not too long after he asked, -and so Adrian nodded, smiled, and then waited for the man to start towards the door. He let him go in first before he managed to slip through the door and bound inside himself, leaning against the handle as he shut it behind him. 


The minute the two entered something could be smelt coming from the kitchen, Adrian sniffed the air and pushed himself off of the door.


"Guess she's still cooking...or...just finished." He grinned, hopping around Jackson as he called the woman's name in hopes that she answered. Adrian still wished that he could eat human food again, he would kill for that, literally. It was definitely one of the things he missed about being human, along with a lot of other things that he didn't really want to think about at that moment. If he could go back in time...no, no maybe he wouldn't have done anything differently... It depended to where in the past he went. 


"Yeah?" There was a call from the kitchen, "Something you need Jackson?" Bella had made her way to the enterance to the room, looking out into the hallway. Of course, the first thing she saw was Adrian grinning as he skipped across the wood flooring, it was odd to think that earlier that day the boy had been crying and screaming in upset and panic. It didn't seem reasonable for him to suddenly be okay, was he okay? Well...he had come in with Jackson, she'd ask him later. 


Soon enough Adrian had moved into the living room for a moment and Bella was able to catch Jackson's eye. "So, you finally came inside. Good, I have food ready for you if you want it, of course you don't have to eat it if you don't feel like it at the moment. I can always save it for you for later on." She knew the man must be upset from everything that had happened, and she didn't want to push him to eat if he really didn't feel like doing so. "It's up to you." 

 

[yaint]

Jackson stiffened when he heard Adrian coming in behind him, and tried to maintain his posture. Look at the wall, he told himself, not at him. He had to just convince himself that the black-haired boy wasn't there, he had to trick his mind somehow.


What would work best?


Another memory?


It felt to him as though he had already remembered too much today about Alice and Will, but that moment he had spent lost in his own mind, finding the path to the answer for Adrian's question about the television... Yeah, that had helped. He had escaped for a while there, and even if it wasn't to try and flee from his own doings, Jackson thought that perhaps it would help calm himself down.


He let his eyes close. The image of the beach came back, and this time he could see it more clearly. The wet sand crumbled beneath his bare, chubby little feet as he traced along the edge of the shore, a number of other little kids dancing along behind him like he was their leader. Daisy trailed along by his side, her big pink tongue lolling from the corner of her mouth. She was only a pup, a few months old and small enough for Jackson in his ten year-old body to pick up and carry in his arms. He smiled at her and walked farther towards the sea. When he concentrated hard enough, he could even remember the feeling of cold saltwater lapping at his heels, swirling in between his toes as he led his little troop of kids with him, and-


'So, you finally came inside.'


Jackson jolted awake at the sound of Bella's voice, and quickly snapped his head down as he wondered where the water had gone. It had just stopped, like that... But that was because he had last stood in it eleven years ago. Right now he was here, sitting in the entrance to the ghoul household's kitchen with the smell of dinner thick in his nose.


Yeah, that was right. He had got so engrossed in that memory that he forgot what he was meant to be doing: finding and talking to Bella. The first part had apparently been achieved already, so he made a point of rolling farther inside and staring anywhere but the woman's eyes when he said, "Oh. Uh - y-yeah, thanks. Bella." He could imagine the way his insides would be twisting and grumbling in protest at the idea of putting anything in his mouth when he felt so sickened by himself, but he had already decided that he needed to explain what was up. "I was... Gonna ask - err - tell you something, actually."


Jackson swallowed. Adrian must still be nearby... Was now a good time? They could find some way to distract the boy, or just go in for it with a prayer. As long as he didn't hear the flesh of it, everything should have been good.


"It's about earlier. Not - like - just now-earlier, I mean... W-with Alice. The girl. I think you should know."

 

[Yoki]

"Tell me something huh?" Bella kicked away from the door, motioning with her head for Jackson to come into the kitchen, there was no one around at the moment so she didn't need to worry about being careful if Jackson wanted to talk. Everyone was busy with their own things, as far as she was aware. 


She took a plate off of the counter and walked over to the table, placing it on there, then she moved back to tidy up everything that she had used. It wasn't like they used the kitchen too much, they didn't have to eat as much as humans, so it was strange for her to have to actually use it daily for anything that wasn't coffee. Everyone in the household, apart from Kedin who couldn't stand it, liked coffee, so she was always in there making that. 


Bella was going to ask what Jackson wanted to talk about, but he was quick to tell her anyway, so quick she didn't need to say anything at all. It was about that Alice girl? Wait...the girl who Adrian had killed. What exactly did he want to say about her? What did Bella need to know? She shuddered at the scene that ran through her head, that dark room, screaming, crying, and Adrian mercilessly ending her life without so much as flinching. In fact, she was pretty sure he was more upset when Jackson was hurting him that when he was ending someone's life. Did he have no remorse?


"Yeah?" She turned to look at Jackson, leaning against the counter and giving up on what she was doing, "What about her?" Jackson had now been given the woman's full attention, she didn't plan on doing anything else until she knew exactly what this was about. What should she know? Was the girl a rather important person? Were they going to get in a lot of shit for being in that house if someone found out? She was honestly becoming a little on edge. Hopefully it wasn't anything like that.


"Tell me whatever you need to tell me." With a smile, Bella pushed off of the counter and moved closer to Jackson, it was probably better they were quiet, "I'm listening." 

 

[yaint]

The girl had only taken her last breath this morning, got out the last of her screams before Adrian skewered her on a blade like a pig. There had barely even been time to process the fact that the girl was no longer alive, but already it was becoming difficult for Jackson to drag up the topic again. It felt wrong, as if talking about his old friend on the day of her death would make him the one responsible for her fate.


But it is your fault, said a niggling voice that only he could hear. Jackson silently told that feeling to shut up, but it persisted on and on. But if Adrian isn't responsible for his actions, then who is? You brought him there, you idiot. You were the one who disappeared and provoked Alice in the first place. You're the reason she's dead.


Those thoughts seemed to attack Jackson from the inside out and tear through the walls of his mind. He imagined himself building a barricade to keep them out, and surprisingly the little daydream helped. His mind had cleared a little - at least for now - and now he could talk to Bella properly.


This was going to be long, but everything he needed to say was what he owed to the woman. She had put up with him for months without even knowing who he was, where he had come from or why the hell he was looking for some strange kid named Adrian. It was about time she knew.


He swallowed hard, keeping his breaths even and steady, and pulled himself into an empty space by the table so that he could spread out his arms on a surface. A few times he bumped together his bandaged hands in thought, then forced himself to find the start of his story. He did not look at Bella in the eye.


"Well, okay, it... Look, this is gonna sound kinda weird, and, um, yeah. Kinda weird and a little pretentious, or whatever it is people have been calling it recently now, but there was some - stuff - some stuff I was just thinking about a while ago, when I was sitting outside. Um, you know, after the... The thing from earlier, which happened... After we got back home." He rolled his shoulders inwards as though chilled by the very memory. "Y-yeah, as I said, we - I, I mean I was just thinking for a while about everything outside. Everything as in, um, what happened today, with Alice, and my parents and everyone. Like, I thought maybe, you - God, what am I saying? Look, look - basically, what I mean is that it looks to me like you don't know much at all. About it! Us,  I mean, we haven't told you anything. Just thought... You know, I should let you know what Alice was all about when she popped up. I could tell you the short way, or - or from the beginning, about Adrian too. I feel like you should probably know about him, anyone, really - just someone other than me, right? It... It just depends..."


Jackson released a long sigh and stared adamantly away from Bella through his thick round spectacles, refusing to let her see his face.


"It just depends. Basically, you... If you've got time, I thought I would, um, tell you what's going on. I know, I - it feels weird, and like I said before it's vain, but... It just feels wrong otherwise. Like, we're living here and you don't even know who we are. You don't even know who Alice is - was - other than what you saw. So, uh, what do you want to hear?"

 

[Yoki]

Trying to make sense of Jackson wasn't easy when he was going in circles and not really giving her any more information that she already had, still, she kept quiet and tried to listen to him, she did want to know what he had to say. That girl had come out of nowhere and she'd taken people important to Jackson...was she a jealous ex or something? Now, Bella knew some pretty crazy people when it came to relationships and exes, but no one who would kidnap someone else's parents. That was just too far. It had to be something other than that...right? 


Eventually, Jackson managed to explain what he meant to the woman, he wanted her to know more about them, tell her about the situation and what had been going on. Yeah, that would be nice. She'd really like to know about where Adrian had come from, and why Jackson had been so desperate to chase him down even after Daryl had told him that it was most likely futile. Adrian was a strange one, she'd allowed him in her house, but she had no idea who he was or what he could do...and seeing what he'd done to that girl so quickly and with no remorse, she couldn't help but be a little worried about the boy being around the younger members of their family. 


With a sigh, Bella crossed her arms again and nodded, she would like an explanation of everything from start to finish, she had as much time as he did; she didn't really plan on going anywhere any time soon. Jackson could take as long as he wanted to explain the situation to her because the more she knew the better she could handle them and know where to tread carefully. 


"An explanation would be great." Smiling, Bella looked over at the nervous man at the table, "Start to finish, I want to know as much as you can give me." She wouldn't push for anything she didn't need to know or Jackson didn't want to tell her, but she wanted to know everything he was comfortable sharing with her, "I have all the time in the world." 


Did she need to invite either of the boys in to join them? Surely it would benefit them to know what was going on too, she thought about it for a moment, but decided against it. Jackson was trusting her with this information, not Daryl or Dane, so she'd leave them out of it. Unless it was absolutely necessary, she wouldn't say anything to them, this was personal information. 

 

[yaint]

"Start to finish," the man parroted back at Bella with a quick nod. His face had flushed red when he accidentally looked away and caught the girl's eye, and he realised how badly he had been stuttering before. Calm down, he told himself, although there were countless jerky, twitchy and unfinished words rising in his throat poised to raise further confusion. There was no point in getting worked up now. Adrian was not here, nobody was around to hear what he had to say but for himself and the person sitting by him. It was fine.


For a moment he imagined himself to remember that scene again, although he was careful not to become entranced by its image this time around. Just a flicker of a memory. Just a little glint of the sunlight bouncing off that rippling tide, a twinge of something cool and liquid flowing past his ankles. Instantly Jackson's pulse rate slowed, and some of the lingering unexploded fireworks inside his head felt they were becoming less and less heavy. 


He could do this properly without screwing up, just as long as he could keep this mindset up. From start to finish, Bella had said; she wanted the full story.


"Okay then, I... Start to finish, me, Alice, and Adrian. It - it doesn't actually happen at the start, it's earlier, and - and it's just basically our lives, so it's really not as interesting and... W-wait, sorry, I'm - this isn't making sense. Let me try again, one second."


Deep breath, he told himself, and saw the ocean for another second, long enough for his hands to stop shaking. Sense, make sense... Where was the start? It was way back, when they were kids. They had to go all the way back to their childhoods, especially Adrian's, for any of this to fit together like he needed it to. Bella had to understand.


"Yeah, okay. Sorry, I'll... I'll start now. Um, so, right. I wasn't sure if you actually wanted to go from the real start or anything, because, well, what do I say? It started a long time ago, but that... That was mostly all Adrian. I'll tell you about me and him first, since that's the start of everything, I guess."


Jackson continued to stare at the wall. He had thought about this story inside his head many times over, but never before had he needed to recite it in as much detail as he intended to here.


"Basically, I don't know what's exactly happened to him, but I swear when he was little, he wasn't quite so - so weird... If that's what you want to call it. And he - he w-wasn't what he is now. I don't know what he is, some... One-eyed ghoul, or something, I don't know if he's that or human or what. But I swear, he was definitely human a few months ago, before November last year. He started off human, and, well... Y-yeah, that's not it.


"Shit, I don't know if I should say this or anything, but... You know, I'm one of the only people who knows about it all. He has to have someone else behind him, right?" He allowed himself a moment to force out a tiny, plastic laugh that made almost no noise at all. "Yeah, so - yeah. He had it rough when he was a kid. Don't ask why, I don't know, but somehow his parents ended up in jail for some reason or another, but they were apparently pretty bad anyway. Did... Bad stuff. I told you, I don't know exactly what, but I've seen Adrian's scars a few times. So yeah, bad parents, they did stuff to him and... Well, he got scared of people. Mega-scared, like, hide-behind-the-door kind.


"Uh, anyway. So I said, parents went to jail, after that it was his big brother who took care of him, nice guy, a few years older than both of us. Name was Leo Sanister. He, uh, was... Actually my best friend for a while, or one of them, at least. But we couldn't talk too much because he was always busy taking care of Adrian and stuff, but sometimes I went over to his house and took the kid off his hands for a few hours. This was, uh..." He paused for a moment, glanced down and waved his hand in a circle as he thought. "This was before I - had my, uh, accident. And stuff. Adrian was ten, I think, and he's three years younger than me, so that made me thirteen. But then I got in a crash, couldn't take care of Adrian anymore. Leo was in a pretty bad state in the first place, I... God, yeah, he always looked tired. But I think he got worse after that, but I wouldn't know. I was a kid, and didn't really go out much for a while after that. But every time I did see him, he looked like he was having trouble. It - it's actually not surprising, if you knew what Adrian was like back then." 


The man had to stop himself from looking over at Bella now, when he had so stubbornly stared straight on before. It suddenly felt natural, and he almost thought he needed to look on to know whether or not it was time to carry on. Was she still listening? Did she understand? Jackson could already tell that his stutter was fading, the same way it always did when he lost himself in his own words. Still, though, he did keep stumbling every now and then. Perhaps he should backtrack and clarify, just to be sure.


"Well, yeah. Uh, so hold on a moment - you - are you with me so far? It... S-sorry, I talked for ages. But yeah, basically, in short, it was like this. The Sanisters did something bad to Adrian when he was little, but then somehow they got in jail. I helped Leo look after him for a year or two but then I went and got paralysed, and then... Leo got worse, because there was nobody else who could help him and stuff. My parents tried to give him hand-outs but he didn't take any of it. Don't ask why, it - that's just how he was. And then, uh..." Jackson swallowed hard. He had done it. He had gone further than he first intended, and now there was no stopping it. "After that, a couple years after that... I think I was sixteen and he was thirteen. Um, Leo, Adrian's brother, the one who took care of him. He just got killed by a ghoul one day."

 

[Yoki]

Jackson's nerves were understandable, he didn't seem to know exactly how to word things, he probably hadn't talked about it all before, it definitely came across like that at least. His demenour, the way he spoke, it all screamed 'I'm anxious' to Bella, which made her relax her gaze slightly. She wanted to show that she was there to listen, but that she wouldn't force him to talk on any subject he didn't want to. 


He started off in the most unexpected way, talking about how Adrian used to be...human? Was that possible? Was it possible for an individual to be human and then just...become a ghoul? She was sure it wasn't as simple as that, that there was a lot more to it; she didn't ask. If Jackson wanted to explain it to her he'd do that when it fit his story, so she'd wait for him to be ready. 


The beginning, the very beginning. It started a very long time ago... It started with Adrian being human and then going on to talk about his parents, that was right. Jackson and Adrian were together, but there was no sign of any other family or friends, no mention of them. Of course, it became clear why as Jackson went on it explain what the boy's parents had been like. They ended up in jail for something, but Jackson didn't know much about that, however, he did know that they did something bad to Adrian. What were the talking about here? 


"Scars?" Bella's chest suddenly felt a little tight, the boy had scars from his own parents? That was...horrendous. They did something bad enough to make him afraid of people, that was saying something. By the way Jackson had described it, Bella was given the impression that when Adrian was younger he'd hide behind doors whenever someone was around, or just generally hide... Had that been the case? It was hard to imagine, considering how overly friendly he was now, at least from what she had seen, he didn't seem nervous or scared in the slightest when around people. It was extremely difficult to imagine him in any way like that...but...to think, that had been the case at some point in his life... The woman looked down, her eyes full of a certain sympathy, it couldn't have been nice, maybe they were lucky he wasn't like that anymore. 


She looked back up upon noting that Jackson had continued. He'd had an older brother named Leo, that name seemed familiar to her, but then again there were plenty of people with the name Leo, so she didn't really think too much on it. He must have been at least eighteen when Adrian was ten if he was looking after the boy, making his older brother at least seven or eight years older than him. So, if he had this older brother...where was he now? She wasn't sure she really wanted to know the answer to that, something inside of her told her it wasn't good. 


So, Jackson used to help out this Leo with looking after Adrian when he was younger, but then he got into an accident and became paralysed. She smiled apologetically at Jackson, looking back up, at such a younger age it must have been difficult for him to adjust to being in a wheelchair all of the time. She'd have hated it when she was that young, she couldn't even imagine how Jackson was feeling during that time. 


To add onto that he mentioned that Adrian's older brother wasn't in the best state, but what did that mean? He said that he always looked tired. Bella was imagining the male was young at the time, and if he'd come from a household like what Jackson said he probably didn't even now how to cope with looking after a child on his own, however, as family it was a great thing for him to do. Instead of leaving his brother to the care system he'd taken him with him, Bella had to commend that, he'd taken time out of his own life to provide for someone quite young and probably quite needy. They were family, that's what you did for family. You'd do anything to make sure they were happy. She knew that. 


"I'm caught up." Bella smiled, placing her hands back on the counter so that she could lean her weight back against it, Jackson was going fast, but she could keep up. Luckily, he did a small summary of everything he'd talked about, which helped her remember the story a little better. In fact, she'd been about to comment on it when Jackson said something else that made her hand go up towards her face. 


'He just got killed by a ghoul one day.'


A ghoul. A ghoul had taken away a best friend from Jackson and a brother from Adrian. Bella swallowed, a ghoul... She suddenly felt as though she understood a little better why when Jackson first came to the house he was tense, and why he wanted Mari out, his friend was killing by a ghoul and there was no bringing him back... He just hadn't wanted that to happen to anyone else. "Jackson...I'm so sorry." She felt as though she needed to apologise, for her entire race, she remembered why Daryl lost Jade and how distraught they had all been. Losing family hurt badly, and on top of everything Jackson had talked about... That had to have felt impossible to handle. 


*


Daryl had come downstairs to try and find Dane, the guy had gone off on some sort of mini adventure to find a controller for Nathan and hadn't come back in a little while. He'd just been making his way down the stairs and towards the living room when he heard them. Jackson and Bella, talking in the kitchen, what were they on about? 


He decided to eavesdrop on them for a moment or two, just to see if the topic of conversation was interesting enough for him, but once he heard what exactly they were speaking about he couldn't stop listening. 


Were they having a conversation about Adrian's past or some shit? That's what it sounded like. The man furrowed his brow, listening intently as Jackson spewed sentence after sentence about Adrian having once been human and how his parents had treated him badly and shit like that, but the thing that really gripped his attention was the one name that Jackson brought up during that conversation. 


'Leo Sanister.' 


"No...fucking way..." He hissed, staying in his position next to the door. There was no way he didn't mishear that, that name was too familiar to him, there was no way that that guy had anything to do with all of this bullshit. He couldn't have. 


Just as Daryl was getting in a good position to continue listening, he heard someone exit the living room. Green eyes locked onto grey as Adrian stepped out of the living room, he stared at Daryl from a distance for a few seconds, before skipping forwards and opening his mouth as if to say something. Realising how loud Adrian would be when he spoke, Daryl pushed off of the wall and immediately darted to the boy, pressing a hand over his mouth as he pushed him up against the wall closest to the door. 


After a few seconds of waiting to make sure no one had heard anything, Daryl looked back down to the smaller male waiting patiently for him to remove his hand from the other's mouth. Before he even attempted to move his hand he made eye contact with Adrian and placed one finger over his own mouth with his free hand, signaling the boy to stay completely silent. He raised his eyebrows, waiting for Adrian to respond, which eventually he did, with a small nod, and Daryl let his hand move to leaning against the wall above Adrian's head. 


The younger of the two stood in confusion for a moment as he watched Daryl intently stare at the wall. What was he looking at? He didn't get it... Adrian looked up, but he didn't see anything in the spot where Daryl was looking. It took him a few seconds to realise that it wasn't what he was looking at that was important, it was what he was listening to, and that was a conversation in the kitchen. 


Once he came upon this realisation, Adrian attempted to move away from Daryl and towards the door of the kitchen, he wanted to know what was going on, Jackson was in there. He'd reached his hand out to grab the handle, but the moment before he touched it his wrist was clamped down on by a much large hand and he was pulled back towards Daryl. He spun around, opening his mouth as if to speak, but Daryl made the sign with his hand once again, which made Adrian close his mouth. 


"Don't. I'm trying to fucking listen." The green haired male leaned right down to whisper almost noiselessly into Adrian's ear, "Be quiet. You can too." From what he'd heard, this conversation seemed to be about the boy next to him, so he might as well let him listen. Adrian just nodded and turned around, leaning an ear against the door, he didn't need to...but Daryl had worked out Adrian was strange, he probably just did it for the hell of it. 


Now... What were they saying about the guy? 

 

[yaint]

"Don't," Jackson cut in suddenly, his arm swiping through the thick and heavy air in a silencing gesture. A moment later his cheeks glowed a ruddy pink again. That had been quite sharp. "I mean... You don't - you don't need to. Um, yeah, you don't need to be sorry, it wasn't you. It was just, well, someone else. Some other ghoul found Leo one day and attacked him, and... W-well, he died."


It felt wrong to carry on straight away, like moving along to the next topic would be like sweeping up the scene of Leo's assault and saying that the incident which killed him was just an inconvenience. But that's the thing: it wasn't. That day was so much more than just the death of a young man whose name the media did not care to tell, it was the loss of a person whom Jackson had considered one of his dearest friends, despite the rift between their ages.  Leo was one of his only friends, and one of the best you could ever hope to have. His death had torn Jackson apart, but not just him. Adrian, too, and that kid more than anyone else.


"It's okay now, I mean. Well... Yeah, we still miss him. Of course. But y'know, it was years ago, so everyone's mostly over it. Uh, well, there is the little exception - um, back at the fight. You weren't there, I don't think, but Jes- I mean, Daryl was. We were all out on a mission with the CCG - uh, we joined them... After Leo. When Adrian was old enough, I mean." The man paused for a moment as though the topic of the organisation made him uncomfortable. Here he was, trusting a ghoul with everything he knew, talking about how he used to kill her kind for money. He decided to move on quickly. "Anyway, uh, point is: we saw that other ghoul there, Prince. He looked like Leo, and, well, Adrian kind of had a moment... Basically, he thought it - that this ghoul was his brother. It wasn't, I mean - he's dead, so he can't be. And Prince attacked us, he was the one who broke my arm a day or two before we I here. He crushed Adrian's wrist too, and... Nevermind, I, uh w-well, I guess Adrian's still not totally over it if he thought that someone like that could be Leo.


"But hey," Jackson said, clearing his throat weakly and tapping his hands on the table with a soft thump. "It's fine. It's fine, it, I mean, it's over. Past is past. He's... Yeah. It was kinda a nightmare to, uh, y'know - get Adrian taken care of. His brother was basically being both parents at once, and he didn't much trust anyone else. I told you, he didn't, uh. He was shy. So I walked him home, as you do, but see, he kept coming back. And then... Well, I'm not, uh, gonna go into detail. But basically Adrian ended up living with us, not social care. My parents adopted him, pretty much, but I don't know if it was ever an official thing. In theory he's supposed to be my little brother now, but we just say friends."


He stopped to catch his breath again. All this talking and all of the thinking about the things from his past were taking their toll; his chest felt tight, like he couldn't get a full breath in, not even as much as his normal low capacity. It was Leo that made him feel the need to inhale slowly and deeply. Now that he had said it out loud, it suddenly felt real all over again, like he had just now got the call to tell him about the fate his friend had met.


For a while the man rubbed his hands together, picking at the layers of bandage and peeling the dressing away without thought. He didn't need to say any more about Adrian, not about the past long gone, anyway. In fact, he wasn't quite sure as to why he felt the need to say all of that in the first place. In the strangest way, it was refreshing. But this was not the information he had promised to Bella.


"Well... Sorry, I, uh, I went off topic, it... Yeah, I don't know what happened. Just - if you've still got time, I mean - I can still tell you stuff. Uh, I mean about Alice. She doesn't have much to do with Adrian or anything, but it's to do with me. Something..." His face turned red again, but he took a sharp breath and waited for his ears to stop burning before he carried on. "I'm not totally sure, but I think I know the reason for why she took my parents. It's to do with something that happened a few years back, I just... I don't know if I should say it. N-not because I'm scared. I'm not. You just might not like it."

 

[Yoki]

A friend's death was a hard thing to cope with, and by the way Jackson seemed to react Bella wasn't sure that he was completely over it... Could you ever really be over someone's death? It didn't matter how long ago it was, it was always going to hurt when he was brought back up. She didn't want to push it anymore, she just wanted to let him get on and make sure he was comfortable with what he was telling her. It was a lot to take in, it must have felt good to finally get it all off of his chest. 


She let the man continue, staying quiet once more. It wasn't a surprise that he had been a part of the CCG, she had already known that, Daryl had told her. She also knew who Prince was, although she didn't know too much about the guy. Most people knew the name, not all knew the face, but for Adrian to think such a dangerous ghoul was his brother... Well, she supposed that even if his late brother was human there was probably something in Adrian's mind that told him he could have been that ghoul. Just like Adrian had ended up as a ghoul, why couldn't his brother? Of course...the man was dead, but hypothetically it had to be possible. 


It was nice of Jackson's parents to let Adrian stay with them and to look after the boy, social services did their best...but it wasn't always a good job, it had probably been more beneficial for him to have had an actual...well...family. Past was past, Jackson was right, they couldn't change it so there was no point in letting their own growth be stunted by it. If anything they should learn from it, use it as an experience. However, she knew it wasn't all that easy for everyone, some people just couldn't move on. 


Bella nodded to make sure that Jackson knew she was listening, so far she'd been given a lot of information on Adrian, which was rather helpful and informative, it helped her somewhat understand the boy better, but there was still things she wanted to know; Jackson seemed ready to give her answers. 


"Yeah, please. Continue." With a nod, the woman moved over to the table. Jackson's parents were taken because of something that happened a few years back... What exactly could he have done that would make someone so angry? "Past is past, like you said." Although Jackson could be violent and stubborn, Bella wasn't really too worried about him, she knew that no matter what he said everyone in the house could take care of themselves, excluding Nathan, but he was protected by his brother and sister, and...maybe Adrian, who seemed absolutely dependant on Jackson being somewhere near him. "Go on."


*


Prince. They'd mentioned Prince. Shit, yeah. 


It suddenly came back to Daryl, they'd both been involved in the Aegis CCG fight, they'd both fought...and Adrian had fought Prince, or...made a crappy attempt at trying to befriend him. The man still thought that the younger male was crazy for that, he was lucky he was still alive after that dumbass move.


The mention of Prince started to set him on edge, Jackson had said that a guy named Leo had died, and they he'd said that Adrian had believed Prince to be this Leo when they were fighting. It might have made sense...if the guy they were talking about hadn't been a human, and Prince had had siblings...but neither of those things added up.


Someone had some serious explaining to do. 


He looked down to Adrian for a moment, the boy believe Prince was his brother, and his brother's name was Leo Sanister. That was fucking stupid. It just wasn't possible. It made zero sense, yet it seemed to make so much sense at the same time, he didn't exactly know how everything fit together... He just knew that that guy 'dying' and Prince showing up was no coincidence, it was too perfect. Daryl wasn't even sure why he knew the guy's name. If he'd been him he wouldn't have told anyone, let alone some kid he saved from the CCG years back. 


For a moment he thought about barging in and stopping Jackson, but he didn't, instead he let the man continue. This was just starting to get interesting. 

 

[yaint]

"You're sure you have time?" Jackson asked quietly, his eyes flitting from the wall down to his hands, where he had begun to peel at the bandages again. He could see the innermost layer of thick-woven linen now, and there were brown patches where his blood had soaked through. He had to remind himself that without Bella's help he could well have bled out right there alongside Alice. She deserved to know this, he didn't need to stall any longer and make her wait.


"Well... Okay. Cool, I can tell you what happened if you're here. Um, yeah, like I said, it's all just some stuff and events and stuff to do with what happened... Well, it must have been three, four years ago now. Yeah. Four, I think, that's when it all properly happened, the big stuff." He glanced down, keeping his eyes to the table and floor, but tilted his face in Bella's direction. His brows had knitted together in a frown full of thought, and his glasses had slid halfway down his sweat-slicked nose. "Now," he said in a lower voice than before, the word hanging in the air, suspended by a tone of shame, "I told you... You probably won't like it. I don't like it either, it's just, it's a thing that happened and yeah, I could have stopped it. But I didn't, and we said: past is past. Past is past. But if you really want to hear it, then I guess I'll just start.


"So, four years - actually, no, let me just tell you the other stuff. Uh, so Adrian comes from Devon, him and Leo. And I'm from Portsmouth, the city. On the south coast. Basically, my dad moved the family to London when I was a kid and then the first friend I had was Alice. She wasn't like she is - how she was just now, you wouldn't believe it. But she was, hands down, the nicest person you ever met." The man's eyes went glassy for a moment as they stared blankly at something far away, like a distant memory he could barely focus on even with the help of his glasses. "I met her when I moved, she - she was shy for the first few years, y'know, the quiet kind. Like, the kind of person who if you didn't talk to her you would forget she exists. But she had a few friends. Mostly girls, other types, there was one I remember who was actually really loud. She could get on with just about anyone, and... Y-yeah. She was about the only person my age who could get on with me, Adrian didn't count. He took longer to grow up. But yeah, she was my only friend I could see in school.


"I can't exactly say if this is like, the real big reason or not, but I think that was my fault. Uh, see, you probably know... Already, and stuff... But sometimes I just... I dunno. It's hard to explain, it's - basically... Y'know, no, wait. I'll just tell you later.


"But basically, yeah. Alice, she was my closest friend for a really long time, a few years, I mean. That was ages by my standard. She was there when I was little, then when I was in hospital and still there after Leo died. And, uh, then... Around the same sort of time that happened, actually, I can't remember. Some guy from our school started talking to us, and then one day they decided they were dating."


He paused for breath again. The sweat beaded on his forehead felt strangely cold, and he had to wipe it away with the back of his hand to get rid of the sensation of something unpleasant clinging to his skin.


"Guy's name was Will. He had sort of been around since forever, but, ah... D-do you remember what I said earlier? A while ago, like Alice being the kind of person you forget about? Yeah, that was him too. He was a year older than us as well, so by this point he had gone off to college... Or something. I can't remember. Uh, but he sort of became close to us too. It was weird, we just... Trusted him. Really quickly, he must have just had one of those faces or something. 


"Will was really nice, too. Kind of like Alice, in a weird way, but... I dunno, she wasn't as shy, at least not at this point. She got better over the years. But Will was artsy, he did woodwork with his dad. He talked about it all the time, he never seemed to do anything but it, I... I w-went to his house, but it was only once, I saw the kind of stuff he did. He - he m-made Alice a painting of snowdrops once by burning a cut of wood, I went there and..."


Jackson could not finish his sentence. There was still that lost, oblivious look in his eye, but behind that ocean of thought and memory there was something else. Something bright, wild, flickering, and it was difficult to see. Perhaps if you were to look into the blackness of his pupil, you would see it more clearly. Fear, maybe. Or anticipation. Happiness. Choking guilt. But he did not explain the odd twinkle in his eye, simply staying silent, counting to ten in tiny breaths as he readied himself to admit something he had never even dared to tell Adrian, Leo or his own parents.


He had known Bella for three months.


Was he ready to tell her what she had to know?

 

[Yoki]

"Yeah. I have time." Bella replied, this wasn't the first time she'd heard someone rant at her, and it wouldn't be the last, she really didn't mind, and she always had time for other people. She wanted to know the rest of Jackson's story, whether or not it took all night didn't really matter to her, she just wanted to know. 


Jackson laid out his whole life simply to her, things to do with Alice and how she was quiet and sweet, and then the new boy, the boy named Will. He dated Jackson's friend, and off of that they also became good friends by the sounds of things. It really didn't seem that bad, she wasn't getting why she wouldn't like it, just a bunch of kids becoming friends...why did that mean anything to her? Of course, it was nice Jackson had friends, but it didn't annoy or upset her in any way. 


However, as he went on she started to notice his unease, he talked about going to the male's house, seeing the art he'd done with his father and what he'd made for his girlfriend... He only went there once. Yet, he still didn't say what happened. He just cut himself off. He went there and what? What could have happened that pained him so much to talk about? 


"If you don't feel comfortable with it, don't feel like you have to tell me." Her voice was soft and there was a smile on her face as she leaned forwards, "It's okay. Just know, whatever happened and whatever the outcome, I'm not going to judge you for it. It's in the past, we've all done things, or not done things, that cause us regret. You're not exempt from that, no one is." It wasn't hard to sense Jackson's unrest, which was why Bella was trying to make sure that he knew she would be fine with it, whatever it was, she'd been best friends with Daryl for years, through all the shit he'd pulled, and she didn't plan on giving up on him now. So why would she give up on Jackson? "If you can, it's better to speak about it than keep it to yourself." 

 

[yaint]

Jackson found himself nodding agreement, although he could not understand why. He had heard this kind of talk a few times over, from people he had seen when he was younger who had tried to fix him so that he wouldn't start throwing punches over a stolen pencil.


'It's better to speak about it than keep it to yourself.'


That sentence in particular was one he had heard a few times, but it sounded different coming from Bella, like he was being spoken to as though he were a person rather than another name on a long list. In the strangest way, it was comforting. For a moment he forgot that the things he had done were bad, he could almost believe that they were never his fault in the first place. 


"Okay," he said finally, swallowing to try and calm himself. "It... Okay, okay, no, it's fine. I'll say it. It's... This is the bit that happened four years ago, right? You remember. Everything else was all before it, Will started talking around the time Leo died, maybe a little before, and then a while after that he was dating Alice. That was good, it... Well, they were good together. They were nice. Will drove Alice around on his bike sometimes, because he was old enough to learn, because he was a year up from us both.


"Stuff was still good for a while. I left school, Alice too. She went off to study at Will's college, you know, all the people-stuff. Biology, Psychology, that kind of thing. I tried too, but it didn't really work, I just ended up doing some stuff at home since I kept getting too sick to go in. B-but anyway, that - sorry, that's not the point, I'm losing it again. Okay. One second, we'll get back and... Uh, where was I? Yeah. Okay, so Will and Alice are together, both going to college, studying. All that stuff. Then, this is gonna sound weird because she was just seventeen at the time, but she came up to me one day and told me she got pregnant.


"I can't remember asking, but I don't think it was intentional, they just... It just happened. Like, it was a shock, obviously. She kinda went into a panic, which she hadn't ever done before that I was around to see. She was scared. And I so nearly blamed Will for it, because - err, abortion wasn't ever gonna be an option. But he was my friend, you know. I didn't, we let it slip by and he was really goddamn sorry. Which was okay. It was okay, it was fine, but..."


There was a pause.


"One day I was with Alice, just me and her, talking deep like you do sometimes. It's what we did. I can't remember how many months she was now, but she was getting big so there was no going back now. And she told me one day that Will had actually been a ghoul all along." There was another one of Jackson's trademark silent laughs, but even without any noise it was not difficult to see how forced it was. "I... Not gonna lie. I thought she was joking, or high, or something. But it was only, like, a year since Leo got killed, we were all still on edge. So I... I w-went to his house, like I said, just - just to ask him. He talked to me for a while. Just about, you know, normal stuff. Human stuff. But I asked him about being a ghoul, and he just straight out admitted it. God, he... He even sh-showed me his eyes, I remember it."


Jackson could not recall when he had started shaking, but when he looked up, surfacing from the story to take another quick gasp of air before diving down again, he noticed that every breath seemed to rattle his body. Calm, he thought, and pictured the ocean. His dog running by his side. The sea lapping at his ankles.


"Now, I... I th- I think I was gonna say it before but didn't J-just a while ago, here, I said I was the reason only Alice and Will wanted to talk to me properly. It's just 'cause I get pissed off so much, you've - you've p-probably seen, it... It's hard to explain, but it's like, something happens and I just go nuts. Like for example, this one time when we were still kids I caught some boys kicking Adrian at school. Nearly strangled their ring-leader to death, like... Like with Adrian.


"But - hey, anyway, I... I was in Will's house, and he was a ghoul. Just think about that for a moment, yeah? He kept it secret for years, and then... Shit, there was Alice. I think that's what triggered it, I just thought about her and her baby and then Will told me she was eating human flesh. Like, cannibalising, it... I dunno, I don't know, I can't remember what happened. I just lost my shit and opened my eyes and Will was dead, just on the floor." He tried not to let his voice break as he explained further, "His neck - it - it was b-broken, I saw it. I remember it, it just, he... He - I k-killed him. I killed Will because he... Because he was a ghoul."

 

[Yoki]

That...was not quite how she expected the story to go... Bella couldn't help the slight shock she felt after Jackson told her that he'd killed his friend...because his friend was a ghoul and had gotten Alice pregnant. Yes, it wasn't a great situation, but...for Jackson of all people to kill a ghoul, assuming as a teenager he didn't have a weapon, that ghoul...they have to have sat there and allowed him to do that. 


It suddenly dawned on her that if someone had not intervened with Jackson and Adrian the same could have happened, because for some reason, despite having more than twice Jackson's strength in one hand, Adrian hadn't really been fighting for his own life. It felt a lot more real when she thought of someone laying on her floor, dead, because someone else had strangled them until there was no more oxygen left in their lungs... 


"Jackson..." The woman breathed, but...she'd promised, past was past, he wasn't the only one who had killed someone in this household... She knew others who had killed people, but not because they were human, she knew Daryl tried to avoid killing innocent people...but she didn't know whether Dane or Caleb had ever killed an innocent. Rachael, Kedin, and Nathan hadn't ever killed, and they'd do their best to make sure it stayed that way. She managed to smile at the man, sympathetic and understand. "You got mad...and you were upset because well...because of your friend, because of what she had to do... I get that." 


For a few moments she remained quiet. "We could sit here and say that it's alright, but we both know it wasn't. You've got to understand, he was probably only trying to get by, and I can see you're upset by it...by what you did." She sighed, Jackson had killed his friend because he was a ghoul, and because of what he did to Alice, and...Adrian had killed Alice because of what she did to Jackson. Yet, she was seeing remorse from Jackson, he knew his actions were wrong. Adrian didn't. 


"I think you know by now, we're not horrible people, and Alice...well...she did lose her boyfriend." She looked down, "I'm sorry Jackson, but just know you doing one bad thing doesn't make you a bad person. You were wrong, yes, but remorse is a thing, you feel guilt, it's not as if you don't care. Beating yourself up over his death won't bring him back. Alice seems to have lost a lot, you have too, and...it's hard...for everyone, but that didn't make it right to do what she did. I know that death probably hurt her, and you said she wasn't quite right, but your parents they..." 


She wanted to say more, but in that moment the door to the kitchen barged open, crashing into the wall behind it. A familiar male, easily recognisable by the green hair on his head, walked into the room, arms crossed, expression blank. However, he wasn't the only one that appeared, behind him Adrian was peaking around the door frame, a rather conflicted look on his face...and for once he was looking anywhere but at Jackson. 


"An animal." Daryl's voice was flat, "That's what you called me when we met." He continued to stare at Jackson, "How can you call me an animal when the shit you've pulled is just as bad? At least I've killed people who fucking deserve it, you killed some guy because he accidentally got a girl pregnant. Did you even ask him what she thought? Or ask her whether she really wanted to continue? Because I'm pretty sure killing a fucking dude isn't suddenly gonna fix your problem is it? It just makes another kid fatherless." 


"Daryl." Bella's tone was stern, but he completely ignored her. 


"Fucking HELL! Fuck, I just don't understand." He threw his arms up, "Why the hell did you think it was okay to insult us when you'd do that to someone who trusts you? Do you think I'd kill anyone in this household? Cause I goddamn wouldn't. Hell, Mari was human, wasn't she? I wouldn't have touched her whilst she was here. I just don't get it..." 


"Daryl." 


"I can't even begin to-" 


"DARYL WILL YOU BE QUIET FOR TWO GODDAMN MINUTES." The sudden outburst from Bella caused the male to jump and quickly close his mouth, emerald green eyes turning in her direction. "YOU CAN'T JUST COME IN HERE AND START ABUSING PEOPLE FOR SHIT. IF HE'S A HYPOCRITE THEN SO ARE YOU SO SHUT THE FUCK UP." 


"If looks could kill..." 


"Shut up. What the fuck were you doing eavesdropping on our conversation anyway? It was none of your business!"


"I wasn't ea-"


"YES YOU WERE, DON'T EVEN TRY TO LIE TO ME. YOU DIDN'T JUST PASS BY AND HEAR THAT, YOU WERE STANDING OUTSIDE WEREN'T YOU?! WHY THE HELL WERE YOU DOING THAT? DO YOU HAVE NO RESPECT?! MY PARENTS DID NOT SPEND ALL THAT TIME TEACHING YOU BASIC MANNERS FOR YOU TO SHIT ON THEM AND DISREGARD EVERYTHING. WHY DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND THE MEANING OF THE WORD PRIVATE?!" 


"FUCK YOU, I HEARD SOMETHING OKAY AND I WAS LISTENING TO SEE IF YOU SAID ANYMORE ABOUT IT WAS ALL." 


"WELL WHAT THE HELL DID YOU HEAR? BECAUSE IT SURE WASN'T THAT!"


"I don't think that's any of your fucking business."


"I'm pretty sure it is since you were intruding and my conversation, so what? You think you can just trample on everyone? You don't get the right to come in here and insult people in private conversations, you-"


"LEO SANISTER." Daryl yelled, "That's it. I heard the name Leo Sanister." 

 

[yaint]

Seemingly stunned by his own words, Jackson shook his head from left to right and kept his head down to hide the way his brows had creased his forehead in the middle. He was doing it again, chewing his lip until it bled, but he didn't notice. All that he could think about was what more there was to say, the second half of the story. What happened after Will, why Alice lost her mind. He wanted to tell Bella, but there was never going to be a chance.


The door opened and two figures stepped in.


Jackson put on a poker face and whipped his head up to see who the newcomers were, but his blank expression did not last long. After he got over the initial surprise of seeing the flash of Daryl's green hair, his eyes tracked over to the younger male coming in after him, and then his chest tightened.


"Adrian," he whispered hoarsely, a clumsy hand going to grip at the throat of his shirt. "Oh God, I... You didn't..." There was no time left to wonder how long those two had been listening for, because Daryl soon made the answer to that question obvious. 'Animal.' He had to go and remind Jackson of the day they had first spoken, the shameful perspective he had always held against the entirety of the ghoul race up until he finally learned to trust again. That hurt on its own. He knew he was wrong; he knew that the beliefs he had turned out to be horribly prejudiced, but that learning and growing was not enough on its own. The damage had been done, he had taken innocent lives and those people would never come back.


Leo.


Will.


All of the ghouls at the battle with Jester and Prince.


Through all of the shouting, Jackson found the images of those people coming back to him. He tried to give faces to the ones who died in their masks, the ones who had just been dehumanised pawns with no identity. Those people... They had all had their own names, lives, stories. They had their own fears and dreams and people waiting for them to come home that night, but they never did. Their loved ones never did get to see them again, because Jackson killed them.


Stunned into silence, all that the man could do was watch and listen to the exchange between Bella and Daryl, all the while trying not to ask them to stop or punch them in the faces. That buzzing was back in his fingertips. He wanted to break something, but he didn't know what to do, they had heard everything. Adrian, God, he wasn't supposed to know about that; it was all supposed to be a secret. He wasn't supposed to know, nobody else but Bella.


It didn't help when Daryl mentioned Leo. Jackson tensed. "What about him?" he growled, feigning confidence to sound intimidating. 'Get out,' said his tone of voice. 'You're not wanted here,' said the glint in his fiery eyes. But he didn't voice these warnings. "L-Leo's got nothing to do with you, don't try and bring him up. Adrian... A-Adrian's - he's heard enough of it for one day, you understand?"

 

[Yoki]

"Tch." Daryl waved his hand at Jackson in dismissal, "Yeah, he's heard enough from you. Telling people his life story, probably learning a thing or two as well. He hasn't heard shit from me." He looked towards Adrian, who was still gripping the frame of the door, then his gaze moved back to Jackson, "And I'm pretty sure he'll want to hear this shit. Adrian Sanister has just become a rather important name to me, we've all been lied to." 


The gaze he shot back at Daryl was challenging, 'try me', he wasn't about to just give up and walk off. He was going to make sure that they knew what they were in for, and how much of a prick a certain someone had been to every one of them. When he brought Jackson back that day the last thing he'd expected was to end up in a situation that was so perfectly described and made so much sense. No one had ever known what he came from, now they had an answer, they had people who knew, and fuck was he pissed with it. 


"Well Daryl?" Bella crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow, "Since you felt the need to but into our conversation so rudely, you might as well tell us what you're on about. Just spit it out before I kick you out." She was more than a little annoyed with the man for being so inconsiderate, it just wasn't nice, and he had been anything but kind to Jackson when entering the room. How dare he do that? He might talk big, but at the end of the day a death was a death, and he'd caused plenty. 


"Fucking hell, okay, jeez." Daryl muttered, running a hand through his hair and turning around, "What a fucking prick, am I right? Fuck Leo man..." He let out an exasperated laugh, "It finally makes sense. Why hardly anyone knows his last name, he'd be all over records. Damn. Fucking son of a Bitch." For a good minute or so Daryl just spit swear words and insulted Leo, which seemed to bother Adrian, but he didn't say anything about it surprisingly...instead he just stood there, extremely uncomfortable being in the room. 


After a little while he addressed Jackson again, "So, you said Adrian was Leo's brother right?" He sighed, "Leo told me he didn't have siblings, what a load of bullshit." The second half of the sentence was muttered to himself, but it wasn't a big deal if anyone else heard. His averted his gaze of a minute, "Y'know, you seem to think Adrian's got it wrong but..." Green eyes flickered back to Jackson, "Prince's name is Leo. Well, as far as we know, who knows what that fucker's lying about now, shit, he didn't tell me about any of this! What a little fucking dickhead!" With an aggravated growl, Daryl forced himself to continue. "See, only thing is...you said that guy you knew, you said he was sweet." He scoffed, "Leo is anything but sweet, he's an ass. Kinda intimidating to be honest, don't think there's many people who want to fuck with that guy." 


"But the stories match up." He turned his head, "You said your guy died, this guy apparently just appeared one day, outta nowhere, poof, no explanation." Daryl shrugged, "Dunno, seems a bit weird don't you think?" 

 

[yaint]

Jackson didn't know what to think or do. There were three options: dwell in the remorse he felt for killing Will, be horrified that Adrian had overheard the conversation, or let his chest swell in anger as Daryl spouted lie after lie about a guy who died years ago. It was wrong. Leo wasn't an ass, nor was he alive. If he survived that attack, he would have come back to take care of his little brother. What, leave Adrian on his own, broken and twisted by fear as he waited for a man who would never come back? That wasn't Leo. It never would be.


As usual, Jackson's other confused emotions could not compete with the sudden rush of fury he felt. "What... Wh-what in the hell is your problem?" he spat up at Daryl, his hands pushing himself out from the edge of the table without him even noticing what he was doing and then raising into the air to gesture at Adrian. "I thought I told you, he's heard enough, so could you just quit giving the kid that - that goddamn false hope already? It's cruel."


He took a moment to breathe, gulp, then check for Bella again. It felt odd to do so; he had not dared to look at her yet, but there she was. It suddenly made the conversation feel far too real, it made the eavesdropping feel somehow more serious, too. They must have heard everything, and... Daryl, that piece of shit. He was trying to deceive Adrian as if the poor kid hadn't been through enough today already. 


"Don't listen to that bastard, Adrian," he advised his younger friend quickly. It was difficult to soften his voice or look kind when he was busily trying not to shake with rage. Every word came out as a bark, a hostile, dominating command. "He's just shitting lies out of his mouth. Leo's dead, okay? He's not Prince."

 

[Yoki]

"Hey, I never said it was a definite." Daryl spat back, "And Im not fucking bullshitting you son of a bitch, everything I said is legit. Prince's name is Leo, and the story still stands." He made a 'tsk' noise with his tongue, moving away from Jackson, "What if you just want him to stay dead? You never believe anything anyone else says anyway, but whatever, I'll fucking prove it to you one day. Think whatever you want." Whether Jackson believed him or not was not in issue, Daryl simply just couldn't wait to shout in Leo's face for lying to him. How dare that bastard? 


It was almost hard to watch the way Adrian's seemed to take what he'd said though. The boy's eyes fluttered from person to person, and then to anything else they could find. He looked extremely confused and distressed with everything that was going on, could he not handle it all at once? It looked like he was having a hard time processing the information. He chewed on the inside of his lip, dragging his feet backwards and forwards across the floor, as his grey eyes locked onto Daryl.


"B-But..." Adrian's voice was oddly quiet as he started to speak, eyes falling to the ground once more, and his arms wrapped around his waist. "Jackson...you...you said you believed me..." He was hurt, discomfited, he didn't know what to think...or who to believe...and had Jackson really killed a ghoul like that? Did...did he make Jackson that mad? "Jackson...you told me you believed me." He vaguely remembered it...way back when, way way back... Jackson had said it. Adrian had said he though Leo was Prince. Jackson had said he believed him. 


The boy was feeling very stressed out, he didn't question Jackson, or most things he did, he just did things he asked and followed him. He trusted Jackson, but...had he been lied to? Surely he hadn't, that wouldn't happen...but...Jackson never told him about Will. "Jackson...you didn't lie right? Right? Y-You...You didn't..." He breathed out, stumbling back a few steps, "Please... You didn't." 

 

[yaint]

Fists slammed down against the table and shook the house with the sheer force of impact. His arms shook with the effort of not reaching up to grab something to throw, like that expensive-looking coffee cup on the counter nearby, for example; Jackson figured that Daryl would look a lot better with shards of shattered porcelain scattered through his obnoxious green hair. 


Liar, he thought again. Dirty, selfish, chaotic liar. Daryl kept making these claims - 'Leo Sanister is Prince!' he had insisted, or something like that. Jackson could imagine the other man's stupid voice whining about it for all the bad attention he was going to get.


Just as he had been about to accuse Daryl of abusing a coincidence to deceive a vulnerable kid, Jackson paused. Adrian. The very 'vulnerable kid' in question had spoken for the first time since he had come inside, and the words spoken softened his older friend's gaze immediately. The fire left his eyes, and he seemed to sink several inches farther down into his seat.


"Adrian, no," he said quietly, eyeing the boy with wide, worried eyes. In a second he had remembered it. 'I believe you,' he had said when they were finally reunited after the fight with Prince, both of them battered and beaten with wounds and broken bones. He had been too tired to argue, and Adrian had been so upset. It was a lie. A lie just to shut the kid up, to stop him from breaking down like he knew very well could happen. He never thought it could come back to bite him, especially not like this. 


Yeah. He really was despicable.


Jackson pushed up his glasses, which were by now sitting almost on the end of his nose, and then went to reach up towards Adrian. He put the tips of his fingers, which barely poked out from the wraps of bandaging, against the boy's elbows and forced himself to look him in the eye. "It - it's not like that, it's not - I d-didn't mean it that way, it... I do believe you, okay? It wasn't a lie, we - look, this guy-" he refused to say Daryl's name, "-Was just being... Was just making trouble. B-but don't worry about it - not now, it's okay." 'Because first I've got to finish beating this utter dickhead to a pulp,' he stopped himself from adding to the end.

 

[Yoki]

Adrian was hurt. He was hurt that Jackson had lied to him when he'd been so hopeful and so...happy about something, although the details were blurry, he could now feel the intense joy that he had felt on that, and then reality it like a ton of bricks. Jackson never believed him... So why did he say it? Why would be make him hopeful that they could go hunting for Leo? It hurt enough already, the only thing that had managed to avert his attention from Leo's death was something that he didn't want to experience again. If Jackson just hadn't lied to him...


"G-" The word was practically gargled, and Adrian didn't make any further attempt to continue his sentence. Instead he just from up from Jackson's touch and brought his hands to fight chest, looking down at the man. His eyes were filled with hurt, but behind that was a type of fear that Jackson wouldn't have seen before in Adrian's eyes. It was slightly maddened and a little desperate, making for an all around terrifying look. He didn't want explanations, he just wanted it to stop hurting so much. 


He was meant to stop hurting.


That's what he was told. 


So why did it still hurt?


Why did he still feel so...helpless? 


 "P-Please stop." Adrian begged, tear drops prickling his eyes. He hated it, he wanted to focus on one thing that Jackson had said before he focused on the next, but everything started to whiz around inside is head all at once. It was impossible to control. He didn't know what to do about it.


Taking a step back, Adrian place his hands over his ears. "Can we...not talk...I don't wanna talk anymore... I don't wanna..." His voice was practically a whine, but he really just didn't want to discuss it. Everything would be fine, he just needed to not think about it, if he didn't think about it then it would go away eventually. No need to worry, if no one brought if up then he'd forget, eventually he'd forget. 


"Adrian...calm down. You need to calm down take-" Bella started to speak, taking a step forwards to talk to Adrian, but Daryl put an arm out in front of her. He turned his head, giving her a stare that told her to stay in her position, which she did, and he did too. They shouldn't get too involved, if they did that they could end up making things worse. Neither of them knew how to handle Adrian, and after what they'd just heard...did they really want to risk making things worse for him? 

 

[yaint]

Jackson's arms were left suspended in the air, frozen in the spot he had first reach up to place a comforting touch on his adoptive brother's elbows. He didn't just do that. Not once, not ever had Adrian pulled away from him like he was afraid of being hurt, but here... It had just happened.


He didn't understand it; he knew that he could if he tried, but something was telling him not to, that if it was possible for his heart to break any more than it already had, opening his eyes to the obvious truth would find a way to accomplish it. Adrian was really scared of him. What the hell had happened? What the hell had he done to the kid?


"God... Adrian, I..." He considered telling Daryl and Bella to clear out and leave them alone for a moment, but there were several reasons he could not do that. It was rude, it would upset Adrian, and more than anything else Jackson just did not trust himself to be alone in a room with this kid anymore. After all, the last time... He had nearly killed him the same way he had done with Will. Just the idea of the boy's thin body sprawled out on the floor, grey eyes rolled up into his skull as they stared still and dead at nothing at all... Jackson made himself feel sick by picturing that.


Instead of reaching up to touch at Adrian again, he simply stared past Daryl's outstretched arm and wondered if the boy could hear him. With his ears, those ghoulish ears trained to listen through walls, surely it wouldn't make much of a difference. Even so, it hurt Jackson to know that he had made Adrian want to retreat to a place of silence with his hands cupped over the sides of his head.


"...Adrian. Adrian, no, l-listen. Look at me, I..." But Adrian didn't want to talk anymore, did he? He had pleaded for Jackson to stop. 


Jackson didn't want to stop talking; he needed to say something comforting. Anything small or stupid that would help calm the other down, a memory, maybe. But something stopped him from talking again. He just stared, mouth agape, and watched as Adrian wailed in fear of the one person in the world who he thought he could trust.

 

[Yoki]

For the first time in quite awhile Adrian shook his head when asked to look at Jackson, he didn't want to speak, he'd said that, he didn't want to. He wanted to go and sleep somewhere, this didn't have to have ever happened, everything could still be fine, it could be happy. He just had to pretend. Everything would go away on its own slowly, as long as he didn't focus on it he'd be okay. 


"I-I..." He hated stuttering, but he couldn't help it when he really didn't know what to say. For a moment the boy closed his eyes and just stood in silence, he didn't have anything to say, what could he say to Jackson right now? What could he even trust? Jackson wouldn't lie to him,  Jackson never lied to him, at least...he'd thought so. However, it seemed everything he knew was a lie. "I'm gonna..." He dropped his hands to his sides, even though that was the opposite of what he wanted to do, "I'm gonna go..." Sticking around was only going to make things worse, if he got out of the situation now then maybe he'd be able to come back downstairs soon enough and forget about it all. 


"I'm sorry." The entire time he was speaking he was backing out of the room, by the time his apology came he'd already reached the door, so it didn't take long for him to turn, run, and disappear into the hallway. In seconds there were quick footsteps ascending the staircase, their thud, thud, thuds echoing throughout the home. For awhile the running continued, and then it stopped abruptly, and there was no more noise. 


"Shit." Daryl muttered, shaking his head and letting his arm drop to the side. So now Adrian was upset again. That couldn't be good. "Did you seriously tell the kid you believed him when you didn't? Keeping him happy isn't keeping him safe y'know." He sighed, moving away from Bella to lean against the counter. What had they all done? 

 

[yaint]

***


Once. Twice. Three times, Jackson peered around the corner, scanned the area with squinted eyes, and then raised his left hand up in a signal. He twitched his index finger inwards, a little beckoning motion, before silently dropping his arms to wheel around the wall.


It was a practiced procedure. He had done this on a daily basis with Bella up until the incident with Alice. That had taken a while to clean up, especially where Adrian was involved. Jackson had even tried to avoid going anywhere near the boy for the last few days, staying in the shadows of his bedroom and eavesdropping from behind the door as he had done for a solid three months.


But now they were out again. He had figured out that he had taken all of the waiting he could, and that he had done enough damage. Through some miracle he had eventually convinced Dane to tag along in some kind of attempt to actually undo some damage, to do some good.


As usual, the area was clear. "C'mon," Jackson hissed back at his two companions as he led the way forwards, taking a moment to jab a finger at the dark opening which led to the cell space beneath Zeplin's warehouse. Normally Bella would carry him down there, and they would look around together whilst making sure to avoid a very specific open cell. Normally they would also have come unequipped. But this time, Jackson had managed to mooch one of the girls' supplies of bobby pins, and now he had an entire bag full of potential lock-picks.


"Dane," he said, daring to raise his voice more loudly as he unslung the rucksack hung over the back of his chair and started to rummage through one open pocket. "That - that's the cellar, down there. Which one of you is st-staying up here to scout?"

 

[Yoki]

Agreeing to join Jackson was an idiotic move, Dane knew that, Caleb would be less than happy if he knew they'd gone to Zeplin's building, and he was going to find out. Still, it was upset Caleb for a few days or make dozens of people suffer, and Dane wasn't really ready to let the latter happen, even if he hated the former. So, he'd stupidly agreed to join Jackson's little escapade.


The building had been a lot more empty than he'd expected, surely there should have been more people around, but there wasn't. Bella kept mentioning she had a feeling of being watched, but he couldn't feel it, so...it was probably just her. Maybe she didn't like the place or something, who could blame her? It smelled like blood, looked old and disgusting, the perfect place for a bunch of fucked up criminals to hide.


"Huh? Oh." Whilst Jackson had been speaking, Dane had been surveying the surrounding area. He was still surprised they didn't even have anyone on watch, it was peculiar, they'd really just let anyone walk in there? Well, whatever. Their choice. That didn't make it a good choice, however. 


"I'll stay here." Bella piped up, rubbing her arms as her eyes darted back and forth, "I'm sure Dane will be able to help you more than I can. You will need to carry him Dane." 


"Oh, yeah. Okay." Turning around, Dane nodded and looked over to Jackson, they were really about to go into some creepy ass basement weren't they? Well, it wasn't for nothing. He walked over to the man's chair and waited for him to be ready, "Guess we better get going quickly. There's people waiting."

 

[yaint]

It took a few seconds to find it buried among all of the rolled-up clothing, torches, medical supplies and rubbish, but eventually Jackson fished out of his bag a tiny clear case filled with hairpins. He tried to remember those videos he had watched. Feed the pin through the lock, push the columns upwards one by one, twist it open. That was how lock-picking worked, though he was afraid that the method would not work in practice; he had not experience, nor did he have certainty that these locks were of the correct type. He could only hope and then pray that when everything inevitably went wrong, Daryl would later save him the sharpness of his tongue.


"You're ready?" Jackson asked finally, wincing at Bella's instruction. He was half-hoping that he would be able to get down there somehow without needing to cling on to Dane's back and embarrass himself, but the guy was right. There were people down there waiting to be freed, and no time left to wait.


The man took his little case of bobby pins between his teeth so that he could reach up and wrap his arms around the ghoul's shoulders, as he had done so many times over with Bella. Let's get this over with, he thought to himself as he clung on awkwardly from below. Those Zeplin bastards can have a taste of security breach. No way was he going to let the same thing happen to some other innocent kid as whatever the hell they did to Adrian, and doing it like this... Oh, it was just the start of the perfect revenge.


"G-grab a torch from my bag, yeah?" he instructed through the clear case. "Then we go down, I don't - I don't want to waste time here."