HE WANTS TO SAY THAT IT ISN’T TRUE , -- but the fact is that it is , it is true ,& there was no smart way to deny it . he wearily watches the thick , black sludge puddle onto the earth , & a terrible stab of ugly pain jolts through his chest . he wishes to say that it’s alright , – but it wasn’t . it was a common lie he’d told himself while he’d stayed with the baker family , through the gore - fested ‘family dinner ‘ , & through the night - time ‘game’ that lucas so loved to play . over & over again , he’d repeated to himself . it would be alright .
❝ — i can’t . ❞ he states flatly , breathless & heaving . it feels sickening , because the black muck sliding down the corner of jackie’s mouth had long - infested within him as well , made a snug home in between his organs & spread its branches out like a parasite . it wasn’t alright - this wasn’t , nothing was —
❝ you saved me . & i , — i know nothing about this place . can’t tell which path leads to where , i’ll get caught again . ❞
perhaps the laboratories were a far suitable condition than staying with the bakers , this was something he’d thought the first day arriving to the pristine room of his new confinement . until he realized , they had no intentions of saving him . it was only the parasite in him that they were eager to understand , whether that meant searing & tearing through his skin with abominable chemicals or experiments on daily basis . it was bitter to think that it was a bit too late to think of himself as a human now , but jackie had … she saw him as one , & that was why she’d risked her life to help him escape .
clambering fingers grasp against her fingers , & he tucks the wisps of her hair back again , dark fawn eyes full of hope & fright .
❝ let’s go together . please . ❞
She stares at him for a
heartbeat, still unsure, but when he pushes back her hair and stares at her
with such fear, when he says she saved
him – she knows she cannot just abandon him. That would be more of a death
sentence than anything. She flashes him a smile, and although weakened from
what she’d just done, there’s a stronger light in her dulled eyes, as she staggers
to her feet, standing at her full height. She momentarily thinks about hugging Carson, but thinks perhaps now
is not the time for a mushy sentimental moment.
When they were safe, though,
she internally promised herself to deliver him the hug of a lifetime.
“Thank you.” She murmurs, and when she grabs his hand to keep running, she’s brought back to a
memory, when her little brother would cling to her as she ran through the
backyard, screaming at the top of his lungs when she tried to throw him into
the sprinklers her father set up to let them cool off during the summer months.
He would laugh just as much as he would yell, and his eyes were deep and
mournful, just like Carson’s were when he’d stared at her. They were still just as innocent,
even as he tried to bring a knife down into her shoulder -
She has to hold back the
tears coming up fast, obstructing her vision. She could grieve more when they
were out of harm’s way.
A helicopter cuts through the
air above them, and Jackie pulls Carson to the side, hiding with their backs to
a tree, waiting until the machine is gone, the roar of its propellers getting
father and farther away. Her eyes scan the forest, searching for something
known only to her. “This way, there’s an abandoned barn off in a clearing not far from here. We –“ She shakes her head,
corrects herself. “They would bring experiments – people,
goddammit, they were people…they’d bring people out there to ‘release them,’ as they said so
unkindly.” She didn’t think she had to elaborate on the truth behind the words of her
fellow researchers. She recalled how they’d laugh when they’d talk about the recently released specimens,
recounting the ones who pleaded for their lives just before the moment of
death, and the ones who simply begged to be put out of their hellish existence.
After an eternity of running
and feeling like they’re going to pass out, they reach the barn. Jackie has a
bit of a struggle in prying open the giant doors, but eventually they open,
hinges squealing all the way. The inside smells of hay and something decaying,
and Jackie’s heart sinks when she understands why.
“Shit,” she says as she leads Carson into the darkened barn. “Guess they didn’t even bother to give some
of them a damn burial. Figures.” She looks to her young companion, frown etched on her
features. “This is about as good as we’ll get right now. Just… Be careful where you sit.”