Changing You ✦ The Sequel

Chapter 53 {J & R}

✦ JACK ✦

The darkness in my head was for once just that. No shadows, no haunting images, no voices. Not a single presence but my own. I didn't have to test it, or question it. I could feel his absence in every fiber, my head spinning with emptiness. With choices. Decisions. Doubt.

Slowly, I sat up, and it took me everything to stomach the nausea rising up to my throat. There was a stabbing in my head that left me sweating and trembling, suffering what I imaged a fever had to feel like. I didn't remember ever feeling this sick, or ever being sick at all.

I grabbed onto my head as I peered through my lashes, only to tear up at every ray of light, and wince at every sound. My senses felt heightened, unfiltered, washed clean. Like only now everything seemed to come through, after being numbed for so long. Locked in my own head, imprisoned to watch.

It took me too long to recognise the basement of my own house, our werewolf refugee during our most troubled full moons, and I had a hard time remembering how I got there. My head was all over the place, shards of memories slipping out of my reach, like a stack of cards being shuffled out of order. It felt like someone had cracked me open and stolen everything, only to put back the shattered remains.

I knew this wasn't some kind of miracle. Warner had decided to release me because he didn't need me anymore. Everything played out the way he wanted; with Zach turned, his mental defences down, his loved ones at disposal. A horrific game of chess, and he had won every move thus far.

"Jack, are you okay?"

Only then did I realise I wasn't alone. I tensed up, scanning the room with wide eyes. I tried to relax as soon as I found Daniel across from me, and failed terribly.

I swallowed hard against the sudden lump in my throat. "You're here, too? You came back?" I expected him to fade, like another one of Warner's mind games. I reached out to pinch myself, to proof that I was awake and this was real, but the chains around my wrists stopped me.

Daniel's eyes flashed with something I wasn't used to. Suspicion. Distrust. "Who am I talking to right now?"

I held his gaze, staring at him the way I had stared at my sister for so long, at Zach, at my own mother, pleading for someone to see what was hiding inside. My voice locked behind the burning feeling in my throat. "It's me."

He was wary of me, keeping his distance. Rightfully so after everything I had done. I didn't trust myself either.

"You you, or Warner you?"

I couldn't tell wether I flinched against his words or the stinging in my head as the ringing in my ears rose to a shriek, threatening to split my skull.

The shackles jangled as I pressed my hands to my forehead, boiling and thumping. "It's me," was all I managed.

I sensed him hesitating, his gaze strong, measuring me up and down. His jaw tensed. Torn. "How can I know for sure?"

I felt my stomach flip over with hurt. My closest family and friends couldn't tell when I wasn't myself, and wouldn't recognise me when I was, either. "You can ask me everything you want but memories are in my head, so he'd know everything, too."

He dropped his arms from his chest, taking an undecided step to the side. Not backwards, but not towards me either.

My shoulders fell in defeat. "I don't know how to prove it. I don't know how to prove it's me."