Innocent Torture

6|chocolate peace[es]

J A C K S O N

"Behind every beautiful thing, there's some kind of pain." - Bob Dylan

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Ebony was a mysterious girl. If it wasn't the way she carried herself, always guarded and even afraid. Then it was how she responded to things.

The way she acted at the cafe was confusing to say the least. She looked like she was going to scream when I told her she was afraid of something.

She must be afraid of someone then. The way she looked at me as I spoke, it looked like she was looking at the devil. Like I was the devil.

And I know I've done some pretty fucked up things in my life, but I've never gotten that look from someone. Not even someone who's known about the shit I've done.

Whoever she's seen done something so horrible, it must be stuck with her. And she must have seen that person in me when I mentioned fear.

She must still be afraid of them.

Eventually Maggie told me to get out as I saw the look in her eyes. She probably thought I did something to Ebony, and when I told her I didn't, and I swore, she told me something that had me wondering if I could deliver.

"She's afraid Jackson. Afraid of something, and you know how I know." Her eyes kept me right where I was as she eyed me. "There's only one other person I knew of with that same look. And look where they are now, don't let her end up like him." She left before the welled up tears in her eyes could fall in front of me and i saw her quickly swipe them away as she walked back into her cafe.

My mind was in the gutter as I thought about what she said. The past that's always caught up to us somehow, and how the Darwin gang was the center of it.

She was right though. That look Ebony held was a look I was all too familiar with. It was the look of utter fear, from all angles.

And the last time I saw it was nearly five years ago. And still to this day, it torments me with just the thought of what happened, and the aftermath.

My feet took me somewhere, and as I began to slow down my steps, as the thought of the Darwin gang being out here, watching out for me as Jerry tried to scare me with was only a mere joke itself.

But then a familiar building came into view as I sped up my steps a little, and saw the small light pouring out from the little window.

She was in there.

I bent down as I caught sight of Ebony on the floor. She had the box in between her legs as she stared at it, and she was breathing heavily.

Her eyes stayed focused on the black covering what I assumed was the mirror though, and I saw her wipe away what I also assume was a tear.

Something in me then felt strange. Besides the burning sensation in the soles of my feet from squatting so low, there was also a burning but aching sensation inside of me.

Close to my heart and also in my throat.

She then pushed the box aside, gently, and began to stand up. She was changed out of the baggy clothes she had on earlier, and was now wearing the black leggings that had a hole right on the back of her thigh, and a long sleeve white cropped sweater.

Soft music began to play, that could only be heard from being close to the building and she began to move.

More like float, as her body was now in a swift motion across the small studio. Her legs got longer somehow, and she was now swirling and jumping.