Memories Work Like Magic

chapter nineteen.

It was extremely sunny the next day, and Jack didn't remember getting out of bed that morning, but he was out for a stroll around the neighbourhood. He wasn't sure why he felt this calm, but concluded that he was just trying not to freak out over the police searching his home. He figured if he was going to leave Baltimore soon anyway, the cops would just take all of his belongings out of all of his closets and cupboards for him. Hopefully they didn't find anything that might get him sent to jail, though he didn't think he owned anything that dangerous. He'd rather be anywhere but in this city, and prison wasn't included in 'anywhere'.

A strangely bright cloud that seemed to be in the center of his line of vision broke Jack's detailed trance. He stopped to look up at it, and a dark figure emerged from it. Jack rubbed his eyes and looked at the figure once more. This time, it appeared to be a gigantic Daschund dog sitting on top of the cloud.

What the fu—

The loud screeches of Jack's alarm clock interrupted his weird dream. With a groan he reached over to his nightstand and hit a button to shut it off.

~

Two hours had passed and there was one room left to be searched: Jack's bedroom. For the duration of the inspection, Jack had been apprehensively sitting on his living room couch cross-legged, his back surprisingly straight and his fingers stiff. He had been lurking on Twitter this entire time to see how fans had been responding to his and Alex's anonymity, not daring to respond to any of them. Most of it was insulting Alex for letting his supposed secret get out that he was "dating" Demi Lovato; a lot of people thought he was having a secret affair and got caught. They also mentioned that she was way too young for him, to which Jack agreed.

He was glad he wasn't as big of a target as Alex was. The tweets that included his name were mostly towards both of them, and the ones that only involved Jack were sympathizing with him for the most part. However there was the occasional post scolding him for "letting Alex do this to him". Little did the world know that they had ended their relationship long ago and Jack didn't care what Alex did with the rest of his life. It wasn't his business anyway, it's not like they were ever going to talk to each other again.

Jack failed when he tried getting up from the black leather couch, and flopped back down. His leg muscles ached from being in a bent position for so long. His second attempt was successful, and he made his way up the stairs to his room.

The four police officers had already emptied all of the contents of his dresser drawers and completely stripped the bed of its sheets. Jack thought that this many cops was far too many for the size of his house, and wondered if they could at least put everything back when they were finished. Then again, everything was going to be put into a box and then a moving truck soon anyway.

One of the officers opened up his closet and carefully lifted a heavy light green box off of the top shelf and set it on the floor. She carefully inspected the lid, then proceeded to open the box and pull out books, carefully examining each one before stacking them on the floor next to her.

Another cop unplugged his nightstand lamp and removed the yellow lampshade, carelessly tossing it to the side. Then he opened his nightstand drawer, removing all of Jack's miscellaneous belongings from it. The officer pulled out objects rapidly one after the other; a small notebook, two pens, an empty Reese's wrapper, an iPhone charger, a pair of black sunglasses, a white bandana, a hair brush, and the list went on. Jack froze in the doorway and his eyes were fixed on the bandana. His eyes were fixed to them, and he felt himself start to itch.

Although the police didn't seem to notice him standing there, Jack felt the need to mutter a small "Excuse me," then left in unsure irritation. Apparently, the officers did know he was there, because the female called after him.

"Mr. Barakat, you need to come back here," her voice was soft but she spoke in a harsh tone. "Care to explain this?"

Jack felt his throat dry up and his muscles tense. He didn't know what could possibly be in his room to get him into trouble, and now, he was nervous as ever.

He apprehensively walked back into his messy bedroom, standing next to the stack of books by the female officer. "Yes, ma'am?" His voice was shaky and he hoped they wouldn't use a lie detector on him, not that he would lie to them, but being anxious certainly wouldn't help him.

He looked down at the object in the cop's hands: a small, dark wooden box with a lock sealing it, the keyhole was heart shaped. Jack guessed that was a little suspicious, after all it was in the corner of his closet under heaps of clothes and other miscellaneous objects, and there was no key to go with it. He knew what was in there, and he prayed that he wouldn't have to reveal the contents.

Fuck, he thought. I really don't want to have to open this.