Yo. Long time no see.
(Art belongs to Yuumei. Check her out.)
I want action! Drama! Make out sessions!
Jack and Mark are dating ppl why tf are we all here...
Anyway
Welcome to the shitshow- where I clearly know nothing about the police department.
Enjoy, lovelies.
I AM TAKING SUGGESTIONS (read my message board for more info)
- Lyn
"God! Jesus! Fuck!" Mark spat, running down slippery sidewalks as strangers gave him glares and sideways looks. Yelling strings of curse words was making his enormous sense of dread slightly better, but it wasn't the dread that bothered him.
It was whatever caused Jack to feel this scared.
His heart hadn't stopped pounding for almost two miles, and it wasn't just due to the running. Every corner he turned made him freeze. Any person he didn't recognize was an enemy. Every light, another way for people to find him. He stuck to the shadows as best he could, headed towards a destination he didn't know yet. He could feel Jack was close, because with every step he trembled just a little more.
Rounding into an alleyway, he paused. His eyes widened. He picked up the pace now, desperately sprinting through the downpour.
He was at the apartments, bitter and cold in the low light of the evening. Mud caked over his thighs, and somewhere, closer this time, sirens continued, blasting loudly. He ignored it, each step growing louder in the chaos of the night. A homeless man watched him pass by, and gave Mark a small nod as he left the apartment buildings. As if he understood something Mark didn't.
Out of breath and lungs on fire, he stopped. Coughing and falling to his knees, he struggled to remain upright. His clothes were soaked through, and he looked like a shitty stripper as they stuck to him like a leotard.
A taxi cab came up from his right, and Mark stood to hail it, or even jump in front of it if necessary. However, the deus ex machina slowed to a stop in front of him. The window rolled down.
"Need a ride?" The man spoke, a cigar poking out from between his lips.
He recognized him. This was the same taxi driver who had taken him to Central Park all those months ago. The one who'd talked about his own soulmate the very day he'd reunited with Jack.
In a world with soulmates, you would think people would have become used to "fate," and magical happenings between lovers. However, whatever force brought people together still held some shred of wonder, as Mark stared at the man while on the brink of tears. His whole body was rattling, cold sweat mixing with raindrops and mud. He looked like a disaster, and strangers avoided looking his way, but the taxi driver simply watched him, puffs of smoke pouring from his mouth.
Mark stumbled towards the door, yanking it open and collapsing on the seat.
"I don't know where I am going," Mark heaved, the man shifting his car to drive, "but I know I need to go forward. Towards the sirens."
Foot slammed against pedal and they were off. New York traffic was picking up, and Mark knew he would need to run again soon. He was willing. Just above the taxi drivers head, attached to the mirror, was a woman in a library reading a book. She didn't seem to notice her picture was being taken.
She looked a lot like his mother.
Mark crawled up to the passenger seat and collapsed backwards, taking a moment to rest before he had to pull himself back together again.
***
Jack thought back to a BBC show he'd watched once. An antelope had laid still in the knowing mouth of a cheetah after it had been caught. The beast gnawed away, painfully slow.
He'd always wondered why- the antelope looked healthy enough to fight, awake enough to recognize what was happening.
It wasn't until now that he understood.
"Jack...," His mother's arms slipped around his back, fingertips pressing hard into his skin, "God I was so scared. I thought you'd been-"
She broke into racking sobs. Her tears were like acid to Jack and he flinched, doing everything he could to look away.
"Dad isn't here yet, but I promise he will be soon," She put a hand to his face, sliding it across his cheek, "You-," she stared into his eyes, "I knew it. The officers confirmed it. Drugs, Jack? In New York!?" She released him, rubbing her eyes, "I've been waiting here for weeks after we got word there were sightings of you here. All this money and worry and you've just been-" She paused. Her lips pursed in a disappointed silence.
The officers requested he move forward. The woman he'd first seen in the police car was wet, wrapped in a blanket in the rain a few feet to his left, under a willow tree. For once, Jack wished he really did have drugs so that he could pretend all this shit wasn't happening. The two men started leading him towards the building doors. The police car he'd gotten out of was gone.
A police woman behind him spoke up, talking on her radio device. He caught only a few words.
"Yes we've got...offender...mentally unstable scheduled for a...yes, house arrest." She relayed.
Jack froze. The taller of the two policeman eyed him and urged him with words he couldn't understand. The ringing in his ears was getting louder. The station loomed in front of him. Doors wide open, ready to consume.
"House arrest." He repeated under his breath, the way a child would when learning a new word. In the midst of his stupor, it all came together.
If he went in that building he was never getting back out.
And that's when he lost it.
He slammed his foot against the back of the tall officers knee, causing him to stumble down. The shorter one shouted, surprised, and began trying to push Jack to the ground.
"DON'T FUCKING TOUCH ME!" He yelled, blue eyes ice cold and teeth bared, "I didn't survive on the streets for years just so you could take me back to-"
He was cut off by the shorter officer successfully pushing him to his knees. The taller one grunted, rose up, and motioned to someone Jack couldn't see. He struggled against the grip, eventually able to rip his bound hands away from the officer. He whipped around and nailed the man with the top of his shoe directly in the groin. The taller man yanked his arms from behind, causing him to yelp. He kicked back, flailing, just as another officer pulled out a weapon he didn't recognize, clicking it on. Jack instinctively ducked, thrashing and yelling all whilst streams of tears fell down his wet, bitter face.
His mother had the audacity to watch from doors, hands over her mouth in shock.
"PLEASE, STOP!" He cried, as multiple officers came up from behind, pushing him to the ground. Concrete hit his knees, and then his chest, knocking the air from his lungs. He gasped as the woman with the weapon approached, which looked to be a taser.
He couldn't move. All he could do was yell.
Thoughts didn't come clearly. His vision was blurred by tears. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he missed someone, deeply, and more then anything else he feared he would never see them again.
"Please..." He whispered, one final time. Electricity shot through his arm and his mouth and eyes widened with shock, a silent scream piercing his thoughts. He breathed heavily, the right portion of his body numb. Strong arms lifted him up to carry his limp body. It felt familiar. The world was hazy.
He his eyes slowly looked over at the officers who he had fought as he was carried towards the station. The shorter one had grabbed the taller ones face, and was ridiculing him about something. They both began to laugh, so quickly having moved on just by being with each other. The taller one leaned down and kissed the other on the forehead, so gentle it seemed he was almost afraid he might break him.
Another pain shot up his arm.
Tears once again began to fall, but this time they were silent. He refused to make a racket. He'd fight, but not like her. Never like her.
He heard his mother step inside the building. He was carried underneath the overhang, finally out of the rain. At least that was nice. The sirens in the distance had stopped going off, he had worn himself to the bone, everything might be over, but, there was something to be said for a warm building.
He sighed, and his eyes shut, ignoring every feeling but the arm wrapped around him. The pulsing in his right arm refused to fade though, and he winced as burning sensations racked him every few seconds. He heard his mother's sniffles draw closer.
"I'm so sorry Jack, sweetie, but you just wouldn't listen. Do what I say and I promise you won't get hurt again, alright?" his mother stroked his back as she walked next to the policeman, "We're gonna get you hom-"
Everything paused as a car screeched dramatically to a stop in front of the station. His mother gave a small yelp, a wary gaze coming over her face. Plumes of cigar smoke poured out from the driver seat window, and the sides were beat up and dirty from weaving through the storm. The passenger door flew open, and the car wheezed out fumes, barely working.
"FUCKIN, HOLD IT!" A man from car shouted. Jack watched as a dirty figure fell from the cab, hitting the ground with a wet slap, "Ah, god, you all are a bunch of animals I swear my ARM...," The man moaned, and Jack's eyes widened. One of the policewomen put her hand to her pistol, whilst another walked up to investigate him.
"Mark." Jack mumbled, and quickly shut his mouth when his mother looked towards him, fingers digging into her palms. She turned towards Mark, gaze locked on his soaking figure.
Mark grabbed his right arm, wincing as he did so, and glanced at every armed policeman in the area. Jack noticed how he checked their belts before their faces and wondered how often he'd done this.
The policewoman who had been approaching him asked him what he was doing here, and the two engaged in a quiet conversation. As they talked the man holding Jack began to walk again, side by side with his mother towards the doors of the station.
"Wait." Mark said, loudly enough so that everyone could hear him, "I'm here for him, so he's not going in there," Mark glanced over at Jack's mom and his eyes widened, "Especially not with her."
The policewoman, stepped in front of Mark, blocking his path. "I'm sorry sir, but if you are affiliated with this man then I will have to bring you in for questioning, otherwise you will be escorted off the premises," She said, prepared for another fight at any moment.
Jack watched as Mark considered his options. He could almost feel him picking apart every option he had, anything that would let him get to Jack quicker.
Mark finally spoke.
"I am 'affiliated' with this man," He stated, stepping towards the policewoman, "and I have every right to go with him because-"
Mark paused. A look of fear washed over his face and he suddenly grew pale, his breaths coming in heaves, uneven.
"Because..." Another moment. He stumbled backwards, struggling to find the words.
"Because," He coughed, straightening his wet shirt, "He's my employee. And he currently lives with me." His hand ran through his hair, flinging water behind him.
The policewoman cocked her head, and Mark pulled out his phone, going through something with her. She eventually nodded, and the two began to walk towards the doors. Jack was whipped around by the man holding him, and even though he was delirious he felt humiliated in this position. He couldn't see Mark from this angle, but he was glad he was here.
Because even though Mark avoided his eyes, mixed his words, and gritted through lies, Jack was too tired to feel much of anything.
After a moment of checking and drying off, group entered the station and the doors shut softly behind them.
(Jack recalled that it had taken a fuck ton of paragraphs for those damn doors to close. What goddamn shitty author was in charge of this.)