|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
 Everything Jake Fanfiction Part One. Jake Bruno. by Nathan White Jake shook his packet of cigarettes. The desultory rustle wasn’t entirely reassuring. He tore the pack open and almost destroyed the sole remaining occupant, although it wasn’t entirely in the best shape to begin with. Kelly’s laser-knife-come-lighter was on the coffee table in front of the television. He scooped it up, a little apprehensive (after all, the damn thing’d almost cost him his life) and flicked megoth a glance. He was unsurprisingly engrossed in something on his flickering computer screen, with A.L.B.E.R.T crouched on the desk beside him. Jake shivered slightly and didn’t know if he really wanted to know what they were both so interested in. Regardless, megoth’s bulk hid whatever it was. Better that he didn’t know. ‘I’m just gonna spark one,’ he said. megoth didn’t turn. ‘Wanna join me?’ ‘You know I do not smoke, Jake Bruno,’ megoth said softly, his voice neutral. ‘But I’m sure you will enjoy it for the both of us.’ Jake raised an eyebrow but didn’t bother replying. When megoth was like this there was no talking to him. Besides, megoth had just picked up the phone and turned to look at him pointedly. With a roll of his eyes Jake left Kelly and megoth’s apartment and trekked downstairs, wishing for the days when the three of them had been in the same dorm building. And, more to the point, able to smoke indoors. It wasn’t exactly the warmest weather outside. It wasn’t snowing yet, but chill rode the air like a knife. Jake smoothed out the cigarette and stared at the laser-knife with apprehension. But he’d lost his lighter sometime around Kelly’s party and hadn’t thought to replace it. He lit the cigarette and placed the laser-knife on the ground. Didn’t trust having the damn thing in his pocket. He leaned against the wall and ignored the stares of various rugged up passersby. They weren’t on college grounds anymore, so it wasn’t as acceptable to be different. And standing outside while the temperature was rapidly dropping and dark clouds approached from the north in a t-shirt wasn’t exactly normal. But the cold wasn’t really all that bad. Just a slight discomfort. ‘Hey, bitch.’ Jake shook his head and suppressed the urge to grin. He turned to face Kelly Rose, who was rubbing his shaven head as though it pained him. Jake nodded his greetings and passed his cigarette. ‘What’s up with your head?’ he asked, frowning. ‘Are you kiddin’ me? It’s fuckin’ freezing out here,’ Kelly muttered. ‘You’re lucky I’m out of smokes or I wouldn’t even be seen with you.’ ‘You’ll excuse me if I don’t drop to my knees and give thanks.’ Jake rolled his eyes. ‘Where you been?’ ‘Trish’s,’ Kelly said, taking one final drag as Jake reached for his cigarette. ‘Nuff said,’ Jake glanced up the road and saw two guys, both wearing black, walking towards them. ‘Been there for like, the last five hours.’ Kelly elbowed him conspiratorially. ‘Enough said,’ Jake grated. He didn’t particularly relish the accompanying graphic details that came with Kelly’s re-enactments. To clear his mind, he stared across at the park on the opposite side of the road. With the oncoming storm the place was filled with shadows. The trees, bare of leaves, reached skyward in mute supplication. ‘Listen man, there’s something I need to talk to you about.’ Kelly’s voice brought Jake back to the here and now. He turned and saw the two black-clad guys, who looked about his age, staring hard at them. Jake frowned and dropped his cigarette. He crushed it under his heel. ‘Problem?’ he asked, wondering if they were just after a light. He had, after all, been smoking. But the two guys, with their black parkas and faces all but hidden by heavy hoods, didn’t move. Kelly stepped forward but Jake laid a restraining hand on his arm. Kelly flicked a glare at him, his eyes blazing. ‘What’s up, man?’ Jake snapped. Kelly turned to regard the two guys with something bordering on rage. ‘These fuckers’ve been following my sister,’ he growled. ‘Are you sure?’ ‘As sure as I’m about to beat these guys’ asses seven ways from Sunday.’ Jake reached down and picked up the laser-knife. He pressed it into Kelly Rose’s hand and stepped forward. ‘So you like to follow young girls around,’ he said. ‘Is that fun?’ ‘Silence, Jake Bruno,’ one of them, he couldn’t tell which one, hissed. ‘Your turn will come. For now, we are here for Kelly Rose.’ ‘The hell you are, bitch,’ Kelly snapped. ‘I’m here for you.’ Jake glanced at Kelly and was a little alarmed to see his eyes blazing with dark light, his entire body shuddering. Kelly seemed to grow slightly larger, now standing half a head taller than him. Jake turned back to face the two stalkers and clenched his fists. He hadn’t fought for some time, but several moves from Jenkins’ combat class came back to him. He just wished he could still use his telekinesis. ‘You sure you don’t want to run?’ Kelly sneered. ‘This isn’t going to go well for you.’ ‘Not at all,’ Jake added, ignoring the scathing glance Kelly shot him. Glory hog. ‘The odds run against you,’ one of the stalkers hissed, and Jake wasn’t certain but it sounded as though they both spoke in staggered bursts what amounted to one sentence. He frowned and tensed himself as the one on the right raised an arm to point to the park. Jake turned and stared. In the park, beneath the shadows of dead trees, stood at least a dozen more goons dressed just like the ones in front of them. Jake groaned and felt a probing weight settle around his head, pressing in. He staggered back against the wall. He lifted his hand to his head but it wouldn’t comply quickly enough, as though the limb was moving through mud. Kelly seemed to be having the same problem. But a scant ten meters away the world swept onwards. A young girl, probably two years his junior, walked straight towards them. A moment later, as though she passed an invisible boundary, she stopped midstride. Jake turned his head with great effort and glared at their assailants. One of the pair stepped forward, withdrawing his hands from his jacket pockets. His skin was glossy, as though it were coated and finished with some varnish that allowed them full range of motion. Neither seemed to have any problem moving in the thick air. The pressure on Jake’s head increased. He winced. ‘Kelly Rose,’ the one that had stepped forward said. ‘Part of a whole. We come to claim you.’ ‘Then come claim me,’ Kelly grated. Jake glanced at him and Kelly returned it. His eyes were depthless pits of black that stabbed Jake to the core of his being. And then, slow at first but with the intensity of shattered floodgates, power returned. Jake smiled coldly brought his hand up before his face. He balled it into a fist and found that whatever glamour had slowed them before had no effect on him now. Power welled inside him. The shadows in the park grew longer and stretched towards them. Jake tensed and stepped forward, a cold smile on his face.   Everything Jake Fanfiction Part Two – Kelly Rose. by Nathan White Kelly Rose stared at the half-finished cigarette in his hand. It was the last of the crushed pack on the grass before him. Thick smoke trickled upwards to be snatched away by the breeze. He took a drag and scowled. He loved smoking, but cigarettes weren’t half as good for you as they should be. But it was good after sex with Trish. He jolted from his reverie as his cellphone began to vibrate insistently. Leaning back, cigarette clamped between his lips, he fished the phone out. The display read ‘Sis’. Grinning, he picked up. ‘Hi. This is Kelly. Leave a message.’ ‘Damn,’ his sister muttered from across the miles. ‘Kell, I need to talk to you. Call me back as soon as you hear this.’ Kelly chuckled. ‘Jesus Kelly, knock that shit off. It ain’t funny.’ ‘Jesus Kelly,’ Kelly mused through a mouthful of smoke. ‘I like that. It’s oddly fitting.’ ‘I see you’re still hilarious,’ she muttered. ‘You love it,’ he said. ‘How’s tricks?’ A pause. ‘Not so great. You know those guys that were following me around?’ Kelly’s grin crumbled. He flicked his cigarette away, furious even though she was obviously unharmed. ‘What happened?’ he demanded. ‘Did you see them again?’ ‘You could say that.’ Kelly tightened his grip on the phone, clenching his teeth. ‘Kell? You there?’ He let out a breath and came back to himself. ‘Yeah,’ he whispered hoarsely, coughing to clear his throat. ‘Tell me what happened.’ She didn’t procrastinate, nor did she give him unnecessary details. ‘There’s two of them,’ she said. ‘And they wear these big black hooded jackets, so I couldn’t really see their faces. I was coming home from work and it was the weirdest thing, Kell. Just before they stepped out in front of me it got really dark. It was as if…as if they sucked the light away.’ ‘You weren’t smokin’ at work, were you?’ He had to force the joke out. This sort of shit was no longer out of place, considering the transplanar, psychokinetic near death situations he’d seen since he’d met Jake. He frowned at that, but she interrupted the chain of thought. ‘Shut up, Kell. Anyway, where was I? Yeah, they stepped out right in front of me and ‘cause it was so dark I couldn’t really see them properly. And their voices, Kell, they sounded-’ ‘Fuck their voices,’ Kelly interjected. ‘What did they say?’ His sister sighed. ‘They asked me if I was Kelly Rose, and when I said yes one turned to the other and said something like ‘is it possible that here he is a she?’ Kelly scowled. ‘Go on.’ ‘I told them to fuck off and leave me alone but they ignored me, going on about how the ‘master’ would be angry. So I guess they work for someone.’ He’d already gathered as much, but didn’t say so. ‘Then they asked me if I had a brother and…Kell, I’m sorry, but I-I couldn’t tell them no. It was as if they already knew the answer and if I lied, they’d…they’d…’ She sobbed. Kelly struggled to quell the rising fury that welled up in him. ‘It’s alright,’ he said, affecting an air of nonchalance. ‘Don’t worry. I’ll figure something out. What happened then?’ To her credit she sucked in a breath and when she spoke, her voice was firm. ‘They debated killing me, but one of them said that if he, you, resisted they knew where I was if they needed me. Then I blacked out, and when I woke up it was night and they were gone. Kell…I’m sorry. They’re going to come for you and it’s my fault.’ ‘Kelly, sis, don’t worry about it. Thanks for the warning.’ Something beeped. ‘Shit. I got another call. Umm…’ ‘Take it,’ Kelly said. ‘I gotta talk to Jake and megoth.’ ‘You mean Chris.’ ‘What?’ ‘Nothing. Be careful.’ She hung up. Kelly jammed the phone into his pocket and stood fists clenched. He could handle someone threatening him, wasn’t like he cared either which way. He’d take care of himself. But when some sneaky little fucks scared his sister half to death, well, it was a little more personal. Eyes narrowed, he went to search for Jake. ‘What’s up man?’ Jake snapped. Kelly ignored him, his vision tunnelling until the two fucks in black parkas were all that remained in the world. Some dim, dormant part of his mind whispered, ‘These fuckers’ve been following my sister,’ and he was vaguely aware of his lips moving but paid it no heed. ‘Are you sure?’ Jake’s voice sounded distant and submerged. Again his mind whispered a Kelly Rose response but the cold, calculating, awake part of him bent all its will towards his prey. ‘As sure as I’m about to beat these guys’ asses seven ways from Sunday.’ A touch, and then warm metal was in his hand. The laser knife. His teeth were clenched so hard his entire body began to shake. The laser knife wasn’t enough. It was an instrument, but it was not his will. Only his will would suffice. ‘We are here for Kelly Rose,’ he heard. ‘The hell you are, bitch,’ his body responded. ‘I’m here for you.’ Kelly’s breath began to come harder, blazing from him until it enveloped him. The world receded and he was the focal point. His will became manifest. His fists burned and part of his human essence returned. ‘You sure you don’t want to run?’ he grated. ‘This isn’t going to go well for you.’ ‘Not at all,’ Jake shot in. Kelly shot him a glance. This was his fight. ‘The odds run against you,’ one of them said, stepping forward. Kelly fixed his gaze upon the prey. ‘Kelly Rose, part of a whole. We come to claim you.’ Kelly lifted a balled fist and sneered. ‘Then come claim me.’    
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
EVERYTHING JAKE is TM & (C) 2000-2011 by Mike Rosenzweig. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
