Apple…banana…orange…lemon!
The strong zesty scent of lemon swam up his nostrils, a fruit he hadn't smelt for years. He opened his eyes and stared up at the black swirling clouds above him.
He coughed as he breathed in more of the horrible smelling smoke.
It took a while for the whole horribly familiar picture of floating Chinese characters in clouds of mist to sink in, but as soon as it did.
'Wh-what.' Jack sat up straight, as if he'd been jabbed in the back, and looked around.
He was defiantly in the Ying and Yang world. It was a place he couldn't forget but a place he wished would just be erased from his memories. Bad things happened here, not that they never happened to him outside the Ying and Yang world, but they always seemed worse here.
Like the first time he'd arrived on this plane. When he'd been Chase Young's lackey and was trying to prove, both to Chase and himself, that he could take down the Xiaolin monks. Not only did he fail at taking them down but he had also shamelessly joined them.
A shiver ran up his spine at the thought and he cringed in distaste. How humiliating that had been. He couldn't remember anything from living with the monks but judging by his good self that had stayed behind in the Ying Yang world he must have been the laughing stock of the centaury. Not that he wasn't anyway.
He shook his head free of the stray thought as he pushed himself up off the undulating waves. That was no way for an evil boy genius to think. As soon as he stood up, the vomit came. The mess disappeared beyond the smoke surrounding his feet.
He stood there for a moment retching and spluttering, while trying to remain balanced as the waves of smoke became bigger.
'Oh great.' Mumbled Jack through his hand tightly clasped over his mouth.
After a few deep breaths he swallowed and shook himself. Then lifting his head high enough so that he couldn't see the floor he stepped forward.
Into nothing.
It took a while to register that he'd stepped into nothing but when he started falling realisation hit him.
And then he started screaming.
The panic he'd felt so many times swelled up inside him like a balloon, filling up every corner of his body and destroying whatever self control he had.
His scream went three octaves higher as he speed up, shooting down into nothing like a rocket gone haywire. He shrieked and cried as his body spun around, head down legs up, like a catherine wheel.
Suddenly his head slammed against something rock hard and his body crumpled above him before falling helplessly to the side.
He was dead; he knew he was dead because he didn't hurt all over like he should have. Secondly he couldn't open his eyes or for the matter move any part of his body, all he could do was think. Thirdly he couldn't feel the wet patch in between his legs which he knew he had created on the way down.
All he could do was think which he'd hoped would have died too since having no body to lash out on things meant that he couldn't get rid of his anger or self loathing. Instead he had to dwell in it. Crap. Just fucking crap.
Just his luck to be tortured both in life and in death. He would never hear the end of it. His mind would constantly be thinking about how he wasted his life and ruined his opportunities and ruined his mums.
The thought of his mum floated around a bit in his head. He was going to miss his mum. In fact he was really going to miss his mum. He was never going to see her face again. The one that had greeted him only yesterday with a warm kiss on the forehead and a smile that was contagious.
He was never going to feel the way he did when she hugged him when he was upset and petted his hair.
They were never ever going to visit the Zoo again hand in hand like they had done on his 15th birthday and he was never going to be able to watch his mother powder her face to cover up the tanned skin and dark freckles he loved so much.
He was never going to feel love again.
His thoughts seemed to shudder and all the memories of times he had cried crowded his mind.
He knew he was supposed to be crying but he couldn't because he was dead. So instead he wilted in the sorrow and grief of losing a loved one.