'Local teenager brutally murders three, flees police,' read the rather promising headline of the first article Jack had found. Other similar titles popped up under it, but it was dated as the first written, and when doing research Jack thought it was best to start from the beginning. He wiggled into a more comfortable position in his cushy library chair, computer settled in his lap, and clicked on the link.
'-parents claim they knew nothing of the bullying, or that their son was capable of such acts even when pushed-'
'-sibling feels responsible for not trying harder to speak out about his brother's suffering, and that they had both been harassed since they'd moved there three years ago, but that his brother had probably gotten the worst of it-'
Jack finished skimming through the article, and picked one a little further ahead in time. He wasn't surprised to find that the closer to the present you got, the less the articles were 'suffering sixteen year old boy has mental break and attacks bullies, family heartbroken, wish they had seen it sooner,' and more 'young serial killer continues to commit disturbing acts, family disgusted, doesn't know where it all went wrong.'
Jack set his laptop down, and reclined in his chair. "Aw, boo hoo," He mumbled to himself. "That's how it works, doesn't it? You start out a sad story, then you're just like the rest of us. Doesn't make you special."
He snickered for a second. "Well, not like he's trying to be, of course. He didn't come to me crying about his miserable past, I just looked the kid up on the internet. Can't blame me for wanting to know more about my employee. Doubt he would tell me about it himself. Gotta know about aaaall the baggage people have."
He pulled his legs up to his chest, and sighed, voice lowering. "...Jack, stop talking to yourself."
Makes you sound lonely.
He wasn't lonely. He even had company today! He was just taking his break, and read up on the brat to pass time. Now that that was done, it really was time to get back to work.
He left his lovely library without much disappointment, not as much as he would usually have. The library in his house was his second favorite thing in the world. However, right now, he had his first favorite thing to get to.
As he went down the steps to his basement, a skip in his steps.
He flipped the light on, a grin lighting up his face with it.
"Say, do you like kids?"
The man tied to the chair only gave a muffled sound in response.
Jack didn't really know what that meant, so he just continued his thought. "Yeah, this kid- well, a seventeen year old, but that's still a kid in my book- recently became my sorta-responsibility. They're real handfuls, teenagers! With the rebelliousness, and yet this need for attention at the same time? Apparently it's normal. I wasn't like that myself, but, you know. I'm not like a lot of things." He smiled. "I'm sure you've caught on to that."
"Anyway, enough about my silly problems," Jack said, laughing slightly and making a dismissive gesture with the hand that didn't have a knife in it. "I'm here for you right now. We're going to talk about your problems, or really, your mistakes. And boy, have you made a lot of them to end up down here with me."
Two of the big bosses in the syndicate were trying to kill each other. Apparently some kind of affair scandal had been uncovered. One of them had been sleeping with the other's girlfriend, and someone had gotten pictures of it. The pictures, in the hands of some random jackass, were apparently at first used to try to blackmail the one with the girlfriend- but that guy cared more about going into a blind rage than keeping the whole thing a secret. So he had the blackmailer killed, and then was now after both his girlfriend and the other big shot she'd cheated with.
It was all a bit of a confusing mess to Jeff, who wasn't even sure if the exact stories he heard through other low-level criminals were true or not- but they sounded realistic enough. It was a pretty classic, cliche kind of situation, just with more murder than usual. Jeff was trying to stay out of the way of the chaos that was going on that week. He felt lucky that, other than Jack, he wasn't very aligned with any particular important person around. Jack's advice to take small jobs from a lot of different people rather than be loyal to one or two had been good for him.
Jeff really wasn't a fan of all this drama. He hoped they'd all kill each other and get it over with soon. Then, maybe they'd all forget about him too, and he could go back to his independance. He was made to be a serial killer, not a gang member. There were so many things he didn't like about his current situation. Taking orders was a big one, although if they weren't orders from Jack Eyrich, they usually weren't as bad as he expected. Sharing glory for crimes was another thing, which was just as shitty as it sounded- kinda tied into the other issues, too.
Maybe it was all worth it if you clawed your way up in the ranks, and then got a bunch of other people to yell at.
If that was the case, Jeff thought he might understand Jack a little better. If that was even possible.