Targeted
Disclaimer: I own nothing
A/N: To my loyal and favorite readers that have stuck by me, who ship Jori and have still stuck by me knowing that I just can't see that pairing...I will write a Jori for you. I shall find a way using a recent plot idea. To that I will warn, be careful what you wish for, muahaha. As regulars, you should know that means be very afraid because you know me, I'm gonna put some characters through hell. In a world where reputation is so important, and only one person stands by you when that reputation crumbles to the ground...Enjoy the chapter of THIS tale now
Chapter 7 (Finding Focus)
Jade gazed at her two friends with a heavy heart, she wasn't sure how much any of them could take and the roller coaster didn't appear to have an end in sight. Robbie was rocking against a wall, slowly hitting the wall with his head while Cat was staring into space with a distant look in her gaze.
Wherever they were, it didn't seem much better than Peru; if it were possible to find anywhere better in these circumstances. The roads were littered with people carrying signs and others screaming as violence erupted in the streets.
The mansion they'd been carted away to wasn't bad, though it didn't look like that of a mafia lord's home. It was a simple two story with a patio and upper floor balcony that wrapped around the house. The railings were made of beige painted material and support beams that looked ancient. Between each support beam and on the ceiling were wooden arches, and windows that framed the balcony and patio.
Jade remembered the mahogany door they entered into, and she could picture the beige home vividly. The sky had a strange smoky hue, with an orange landscape and dark clouds. The ground was brown, dry and cracked, with patches of pale green grass that littered the landscape.
These colors were important to her, crucial now. All her life she never thought she'd care for colors, preferring her pastel black and white, putting in her purple hair highlights or pale blonde. Now she wanted to know, no, remember every color and every shade.
Sounds were next, sounds she'd never paid attention to like the singing of the birds in the sky or the soft whistle in the wind. These things reminded her what it was like to be alive, gave her something to hold onto and to yearn for.
"We might be in Cuba," Jade said finally. Cat didn't budge, but Robbie turned his head and gave her an empty look without words. "I don't know for sure, but if the war-torn streets are any indicator." Robbie opened his mouth, but said nothing more. Jade responded with a mournful smile and reached over to him, patting his wrist. "Don't worry Robbie, hang in there. We have to. We have to believe-"
"Believe what? Believe the police will help us? That the American government will help us? No one knows where we are, we're going to die Jade. We are going to fucking die." Tears welled up in her eyes and she withdrew her hand. It was difficult to be the one trying to see the light, when she'd been the pessimistic one for so long.
"I know it's hard to think about, but we have to keep a hold on hope. If we don't, then we really won't make it…"
"Yeah." He scoffed and crossed his arms. "If you say so." She closed her eyes and looked away with a heavy sigh. She wouldn't let anything happen to the two of them, but she needed to keep them afloat if they were to make it through this alive.
Cat started to cough, her split and faded red hair shaking before her gaze. Jade hurried over to her and carefully groomed back the girl's hair. "Jade?" Cat reached up and wrapped her fingers around her hand. The girl leaned her head against her forearm and shut her eyes. "I can't cry anymore. I can't do anything. Can we talk about something, anything…at least they're keeping us together."
"Yeah Cat, we can do that." She sat beside her friend and let her roll her head upon her shoulder. "What's on your mind?"
"Our friends. Andre, Beck, and even Tori. Why didn't you ever like Tori? I know you were upset with her at first because of that whole thing in Mr. Sikowitz's classroom when you first met her."
She looked to the side and shrugged. "I'm not sure." Cat moved behind her and took the ends of her hair, slowly smoothing out the creases. Jade leaned upright, smiling as the girl proceeded to create a braid. She folded her hands in her lap and bent her legs beneath her body. "I just-I guess something never set right with me. Something about her made me nervous. I've never felt so weird about someone, it was like she was more than a girl flirting with Beck; more than a potential 'threat', but I couldn't really put my finger on it."
"I understand, I think."
"I just didn't trust her." She bowed her head a bit and breathed in as she felt Cat's gentle tugging on her hair. "I tried to ignore it, tried to push it aside and be her friend; and I think I've been doing a good job lately."
Robbie pressed his back against the wall and slid his arms across his chest. "What about Beck? Did you ever tell Cat how you two met?" He cracked a smile and Jade glanced up at Cat, watching as the girl's eyebrows drifted up.
"I don't think so," Cat answered, "How did the two of you meet?" Her heart skipped a beat and a warm feeling washed over her. She visualized Beck and hugged herself as she imagined his arms wrapped around her.
Their actual meeting wasn't anything fancy, just a simple passing in the hallway. Still, the moment they connected, that spark was there. "We just started seventh grade, I was the weird gothic girl that other kids called 'vampire' and stuff." She chuckled as a tear slid down her cheek. "Of course I didn't know Beck existed, even now I can't imagine him not being a part of my life anymore."
Robbie chuckled, he raised a hand and pointed out a finger. "Yet the two of you passed each other almost every day, I think." She nodded, remembering how his third period was her fourth period class, and vice-versa. "I don't know what on earth made you two notice each other finally. You and him both always say it was just 'another routine day', but I think we all know it wasn't."
"You're right." Jade let out a wistful sigh and her heart filled with a sense of longing. "Students in my class that day were a little harsher than usual, calling me things like Elvira, or a witch, a demon…even a devil. I was nothing to anyone, a nobody that was even less important than a grain of sand."
She felt Cat's hands pull away from her head and turned to see the girl with a misty gaze. Jade took a deep breath, her chest and shoulders rising and holding for a moment before falling with her exhale. "I ran out of my classroom five minutes early, just trying to escape. I was going to run away, drop out of school and never look back. I didn't care about anything-not my reputation, not what my family would think, nothing at all. I hated them, I hated the world and everything in it. I hated everything those kids stood for."
"I'm so sorry." Cat hugged her, holding her tight. She smiled as her body began to heat up. She hugged her friend back, then gently pulled away. "Go on."
"Well, I wasn't looking at anything in front of me." Jade pushed her hair over her shoulder and laughed as the visual of Beck zooming in on her came to mind. "He was skipping class or something, I don't remember what, but I ran right into him. Must have looked like a bat out of hell." Her cheeks burned red and she raised her hands to her face. "I was so embarrassed that I just kept running."
"Mistake of making a hit and run on someone that can actually catch up with you," Robbie chortled. She snickered in response. "He ran after you to see what was going on, right?"
"He did. I thought I was fast, but he was faster. Eventually my legs were just too tired and I had to stop running, when I looked back, there he was leaning up against a wall…"
"He does a lot of cardio, or at least back then he rode a bike almost all the time."
"True." Jade stood up and moved towards the iron gate that blocked them off from the rest of the room lit only by a small amber lamp. "I was breathing heavily, could barely talk when he asked me what I was running from. When I could catch my breath, I told him, and you know what he says?"
"What?"
"'People suck'." Robbie laughed and clapped his hands while Cat's smile grew into a grin. It was heart-warming to see them in better spirits now, now that their mind was off of the current circumstances and onto something different. "He said they're the vampires, feeding off like hurting people and causing drama. We chatted for maybe an hour before a teacher caught up with us and gave us both detention for skipping class."
"Wow." Cat's mouth formed an oval shape and the girl quickly shook her head. "I don't get it, if you went through that, why did you end up becoming one of those type of people?" Jade looked downward, her joy depleting momentarily.
She had no real answer for that. "I guess maybe I just wanted to hurt them like they did me, but it got away from me…eventually became a habit." She wasn't inherently a bad person; but it was hard not to find joy in causing pain for others. A trait she knew wasn't good or right, but for the longest time she simply did not care. "I was angry, I was hurting. I know Beck tried to steer me away from all that, but I couldn't help it. Over time I just got a sense of power, being the one on top and finally having people respect me."
"Except, Jade, fear isn't respect." Jade pursed her lips and her forehead crinkled like paper as Cat swept her hands through the air. "Fear is fear. People didn't respect you, they were afraid of you and avoided you because they thought you would do something bad to them."
"Not that long ago, I'd say you were wrong and full of it." A sore chuckle fell from her lips and she paced to the right of the cell, eventually leaning against a corner. She crossed her right leg over he left and looked away at the rest of the room, her tears slowly seeping from her eyes. "I'm not sure when it clicked, really. I don't know what it was that made me stop and realize what I was doing to people. Part of me still has that need, that desire to act in a way that I know is wrong. It's hard, really hard." She furrowed her brow and looked down at her shoes. "Part of me wonders if maybe I'm to blame for where we are right now…"
"I'm sure you're not," Robbie answered. "If anything, we all contributed to that, I think. I know I'm not the only one that heard her name." He frowned and Jade shook her head. She still wanted to think she misheard, or that it was some sort of coincidence.
"You know how common that name is? I mean, what are the chances it's actually her? It-it can't be." Cat and Robbie exchanged tired looks, then Cat reached for Jade's shoulder.
"Jade, the name really isn't all that common."
"I know, but I can't-you can't honestly believe that she would do something like this to all of us?"
"Well?" Robbie moved towards her, his eyes narrowing and his hands closing up. "Let's admit, how well do any of us really know her? None of us took the time."
"We have no proof that it's her." Cat and Robbie both looked worried, as if they thought she was missing something. Perhaps she was being blind, maybe purposely in denial; or maybe she was clinging to the hope of something that in her heart she knew to be wrong.
"We have no proof that it isn't her." Robbie released a despairing sigh. If it were her, then she had to consider what that would mean for everyone; for them, for the Vegas. "Jade, you know Beck has always praised your judge of character, your instincts and sense of how someone is really is better by far than his." Robbie shut his eyes and smirked. "Trust me, I know my best friend. I can't tell you how many times his poor judge of character has gotten him into trouble."
Jade stifled a laugh. She knew the moments Robbie was speaking of, all like distant memories. "Go on." He cleared his throat and spread his arms out.
"As much as I don't want to think, as much as I know Cat doesn't want to believe it like me, we have to take into consideration that gut feeling you say you've always had about…you know…" Jade tucked a strand of hair over her ear and slowly shook her head. "Right now you're the only one of us three that isn't in a completely dark place mentally, don't lose a grip on your instincts. Please. We kind of need you right now…"
"Really?" Her eyebrows came together and she looked up to Robbie with a hopeful smile. "You do?" Cat nodded and Robbie let out a laugh.
"You just let us escape this place for a brief moment, going back in time talking about the moment you and Beck met." She smiled more, her heart rising up out of the muck. "We need that. I mean like you said, if we're going to survive this fucking place, we need each other…please don't let denial cause you to lose your grip on reality."
"I know, I just don't know how to process any of this right now." She ran her hand through her hair, rubbing it vigorously. "You think Tori knows?" Cat moved her hands to her hips and Robbie gave her a look as though she were trying to make two plus two equal nine.
Her shoulders fell and she closed her eyes, groaning painfully. "If it is true, I mean if it's really fully true, then how do I stomach that? It feels like it would be betrayal."
Cat's hands slid down her hips and hung loosely at her sides. "If it's true, then how could it be betrayal?" Jade looked up, her eyebrows quivering on her forehead. "For it to be a betrayal, that would mean they'd have to have truly been our friend at some point, right? How can you betray someone you never truly cared about?"
"Are you saying everything was a lie?"
"Something to think about…maybe not something to focus on right now, though." She was right, they had to focus on how to get out. She didn't care about anything other than survival at this point.
So it looks like while Jade is able and trying to keep her friends afloat, they're trying to be there for her in the sense that someone needs to keep her afloat as she realizes and is in denial about some of her closest "friends". Interesting little story about her meeting Beck for the first time, great way to get their minds off their captivity for a bit. What are your thoughts on everything?