A/N: Biiit of a filler, this one… Sorry guys. Had to be done D;
Jamie found Jack at his usual haunt, at the very fringes of the school grounds usually reserved for dumpsters and junkies. To be fair, this one did have a dumpster, and today it also had a junkie, of sorts: Jack sat with his back against the brick wall, perched atop the lid of the huge bin and swigging what had to be his third bottle of Coke that day. His hair was ruffled- more so than usual, at least- and his eyes looked far too big for his head. His hands never stopped moving, and when Jamie approached he snatched the bottle away.
"That's enough," he said firmly, tipping out the remainder of the plastic bottle on a sad little daisy struggling from beneath the dumpster.
Jack shrugged and didn't argue or defend himself, directing his gaze across the school quad and drumming his thighs with his hands restlessly. The day had passed in a blur of caffeine: when his mom and sister had found him in the kitchen so early- earlier than usual, anyway- he had lied and told them he'd been up since 6 and hoped his mom wouldn't notice their depleted coffee stores. No-one commented on the tall, dark stranger next to Jack, and he followed their example and did the same. It was only after he turned back after lifting Emma up to reach the toaster- she had been determined to prove that she could make better toast than Jack- that he noticed that the Boogeyman- Pitch Black- had gone. He hadn't seen him since, but that didn't stop his eyes straying to every man-sized shadow he saw, just to make sure he wasn't being followed.
Jamie threw himself down on the ground opposite Jack and fixed his friend with an expectant stare. "So?" he demanded finally. "What happened? How'd it go?"
Jack glanced at him with raised eyebrows. "Take a look at my recent diet," he said drily. "Tell me what you think."
Jamie's jaw dropped and his eyes widened like a seven year old's. "He came," he breathed.
Jack laughed bitterly and jumped down from the dumpster, pacing back and forth with big, leisurely steps. "Oh, he came all right," he confirmed. "And he's not going away any time soon."
Speaking very fast- because he still didn't want to believe it or because of the caffeine in his system, Jamie didn't know- Jack related the events of the previous night with the kind of detail that gave the impression that it was a night ingrained into his memory.
"So… What are you going to do?" Jamie asked after a long silence, dumbfounded. The truth was, he hadn't taken the Boogeyman legends much more seriously than Jack had- he hadn't even expected the summoning thing to work. And if it did, he had only ever envisioned some kind of sniveling, pathetic wreck, the stuff of a children's picture book. Easily controlled, easily banished. Not this, this- entity, this raw, dark power. A man made of fear and shadows.
He'd always thought that when- if - he ever discovered a real ghost, it would be some kind of great adventure. Fun and exhilarating. All he felt now was useless and afraid, and he wasn't even the one with the nightmares. He had no solutions for this, and it made him as frustrated as it did worried.
Jack shrugged, pulling him out of his reverie. "Stay awake," he answered simply. "Talk to him. Make him feel bad about giving me nightmares until he stops."
Jamie wriggled uncomfortably in his seat. "Do people like that feel bad about stuff like this? I mean, he's the Boogeyman."
Jack glanced at Jamie like he really couldn't see why this should matter.
"Well… It's, like, in his nature, right?" Jamie tried to explain. "He said that you were right there. So maybe all the nightmares you had before now were just, I don't know, built up residue that just happened to drift up to you because, you know, your bed is just there. And maybe they only started getting worse since you found his lair because he felt threatened, or he wanted to… test you, maybe- or maybe this just happens to everyone who meets him, it just happens and he can't help it-"
"Why are you defending him?" Jack rounded on him, suddenly angry. "You haven't even met him! You don't know what he's like, the guy's a freaking maniac."
"But it's his job-" Jamie said weakly.
"He told me he liked making people go mad!" Jack cried. "He meant me, Jamie! And then what's gonna happen? Say I go gibbering to a mental facility, what's gonna happen to Emma? Who's gonna look after her? Who's gonna stop him torturing her every night? I can't let that happen to her, Jamie!"
Of course. It always came back to Emma. Jamie should have guessed, should have known that Jack would go without sleep however long he had to if that meant protecting his little sister from the same nightmarish fate that he suffered. Anything to keep her safe and keep her with him.
Jack had turned away again and was kicking angrily at stones, swinging his feet at the dumpster and swearing under his breath when it hurt. Jamie watched with conflicted eyes, chewing his lip uncertainly. Jack was right: he hadn't met the Boogeyman. He didn't know what it was like to not want to crawl into bed at the end of a long day for fear of what might happen when you closed your eyes. He couldn't even begin to imagine whatever kind of raw fear possessed Jack at night, whenever the Boogeyman was in his presence.
But he did know what it meant to be willing to sacrifice everything for someone you loved. Jamie hadn't been looking after his little sister as long as Jack had, but Sophie was so quiet and diminutive that he had been caring for her long before their dad up and left them. He didn't have many friends, either, and Sophie was always happy to listen to his stories and legends. They had always been there for each other, and he knew what Jack meant when he said he couldn't put Emma in harm's way like that.
"I'll find a way to get rid of him," he promised, causing Jack to cease his angry pacing and look over his shoulder at him in surprise. "I'm not going to let you keep doing this, and I won't let Emma get caught up in this either."
Their eyes met, and a mutual understanding passed between them. Jack's shoulders sagged and he relaxed, sliding down against the side of the dumpster to face his friend. With a weary smile, he held out a fist, and with a lopsided grin Jamie bumped it with his own.
"Thanks, man," Jack said gratefully.
"No problem," Jamie replied with a shrug.
Just then, one of the burlier guys in Jack's grade passed their alley.
"Fags!" he bellowed on his way past. A weak argument, and a pointless one, but people like that existed to make people uncomfortable.
"Prick!" Jack replied almost absently, picking at the stitching on his hoodie. The remark was somewhat more justified, but then again- people like Jack just existed to annoy other people.
Jamie cast a sidelong glance at Jack. His first few weeks at Burgess had almost been scandalous- not once had there ever been a new kid with so much nerve as to interrupt teachers, prank students he didn't know and give a running commentary from the back of the classroom. But as it turned out, no-one actually knew anything about him. As weeks passed it became apparent that unless Jack Overland was actively trying to catch people's attention, he became invisible, and drifted through the school unnoticed.
Jamie started to notice, though. He noticed him on the bus with his little sister. He noticed him alone by the dumpsters at lunch. He noticed him being shoved against lockers by oblivious passer-by, and he noticed the sarcastic comments he would pass under his breath when it happened.
And as it just so happened, Jack noticed when Jamie was being pushed around too.
Some guys had cornered him outside the library after hours, making fun of him. Jamie had tried to duck away, but they grabbed him and shoved him back. His backpack was pulled down, thrown on the grown, kicked at. He was late to pick up Sophie from school, and he was panicking.
"Hey!" A voice, a tall skinny shadow. "Ever hear the saying 'pick on someone your own size'?"
Jamie assumed then that he threatened the guys with blackmail- told them that he had filmed part of the scuffle on his phone, that he could go to the police if he wanted to- but he never knew for certain. One minute he had been surrounded: the next he was free, and the only person to thank for it was that weird Overland kid.
Jack had helped him get his stuff together, and then hauled him to his feet.
"Bennet, right? Jamie Bennet?"
"Y-yeah. Hey, thanks for-"
"Don't mention it." Jack had waved it off carelessly and offered a hand. "Jack Overland. Our sisters are friends."
And just like that, so were Jack and Jamie, and suddenly school didn't seem like such an ordeal anymore.
"Someone's gonna hit you some day," Jamie commented presently, remembering he had a lunch and starting to pick at it.
"Not if I hit them first," Jack replied. His hands had gone back to fidgeting in absence of the pacing, and his head twitched crazily.
Jamie noticed this, too, with a fair amount of doubt. "Dude, you need to stop with the coffee. You're scaring me."
Then Jack looked back to him, and Jamie remembered. Whatever it takes.
"Right. Never mind."
The two boys turned their heads in unison and looked out across the quad in silence.
