Please enjoy the 7th chapter of the Magic's in the Moon. See end of chapter for notes. Sorry it took so long.
Jackson has his head bowed, lying on his folded arms that are draped across his knees. He doesn't bother looking up because he knows where he is, and even if he did it'd be like looking into an abyss. And an abyss is what is was, a dark, endless, some how cramp, and cold place. No matter where you looked the darkness enveloped your senses with it's thick coating.
It's properties are all too familiar to young Jackson who has dreamed this nightmare several times before. He tries to hide from it, behind the protection of his arms, but the chill, the empty feeling still seeps in to his bones.
The Abyss is quite, except for it's tendency to reverberate the sounds of others, such as the sounds of a tired, lonely and scared young man. Jackson tries to fight it, the black fog clawing at his throat, because he's a stubborn young man and he'll be damned if he dies this way.
But it's too late, the darkness is upon him, and with it a set of epiphanies. As the darkness slithers up his spine and across his knees, his breathing becoming shallow as it does, he realizes this is the end. He is going to be alone forever. He'll never see his Mom or his Dad again. He'll never be what he wanted to be. The love of his life was only a dream, and he'll never be able to experience it.
He can't help the sobs that break through then, not even if he wanted too. His tears cascade down the black ooze enveloping his body, they too disappear in the Abyss.
He won't lie, he tries to sink deeper in to the Abyss now, with the coming realization of his fruitless existence. He's still afraid, still scared of the cramp, dark, and cold nothingness, but he resigns to his fate.
And as he sinks deeper and deeper, white tears fall from his clamped shut eyes and float on the darkness like a feather. But Jackson only feels the dark, ever present, overwhelming, suffocating, painful, feeling of loneliness as his whole being sinks deeper and deeper.
Scott twiddles his thumbs by Jackson's side, hunched over from his spot on the bed. Jackson lays farther up the bed ,wrapped in a plethora of blankets to keep his fever down. Scott traces the outlines of Jackson's person with his eyes, unable to help himself, and it serves it's purpose.
But alas a distraction can only last for so long, the effects of his actions from earlier are still daunting to him. Scott, for lack of a better word, freaked out. When he came in to view of the police at the hospital a moment earlier the scene before him set his wolf into a frenzy. Some invisible force was setting his nerves on edge. Scott, never one to doubt his instincts, fled the scene. Now, only two hours later, the moment still seemed like a blur and he can't help but associate the moment with an intense feeling of fear.
Never the less, what's done is done. Scott can't think of another way to summarize it. So instead he sits by Jackson's side, as a comforting presence for when he wakes up. Scott shivers as he touches the cold skin of Jackson's ankle. He thinks aloud, with an edge of frustration, "When will you stop feeling like a Popsicle ?"
He didn't expect a reply but more questions do come to mind. "What were you doing outside Jackson ?" he says to no one.
Just then the doorbell rings and Jackson curls closer to Scott.
" How did you get out ?" He says looking up at the open window. It's all the way on the third floor and yet there is no sign of Jackson, not even an crippled heap of blood and limbs on the concrete below the hospital window.
He halts his search when the police lights start flashing this way. He hides himself in the dark crevice of shadows of the hospital walls, for extra measure, he turns invisible.
As the police look up at the open window of room 301, he ponders the aforementioned question; How did he get out ?
If he truly has no memory of his past life then he couldn't have teleported, but there isn't any other way he could have gotten out without breaking a limb or two.
Stiles steps out of the shadows as the police turn their heads, though he's still invisible. He thinks about his mother's car in the parking lot and after a cacophony of howling wind and loud static he's there.
He walks few steps to his mother's car, thinking he should probably be discreet while continuing his search. He heads off in the direction of the road in order to look for more clues as to why Jackson had disappeared so suddenly.
The phrase "It might not have been by choice." crosses his mind a few times.
" Excuse me ?"
"I said have you seen Jackson Whittemore ?"
" You mean the guy in the hospital ?" Scott says to the police man. As soon as he heard the doorbell ring a moment before he became hit with the brunt of an intense fear again. He tried to calm his nerves before answering the door but to no avail.
Now the cop stands at the door, his expression is mildly annoyed, he must have been doing this for a while Scott guessed. " What happened ?" he says to the officer.
" Well the kid has disappeared from the hospital ?" The officer says. " The Whittemores are just making sure he didn't run off or something."
"So...what do I have to do with this ?"
"I'm asking if you've seen him kid."
"Well I haven't...so" He says a bit too quickly and the cop eyes him suspiciously.
"You sure you never swung by, to satisfy your curiosity ?"The officer says. " I'm sure the town's been talking 'bout it for weeks."
"Yeah. I don't even know the guy."
"Really ? Cause your mother tells me she caught you and your friend Stiles coming out of room 301, Jackson's room, a couple of weeks ago."
Scott's heart thrashes against his chest and he struggles to think over the sound of it. " That-that was a-"
"Save it. What were you doing in Jackson's room kid ?" the cop jabs an accusing finger into Scott's chest.
Just then Jackson's wail cuts through the house.
Scott was the first to turn around but the cop shoves him out of the way. Scott's brain finally kicks into gear. And so does his wolf.
The two bound for the stairs and Scott has to buck the officer to the side to get ahead, the officer is left to gather his rattled wits. Scott finally appears at the door of his room.
The lights are off and he can barely make out Jackson's defeated form sitting at the edge of the bed. Scott moves a bit closer until Jackson registers that someone else is in the room. His eyes trace back up to Scott's face until cold green meet with hot amber.
In that moment Scott's heart catches in his throat and Jackson's eyes soften. Scott reaches out a tentative hand and Jackson eyes it dubiously. He does outstretch his hand though, and that makes Scott smile more than he probably should. But the sound of a body bulldozing the slightly closed door wide open steals the moment away from them.
"Hold it right there!" the officer says passionately. He has his firearm aimed at Scott's back but he eyes a frightened Jackson on the bed. The officer fumbles slightly with his weapon as Scott turns an impassioned amber glare on him.
But Jackson's not so bold in the face of a weapon,no, he looks towards the forest instead of the gunman and shuts his eyes. Before Scott can turn his head Jackson's gone ,in a gush of wind that sounded like the call of wolves, and Scott is left staring at his room's view of the forest.
He doesn't even have time to wonder where Jackson has gone as he is tackled to the ground by a brute of a police officer. "Scott McCall, I'm taking you in. You have the right to-"
But Scott ignores the rest because he's pretty sure his life just collapsed but the only thing he's worried about is why he feels so empty all of a sudden.
Stiles stops at another stop light and lets out his frustration in a big exhale of air. He hadn't been able to find any clues to Jackson's whereabouts, but there was this odd pair skid marks he saw on his way back from the hospital. But he couldn't get much from them.
'I swear to God—My mom better be alright you son of a bitch' says the other voice inside his head. His frustration only builds at the sound of the child in his head. 'I'm not a child, asshole' it says again. He groans aloud and rubs circles at his temples. Although he does wonder if it was necessary to use a frying pan on Mrs. Stilinski, surely she is okay by now. 'What, have you gone soft now' says the other voice inside his head, not the child though, it's her own.
The light turns green before Stiles has a chance to reply. But as soon as Stiles presses the gas he stomps on the breaks. She can see an energy trail glowing bright blue in the night sky signifying the path traveled by a teleporter, and it's directed towards the forest.
"Jackson." She breathes aloud and she gets out of the car and starts towards the forest.
Thank you so much for reading this chapter. These past few months it's been hard finding inspiration and getting this story back on track, hopefully it will keep coming.
