Chapter 14: Family

Jazen's POV:

I hated her voice. Hated that disapproving look on her face. Hated that I looked like her, even a little, when her hair wasn't dyed brown like it had been last time I went to prison.

"I tried to warn you. But you just don't listen, do you?" Lura sighed, as if it really bothered her. "You could've avoided this, if you had listened to me." She waved at the chains around my wrists and the one locked around my ankle. When I still didn't answer, she sighed again. "Son."

"Don't call me that," I snapped.

"You're not in the position to demand things. Figures Daniel never taught you to respect your elders."

I scoffed. "He taught me more than you."

"It's sad, really. You had so much potential. You would've made a great Imperial. Been part of a family."

"I had a family. We were perfectly okay."

Lura shrugged. "If you think someone as unstable as Daniel was 'perfect…'"

Here we go again. "Even if Dad was unstable-" Which he wasn't! But I didn't say that. As much as I wished it was true, I couldn't be sure. "-at least he was there. At least he tried to raise me."

"He took you into bars."

"He worked there, during the day. Before they sold alcoh-Wait. How do you know that?" I didn't wait for a response. "Have you seriously been stalking me since I was little?!" I grabbed the chains tightly, needing to focus, needing something to help keep my head clear. Talking to myself would only make her think she was right.

"Daniel wouldn't let me near you." Lura walked over to me, just barely touching the bruise on my jaw, making it hurt just enough to bother me. (How the hell did that bruise get there, anyway?.) I jerked away. "He said I was unstable. He thought I would hurt you."

"And he was right," I muttered. "Don't try to deny it. You tried to strangle me." Almost painfully aware of the bruises she'd left on my neck, I shook my head. "And you broke a bottle over my head once."

"I didn't recognize you. You looked like-"

I met her gaze at that. "Like I'd been on my own for a year with next to no idea what I was doing?"

She was about to answer, when someone called to her from outside, and she left with a man I only caught a glimpse of as the door shut. For awhile, I occupied myself by running through lists of the different types of weapons I knew, but eventually the I started feeling drowsy. Even with the two good dreams I had, I'd only gotten about ten hours the past three days, not counting the time I was knocked out on the way to the complex.

I was home.

But… it didn't seem cold like it had the last time I was there.

There wasn't any blood on the walls.

No Imperial bodies on the ground.

My ridiculous finger-paintings tacked onto the wall.

Dad walked into the living room, eyes bright.

Alive.

It's not real. Just a hallucination.

The door behind me opened; I turned around.

And stared at myself.

The other me looked a kind of strange to me, the hair cut neatly and brushed, not long enough to cover the eyes, bright-colored shirt and shorts.

Scarless.

Weaponless.

Grinning widely.

I watched the other me walk over and hug Dad, wishing I could feel Dad's arms around me again.

Wishing I felt safe.

It's. Not. Real. Dad is dead. This can never be. You're scarred all over. This will never happen.

But I wanted it. As the scene started to change, shifting to a memory, I tried desperately to stay where I was. Seeing Dad alive again…

"I want the spaceship!"

Daddy, with one arm full of the things he'd bought, scooped me up. "We can't afford the toy spaceship."

"But I want it!" I screamed.

Daddy didn't respond, and I pouted in his hold.

"I want it!" I repeated, louder.

"When you're ready to speak to me nicely, we can talk."

I didn't talk again.

When he set me down to buy something else, I waited until he wasn't looking.

I ran away from him and into an alley with big mud puddles.

He's being mean…

Jumping in the mud did not make me smile.

Not at all.

I heard Daddy calling me, but I didn't answer.

Mean!

Then Daddy ran into the alley I was in.

He dropped the things he'd bought and grabbed me off the ground, hugging me so tight I almost couldn't breathe.

I forgot I was mad.

He was crying.

Daddy didn't cry.

Ever.

"Jay, baby, you're okay."

"Why you crying?" I asked.

Daddy looked at me, then patted my back. "I was scared, sweetheart. Never run away from me like that. You could get hurt."

He picked up the things he had dropped, my head on his shoulder.

I'm sleepy.

"Let's go home, darling. It's been a long day." Daddy laughed quietly when I hid my face in his neck, groaning. "Looks like I have a sleepy baby."

"Not a baby," I whined.

"Sleepy little boy, then. You can go ahead of go to sleep. I gotcha."

I fell asleep in a few minutes, Daddy holding me steady with one hand.

The cell door opening startled me awake. The Inquisitor walked in, a knife in his hand. His eyes were blue like Ezra's, but I could see malice in the Inquisitor's eyes.

"Hard to believe a little kid could be such a nuisiance."

"I ain't telling you shit," I said, knowing what he was going to try.

He sighed and flicked his wrist. My head thudded against the wall once, but I refused to cry out.

"I'd advise you to think before you speak, or you'll be dead before morning." He crossed over to stand just in front of me. "I'm going to ask you some questions, and you're going to answer. If you lie to me…" I wouldn't swallow when the knife's blade pressed against my throat. "... you get cut."

He didn't move until I nodded as much as I dared.

He smiled coldly. "Let's get started then, Jazen Layne."

Hearing that he knew my middle name- No one knows my middle name. Not even Darrick!- was… unsettling. For the first time in awhile, I felt… scared of what was going to happen to me.