Chapter 36 - A Dream

Jack spent the rest of the day with Teresa in her room, either chatting or eating meals. No one except Richard came to call on her, and that was only to hand her trays of food.

When it was around dusk, Teresa asked Jack to leave so she could rest. She explained she had eaten too much and was drowsy. Jack was extremely disappointed, but he did understand she needed rest. She looked exhausted, simply because of the way she slouched in her chair or kept yawning.

Jack stood up to leave as Teresa tugged a robe out of her closet.

He said, "Bye," and she replied with a smile, but it didn't suffice for him. He had the door halfway open but closed it again. She looked up questioningly. "What is it?"

Jack left the door closed and walked up to her. He stood a couple of feet away. His brain tried to come up with an appropriate sentence for what he felt, and when he had stood there for almost a minute, with Teresa looking at him with an eyebrow raised, Jack simply took another step forward and kissed her. She went completely rigid as she sucked in a breath and held it. She was so stunned that she didn't kiss back.

Jack didn't hold the kiss for too long. Maybe a few seconds. Mainly because she didn't kiss him back. He wasn't hurt. Not after looking at her shocked face. When he pulled away, she was still frozen. But she licked her lower lip and let go of the robe. It swung back into the closet. "Um."

Jack finally looked away from her face. "Uh... Okay, 'bye." He resisted the urge to flee the room, and walked out as slowly as his legs would allow him. She didn't call him back. As he walked towards the grand staircase he was feeling more and more tense, and vulnerable. Maybe he shouldn't have left like that. As he was lost in his thoughts he had already made it down the stairs, and was heading towards his own room.

On his way, he bumped into Tracy, and snapped back to reality. "I've been looking for you all day!" She exclaimed. "Where have you been?"

"Uh..."

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Did you have another...episode again?"

Jack frowned irritably. He didn't like that word, episode. "No."

"Did you find out what that was? Did you go to the doctor?"

"No. Tracy, I just, want to go lie down. I'm tired."

Tracy smiled suddenly, suggestively. "Mind if I join you?"

Jack felt his annoyance move up a notch, but he kept a straight face. Then he stroked Tracy's hair. "Nope."

Once inside he let Tracy unbutton his shirt, but she noticed right away that he was distracted. So she stopped and asked if he was feeling all right. "No," he said quietly, and looked out of his window at the pool. Of course, Teresa was not there. She was in her room, sleeping.

Tracy left Jack's shirt open and brushed his hair back. "Let me go, then," she suggested. She seemed a trifle icy, but Jack didn't care. Nodding, he lay down in his bed and turned his back to her. "Make sure you lock the door on your way out," he reminded her.

"Okay."

He heard the door click shut, and he checked to make sure she had indeed locked it. He didn't trust anyone.

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Jack had visited Amusement Mile twice. During the past couple of Halloweens that he had been living at the Moxon Estate. He had been with his friends - well, the closest friends he could afford to have, which wasn't very much more than aquaintances. They had done all the usual stuff, playing side games and smashing the thing with the hammer. Jack was quite sure that both years they had spent the longest time there.

He had been reluctant to go near the end of the Mile, where he knew his mother had been attacked all those years ago. As far as he knew, the same act was still continued.

Now he was there again, lights flashing and kids screaming in a distant ferris wheel or teacup ride. Beams of lights were cast into the cloudy night sky, fanning back and forth.

Although throngs of people blocked the long, straight road, Jack could see a flash of the bobbing boats and glistening water that ended in a dock. It sloped down slightly, giving him a great view of the crowds. There was a cotton candy vendor to his right, and Jack walked airily to him and paid for a dark purple-hued one that sat in by itself. Jack had never seen cotton candy that color, only baby-pink or pale blue. So he had to have it.

As he tore of tufts of the cotton and stuffed it into his mouth, Jack walked down the street towards the boats. It seemed to take forever, especially with all the stupid people in the way.

When Jack went to take another piece, he cut his finger. Yanking his hand back he looked down and saw that there was no cotton candy. It was a knife. His finger continued to bleed, so he put that in his mouth and sucked away the blood, tasting the salty bitterness. The taste was so sharp and disgusting. He wished he had some cotton candy.

Jack checked his finger and heard a scream. He looked up, and saw that the crowds had thinned dramatically. Hours had passed in seconds. Stalls and games were shutting down, putting closed signs on nails or turning off flashing neon lights.

He could see people lurking around, most of them looking uneasy in a quiet and deserted amusement park. A carousel tinkled music to his left. It turned slowly, with no one seated on any of the untamed horses.

Jack heard a scream. It was coming from the end of the road. No one was around. Everything was closed.

Jack felt nervous to be all by himself. Sort of like being in a closet, all dark and no air.

Or like the trunk of a car. All dark and no air. Wait. That sounded familiar.

He was almost out of there anyway. A few more steps and it would be over. Jack looked over the edge of a dock and saw black, inky water. The water sloshed around the pillars propping up the dock, but they made banging noises instead of water sounds. He let go of what he was carrying. But his hand was caught in the handle. Jack gave a cry as he fell over the edge and into the water.

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Jack was only half awake when his ears could hear his surroundings. That banging continued from his dream into his first conscious moments. It grew louder and more insistent. Jack finally forced his eyes open and thought that the ceiling looked a lot higher than usual. Then he realized he was on the floor, tangled in the sheets, which clung to his moist skin. "I'm up!" He yelled hoarsely to get whoever was banging on his door to stop making all that noise.

The noise stopped, and Jack disentangled himself from the sheets and stood up. When he opened the door he discovered Tracy standing there. "What do you want?" He demanded irritably. "You woke me up, you know?"

"I know. I think I dropped my earring in there."

"That's why you were knocking so hard?"

"No. That's after I could hear you talking."

"What if I was on the phone?"

She pushed past him gently and searched around on the floor. "You didn't open the door right away."

She lifted up the sheets and tossed them back onto the bed. "Here it is." As she put the earring back on, she glanced at the blanket. "Did you fall off the bed?"

"Yeah. I have to look for something. It should be around here somewhere. I'll just talk to you later all right?"

"Sure. What are you going to look for?"

"Some old medical reports."

Tracy frowned and fixed her hair. "Whose?"

Jack glanced at his closet, knowing he would probably find it soon. "My mother's."

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A/N: Sorry, I'm terrible at romantic scenes.