I didn't want to write this chapter until I started writing it and decided to add something not planned halfway through.
Anyway, here ya go!
TW: Active abuse
~TH~
Jack's eyes snapped open, he was breathing heavily, unwilling to move. He listened for a sound that might have awoken him but didn't hear anything. He guessed that was a good thing.
He let his eyes slide shut and a hand run over his face. It was Saturday. He didn't have to go to school. He also had a bag full of food shoved in his dresser.
The bag had come out of nowhere. He had opened his locker to find it. On the way home, he had eaten one of the bars and it was heavenly. He couldn't remember something ever tasting so good. It had melted chocolate on the bottom. He hadn't had chocolate in months. It was amazing.
And Snyder had been out last night. He had the apartment to himself. He had cleaned up best he could, knowing that the Spider expected it of him, but other than that, he was free to do whatever he wanted. He had thought about sleeping without the fear of him coming in, but had ended up painting. Ms Medda had told him to take some things home, so he had. He started the freedom project, ready to prove the stuck up smart kids wrong.
All in all, it had been a really good night. And since he still had food, it wouldn't be a miserable weekend.
"Kelly!"
Okay, maybe I shouldn't count on that.
He wasted no time following the voice. It would just make Snyder angrier if he wasn't there quickly. He met Snyder who was holding a wrapper in his hand.
"What's this!" He shouted.
Jack flinched, his eyes darting between the wrapper and the man's face. It must have fallen out of his pocket.
"Answer me!"
"I-it's a wrapper, sir." This was going to end badly. He knew it was.
Snyder let out an angry laugh, "I'd say it's a wrapper! Where did it come from?"
"I don't know, sir." That wasn't a lie. He had no idea where the food had come from.
"You don't know? You don't know. Then I suppose it just appeared out of thin air because I've never seen this wrapper before in my life!" He stopped yelling and brought his voice low and condescending. "Now, did you eat this bar and leave the wrapper?"
Jack could feel his heart pounding in his chest. He should have double-checked. He should have made sure that the wrapper was thrown away or hidden. Why did he have to be so stupid?! "Yes, sir."
"And where did you get it?"
"I-I found it, sir."
"You found it? Really now? Are you sure you didn't steal it?"
No no no. He hadn't. He really hadn't. "No sir, I found it."
The first hit really shouldn't have been unexpected. "What have I told you about stealing, Kelly? One wrong move and I can have you thrown in Juvie. Don't think I won't do it!"
He knew that. He knew he wouldn't think twice about it. And then he wouldn't get money from the state and he would-
"You steal and you bring attention to yourself! You steal something like food and people start suspecting things, do you understand?"
"Y-yes, sir."
"I don't think you do! If you are telling the truth and you found it-" he paused a look of realization crossing his face. He rammed Jack into the wall, cuasing the boy to cry out. "Did someone give this to you? Are you talking to people?" He was pinned there, unable to move other than the frantic shaking of his head.
"I'm not, I'm not. I don't talk to people. I swear. I don't want to cause trouble. I was just hungry."
"So you admit you stole it?"
Jack continued to breathe heavily. He could deny it, say again that he had found it, but Snyder would just accuse him of lying. And whatever he got for stealing would be better than if he thought that he had talked to people about this. About the abuse. About the constant hunger that never seemed to really go away.
"Y-yes. I-I'm sorry. Please, sir, I promise I won't do it again. Just please, don't call the police." He knew he wouldn't. If he did, they would come and see the empty cabinets and the nearly empty bedroom and they'd ask questions about the bruises and scars. But it still scared him. The last time he'd had the cops called on him he'd only been standing up for his brother. The group leader's nephews, the Delancy brothers, had gone beyond simple name-calling and had gotten physical. Jack wouldn't allow it. He'd done significantly less damage than the two boys but it had been him to get carted away in handcuffs. He'd been given a choice then, Snyder or Juvie. He wished he'd chosen Juvie.
The Spider looked at him with a calculating look, "Fine. I won't call them this time, but you need to learn your lesson."
Then the blows came. One after another. Agony spreading throughout his body in sudden bursts. There was no rhyme or reason to the sharp pains that came with each blow. Jack had no way to protect himself. He covered his face, particularly his eyes, those were the hardest to hide. He mentally laughed amongst the abuse, Getting soaked and my only priority is to keep Snyder's secret.
He wasn't sure how long it lasted, but eventually, he felt the blows stop. He remained curled on the floor, trying to force himself to breathe in between sobs that he had tried and failed to stop. Snyder pulled him up and dragged him to Jack's bedroom. He pulled him up so he could half-whisper, half shout into his ear.
"Listen here boy, you know what I'm capable of and what I will do. Don't EVER lie to me again or you won't be the only one to regret it."
Jack was thrown to the floor where he lay gasping as Snyder slammed the door shut.
~N~
He didn't want to move. Moving was the last thing he wanted to do. He wanted to lay on the floor forever. But he couldn't. If he didn't get up now he might never get up. He worked his way onto his knees, pushing up on all fours. Jack leaned his forehead down on the floor, trying to gather both the mental and physical strength to move.
Eventually, he was able to push himself up on unsteady feet. He stumbled to his bed where he sat on the edge, just breathing. Just breathing and trying not to cry. He was sick of this. Sick of getting beat for the smallest step out of line. Snyder just continually got worse. The beatings hadn't been this frequent since his initial arrival.
Jack wrapped an arm around his ribs, willing himself to stand. It took more effort than he liked, but he made it to his dresser. He opened the top drawer. The plastic bag sat there, still holding several bars. They had caused a lot of trouble for him, but it was still food. It still took away the unbearable gnawing that accompanied him on weekends.
He grabbed one out of the bag. So long as he hid the wrappers, there was no reason to let them go to waste.
~TH~
Okay, so not to be needy but PLEASE COMMENT!
I really want/need to know if you guys love this story as much as I do because I haven't liked a story this much since I first started writing DKOT (and I actually have an outline for this one and am not just making it up as I go).
So PLEASE COMMENT.
The longer the better.
Anyway...
Back to school with the next chapter.
There will be some ups and down coming up.
That is for certain.
Hope to have the new chapter up fairly soon because I'm super excited to write it.
Thanks for reading!
God bless,
Jamie
