Sirens blared at almost a deafening tone just outside the young boy's window, but that wasn't the worst...oh no. Just outside his bedroom door his father was throwing a yelling fit and his mother was screeching, crying and crouched somewhere on the floor. He'd seen it all before, a seven year old, too many times...save for the sirens. The man's face would be glowing red like kindled embers and the woman would be pale as a corpse. Whether it was something as trivial as a sassy tone or something extreme like this they always found the time to fight.

A loud knocking came to the front door, it was so loud it felt as if the whole house would crumble beneath it. The man stopped screaming and the woman stopped crying...all was still.

"Police! Open the door!"

Still nothing moved and the boy mimicked this action by huddling in the far corner of the room near the closet. Red and blue flashes of light flitted to-and-fro from the windows and distorted, static voices rang through the night just outside the thin window of the run-down central house. A shadowy figure loomed past the window and slowly things started to come into focus, but before the boy had a chance to squint his eyes his mother screamed. The door had given way to the officer's kick and soft yet deadly clicks echoed in the depths of the house. There was struggle, but soon only frustrated cries from the man.

"Anthony and Carly Knox you are placed under arrest for the possession of..."

The boy's blood ran cold and his large eyes set wide. The officer's words trailed off into meaningless murmers. He wasn't certain what was happening, but already he could feel its effects settling in. From the rush of adrenaline a few tears seeped from his inner eye and down his pale cheeks, his body couldn't seem to keep in sync with his breathing, already he felt light-headed. Suddenly a blinding flash of light fell over him from outside the window and he recoiled as if he had never seem the light of day before.

"Hey! We've got a kid back here!"

In a flash he found himself in the arms of a large, black officer. The man's face was wet with perspiration, but he smelt rich like some cologne one only comes across once. He felt secure with this man, his frail arms wrapped around the officer's thick neck, and legs hanging almost uselessly in total submission. When they had made their way out of the doorway the boy looked around at the compact living room. Things were strewn everywhere, even the tables were turned upside-down save for one everyone was gathered around studying a powdery substance and the couch that had been stripped down and revealed to contain many white bricks labeled in red lettering and tape. He was too busy staring intently at the new discovery to hear the officer's full discussion with his fellows, only distorted bits.

"Yeah. The door was locked and everything. Probably been there for days...looks hungry. I'm taking him back to the station and CPS can take it from there."

Soon they stepped outside into the cool night air. Things were less calm outside, people were fussing with two shadowy figures near one of the patrol cars. As the officer walked closer to his own car the boy was able to make out the monsterous figures as his own parents...but they looked different than the last time he saw them, when that was he couldn't quite recall. It was so hard to tell time...especially when you weren't schooled to tell it. Their skin was sallow, eyes sunken in and blazing with an intense fire. From their nose trickled a stream of blood that ran over their upper lips and down into their mouths...he couldn't look at them too long. He pressed his head into the officer's shoulder, but one eye kept a vigilant gaze on his parents. His mother had vanished into the car and his father was in the process of being shoved in. Their eyes met for a split second and that was it...he lost it.

"Piece of shit! This is all your fault, you god damn mistake!"

The boy didn't have time to react, his vigilant eye remained wide with some undistinguished human emotion. The door closed on the unhappy couple and the car started up, smoke emitting from its back from the cold autumn air. As the car turned around the boy saw the woman slam her face into the window and scream something, but it only came out as a muffled whimper.

"I love you, baby! We'll come back for you!"

With that the car vanished down the road enveloped in the smoke the old exhaust pipe spewed out...everything he knew died that night.

Jack shot up in bed so fast he thrust his head back against the headboard with a loud thump. Cursing rather loudly he winced and gripped the back of his head tightly for a moment. His hand fell limply back onto the sheets and he took in a few deep, shaky breaths before slinging his legs over the edge of the cot. Wincing still he cupped his face in his hands and nuzzled into his hands for comfort. He could feel his skin wet with perspiration and tears...but those were quickly wiped away with disgust. As he lifted his head again he took another steady breath before he leaned over to the bed-side stand and picked up the receiver of the phone. Placing it to his ear he impatiently awaited for the pick-up.

"Hello?" came a groggy voice of response.

"I need a fix."

"What the fuck?" the voice responded in a more awake, annoyed manner. "It's 3:30 in the fucking morning."

"And you're not up?" Jack responded dryly, "Listen, I don't give a shit. I need something and I need it now."

"Bad dream?" The man responded like he understood.

"...yeah." Jack retorted with some difficulty. He brushed some hair from his face and held it there on his scalp-line.

"Christ. Dream of chicks instead of the past. That's a better hit than you're ever gonna get."

"Yeah? Well maybe it's the shit you're giving me that's making my nights a living hell."

"You'd come crawling back to me...you've got nowhere else to go, you son-of-a-bitch." The man on the other line chuckled and seemed a bit more vivacious than before.

"I'm coming over," Jack didn't pay any mind to the man's amusement.

"Cecilia and Callada are here. Give me a break...wait until the morning."

"Perfect. I'll be right over."

Without waiting for a response Jack hung up the receiver. By now the land lady of the adobe boarding house was stirring, her heavy body made the very floorboards creak as well as the stairs. She lived on the bottom floor, so naturally when she came up it was easy to mistake her for one of those infamous earthquakes the area was prone to. Jack didn't make much noise, he himself was fairly thin and cautious. As he tugged on a pair of jeans he listened to the dying off rumble of the land-lady descending down the stairs. He was buttoning his shirt just as he walked out the door and descended down the stairs.

By 3:45 Jack was on his way to Alejandro's already wired, but not yet recovered. Some of Ale's shit would calm his nerves...and the twins were a bonus.