In his unconsciousness, Jack's mind wandered.
He was standing in a cobble stone square. Dark shrouded people were all around him, their heads bent low as if in mourning. A cold breeze blew through Jack's core and he folded his arms for warmth. When he looked down, he saw that he was wearing a pair of green Converses, khaki shorts, and a red polo shirt. On his head was a baseball cap but when he took it off, there were words on it, but he couldn't read them.
When he looked back up, he saw a lone white figure wading through the see of black forms.
"Hey!" Jack called out to it, but the figure didn't respond.
Jack cleared his throat and tried again, "Hello?"
A pang of fear shot through his body. What was that noise? What that his voice? It sounded so weak and frail.
"Jack?" the ethereal voice met his ears, "Where are you baby?" it was frantic.
"I'm here!" he called.
The white figure turned to him.
"There you are! Don't you ever run off like that again! I was worried sick about you!" The figure shoved it's way through the crowd of black shrouds, "I was so worried," it wept as it took Jack's tiny body up in its arms.
That smell… apples… His mother had always smelled like apples…
"Mom?" he breathed.
"Yes, Jacky, it's Momma! And don't you ever run off like that again!"
His face was on fire. Tears dribbled down his cheeks, lightly darkening his mother's robe.
"But how?" hiss tiny voice cried, "You're dead…"
"Out there I am, but in your heart, I am not. Everything is alright now that I've finally found you."
"Oh, Mom," Jack sighed as he let his eyes close gently.
When next he opened them, he was standing in a world lit by a terrible fire in the sky. Everything was charred; the trees, the earth…
Jack looked down at himself once more. He was wearing his old black outfit again, but the bare flesh of his hands was covered in lacerations from the fire. He moaned slightly as the heat took hold of him.
"Jack…" it was a pathetic voice.
"Mom?"
Jack turned behind himself. Lying on the ground, clawing at the ground, was the charred form of his mother."
"MOM!" he screeched as he ran to her side.
"It hurts…" she whispered.
"I… I know. How can I stop it?"
"Make the pain go away…"
"How?" he cried.
"Get back at him…"
"What?"
"Revenge! Please Jack, make him pay for this pain he's caused me…"
Jack looked into his mother's cloudy eyes. In their wet reflection, he saw his own distorted face. His red eyes were small with vertical pupils. On the left side of his face, where he had always added a slight curve to his make-up, there was a maze of black lines. At first it looked geometric, but when he looked deeper into his mother's eyes, he saw faces in the marks, screaming faces. He screamed and turned away.
"Who," he wept, "Who do I have to make suffer?"
"A strong man…" she wheezed, "Not tall, but muscular…" Jack's mind raced, "He had eyes… Terrible eyes that glowed even in the fire… His tiny pupils looked like a snake's eyes… I was going to get you…" Jack's heart was beating uncontrollably, "Long… black hair… he said he was repaying a favor… Oh Jack, I was going to get you…"
"Chase…" he growled.
"I was going to get you…"
"Shh," he put his finger on her lips, but it was a sharp claw that landed there instead, "What's happening to me?" he cried.
"Please make him pay for our suffering… It was you that I was looking for…"
"No," he cried as her eyes shut on him.
Jack clenched his hands into fists as he starred helplessly at his mother's body.
"It's my fault. I promise, no matter what… I'll find a way to make Chase pay…"
The anger rose in his body. With a violent roar, Jack lifted one of his fists and slammed it into his mother's body. The charred remains fell apart into flakes of dust that soaked into Jack's black clothes.
"I won't let you down…" he wept, "I promise…"
A/N: BTW, today's word of the day on google was germaine - "appropriate or fitting; relevant". I just thought that that was pretty funny... (you know... like Jermaine? Tell me if I'm stretching it too much...)