Chapter Two-Hundred and Thirty-Four
Kemp glared at the teen, standing to his full height —which was still several inches shorter than John even when he was slouching. "How do you know I sent a test to your father?"
"He's not my dad." John growled, balling his fists at his sides. "And if he was planning this shit again, he wouldn't bring Beverly. He'd do it for himself. That's all he thinks about. That test, gave him the idea to take more people with him." He grit his teeth, ignoring the pain of his wisdom teeth in the back of his jaw until the inflamed gums started to bleed. "I told you. He's a psychopath, and that test, means he's coming for me and my sister."
Kemp chuckled, looking at the small amount of blood on the boy's lips. "He never signed the adoption papers; therefore, Phoebe was never legally adopted and is Jacob's child and belongs in his custody until the papers are made official."
John's eyes turned to pitch-black, making Kemp move back with the sudden change. "I swear to God… if he gets his hands on my sister, I'm coming after you."
Claire moved to touch John on the ride home, stopping when he shot her a look from the corner of his eye. "Sugar-"
"No." He snapped, his lip curling in disgust at the thought of Jacob in the open. "I don't want to hear it."
Thomas barely had time to put the car in park before John was bolting for his garage, leaving his blazer and dress shirt on the driveway. "Leave him." He ordered, taking the women of his portion of the family inside where he hoped they wouldn't hear John's fists hitting the heavy bag. "He's not safe right now."
Claire looked at her parents, biting her lip with fear. "Do… do you think… do you think he's having a flashback?" She always found it difficult to tell when he still responded to what was happening in the present, it wasn't like the ones where he was completely in the past.
Thomas nodded, meeting Clarissa's eyes as John screamed in frustration and anger. "We were afraid of this one… we knew he'd have it eventually, but we didn't know what would trigger it." He squeezed his daughter's hand, pushing his own emotions back as he thought of the tortured things going through John's head. "Don't go to him unless he comes to you for a while… he's scared, and if he's surprised, he could cause some serious harm." He thought back to when John was a bag of bones, so skinny that he was almost a skeleton. "He's not skinny and weak anymore. He's almost all muscle… and if he can cause the damage I've seen him cause when he's not panicking, I don't want to see what he can do when he is."
Claire nodded, rushing up to John's room where she could snuggle into his bed and be surrounded by even just his smell. "Please don't come for him…" She whispered, praying that Jacob wouldn't find them.