Jesse threw the trap door down to the ground, turning gravely toward the living room, his breathing growing quicker as he wondered why they'd come back. Had they seen something? Did they know something he didn't? They'd already come once today, though that was for the sighting of Lena at the bar- they'd done their usual beating, and besides the knife that sliced down his arm, it was business as usual, he figured.
Warily walking through the living room, he remained in the middle of the room as he stared through the window, the three black-clad men stomping up toward the door, a heavy series of knocks ringing through the home, the final one leaving a particularly vicious tone running through the small building. Jesse groaned as he slowly approached the door, reaching out to grab the handle, twisting it open.
In the split second that he began to pull it open, the door flew into him as the leader of the three men kicked it inward, knocking Jesse backward, and although he stumbled, he remained standing, his head lowered as he leered at them through his disheveled hair that fell in front of his face. The main man cocked his head back toward his cronies, one of them closing the door as the three of them entered.
"Jesse."
"Joshua," Jesse replied, coldly.
The leader of the three, Joshua, grinned snarkily, shaking his head in feigned disbelief, "But you're wondering why we're back today."
"It did cross my mind, yes."
Chuckling behind his closed mouth, Joshua slowly pulled his gloves from his hands, which signaled to Jesse that he wasn't planning on touching anything and leaving evidence, though that had absolutely no bearing on whether or not his two henchmen would do the same. Joshua sighed lightly, crossing his arms in front of himself.
"Now, we've been running circles, all day, trying to find that bitch Miles talked about, but we've got nothing to show for it. Nothing. Nothing that she was even here, ever," Joshua muttered, shrugging, "Now, either Miles is lying- and I highly doubt that; he still has a wife and child to run home to- or that chick is hiding somewhere. We turned that entire town upside down lookin' for her-"
He dramatically rose his arms into the air as he shrugged, "-again, nothing."
"Now," he continued, directing his open palms toward himself for emphasis, "I don't care whether or not she shrivels up, dead, in the middle of the desert. I just want to make sure that you're abiding by our little arrangement and aren't withhold information. We should trust one another, right? What was it that Sally said?"
Jesse's eyes grew vacant as he muttered in reply, "Trust each other."
"Ex-actly," Joshua smiled, waving for his two underlings to begin their operation, "Now, Pete and Victor are going to do another one-over on your home here, just to make sure everything is, uh, 'kosher', you know."
The two men fanned out, Jesse eyeing them through narrow eyes as they did so, making sure to keep as straight of a face as he could. Joshua, on the other hand, sighed in exhaustion as he noticed a chair lying somewhat beneath the pile of destruction from earlier, pulling it up and sitting down, lazily, crossing his legs as he whipped out a cigarette.
"Jesse, be a pal and get me a lighter, would you?"
With a droll expression, Jesse turned to leave the room, only for a moment, as he returned, tossing a lighter over toward the man, who returned an appreciative nod before lighting up, "Thanks. I tell you, no matter how hot it gets, there's nothing like a good swig, wouldn't you say?"
"I don't smoke," Jesse explained, emotionlessly.
Joshua clicked his tongue in sarcastic knowing, gently tapping his palm into his forehead, "That's right, that's right; Leslie hated that you did that. My bad."
He lackadaisically tossed the lighter over his shoulder as he finished, looking up at Jesse as he comfortable leaned his head back, "I can trust you, right?"
"I suppose," Jesse shrugged, "I have no reason to lie."
Joshua pulled his cigarette from his mouth, pointing it toward Jesse, "See, I think you're wrong about that. You know why I let you keep that cube of yours, wherever it is now? Because I was meticulous, masterful even, about how to cripple you to your absolute weakest. I took your wife, your kids; I took everything from you except that cube. Why? Because I know you want nothing more than to go back to that life. Escape this life a second time. Well, you know what? You can't have that either."
He sucked from his cigarette again, closing his eyes pleasurably, before continuing, "You can't hold somebody down without staying down with them. Luckily, I've nowhere to go, my friend."
Jesse eyed him angrily, his hand wanting nothing more to form, angrily, into a fist, though he already knew that any form of retaliation would be met with more pain inflicted upon him. Suddenly, a scraping sound began to his left, his head quickly turning to see one of the henchmen kicking the cube along the ground from out of the kitchen.
Joshua immediately sat up, intrigued by the device as the crony kicked it along, taking the cigarette from his mouth, "Well I'll be… Now, out of everything in this room, how did this get into the kitchen? Hmm? Doing a little reminiscing, perhaps?"
Jesse watched the two, keeping as straight of a face as he could as the two men watched him, curiously. Out of nowhere, however, the second underling came from behind him, swinging a gun through the air and pistol whipping Jesse in the back of the head, forcing his body to collapse onto the floor with a massive *THUD*. Joshua made an immediate b-line toward him, falling onto one knee as he reached down, grabbing a handful of Jesse's hair and yanking his head up from the ground.
"Who's been here?" he demanded, allowing only an ounce of his anger to escape through his voice, "Somebody from Overwatch?"
Still left in a daze, Jesse barely even understood that he was being addressed, much less what the man's words were. Joshua stared at his face with dissatisfaction, dropping his head back onto the ground as he stood back up, shaking his head before turning toward the crony who'd hit him.
"Easier next time, please," Joshua sighed, "Now we can't get anything out of him. We'll come back tomorrow after he's recovered; I'm not about to run around after sundown. Although, if nothing were here in the morning, it'd just make our jobs easier…"
He dropped the cigarette from his fingers, watching as it hit the wooden floor beneath him, lazily kicking it to the side as it rolled down in between the cracks between planks, shrugging as he looked back up toward his underlings, "Well, let's get on out of here, I suppose. He's not going anywhere either."
With that, the three men made their own way out as Joshua pulled his black leather gloves back on, tilting his head to the side as if stretching out his neck before leaving, the two other men following suit, leaving Jesse huddled on the ground, lifelessly, all along to be incinerated by the coming fire.
Lena grimaced angrily as she listened to whoever-that-was speak to Jesse that way, her two fists clenched angrily as she tried all that she could to retain her emotions and keep from tearing through the floor. She could tell that Jesse was down and out, however, and know that she'd immediately be taken out anyway, though she quickly ran through all the scenarios that she could in her head, trying whatever she could to-
She felt a light tap onto her head, causing her to jump in surprise as she whipped her head around, half-expecting a ghost to have emerged behind her and tapped her, though she saw no such thing. She sighed, relieved, just as she heard the door close, signaling the thug's leaving. She groaned aloud, thinking of Jesse's condition as a new sensation emerged atop her head, her eyes growing wide as she painfully shot upward, her body hitting the floor above her as she cried out, both from the burning at her scalp and the shock from her back smashing against the floor.
"YOW!" she shouted out, brushing her hair, surprised to find a cigarette being tossed out and onto the ground, still steaming as she reached over with a fist, smashing it until its light was snuffed out completely, angrily looking up through the slats toward Jesse.
She frowned, unamused, "Emily's gonna kill me."
Jesse's eyes opened tiredly to the sight of Lena begrudgingly straightening up his miniscule living room, mumbling to herself with some unpleasant British slander. Lying on top of his couch, which had had all of its cushions knifed through, he turned his head upward, groaning aloud as a sharp pain rushed through his skull as he did so, alerting Lena to his having woken up.
"Oh! Morning!" she shouted, shaking her head, "Y'know how insane this place is, I'm finding out every other second?!"
"I told you to leave," Jesse complained, holding his hands up to the top of his head, trying to compress the pain away.
Lena only argued back, pulling the stool from the kitchen over as she sat beside him, "Nuh uh; now you've got me in the thick of it. And because of that, I'm going to need some answers."
"I told you," Jesse groaned, "Everything I said-"
"Some real answers," Lena grumbled, childishly, "Who are those assholes? Why can't you leave here?"
She cocked her leg back, kicking Jesse's side as she shouted along, "Why- didn't- you- tell- me- you- had- a- family!"
Stopping after her point had been made, she stewed atop the stood, angrily giving Jesse the stare down, his lips twisted in pain from her assault as he spoke up, "Fine, fine…"
He groaned, dropping his arms to his sides as he began, "Those 'assholes' are from the Deadlock gang. Seems they took offense to me selling them out- go figure, right? As to why I can't leave- they killed my family. I can't leave until I've killed each of them. Simple as that."
While his nonchalance at saying that irked Lena, she'd seen enough violence that day to simply shrug it off, only lowering her shoulders defeatedly before reaching over for a bottle of whiskey she'd found in the kitchen, pouring a glass, "Well, you answered my question, so I figure you deserve something."
"Still training me, huh?" he managed, lightly, as he pushed himself up against the arm of the couch to accept the glass, "Thanks."
"I wouldn't have tried so hard to do so had I known you had a wife doing the same thing," Lena frowned, "You were a wild dog when you joined up- I hadn't a choice."
Jesse grinned as he took a sip of his drink, "If it's in fairness, I was a wild dog when I met Leslie, too."
As the alcohol immediately began to work its numbing magic, Jesse shook his head to try and shake away his headache as Lena watched him, sadly, "What was she like?"
Sighing, Jesse's eyes escaped hers, trying to avoid the question, though Lena was onto him, "You don't get another glass until you answer."
"This is almost as bad as after that mission in Dorado," Jesse groaned, rubbing his face, allowing Lena a quick giggle as she recalled his reference.
He lowered his head, breath heavily leaving his nose as he shut his eyes, slowly speaking as his mind ached alongside his memories, "She was…different. She wasn't like any other woman I've met. I never thought such toughness could fit into such a beautiful package."
Lena reached over, gently pouring some more whiskey into his glass as he chuckled, watching her with plain eyes as he shook his head, "She broke me in like a wild horse. I did everything I could to not play by the book, and then she came along…."
He stopped, more to ensure he wouldn't begin to shed any tears, and sighed a bit, turning his body so that his feet could meet the ground, leaning over as he held his glass down between his legs, his elbow resting at his knee, "There is no forgiveness for what those men did. but that's why they did it- to keep me here. Trapped. Trapped by my sense of loyalty, which wasn't upheld in my relationship to the Deadlock gang. I guess it's poetic in a sense."
Lena leaned over toward him, "Well, I guess it's time to plan that vengeance of yours and get you out of here."
Jesse chuckled weakly, "Lena, those three men are more deadly than-"
"Oh, I heard you the first time," Lena nodded, "But I've got backup coming."
"Backup…" Jesse muttered, managing the slightest of grins as his mind wandered off.
He slowly stood up, clutching onto the arm of the couch to support his unsteady legs, muttering quietly to himself before turning toward Lena, "You get on the couch tonight. Omnics're out at night, so you're stuck here. You leave first thing tomorrow morning. Call off that 'backup'. This is my battle, alright? If I kill myself doing this, that's just as well; I'm not getting anybody else killed."
Lena jumped to her feet, "Hey! You wouldn't have gotten what you did if I hadn't been stupid enough to carry that block in there!"
"I don't blame you for that at all," he replied, "Who'd 've thought. Just-"
"Jesse!" Lena cried out, pleadingly, "Just let me help you! Don't you know, I looked up to you! You were like a big brother to me! You couldn't do a single thing wrong; you were my hero on that squad! Don't you understand how much it hurts me to see you like this?!"
Her words seemed to faze him, as he paused, staring down at the ground, distantly. His head began to turn over his shoulder, weakly enough, though he quickly abandoned the effort, returning to looking ahead as he slowly walked toward the open door to the other room. Lena's shoulders dropped at just how defeated he appeared, her eyes narrowing tearfully as he stopped himself in the doorway, holding onto the doorframe to steady himself.
"You sound just like her," he spoke up, his voice almost ghostly as he turned his head toward her, "She said that she loved me. That she wanted to fight my demons at my side…"
His eyes closed, slightly, as he stared deeply toward Lena, "Do you want to see what demons your 'hero' faces, now?"
Lena's brow turned up, worriedly, at his cryptic speech, though her head inevitably nodded, unable to fight off the curiosity swelling up within her. Even more so than that, she knew that, while he refused to allow her to help, perhaps she could help him with whatever was ailing his mind. That, something so intangible, he couldn't stop her if she truly wanted to help him.
Little did she know, his demon was far from intangible…
He waved her along as he continued on, the two of them walking through a bed room before turning through another door, into a hallway that linked the bedroom and the kitchen behind the living room, leading to two other rooms, it seemed, though Jesse stopped in the middle of the hallway, in front of an empty wall. Lena watched, curiously, as he knelt down, his fingers running along the floor along the wall, finally coming to what he was looking for.
As he stood back up, he pulled up the bottom of a wooden panel that fit perfectly into the wall- Lena hadn't even noticed it. Pulling it away revealed a hidden door, and as Jesse rested the panel against the opposing wall, he stared at Lena's wide-eyed expression with his own distant look.
"You want a glimpse at my demons?" he asked, again, "Go on and look inside."
Lena felt her throat tighten as she stared at the door, her arms unable to move as she noticed the look on Jesse's face- a look so distant it almost terrified her, as if she was staring at a corpse sitting inside of a coffin. Impatiently, Jesse turned toward the door, grabbing the handle himself.
"Well?" he questioned, seriously.
A chill ran down Lena's body as she managed a nod, allowing Jesse to yank the door open, the wooden contraption swinging into the wall with a loud *THUD* as Lena's eyes broken open as wide as they could have been, her jaw dropping as she stared at the man sitting inside the room, hunched over himself, sitting on a chair which his arms seemed to be strapped to, behind him. His hair had grown long, into dark, tendril-like vines that fell down past his face, quivering in time with his shoulders as he breathed weakly, almost as if having been kept in some state of stasis, just barely hovering between life and death.
"J-Jess…" Lena horrifically muttered, the man's body jerking at the sound of somebody else's voice.
He appeared just able to lift his head, Lena just able to make out his dark eyes as they appeared through his messy hair, nearly stabbing her with their piercingly haunted gaze. She felt her heart skip a beat, unable to take in what she was seeing. Unable to understand how the hero she'd once loved to much could turn into such a monster.
