Chapter 7: 1928

By fireworks875

Little Italy, 1928

Finally, Angelo was out of jail and we could be together again. I was overjoyed as I pulled him along to the same little room that we once were so close together in. He seemed wary, I knew, this was a lot to handle. Even for me, sometimes, being alive was so bewildering; it took time to get used to.

"I don't know who you are." He said to me, as we lay together, about to be close again.

"I'm Jack." It was an honest an answer as I could come up with."

"That's not an answer." Angelo said.

"It's an answer. First of many. Come on. You've been locked away for a year. I know you'll like this. I can feel that you'll like this." We started to kiss again. But something felt wrong… I knew this a split second before I felt the familiar stab of steel into my side.

"What the hell, Angelo? What did you do? " I panicked, trying to get myself together.

"Sei il diavolo." Angelo swore.

This was why I could never be close to anyone…this was too much for people to handle. It was all over now.
"I am not the devil." I pleaded. But it was too late. I looked into his sad eyes as the blade came towards my heart. He pierced my heart and I fell into darkness once again. Losing him forever.

"It's the only way. The devil seduces with confidence. Stay away from me…devil." Was the last thing he said and then I was safe.

X

Ianto was waiting for me on a couch in his new library. He was reading, and deep in thought. His face was scrunched up and he seemed displeased.

I felt sore inside, not just a reminder of the stabbing…I had been stabbed plenty of times…and also in the heart. This wasn't new. What was new, was being viciously killed by someone that I loved so much. How could he hurt me like this? My put my hand over my heart and I felt it beating, but it seemed like such a lie. How could your heart continue beating after your love pulverizes it this way?

"Did you know this was going to happen to me?" I asked Ianto as I took a seat across from him.

"I'm sorry sir; I'm not sure to what you are referring."

He seemed cold, so unlike himself.

"What's happened to you?" I felt like spikes were running up and down my heart. Not after what I just went through with Angelo, surely not…Ianto would not decide to be done with me as well…The universe couldn't really be that cruel….but maybe it could.

"What do you expect from me Jack? I don't exactly have a calendar over here that says "Jack's Deaths", I don't know what time you are coming from and I can't just…"

"You are a liar Ianto Jones. You know exactly how much time has passed since last I saw you. And you know more than you are telling me. Now tell me."

Ianto paused for a moment his face reddening; he slammed his hardcover book shut and stared at me in the face.

"I know everything, Jack. Your whole entire life, every love, every death, every moment that you were happy or sad. I know about your family and your homes and the man in the blue box. I know everything Jack. Don't you think I would love nothing more than to divulge my every memory of you? It's not the time, it's not the place. Things need to happen the way they are meant to happen. YOU were the one who taught me that. I know the rules, Jack."

"You are a liar, every word out of your mouth is a lie. How can I trust you? Mysterious being in my brain's closet! I don't even KNOW you! You are just a distraction from the pain of my death and I don't have time for this anymore! What is the POINT of you?"

"You are just angry at me because of Angelo." Ianto said, tears tumbling over his eyelids. "Everytime you are here you make me cry. Maybe it would be better for us both if I never saw you again."

"Don't say his name!" I crumbled, my voice cracking. The idea of losing Ianto forever, terrifying me more than anything we were fighting about.

"You loved him more than you will ever love me, and I have to live…I have to be here, knowing that, every minute. I am nothing compared to Angelo."

I wanted to argue with him, but I knew he was right. In the real world, I knew nothing of Ianto. He wasn't real, but my love for Angelo was.

"Loving Angelo didn't end very well for me. I can't believe he stabbed me like that. I have never been so surprised…"My anger with Ianto was fading, my distrust of the situation still high, but I felt broken.

"Wait, WHAT?" Ianto shouted. "He stabbed you?! You never mentioned that."

"Well, I'm mentioning it now…that's how I died…I thought you knew everything?"

"You told me that Angelo broke UP with you, in the future that is what you tell me."

"I don't understand…why would I…"

The knocking came but before they had a moment to say goodbye, Ianto was gone.

X

I awoke to see my landlord and landlady hovering over me, screams coming from their mouths as I gasped for breath and the wound in my chest closed.

"Il Diavlo!" they screamed as the man came at me with a butcher knife and stabbed me multiple times until I blacked out.

X

"IANTO, IANTO." I panted. This death had been very aggressive and I was reeling from dying again so soon.

"Sir! What on Earth are you doing here; you have only been gone for one minute!"

"My landlord killed me! I don't know what's happening, Angelo betrayed me!"

"Sir, I am so sorry!" Ianto held me close, putting away our fights and our resentment while he once again gave me a place to lay my head in my moment of need. Knightly Ianto.

The knocking banged, louder than ever, pulling me from his grip, I flew away from him like ripping a fresh bandaid from a wound.

X

I gasped for air and realized that I was suspended. My arms were tied above my head and I was soaked in my own blood. A crowd had formed, led by my landpeople and Angelo. It was a brute mob; here to kill me, I knew it. I was powerless and Angelo did nothing to stop it.

As they chanted "Il Diavlo" and chose their weapons to hack at me with, I hoped that someone somewhere would take pity on me and take me from this world. I hoped with each swing of the blade that with this death, it would be my last.

X

I was disoriented, and out of breath, I kept having glimpses of both worlds. Alive one minute and dead the next, it was hard to keep track. The world was spinning and no matter where I went, I saw black spots in my eyes. Even in death I was drenched in blood, my own dead brain unable to keep the worlds separate anymore. I had glimpses of Ianto shrieking and crying at the sight of me, naked and covered in blood, laying on the floor one minute and then gone the next. Sometimes I had glimpses of him running here and there with clothes and towels and once a basin of water. Sometimes I woke up in different rooms and I could hear him searching for me as I called out with a raspy voice, my throat having been recently slashed. I was in and out at an incredible speed as the mob showed no mercy and the death knocking on the door of my unconscious mind never coming to a stop. Banging mercilessly for what felt like days…or weeks… I never had the chance to ask.

Finally it came to a slow. I had long enough to gather my surroundings. I was dead, the cabin coming clear around me, as I wiped blood from my eyes.

"How did you not know about this?!" I looked up at him from the floor, as he spun around to locate where the sound of my voice was coming from this time.

"I only know what you have TOLD me Jack. You once told me everything. There is a time, in your future, I am the one you tell everything to. This for some reason…you decided not to tell me about." Ianto's voice was shot, as if he had been screaming for a million years. His eyes were ringed red and blue, he hadn't slept and he hadn't stopped crying. It was all my fault too, I made this beautiful boys' life into a nightmare.

"That time is also right now, Ianto. I know why I must not have told you about this. I must really love you Ianto Jones…this version of me that you know so well in the future…I made up a simple lie to cover up this time in my life, so that you would not feel the pain that you so clearly feel for me. I was trying to protect you…" I wanted to reach out my hand to touch his face, but my arm would only just barely budge. "I'll tell you one thing though…I am so glad that you are here. I couldn't have suffered this alone. I won't give up on you Ianto. I was wrong to distrust you."

He reached for my hand, seeing my struggled. He brought my hand to his lips and kissed my fingers. Then he held my hand to his face and closed his eyes.

"We may fight Jack…and sometimes I may hate you, but at the end of it all, I will always love you and I will always wait for you."

"I know what that means, it means I must leave you again now."

"Hopefully sir, I won't see you again for a long time. It pains me each time that you die. Try to exercise some self-preservation next time?"

"I'll do my best darling Ianto. But I am sure I get myself killed each time just so I can lay my eyes on yours one more time."

"I'm sure that was the angry mobs intent. To give us more time together." He kissed my hand again, surely remembering the way I was torn from him however long ago it was since this barrage of deaths began.

"Right…I still have to go back and deal with that. It seems like the worst part is over now."

"You will be alright Jack. You can make it." Ianto said softly, his voice still barely above a whisper.

"Until the next time, my love."

X

I awoke with Angelo before me. He had cut my binds and taken me down from the center of the mob lynching. This was a jailbreak. My love had come back for me, but it would never be the same. I couldn't fathom trusting another human being again with my secret. I accepted the clothes he gave me and the help along while my body continued to heal. But at the first opportunity, I flung myself from a roof and out of Angelo's life…forever.