~Wow! I got 13 reviews now! Thank you to everyone who read and reviewed!~
Disclaimer: I own no one.
Warnings: None.
James Franco as Donnie Wilder
Now, as we all know Jack Wilder grew up on the streets...sort of. He had a mother, who was a drug addict. She was high almost every second of Jack's childhood. He had a father, an alcoholic father. Jack could not remember a time when his father wasn't drunk. Not only was his father a drunk, but he was a mean drunk. He would beat Jack within an inch of his life.
The only good thing that came out of living in his broken home, was his older brother; Donald, or Jack calls him Donnie.
Donnie was Jack's best friend. He looked up to him. His older brother had been his superhero for as longed Jack could remember. Their dad beat him just as much as he beat Jack. No matter what they stuck together.
But there was a problem; Donnie was seven years older than Jack. When Jack was ten years old Donnie graduated High School a year early and left for college with promises of once he got on his feet to come back for him. He never did. Jack waited a whole year for his big brother to come and take him away from all of the pain and suffering. That's when he decided he didn't need anybody and ran away.
He slept in alleyways using only an old newspaper for warmth, he stole and sometimes someone, mostly a women, out of pity would give him something to eat.
When he was twelve years old he was caught stealing an apple and a policeman picked him up and took him to a foster home. It was horrible there. Jack had to share a room with eleven other boys. The foster parents were evil, literally.
The foster father, Bill, came into his bedroom one night and lead him downstairs to the basement. That night Jack lost his virginity. It was also the night Jack ran away a second time.
He learned how to pick-pocket. Most days he would get enough money to get something to eat. He sometimes would save little by little and get a cheap motel room for a night.
When he was fifteen years old his life took an important change; he saw his first magic show. It was also the day he fell in love with J. Daniel Atlas.
The sky had blackened in the night, clear of stars because of the city lights shown so bright. Jack was biting into a peach when he saw everyone crowding together on a street corner. Curious, he wandered over; pushing his way to the front.
"Hi everyone, oh wow, big crowd we have here today! My name is J. Daniel Atlas and I'm going to show you some magic!"
He walked up to a very skinny, but beautiful blonde teenage girl.
"I'm going to flip through the deck and I want you to see one card," He held up the deck, "Not this one," He motioned to a Ace of Spades. That's too obvious."
He began flip through the deck, "Pay close attention. That was too fast. I'll do it again. Are you ready?" He did it again.
"Did you see one?"
The girl nodded.
"Do you have one in mind?"
She nodded again.
He fanned the cards out in his hand, "Now do you see your card here?"
She shook her head, "Nope. It's not there." She then smirked, almost laughing at the magician.
"That's because you're looking too closely. The closer you look, the less you'll see." He then threw the cards up in the air. They rained down on the crowd. J. Daniel Atlas then turned to look at the skyscraper behind him and sure enough a seven of diamonds were appearing bright yellow lights.
Jack's eyes widened. This man was amazing.
After the show Jack tried to catch up to this J. Daniel Atlas, but he was walking off with the blonde girl and Jack didn't want to interfere.
From that day forward Jack dedicated all of his time in learning and perfecting magic tricks. J. Daniel Atlas was his idol and he wanted to be just like him. The magician gave Jack something to live for. And for doing that Jack would love him forever.
So when Jack was nineteen years old and he received a tarot card one day, telling him to go to some strange apartment building, he thought he was insane for actually going, but he did. And boy, he didn't regret it one bit once he arrived and saw him; J. Daniel Atlas.
He had never been more excited in his entire life. He acted like one of those crazy girls meeting their favorite celebrity.
And for the next year he got to not only work, but live with Daniel! They shared a room together in the three bedroom apartment. They got to know each other real well and became close friends in no time.
Then one year later Daniel confessed he had a crush on the teenager and they had been together ever since. He let Daniel in and told him every single thing about his life; the bad and the...well the bad. But in one night everything good was taken away from him. All thanks to J. Daniel Atlas.
Jack was currently wandering the streets. It's been three weeks since he left the Horsemen.
He had just enough money to either eat or get a motel room.
Looks like I'm going to have to do some more pick-pocketing. He thought.
He scanned the crowd of people walking up and down the streets until his eyes fell on the back of a man. The man couldn't have been over thirty, but he had money to spare. Jack could tell by the way he was dressed in an expensive dark gray suit, and shining black leather shoes. His hair was a bit curly, but gelled back.
Bingo.
Jack set off after his target. It didn't take him long before he had the man's wallet, but something happened that hadn't happened in a long time; the man turned around and gave him a long, stern look. Jack's breath caught in his throat.
"No," The man whispered, "It can't be."
"Jackie?" The man asked in surprise.
"Jack is it really you?" The man stepped closer to him.
The man spotted his wallet in Jack's hand and tried to snatch it back, but Jack was quicker than him and pulled away. Quickly opening the wallet, and scanning over the driver's license in it, he was right. He knew who this man was; his brother. He felt his knees buckle and he fell to the ground.
He was shaking his head, "No, no, no, no, no." He kept repeating over and over again. Donnie got to his knees in front of his Jack and held the younger man's face in his hands.
"Jackie? Oh my God!" He pulled Jack and held him close to his chest and began stroking Jack's hair.
After what seemed like hours Donnie finally released Jack, but still held his face, "Look at you! You're so grown up. God, it's like looking into a mirror...well ten years ago anyway. Say something." He almost pleaded.
"Where were you?" It was a broken whisper from Jack.
Donnie stiffened at the question, then looked around at the all the irritated people having to walk around them.
"Let's go get some dinner, okay? We'll talk then. Besides, you're as skinny as a pole." They got up brushing the dirt off of their clothes.
"Um," Donnie pointed at Jack, "I'm going to need my wallet back though."
Without a word Jack handed the wallet back to it's owner.
Donnie wrapped an arm around Jack's shoulders and lead him a little ways down the street and into a restaurant.
While waiting for the food to arrive Jack asked again, "Where were you?"
Donnie had been in mid-sip of his whine.
He sat it down on the table gently before looking over at Jack. He rested his crossed arms over the table and leaned on them.
"When I left for college, I had every intention of coming back for you when I got a job, a bigger apartment, when I was on my feet. But it took longer than I expected."
Tears stung Jack's eyes and his voice wavered as he spoke.
"I waited."
"I know. I had seven jobs before I finally got a good one. I worked at McDonald's, I swept up hair at a barber shop, hell, I even worked as a freaking garbage man, before I finally got a job being a waiter at some restaurant called Nando's. And even then it took two years to save up enough money for a nice apartment. When I came back for you, you were gone. I finished school and I'm a lawyer now."
"I waited a year, before I just couldn't take the beatings anymore. So, I ran off."
Jack's face was so broken. He looked like a small child.
"I looked everywhere for you." His brother told him.
"I lived on the streets for a few months before I was thrown in some Foster home." His voice cracked, thinking of what happened there.
Donnie reached over and grabbed is little brother's hand.
"It was horrible there." He sobbed, "The foster dad, he would," He trailed off. Why was he telling Donnie this? He had never told anyone about this except for Daniel.
"Go on." Donnie urged him.
"He would...do disgusting things to the boys. When he got to me I...after it happened I ran off."
Jack felt his brother squeeze his hand as he continued to tell him about his childhood.
"I never gave up on looking for you. A year ago I saw a billboard with you and two other men and woman on it. It was a magic show. As fast as I could I bought tickets and went to the show. It was amazing. You robbed a French bank." Donnie shook his head in disbelief.
Jack chuckled as a few more tears came.
"I tried to get to you after the show, but you guys ran off so quickly. Then I bought a ticket to your next show, you robbed an old man and gave the money to the audience. God, all I could think was...my little brother is a modern day Robin Hood." Donnie's smile fell as he said the next part, "Then on the news I saw that you had died in car accident. I was...I was broken. Truly broken. I just couldn't believe it. And tonight when I turned around and saw you, I thought was I hallucinating. I thought I had gone insane."
Jack explained faking his death to Donnie in vivid detail.
Donnie sat back in his chair, "You guys are...you're amazing!"
Jack chuckled, "We try."
"So, where are the other magicians; The Horsemen?"
"Do you remember the young guy with the curly hair?"
Donnie nodded.
"His name is Daniel J. Atlas. Me and Daniel were together for a little over a year." He looked up to see his brother's reaction.
"Okay." Donnie nodded.
"And...He went out with a friend one night and when I woke up the next morning he had brought a girl home and slept with her in the living room. I - I just couldn't stay there anymore knowing that he..." He stopped. Tear were starting to form again and he just didn't want to cry again.
Donnie looked at his brother, really looked at him. His brother has had a shitty life and he was going to do everything in his power to make it better.
"Let's get out of here. We can order take out."
Donnie threw some bills down on the table and grabbed his coat from the back of his chair. As they walked out of the restaurant the older man draped an arm around the younger's shoulders.
Donnie flagged down a bright yellow Taxi cab. Inside Jack rested his head on his brother's shoulder. Everything that has happened just becoming too much for him. He was psychically and mentally exhausted. He hadn't a good night's sleep in almost a month.
Jack slipped into a light slumber and was woken up some time later by Donnie gently shaking his shoulder.
"Come on Jackie. Get up. We're here."
Jack moaned a little. He just wanted to sleep. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't keep his eyes open.
Donnie grabbed his shoulder bag and then helped the younger boy out of the Taxi.
Jack vaguely remembers being in an elevator and Donnie having trouble getting him down the hallway and fishing for his keys in his pockets, while standing outside of a door. When they walked inside of the room Donnie dropped Jack's bag by the door and lead his little brother to his bedroom and let him fall gently onto the bed. Jack was asleep before his head hit the pillow.
Donnie then proceeded to take his boots and jacket off. Once Jack was comfortably in his boxers and white wife beater, Donnie undressed himself and crawled in next to his brother.
"I'll protect you Jackie, I promise. Nothing bad will ever happen to you again."
Donnie kissed Jack's forehead before falling asleep himself.
Meanwhile across town Daniel was curled up in his and Jack's bed. He was looking at his phone; the background was of him and Jack. He had an arm draped over Jack's shoulders, while he kissed the young man's cheek. Jack was in the middle of a laugh, so the corners of his eyes were crinkled, and his beautiful smile showed off his pearly white teeth. The younger man had a hand resting on Daniel's chest as if to push him away. Henley had snapped the picture and set it as Daniel's wallpaper a few months ago. Daniel didn't mind of course, he loved it.
As he gazed at the picture he clutched the oh-so familiar black ring in his hand. The ring he had given Jack to show his love. The ring that Jack had left on the kitchen counter when he left.
The door cracked open, flooding the darkened room with yellow light.
"Danny?" Henley asked.
"Hm?"
Daniel heard her walk further into the room.
"Do you want something to eat? You didn't come down for dinner."
"I'm not hungry," He mumbled.
"Danny," She sat down on the edge of the bed, "You can't go on like this. You hardly eat or bathe, and when was the last time you shaved? You're hurting yourself. When we find Jack you do not want to look like a hobo, do you?"
When she got no reply, she patted him on the leg, "Take a shower, shave, and then come down and eat. That's an order!" She then got up and left the room.
Daniel's phone beeped, signaling that it needed to be charged. He scrambled to put it on the charger. He couldn't have it die. If it died then he couldn't look at Jack's face. It was the only thing keeping him sane.
~Sorry it's been so long! I was out of town for over a month! I hope this makes up for not updating in like, forever! I have some ideas for the next few chapters, but if anyone has any suggestions I am always open!~