DAY SIX
She woke to tight limbs coiled about her body, and pressing her into a warm smooth chest.
Happiness flooded through her small body making her wriggle even closer to Jack and all of his warmth. He shifted about slightly, arms tightening around her before once more relaxing.
Sem' listened as a soft, low snore slid from Jacks throat. His snores were nothing like the deep snarling roar that belonged to her Fathers.
They were much softer. A noise that Sem' had begun to associate with her need of sleep. Often, she would wake in the middle of the night and Jacks snores would sooth her back into a deep sleep.
Slowly, and gently, Sem' moved from Jacks embrace and slid from the bed. Koshka was clutched in her right hand as she rubbed at her eye sleepily with the other.
After stumbling to and from the bathroom, Sem' found herself staring up into the black screen of the t.v.
She glanced over her shoulder to make sure that Jack was asleep before reaching up and pressing the largest button on the box.
The screen sprung to life, and Sem was looking into a black and white screen. A man was playing the piano. A hauntingly familiar tune the she had heard hundreds of times.
She whirled and threw herself at Jacks feet. (She couldn't reach anything else) "Jack! Jack! Mommy used to sing me this!" She called.
Jack was awake instantly, and sat bolt upright in bed, his chest heaving. A large knife clutched in his right hand. His eyes roved over the room taking in every detail.
When it became apparent that no one that was a threat was currently scrabbling at his feet. And it was just in fact a very panicked looking Sem' pointing franticly at the T.V. Jack groaned lightly and turned to place his feet of the floor.
"That was Mommy's favorite song! She would sing it to me all the time!" She called to Jack.
He turned to look at the T.V. Some man was playing a piano. Singing away about "Goodnight my Angel." Some sad and lulling tune.
Sem' suddenly appeared before him, and wriggled her way into his lap. Her massive eyes locked on his face. "Mommy LOVED this song!" She called breathlessly.
Jack hummed lightly and coiled his arms around her small form. "Did she?" He questioned burying his nose into the top of her head and breathing in heavily.
Sem' opened her mouth to answer, but before a noise could escape her throat... the door to their room burst open, and her ears were assaulted with many deafening booms of noise.
Jack reacted instantly, and clutching a now screaming Sem' to his chest, he flipped the shitty wooden table before him to the side for cover.
His heart thundered in his chest as he set Sem' on her feet and ripped the small gun he had hidden from a the night stand table.
They had been found. Jack released a shuttering Sem', and loaded a clip into the weapon. "You sit still Baby Doll. Let me... uh... hanDle thisss" Jack snarled as he pushed Sem's tiny body behind his own.
Sem' drew a shuddering breath and looked about her as mettle was plunged into the wall above her. Chips of wood and crumbling white stuff fell down around her.
Slowly, with shaking hands, she reached up and covered her eyes. She was scared. She wanted Mommy. Wanted Jack to make the loud noises, and now yelling men to go away. She wanted Koshka.
Her heart stopped, and her hands snapped down to her side. Her eyes grew wide as she glanced around her feet for Koshkas familiar over stuffed body. He wasn't there...
Panic filled her system as Jack leaned around the table and shot at the group of men that had burst into their room.
"K-Koshka?" She called nearly choking on her own voice as tears welled in her eyes. "Koshka?" She called again and her voice grew high and tight. Tears spilled onto her cheeks.
The bad men were here and Koshka was gone! What if he were hurt!? Her body jerked forward on its own and she stumbled to the edge of the table. Jack didn't seem to notice her.
That was okay. She would go find Koshka and come right back. Tears streaming down her cheeks, Sem' peered around the table. Instantly, her eyes flashing to the pile of grubby cloth that laid before the still working Television.
Before something bad could happen to her best friend in the entire world, Sem' threw herself from behind the cover of the table and towards Koshka.
A flash of red caught jacks attention just from the corner of his eye. His lungs seized in his chest. Sem'.
He whirled about. Hoping. PRAYING. That his instincts were wrong. That he had just been seeing things and that Sem' would be behind him.
He eyed the empty space behind him with growing panic. Sh e was gone. Sem' was gone.
Jack very nearly collapsed as the terrified scream and the low curses that followed moments later. He was up and shoving the table out of his way.
The hair on his arms stood on end, and a rush of cold, and unadulterated FEAR slid up his spine at the sight before him.
Instantly his mind rallied. No. A dream. This wasn't happening. This wasn't real. A nightmare.
Fog flooded his mind and he took no notice of the now silent group of men that stood just within the doorway. He took no notice of how they no longer aimed their guns at him bit held them limp at their sides.
But what he did notice was the sad, piano that poured from the tv that sat above a hunched and shuttering form.
Jack threw himself at Sem' small body. "Sem'!?" He demanded in a high voice that was pinched with panic.
Jack clutched at Sem's small waist and jerked away from her when a horrified scream ripped from her throat and her small hands went out to push him away. Her tiny hands pushing at his face, smearing a warmed sticky liquid across his scars.
"No! No!" She screamed as her body suddenly sagged forward.
Jack clutched at Sem's tiny wrists and pulled them away from his face. Blood. Her hands were covered with blood. Blood that she had smeared across his face. Her. Blood.
Jack turned asem' to face him with fumbling movements and as her limp body splayed on the floor before him, Jack wanted to vomit.
Blood caked her dress to her small body, and continued to dribble from her right side. Her chest heaved as if she couldn't get enough air and her eyes were large and filled with terror. They flashed about the room as if she wasn't sure as to where she was.
Vaguely, in the back of his head, jack realized that she COULDNT get enough air. Her lung had been punctured.
"Ja-jack?" She gasped just as the man on the tv began to sing once more.
" I promised I would never leave you And you should always know..." the man sang
Jack slowly reached out to the child before him as her gaze settled on him. "Its okay! Its okay!" He wasn't even sure as to what he was saying.
His hands fluttered over the hole in her side. He didn't know what to do. He didn't know how to fix this!
Sem's head lolled to the side, and her small hands clutched at his own. She drew in great gulps of air, but the grip on his pointer fingers was steady and strong.
She fought to face him. Tears blurring her already blurry vision. "Jack... I'm scared." She whispered on a shuddering exhale.
Jacks throat tightened and an odd bubble of noise leapt from his throat. "No... no. Don't be scared. It's okay." He choked. There was a lump in his throat.
" Wherever you may go. No matter where you are I never will be far away" piano filled Jacks skull.
She coughed. A horrid, wet noise. Blood bubbled from her mouth and dribbled down the side of her face. Her back arched slightly from the pain.
A gut wrenching sob shook her form as she finally settled back to the floor. Her small fingers still coiled about Jacks. "Don't.. l-leave, Jack. Don't leave. Don't leave." She muttered over and over. Her eyes sliding closed for a moment before snapping back open.
The noise came again as dread settled deep in Jacks belly. He bent forward, and cupped Sem's cheeks in his hands, wiping away her black curls that clung to her sweaty forehead. And another noise. A sob.
"I'm not leaving. I won't leave.'' He sobbed staring into the unfocused gaze of the little girl. Of his SEM'.
" I never will be far away."
"It hurts... I... love Jack..." she gasped.
The grip on his fingers grew weak, and her eyes slid half closed.
Jack shook his head. "No Sem'. Don't... I love you too" he whispered as his eyes sight grew blurry and tears slid from his eyes to mingle with the blood on Sem's cheeks.
She smiled. A bloody. Sad smile. That hard look. The look that Jack had come to HATE slid into her eyes. "You're better than Daddy. Thank you Jack." She whispered as the grip on his fingers grew limp.
Jack sobbed. Uncaring of anything but the tiny girl before him.
" And like a boat out on the ocean I'm rocking you to sleep The water's dark and deep Inside this ancient heart You'll always be a part of me"
"I love jack." She murmured one last time before her head lolled to the side, and her hands went completely slack.
Jack drew a heavy breath. "Sem'?" He demanded on a strained rough voice.
" Goodnight, my angel Now it's time to dream And dream how wonderful your life will be"
He received no answer. She just lay there limp and unresponsive. "Sem'? Please..." Jack choked cupping her cheeks and turning her face toward him.
She did not react in anyway. Her half lidded eyes remaining in their blank state.
He padded her cheeks lightly as his breathing picked up. Someone moved behind him.
" Someday your child may cry And if you sing this lullaby Then in your heart There will always be a part of me"
"Jack... she's..." a slightly familiar female voice whispered behind him.
Jack buried his face into Sem's throat and shook his head. "No no no." He pulled a slack Sem' to his chest and buried his face in her hair. Smearing her blood across his cheeks even more. A hand touched Jacks shoulder.
Lilly drew a ragged breath and motioned the men forward. "She's dead Jack." The woman murmured.
At her words a flood of gray, and black fog filled Jacks skull. "She was dead. His Sem' was dead.
His body was moving. He wasn't sure as to where. He wasn't in control of it. Fog. Fog clouded his mind. Nothing. He could see. SENCE. Nothing.
But then. In the very back of his mind. A part he did not even know EXISTED. Kicked on.
"Helloooo JaCK." A high voice purred from the dark recesses of the back of his skull.
!&#*,#,
Okay... wellll... as you can see⦠I am horrid person that deserves nothing but your disdain. There WILL be a short continuation, as well as a MAYBE sequel. Wanna do an author a favor and show this to people? Get the word out? I also need some fan Arrrt! PLEASE review! How else am I to know you like it?
