Collateral Damage (bxb)

7. A Heavy Heart

A.N. This chapter begins from the perspective of Ian.

Content Warning! This chapter will contain physical abuse. If you are not comfortable reading about it then, please, skip.

All said and done, enjoy!

What can I do? I sat there at my tablet and laptop, awaiting inspiration to hit me, but nothing came. In all honesty, I wasn't waiting to get inspired - I was trying to distract myself from what I just received. Is it a warning or something else? No, Ian. Stop thinking about it!

I look down at my phone, awaiting if something will change: a new message, another warning, or anything else. There was this temptation or anticipation to pick it up and open the messages again. Maybe this will be the moment I'll be a step ahead of the mystery sender, but nothing came. With my lapse in judgment, I picked up my phone and unlocked it. The messages weren't there. What? I locked the screen after I got the last message. A look through every other message and then the contacts I had saved on it yielded no results. Did they get deleted? I should have saved them or saved the ID of the person who sent them... Ian, you are stupid sometimes.

I slumped down into the chair while putting the stylus down next to the tablet. It is getting late, and all of this is not made better than having Jack yell at me for coming home with a stranger. It is being made even weirder than it is by Jack not being outwardly angry towards me. This has been a strange day. Who are 'they' that the mystery man wrote about?

To confirm that I am not growing mad with all of the things going on in my life, I go to the curtains and part them as I did before. The dark van isn't where it was, but it has parked itself in front of our house. I close the curtains and back away from the window slowly. What is going on? What is happening? They can't be housesitting as I thought before. What if the one who texted is right? They know that I am a holder, they are after me, they will kill me, won't they?

Right as I reach the peak of my anxiety and fear, I hear something behind me. It sounds like footsteps on our carpet. I whip my head around, hastily followed by the rest of my body, and see a figure standing - it's Jack.

"What are you doing?" He lazily says those words.

"I was just -" I stopped myself from saying anything else. I never texted you. It has been in my head ever since I read them. I shouldn't tell Jack about this, but what if we are in danger? No, whoever 'they' are is here after me. And they know that I am a holder. "- getting some inspiration." Jack buys it, and his aura is all I need to tell that.

Jack steps in the direction of the kitchen. "I'll grab some water before bed. Tomorrow is a long day, but you don't need to sleep. You don't have to be anywhere tomorrow so you can go to sleep at three in the morning, don't you?" He just mouths off like I am not even here.

For the record, I do have to be somewhere. I have a job, but I guess that this answer would just piss you off. As I watch him go along, I keep throwing glances at the curtain and part it once again just to get a peek at whoever they are. A man lowers the front passenger window, but Jack's hand falls on my shoulder.

"What are you looking at?" He mumbles behind me while slightly pushing me aside. Jack looks out, frowns, and closes the curtain. Jack takes a few steps back before he is on the path he took to get to the kitchen. His aura changed to a sadder state. I would say that he is grieving for something and not telling me, but that wasn't his state a moment ago.

"Is something wrong?" I chose to comfort him or even confront him. All the things happening right now are out of place and weird. It isn't made better that Jack is acting out of character and that his emotions don't fit the situation.