Darkness rising

Misery

Jack was sitting in his class, waiting for the bell to ring so that he could go home. It was the last class of the day and unfortunately it was history. After a few more minutes, which felt like hours to Jack, the bell finally rang. The teacher gave out the assignments for the next day and dismissed the class. Jack slowly walked out of the class and went to the locker to collect his books. After he was done he headed out of the school building, ignoring the chattering of the students. Once outside he was met with disappointment again. Arcee wasn't there.

"She must be with Tailgate." Jack sadly thought as he sighed.

It had been a month since the new bots came. Ever since then Arcee had been spending more and more time with Tailgate. Sometimes it felt like she had forgotten Jack.

"Hey Darby!" A familiar voice called out for him mockingly.

Jack let out a frustrated sigh as he turned around to face the person.

"Vince." Jack growled.

Behind him Vince and his friends were standing a bit far away from Jack.

"Where's that ugly mopad of yours? Haven't seen it in weeks." Vince taunted him.

"It's in the shop." Jack replied as he turned away, trying to keep his temper low.

"Ha! Looks like even your motorcycle abandoned you."

Jack's grip on his bag tightened as his anger began to rise. He walked away from there as he didn't want to cause a scene and decided to walk home. As he was walking he began thinking about Arcee. She and him have become quite distant over the course of the month. Arcee had been spending most of her time with Tailgate. Which made Jack jealous of said bot. He felt betrayed and heart broken by her. He sighed as he realised that he couldn't do anything about it either. He after all was just a human, with whom she only had spent some months, while Tailgate was her partner during the war on Cybertron and they knew each other for a long time, maybe centuries. Tailgate also was a very good looking person and it would perfectly make sense that Arcee would fall for him. All of this only increased the sadness in his heart.

Jack was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't even notice he was home until he found himself in front of the door of his house.

"Jack you're alone? Didn't Arcee go to pick you up?" June asked as Jack entered the house.

"Uhh no. She must have had some important work." Jack quickly said and went to his room to avoid anymore conversation.

As Jack left a small smile crept on June's face. She was happy to hear that her son finally was starting to spend less time with the Autobots. She didn't dislike them or anything but he was better off away from his alien friends. It was just too dangerous to be around them. She nearly had a heart attack when he was sent off to Cybertron to collect from the 'whatever-it's-called' to restore Optimus's memory. She shuddered as the screams of the Insecticon rang in her ears.

She was happy that he wouldn't be going to that cold, dangerous base for some time. He might think he was ready to fight in some alien war, but she knew better. He was too young and naïve of the world. Jack needed to grow up more to realise that he didn't belong in a war with transforming alien robots. She wondered if she could talk to Agent Fowler so that she could keep Jack away from them. She wanted Jack to focus on his studies, have a good job and become a responsible person, unlike his father.

In his room, after putting down his bag Jack collapsed on his bed. He suddenly felt extremely frustrated at himself. He got up and went to the cupboard in his room and started looking inside it. After a while he had found what he was looking for and made his way inside the bathroom. Jack placed a small white rectangular box on the sink and rolled up the sleeves of his T-shirt, revealing many scars on the underside of his arms. Jack opened the box. Inside it was a razor and some bandages and ointments. Jack took the razor and made one cut on each arm.