Adrenaline

⌊Chapter 22⌉

“Wh- oh shit-” Anthony stammered over his words, sitting up in bed to see Faye grabbing his arm. Jane slowly lifted her head and smiled softly. Faye tugged at Anthony’s sleeve, practically forcing him out of bed. She made him run downstairs with her to give him a hand-written card that she made adorned with glitter stickers and scribbly depictions of animals and hearts in crayon. Jane walked downstairs with a tired Luca in her arms.

“She made it last night while you were out,” Jane said.

“Well thank you, Faye,” Anthony got down and hugged his daughter, who latched onto him like a monkey, wrapping her arms and legs around him. As he stood back up, she came with him, laughing and he spun her around. At that point in life, Anthony’s wife and children were the main source of his happiness. He let Faye down to the ground and she ran around the house, lively as ever. Jane put down Luca when he started whining and he went into the living room to play with a wooden train set alone.

“So… where were you, anyway? You said you were with Atlantis and Jayla but… as far as I remember, you don’t get along with Jayla at all. What were the lot of you up to?” Jane asked. She tipped her head as she was met with his silence. “Tony?”

He waved it off. “It’s kind of a long story,” he said, but Jane clearly still wanted details. She always wanted to know what was going on with Anthony and she could certainly tell when things weren’t going okay after knowing him for so long - able to differentiate his normal annoyed face or his angry annoyed face. It was slight, but there was a difference. “Let’s just… enjoy today, yeah? I don’t have to work, Faye and Luca don’t have school, you don’t have work either.”

Jane’s eyes softened in a sense that told Anthony immediately that she knew something was going on. He felt humiliated to bring it up, especially since Blake already seemed to be aware of Anthony’s disloyalty - and Alaric’s harsh stare that was branded into his mind. Anthony had no intention to betray the cause, though. He just wasn’t sure if he was going to be found out again. He didn’t even know how Alaric knew. For now, it wasn’t a concern though. He’d figure things out some other time.

“It’s nice outside, you see that?” Jane beamed, gesturing to a soft sunlight glowing through the front window of the living room, casting the floor in a golden haze over Luca, invested in some made-up story. “We should go to the market! It’s always so nice when the sun’s out, and why not get out and do something? I know something’s on your mind, so maybe going out will help. I know it works for you sometimes.”

“We can do that.”

It seemed that Jane always knew what to do. Since Anthony first met her in Jundan, he was enamoured by her captivating beauty and personality, the furthest thing from Anthony’s general cynical nature. She liked to see the good in just about anything. She preferred the sun, but she could make the rain feel nice. Somehow, just her presence was enough to make Anthony believe that life was good, not a cage he was born into. Without her, Anthony didn’t know what he’d do, though he did know that if he hadn’t met her, he would surely be dead. Anthony struggled with mental health issues since childhood, induced by his druggie alcoholic father, and he had been wishing for death for about as long as he could remember. Jane changed things. She changed everything.

Jane made Anthony feel alive again, like a missing part of his heart was put back into place, making her his whole world. She was everything he could have wanted and more, and she never gave up faith in him even through the worst time, at Harcastill, when he pushed everyone away from him. Jayla had been angered by Anthony’s betrayal, but Jane was the one to go after him and clear his mind, letting him realise what he was doing and how he could cope with his issues in a more healthy way that wasn’t abandonment. He didn’t know much about people who actually wanted to help. His mother put him into therapy after his father was imprisoned, but it was clear that the therapist only cared about the money from the Winters family, not Anthony.