All Your Fractures

Nine. (1)

“I promised... I promised I'd pay for what I did.”

3:00 PM

Israel was running like the wind down the sidewalk. His hair blown back, loose shirt flapping in the wind, sneakers barely hitting the ground. Needless to say, he was in a rush. He'd started after he stepped out of the school, running without a pause until he got the the 5th house on Carmine Street.

A two days had passed and he hadn't seen Jesse at school. Or at all for that matter. The day before when he asked, a teacher had said there was a note of absence so he tried not to worry. Maybe he just had a cold.

But all of his calls and text went ignored, not one reply. That made an unsettling feeling grow in his gut, the feeling like something just wasn't right. It was quite unnerving. He didn't even know anymore if Jesse was still alive, and it was freaking him out so why not go to him himself? Jessika wouldn't be so happy about that though...

Call it panic or madness, but immediately he arrived at the door he slammed his fists on it in urgency. "Open up!"

Silence.

He stepped back, raising a leg to kick the door in when he heard a clack. He set his leg back down. Peeking through the only slightly opened door were wide bloodshot eyes.

Israel recognized Jesse's mother. "Hey, Ms—"

"What" Someone kicked the woman in the side, causing her to fold in herself as she crumpled unto the ground with a weak howl of pain. Jessika briskly stepped over her, and came out. "Do you want?" She monotoned, closing the door behind her and leaning back as she crossed her arms.

"Where's Jesse?" His gaze hardened.

"Asleep. He caught a cold," She picked at her long nails. "If that's all—"

He tried to push past her, "Let me see him."

"Heck no, don't you have assignments or projects to do? Go away already." She blocked his path and waved him off.

"Let. Me. See. Him." He growled, word by word, glaring straight in the woman's dead red eyes. "Or else—"

"Fine, fine, whatever." She grudgingly turned and opened the door, kicking at the woman whose body still lay there. "Yo, get the fuck up you lazy ass bitch."

Israel tried not to think about that. At the moment, Jesse was his first priority. He followed her down into the dark, mangy basement. The scents of blood and urine hit his nose like a brick. He put the back of his hand over it, searching the darkness for Jesse. Glaring at Jessika, he asked. "Why would you keep him in here?"

"He's under punishment." She sighed out, taking a cigarette from a table that seemed to have been there the whole time, along with a chair. She sat, taking a lighter from her pocket, and lit the cig. "You sure you wanna see him?"

"Why else would I even come here?" He groped around the dark, still unable to see anything.

Smoke escaped Jessika's lips floating wispily into the darkness above, "You can just walk away right now. Forget this lost cause. Don't get into any trouble. Forcing to see him, deary you're asking for trouble."

He took in her words with a grain of sand. "I'm okay with getting my hands dirty for him, deary."

A light was turned on suddenly, obviously by Jessika. He finally spotted his friend lying on an old futon in the far corner of the room, one of his wrists was handcuffed to the wall.

"What the heck?!" Israel went to kneel next to the unconscious Jesse, getting a closer look at his condition. "W-what did you do to him?!"

Jesse's shirt was bloody and completely in shreds, the back was torn severally due to lashes on it that cut material and skin as well. It was the same for the front, large bleeding gashes from being lashed covered his torso and reddened the futon under him. His body was ice cold under Israel's fingers, almost as if...

"J-Jess...?" Israel whispered fearfully, unsure if the boy was okay. He took of his shirt, putting it around him and closing the buttons, because the room was cold as hell. He gently patted his cheeks, "Jess, open your eyes."

There were new, worse, burn marks, plus cuts too deep and deliberate to have been accidental. They were all over his body, under his feet, in his thighs. Blisters and bruises, everywhere. There was no way these wouldn't leave permanent scars.

Tears threatened to spill from his eyes. He brushed Jesse's graying hair from his eyes, which both had shiners. His nose bled, lips were busted and had so many cuts. "Come on, I'll take you home."

"You aren't going anywhere."

He didn't register the baseball bat swinging toward his head in time.

“I'd do anything in my power to see you just smile
I want you to prosper and come proper
Even if that means I ain't by your side...”
- Smile, Juice WRLD & The Weeknd.