The Spark

The Story and The Littluns

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Sparks Fly

Taylor Swift ♥︎ 0:56 ─〇───── 4:20 ⇄ ◃◃ ⅠⅠ ▹▹ ↻

Volume: ▁▂▃▄▅▆▇ 100% 

Take away the pain,

'Cause I see sparks fly whenever you smile

"You're still up?" Jack's head snapped up from being bent over something in his lap.

"What?" he said, startled, then relaxed once he saw it was me. "Oh. Um, yes, I'm still up."

"It's kind of late," I said, pointing to the moon. "You're not tired."

"Nope." Something glinted in the moonlight. I walked closer to him and saw his knife in his lap. I frowned.

"Why are you up so late?" I pressed.

"Well, I don't know if you listened to anyone at the assembly or zoned out the whole time, but the littluns think the beast comes from the water." With his knife, Jack pointed to the ocean. "I'm just looking out for everyone." I sat down next to him.

"This okay?" I asked.

"Sure," Jack said, looking at me.

"You do know that if someone saw the beast right now, everyone'd know," I pointed out. "Littluns can scream very loudly."

"Still," Jack said flatly. "Doesn't do any harm to look out for everyone, huh?" He attempted a smile or a smirk of some kind, but he gave up and slumped his shoulders. It wasn't like him to be this subdued, but I wasn't about to say he shouldn't have bad days. At the same time, it hurt a little to see him like this. But why?

"What's really going on, Jack?" I prodded him gently. Jack shifted, and I saw he had a long stick lying across his lap.

"Don't get me wrong," he said. "I enjoy being the head boy and in charge of the choir and all. It's fun. But it becomes less fun when it's all just for someone else."

"Who, then?"

"Take a guess, Y/n." Jack picked up his knife and began whittling away at the stick in his lap. "I just want to be someone to the one person who doesn't even see me as someone worth caring about." I pressed my lips together.

"And who would that be?"

"My stepfather." Jack continued to whittle away at the stick. "Anytime I did something I was proud of, he'd always tell me that I could do better. And it's even worse if I did something I wasn't proud of, because he'd just yell at me and cuss me out and slap the shit out of me. I swear, everything I did was constantly under scrutiny from him. And even if I'd try to hide what I did, he'd always find out somehow."

"I doubt he's going to find out about this, if that's what you're worried about," I assured him.

"Yeah?" Jack laughed harshly. "Do you think I care? You grew up with such loving parents, not having to worry about being so great all the time. If I could do one thing, even something like killing this beast and protecting everyone on this island, then maybe I'd be able to make him proud. Just once, Y/n! Just once." I leaned over and saw what he had been doing to the stick. At the end was a long, sharp point.

"I would do anything-anything-to make him proud," Jack said, eyes glinting. "You don't get that, do you?" I gulped and shook my head.

"No," I said nervously. "But Jack-I don't think he'll ever find out about this, and if he does, well, that's none of his business now, is it?"