charlie, charlie; j.g

two

jack knew mary jane would come back to haunt him. he was a fairly smart guy, he always had been. but he never imagined that she would return in such terrifying ways. a few break-ins and such was what he expected. but when news spread around town of the city water tower falling over top of the city hall, he knew he and everyone else had another thing coming.

after chloe's death, when she had failed to return back to him as jack had done himself years before, so he often wondered if she had crossed over into the other worlds. as far as jack knew, there were two worlds - heaven and hell. heaven was complete and utter bullshit in his mind, because he knew it wasn't at all what everyone thought it was. in the books, heaven was the epitome of all things perfect. but jack always knew one thing: hell was where the real fun happened.

the devil himself used to be an angel, and he was, in fact, god's favorite, so there was no way he was completely evil. in reality, he really wasn't too evil at all. jack knew this because as iconic and unrealistic as it sounds, he shook hands with the devil himself one day. jack never told this story, not even to johnson or chloe, for fear that they wouldn't believe him. sure, he wasn't even entirely convinced that the encounter really happened at times.

the devil has the soul of an arrogant man, but the way you see him depends on what kind of person you really are. jack saw the spirit as a woman, and a sexy one at that. when jack's jaw had dropped at just one glance at the beauty, the devil had explained to him that he was seeing him in a different form because he had recently told a lie. jack pondered about what that lie could be for not too long before he stumbled into the truth.

"when was the last time you said,'i love you,' to that mary of yours?" the devil inquired carefully. "that's your lie, jack gilinsky."

"but i do love mary," jack had argued almost immediately.

the devil had leaned in close, gripping jack's shirt in his hands. "the devil plays a tricky game, but i assume you believe you play a trickier one?" jack looked into his face, which flamed with the red light of a thousand deaths. "let me tell you right now, jack — you're wrong. and if you think that mary loves you back, you're wrong about that too."

jack gilinsky stared straight into the fiery red eyes of the devil that shone with age, sadness, and a broken heart, and spat.

and the devil?

well, he just spit right back.