From as early as he could remember, Jax avoided going to sleep at night. When he was younger, his parents dismissed it as being afraid of the dark. That was understandable, what little kid wasn't afraid of the dark? But as he got older, Emma and Jonah realized that this was unusual, so they started forcing him so go to bed or at least get into the bed and close his eyes. He learned to fake being asleep long enough for them to retire to their own room, and then would sit up in bed before drowsiness over took him.
See, that was the thing, it wasn't that he wasn't tired. Actually, he was exhausted. Jax fell asleep all the time in school, not that it really matter because he was a grade ahead and still at the top of his class, but it looked bad and the lecture after his naps were discussed at parent teacher meetings was not necessarily enjoyable.
But he couldn't let himself fall asleep. He knew the consequences if he did: Bea's cold, heartless voice taunting him in his dreams nearly driving him mad. To keep himself up, he would take long walks around the city and through the woods. As soon as his parents went to sleep, he would leave and then come back around 6 am the next morning.
Pretty soon he spent all of his free time walking around. Right after school he would explore the city, and right after dinner too. He was slick, so his parents usually thought he was in his room. But the few times they caught him out, they weren't happy.
It was hard to explain to them why he was out so late, why he never went to sleep, why he didn't act like everyone else, but he didn't try either. He knew there was no point, they wouldn't get it. He barely understood himself.
He was never afraid of walking around the city and the woods. Sure, every now and then some creepy homeless man would come up to him and say something, but Jax was confident in himself. He would just look at them intensively and whoever bothered him backed off. He had always known he could do this and had never been bothered by bullies at school, but he also didn't have many friends. He had none actually, but he knew why.
He had listened to Bea enough in his head to know he was powerful. He would never be like anyone else. He would probably never experience most of the things an average boy did. Sometimes he was ok with this, but sometimes he wasn't. What could he do about it? He couldn't exactly rebel against fate, but he wished he could.
Some nights, when Bea's taunting was particularly bad, he could hardly stand it. Those were the nights when he would accidentally fall asleep and forever regret it. She would tell him things, things about the future and the past, prophecies, and stories. He would wake up swarmed with panic panting and drenched in sweat. It was miserable. So he would escape.
His favorite place to go, was without a doubt the woods. He would walk through and the trees would be illuminated by the moon, sticks and plants crunched underneath his feet, and their were soft sounds of animals retiring for the night and sounds of the nocturnal ones coming to life. It was all so beautiful and serene. He could focus and pretend he was someone else or somewhere else, anything but being himself.
He wished he could get Bea out of his head. He wished he could tell his parents what was going on and he wished he could go run and play with the other kids. But now he was older. He was nearly an adult and nothing had changed. Jax would forever be locked in this world and succumbed to its whims and needs.
