Reckless

Mirror

(Notice: This book will be ending in the next few chapters. Feels warning. Dark Content warning.)

Jana-

"Enough stalling, Orion. You need to tell me what's going on with him. I let you bring him here, but I'm not stupid. Something's wrong with him."

Hearing Xena's whispered angry voice from behind the main door to his room made Jana blink open tired eyes. He had been up late speaking with Domino. The prison had granted them extra time to talk once Christopher had explained why Domino needed to call him. It wasn't hard, after that, to get the extended time and an okay to actually be on the phone without being in the guarded phone booth locations they had in the jail.

Granted, he had to be on speaker phone and Christopher had to be there, but it was definitely better than nothing. They had talked about what had happened in the past several days. Mainly, Domino had done decently well without him in prison. He did get into a small fight, but it was decided that it had been the other inmate's fault, and because Domino had not fought back, he was cleared from consequences.

Jana had told him about Zachary, and after an initial bit of surprise, Domino expressed his excitement that he was able to make friends.

"He... there's nothing wrong with him." Orion said. The exaggerated word had to have caught Xena's attention because after only a moment, Orion was speaking again.

"Okay. I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I was just worried that if you knew what he had gone to jail for, you wouldn't give him a chance."

There was another moment of silence before Xena replied. "One word, Orion. What was he in for. I want no excuses or reasons. Why was he in jail?"

Terror gripped Jana's chest and he shot to his feet. He wasn't afraid of her hurting him physically, but he was afraid of losing the home he had just gotten. It was just an old store room, and he hardly ever left it, but it was still somewhere he could be alone.

When he heard Orion take a shaky breath on the other side of the door, his heart clenched tight and he held his breath. Without even thinking, he slowly inched his way toward the emergency exit door to his left.

"Murder."

An infuriated yell was quickly followed by the sound of the door being unlocked. She must have been nearly blind with rage because the key clearly missed several times before finally sliding into the lock. When the handle turned, Jana pressed himself up against the door, his left side growing cold from the metal.

When Xena came through the door, she reminded Jana of a storm. Normally, he loved the loud thunder and torrential rains, but he had no intention of confronting her. She knew why he had gone to jail and she clearly wasn't happy with him being there any longer. He could feel his aggressive side beginning to rise to the surface as he shoved open the exit door and bolted.

He heard both her and Orion calling for him, but the soothing rumble of distant thunder quieted their shouts and brought a sad smile to his face. The wind whipped his hair as he allowed his bare feet to carry him. Where he was going, he didn't know. Nor did he care.

Where can I go? That was my first home that wasn't a cell... but then again, it technically was. Just without the bars. He thought sarcastically.

His feet slowed to a walk as he made his way through the large town. He felt eyes on him, likely because he was only wearing a pair of loose jeans and his scarred chest and arms were easily visible, but he didn't care. Let them look.

He turned down three streets and stopped to get an ice cream with some of the money given to him by the prison. The treat tasted good, but the flavor didn't last on his tongue.