Dark Secret

Chapter 11

The house was quiet... too quiet. Jack slowly and carefully opened the door just far enough so that he could poke his head out. He looked down the corridor into the bedroom where Mark sat with Chica lying on the bed by his side. Jack pulled his head back in and stood up, looking at the items available in the upstairs bathroom. He wanted to get out bad, yet not bad enough to hurt Mark in anyway, so that crossed off the possibility of luring him into the bathroom and clocking him over the head. Jack grabbed a handful of small objects from the counter which he planned to throw and use as a distraction before pressing himself against the bathroom wall again. He peered out again to see Mark had moved from his spot on the bed and was heading towards him presumably needing the loo and was unaware he was still in the house. There was nowhere he could hide in the bathroom with the shower door being glass and Mark would have to be pretty stupid to not see him hiding behind in the small gap between the wall and the toilet. Jack panicked and did something he quickly realised was a stupid move, he ran up and pulled the door shut, locking it to keep Mark from coming in. Jack let go of the latch and face palmed himself, realising he had just ruined any chance of him getting out undetected as he could have slid out the door whilst Mark had his back turned.

Mark stumbled backward as the door slammed in his face, catching him off guard. He stared at the door then pressing pressing his ear against the door, trying to listen inside. He could hear faint muttering from inside which unknown to Mark was Jack nagging at himself for making his whereabouts incredibly obvious. Mark hesitantly lifted his hand and knocked on the door. The muttering had stopped from behind the door, Jack suddenly frozen and unable to bring himself to move.
"Jack?" Mark asked calmly through the door, but Jack couldn't speak, he wanted to say something and open the door but his body wouldn't allow it. Jack swallowed as Mark tried the door handle and the wood slightly moving as Mark put his weight against the door .
"Jack are you in there?" His voice was slightly shaky as he said it, afraid he was wrong, that Jack had really gone. Jack made his way over to the door and slowly unhooked the latch and placed his hand on the handle, he couldn't stay in here forever. He took a deep breathe and opened the door to see Mark, a mixture of shock and relief across his face. Mark collapsed to his knees and wrapped his arms around Jack's waist tightly and began spewing out apologies. Jack wanted to say it's OK but the words just wouldn't come, because it wasn't. Jack knew that it wasn't Mark's fault what happened but he could have told him what was happening, he could have gotten help, Jack could have helped.

Mark was sat, his bum parked on the edge of the sofa. His hands shaking as he held the cup of coffee in front of him with both hands. Jack walked over and took the mug out of his hand to keep him from spilling the hot liquid over himself and placed it on the floor beside him before heading back to tidying up. They had barely said a word to each other as neither and Mark knew Jack was secretly afraid of him, even if he hid it well.
"You um- you think I'm mad don't you?" Mark stuttered, Jack looked at Mark and smiled at him but said nothing as well as refusing to make direct eye contact. Mark knew the answer, he just wanted to hear it from Jack, and even though he said nothing, his made it pretty clear. Mark's head lowered and began staring at the floor, he knew Jack was only here because he felt like he had to, but Mark knew he didn't want to be here, he wanted to run away like Ryan had before.

"Thank you for staying with me." Again, Jack just smiled, only this time it seemed less sympathetic toward him, more forced. Mark hated himself as Jack at the moment, maybe even more so. It pained him knowing that whatever he did to him was enough to make Jack hate him so much, worse than that is not knowing what it was he did.
"Jack, you- you don't have to be here if you don't want to. I know you want to leave, I wouldn't blame you if you did." Jack let out a sigh, he knew he was being harsh but he couldn't help it.
"Mark you know I can't leave you like this. You might do something stupid and it would be my fault." His voice was gruff and cold which just made Mark feel worse, he was making things worse and by this point he wasn't entirely sure he could fix it but that wasn't going to stop him from trying.
"Look Jack, I have no idea what he did but I am so sorr-" Jack interjected, his voice becoming more assertive.
"Yes Mark, you're sorry. You're so so sorry and you'll never let it happen again. You keep sayin' it, it's becomin' a pattern don't ya think? You keep hurtin' me and blamin' it all on a guy tha' doesn't exist! I know you can't help bein' the way ya are but you could have at least told me! I would have have listened but you just- you just keep pushing me away! Do I really mean that little to ya?!" By this point he was standing over Mark, talking down at him. Mark had moved from the edge of the seat and had moved himself right back, trying to move and put some more distance between himself and Jack. He wanted Jack to stop, but quite frankly Mark was afraid Jack would bite his head off if he tried to speak out against him, but even more so that if he didn't calm down Dark would take it as an excuse to take over as he was bloody terrified. He had never seen Jack like this, he didn't think he was capable of this level of rage. Mark sunk even further into the seat and Jack looked at him, his eyes looking deep into his. Then he stopped and stood up, still looking down at Mark and cocking his head slightly.
"Mark... Your eye." Mark slowly stood up and swerving to avoid Jack who he was still slightly afraid was going to punch him, walked over to the cracked mirror to see his right eye had become completely red, not like bloodshot red but pure crimson red excluding his pupil. Mark gently touched the surface of his eye to make sure he hadn't somehow accidentally diluted his eye with some kind of red liquid but it was evident that wasn't the case. Mark decided it best to keep his cool considering it was likely freaking out about Jack's sudden outburst that caused it. "Well shit, this can't be good."