Trust Your Instincts

-67- The Last Encounter (part III)

 Jack wished that he was one of those people who were optimistic and hopeful twenty-four seven, he was always really envious of those who could see the positive aspects to every situation no matter how grave it may be.

 Yet he couldn't deny that his pessimism seemed to always be able to overpower everything else, and right now was certainly no exception.

 Taking one look into Mark's eyes was enough to know that Minx had succeeded in what she had set out to do. Mark's purple-eyed stare was blank, in a way that Jack had only ever seen once before in his life. It was obvious that Minx now had total control, that Mark had no say in what his body was currently doing, and as much as Jack didn't want to believe it, he knew that he was seconds away from his own death, perhaps minutes, considering how slowly Minx was taking this whole thing.

 She was really taking her time in commanding Mark to just kill Jack, and the broad smile on her face showed that she was enjoying every millisecond of watching Jack squirm.

 He had fought a few times now to escape Krism's hold, he even bit her hand, but nothing seemed to faze her. Every time he struggled against her she responded with a slap to the back of the head and a tightening of her grip on his shoulder.

 Jack could swear that she was seconds away from crushing his bones using just her fingers, so he stopped trying to fight it and instead turned his attention back to his boyfriend, feeling somewhat defeated.

 There was no way out of this. Minx and Krism had won, and no amount of optimism that Jack could try and muster would be able to convince him otherwise.

 The worst part was that Mark was somewhere in there, probably fighting tooth and nail to regain control of his own body, and when this was all over, he'd probably blame himself for Jack's death.

 Jack couldn't even bear the thought of Mark blaming himself for what happened. He couldn't imagine what it would be like to kill Mark and have to live the rest of his life knowing that it was his claws that caused his last breath, and yet that was exactly what Mark's future had in store for him.

 He couldn't do anything about it. He couldn't stop this from happening, and he couldn't help but feel that he had let Mark down.

 He looked ahead at Mark, who was slowly advancing, just as he had done when Isaac was in Jack's position. Isaac was strong though, while Jack's vision was already obscured by tears and he couldn't stop the high pitched whimpers from passing his lips.

 He wasn't sure whether he was crying because he was about to die, or because of what it would do to Mark afterwards. Whatever the reason though, he hadn't bothered to bottle his emotions up over the past few days, so why should he start now?

 The downside to crying, though, was that it was blurring his vision, it was blurring the last view of Mark he'd probably ever get, and that was not okay.

 He tried his best to blink back the tears, taking Mark's painfully slow walk towards him as an opportunity to really take in his physical features one last time.

 Even with the blank stare and the purple eyes, though, Mark was nothing short of perfection in Jack's eyes. His very light stubble was so dark that it was noticeable, even from this distance. It framed his face superlatively, accentuating his strong jawline even further. Jack struggled to find any faults with the proportions of his face, and even his dark hair, despite being somewhat messy still held that enticing quality that made everyone want to run their hands through it.

 And his body, don't even get Jack started on the body.

 Looking upon Mark, these were all amazing attributes, and Jack couldn't help but feel lucky that someone so... hot, so beautiful would even spare him a second glance, but that wasn't what Jack fell in love with. That wasn't what attracted Jack to Mark and caused him to fall so hard for him.