The Dead Studios: Season 9

Chapter 8: Bad Habits

Jax's eyes opened softly as his vision was blurry. He picked his hands up and held the side of his face, rubbing off blood, seeing it on his hand. His old scar from when he got hit in the eye with his rifle was still there, and must've reopened. He remembered what had happened and he turned to look for Caroline. He saw her sitting next to him, leaning against the wall. Her eye was black and purple, stretching across the side of her face. He reached his hands out to her face which were tied together with restraints. He slowly moved his fingers across her face as she moaned softly, opening her eyes. He could see the pain in her face, and on her face. 

"What happened." She said, her eyes still squinting. Although they were both hit down pretty hard, Caroline got the worse of it.

"I don't know. I think we got knocked out and tied up." He said.

"Yep. That's what happened." A man said out of no where. 

Jax turned his head to see the man sitting in the chair, facing towards them. He didn't even notice him sitting there, he was focused on Caroline too much. "What the hell happened." Jax asked, glaring at the man.

"My uncle is a dick. That's what happened." He said as he stood up and kneeled down in front of them. "The names James by the way. I'm sorry he can be a jerk sometimes."

"A jerk?" Jax said confusingly. "Do you see what he did to her face?" He said looking at Caroline's face.

"Yeah... like I said. A dick." James said as he stood up and walked out of the room. A few minutes later he came back with a bag of ice. "Here, hold this on it." He said as he gave Caroline the small bag of ice. "I'm sorry this happened to you both, be glad he didn't kill you two on the spot. You're lucky, that's usually what he does." James said as he sat back down in the chair. 

Jax looked up at the man, but back at Caroline's bruised face. He thought about what he said- how his uncle usually always kills everyone they meet. It started to sound a lot like him. He has met so many people throughout the year, and only one of them is now alive. He looked over at Caroline, as she looked back at him.

"So tell me." Jax said. "We just gonna be kept locked up in here?" 

James looked at Jax and sighed. "I don't know yet. Like I said, my uncle is a dick. If it was up to me, you wouldn't be in here tied up right now, but it's not." He said looking away. 

Jax sighed as he watched him look away. "How many are there?" He asked.

"How many what?" James asked.

"People. How many people do you have." Jax asked, eyeing him down.

"Well there's me and Smithy, who I believe you've met. My uncle, Richard, David-" James kept going as he was suddenly cut off. 

"What the fuck are you doing?" A man said as he walked in. It was his uncle, Richard. 

Jax glared at him as he walked over to James.

"Nothing." James said as he stood up. The kid only had to be around 19. He walked past his uncle as he left the room.

Richard walked over and sat down on the chair James was sitting in. Jax continued to stare at him. He suddenly realized James had given ice to Caroline.

"Give me this." Richard said as he grabbed the bag of ice out from Caroline's hand.

"Hey! Come on, she needs that, look at her face." Jax said to him, getting restless. 

Richard sighed and eyed Jax. "Yeah I guess you're right." He said as he opened the bag of ice which was now partly melted into water, and poured it over Caroline. 

Jax's expression grew angry as he tackled the guy to the ground, still being in his restraints. He attempted to punch him but he wasn't able to. Richard quickly grabbed Jax and threw him back up against the wall next to Caroline. He got up and got into Jax's face. "You ever touch me like that again, you're gonna wish I killed you-" He said as suddenly Jax hit Richard in the face with his head, as he fell backwards, hitting into the chair. Jax quickly got up, untying Caroline as she did it back to him. Richard's head started to bleed as Jax stood above him. He took the rifle that was around Richard's back and stormed out of the room. He walked into the open living room, where he saw Smithy laying on one of the couches resting his leg. Jax raised the rifle and aimed it at him. 

"Woah woah! Don't shoot!" The 20 year old yelled as he held his hands in the air.

"Shut up." Jax said as he got Caroline into the living room. "Make sure he doesn't speak." Jax said to her.

Caroline nodded and took the gun from Smithy, holding it against his head. Jax heard voices outside and upstairs of the cabin.

"Tell us what the hell is going on." Jax asked Smithy.

"Please- we don't want no trouble." He pleaded.

"Tell us who you are." Jax asked the man again, getting in his face.

"My father owns the cabin- we have been running for a while, just on the road, until we finally made it back here. We were going to meet up with some others, but.. you killed them." Smithy explained.

"Who else is here. Tell me everyone." Jax asked.

"Uuuh- there's me... David, the man who first found you in here. His sister, Olivia is here. Her boyfriend, Colton. My father, my cousin James. And.. .that's it. Yeah." Smithy said.

"That's it?" Jax asked. 

Smithy nodded.

"Okay." Jax said. "Shoot him." He turned and said to Caroline. Her eyes widened.

"What...? Why would we do that?" Caroline questioned him.

Jax looked at her blue and purple face. "Look what they did to you. We need to keep this cabin, it's the best thing that's happened to us." He said.

"No!" Caroline yelled at him, backing up from Smithy.

"Caroline. What're you doing..?" Jax asked.

"We can't keep doing this. We can't!" She yelled at him.

"Caroline- keep your voice down." Jax said as the voices upstairs grew louder.

"We can't always kill the first people we meet, just because we're scared." Caroline said. "I'm scared, Jax. I told you that. But- killing? We can't keep going on like this. WE CAN'T." She explained.

Jax sighed. "They won't take us in. We've killed two of their men." He said.

"We will!" Smithy yelled. "My uncle was seriously thinking about it. We had a whole talk about it, the whole family. We thought over the deaths, we understand, it was just self defense. Please, just don't kill us all." He said.

Suddenly, a young girl, maybe around the age of 17 came down the stairs, seeing Jax and Caroline. She was confused for a moment- until she suddenly ran back up the stairs. Jax was ready to go up after her when suddenly Caroline caught his arm. 

"No, Jax." She said, looking at his bleeding head. "We can't." She said.

Jax looked at her. They had been through too much together- they can't keep killing, he thought. He nodded. Smithy quickly got up, limping to the broken door. Jax was ready to go and stop him when Caroline caught him again.

"We have to break these bad habits." Caroline said. 

Jax nodded, as Caroline softly kissed him.  James came running inside the door, David and Smithy following behind him.

"Jesus christ." James said.