Carnations for Emily

Chapter 22: The Worst Thing

"Ah, you're coming home?
In two days you say?
How come?
Alright hun, just come home safe and we'll be here.
I'll be sure to tell Jill and let her know too. She'll be so happy." Hellen hung up the phone.
She just got a call late tonight from Jack. He said he and Emily are both coming home in a couple of days.
Though unsure of what the reason is, she's happy regardless.
Hellen and Jill both always feel a little more sad without Jack home.

The next morning Hellen had already done her morning routine and Jill walked into the kitchen as groggy as ever.
"Good morning, sweetheart" Hellen said cheerfully.
"What's you're deal?
You aren't normally so cheery in the morning." Jill said.
"Well Jack called last night, he's coming home for a little while tomorrow." Hellen smiled.
"Big brother!?" Jill immediately cupped her mouth with her hands.
Since he graduated school, her adopted brother, Jack, is never home anymore.
He spends all his time up in New York City trying to make a life.

Jill personally hates it.
She wants Jack home so she can spend time with him.
Yet even though she'd like that, at the same time she's frustrated about it.
Because she has feelings for him...
Though she never told anyone and she's tried hard to get Jack to notice it, but she figures he'll never see her anymore than what she's meant to be seen.
Jill hates that too.

"I'll tell him this time." Jill thought to herself.
She then packed her school laptop, caught the school bus on time and left.
After a boring and androgynous school day it was almost time to go home.
Before she got out to her bus, a boy stopped her in the hall.
"Hey Jill, I wanted to ask you something." The boy asked.
Jill already knew what the question was and she already had an answer for him. He was a little older than her, but not by much.
She could also tell he wasn't smarter than her.
Not by a long shot.
"I know what you're going to ask and I'm sorry, but no." Jill said in confidence.
"Wh-What?" The guy stammered.
Jill huffed.
"I know you were about to ask me out. Sorry but no." Jill for the last few years had been asked out by a hundred different guys and she's turned them all down.
Rumors started to spread through the halls that she only had feelings for Jack.
Though Jill would deny it if someone asked, secretly it was true.
"T-then is it true?" The guy spoke again.
"Do you really like you're brother like that?" He said.
"Of course not!
Don't be stupid." Jill huffed again.
She then moved to the guys side and walked away from him.
"When will they learn?" Jill thought.
She went back to the house and waited for Hellen to come home.
Another normal night like any other.

"Hey hun, how was school?" Hellen had come home exhausted from a long work day like usual.
"It was okay. Kinda boring like normal." Jill sighed.
"I see, well the good news is that Jack is supposed to come home sometime tonight.
Surely you're excited about that." Hellen smiled.
"O-of course." Jill blushed.

A few hours pass, Helen goes off to take a shower before bed and Jill is watching a show in the living room.
When she hears a knock at the door, Jill begrudgingly walks over to answer it.
"Hello?" She says.
Suddenly she freezes in her tracks.
On the other side of the door stood a tall buff looking figure in a black coat.
"Hello miss.
Is a young man named Jack here?" The figure said.
Jill could tell by the voice that it was a man, though nobody she recognized and she doesn't remember Jack hanging around anyone like this person.
"No...
My brother isn't home." Jill said with a sour look on her face.
"Hmm...
I see, then we have a plan."
The mysterious man spoke.

"Huh?"

...At around three in the morning Jack and Emily get out of the cab in front of Jack's house.
Jack immediately noticed something was wrong for the front door had its lock locked in.
"Something isn't right." Jack said as he rushed in the door.
He found the house in an absolute wreck as if a fight happened.
Jack walked around and noticed that a pan was used to hit someone.
As he investigated more, he found Hellen in her bedroom crying.
"Mom?! What happened here?" Jack ran to Hellen's side trying to calm her down.
"Jackie..." Hellen couldn't stop crying.
"Something horrible has happened.
They took her!" Hellen shrieked.
"Took who?" As the words left his mouth, it dawned on Jack who Hellen was talking about...
"...Mom, where's Jill?"
"A group of people...
In black coats..." Hellen was hyperventilating.
As soon as Jack heard "Black coats" a fit of rage flared inside him.
He turned, started to rush out of the house but quickly stopped in the doorway and turned back to Hellen.
"Don't worry mom. I'll bring her back." Jack said with an almost ruthless tone of voice.

As he ran back outside Emily was waiting for him.
"What's wrong?" Emily asked.
"They took Jill. I'm going after them." Jack hissed.
"What? Who?" Emily wore a worried expression.
"The Broken Glass Gang. They're here and I know where they're hiding." Jack hopped back in the cab and paid the driver.
Before the car could take off, Emily jumped in too.
"Oh no, no way, you aren't coming with me." Jack protested.
"Yes I am. Like I told you, I'm with you no matter what." Emily insisted with a fierce look in her eyes.
"We don't have time to argue Jack.
I told they'd keep coming after you." Jamie rang in Jack's head.
"I said they'd keep coming and take everything you care about just for me to come back...
I'm the last component they need for Nick to go after the group that ruined Harvey and his family.
You and I both know we can't stay like this forever." Jamie said in a somber tone.

"It's almost time isn't it?" Jack mumbled under his breath.
"Huh?" Emily couldn't hear what he said, but she noticed that when Jack looked at her...
There was a different look in his eyes.
A mixture of anger, sorrow, fear, and depression all together.
She didn't say anything, but saw that before her eyes Jack's red and black hair had looked more black, as if the red in his hair were dying embers in a fire...
"Jack..." Emily mumbled.
"I'm okay Em, let's just go get Jill back.
I'm done with these guys." Jack said as he turned to the driver.
The car quickly sped off down the street, towards the building where Jack first met Harvey.

"I can feel it, deep down inside...

"...This is my last adventure."
Chapter 22 End.