𝚕𝚊𝚢 𝚖𝚎 𝚍𝚘𝚠𝚗 // 𝕁𝕁 𝕄𝕒𝕪𝕓𝕒𝕟𝕜

Chapter Four // Strangers

4. Strangers

•••

"I've tasted blood and it is sweet
I've had the rug pulled beneath my feet
I've trusted lies and trusted men
Broke down and put myself back together again
Stared in the mirror and punched it to shatters
Collected the pieces and picked out a dagger"

~Nightmare by Halsey

•••

Trigger Warnings: Mentions of physical abuse

•••

The next afternoon, JJ groaned, cracking his eyes open against the blinding sunlight. He slowly rolled himself off of the couch and burrowed his pounding head in his arms.

The tequila bottle sat empty on the coffee table and his stomach lurched at the thought.

Shoving himself to his feet, he stumbled onto the front porch, barely making it outside before puking onto the grass.

He stayed crouched for a minute, taking deep, steadying breaths before lifting his head to look out over the yard. The hot tub was glaring back at him. Taunting him, it seemed.

The memories that he'd been so desperately trying to escape all came rushing back to him at once. The fight with his dad, John B. and Sarah's deaths, losing Kie and Pope, Barry's money.

The fucking hot tub.

Suddenly, he was launching himself off the porch. Wrapping his fingers around the lights he had strung up in the yard, he started ripping them down furiously. Anguished screams wrenching their way from his chest.

He snatched at the wires, leaves and twigs raining down on him as he threw them to the ground. One particularly hard tug, caused a rotten tree limb to give way and JJ cursed as it came crashing down onto his already pounding head.

With a growl, he picked it up and stalked over to the hot tub, beating it angrily with the limb. Over and over, he bashed it into the side of the tub until it snapped in two and he found himself sinking to his knees in a rush of tears.

He allowed himself to sob for a few moments, his head buried in his hands and occasionally punching the ground with his fist.

He wasn't sure when things had gotten this bad. It had all been ripped away from him so fast...

He didn't know how much longer he could do this.

"You put on quite a show, Maybank." A familiar voice came from behind him, "But I think you're wasting precious time with your little pity party."

JJ's jaw clenched. His voice deep and thick with emotion as he addressed his visitor. "Go the fuck away, Val."

"As much as I would love to be doing anything else..." She sighed. "Unfortunately, Barry has me trailing your ass until the end of the week. Though it's turning out to be far more entertaining than I'd expected..."

At the mention of Barry, JJ found himself whipping around and lunging for the girl. Without thinking, he wrapped a hand around her throat and slammed her back against a tree to shut her up.

He heard her gasp in surprise at his actions. His breathing ragged and his hand shaking as it pinned her neck against the tree, trying not to press too hard.

"JJ?" She breathed, her eyes shut tightly, and he could hear the fear in her trembling voice.

It snapped him out of his rage and his face fell, taking in the situation. She was a small girl and he towered over her by almost a foot. And for a brief moment he thought about how much stronger he was and how easy it would have been to just squeeze too hard and...