Chapter Text
The sting from the hit was an unwelcome but depressingly familiar sensation. The screaming, the slurs, the lecture and the insults are also familiar. She wasn't even sure what she did wrong this time. Possibly absolutely nothing, except maybe be careless enough to let Fred see her. She focused on the important things. Like the rules she set for herself in situations like this.
Don't make a sound. Doing so could either; a) anger Fred more and make him hit you harder, or b) satisfy the sadistic prick and make him prolong this torture for his own pleasure.
Hold your breath. It helps dull the pain some.
Don't look at mom. You don't have to, you know exactly where she is and what she's doing. She's sitting in the kitchen typing on her laptop, working on some report or process she has to submit later tonight on her job. Looking at her would just make Fred start his ' What are you looking at her for? Begging for help? ' speech.
Don't look at Fred either. He'll view it as defiance and will anger him more.
Focus on something else. Think about your homework or your project. Focusing on something else makes the whole ordeal seem faster than it really is.
Jessica limped into her room and assessed the damage in her mirror, bruises mostly, some scrapes from the wooden floorboard on her right arm, but overall nothing that would last more than a week or two, and nothing that can't be covered by long sleeves. Her lip was bleeding but that was self inflicted.
She grabbed her bag and started on her homework. A few bruises won't stop her from graduating so she can get out of this hell hole. She's endured it for three years, she can hold out for another year till she graduates.
Scholarships and skipping years helped a lot, considering she's now in her last year of studies to get a PhD in Mechanical Engineering. Though the pickpocketing is equally as helpful in getting her enough money to actually afford everything she needs to graduate.
Speaking of which, she's gonna need to go out and get her allowance soon, she has just enough cash for the week and she still needs to buy parts for her project. She did the math in her head as she hid the shoe box with her cash underneath the floorboard again, dragging the carpet back to cover it afterwards.
She walked around town one beautiful sunny Saturday with a smile on her face, headphones on her ears and a cast on her right arm. Her headphones played no music but gave off the assumption that she wasn't paying attention to what's happening around her. Even as she skillfully grabbed the wallets and jewelries of certain people she passed by, shoving the cash on her pockets and dropping the wallets, hiding the larger bills inside her cast.
She usually only went for the cash, jewelry made too much noise and are hard to pawn without raising suspicion. Though she'd still occasionally grab them if she recognizes them to be expensive enough(but not enough to raise suspicion) or if they seem like something she'd wear. Certain lessons you'd learn after doing this for almost six years now.
On an easy, busy, day like today she makes around 500-800 bucks which can last her two weeks at least. When she felt like her pockets were heavy enough and the paranoia began to creep up her spine, she started to make her way back home with her earnings.
So you might be wondering; Why is she pickpocketing the fair citizens of Central City? How is she graduating with a PhD at 15? Why is she letting some ass named Fred beat her black and blue? Why didn't her mom interfere?
Well it's simple really; life sucks! But seriously though, she's just doing what she can to survive. She's always been an intellectually gifted child, skipping years since grade school and progressing in her studies faster than a bullet. But of course, just when she was sure her life would just be one straight ride to a bright future, everything comes crashing down.
She was 9 years old, already in 8th grade, when she got pulled out of class one innocent, seemingly uneventful Wednesday, and told that her Father got into a car crash due to having a heart attack, he died upon collision and her mother was outside to take her with to see his body. That was the first tile down of the dominoes that would signify everything wrong happening in her life.
The second was grief. More specifically, her mother's grief. Apparently her mother doesn't cope well with loss. Because she decided that the best way to grieve her deceased husband was to forget that their only child actually exists. Jessica spent two months trying to interact with her mother before just giving up. In those two months she suffered starvation from her mother not making enough food for both of them, neglect from being ignored and treated as if she didn't exist, and her grades dropped from the stress and emotional exhaustion.
The school was very understanding of her situation though, knowing how hard it would be for a child to lose a parent at such a young age, even with her high intellect. But soon enough she realized that if her mother won't be there for her anymore, she'll have to survive on her own.
And thus, the pickpocketing, she had to eat somehow. Besides, she's always been a bit of a klepto anyways, but having lived a life where everything you want was given to you in a moment's notice, she had no reason to indulge on the part of her that wanted to just take and take and take whatever she pleased.
There were some hiccups here and there, she'd get caught sometimes, get screamed at, maybe hit. Though it helped teach her how to act fast, to study the person; Do they seem like someone you have to run from or someone you can exploit? Can you play the 'starving child' card and have them let you go, or better yet hand you their cash willingly out of pity? Or would you have to run as fast as you can and hide before they can call the cops?
The third tile down was Fred's appearance in their life. It was an interesting, almost romantic story; Grieving widow working as a secretary to some company meets nice, good looking new employee who needs someone to teach him the ropes, they spend time together, maybe have some coffee, fall in love, all that shabang.
Except they never mentioned the 11 year old daughter of the secretary who she still hasn't acknowledged.
Fred moves into their apartment a couple months into their relationship and tries to act friendly around her. Though he drops the facade upon realizing that Allison literally doesn't care about her daughter. That's when the yelling began. Then the hitting. And there was nothing Jessica could do about it.
The thing that kept her from just sinking and drowning was the knowledge that her skipping years made it all worth it. She can graduate early, get her PhD, get a job and get as far away from Allison and Fred as she can. Central City University never even checked on her excuse on where all her tuition money came from, apparently 'trust fund left by my dead father' was a solid enough excuse to hide the fact that she stole all her tuition money from random citizens.
Holidays were not a fun time for Jessica. No school means spending more time at home where she mostly just suffers. And while others are excited over spending time with family and getting presents, she was dreading having to work twice as hard to avoid the other residents of their tiny ass apartment. The only positive thing about the holidays is people carrying more money which gives her twice as much earnings than usual.
Though another thing she's looking forward to this holidays would be the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator being turned on. Seeing that beauty turn on is every nerds' dream. Sadly, she can only watch it from the roof of their apartment complex on her phone. She can't exactly attend the event being a minor with no guardian.
So that night she went up to the roof where she can distantly see the lab and watched the event live on her phone. She even brought her dad's photography bag with her, the one she stole from her parents bedroom after his death and kept hidden, it was the only thing of his that she could keep. And having it with her now made it feel like he was with her. Her dad was also a Science Nerd, in fact he was the reason she went for Mechanical Engineering in the first place.
She made sure to keep it underneath the umbrella she brought but had no intention of using. She let the faint drizzling water soak her hoodie freely. Rain is good, it calmed her down. And a faint drizzle on an early night is just the setting she needs to relax and enjoy the event.
'I'm Linda Park here at S.T.A.R. Labs despite the inclement weather which would only get worse-'
As she sat there on the roof cross-legged with her phone in front of her, she played with her favorite thing on the kit, not the camera that her father loved and cherished, but the six inch prism that he used on certain shots. It was the first science lesson she learned hands on. Refraction.
She could remember the way her father brought the prism up into the ray of sunshine entering their window and told her, "Raise your hand up right here Jessica" as he guided her hand to intercept the rainbow the prism produced, "Now look at your palm" he told his 4 year old daughter, unaware of how much that moment would mean to her.
"Woah! Rainbow!" Little Jessica said. "Yep, a rainbow. Do you know how that happened Jessica?" He asked her. Little Jessica shook her head no even as she wiggled her fingers playfully at the rainbow on her palm. "It's called refraction. This-" he said moving the prism closer to her face, making the rainbow disappear and causing the child to pout, "-is a prism" he guided her hands to hold the prism.
"Pizim?" She repeated as she held onto it. Jason guided his daughter to hold the prism up to the ray of sunshine, "Yes, Prism. When you hold it up to the sunlight like this," he explains as Jessica squeals in glee at having made the rainbow reappear, "it refracts the light and makes a rainbow" he continued as his daughter used her other hand to play with the rainbow. "Refraction. Can you repeat it?" He prompted. "Repaction" Little Jessica repeated clumsily.
Jessica shook herself out of the memory and continued to pay attention to the live news report of the biggest achievement of Central City in Science History. Everything was running smoothly and people were cheering, even though there were still some protesting against the event, not that they can do anything now. She bets that right now, the team of scientists are celebrating inside the Lab with Dr.Wells, drinking champagne maybe, having a small private party to celebrate their accomplishment.
She wished that when she graduates, when she gets a job, which would be soon, she'll get to do something similar. Work on a project that would mark history, celebrate the success with a team of people that worked equally as hard to achieve what they did.
Her daydreaming was cut short by the reporter, Linda Young?, reporting a change in the event. "Wait, we are now being told to evacuate the facility. The storm may have caused a malfunction to the primary cooling system. Officials are now trying to shut down the particle accelerator but so far have been unable to regain control of the sys-" the report cut off seemingly by the camera turning off. Her phone's screen showed simply a 'leave news app?' message.
She looked up when she saw a bright light from above and leaned back in shock. There was an explosion coming from S.T.A.R. Labs and spreading throughout the city. The light passed by her uneventfully, though it seemed to have turned her phone off. Distantly she could make out something following the light though moving slower, some kind of energy wave that seems to blur everything around or perhaps behind it.
After the shock there was a moment of clarity that had her brain telling her that she can still make it to the door and inside the building if she ran now. But a small part of her made her stop and just sit still. If this is the end, if this kills her, would it really be that bad?
Surely not much would change if she died now. Her mother already forgot that she existed anyways. Fred would lose his punching bag, he might start to go for her mom next . Her friends might grieve her for a while, but surely they'll get over her. Her teachers might feel disappointed at losing a student so close to achieving their dreams, but there are many others that would compensate for that loss. Truly, the only people who’ll miss her are Eliza and their family.
She clutched the prism close to her heart and stood facing the explosion. "If this is it, if this is what kills me. Then at least I'll get to see you again now papa" she muttered as the energy wave crept closer.
The wave collided with her making her stumble back. She heard something shatter, probably the prism in her hand, either from the energy expelled by the explosion and into the wave or by her clutching it too tight, then her back hit the concrete and everything went dark.