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The day started out normal enough. Well, as normal as it could be in a zombie-monster apocalypse. Jack woke up just as the sun was rising and got ready to take Rover out for a morning ride. He’d been doing those rides more and more as time went on.
The fresh air and peaceful quietness (except for a few moans and groans) helped Jack clear his head and plan for the day ahead. Usually it was just a grocery run or inventing a new game to keep everyone happy. That day Jack was strategizing on how to get the essence of another beast for the Beastiary. He and his friends were going to have a meeting about it later but getting a plan together beforehand was never a bad idea.
By the time the sun was completely up, Jack was already eating breakfast in the treehouse with three options on how to get the essence. He ate his granola bar in silence while making note of what to add to the grocery list. There was always something to do in the treehouse which Jack was thankful for. His ADHD always had him bouncing from place to place looking for a job to do more often than he switched foster homes.
The others woke up soon after Jack finished his breakfast and started writing the grocery list down. Quint was first, sending Jack a quick “Good morning friend” as he also grabbed a granola bar. Then he went off to do who knows what in his room/lab. June was next, followed by Dirk. They both poured themselves a bowl of cereal and sat down on either side of him. Occasionally one of them would point out something he missed or added something they wanted, like Dirk adding a baseball glove because Rover stole his old one.
After they finished the list June picked up the bowls and brought them over to their dish bucket. In one of the first few weeks of living in the treehouse, Quint deemed normal dish soap unfit to clean their dishes. He invented some sort of super dish soap that he made them use because it killed 11.2% more germs or something.
”Jack, can you go get Quint for our planning session?” Jack nodded at June and made his way to Quint’s room.
”Hey buddy!” He called, “Meeting is about to start!” All he got in response was Quint’s thumb sticking out of the doorway. Classic Quint, he thought. Then he walked into the kitchen and sat back down on his stool.
”We can start without him. It’ll take him at least ten minutes to get all of his protective gear off,” Jack says.
June and Dirk nodded and began to talk about their ideas. Dirk wanted to go in and just kill it, but June wanted to try and tie it up. Dirk didn’t understand why June was so against killing it. “It’s a living thing too Dirk. It’s just trying to survive in an unknown environment and we’re about to scare it some more!” June argued.
The two went back and forth for a while. Jack tried to voice his opinion a few times but stopped trying after they kept ignoring him. Quint joined them at some point and watched the argument next to Jack.
Normally getting a monster’s essence wouldn’t be a big deal. The problem with that one was that it had really good hearing and either attacked or ran. They could never predict which one it was going to choose so no matter how prepared they were, it always managed to get away from them.
Then Jack had an idea. If they split up into pairs, one team could fight it and the other team could act as a backup in case it tries to run. “Guys! If we-“
”I’m not killing that thing Dirk!”
”Hey, we could-“
”It’s a monster June! It doesn’t have feelings!”
”I have a plan!”
”You don’t know that! Some of them do!”
”Hey!”
”Yeah, the nice ones! This one isn’t nice!”
”Guys!”
”It’s just scared!”
Jack finally got fed up and waved his arm between June and Dirk. Big mistake.
”WHAT JACK!?” June shouted. Jack recoiled and almost fell off of his stool. He gripped the table to steady himself and noticed his hands were shaking. Why did that sound like… Jack shook his head and looked at June, who looked pissed.
”What could be so important that you have to interrupt us? If you thought of another one of your stupid games I’m going to kill you,” she seethed. Jack curled in on himself and stared at the table.
”I thought of a plan,” he said weakly. June laughed, but I’d din’t sound friendly. It sounded like someone who was about to explode.
”Oh, okay. ‘Jack has a genius plan so everyone needs to shut up and listen to him!’ Is that it?” Jack tried to speak but he couldn’t. It felt like there was a lump in this throat the size of a bowling ball. “Well go ahead. Tell us your perfect plan that’s going to be way better than any of ours so we have to use it!”
Jack felt three pairs of eyes on him and he squeezed his eyes shut. Don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry, he commanded himself. But he couldn’t stop a few tears from slipping down his cheeks and falling on to the table.
”Oh shi- is he crying?” Dirk asked. Jack’s breathing sped up and soon breathing through his nose wasn’t enough. He took big gulps of air with his mouth and even that didn’t give him enough air.
”Jack, are you okay?” Quint asked him. Jack opened his eyes and saw everyone staring at him. But instead of concern and regret, he’s saw anger and violence. He didn’t even see his friends at all.
Who Jack saw was his old foster parents, the Reylands. They had treated him like some kind of slave, making him do all the work and punishing him when he didn’t. He still had nightmares bout them and had to pretend like they were regular nightmares in front of his friends.
A hand rested on Jack’s shoulder and he jumped back, knocking his stool down in the process. “DON’T TOUCH ME!” He shrieked, looking around in a panic.
There was only one figure in front of Jack by then, but instead of Quint he saw Mr. Reyland. The man who had treated Jack so sweetly until a switch got flipped. After that, Jack hated the sweetness so much it made him sick.
”Jack, what’s wrong?” He asked with a voice full of false concern. Jack shook his head and whimpered. It was the only sound he was capable of making. “Tell me Jackie,” the man said.
Jack’s stomach twisted at the nickname. He shook his head again. He managed to get out a quiet “no” that made Mr. Reyland frown.
”No? You can’t tell me no Jackie. I’m your father remember?” His hand reached out to touch Jack’s face and Jack leaned away, but it was like his body was made of lead. Mr. Reyland caressed Jack’s face with his hand and smirked. “If you don’t tell me I’ll just convince you some other way,” he murmured.
Jack shivered at the implication and shut his eyes tightly. “Please no,” he pleaded. But Mr. Reyland didn’t listen. His left hand travelled up Jack’s thigh while his right hand continued cradling his face. Jack tried to break away, to call for help, something, but he was frozen.
He laid there while Mr. Reyland’s hands roamed Jack’s body. He dragged his fingers down his chest, his arms, his legs. Jack wished it would just end. Then Mr. Reyland gripped his arms and leaned in closer. He took Jack’s lips between his teeth and kissed and nipped every part of Jack’s mouth.
Jack clamped his mouth shut to keep the man’s tongue from entering it. “Jackie,” he whispered. Tears ran down Jack’s face while Mr. Reyland kissed him and ran his hands all over Jack. He touched everywhere, everywhere, and all Jack wanted was to die.
Just as Jack was about to give up, he heard a voice. At first he thought it was Mr. Reyland moaning his name again so he blocked it out. The it changed into something more high pitched. It sounded like…Quint?
But how could he hear Quint? He was with the Reylands and Quint was…but he hadn’t even met Quint yet so how-? And then Jack remembered- he wasn’t with the Reylands. He was in his treehouse with his friends at the end of the world.
He slowly opened his eyes, still expecting to see Mr. Reylands hovering over him, but instead saw his friends gathered around him. Confusion and fear was all over their faces.
”Guys?” Jack asked tentatively, afraid it was just a prank. A sick new way for the Reylands to torture him. “Are…you’re real right?” Quint, Dirk, and June looked at each other.
”Yeah man. Pretty sure we’re real,” Dirk said. Quint extended his hand out carefully to Jack and smiled softly, encouraging him to take it.
”Are you alright now Jack?” He asked. And just like that the dam broke. Jack launched himself into Wuint’s arms and clung to him like a dying man. He sobbed into Quint’s shoulder, babbling “I’m sorry” and “Thank you”the whole time.
Jack was free. After living in hell for months, he realized he was finally safe. He could stop running from his past, stop hiding who he was. Jack laughed a little, although it was a sad little laugh. When he finally calmed down enough the others guided him over to the couch and found seats around him.
”I’m sorry for freaking out like that,” he started. All three of them rushed to say it wasn’t his fault and he smiled.
Then June spoke, “I’m sorry for yelling at you. I was worked up because of my fight with Dirk. Dirk, I’m sorry too.” Dirk patted her back and smiled. Jack accepted her apology and took a deep breath. The next part was going to be harder.
”I know you’re probably all wondering what happened,” he began. They all nodded.
”You kept saying ‘no,’” Dirk told him. Jack grimaced.
”Yeah, about that…You guys know I’m a foster kid right?” Nods. “Well most of the places I went were fine. Great even. But one of them wasn’t so great.” Jack sighed and looked down at his duck-taped sketchers. “The Reylands seemed normal at first. No kids of their own. Wife works in the office and the husband works from home. Mrs. Reyland was okay. She yelled a lot and hit me a few times but nothing major.”
A few of them gasped at that part. Jack didn’t want to think about what their reactions would be to what he had to say next. “Mr. Reyland was worse. He was the one who hit me all the time. It felt like every little thing I did set him off. But more than that, he…” Jack bit his lip. “…he did things. We didn’t- he didn’t go all the way, but…it was close.”
Jack lookup expecting to be met with disgusted faces. Instead he was met with sympathy. Dirk was looking at him with a neutral expression but there was sadness in his eyes. June looked at him like he was her hero who just announced his retirement. And Quint…Jack didn’t know what Quont!s face was doing.
His eyebrows were furrowed, his face was pinched up, and Jack’s heart sped up during the one awful second when he thought Quint hated him. Then his lip quivered and Jack realized he was crying. “I- you-“ Quint could ‘t even get a full sentence out before running straight into Jack and crushing him in a hug. The force of it was surprising considering Quint’s body weight.
Soon Jack felt two more pairs of arms around him and it became a full on group hug. He would’ve cried again if he had any tears left. Instead Jack let himself be held and knew that finally, he had found a real home.