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“Blind Within The Shadows”

“What you see’s not what you get, with you there’s just no measurement, no way to tell what’s real from what isn’t there…….and some lies that dropped like acid rain, you washed away the best of me, you don’t care.” - Kelly Clarkson, “Gone”


Chapter 4: Dark Beginning


The next thing Jessica sees is waking up in the living room of her home. Everything in her vision is blurry and she groans feeling disoriented and not sure of what happened at school. Nothing is making sense to her at the moment, all she knows is the jumbled mess currently swirling about her mind. Out of nowhere she feels a stinging slap and she blinks again, forcing herself to come into her own senses. Standing above her in what was deceivingly false concern was Mike Karona, her foster father. Her hand goes to her cheek and she sits up, trying to wave off the dizziness that immediately follows. She gives him a sarcastic and weak grin.

“Hey there Mikey.” Jessica says with a sneer, knowing he hates being called that.

He stands there before her attempting to intimidate her. She doesn’t want to admit it but he is doing a somewhat decent job of it. He always had a way of making her nervous at the very least. Ever since she was just a small child of six newly adopted by them. Then however it was more than nervousness she got from him, she once had feared him greatly and yearned for the orphanage. Truth be told Jessica did want the orphanage back even now. Though the memories are hazy she does have the memory of feeling happy there if nothing else. Now she doesn’t exactly fear him or Rachael as over time she learned to face them down, but they can still intimidate her, she just won’t ever let them know that. They don’t need to know they still have a small amount of power over her emotions. Jessica always sensed they know something she doesn’t, and that they know why she has blackout sessions, but she could never get anything from them to support that so all it is is a theory.

“What the hell did you do today?!” He roars, not even looking like he cared about her welfare. She sighs mentally. He’s never cared about her, why should he now? Mike has only cared about her getting trained, lord knows why.

Jessica sits up immediately, her short golden locks ruffled about her face. “I don’t remember.” She replies honestly. What happened today is a blur once she had entered PE class. All she remembers is she was doing tae Bo…and the rest is a blank.

“I had to carry your pathetic self home from school today.” He seethes. “They said something about overexerting and then passing out.” he smirks cruelly. “I also heard girls sounding insane as they started claiming you glowed. What happened Jessica?”

“I told your deaf ass I don’t fucking remember!” She isn’t about to let him push her around. How could they let him adopt her? It’s a question she wonders everyday of her life.

He backhands her roughly and Jessica flies off of the couch she had been lying on in the living room. Her cheek stings sharply and the mark of a handprint is very clear upon her young face.

“Then fucking figure it out Jessica Rose Carter. Then come talk to me. Till then your sad friends who I know are waiting outside to hear about you are going to have to wait. Your sickening ass isn’t getting outside of this house for ANYTHING including school, until you tell me just what the hell happened!”

“FUCK YOU MIKE!” She shouts, standing up and not caring about the bruise that will eventually show its way on her face from his smacking her. “You can’t do shit even if I do leave!”

Mike raises a brow and looks at her mockingly. “Who says I can’t?”

Jessica smirks back, her eyes the color of a stormy ocean and full of determination. Her athletic yet smaller frame looking tiny in comparison to her foster father’s buff and filled out and obviously worked out body. The terror she felt as a child hints at reemerging her but she shoves it deep down so it doesn’t show.

“I do. You and I both know that I am stronger of the two of us if you try and stop me.”

“What makes you think that, little girl?”

”The fact I’m not a fucking little girl anymore. I grew up, and now I’m stronger and you know it asshole!” This is such a first for her. Even though in the past she has argued back with him, never had she been as bold as she is being now.

“Grew up eh? A wise old woman at age fourteen? You’re far from grown; you’d never last on your own for a fucking day you little shit. If you leave this house you can find a new place to live.”

“Fine I fucking will!”

He sneers; his onyx eyes even colder than before, something Jessica didn’t think is possible, even for Mike. She wonders for a moment where Rachael is. Probably in her room high or out getting drunk. If she wasn’t she’ll be out at her sometimes job, whatever the hell that is. Jessica doesn’t even know, she just knows sometimes Rachael shows up with a random paycheck.

“Like hell you will. Where you gonna go little lady? You’re a child who no one ever wanted ever till we took you. Not sure why now we did anymore. Where are you going to go? The Littrells? The Richardsons? If they would even be able to take you in, I have legal guardianship, and I will forbid you to stay there and if you stay anyway I will report you to the cops as a runaway. They would be arrested for keeping you; hell I might say it was a kidnapping. You’re stuck here and there’s not a damn thing you can do.”

Jessica stands her ground, the words stinging because deep down she knows he has a point. “I’ll tell the cops how you hit me.”

He smirks in victory. “There’s no proof, I would still get to keep you, and they would just keep an eye on us for a short span of time. You don’t bruise easy if at all, and the few times you do, well people know that you work out, train, practice different forms of fighting. I’ll just tell them the few marks you have are from that.”

She sighs, he won and she knows it. She’s trapped here until she can find a way out. “Fine fucking whatever. I can’t tell you what happened because it’s all a fucking blur. Why the hell couldn’t you and your whore have left me in the orphanage, I would have been a shitload better off!” All she feels in her is rage and frustration at being trapped in this more. Never before had she hated Los Angeles, the city they live in, more. Jessica storms off to her room and Mike Karona watches her go with a smile.

“You would have been better off staying there true,” He whispers quietly to himself, “But you are meant to help me succeed in my goal, once you truly realize what you are capable of. You know nothing of what you are. Nothing of what you have begun to be.”


************


Nick dribbles the basketball down the court with ease; he sends his friend and next door neighbor Howie, a grin. He aims the ball and it goes in without even touching the rim. They were at their high school, playing around after most of the kids went home. Waiting for AJ actually who had detention and was their ride.

“That was swish too! Sweet!” He grins, “Game, I win. Hmm….I like the idea of Air McLeans don’t you? When I make it big and have that shoe line, people will be saying Jordan who?”

Howie laughs, running a hand through his short unruly black curls. “Ego much man?” He takes a few breaths for a moment and watches Nick. “You play like a madman though.”

Nick smirks, “I’m so fast I’m a blur. Hey that can be my NBA nickname, the Blur!”

He chuckles at his younger friend. Howie had grown up with Nick and AJ since they moved to Huntington Beach, and at first he was better friends with Alex since they were closer in age. As years went by however the age difference suddenly seemed so small and the three hang out together often. Every now and then there is something about Nick that isn’t exactly normal that happens but much to AJ’s insistence; those rare instances are always ignored.

“Don’t you like Kaos?”

“True but-” he stops there as suddenly as if something physically slapped him he stumbles back and winces, holding his cheek. A handprint is clearly visible upon his cheek and for a reason unknown to him all he feels is frustration and rage. He looks up at Howie yet isn’t looking truly at him, he’s looking beyond him as if there is something there not visible to Howie. His sapphire eyes for a split second, glow a bright blue and instantly the glow vanishes along with the handprint as if it had never occurred. Nick frowns, it was if he was somewhere else, being hit, being abused, what had happened? His mind races as he tries not to relax. Scared of passing out like he has before. Howie watches his friend, his coffee eyes staring with confusion.

“Nick what just-”

“Yo! Lets go! I knew I’d find you two bums here,” Alex says with a grin as he walks up to them without taking notice of the look of puzzlement settled within his brother’s eyes, and not paying attention to Howie looking slightly startled.

Nick smiles, pushing all of what just went down aside. Maybe he was just daydreaming? Yes that had to be it. There has to be a simple explanation. Nick likes leaning about science, even if the subject is difficult for him, he likes finding out how things work. One of the first things he learned is that there is a logical explanation for this. Just like there is for everything. Sure he isn’t normal and the thought troubles him, like he had told AJ after seeing the drawing he could not remember doing. Still there is a reason he is not average. There is a reason something seemingly weird happened and that was because he was day dreaming. There are no after effects so yes it just never happened. It didn’t.

“Sure lets go Jay.”

The three go off towards the parking lot, neither Nick nor Howie mentioning anything out of the ordinary. They do not see the man in the shadows the large old fashioned building of the school provides. His lips curve into a satisfied grin as he reaches for his cell phone to dial a certain number. As he listens to it ring his eyes keep following the teens.

“It has begun.”