3. Jack
Jack
I wake to pain.
It shoots through my body with every movement, sharp enough to steal whatever breath I have left in my body. The ground beneath me is cold and wet, water soaking through my skin as the chill settles deep into my bones.
The smell of damp soil and rotten vegetation encompasses me as I try to pull air into my lungs. I open my eyes and stare into darkness, as I try to move my head, the pain that radiates through my body is excruciating, and makes me slow to barely a movement.
At least I’m alive, I suppose, but I do wonder for how long.
I force my eyes open, dragging them open through the swelling and the blood that is crusted through my lashes.
My blurry world narrows only a sliver of sight, just enough to make to make sense of the shapes and shadows shifting in the darkness.
I try to lift my head, slow and careful, but even then, it isn’t enough to stop pain screaming through my skull.
Every movement feels like dragging fire through my body.
What I see, or don’t see, makes my stomach drop.
There’s nothing. No streetlights, or buildings. Just an empty stretch of night sky scattered with cold, distant stars.
I’m alone.
Frank had dumped me — discarded me like trash. The realisation hits hard, betrayal settling like ice beneath my skin. For a moment, all I can hear is the ringing in my ears, a high, relentless whine that makes the darkness around me feel even bigger.
But then I hear it.
A sound cutting through the darkness, and I quickly move my head toward it. Pain tears through my skull and I cry out, but I hold my breath, forcing myself to stay calm as I listen for it again.
A car. I hear tyres crunching along the gravel, slow and deliberate. Its headlights slice through the dark, two sharp beams dragging across the ground as the vehicle creeps closer. The ringing in my ears makes it hard to hear properly, but I’m almost certain the car has stopped now.
My pulse leaps, stuttering against my broken chest.
Someone’s here.
I don’t know if that’s good or bad, or if I’m about to be saved or swallowed by something worse, but it has to be better than dying alone in a ditch.
My laboured breathing stutters out of me, each inhale sending shards of glass through my chest. I try to shift just enough to see more, but the pain clamps down, vicious and unforgiving.
I grit my teeth, tasting blood. The night feels too quiet, too wide — empty in a way that makes my chest tighten.
Mud clings to me, cold water pooling around my body like a coffin someone forgot to close. Every breath is thin and shaky, and consciousness keeps slipping in and out, threatening to leave me completely.
I lie there, barely holding on, waiting to find out who stepped into my darkness.
* * *
Two car doors slam, and I hear boots crunch against the gravel somewhere nearby. I can hear two sets of feet, and they are coming closer.
My hand lifts, fingers reaching into the darkness, and I watch as the very tips of my fingers move into the light of the headlights.
“Help.” My breath wheezing as my voice barely makes it past my throat. It feels torn raw from where Julian strangled me. A groan slips out as the footsteps draw closer.
I try to move, but my body protests immediately. Pain rips through my chest, and I squeeze my eyes shut, praying whoever is coming finds me before they walk straight past.
“Help,” I croak again.
The footsteps stop, and for a second, there’s nothing but the sound of my own ragged breathing, but then they start again, slowly, taking measured steps towards me.
The darkness swallows everything, and with no moon tonight, there’s no chance they’ll spot me before they reach me.
Then a light clicks on.
A phone torch cuts through the darkness, sweeping across the ground before swinging in my direction. I lift one hand, reaching towards it, and hear their boots shift closer.
Relief loosens something inside my chest, and I let my head sink back against the damp earth and close my eyes.
Then I hear the voice.
“Hello, son.”
My eyes fly open, and my heart slams against my ribs, my lungs gasping for air. I know that voice, it’s one I will never forget. It’s the one I ran from.
Then another voice reaches me, this one even worse than the first.
“We thought it was you,” Uncle Ray says, as he drops down next to me. I look up at him, as he stands over me, fear coursing through my veins, and I watch in horror as he lifts his boot, and plants it squarely on my chest.
The torch beam swings upward, illuminating my uncles face, and I can see he hasn’t changed. His expression holds the same coldness I remember, the same complete lack of concern for what he’s done to me.
Then he presses his boot down, pushing me deeper into the mud beneath me.
Pain explodes through my ribs, and I feel something move beneath his weight, a scream tears out of me before I can stop it.
“Please…” I beg, my hands clawing at his boot, but I don’t have enough strength left to move him.
“You left us, dog.” His voice drips with contempt, every word meant to cut. “You cost us a lot of money.”
Uncle Ray leans closer, his shadow swallowing what little light I have left. He looks down at me like I’m something he scraped off his boot.
“You shouldn’t have left us, Jackie.” His tone softens in that sick, false way he uses when he wants control. “We’re family… and you ran from us. Anybody would think we didn’t treat you well.”
He tilts his head, studying me, waiting for guilt to take root -waiting for me to fold the way I used to. His smile he gives me is small and poisonous, like he’s proud of what he’s done to me.
But all I feel is the cold truth of it. He isn’t here because he cares, or because we’re family. He’s here because he lost something he thinks he still owns.
My uncle presses down harder, pulling another scream from my throat.
“Stop.” The word scrapes out of me, broken, “Please.”
A cough tears through my chest, and blood slips down my cheek, warm against the cold night air.
I look at my father, desperate for something from him, even just a small flicker of concern, a sign he still sees me as his son. But he just stares, that same cold, blank stare he’s worn my whole life.
He watches as his brother leans over me, dripping with contempt, treating me like I’m nothing.
He doesn’t make a move to stop him, doesn’t speak.
He just holds my gaze for a long moment.
Then he steps back, shaking his head like I’m the one who’s disappointed him.
Like I’m the one who’s ruined everything.
Dad crouches beside me, his shadow falling across my face. He doesn’t touch me; he hasn’t put a gentle hand on me ever. He just looks at me the way he always has, like I’m a problem he’s tired of dealing with.
Beside him, Uncle Ray smiles, because he knows exactly what the silence means.
I’m alone, even with the both of them standing over me.
“Do you know what hurts the most?” Ray asks quietly.
I don’t answer, I can’t. The pain in my chest makes it impossible to breathe, let alone speak. Every inhale feels like someone is driving a fist straight through my ribs.
“I actually believed you were loyal.” He sneers the words like filth.
His voice cuts deeper than the bruises. Loyalty, that’s what he always wanted. Blind obedience dressed up as family.
I try to swallow, but my throat is too tight, too raw. My chest burns, and the world tilts again, threatening to pull me under.
Ray watches me struggle, and I can see he’s enjoying it. They’ve always enjoyed seeing me broken.
“I thought, out of all of them, you’d stay.” Ray’s voice curls with disgust. “But you proved you’re just another selfish little dog.”
I close my eyes, his words landing exactly where he wants them to.
“Everything I’ve lost.” He continues, leaning down closer, “Every dollar, every consequence. It all started the day you walked out that door.”
A fresh wave of agony moves through my chest, as the mud beneath me feels colder. Ray’s words wrap around my throat like the leash he thinks he still owns.
My father stands silent– like a sentry behind him, the muscle, the enforcer, the shadow who never speaks unless Ray tells him to.
Ray’s voice drops lower, almost gentle.
“You should have stayed where you belonged.” He smiles gently, his finger tracing the blood from my mouth. “You shouldn’t have left, Jack.” His voice full of venom. “You were supposed to stay.”
His lip curls.
“You chose to leave. You chose to abandon us.”
I open my eyes and stare at him.
“Everything that happened after that?” His expression twists into something almost resembling a smile. “That’s on you. Not me.”
He holds my gaze for another beat, letting the words settle between us.
Then he looks at his brother, he doesn’t say anything else, just simply stands, turns and walks away.
Dad remains behind, and I watch as he steps up to me. Leaning over, his shadow blocking the stars above, I watch through the sliver of eyesight I still have. I feel hot spit land on my cheek, and feel it run a hot trail down into my hair.
“You are worthless to us now.” His voice, full of hatred and disgust. Then he straightens, looks at me once more, before turning and leaving me in the darkness.
Just like that, they leave me.
I lie there, feeling the cold mud sucking at my clothes and cold water creeping higher along my ribs, but something inside me refuses to die here.
I pull in as deep a breath as I can and dig my fingers into the slick earth.
I drag myself forward, inch by inch, until my shoulders clear the lip of the drain.
Pain tears through my chest, white-hot and blinding, but I force myself to keep going.
I get half of my body out in the open, but the pain overwhelms me and I collapse there, shaking, my breathing shallow as the night spins around me.
I’ve pulled myself out just far enough that if someone does come, they’ll see me.
Until then, I close my eyes, and think of my Sol.
* * *
I don’t know how long I drift in and out, but headlights finally drag me from the darkness, their glare burning through my eyelids before a car stops right in front of me.
Two doors slam, quick and panicked, and footsteps rush across the gravel.
A set of knees hit the mud beside me, and a warm hand settles carefully against my shoulder, grounding me in a way that makes my chest ache with relief.
“Hang on. We’re calling an ambulance,” a man’s voice says, breathless with panic.
Someone moves away, and I hear a woman speaking rapidly, giving our location to the person on the phone.
I’m so tired, and I let my eyes close again, but a firm hand shakes my shoulder.
“Hey, you gotta stay awake. Stay with us.”
I force my eyes open.
“Bee, how far away are they? I don’t reckon this guy’s got much longer. Tell them to hurry!”
I hear the panic in his voice, but I can’t answer him, the pain radiating through my ribs has become unbearable, and every breath feels like someone driving a blade deeper into my chest.
The woman returns and kneels beside her partner.
“Five minutes. They said to keep him talking.”
Five minutes, I feel like I don’t have five minutes. I roll my head weakly against the damp earth and try to force words past my ruined throat. Nothing comes out except a ragged groan.
Blood fills my mouth, warm and metallic, and I swallow against it. The movement tears at my throat.
“Hey.” The man leans closer. “You gotta keep talking to us. What’s your name?”
My lips barely move.
“Silas.”
The woman frowns, “Your name is Silas?”
I shake my head, and pain tears through my chest as I try to speak again, “Find…” I swallow, immediately regretting it. “Find… Silas.”
“You want us to call him?”
I manage a tiny nod, “PalMerc…” My tongue feels too heavy to move, but I force the words out. “Campbell… River.”
The words scrape their way out of me, but I have nothing left after that, and I let my body sink deeper into the earth. I close my eyes and listen to the man beside me telling me to stay awake, telling me to keep fighting.
I want to, I really do, but I can’t. I close my eyes, listening to them telling me to stay with them.
* * *
Something sharp pierces my skin, and my eyes fly open. Muffled voices surround me, overlapping as people move around my body. Bright fluorescent lights burn through my swollen eyelids, and I slam them shut with a hiss.
“Hey. Can you open your eyes for me?” The voice, gentle and kind.
I open them as best I can, and blink around the blood, as I look at the person who leans over me, she smiles gently.
“Good.” Her voice stays quiet and calm, steadying me against the rush of hospital noise around us. “You are in the Emergency Department. A young couple found you on the road.”
I barely process the words as she explains what they’ve done. The sharp pinch from earlier came from an IV. She mentions a bedside ultrasound, fractured and bruised ribs. The list goes on but my mind can’t hold onto any of it.
Darkness takes me again, until I wake up later, the room now quiet. A monitor beeps steadily beside me, each sound marking another second I’m still alive. A sliver of pale light cuts through the dim room, and the sterile smell immediately tells me where I am.
Hospital.
I turn my head, and pain tears through my throat as I swallow against the dryness in my mouth. I lift an arm and stare at the clear IV line running into my vein.
The crushing pressure in my chest has eased into a deep, persistent ache. The medication is doing its job, even if every part of me still feels like it has been put through a fucking meat grinder.
The privacy curtain slides open, and a nurse walks in carrying a clipboard.
“Well, hello there.” She gives me a warm smile.
I can’t speak, so I wiggle my fingers weakly in greeting.
“I’m pleased to see you’re awake. You gave us quite a scare, you know. You were lucky that young couple decided to turn down that dead-end road.” She smiles and gives me a wink, as she checks something on the clipboard at the foot of my bed.
“They said you told them your name was Silas?”
I shake my head.
Lifting my hand, I make a writing motion with my finger.
She understands immediately and pulls a notepad and pen from her pocket before handing them to me.
My fingers shake as I write my real name.
Then I add one more instruction.
Call Silas. Campbell River. My name’s Jack.
I give it back to her, along with his number, her expression softens as she reads it. “Okay. I’ll do that right now, Jack.” She slips the notepad into her pocket and steps outside.
I sink back against the pillow. Guess Silas is going to find out that I’ve been lying to him all along.
I close my eyes, wondering if he’s going to hate me as much as I hate myself.