FRACTURED BONDS

( JACK X MINDY )

Story idea by: GreySithLord

( Jack had always suffered the curse of bad luck ever since he was born. What would it take for him to finally snap at someone who was the main reason behind his curse? )

Jack always dreamt of his father when he was asleep. As he stood there, on a white flat plane, with nothing and no one around as far as his eyes could see. It was just empty and silent much too his comfort. As he turns around, his eyes search wildly for any signs of life.

"Hello"

His voice echoed throughout the white plane. Every second, his voice traveled further and further away, disappearing every second from his eardrums.

Suddenly, he can see something or someone in a distance. He squints his eyes trying to at least make up the figure but failed. His legs move as he walks closer to the figure.

"Hello?"

He asks again but the same thing happens. His voice echoed and no response. He had no choice but to walk closer and closer and closer...

Soon, the figure began to take shape as he gets closer. He could make out a person, someone tall, definitely not human. Someone like him... Someone that looks exactly like him but older... He didn't realise until he was a few feet from the person.

He stopped when his mind managed to figure out who the person was.

"D-Dad?"

He calls out to the person. The person smiled with a warm glow and nods lightly. Jack eyes bulge at his response. It was true... that was his dad. Suddenly, his dad opens his arms wide like he was accepting something. Tears started to escape Jack's eyes as he ran towards his father. He then leaps and crashed his body with his father's. His father gasps a little but smiles and wraps his arms around his weeping son.

Jack held his father tightly, while his eyes were flooding, every bit of tear falling on his father's fur.

"Dad... where were you? Mom and I, we missed you!" Jack sobs as he grabs his father's brown fur tightly. His fur was warm, and it made Jack forget about all his troubles.

His dad didn't say a word. Seconds went on to minutes and what felt like hours, not a single voice escape his father's lips but Jack just continues to embrace the warm and longing feeling he had.

Suddenly, his dad moved his face until it was in front of his son's. His hands moved until it gently placed on Jack's cheeks. His father's eyes gazed directly into his.

"Son..."

It was the first time he heard him talk. Jack gasps as his eyes went wide.

"Dad?"

His voice shaking. His body trembling. Jack just closed his eyes and grabs his father's hand that was placed on his cheek. He rubs his face on it showing how he missed his dear father.

"Why did you leave us?"

Jack weeped at his father, eyes closed. Suddenly, he could feel his father's fingers gently running across his eyes, wiping of his tears.

"Open your eyes"

His father said as his voice sounds faded and disappearing.

Suddenly, a light invaded Jack's eyes making him question himself. He groans out tired as his hands fumble around. He could feel his body pressed up to a soft object. His eyes flickered open a bit as more of the light protruded his eyes. Suddenly, it shot wide open as Jack jumps out of his bed. He immediately looked to the side and grabs his alarm clock.

"F*ck!" He cursed when he saw the time displayed. He was already late to school. He immediately jumps out from his bed and rushed to the showers. He quickly twists the knob of the showers and gets scorched by the steaming hot shower. He screams in pain due to the heat and immediately turns the shower off. After the agonising heat, he lowers the temperature and continued showering this time with more haste. After he exits the shower, he cleans and dries himself. Soon, his hands fumbles around his backpack as he shoves his homework and books inside.

He bursts out of his room as he swiftly rush down the stairs. Suddenly, his steps comes to a halt as he slows down his breathing. His eyes lay upon his mother, sleeping by the table. He then saw a plate of peanut butter and jelly sandwich on the table.

"Mom must've made this!" Jack though as he went closer to his mother. She was sleeping soundly with her head resting against her arms on the table. Due to being the only adult around, Mindy Wells had been the sole income for the family. She works two part time jobs as she tries to feed her family herself.

Jack went near her and grabbed a blanket on the way. He then covers her sleeping body with it as slowly as possible as to not wake her up. He then went to the door and opens it to exit the house but he took one last look at his mother's sleeping figure before smiling and exiting the house.

After walking a few steps from his porch, he immediately makes a break for it. His unathletic legs became tired after a few minutes of running but he had no choice as he was already late. As he runs, his eyes immediately looks at the area around him just so that no accidents would happen and with his terrible luck, he couldn't be more cautious.

Just as he breathes a sigh of relief as no possible danger or hazards were in sight, suddenly his feet stumbled upon something.

...SHIT!

He cursed as his body loses it's balance and starts to fall. His body then crashes onto the hard pavement making his chest ache. He groans in pain as he also hit his head on the pavement. Suddenly, he looks in front to see papers being scattered, some wet.

"Oh no, no, no, no!" He panics as he immediately brought his backpack in front to see that the zipper wasn't closed properly making his homework fly out went he fell. Unluckily for him, they happen to land on a puddle of water that was conveniently right in front of the place he stumbled.

He immediately kneels and salvage what's left of his homework. He clenches his fists trying to control his anger as he stood up and rush further. He just hopes that his teacher would believe him and accepts his excuse. Just a few minutes after that, a cycler suddenly rushed passed him making him jump in shock. When he lands, his footing lost its balance and he fell to the side. His body continues to tumble down as he was actually falling of a cliff before he ends up stuck in a series of briar bushes.

"Can this day get any worse?!" He complains as he rubs the leaves off his fur as he continues his run. Luckily, he did manage to make it to school in one piece, it's just a 30 minutes late piece.

As he walks, he could see Zechariah from far away shaking his head.

"Mr. Wells... glad to see you made it to school!" Zechariah sternly remarks as he looks at Jack's conditions. He sighs seeing Jack in such a messy state.

"It seems you were having a few... detours... while going to school?" Zechariah asks him.

"Yeah... same old same old!" Jack answers in a nervous chuckle.

"Mr Wells, I know about your condition but I must insist that you be more careful next time!" Zechariah advises him. Jack just nodded since he also didn't know how to properly deal with his curse.

"Well, anyway, you may enter but... since you are half an hour late... I apologise since you are required to attend lunch detention!" Zechariah tells him.

"Oh man!" Jack grumbles as he enters the school.

"I'm sorry, Mr Wells! Rules are rules!" Zechariah says as he crawls away.

Suprise, suprise, as Jack explains about his missing homework to his teacher, she didn't buy it but luckily Jack manages to show her some of the evidence that he was in a series of unfortunate events. She just shook her head and accepted his excuses for now.

However, the rest of the class didn't go well for Jack. He didn't even pay attention to any of the lesson as he continued to ponder on his bad luck.

Why was he different?

Why was he different in the first place?

Images of his mom clouded his mind but he knew he shouldn't blame her.

The bell suddenly rung making Jack almost jump from his chair.

"Lunch!" Jack thought happily before he frowns remembering his lunch detention.

He immediately walks out of the class to stumble upon Zill.

"Hey, Jack!" Zill calls him with a beaming smile.

"Hey Zill!" Jack answers.

"Dude! You're okay? They said that you arrived like half an hour late!" Zill asks him concernly.

"I'm fine! It's just the umm... you know... curse..." Jack spoke slowly.

"Well, I know what could cheer you up, they're serving pizza today at the cafeteria! Come on!" Zill grabs his arms to drag him to the cafeteria.

"Sounds good but I can't! Got lunch detention!" Jack explains.

"Damn! That's a bummer!" Zill said in pity.

"I'll be fine! Go ahead! Enjoy your lunch!" Jack reassures him.

"Well, see you later I guess!" Zill says as he lets go of Jack's arm. He then walks away to the cafeteria leaving Jack alone.

Jack just sighs before walking to the detention room. Suddenly, his movements come to a halt when a shadow overtook him.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't bad luck Jack!" A snarky voice said in front of Jack. Jack clenches his fist and cursed silently.

"Rusty..." Jack called slowly with a hint of annoyance.

"What's with the attitude? Fell off of a cliff recently? Oh wait, you did!" Rusty laughs heartily slapping his knees. Jack gritted his teeth and looks away trying to avoid any eye contact. He then walks away from Rusty trying not to pay any attention to him. Rusty was quick to notice and blocks his path.

"What do you want Rusty?!" Jack asks angrily.

"Woah! Tough guy eh? Well, let's see how tough you are when I...

Suddenly, Rusty charged forward, his elbow thrusting on Jack's chest. Due to the sheer force, Jack was thrown back and unfortunately landed inside a trash can.

Jack uses his hand to try and lifts himself up but fails.

"Someone's stuck!" Rusty snarky remark made Jack's blood boil.

"Listen here Rusty, you better get me out of here or I'm gonna-

"Gonna what?" Rusty asks him. Rusty than dragged the trash can and hid it in the janitor's locker.

An hour went by as Jack was still stuck inside the trash can as he banged on the walls for help. Luckily, the janitor noticed and he was let out. It was a brief moment of relief before he was punished with another detention for skipping his lunch detention. The day couldn't get any worse as something begins to plague his mind. A mixture of grief and rage.

He went home slouching all the way and the moment he stepped foot outside, it began to rain buckets.

His mom was seen pacing around the house biting her nails. Suddenly, the door sprung open revealing a drenched Jack. A brief white flashed behind Jack as thunder roars from the storm.

"Jackson Wells! Where have you been?!" His mom asks in a mixture of anger and concerns as she crosses her arms.

Jack just looked at his mom for a second before walking pass her.

"Where are you going young man?!" Mindy yells at him as he walks up the stairs. He suddenly stops but didn't look at his mom.

"I'm going to my room!" Jack answers briefly.

"No you are not! Mr Zechariah called me saying you were late to school again! Not only that, you missed both detention and doze off in class!" Mindy yells at him. Jack clenches the railings of the stairs as hard as he can and gritted his teeth.

"I work everyday trying to keep our family full and happy! The least you could do is do better!" Mindy says.

"Do better?... Then why don't you take a look at the f*cking mirror?" Jack suddenly roars at his mother as he shot at her grinding his teeth. One single catalyst from a series of horrible events was needed to trigger something inside him.

Mindy was caught by surprise as she gasped at her son's behaviour.

"Who's fault do you think it is that I fell of a cliff or my homework got ruin, huh!?" Jack yells at his mother. His mother just stood frozen and silent.

"It's your fault that my life had been a living hell ever since I was born!"

"If only one of us didn't make a deal with the Devil just because she couldn't accept that dad died!" Jack shot to her. Suddenly, a wave of pain engulfs his cheeks as his mother slaps him. The force moving his face to the side.

Mindy had her hand out and suddenly stopped when she realised what she did. Jack just touched at the spot where he was slap and glared at her.

"Am I wrong?" He asks her.

"Tell me ma? Am I wrong?!" He asks her again with his voiced raise as he moves closer to her. Mindy just looks away and stayed silent.

"Because you just couldn't accept that dad died, I have lived a miserable life, everyday! It was just endless suffering, over and over again! Even though I'm immortal, I can still feel the pain, pain that can kill normal people like you but you don't care! You never did!" Jack screams at her.

Tears begin to flow from her eyes as she tries to get closer to him.

"Jack, I'm sorry! I... didn't mean for any of this to happen... Please believe me! I... I... I just wanted what's best for you!" She apologises at him. He then clicked his tongue and slaps his mother's hands away from him.

"What's best?! WHAT'S BEST?! Your best made my life nothing but endless suffering! You must be happy knowing your son lived with all the pain and hardships while you lived yours free of worries! You must be happy if I told you that I wanted my life to end, Every! Single! Day! Just so I would be free of this pain but I can't! All because you made me like this!" He screams at her. He pants loudly as he could feel sweat dripping from his body. All his eyes could see in front of him was his mother crying.

Suddenly, she moved closer as she heads out her hand in an attempt to hug him. Instead, she was shoved lightly away from him as he glared at her with intense hatred.

"I hate you!"

She gasped at those words. Thunder flashed from the outside as the rain fell like her tears.

"I wish I was never born!"

He then rushed upstairs. Mindy still in a sobbing state tries to catch up to him.

"Wait Jack!" She calls out to him loudly.

Jack went starting to his room, entering it and slamming the door closed as the door clicks as he locks it. Mindy tries to twists the knob trying to open the door but to no avail. She bangs her fists on the door.

"Please Jack! Open the door! Please! I'm sorry!" She weeps as she continues to bang on the door only to end up sliding down in tears.

Jack on the other side was also on the ground leaned up against his door. He covers his face in between his knees as his own tears was dripping down. Not a single light went pass through the crack of the door. A crack symbolising the fractured relationship between the mother and son duo as both stayed in their tears.

Jack woke up again finding himself in the similar white area with no one around. But this time it was different, instead in front of him was two jackals. A male and a female. He went closer to them but it seemed like they weren't paying any attention to him.

As Jack got closer, he realised that they looked familiar with the female having a bloated belly.

"Mom?" He questions the sight.

"Dad?" He looks at the male hugging his face tightly on his wife's belly as both of them smiled and giggled. Suddenly, he could feel someone besides him.

He shot to the side to see his father enjoying the same view he was seeing. Jack wanted to speak but he just couldn't find the right words. Instead, both of them just continues looking at the sight in front of them.

"You know..." Suddenly, his dad spoke still looking at the vision in front of him.

"Your mother and I was so excited when we found out she was pregnant!"

"We didn't know whether it would be a boy or a girl... your mother and I spent a lot of time, shopping for both clothes!" He chuckles lightly.

"When we found out it was a boy, your mom and I couldn't help ourselves as we were having fun trying to think of your name!"

"We went through the entire list... Jonathan, Smith, even Alfonso..." He laughs making Jack laugh in return at the story.

"She then... thought... it would be nice that you would be named after me, Jack...

"So, she came up with Jackson, with you being my son!" He says suddenly in a soft voice.

"When I died...

That sentence made Jack looked at his father.

"Your mom cried... every single day... everyone only saw her as a shell of her past self..."

"But you know, your mom eventually smiled... Do you know when?" He asks his son. Jack just shook his head not knowing the answer.

"It was when you were born! She held you tightly within her arms. You were the product of our love, the last bit of memory she had of me!"

"I'll never forget that day! The way she smiled, brighter than ever before as I watched from far away!" His dad smiles at Jack.

"And I want you... to cherish that smile!"

"I know she made a mistake... and it something that can't be undone! But you have to understand that you're the person she cherished the most in her life!

"She loves you like how I love you!" He tells his son. Jack just gritted his teeth trying to contain his tears.

"I know your life have been nothing but suffering! But what is your life without her? The only family she has left is you... like the only family you have left is her..."

"Please, don't lose her like how she lost me!" His dad says to him. Suddenly, Jack couldn't control himself as he crashes his body on his father bringing him in a warm embrace.

"Dad! I missed you! Why did you leave me and mom?" He weeps at his father.

"I'll never leave you! I'll always be by your side!"

"I love you son!"

Suddenly, his eyes shot open. He tries to adjust his vision as it was dark around him. He fumbles around his room and managed to switch the light open. He then brought out his phone to see that it was already night time. He then looks at his door for a while. His hand reaches for the knob as he twists it slowly, opening the door.

He looks outside to see no one around. He then exits his room and noticed something. He saw his mother besides his bedroom door, lying down on the wall with her eyes closed shut.

"She's sleeping!" Jack concluded. His hands moved closer as he tries to wake her up but he paused. The hesitation plaguing his mind and he sighs in defeat. He then brought out his arms and slid it under his mother's leg and back. He then used his strength to lift her up gently as he carries her to her room.

He places his mother gently on the bed as he tries to not make any noise and wake her up. He then walks away slowly from her as he went to the door.

Suddenly, he could her his mom whimpering.

"Jack! Please don't leave me! Please!"

Her mom rolls around the bed as she was having a nightmare. Tears start flowing from her eyes. Jack immediately went to her side and pulls her in a loving embrace.

"I'm here mom! I'm here!" He comforts her. She suddenly opens her eyes and looks at him.

"I'm sorry Jack, I'm really sorry! I... I..." Her mom weeps and sniffles at him as Jack starts tearing up as well. He then hugs her tighter as he puts his face besides her.

"Shhh, shhh, shhh, you don't have to be! I'm sorry for what I said mom!" He weeps at her.

"I love you mom! I really do!" Jack says to her.

On her frowning face, her lips curls up a bit into a smile.

"I love you too son!" Mindy says as both of them stayed in each others warm embrace for some time. The twinkling stars blanketed by the night sky covers them as both of them fell asleep knowing that something that was broken was now mended by forgiveness and love.