Ink

The last few days had gone by in a blur for Jake. He’d returned home only to find his mother at the kitchen table with their Aunt Belinda. Ms. Underwood had dark circles under her eyes from not sleeping in the past 24 hours.



The kitchen table was littered with pictures of him and his brother. It was obvious that his mother was getting everything she needed ready for a missing persons flyers. Jake would learn later that although his mother had filed the report about six hours after she got home the police had taken another twelve hours to send an available officer out to investigate further. When a missing person was eighteen and older, police officers tended to lean toward the idea that they were runaways and not kidnappings. Their response policy was also different for persons who were considered legally grown.



When Jake walked in, she leapt at him immediately. “Where have you been and where is Cameron?!”



There was no plausible explanation for where Cam was. His mother would never believe his brother was simply at a friend’s house. It was Cam’s birthday for Christ’s sake! So he told her what he could. Not the part about the Demon Kings, because he was quite sure he’d be hauled off to the funny farm, but he assured his mother that Cam was okay.



For the next few hours he’d reassured her over and over again. Then he’d reassured the cops.





Now he was sitting in a room at the police station with a cop hovering over his shoulder and another one in the chair across from him. The man across from him was a short stocky officer, with close cut, silver tipped hair, and a bushy mustache. His name was Officer Myers. The one in back of him was tall, slim, and had a brooding look to him. Jake hadn’t caught his name yet.



“You realize this is completely voluntary Jake Underwood?” Officer Myers asked.



Jake shook his head, fearing his voice would crack if he spoke. Jake hadn’t slept in as many days as his brother was missing. Whenever he did catch a moment or two of shuteye his mind was always assaulted with visions of Cameron’s face the last time he had seen it. He kept reanalyzing his decision to let Aimon take his brother away, and he’d come to the conclusion that he’d done the wrong thing.



He should never have left Cam’s side He was the older brother, and somewhere in the unwritten code for older brothers was a clause that stated older siblings looked after the younger, no matter what. It didn’t matter if he could trust Aimon or not, he should have held his ground. Guilt clung to him like a sticky cobweb, the truth had not been an easy pill to swallow, once he realized just why he hadn’t put up much of a fight when Aimon told him he would be left behind.



Fear.



A part of Jake had been relieved to be free of its clutches. He had wanted to believe that Aimon would make things better and that he could break free of this nightmare; a nightmare, which had begun the minute Cam walked into his room with the cauterized tattoo on his arm.



Only.



The fear hadn’t left him. If anything, the unknown was much worse. Add that to his guilt about being a selfish and cowardly older brother, and he was almost physically ill with the pain of it.



“---Mr. Underwood did you hear what I said?”



Jake blinked, trying to banish the milky haze hovering over Officer Myers’ head. He was so damn tired. “Sorry?”



Officer Myers sighed, and launched into a repeat of what he had said. “This is your last chance to be honest with us Mr. Underwood. In return I am willing to do the same. So here are the facts, as they now stand. You are the last person who actually witnessed Cameron Underwood alive, so you are naturally a suspect in his disappearance.”



Jake scowled and leaned forward across the table. The officer behind him put his hands on Jake’s shoulder but he shook them off. “Just what are you implying? That I would hurt my little brother?!”



Officer Myers lifted his hands palm up. “Your words Mr. Underwood not mine, but you have to see things from our perspective.” He lowered his hands. “When we first arrived at your house we thought we were in for the regular runaway scenario. Good kid, from a nice neighborhood, but still a little rebellious and fed up with life. We get that all the time, but that was before we had a look around the house.”



Jake sat back in his chair, feeling all the color drain out of his face. He’d already figured they’d see the destruction upstairs and he had no cover story for it. Cops had been entering and exiting his home off and on for two days now.



“Broken tiles, and a ripped shower curtain in the bathroom.” Officer Myers checked off the evidence on each of his pudgy fingers. “There is also evidence that it was your shoe print that kicked in the bathroom door and tore the seal from its moorings. There were scorch marks found on the carpet in your brother’s room and an equally scorched comforter retrieved from the garbage outside. Another garbage can has internal residue that suggests a fire was lit inside.” Officer Myers clasped his hands on the table and leveled his light blue eyes with Jakes.



Jake struggled not to flinch.



“Now, Mr. Underwood, we have tried really hard to connect the dots, but the fact is that none of the evidence in your house adds up. We found broken tiles and a ripped shower curtain in the bathroom, that were the obvious signs of violence, yet no blood to indicate injury took place in the bathroom. All the scorched material in your brother’s room seems isolated to the vicinity of his bed. Not to mention the garbage can. We have too many gaping holes in our investigation.”



The officer behind Jake reached across him, and laid a legal pad and ballpoint pen on the table in front of him.



Officer Myers tapped the pad with his fingers.” We need you to help us fill them in.”



Jake swallowed hard, his eyes drifting to the mirror across the room. He knew his mother, Aunt Belinda, and her husband George would be standing on the other side looking in. He knew too that they would be holding his mother, trying to comfort her as she sobbed quietly. His heart contracted painfully. He should never have come home without Cam at his side.



God!



Jake closed his eyes, feeling the tears welling up behind his lids. When he opened them they would fall. His tired brain projected scenes of the past twenty-four hours like images of a slideshow.



Cam, as he had seen him the morning before the tattoo; smiling and happy. They’d fought over the last piece of bacon until his mother slapped both their hands and broke it in half. Then she’d gone off to work and Jake had left for a couple of hours.



The next time he had seen his brother was in the living room, while they watched an old ‘Bruce Willis’ flick. Then Cam had gone up to his room in a hurry. After that, he hadn’t seen Cam until he came into his room shaky and scared.



Jake saw images of the tattoo; saw his fingers tracing the skin.



He saw his brother sleeping on his leg while he typed on his laptop.



A still shot of Cameron’s terrified face when he broke through the door in the bathroom.



Aimon scowling down at him. “Give me the boy. I’ll make it quick.”



Cam in the back seat of Cithru’s car, “Happy birthday Cam!”



“What…oh, Oh!” Cam had forgotten his own birthday.



Him on the ground while Cam tried to rip his throat out. The fear of that moment made his stomach clench even now.



Cam’s sad face at the door as he begged him -- not to go.



Wait.



Cam had never said that. He’d told him to go and assure Mom that everything was fine.



“Mr. Underwood are you okay?” came Officer Myers voice, though it seemed far away. Jake felt almost detached from reality.



Behind his eyelids the slideshow kept playing. Only now it wasn’t in sequence. He saw Aimon standing in his brother’s room. He was laughing.



Aimon slowly held up his hand. “You fight Demon Kings with Demon Kings.”



Jake saw the tattoo on his hand as clear as day. There were the three circles with barb and a bird with a serpent in its beak. No not just a bird a phoenix maybe?



Jake’s eyes snapped open, the forgotten tears coursing down his cheeks. He quickly wiped them away. “Um c-can I use the restroom?”



Officer Myers blinked, clearly confused by Jake’s abrupt change in demeanor. The boy seemed almost. …determined? He had the look of a person who’d reconciled with his demons.



“Yeah, sure. Officer Bentham will show you to the restroom.” The restroom had no windows to crawl out of, and no ventilation hatch for the boy to sneak onto the roof. It should be safe enough.



“Thank you.” Jake placed both of his palms on the table and pushed to his feet. When he turned to follow Officer Bentham to the restroom, he had what he wanted in his hand.



A ballpoint pen.



Ink.







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



Thanks so much for the feedback to my question guys. I've decided how this is going to progress (who ends up with who), but not the exact details. It took me a long time to figure out how to work Jake back into the equation. Alot of readers expressed their opinion of liking this character so I brought him back. ;)As to who the pairings going to be between, I think you'll figure it out, but I'm not telling. Where is the fun in that? LOL