Vita - Chapter 5: Downfall - Part 7

Part 7: In Your Head
"...Travis?" Julia said. Both were watching TV, but she noticed something unusual for all the silence. Travis was quiet. Way too quiet. She looked over to him to see his eyes glued onto the TV, but he seemed to be little aware of what was going on in it. He didn't blink or even seemed to breathe, "...Travis? Travis, can your hear me?"
Julia's words echoed in Travis's ears, but never seemed to reach his brain. Travis was lost in his thoughts. Thoughts of what happened earlier and thoughts of his former friend. Apparently, he was still in a gang, breaking his promise he made a long time ago...yet, Travis couldn't bring himself to blame him. Although both were on questionable terms, he still had the feeling that their friendship could have a second chance, even with all the storms happening on both's lives. Travis wanted to speak to Jacob again.
His thoughts were interrupted with Julia tapping on his shoulder, "Travis, you're worrying me, please respond!"
"...What do you want?" He said in a monotonous, lifeless voice.
"...You were scaring me there...you looked like a statue..."
Travis's eyes glanced at her for a moment before looking back at the TV. The first thing he noticed was the banner of the news at the bottom of the screen, "JACOB HOWARD FREE AGAIN AFTER BEING BROKE OUT OF PRISON". Travis's eyes widened, "...Motherfuck..."
Julia also looked at the TV. The reporter already at the scene explained how the whole prison break happened. The camera showed the blown up car and the big hole on the wall where Jacob fled along with a "middle aged male rabbit". An unindentified coyote was caught in the explosion and was killed, his corpse inside being covered, "My god..."
The reporter also explained how Jacob was affiliated with the Jokers and the Killer Alphas, being a member of the "army" formed by both, codified by the police as "Alpha Jokers". Jacob has an arrest warrant not only for being affiliated with a gang but also because of a previous murder in a hospital, where he violently beat a Clocker member's head in. He was deemed dangerous and that the police should be called in any case he's seem in public.
Travis turned off the TV, sighing, "...What the hell did he get himself into..."
"..."
"I need to convince him out of this."
"What?!"
"...What?"
"Travis, he...he's with the gangs. He...he's a dirty criminal!"
"Who is?" Valencia said as she came from the kitchen to the living room.
"That bastard Jacob!" Julia exclaimed.
"...The one we took care of?"
"Wait, took care of?" Travis asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, we had him in this house for a few days. By the way, where is him?"
"...Julia?"
She sighed, "Well, yeah, we had him here for a few days..."
"He was actually kind of nice I have to admit." She smiled,  "Smelled bad and was kinda creepy with that blind eye, but he seemed like a good-"
"Val, shush!"
"..." Val's smile faded away.
"Julia, you do know that all this while he was in your house, he was already involved with gang warfare, right?"
"..." Julia opened her beak to say something, but closed it as she looked down and thought for a while, "...Yeah...he...he didn't even look like a gang member."
"...See? He might be a criminal, but he's still a good person. The Jacob I knew never really was innocent anyway. Still...he was a nice friend...a nice friend to have..." He sighed, "...I need to speak to him. Maybe get him out of this gang mess. And move away from this horrid city..."
"Yeah..."
...
(Somewhere, some Clockers are playing Poker)
"So, you guys heard about that prison break?"
"What about it?"
"They had Jacob arrested again and those fucks broke him out. As much as I hate jail, some people just need to rot in it."
"Since that jail's busted, where are the prisoners going?"
"Dreber." Everyone replied.
"Ah...well, then...flop, boys."
...
(Jacob)
Jacob headed inside Daniel's office, Ronald following him, "Boss."
"...You're back, huh..." Daniel said looking at Jacob. Jacob could immediatelly notice something wrong with Daniel. His tone of voice and the look in his eyes made Jacob question what he seemed to be furious about, "...Ron, have you told him about our plan?"
"Oh, yes. Wait, I mean, no, I haven't."
"..." Daniel stood up and sat on his desk sighing, "...Jacob. It is time. Do you know the mall that is located in Cherry Street?"
"No, not really."
"Hmph...well, that is a stronghold. It belongs to the Clockers. And honestly, I look forward to making various advances against them. The month is almost over. By the time it's over, I think I'll be wanting most if not all strongholds taken over, and make the final strike against them by June."
"Shall I inform Jack about that?"
"Go ahead." Daniel stretched as Ronald left the room, looking for his other boss, "...As I was saying...I want this one stronghold, the mall, taken over. We're taking over it tonight. We're doing this silently and only going loud in case things get too messy. We'll be having a few teams to do this and I want you leading one of them. There's the parking lot team and the back entrance team. We don't have walkie-talkies and phones are not going to do, so we'll have to all be acting really quickly and well for this to go well. The back entrance team goes through a locked door behind the mall, which we'll have someone to lockpick to allow access, while the lot team will blow a hole on the wall with a bomb from Beverly after the back entrance team went in."
Jacob blinked, frowning, "How do we know when the back entrance team entered?"
"They'll have time. We need both teams to be in their place at midnight. By 00:15 AM, the guys who got in by the back must have cleared out most of the Clockers that are there, because the ones in the parking lot are blowing a hole on the wall and shit's getting heavily from there on."
"Huh..."
"So...who are you going to lead?"
Jacob sighed, seeing he had no choice other than to be risking his life for this. Not that he cared much about it anymore anyway, "...I guess I'll go with the back entrance team. I used to sneak into a lot of places back in prison."
"Nice. Do you know how to pick locks?"
"I do."
"Perfect. I trust you with this, Jacob. Those guys you're leading are going to follow your every order."
"Mhm..."
"This is a simple job, Jacob. Just kill everyone, wait for an explosion to be heard, then kill the rest. Just...don't get shot, that's all."
"You say that like it's the easiest thing."
"For a badass like you, I'm sure it is."
Jacob opened his mouth to protest against what Daniel said, but he just closed it instead, knowing that there was no point in arguing, "..."
"...See me again here at 11 PM. Dismissed."
...
As Jacob walked down the hall, a shadowy figure could be seen behind him, approaching quickly. It tapped on his shoulder, making him turn around.
"Howard, right? Yes, that's right. It's me again, the doctor that repaired your wrist, helloooooo." Tarnell waved, "I seem to have an issue that only you can fix."
"No, sir, I don't fix hyperactivity."
"It's not that, silly goose. It's an issue involving someone who goes by the name of Thomas Fritz."
"Never heard of him."
"Of course you haven't. Well, let's say he broke my heart..."
"..."
"...By stealing my love from me."
"Oh for the love of god, I'm not some sort of romantic avenger."
"Aww, come on. I just got the word from a few sailor friends of mine that they're in the docks, on a motorcycle. Just get there, try to calmly persuade the gentleman with her to leave my sweetheart alone and I'll...pay you 50 bucks."
"Just 50...really?"
"Oh come on, man, I'm not some sort of millionaire, now go!" He started to push him away, "Shoo! Shoo! Come back with the light of my life!"
"Jeez, fine!" He started walking towards the elevator as he was being pushed, frowning at Tarnell. He turned around and pressed the button. Inside it, Ronald showed up.
"Oh, Jacob. I was just on my way to meet you." He stepped out, "Since your phone was confiscated, I got this for you." He gave him a new, clean phone.
"Thanks..." Just as Jacob was about to step into the elevator, Ronald also pulled out a handgun and two clips.
"Also got this for you." He said, smiling. Jacob grabbed them and stored them in his pocket, "Now, where are you going?"
"Tarnell told me to head to the docks-"
"To get the love of his life. Yeah, he's been bothering everyone with that. If you're really desperate for money, I suppose the 50 bucks will be nice."
"Can you drive me there?"
"Sure. I feel like beating someone up anyway." They both stepped in the elevator, "You might want to keep your head down during the car trip, though."
"No shit."
...
The car parked in the industrial docks, located by the city's large river, large enough to occasionally receive cargo from ships. It was empty, the only containers there being 7, "...Damn, I remember back when we received much more ships than this. Me and my dad would occasionally come here to see them come and go. It was 4 ships a day, man. Now we get like...1...a month."
Both stepped out, appreciating the scenery of the large river that went from Old Arno, to Dreber, to God knows where, "...Tell me more about your childhood, Ron."
"Why do you want to hear it? Shouldn't we be hunting someone down?"
"Yeah, and there he is right there." Jacob pointed to two figures next to a container, one male, the other, female, on a bike, kissing each other.
"Huh..."
"You can tell me your story later, let's get that punk." They both walked to the couple.
The female wolf giggled as she pulled away from the kiss, her peripherical vision spotting both guys coming, "...Who are those two?" 
The fox, wearing a biker jacket, turned around, "Hey, piss off, you two, we're in the middle of something."
"Your head will be in the middle of my fist and the ground soon, asshat." Jacob cracked his knuckles.
"What the-...are you Tarnell's guys?" He got off the bike, cracking his neck.
"...Yeah, we are." Ronald said, raising an eyebrow.
"That piece of shit just won't give up..." He sighed, whispering to himself, "...Fine. Want a bloody fight? Come get me." He pulled out a butterfly knife.
"Thomas, no!" The lady cried out, still on the bike, "They're with the Alpha Jokers, they're going to-"
"Shut up!" He looked over his shoulder and yelled at her, unaware of Ronald's coming fist. He got sucker punched in the face, stumbling behind him as he hit his head on the bike, knocked out. 
The lady screamed and got off of it, "Thomas?! Thomas?!" She said, looking at him.
"Damn it, Ron, at least you could've let me hit him twice!" Jacob said before turning to the woman, "You're coming back with us to Tarnell."
"W-W-What?!"
"You heard me, your boyfriend misses you."
"T-Tarnell's not my...urgh, he means this!" The woman sticked her paw in her back pocket, pulling out a pack of Quadricaine.
"WHOAH!" Ron exclaimed upon seeing it.
"He wants this back, not me. He got super upset when my boyfriend Thomas stole it from him when he was taking sniffs out of it in an alleyway."
"Where did he get this thing?!" Jacob exclaimed in confusion to Ronald.
"No flippity fucking idea!" Ron responded.
Just as Jacob turned back to the girl, he saw Thomas's paw reaching for the Quadricaine pack and pulling it from her. He, then, angrily threw the pack at Jacob, who was not quick enough to dodge.
What Thomas did not expect was for the pack to burst upon collision with Jacob's face, "...FUCK, NOOOO!" He yelled as he saw the coyote's face covered in white.
What Jacob could see however, was not white. In little time, Jacob, while coughing, noticed how his vision got incredibly distorted when looking back to Ronald and seeing his ears gigantic while his body was of a midget, "Whooooooooooooooa, daaaaaaaaa fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck..."
Jacob's voice was at a lower pitch. The skies began to flash colors rapidly, the sun that was coming down went straight back up again, a smile on it along with sunglasses as the water became what seemed to be strawberry juiced as its levels grew bigger and bigger, before it all came rushing down onto the docks, falling on Jacob and washing everything away on its path. Jacob saw nothing but strawberry juice everywhere before crashing down back to land, quickly getting up. What he saw now was nothing but some sort of bizarre void that slowly flashed colors at him, a trail of white in front of him as all he heard was nothing but the electronic music from the bar he used to visit. He followed the trail as the void's flashes became faster and more intense, the trail of cocaine eventually separating in middle of a pole. By this pole, was Travis, bare chested, bandages on him like in the hospital, wearing only jeans, smiling at him, he walked around the pole before gluing himself onto it seductively, his right leg bent in the air, grabbing onto the pole as he sticked his tong out at Jacob, who could do nothing but watch, confused.
"Isn't this what you used to lust off, Jacob?" He said, his voice distorted, but sounding seductive, "...Don't you still lust about me?" He said as he climbed onto it, glued to it, before extending his legs and lowering his body backwards while holding onto the pole with one paw, "Teehee...look behind you..."
Jacob moved his eyes away from the pole dancing Travis to see him again. Instead, he held a gun and was aiming it at Jacob's temple. As Jacob gasped, he pulled the trigger and Jacob saw nothing but white after the loud bang. He, then, heard many voices around him, the white going away as his eyes could slowly make out what happened. He was in a hospital bed, Julia right next to him. And he could also see Travis, looking at him in what seemed to be despair. Suddenly, the door opened and a man came in, shooting both Julia and Travis in the head before they could react. As both fell limp next to Jacob, he could see the killer coming at him. Ronald, grinning, who sticked a hand to Jacob to which Jacob grabbed as he pulled him up and helped him off the bed, carrying him to the door, which opened on itsel. Ronald pushed Jacob through the doorway and it closed behind him. Jacob stood up and looked around. He was in the same void as earlier. But everything was silent. And everything was empty. The void stopped flashing colors slowly before going absolutely black. For a moment, Jacob could not see anything, but he eventually saw bloody footprints in front of him. They simply popped into his vision and more popped in front of them while making the sound of footsteps. Jacob followed these footprints dumbfolded, until he could, somewhere, hear the disgusting sound of someone beating someone's head in. The noises got closer as Jacob followed the footprints, eventually spotting himself, sitting on someone as his fists crushed the individual's head. He ran to the two and saw that the person whom his head was being crushed, although difficult to recognize, beared some characteristics as to Travis's. Jacob gasped and looked at the other Jacob who was beating Travis to death. He had a grin that sent shivers down Jacob's spine, his eyes filled with madness, "Don't worry. It's all in your head...right?"
That "fake" Jacob suddenly started to twich, his head becoming more scarred with every twitch, some sort of black mucus coming out of its nostrils and eyes, the fur slowly disappearing like its been ripped off, his eyes dissapearing as well as his jaw fell from his mouth along with the tongue until he eventually stopped twitching. It simply stared into Jacob with its empty, eye sockets leaking some sort of dark secretion. Jacob was boderline panicking until, all of the sudden, that thing leaped at Jacob, screeching loudly.
Jacob closed his eyes and screamed at the top of his lungs as he opened his eyes to see a distorted looking Ronald, slapping his cheek as the skies behind him flashed colors, "...Jacob?! Jacob?!" He heard. The skies's flashing colors faded away as Ronald's face went back to normal, the drugs's effects finally going away, "Oh, thank god! Are you okay?"
"...W-W-Wha..." Jacob could not speak, he felt numb.
"Damn...you'll be okay. We're going back home. You didn't inhale much of the drug, otherwise, you'd still be freaking out."
"Aaaaa..." Jacob groaned.
"And that guy got his ass whooped, don't worry. While you were running around the docks and squirming on the floor, I beat the shit out of him and threw him in the river. He either drowns now or regains conscious and swims back to land...if he knows how to swim." Ronald dragged Jacob to the car.
"T-Tha...that...t-that is...that is the...stuff...we had to bring to Tarnell...?"
"Yeah...Quadricaine can either be good or bad. It sorta plays with your mind, makes you re-live past events, see some weird stuff and etc. It's like if LSD met cocaine and it got powered up to eleven, a journey through the deep inside of the mind."
"I...I didn't even breath it in that much..."
"Even one grain of that can get you a bit mad."
"...Jesus..."
"...And I'm having a chat with Tarnell about using Quadricaine. I guess we just found out why sometimes he's so hyper like that. I don't know a lot about Quadricaine, but, from what I've seen about our members using it, they seem to lose a bit of their screws in their head after addiction."
"What about the girl?"
"...She went for a swim as well. Along with the bike. Made it look like an accident."
"...Clever..."
Jacob was put on the passenger seat, his head spinning, the sensation of someone crushing his forehead with a rock remaining, as Ronald sat next to him on the driver's seat, turning off the car and reversing out of that place before someone could suspect they were up to something.
"...So, what did you see in your dreams, J?"
"..." Jacob shook his head, the weird, disturbing visions that he had saw were going to haunt him for a while. It was like a quick trip inside his mind. Jacob wondered what else could've seen in case he had taken more of that drug. He was glad he hadn't, "...Scary shit..."
"Like...?"
"..." Jacob thought of responding 'your mother' to Ronald, but he didn't want a stronger headache by having someone getting offended and yelling at him, "...Just...let's just get back to our base..."
...
(Travis)
11:50 PM)
It was late night. Travis was in the living room, covering himself with bed sheets that Julia brought to him, the TV was still on one of those late night TV shows. Travis turned it off once he heard someone coming downstairs. It was Valencia who came all the way to him, who pretended to be asleep.
"Erm...I know you're a-awake."
"Oh..." He opened his eyes.
"So, er..." Valencia sat down on the armchair next to him, "What's your story? I never...heard about you and I feel more comfortable when I have an idea of who I am having in my house."
"Oh...I..." Travis got up, stretching himself, "I...I am Travis Jackson Davis. I...came here after some unfortunate events in my childhood. I, uh, seeked help from a psychologist who...doesn't even call me anymore...she just like, vanished. Well, anyhow, er...I'm a friend of Jacob. I am not like him however. Not that there's a lot of difference between me and him...like, we're both very nice people, but...eh, I think you get my point. He was a childhood friend of mine and also the one who saved me from death. It's a long story and...I rather not remember it."
"Oh...well...I am Valencia Willis and...I come from Australia, much like Julia."
"Were you both friends in Australia?"
"Yes, we were. It was a pleasant coincidence for us both to meet in the same country after so much time. I lived a relatively normal childhood, nothing too big about it and...well, that's kinda it, I guess. I have a friend who is also from Australia and told me he was coming here, but, no such luck finding him."
"Who is he?"
"Mike. I tried calling him many times but he never answers...I think it's just safe he is...erm...change of topic, can you tell me more about you and Jacob?"
"Oh, yes...I moved to the same location he lived in. He lived with two abusive parents and he was a poor redneck, but, me being me at the time found him quite a cool person for being redneck because he was the first one I ever met. At first, he seemed to dislike me a bit but we eventually became best friends and...yeah. That's...kinda it." 
"That's pretty cool..."
"Yeah...now...erm...is there anything else you'd like?"
"Eh...I dunno, not really...I just wanted to know more about you and him..."
"I see."
"...Are you staying all night up?"
"Well, I can't sleep, really..."
"Oh...you know, me neither..."
"..."
"..."
"...TV?" Travis suggested.
"Y-Yeah, sure."
Travis pulled the remoter from under the covers and turned the TV on back again, watching Late Night with David Leatherman. In little time, both fell asleep.
End of Part 7.
This is part of the Vita Series 
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