Taken
Jameson stood from his desk and stretched. He had been drawing hunched over for a while now. Glancing at the watch on his wrist, he realized it had been longer than he thought.
Three hours! Jeepers, no wonder I’m so hungry.
He decided to go find something to eat, and maybe see if any of his brothers needed him for anything. He tidied up his desk before heading out to the kitchen. On the way down the hall he peeked into his brother’s rooms, wondering what they were up to.
Jameson could see into Jack’s empty room that was across the hall from his and felt a twinge of worry.
I hope Jack wakes up soon. JJ thought, I’m worried about us.
Then was Chase’s room, which was also empty. JJ wasn’t too worried about that, Chase could have been recording, or chilling downstairs. Jackie’s room was closed, so was Henrik’s.
JJ started to worry when he found Marv’s room empty. Marv was almost always in his room, practicing his magic. But JJ couldn’t hear or see Marv. He tried to push his worry back and rationalize it.
Maybe they’re out on a walk. JJ hoped. But when he got downstairs and didn’t find any kind of note saying where his brothers were, his worry intensified and fear seeped in. They always made sure to tell him when they were all out together.
JJ didn’t have a phone so he couldn’t call or text any of them to find out where they were, and he was scared to leave the house in case they came back to find him missing.
As he stood there, trying to decide what to do, several small thuds sounded behind him. He whirled, no one was there, but things his brothers never went without were.
Chase’s phone, Jackie’s mask, Henrik’s stethoscope and Marv’s deck of cards.
Trembling, JJ picked them up. And nearly dropped them when he saw what was on them. There was blood on everything, and Chase’s phone was cracked. JJ’s trembling turned into full scale shaking.
Dread soaking his body, JJ tore through the house again, knowing he wouldn’t find anything but desperately denying that his brothers were missing and hurt. He opened his mouth to yell for them, but no sound came out. For the millionth time, JJ cursed his broken voice.
After searching the house four more times, JJ collapsed on the couch in the living room, clutching his brothers things and sobbing.
“Poor little man.”
JJ spun around and saw someone who looked like him and his brothers, but his neck was wounded and bleeding. One of his eyes was glowing slightly green and he was tossing a knife around.
“Scared for your brothers, unable to call for them,” the man started glitching and grinned evilly, “Perfect.”
JJ tried to stand up, but his legs were trembling too much and he fell back to the couch. He couldn’t even sign to ask where his brothers were.
“I’m bored little man.” The glitch man walked closer to JJ, “So I came up with a game. I took your brothers and talked to them a little,” JJ fell off the couch trying to stay away from this demon. “They were very worried about you, you know. So I decided to play with that.”
The glitch man bent over and plucked Jackie’s mask from JJ’s hands. He regarded it for a moment before tossing it back to JJ.
“Here’s the game, little man, you have to find your brothers and convince them that you wanted me to take them. If they still accept you after that, you can have them back.”
The glitch man put a foot on JJ and leaned, “But if you can’t, I get to break them. You can start with the wannabe hero.”
He got off JJ and laughed, “I look forward to your performance little man.”
For several minutes after the glitch left, JJ stayed on the floor. He was terrified. Jackie was the one who dealt with scary and painful things.
I have to get them to hate me?
That was the scariest part to JJ. Even when he found his brothers, he would have to convince them to hate him. The thought crushed him. He didn’t think he could last without his brothers.
I have to think of a way to tell them, a way to fool the glitch.
JJ stared at his brothers things in his hand and a thought struck him when his eyes landed on Marv’s deck of cards.
Marv said everyone has a signature in their tricks. Maybe I can do something that will trick the glitch and help my brothers. JJ got up and ran back to his room, But what can I do?
He glared at the drawing on his desk, it was a portrait of all of them together and it seemed to mock him now. Until he looked at the outfit he had drawn on Chase. It was like the one Chase had worn when he was trying to get visitation rights for his kids.
Chase had come to JJ’s room one morning and asked if he would help Chase get everything right. A single glance at Chase’s suit had irritated JJ. There wasn’t much out of place, but what was wrong was enough to bother JJ.
After JJ had finished helping and Chase had left, Jackie stopped by and asked for help too. While JJ was helping, Jackie had remarked that everyone could tell when JJ had been the one to clean, or help dress someone. When JJ had asked why Jackie laughed and said “Because you pay the most attention to details.”
Maybe I can talk to them that way.
JJ had the beginning of an idea how to trick the glitch, but first he had to find his brothers.
The glitch had said that JJ had to start by finding Jackie, but JJ had no idea how to start there. He stared angrily at Jackie’s mask. He was scared, and he hated being scared.
What would Jackie do? How do I find them in this huge city?
The thought occurred to JJ that he could put up posters of his brothers, but he waved it away.
That wouldn’t work, the glitch would see them and so would they. ….So will they. If I take the posters down and hide them somewhere my brothers will find, but the glitch won’t…..
JJ checked Chase’s phone to see if it still worked. It did and he looked through the photos for any pictures of the others. When he found ones he thought would work, JJ printed out piles of them with Chase’s number on the bottom.
JJ then went to the recording room with a recording device Marv had given him a while ago and found a clip of Chase saying “thank you.” And then went out to put up the posters.
JJ let many of the first phone calls go to voicemail and then listened to them after. None of them were very helpful, mostly dead ends and flat out lies. But he did get a few that helped immensely, and by the time two and a half weeks had gone by with JJ scouring the city and using the tips from the calls, he found where Jackie was.
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So! I’m re-uploading the first chapter of this fic. I posted the first bit a few months ago, but I hadn’t actually finished writing the story then. But now it is finished!
