Jack's hand holding the knife trembled slightly.
His heart was beating violently, accompanying the ringing in his ears and the throbbing in his head.
'Do you want to learn how to fight?'
The sentence seemed to echo inside his very soul.
A strong sense of deja vu joined his splitting headache. Despite his pain and the extreme urge to recall whatever it was that haunted him at this very moment, nothing came to mind.
No.
Rather, nothing had the chance to remain, as if his memory was a bucket with holes all over the bottom, unable to contain any water in it, only the question of 'Why?'.
Why did he feel like this?
What was he unable to recall?
"Hey, everything alright?"
Hearing these words Jack snapped out of his daze.
While relaxing the hand that was still clutching the knife, Jack tried to calm himself with a few deep breaths before looking up at Cast.
Lights flashed, obscuring Jack's vision. Every light brought the sound of an explosion along with it, shaking Jack to his core.
Through the veil of light, he made out the figure of a person closing in on him.
Bone-chilling panic took a hold of his heart.
He shouldn't come near, he couldn't!
Jack grabbed the pendant underneath his clothes.
He needed to do something, anything!
Then the world before him turned dark.
***
Cast quickly swooped forward to support Jack.
He didn't know why the other suddenly collapsed.
Sure, he had looked a bit unwell at first but not to the extent of losing consciousness.
Slowly, carefully, Cast let Jack slip down onto the ground. Figuring, that maybe the other had suffered some kind of injury that wasn't obvious at first glance. But ultimately determined that Jack must have simply gone into shock or something. It happened all the time for newcomers.
Still, what did it matter, he couldn't wait here for the other to wake up. And while Jack was unconscious, he had no intention of dragging him to one of the boss' hideouts.
Cast heaved a sigh and picked up Jack, carrying him half bridal-style, half flung over his shoulder. With Cast's near abnormal strength that helped him dominate fights, it was no trouble at all.
He decided that he would just drop off Jack at his home.
If it were the regular Cast, dragging the other all the way back to the hideout would already be the kindest gesture he had to offer, but now he planned to bring the other directly to his home and even carried him!
If someone had told him about this even just a few days ago, Cast would have directly thrown a punch at that person and another at the one they claimed he would carry.
But now,... he wasn't so sure himself, how did he develop such a soft spot for some random guy he met for the first time yesterday?
There was no denying, that his guard toward Jack had been lower from the start and it had only lessened with every passing minute since they met.
It just felt so...
Familiar?
Lost in thought, Cast entered the street where Jack's house was located.
Standing in front of the house's small stairway, Cast pondered if he should just leave Jack there or bring him into the house.
Finally, he decided that he should still take him inside at the very least.
The house's interior wasn't anything special, if anything, it was a bit shabby, but who was he to judge? He lived in a small and messy shack himself.
Suddenly Cast jumped to the side and turned around.
The attack that barely missed the back of his head halted, clearly afraid of harming the teenager in his arms.
"Let him go," Jack's father threatened with gritted teeth.
It was unknown when the much heavier man had entered the house, or maybe he had been inside from the very start.
But it still somewhat shocked Cast that he didn't notice the other's presence until the moment he attacked.
Cast raised his eyebrow slightly and lay Jack down on the palpated couch not too far away.
Then he took a step back while raising his hands.
A significant amount of tension dispersed as soon as he completed this course of action.
But Jack's father didn't let his guard down, still staring at Cast with a dark expression on his face.
"Don't you dare show your face here again or appear in front of my son."
Cast couldn't help furrowing his brows as he heard that.
"What? Discontent? You can keep your lies about being his friend to yourself, Leone's Dog. I know about you and you know about me, so let's skip the act."
He was only mildly surprised about the fact that the older man knew his name.
"You're still not leaving? Or do you perhaps have a message from Leone? Something along the lines of, Roland, no matter how hard you try, in the end, the underground will never let you go? Pha!"
Roland's eyes were gleaming with murderous intent.
"I know about your dirty tactics, I invented them. You can tell your boss, if he dares touch Jakob again, he can say goodbye to his ugly head. Got that?"
Cast narrowed his eyes but ultimately left without saying a word. Before the door slammed shut behind him, he heard a quiet, but heavy, sigh.
Walking along the back alleys, Cast thought about Roland's words. Debating whether he should pass them on to his boss, or not.
His boss and Jack's father had a long history together as far as he knew. They came here hoping to earn a quick penny and struck gold. Both found the perfect partner in the other, one was calculative and decisive with his business decisions, while the other dealt ruthlessly and mercilessly with any that opposed them.
From what he heard it was an era of bloodshed and riches, at that point in time no other organization dared compete for the first spot.
But at some point, around ten years ago, Roland left and didn't want to have anything to do with the boss or underground anymore. He was even willing to leave an arm for that reason.
The boss didn't take this betrayal too kindly though, and Cast had long since guessed that he was being used as an instrument of torture.
But he wasn't sure why he was chosen.
If the purpose of this was to inflict pain on the other, then Cast wasn't exactly the best choice. There were countless more dangerous positions, especially the inside ones that pulled you in deeper and deeper until you wouldn't be able to escape anymore.
Regardless, he didn't really want to rouse his boss' wrath and bring even more harm to that father and son duo.
He will just stay quiet, wouldn't be the first time his report wasn't entirely truthful.
Cast passed by the guard at the door and moved to the boss' office.
The sharp eyes of the bodyguards inside meticulously scanned Cast's entire figure.
As expected of the most loyal watchdogs the organization had to offer, Cast ridiculed in his mind.
He came to a halt in front of the wooden desk and silently looked at the man in front of him.
The broad grin on his face was impossible to miss, visibly in a great mood, the boss squashed his cigar after one last huff.
"You're back late and you didn't even bring little Jack with you, did he feel unwell after your small assignment today?" The man cackled, his voice dripping with schadenfreude, "Well, I hope dear Jack doesn't feel too bad, because there is still an assignment I have for the both of you."
While saying that he slowly rummaged through the pile of papers in front of him, until he found the one he was looking for and slid it towards the desk's edge with his finger.
"One of our close partners is coincidentally throwing a party today and so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity for you to pass on this document to him," the man tapped on the paper.
Still smiling broadly, he continued: "You are my best man for the job, I trust that you protect it with your life."