January 15th, 2020
Golden Meadow, Louisiana

"Jack, are you okay?" Marley appeared in front of him as soon as he and Emmaline reached the mouth of the corridor that led into the market.

Standing up a little straighter and attempting to mask his pain as best as he could, he slapped a smile on his face. "Right as rain. Did you find anything good to buy?"

Marley's gaze narrowed in on him darkly. "I heard you screaming, don't try to change the subject," she scolded sternly, but she broke out into a bright grin after only a few seconds. "This place is awesome!" She couldn't hold in her girly squeal of delight as her sparkling eyes tried to take in everything surrounding them.

"Pick out a few things you need. I'll buy them for you." Jack slung an arm around her shoulders nonchalantly, but really he needed to lean on her a little for extra support on his unsteady legs.

She whirled around, nearly causing him to topple right over, except that she grabbed his arms excitedly. "Really?" Her high-pitched voice echoed off the walls around them. A blush coated her dark cheeks and she hung her head a little when other people looked their way. "Sorry."

"Yeah. Go on, before I change my mind." Marley rolled her eyes, but bolted off down the aisles to find the things she wanted the most.

"Seriously, though, you're alright?" Ash came up behind him from the other side of one of the aisles and stared at Jack with that same cold look he couldn't seem to shake.

"Yeah, fine." He carefully sat on one of two uncomfortable plastic seats near the check-out counter.

Ash stood imposingly in front of him with his arms crossed, and his short, light brown hair falling into his eyes. "Oh, really? Don't lie to me, I'm your brother," he snapped, his voice gruff and low, so as not to attract any attention to their conversation.

"Right. So, I should tell you everything going on in my head, but you can just drag me fifteen hundred miles across the country to get tortured without saying a word." Jack winced when he moved his arm wrong, putting pressure on one of his fresh cuts.

A sheepish expression crossed Ash's features for half a second before it disappeared. "I had to know." His words were steely and unapologetic.

"Fine." Jack sighed, not having the strength to argue. "But you could've just been upfront about it." He closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the wall behind him, as Marley conned Will into holding the things she intended to buy while she looked around more.

Ash shrugged, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. "I didn't want to spook you." Jack shot his brother an incredulous look, but let the matter drop. Once Ash thought he was right, he wouldn't stop until he proved his point, so usually it was more worth it for him to just retreat inside himself for a while and cool off.

"Did you talk to Madame Balestrieux? Did she tell you I'm not a monster?" He changed the subject entirely, smiling a little as he watched Marley's overeager shopping.

"Yeah. Before you and Emmaline came out. She said she didn't find anything different about you." Ash dropped tiredly into the seat beside him.

"Good." A thought entered his head suddenly that made him sit straight up. "Hey, whatever happened to the serpent?" Silently he debated whether he should tell his siblings about Dick Grayson being Death's informant.

"It's dead. I put a silver blade through its chest the second I spotted it after you died. When that didn't work, we cut his head off and incinerated the body."

Jack's eyes darkened, and his expression fell. "Did you empty his pockets first?"

"What kind of question is that? No, we didn't. Was there something important in them?" Ash's eyebrows furrowed when he saw the ghostly look on Jack's face. "We recovered all your stuff from the warehouse. Your knife and everything. It's all in your pack, if that's what you're worried about."

"Did you see Dick's coin?" Ash froze, turning his head to glance over at where Madame Balestrieux was making Marley giggle.

"Not that I remember... Don't tell me it was Dick inside the serpent."

"It was." A sinking feeling grew in the pit of his stomach. "You killed-"

"Don't say it. Fuck."

Jack's shoulders lifted in a micro shrug. "I mean, he was already dead..."

"He tried to warn me, but I didn't listen." His voice was hollow and robotic.

Jack nodded his head in understanding as a wave of grief threatened to dissolve what little control he had over his emotions. "You'd just watched a sibling die, no one would blame you for that."

Ash's eyes cut to him sharply, blazing with fire. "Don't try to make me feel better. You should be pissed at me."

Jack shook his head, wincing again as he moved his sore limbs. "What would that do?" The anger in the pit of his stomach bubbled and twisted in his gut, but he shoved it back, not wanting to tap into the dark emotions clawing at his insides. He'd promised Madame Balestrieux he could control it, which meant not holding on to negatives.

Ash opened and closed his mouth a few times before he sullenly faced forward. "It would make me feel better."

Jack just shook his head a little. "Can we go get a motel room? I'm exhausted."

"Sure. Let's get outta here."

It took them two days to get back to Foghills after that because the next morning Will and Marley had both wanted to go back to Lotus Books and Gifts, the Balestrieux's store, and spent practically the entire day there.

When they finally did arrive at the Westing property in Foghills, around eleven o'clock in the morning, they were surprised to find that a crew of construction workers were working on what looked like a new house. The foundation had already been built and the outside walls of the house had been partially constructed.

"Holy crap." Marley gasped, glancing up from the spellbook she'd borrowed from Madame Balestrieux's youngest daughter, Desiree, and seeing the work being done in place of Kit's old house.

Jack pulled the truck to a stop and immediately jumped out, going around back to let Keala out too. She barked appreciatively before darting off into the trees. "Did you know they were doing this?" He looked over his shoulder at Ash, who stood watching as the construction workers stopped for lunch, a bunch of them piling into a pick-up truck and driving away.

"Charley texted me about it," he responded offhandedly as a quick moving blur came out of practically nowhere and tackled Ash in a hug that nearly knocked him off his feet. "Really, Pip?" He caught her as wild strawberry blonde curls flew in every direction.

"Ashy! I feel like I haven't seen you in weeks." Piper was a bundle of bubbly pep.

"You saw me just the other day. Where's Charley at?" Ash sighed, and it didn't take long for him to dampen her demeanor with his surliness.

Piper took a few steps back. "She's down with the monster. He wasn't giving us any useful information, so she's resorted to tactics that are only fun for her. I wouldn't go down there if I were any of you."

Jack and Ash glanced over at each other and shrugged. "I think we'll be fine." He moved passed Piper and toward the bunker.

"Damn. What's his problem?"

Will folded his arms across his chest and shook his head. "He's been moody for a few days. We never know." They'd all come to a sort of silent agreement that they didn't want news of Jack's death and resurrection spreading throughout the Exterminating community. Somebody would be bound to go after him for sure.

Jack left Piper and Will to their conversation, quickly following Ash, while Marley stayed behind, putting her nose right back into the spellbook. By the time he reached the hatch to the bunker, Ash had already made it halfway down the ladder, so he quickened his pace, nearly missing a step a few times, before he jumped to the dusty floor.

The scene in the bunker was a grim one. Charley had what looked like dried blood and dirt dusted across her usually fair skin, while she stared grimly at the monster who appeared to have gone through hours of whatever torture techniques she could come up with to get him to talk.

"What have you found out?" Ash questioned, and Jack's gaze shot to the puddles of blood dripping from wounds all over the monster, while he stood with his hands chained above him and his feet chained to the floor.

Charley glanced back at them, her eyes steely, and her expression dismal. "He's a bastard, that's what I've found out." Roger shrugged indifferently.

"What can I say? It's been a fun few days." He grinned tauntingly at her right as she stepped inside his cage.

"He wouldn't say anything for a long time, not until I found his weak spot." Charley flicked a few locks to release the monster's chains from the ceiling and floor before slipping out and locking the gate behind her. "These freaks are like parasites. They attach themselves to their victim's brainstem and insinuate themselves into that person. They change the host's DNA." Ash and Jack nodded like they hadn't heard that information before.

"Actually, if this weren't real life, that'd be kinda cool." Jack immediately snapped his mouth shut when Ash and Charley shot him dirty looks.

"Thank you! I've been trying to get her to admit that for hours."

"Nobody was talking to you," she snarled over her shoulder, but didn't turn around to look at him.

"You want me to talk... you don't want me to talk... make up your mind already." Roger laid back on his cot and his gaze shifted over to Jack. "Damn, buddy, what happened to you?" He sounded genuinely concerned as Jack sat back on the couch, wincing every time he moved.

He shrugged, not sure exactly what to tell anyone about what their time had been like in Steamboat Springs. Or Golden Meadow. "He's fine. Just a little run-in with your pal, Jackson."

A frown crossed Roger's face. "Jackson? What did he do?" Alarm bled through his voice as he sat straight up, his stare narrowed in on Jack's limited movements.

"He attacked Jack and held him for almost six hours in a warehouse. He drew us out, just to get the drop on us." Ash cut him off before Jack could even attempt to say a word.

Roger shook his head, the dour expression on his face deepening. "No, that's not how it went down at all. Something happened, didn't it?"

Charley stared between Roger and Ash, her eyes turning to ice. "What haven't you been telling me? I get you're stressed and everything about Lee. But don't ever fucking lie to me," she snapped, her nerves frayed after spending so much time trying to get information out of the leech.

"Jackson poisoned me," Jack blurted, before Ash could come up with another way to skirt around the truth.

Standing up, Roger paced back and forth beside his cot, while the wounds on his body started to heal right before their eyes. "No. It can't be. You'd be dead. I've never seen a human survive an attack from anyone of his kind. Just a tiny bit of his poison is lethal. He's even got the scales on his skin dripping with it." He shook his head vigorously, his eyes wide as he stared at Jack with something akin to fear. "What are you?"

"He's nothing," Ash snapped, before they could jump to any conclusions. He reached out and grabbed his best friend's shoulders, forcing her to look at him. "I took him out to Madame Balestrieux, I had her test him for everything she could think of, everything. He's just Jack, so don't go spreading that shit around."

Charley stumbled back when he let her go, and collapsed into one of the piles of blankets and pillows that had been abandoned on the floor from their last visit. "You mean... Jack really died?"

Ash's entire body went rigid as he responded with a simple, "Yes."

"And he came back to life? How the hell is that possible?" Her eyes drifted to Jack, who laid on the couch with his arm shielding his eyes, trying to drown out all the pain.

"That's what I want to know too. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm glad you're not dead, man. But seriously, that's gotta be some dark magic you and Little Miss Sunshine are playing with."

Charley shook her head as she pushed herself to her feet and strode quickly over to the shelves that had been nailed to the wall as a makeshift food pantry. "You let Marley use her magic to do this? Are you fucking insane?"

"Calm down, Charley. Let them explain," Roger soothed, and instead of yelling at the monster, she actually took a few deep breaths and snapped her mouth shut.

"All she did was a little anti-venin spell," Ash lied before Jack could once again blurt out the truth, about Death that time. "He was only dead for a minute or so. We just took him to Madame Balestrieux as a precaution. Ya know, in case it didn't work and he turned into something out of Pet Sematary."

"That's a long way to drive for just in case." Charley dug through the pantry until she pulled out a bag of half-eaten semi-sweet chocolate chips. She poured an entire handful into her mouth before sitting back on the sleeping heap she'd claimed as her own.

Ash shrugged. "Better safe than sorry." Jack's shoulders dropped in relief when she bought the first lie that slid off his brother's tongue. She knew enough. She didn't need to know everything. Sure... they'd probably go to hell for lying to her, but it was better than putting their family in even more danger.

"So, you've already killed my bassist and my manager. Who's next? My guitarist? 'Cause Jamie is pretty much the coolest, so I'd rather if you didn't kill him too." Roger sat on his cot, leaning back against the wall again and looking at them like they were all good friends just hanging out.

"That's not up to you." Ash took a seat near Charley as she gorged herself on chocolate chips. "The only way you live, is if we track down the rest of your band members and slaughter them, the way you guys slaughtered all those innocent people."

Roger's bottom lip pushed outward into a childish pout. "Well if you're going to find them, you better hurry up. They're not gonna stop killing people just because you incapacitated a few of our members. It actually might just make them angrier. Look at Jackson for example. Hey, how'd you kill him anyway?"

"We incinerated his body." Ash sighed, while Jack sat up as much as he could, checking the bandages on his wounds to see if any of them needed to be changed.

"Damn. What a way to go. Poor guy. At least he didn't suffer much." A light glinted in the monster's eyes suddenly that had nervous tingles running up and down Jack's spine. "Oooh, how about this. I'll tell you where my buddy, Jamie, is and you get me some fresh food? None of this frozen crap, alright?" His gaze locked on Charley as she finished off the bag of chocolate chips.

"Fine."

"Hey! What the hell? I'm the prison guard around here," she grumbled in weak protest.

"Well... prison guard?" Ash raised an eyebrow, challenging her. "What do you say to his deal?"

Charley's glare never let up as she folded her arms across her chest and blew a piece of hair out of her face. "Fine. Spill it, leech." She waved her hand softly, motioning for him to speak. At her command, he told them a myriad of specific details that would help them find his friend.

"Hey, where are you guys going?" Will asked almost half an hour later, when Ash and Jack had reluctantly climbed out of the bunker, ready to get back on the road, despite Jack's mostly poor condition.

"Track down another one of those leeches, you wanna come?" Jack whistled loudly for Keala, who shot out of the shadows and rushed toward them, skidding to a stop at his feet.

Will shook his head, shivering as a cold wind blew around them. "I'm gonna go sleep for like thirty hours. Marley might, though." He followed Piper down into the bunker where they could hear Charley and Roger arguing as soon as the hatch was opened.

"Mars?" Ash turned to their youngest sister who'd been carefully blessing the unfinished structure of what would once again become the Westing house with a spell she'd learned from one of her books.

"No thanks." She tucked her book under her arm and pulled her hood over her head. "I have a lot of studying to do. Plus, I kinda want to watch how the house is built. Piper said I could look over the plans she worked on with Haru."

Ash pulled her into a side hug before she could get passed him, and kissed her freezing forehead softly. "Alright, well stay safe then, kiddo. We'll see you in a few days."

"Okay," Marley chirped, throwing her arms around Jack, forgetting to be gentle until he winced. "Where are you going?"

"Some town in New Mexico called Farmington. It's not far from here. A day or so. We'll be back before you know it," he promised, shooting her a reassuring smile.

"You better be! Bye, Keala! See ya later, guys!" she called over her shoulder, headed toward the open hatch that led down into the bunker.

Ash clapped Jack on the back when Marley had sufficiently disappeared from their view. "Let's get going. I want to make a pit stop in Trinidad to have lunch with Lee tomorrow, before we get to Farmington. While I'm busy, you can do some digging around to find the leech. I'm sure he'll be in the area for a few more days at least."

"Sure, okay." Jack pulled one of the car doors open so Keala could jump in, before he hopped into the front passenger seat. Ash slid in next to him and fiddled with the radio, turning it to a classic rock station before pulling away from the Westing property and towards Farmington, New Mexico, which was about a thirteen-hour drive from Foghills.

They'd been driving on the highway for about ten hours, just crossing into Colorado, when the lights of a cop car blared up right behind them. Jack jumped as soon as he spotted it, putting out the joint he'd been smoking and waving the smoke out the open window, doing his best to air it out.

"Shit. I wasn't speeding, and I just changed the tags."

Jack shrugged. "The car was following us for a while. Maybe he was running your plates."

Ash shook his head as he pulled the Blazer to a stop and glanced surreptitiously into the rearview mirror. "No, I've never even been pulled over in Cheech." They watched the officer slowly get out of his car and approach Ash's side, one hand on his firearm. With his other hand, he knocked on the window at the same time Ash started to roll it down.

"Hands up!" The cop looked inside the truck and took inventory of Jack and Keala, who growled and bared her teeth in a way that always made people instantly nervous.

Ash reluctantly pulled his hands off the steering wheel and lifted them to just below his chin. "Dude, if this is about the doobie my brother was smoking, I'm pretty sure it's still legal until we actually leave the state."

"Ashton Slayer?" The cop's hand tightened around the hilt of his gun.

When he heard his name, Ash slumped into the seat and dropped his hands. "Yes, sir. What's the matter-"

"Hands up! Hands up!" The scrawny man with a bulging beer gut, whipped out his gun and pointed it straight at them.

"Whoa, whoa. Okay, man. Just chill!" Ash threw his hands back up and stared at the officer like he'd gone off the rails.

"Shut up, Ash." Jack nudged him hard, while his eyes darted from the agitated cop to Keala, who'd crouched down in front of the back seats, growling lowly, her gaze locked on the man with the gun.

"Get out of the car. Both of you. But leave the dog inside," the officer demanded, pressing a button on his radio. "I've got them, sir. You'd better get out here."