January 12th, 2020
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"Jacky, Jacky, Jacky..." a voice stated bitterly as the blinding lights dimmed and Jack found himself standing in a dark, hazy, place that looked like an impression artist's bad rendition of the real world, with a nightmarish tint.

"Where...?" Jack trailed off when he glanced to his left and saw who exactly stood next to him.

"This is not going to work." Death shook his head and shot him a disappointed glare as he threw an arm over his shoulders, ignoring the way Jack tried to shrug him off. "You can't go around dying. That just doesn't fit into my carefully laid out plans. Because if you die, my daughter becomes target number one."

Jack stared up at the creepy reaper with his mouth hanging open. "I'm... dead?" He glanced down at himself, looking for any indication that it wasn't just a dream.

Death's swirling dark eyes turned to stone. "Yes. You can internalize that some other time, boy. Right now, I have you in purgatory. You need to go back so you can finish what you've started."

"What do you mean finish what I've started?" Jack ducked out from under the reaper's arm and turned to stare at him rigidly.

Death threw his head back and laughed heartily, the hood of his thick black cloak falling backward, revealing a scythe tattoo glowing red on the side of his neck, branded into the pasty, papery skin. "You commanded that ghost to you, kid. You spoke to him with your mind. Dick Grayson has been informing me of your every move since you took possession of his tether. Taking that first step has set something very important in motion."

"What?" He wasn't entirely sure he wanted to know the answer, as he cursed his ghost to the depths of hell.

Death's sinister grin stretched across his lips with ease. "Your true gift. You can communicate with people from here. From the limbo, the underworld, the abyss, the vail, the void, whatever the hell you want to call it. The more you use your gift the more powerful you'll become. It will be like nothing you've ever felt before, Jacky."

Jack stared at his surroundings, trying to get used to the odd blending of colors and textures, attempting to get his bearings right so he didn't accidentally stumble off the side of the cliff they were standing near. He looked out over what he assumed was some kind of valley below, but it was hard to tell with everything constantly moving.

"It's a good thing you can't see in here clearly, boy," Death warned darkly. "Don't try. It means we still have a chance at sending you back. Just be more careful this time or the council will start getting even more suspicious of my interest in you."

"Wait," Jack said sharply, before Death could move an inch toward him. "How do I stop this power from consuming me?"

Once again Death laughed like he'd said something hysterical. "Look down there, kid. Right now, monsters and spirits are ripping each other apart in barbaric, excruciating ways over and over and over again. If you don't want to end up like that, you'll control your gift. That's your motivation. That's how you stop it from consuming you." His deep voice sent chills up and down Jack's spine with every word he spoke.

"Sheer willpower? That's it?"

Death nodded grimly. "That's it. Now, this is going to hurt..." He reached out with his long bony fingers as his eyes and his scythe tattoo glowed the same crimson red.

He was wrong. It didn't just hurt. Agony unlike anything Jack had ever experienced before tore through his being. It was like every cell in his body was being ripped away from each other and put back messily, without care. He screamed as darkness danced in his vision and everything around him disappeared.

He was still crying out in agonizing pain when he suddenly sat up, his eyes opened wide as his loud howls bounced off the walls in the antiseptic-scented room around him. A scream echoed his own, and Jack's gaze darted to the left where his mother stood with tears trailing down her cheeks and a knife in her hand, looking suspiciously ready to cut him open.

"Mom?" Jack gasped, feeling the cold metal of the exam table against his bare skin for the first time and jumping to wrap the sheet on his lap tightly around his waist. "What the hell?" He stared at her hand with the knife in it, which was still raised to slice into his chest in a Y incision.

"Jack?" Marcia parroted back, dropping the tool in her hand, ignoring the way it clattered to the sterile tiled floor as she leapt to pull him into her arms. Tears flowed down her face in rivers. "Jack? How...? I examined you myself! Several times! You were dead! How....?" She pulled back just enough to look him up and down, before she once more crushed him to her chest.

"Where are we, Mom? Where is everyone else?" He chose not to answer his mother's questions. He wasn't entirely sure he knew what was going on.

Marcia finally took a step back, drying her eyes with the sleeve of her lab coat, and rolling the latex gloves off her hands, immediately reaching for another pair. "We're in Steamboat still. There was no way in hell I was going to let someone else perform your autopsy." Jack cringed.

"Mom," he said sharply, "you should have."

Her dark brown eyes narrowed on him instantly as her hand snaked out and pinched his bare arm, returning to her side before he could even blink. "Don't ever say that again. If I had let someone else do it, you'd surely be dead already. I've been stalling for an hour."

Jack rolled his eyes as she checked him thoroughly for any of sign of the poison still running rampant through his system or the cuts that had been sliced deep into his skin. When she didn't find any, she tossed him a lab coat from the rack and shot him a stern look.

"Quickly, get dressed. There's no way we're getting out of here without causing a scene unless we go out a side door. Your siblings are waiting back at the hotel. Come on." Marcia moved around the room like a whirlwind, scribbling things he didn't understand onto a chart laying haphazardly on the table where he woke up, and dragging him through one of the emergency exits, after easily disarming it.

"Please teach me how to do that?" He followed his mother like a lost dog. "Hey! Do you know where Keala is? Did anyone find her?" For the first time since he'd woken, he remembered that his dog had run off as the serpent attacked him.

Marcia's expression fell at the sound of his dog's name. "I'm so sorry, Jack." She led him carefully around the side of the building to the lot where she'd parked her car. Unlocking it as soon as they were close with the key fob in her hand, she said, "Get in. Hurry."

"What happened to her?" He ducked into her little four door Honda that she'd had ever since he was a little kid.

Marcia shook her head, her dark curls falling into her eyes briefly. "Will and Marley have been out looking for her, but they said the last time they saw her was when you took her for a walk."

Relief flooded through Jack's entire body, and he sat back against his seat easily. "Oh, okay. She'll be okay then. She's probably just looking for me." His gaze turned to the window as Marcia drove quickly through the winding streets, back to the hotel Ash had chosen. A few times, he caught her looking at him instead of the road, which started to freak him out until they reached the Steamboat Lodge.

"Maybe I should go in first," Marcia muttered a little hesitantly, as they parked right out front of the hotel room door.

"Don't worry, they can handle it." Jack smiled brightly, reaching over and squeezing his mother's hand reassuringly, before pushing his door open and stepping out onto the icy blacktop without any shoes or socks. In fact, the only thing he wore was the lab coat Marcia had thrown at him when he'd first woken up.

"I sure hope so." She looped her arm through his and dragged him to the room his siblings were mourning in, holding onto him tightly, as though he'd bolt at any moment. Banging her fist against the front door frantically, she called, "Ashton! Open up! Now!" as she looked around suspiciously for anyone who might have been watching them.

Jack smiled down at her softly. "Don't worry, Mom, it'll all be okay." Commotion sounded from the other side of the flimsy wooden door before it was yanked open, revealing the shocked faces of Will and Ash.

"I... Mom... What?" Will muttered incoherently, stumbling backwards into the room, his hazel eyes wide with fear.

Marcia brushed passed both his brothers, pulling Jack along and slamming the door behind them, flicking the locks before saying a word. "I have no idea how it happened, but I won't look a gift horse in the mouth," she declared, her tone warning her kids not to either.

"Jacky...?" Ash's swirling, warm, brown eyes never left him.

"Oh, thank the Yggdrasil!" Marley stared at Jack as she muttered prayers of thanks in Zytekki to the great tree of life.

Ash wrapped him in a rough hug, pulling back to check for the injuries he'd had the last time they'd seen him. "How the hell are you here?" He took a step back so Will and Marley could tackle him in a hug too, while Marcia watched on with a grin pulling at her features and tears streaming from her red-rimmed eyes.

Jack glanced around the room, at his family who all stared at him slack-jawed, while he stood half-naked in front of them, trying to decide the best way to explain what the hell had happened. "Um... can I put some clothes on first?" He shivered as a cold wind blew briskly from the vent near the window.

Marley giggled, while Ash moved a few steps toward the couch where they'd piled up Jack's things. "Here." He tossed the bag at him impatiently. Jack moved quickly, locking himself in the bathroom and throwing on the only clean boxers that he had left, which were the pink ones Marley'd gotten him as a joke for his birthday the year before, his favorite pair of dark blue jeans, and a t-shirt with Einstein making a science quip that undoubtedly belonged to Will.

"What happened, Jacky?" Ash demanded the moment he stepped out of the bathroom, relishing in the feeling of being fully clothed. "I watched you die in my arms. You've been dead for two days."

Chills ran up and down Jack's spine at the information. "Really? Two days? It didn't feel like that." Glancing up at his family, he steeled himself, softly saying, "A reaper sent me back. He said I had a job to do and I couldn't die yet." He purposefully left out the parts about Death being the head of the reaper council or the fact that he was Arizona Paxton's father.

A pregnant silence settled over everyone, while they all absorbed his words, before Marcia blurted, "See? Let's not look this gift horse in the mouth."

Marley sat back on the bed and shot Jack a nonchalant smirk. "Well... if the reaper guy hadn't done it, I would've. Either way, I knew you weren't gone for good." She halfway lied through her teeth, but nobody called her out on it, they were all still reeling about the fact that they had him back.

"Thanks, Mars." A smile lit up his face, while he tried to ignore the scrutinizing looks from both his older brothers.

"What kind of job?" The longer they sat around, the sharper Ash's stare became.

Jack shrugged absently. "I have no idea," he lied, knowing his brother would see right through him, he just hoped he wouldn't tip their mom off to it too.

"Ashton, leave him alone. He looks exhausted. Sit down, Jack." She smoothed out the bedspread on one of the unmade beds in the room.

"I'll be okay, Mom," Jack responded softly, but he did as she told him to anyway. He didn't mind the way she hovered over him like the mother hen that she was.

"Jack's tough, Mama," Marley said proudly, jumping off the bed and throwing her things haphazardly into her backpack while shrugging on her jacket. "Can we go find Keala now? I'm starving, and the sooner we get out of this town, the better."

"I couldn't agree more." Will stuffed the last of his dirty clothes into his backpack and swung it onto his shoulder.

"Alright." Jack shot up off the bed and reached for his favorite hoodie, which had been thrown precariously over the rest of his stuff. "Let's go, she's probably just wandering around looking for me anyway."

Marley grinned, linking her arm through Jack's and pulling him toward the doorway, while their older brothers lingered back a little with their mother. "Look," she pointed straight ahead, "we can follow that bike trail, maybe she's wandering through the woods near that creek." Across the parking lot in front of them, was a long stretch of woods that followed the creek through Steamboat and out toward the big river they'd passed on their way through town.

"Keala!" Jack whistled as he let Marley drag him toward the bike path, while the rest of their family sauntered behind, whispering to each other fervently. "Keala!" he called again, except that time, he called through his thoughts as loud as he could too, testing Death's theory about his connection with the animal.

"You hear that?" Marley squealed excitedly, jerking him a little as she jumped up and down while their arms were still linked.

"Hear what?" Will wrapped his thin jacket tighter around himself as a strong wind blew flurries off the trees, showering them with bits of snowflakes.

"A dog barking." She grinned as Keala barked again, a little closer.

"I heard it too." Ash scowled as rustling started in the woods along the path. Keala was a ball of black fur when she darted from the trees and tackled Jack with a playful bark that made Marcia scream from the suddenness.

"Hey, girl." Jack scratched behind her ears as he shoved her off just in time for Will to yank him to his feet. Keala wagged her long tail viciously in front of them, barking again and jumping up to rest her front paws on his chest and licking his face.

"Keala!" Marley practically tackled the dog in greeting, and she laughed when Keala nipped at her lightly in return.

"Let's get going now." Ash ushered them back the way they came so they could grab the rest of their stuff and get the hell out of Steamboat Springs.

"You guys go," Marcia told them earnestly, standing in the open doorway of the hotel room as they finished one last sweep to make sure they weren't forgetting anything. "I've got some more work to do here so that nobody gets suspicious."

"Okay. I think we're just gonna head back to Foghills. I'll send you money as soon as I get the chance."

"Oh, honey..." Marcia muttered softly, reluctance crossing her features. "Thank you." She didn't want to take their money, but it was obvious in the way her shoulders sagged in defeat that she needed it, probably more than she let on.

Ash slammed the back doors shut before whirling around and walking toward her imposingly, leaning down and engulfing her in a tight hug. "We'd do anything for you, Ma. Just say the word and you got it." His statement was echoed heartily by the rest of them as they took turns saying their goodbyes before they all jumped into the car.

"Where're we headed now?" Marley questioned, excitement bleeding through her pores almost tangibly. "I know you were lying to Mama about the whole Foghills thing. I could see it all over your face, Ash."

His gaze grew cold as he pressed harder on the gas pedal, driving as far and as fast as he could away from the town of Steamboat Springs and the dark memories that it held. "We're going to Golden Meadow, Louisiana. There's someone there we need to talk to."

Will cut his surprised gaze in Ash's direction. "Way out in Louisiana? Why?" He closed his laptop and stored it in his backpack at his feet.

"Because," Ash's grip tightened exponentially on the steering wheel, "I want to know what Jack is. There's no way you can just come back from the dead and walk around like everything's normal."

Jack flinched at the harsh tone of his brother's voice. "I told you, it's not my fault the-"

"Reaper did it," Ash mocked. "Yeah, you told us. Am I the only one not buying that bullshit?" Marley and Will remained curiously silent while Jack looked around at his siblings, waiting for one of them to disagree, but they didn't.

"I'm not lying." Jack rubbed his temples a little as a sharp headache ripped through his skull. "A reaper who called himself the Death, told me that if I wanted to live and keep you guys safe, I had to do a job for him, but he wouldn't say what. He said he only cared because if I didn't do it, his half-breed daughter would get dragged into everything. He doesn't seem to think I'm going to survive this either way, but he said me dying so soon wasn't in his plans."

Will fully turned in his seat to stare at Jack incredulously. "Seriously, Jack? Death has a job for you? This sounds like the plot to a shitty video game."

Jack shrugged, while Ash continued to speed down the snowy mountain roads, becoming far too accustomed to driving like a maniac no matter what the weather conditions were like. "I'm telling the truth."

"That's the most fucked up part. I believe you."

They didn't talk much after that, while everyone tried to absorb the reality of having their brother back from the dead. It wasn't long before they started drifting off to sleep, except for Jack who'd offered to drive for the time being. Ash grudgingly obliged, falling asleep almost the second his head hit the back seat.

While Jack drove on in mostly silence, he thought a lot about what the reaper had told him about controlling his abilities. He could feel the power radiating through him, but he didn't want to touch it. He didn't want it to consume him. He felt like if he played around with the supernatural too much he might not be able to go back to normal. The idea terrified him.

"Where are we?" Ash was the first one to wake up after nearly twelve hours of sleep. Jack guessed none of them really had a decent night's rest since his death, so he didn't bother waking them. He'd hardly even stopped for gas since he'd started driving.

"Fort Worth, Texas." Jack yawned. His eyes drooped as he pulled into a gas station to fill the truck up and switch seats.

"Get some sleep." There was something cold and distrustful in Ash's voice that caused chills to crawl up and down Jack's spine.

"Okay." He kept thinking back to what Death had said about controlling the nightmares. Maybe he could actually do it.

"Hey, wake up, Jack!" Marley squealed in his ear much later that night, after they'd been traveling in the car for nearly a full twenty-four hours.

"Huh...? What?" Jack sat up sharply and nearly headbutted his little sister in the face.

"We're here." Marley motioned around them as Ash shoved open his door and hopped out. "And I think Keala really has to pee."

"I'm taking her on a walk this time." Ash yanked open Jack's door and grabbed Keala's leash from where it lay on the floor, clipping the collar on the wild beast, who whined when she realized it wasn't going to be Jack to take her.

"Go on," Jack urged softly, scratching his dog behind her ears before Ash dragged her off into the dark streets of Golden Meadow, Louisiana. "What exactly are we doing here?" He followed Marley out of the truck into the shockingly warm night. A heavy wind swirled around them and thunder rumbled in the dark sky above.

"Ash said that an old friend of Dad's lives here." Marley linked her arm through his as they stood outside the Blazer, waiting for Ash to get back from his walk with Keala.

"Who is it?" Jack thought he knew most of his dad's old friends, but he couldn't ever remember being in Golden Meadow before.

Will shrugged, staring at his phone before typing out a message to Haru, and slipping it back into his pocket. "You know how Ash is, everything is on a need to know basis." He unzipped his jacket, even as thunder rumbled above them threatening heavy drops of rain. They'd just come from the Rocky Mountains where temperatures had been well below zero, so it actually felt warm.

"Her name is Madame Calista Balestrieux, you might remember meeting her when you were little. I think I took you out here one summer." Ash startled them as he and Keala walked up quietly from behind. "Put your dog back in the car, Jack, then we'll head inside. She's waiting for us." His voice was as stony and cold as it had been ever since they'd left Steamboat.

Jack thought back, to the many times they'd traveled out to Louisiana, but he was sure they'd never visited the Calista woman. Instead of mentioning anything, he followed his brother's instructions, locking Keala away in the truck, leaving the window open enough for her to stick her head out, before Marley dragged him to a small storefront still decorated with sparkling lights and holiday knickknacks.

The moment they stepped through the front door and the little bell rang above their heads, a loud noise erupted from the counter at the very back of the cluttered store, which sold what looked to be pagan charms and cheap imitations of real magic symbols used by witches everywhere.

"Oooh! It must be my lucky day! Look what the cat dragged in, Emmaline, dear!" a woman called over her shoulder, moving out from behind the counter and striding toward them purposefully, the hem of her long handmade dress printed with flowers of various shapes and sizes swishing noisily as she walked. Her deep, umber colored skin glistened against the bright lights of the shop as she grabbed Ash and engulfed him in a hug. She was nearly as tall as Ash himself, but about twice as wide, and weighed down with more jewelry than Jack had ever seen on one person.

"What is it, Mama?" Jack heard a girl's voice coming out from a backroom. Will immediately perked up at the sound and when she wandered out to where they could see her, his jaw dropped open, and Jack thought he saw a little drool drip from the corner of his mouth. She stood just a few inches shorter than Will himself, who was almost six foot two. Her skin complexion was the same rich, dark color as her mother's, but instead of wearing her hair wrapped up in a turban piled on her head, she wore it out in a well-kempt afro, held up by a yellow bandana. She had a lean, slender physique, and her eyes were a piercing ochre color.

"These are Johnny Slayer's kids," Madame Balestrieux introduced grandly, waving her hand in their direction. Setting her keen eyes back on them as she let Ash go, she took a step back to look at them under her scrutiny. "What can I do for you, Ashton? I heard about your daddy. I'm so sorry, baby." Tears sprang to her soft chocolate colored eyes briefly, before she blinked them away.

"It's okay," Ash responded robotically. "You already know what you can do for us." His expression hardened even further as he gestured subtly to Jack, whose gaze was drawn to the strange décor hung up around the inside of the small shop, there was far too much to look at in just a passing glance.

"Yes." Her demeanor changed from nostalgic to professional in just seconds. "Well then, follow me. We're going to head on down into the real shop." She led them through the cramped store, behind the counter and through a heavy metal door that wasn't even noticeable until you were through a door marked Employees Only. "Emmaline, darling, close up for me."

The girl nodded her head firmly, doing as she was told, while her mother took them down into the basement where the real store was set up. It was an actual witch's market unlike anything Jack had ever seen before. Where upstairs had seemed crammed full of novelty junk, the basement was large and neatly organized with things Marley probably only ever dreamed of getting her hands on.

"Jack, this is like... heaven." She didn't unhook her arm from his as she gazed around the room in awe.

He laughed, trying to cover it with a cough, when just ahead, Madame Balestrieux turned to him sharply. She had gone from being warm and welcoming to more stern and unreadable than Ash. "You, boy," she pointed a long slender finger laden with gold banded rings directly at him, "come with me. The rest of you, stay here with my daughter, Desiree."

A girl who looked to be only a few years older than Marley appeared stealthily out of the shadows, nimbly moving to stand beside her mother. "I'll show you around the shop a little," she offered pleasantly, much to Marley's delight, while Madame Balestrieux pulled him down a long dark corridor toward a room at the very end.

Inside, the small area was practically empty except for a chair in the center and a table pushed up against the right-hand corner closest to the door. Markings were carved into the walls and floors in patterns that Jack couldn't understand, but he recognized a few symbols from his sister's books.

"Sit." Madam Balestrieux spoke with a thick accent as she muttered something in a tongue Jack couldn't understand.

"What... what are you going to do to me?" He sluggishly crossed the intricate markings that made him feel a little bit nauseous with curiosity. Taking a seat, he rubbed his sweating hands on his jeans and tried to hide the way his heart hammered steadily against his ribs.

"Your brother wants me to test you for every damn monster we can think of." Madame Balestrieux turned her back to him as she stood before the long table full of tools and items Jack had hoped weren't meant for him. Picking up an ornate silver blade, she stalked toward him slowly, inspecting every inch of his person. "These tests are going to hurt, a lot. But sit still, boy, and we'll be finished before you know it." Her voice was completely devoid of the gentleness he'd witnessed earlier.

Instead of struggling or pulling away, Jack sat up straighter, dropping his head down and accepting what would happen next. He'd come to appreciate the woman's precaution as she started a series of what very well could have been torture tactics. His screams echoed off the walls, through the narrow corridor, and out into the market. On more than one occasion over the next hour, he heard fists slamming against the door and voices pleading for her to stop whatever she was doing. As much as he tried, though, Jack couldn't distinguish one voice from the other.

"Emmaline, dear," Madame Balestrieux ordered after she'd finally finished carving into his skin with different blades and instruments he'd never even seen or heard of before, and all the while speaking in languages he was similarly unfamiliar with. "Come dress the rest of his wounds, please?"

The girl, who was somewhere in between the ages of Will and Ash, jumped to do as her mother instructed. "Yes, ma'am." She obediently dropped to her knees in front of Jack while he sat breathing shallowly against the pain that shocked his system. He wasn't even sure when she'd entered the room, he didn't remember her walking in with them.

"The good news is you're not a monster." Madame Balestrieux pulled a pair of latex gloves off her hands and hung her black apron back up on the wall near the door. Slowly, she sauntered toward him, standing back and watching critically while her daughter's dainty fingers flitted over his injuries and carefully wrapped bandages around them with antiseptic after a thorough cleaning. Before she finished with each separate wound, she whispered some sort of spell in accented Zytekki, but instead of frightening him further, her voice made him feel calm.

"I know that," Jack bit out when Madame Balestrieux looked at him as though she expected a response.

She frowned and shook her head. "There is something about you, Jack Slayer. Your heart is full of darkness. Evil lurks just beneath the surface. But it isn't from your resurrection." Her voice shook a little with uncertainty while her dark eyes bored into him as though he were a puzzle she couldn't quite figure out. "This is something that's been growing inside you for a long time."

Jack's clear blue eyes widened. "Please," he begged, his voice just above a hissed whisper, "don't tell my brother. I can control it." He shocked them with his intensity. Emmaline scrambled backward like she expected him to snap, but he just sat there, staring at them with a pleading gaze.

"You know about this?" Madame Balestrieux's shoulders relaxed as she dropped her defensive stance.

Jack nodded his head, sitting back in the chair casually. "I'm a Ghost Talker. I can communicate with the spirits."

The Balestrieux women shared looks of genuine surprise. "Th-that's not possible."

Jack lifted his shoulders in a half-assed shrug as he focused on calming the room down, which was a lot harder with the throbbing throughout his body. "I'm kind of a freak, but I'm not evil. Please, just give me a chance. Don't tell my siblings."

The women stared at each other for a long moment, before they finally relented. "We can keep a close eye on him, Mama. It might be a good thing to have him in our debt."

"Alright, fine. But be warned, Jack, we've got eyes everywhere. If you start to let that evil saturate whatever is keeping it at bay, we'll be the first ones to put you down." Before he could respond, Madame Balestrieux clapped her hands together. "Alright, let's regroup with the rest of the family. I want to meet that lovely little sister of yours. I'd like to know if the rumors about that child are true. Emmaline, help Jack out to the market, please."

"Yes, ma'am," Emmaline answered as the woman swept out of the room in a flourish. "I'm sorry for what she did to you." After her mother left, she meticulously put her first-aid supplies back into her large kit.

"It's alright." Jack forced himself to his unsteady feet, not wanting to have to use the girl to hold him up. "Had to be done, I guess."

Emmaline shook her head softly. "No, usually it's not that bad. Your brother ordered tests I've never even heard of. I guess he wanted to make sure you really aren't a monster. I don't know how he would've done it if he decided to go through with it on his own. I'm glad Mother talked him out of it."

"Me too." Jack didn't want to dwell on the knowledge that not only had his brother put him through so much unnecessary pain, but he'd planned on doing it himself.