One step ahead

I take in the stillness that surrounded me. The misty air frozen in place. I ran my hand down a mossy rock, feeling the damp dew that hung to the the small green plants. I almost forgot the reason I was here, until a bullet flew past my head and hit a rock a few yards away. I sighed and stood up “alright Thomas, lets get this over with” I grabbed the small hand gun from my hoodie pocket, and shot at the tree next to him. He ran at me and I turned to run. I held my arms behind me when I ran, I saw the cliff up ahead, readying myself for the empty ness below. I felt my foot leave the ground as I found the cliff’s ledge. My words came out of my mouth in a orange and green mist. I felt my arms tingle and I could see the soft glow through my closed eyelids. My fall slowed down till I stopped completely. I opened my eyes to see Thomas falling below. “Welp” I popped the p sound and wave at the falling man “we had a good run my dear Thomas, but I had a job” I snap my fingers and I rise back to the ledge. I hold the gun in my hand and my lips wrinkled in disgust “I hate when Jackson makes me take these” I put it back in my hoodie pocket. A man in a black robe swings out from behind a rock. “Good job” he used a deep voice but I could tell he was just attempting to sound ominous. “Yeah uh-uh, do you want me hide the body or can I just get the money” I hold out my and the man puts a wad of cash in my palm. I stick the money in my pocket a walk away “pleasure doing business with ya” the man walks away into the woods and I walk right towards home. When I open the door to Jackson’s work shop I’m greeted with what feels like someone slapping me in the face. “What the hell?!” Maria and Lucifer run over to me “sorry” Maria pulls me up an gives me hug “you seriously just vetoed me in the face?” Maria brushes off my arm “I thought you were an intruder” I shake my head and rub my face. “What are you two even doing here” I look at Lucifer, who’s still in his pajamas “we got a weird voice mail from Jackson” he held up his phone and hit play “guys, guys, guys! Help! You got to come over now!” The rest of the voice mail was Jack spewing out unintelligible nonsense. “What happened is he okay?” I looked around and began to panic, noticing that Jackson wasn’t there “chill Brook” Maria puts her hands on my shoulder “we came over thinking he’d be dead or something” she points to the kitchen “he’s in there...not dead” Lucifer walks over and smooths his hair “I almost killed him!... why would you call us at 9:30, who dose that man!” Lucifer shouts at the kitchen door and a boy in a pink apron and yellow rubber gloves pokes his head out. “Well you would call someone if you had a panic attack” Jackson locks eyes with me and lets out sigh “oh thank god you’re alive” he ran over a squeezed me tight “so what was the emergency” I look over Jackson’s shoulder at Maria “you want tell her” she looks at Jackson and he lets me go “well you said you’d be back by nine” I check my phone...it’s 10:30. “Just because I’m a hour and thirty minutes late doesn’t mean I’m dead” he looks at me blankly and mumbles something. I knew what he was mumbling about but ignored him “anyway I’m fine” I take his yellow gloves off and give him a kiss “you need to trust that I’ll be okay” he averts my gaze and squeezes my hand “I’m your boyfriend I’m supposed to worry” he grabs both my hands and pulls them to his chest “you do some really dangerous stuff Brook, and sometimes it can get too dangerous” I can tell he’s looking at my scar but I turn away “worry wart”. I pat his head and walk over to the couch “couples are supposed to argue so...you can’t get out of this that easily!” He untied his apron and and put it on the table “Jackson you have to calm down” I grab his hand and pull him to the couch. “Here take this back” I hand him the gun and he puts it on the coffee table “did you...” he swipes his hand by his throat “yes...just not with that” I point at the hand gun and slid farther away. “Why does a worry wart like you own so many of those” I point at all the guns that line his walls. “Complicated” he put the small hand gun away in a box. Jackson has a mysterious past that even I don’t know about. He spends most of his time here at his work shop which is more like a small house. I try to ask him sometimes but he always get all mopey or disappears for an hour or two. He’ll always be one thing though... a worry wart.