TITLE: Future tense
FANDOM: Jake 2.0
CHARACTERS: Jake Foley, Kyle Duarte
PROMPT: 087. Life
WORD COUNT: 233
RATING: PG-13
SUMMARY: Jake sees the future.
AUTHOR’S NOTES: From the
Book Challenge.
Quotation from Homer’s Odyssey:
But now I will make a prophecy and this will come true
Table “Take it easy - you’re hurt.”
There’s blood on his hands, thick like syrup and causing his grip to falter on the man’s arm.
“No kidding, son. I’ve known for years.”
He stops and stares into that face. The eyes are blue, old, resigned. They terrify him.
“Known? Come on, we have to…”
“I’m a seer. I know the future.”
He rolls his eyes, sceptical as always. Another cracked old man, another cat up a tree rescue. It tires him but he carries on.
“Yeah, well I foresee us both getting out of here, so hold on to…”
“No, son.” The man smiles and he pauses. “But now I will make a prophecy and this will come true.”
A touch of the hand, and…
War. Death. Fresh rain. Kyle’s smiling at him.
A desperate release from pain, twist, groan, give. It’s over too soon.
Nothing works. Driven underground. Despised for love, for hope.
One shot, two. All better. The third takes him. There’s no funeral.
Huddled alone in a sewer. Trees gone. Water gone. The last man in Washington.
The rest aren’t men anymore.
He can’t die.
Can’t.
He is startled back to reality and the man’s hand is cool in his. He’s dead, dead as he knew he’d be. As Jake…can never be.
When Kyle comes to pull him out of the rubble, he clings to him, crying, and wishing he were dead.