Forced Eternity (Jalex)

Meaningless

Jack's POV

I was so close to him. This was the closest I'd ever been to him. I could smell the cinnamon on his breath. His nose was almost touching my own. This close, I could see bright flecks of gold in his eyes. If I tilted my chin just right, our lips would touch. I couldn't move, I was stuck, but I was glad that I was. In a second, our lips were on each other's. I don't remember who kissed who. But we were kissing. My fingers tangled in Alex's hair and his were pulling me closer. He pulled away a little bit.

"I-Is this okay?" He asked me, his lips still close to mine. I nodded wordlessly and pressed my lips to his again. He made a sound in the back of his throat when I pulled on his hair roughly. He bit my bottom lip making me moan into his mouth, as his tongue explored my mouth. I was still pretty upset, due to my complicated feelings towards my family, but those thoughts were quickly shoved to the back of my mind.

"I'm sorry." We both said at the same time, breaking apart. I laughed a little and so did he. It was a weird, I mean, I didn't hate Alex, but he was the one who took me away from my family, and I really did know how to feel about that.

"I-I, er, erm. I-" He sputtered but I silenced him by kissing him again. Our lips moved against each other's softly. I brought my hand to his face and brushed my thumb across his cheek. I pulled away from him. His cheeks were tinged a light pink, and his mouth was slightly open.

"Spit it out." I teased him. His face flushed an even deeper shade of pink.

"I-I'm sorry, but do you want to see your family still?" He asked me quietly. I dropped my hand from his face, still looking into his eyes.

"Do they miss me?" I asked him back. He nodded. I couldn't believe that. "Bullshit."

"They do, they haven't stopped searching for you since they discovered you were missing." He stated simply. I frowned. So they missed me when I was gone, but when I was there, they didn't give a fuck about me? What kind of logic is that?

"Sure, let's go see them." I replied evenly. I was really on edge about seeing them. It's almost like seeing what would truly happened if you were to have disappeared forever. Alex took my hand in his and in a flash, we were transported back to my room on earth. Everything in my room looked the same. The broken CD pieces still lay on the floor. My bed wasn't made up at all. I could smell coffee brewing downstairs. I tugged on Alex's hand, dragging him downstairs to see what was going on.

My mother looked a wreck. Joe was making coffee, and it looked like neither of the two had slept a wink in a while. Joe placed a steaming up of black coffee in front of my mom. She brought it to her lips with shaky hands. Joe sat down next to her and rubbed her back soothingly.

"It's okay, Mom, everyone's looking for him, he'll come home eventually." Joe assured her. I shook my head, anger bubbling in me. She set her mug down.

"You know what my last words were to him? 'I don't want to look at you, get out of my sight.' I said that to him. It's been running through my mind for days on end." Shee sniffled, silent tears falling from her eyes. "He's not coming home, Joe."

"Damn right, I'm not." I growled. Joe didn't say anything else to my mother, the two just sitting there, lost in their own minds. I tugged on Alex's hand to see how May was. May was sitting on her bed, loud music blasting from her speakers. She wasn't crying. She wasn't staring off into space in sadness. She was flipping through a magazine. "Do you see this shit?" I asked Alex rhetorically. Maybe I'm selfish, because I wanted to be missed. "I knew that they wouldn't miss me."

"But, your mother was crying." Alex pointed out to me. I shook my head, disgust and anger filling my entire being.

"No. She wasn't crying because she misses me. She's crying because she feels guilty for what she's said to me. That's not the same. If I were still here, she wouldn't even feel guilty. If anything, my carpet probably misses me more than she does." I took a deep breath, trying to calm down. "I don't mean anything, Alex."

"You do mean something. You mean a lot to me." He told me, squeezing my hand gently. I looked down at our still intertwined hands and smiled a little.

"I know." I sighed. "Can we go? I don't want to be here anymore." He nodded and we were transported back to the Underworld. I let go of Alex's hand. "Thanks."

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah." I lied. "I'm just tired." I went over to the dresser and got some clothes out. I went into the bathroom and turned on the water. The water was always hot, no need to wait for it to warm up. I stripped down and got under the water. Glancing at my right leg, I saw a dark brown scar that ran from my hip to my knee. I traced the mark with my thumb.

The thing about my dad, was that, even though he took care of our family, he wasn't really there. He never came to any of my school functions, he never tried to spend quality time with me. I mean, yeah, I had clothes on my back, a roof over my head and food on the table, but that doesn't mean I wanted to feel some sort of bond with my family. My mom sometimes was very loving, but most of the time, she just would be very distant with all of us.

I had been in the bathroom for about an hour when I finally decided to come out of there. Alex was reading a book, sitting against the headboard of the bed. He glanced up when he'd seen that I'd come back.

"Hey, I'm gonna go ahead and go to sleep." I told him before crawling into bed. He nodded.

"Do you want me to leave?" He asked me, closing his book. I shook my head.

"Could you stay in here?" I asked him softly. He smiled at me and nodded.

"Yeah, I'll stay." He placed his book on the bedside table and blew out the candle on the table.We both got under the covers and I wrapped an arm around Alex and pulled him close to me. He giggled a little.

"Thanks." I whispered in his ear before kissing his cheek. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight, love." He whispered back.

___

When I rolled over, Alex's side of the bed was empty and cold. I rubbed at my eyes and sat up. I looked around the room, trying to figure out where he'd went. Screams could be heard, making me tremble in fear. They sounded so close. I slid out of bed and went into the living room.

"A-A-Alex?" I called out, maybe he was reading somewhere. I looked in the kitchen, it was empty as well. Another scream sounded and it sounded even closer. "A-Alex?" I called out again, but he didn't answer. Where had he gone? How long had he been gone? The house was a bit darker than usual, but time didn't seem to change the surroundings. I went back into the bedroom and peeked out the window.

It was an expanse of boiling lava. The ground was covered in skeletons, but those skeletons were still moving. Every so often was a person beating the skeletons. There were people who must've been new to the Underworld, for they still had skin. I covered my mouth with my hands at the sight. It was gruesome, it was saddening and it scared me shitless. I crumpled into a heap on the floor.

"Alex, please come back." I whimpered out to no one as screams filled the air.