FicWad

Jared walked cautiously up the stairs to the apartment door. He had never been here before and the area was a little more than unnerving. It gave him a bit of a lesson in culture and seemed perfect for pictures but to walk through here was a little scary. The walls of the apartment building itself was covered in graffiti and the smell was rank. He held up the sleeve of his leather jacket to his nose so he could block out the smell as if it wasn’t already imprinted in his senses. The door sounded hollow when he knocked. He waited there a moment, unsure if this was some kind of ridiculous trick Shannon was playing but something in his gut told him otherwise. Something told him to be scared as hell.
Somewhere in the distance a baby began to cry and a slight warm wind began to pick up. He lowered his arm, fixed the hat on his head and moved back when the door knob began to turn.
There Shannon was, standing before him with a smirk on his lips. Jared felt conflicted. Unsure if he should hug him after all the panic and worry or if he had strength enough to yell at him. He was angry, he couldn’t hide that but he knew that his expression read every shade of confusion.
“You made it. Come in.” Shannon waved him inside as if he were allowing him to enter his palace when instead all he came into was an empty space.
“Where the hell are we?” Jared demanded, his brows furrowing, and his voice taking on a harsher tone.
“No need to worry. Emma will be here soon.” He smiled again, clasping Jared’s shoulder in his hand giving it a little squeeze.
“Emma?” Jared’s eyes shot to his. His confusion mounted and for some reason he felt like some kind of an idiot. What the hell was going on?
“What I said, ain’t it?” Shannon released him and walked away from his side. He leaned back against the wall and held his brothers eyes, a challenge brewing there.
“Why would she be coming out here?”
Shannon shrugged. “Guess we’ll have to find out.”
“What the hell are you doing out here and with her?!” Jared loudly demanded. His anger was showing and he knew that he wasn’t handling this the right way but he had no other choice.
“We’ll have to find out.”
Jared pulled his phone out of his jacket and retrieved Emma’s number.
“Wouldn’t call her if I were you…she doesn’t have her phone with her.” Shannon’s tone took on a bit of playfulness. It was like he was enjoying every second of whatever game he was playing.
Jared tried to keep his anger in check but he couldn’t hold it back much anymore. He took Shannon harshly by the shoulders and looked down into his eyes. “What the hell is going on Shannon?!”
Shannon let out a laugh but didn’t attempt to move away from his grip. “Bad mood? Thought a perfect guy like you would never have one of those.”
Jared bit down on his bottom lip and raised his hand about to ready to throw a punch into his brothers face but before he could Shannon quickly acted, sending his knee up into Jared’s groin. He backed off immediately, lowering to his knees and trying to cope with the pain that spread throughout his body. Shannon looked down at him and smiled a little.
“What is all this?” Jared questioned through ragged breaths.
Again Shannon shrugged. “I told you that you were going to have to find out.” He replied, that playful and hateful look back in his brown eyes. He looked vicious standing there above him, nothing of compassion to be found in his eyes.
A knock sounded on the hollow door. Shannon looked over to it and crossed the room to let whoever it was in, no doubt Emma. Jared moved over to the wall and carefully steadied himself to his feet. A panic rose through him and the need to make sure nothing at all happened to her. The door opened, sunlight flooded in and then Emma came inside as well. But when Jared’s eyes fell on her beautiful and calm face he suddenly realized that he had nothing at all to worry about. Absolutely nothing was going to happen to her and that fact worried the hell out of him to the point of complete fear.