FicWad

The cafe' was quiet and Jared relished in it. He needed quiet right now, needed to feel the privacy that he felt was being ripped away at least for a single moment. He had barely said a word to Harlow, he just listened- or tried to- while she spoke. His heart was fiercely pounding in his chest and his eyes wandered everywhere in fear that someone was watching, someone was going to come in and make good on the promises he had been fearing for so long. The months would finally pile up high enough and the threat would finally be realized.

"Jared?" Harlow softly called out, finally noticing that he wasn't paying attention. Her small hand reached over the table and softly touched to his. Her eyes searched his, pried into the secret areas that she had found before and yet she found herself completely locked out.

He snapped out of his thoughts, offering her a bit of a smile as he looked at her. "What is it?"

She moved her hand from his, taking hold of her coffee and bringing it to her lips as she contemplated what words she would say. After that letter she had shown to him last night things had suddenly shifted. She had felt it. It had come from somewhere dark within him and that thought alone scared her.

"Did you take your medication today?" She asked, setting down her cup and meeting his eyes. He looked as if he hadn't slept at all. His hair was unusually unkempt and his hands were lightly shaking as he trapped his own cup between them. He was on edge, she could tell.

Heavily he sighed and looked away. It always came down to his state of mind and he wasn't sure how much longer he could take of the constant pestering about his mental state. He wasn't crazy. He hadn't imagined anything. Everything he had gone through had been true, he hadn't made any of it up. He had suffered, so violently too. Was he supposed to 'admit' to some probing doctor that it had been a lie when that wasn't the truth at all? That's what he felt like the price was. The price of his own suffering.

"I did." He said simply with a short nod of his head as he looked back to her. Her gaze on him was soft. She hadn't meant to upset him but he couldn't shake the feeling that everyone who looked his way was silently judging him. Fans, reporters, anyone. They were all quietly punishing him for shattering the image he had been carrying for far too long. He was only a man, was he supposed to over stretch himself to prove that he wasn't at all just trying to get attention?

"Then..." She began, cutting herself off to stir her coffee only to distract herself. "...then what's going on?"

He swallowed down harshly, his brows lightly furrowing as he met her eyes. "What's going on?" He repeated with a touch of confusion lacing through his voice. "You show me that letter last night and you still have to ask what's going on?" His voice was demanding as he held her eyes firmly.

She sighed and tucked her fallen hair behind her ear. Taking another drink of her coffee she shook her head. "That letter...it was a prank. Nothing more."

His mouth seemed to fall open at her words but he quickly closed it as a stream of breath escaped them. "A prank." He spoke the word loosely and in heavy disbelief. "After everything that happened before you're honestly sitting there telling me this was a prank?"

She nearly jumped at how harsh his voice had become but she didn't move, didn't allow herself to flinch. Perhaps he had skipped his medication, maybe he needed to go see his therapist.

"It was only a letter."

He just stared at her, knowing he couldn't tell her what had happened this morning. He couldn't mention the dog, that would only make it more real. He couldn't mention that letter about herself, that would only make the fear more than a distance between them, it would make it a downright barrier that neither of them could cross.

"You took it."

"What?"

"The letter, last night when you left, you took it." She was speaking so hesitantly like she was afraid he was going to explode. She could see all of it building in his eyes and it pained her but what help was she?

That was something he also didn't want to admit. He couldn't admit to taking the letter, having more than half of them from before stored in his basement. What would that say about him? That would make his fear seemed dramatized, like he was somehow overreacting.

He made to answer but the waiter came over to the table. He was staring at Jared with a strange look in his eyes, it made his skin crawl.

"Mr. Leto?" He called out, his brows tensed together.

Jared looked up at him, a little unnerved by the look in his eyes. "What is it?"

"This was to be delivered to you on your arrival here?" He pulled something from the jacket he wore, handing it over into his hands and then quickly walking away. It seemed like he didn't want to be in the same area as him.

Jared looked at Harlow and then down again at the letter he was now holding. Harlow was holding her breath, her arms folding on the table as she waited for him to open it up.;

Jared slipped his fingers beneath the envelope flap and tugged it until it ripped open. His hands shook more wild, his breath shallow and ragged. Carefully he took the contents out: a single white folded paper. He unfolded it and let his eyes trail along the written letters.

'You and Harlow make a nice pair, Jared. I'd like to see which of you would die for the other. How much torture could you take for her? I'd like to hear you scream in pain while watching her die.'

He stared at the words, his heart beating wildly and his breath coming out more shallow. Harlow's pressing voice was muffled as everything faded into the background. His eyes shot around the cafe' looking for someone, anyone that might have sent this. But no one was there, it was just him and Harlow as well as the staff.

He saw the waiter that had brought the letter slip out the back, the wisp of his jacket disappearing as the door shut. He shot up, tucking the letter fiercely into the pocket of his pants as he darted out after him.

He watched as the waiter went into a jog through the streets and Jared quickly followed after him. Why was he sprinting directly from his shift after placing the letter into his hands.

He felt his breath begin to choke at him. His chest was screaming with breathlessness as the cold around them bit at him. He had been in shape all his life but the past eight months had left him both exasperated and deteriorating. He couldn't stop though, this could be his chance to figure out who the hell had tortured him for this long.

The waiter stopped and Jared lunged towards him, taking hold of his arm and bringing him down to the ground. Straddling him he grabbed ahold of the lapels of his jacket and looked him in the face.

"What the hell!" The waiter demanded, writing beneath him to get free of his hold.

Jared threw a punch into the guy's face, incoherent yells rushing from his lips. Cameras were flashing and it seemed like a crowd was gathering. He blocked it all out though, his anger solely pouring out into making this man feel the agony he had suffered with.

"Jared stop!" Harlow shouted, tugging at him to pull him off of the waiter.

Finally a man helped her and Jared felt himself being dragged off despite his screaming protests. He fell onto his back, looking up at the sky and trying to catch a breath. His fists were throbbing and blood was caking on his skin.

Finally sound came back to him as the haze cleared and he heard the panic surrounding him. Harlow was kneeling beside him, crying it seemed. He could hear the sirens of police cars arriving and the crowd being cleared. Jared tried to rise but he felt a dizziness echo through his head so he fell back down. Harlow took his face in her hands, tears falling from her eyes but he didn't say a thing. Darkness took him and just like earlier he felt himself pass out.