It's been raining ever since I came home from the hospital. I'm starting to worry about Jackson though, he hasn't said much since I got home. Anyways, mom doesn't want me doing much for the next few days, so I guess I'm just gonna hang around the house.

-Mark

 

"You two have fun." Mark smiled at his parents. "Don't stay out too late, okay?"

"Are you sure you're gonna be okay by yourself?" Lisa sighed, her hands resting on Mark's shoulders. "You don't want to come with us, or have one of us stay here?"

Mark smirked, hugging his mother tightly. "Mom, you and dad haven't had a night out since I was in primary school. This is something you guys deserve, so please don't worry about me. I promise, I'll be fine." he smiled. Mark always appreciated how hard his parents worked to make him happy, and hearing that they'd not had a date night in over ten years gave him the opportunity to persuade them to have a bit of fun.

"We'd better hurry babe." Mark's dad announced, kissing his wife on the cheek. "Don't want to be late!"

Lisa nodded and took a deep breath. "Okay. Mark, if you need anything, I have my phone, okay? If you feel the slightest bit wrong, call me and we'll-"

"Mom, please! Just go, I'll be fine." Mark smiled, pulling his mother toward the door.

"Okay, okay!" She giggled wrapping her arm around her husband's. "I love you, Mark." 

"I love you too. Be safe and have fun." He smiled, closing the door as his parents got into their car and drove toward the main hub of the city.

 

Mark sighed as he slid down the door, the ring around his neck. "Jackson?" He called. No one answered."Where are you? Are you okay?"

"Why do you care, dude?" Jackson called, his voice coming from seemingly all over the house. "I'm already dead, so it's not like I could get any more dead."

Mark sighed heavily at the sound of Jackson's voice. "Where are you? I want to see you." He confessed.

Jackson sighed loudly. "Bedroom mirror, but you might not like what you see."

Mark rushed up to his bedroom, looking into his full body mirror to see Jackson with small yet sharp fangs and small, violet coloured dragonkin wings. "Jackson...? Is that you?"

"Who else would it be?" he asked, crossing his arms. "What do you want?"

"What happened to your form?" Mark asked as he looked over Jackson carefully, taking in every detail as if he were the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. "Dude, this is-"

"Repulsive? Hideous, abominable, disgusting?"

"Awesome!" Mark laughed, a loving smile adorning his face. "Why don't you look like this all the time?"

Jackson felt his pale skin grow red, a tight, familiar feeling in his stomach forming as he noticed Mark's adoration of his true form. "Because," he started, shaking out of his slight daze. "I can't hold this form in the physical realm. Besides if I'm to do my job correctly, it has to be something innocently convincing."

"So why do you look like this now? Why not just take the form you had in my room when you were physically here?"

"Because right now I'm stuck in a ring where the only real power I have is through you."

"Me?"

"You have the ring on, right?"

"Yeah?"

"There you go. So long as I'm in that ring, there's not much I can do." Jackson explained, his stomach growling loudly. "Gods, I am starving..." he groaned. "Can you please let me out, I haven't eaten in hundreds of years." Jackson pleaded.

Mark sighed quietly, looking at Jackson carefully. "What do you like to eat?"

"Emplumeus de pomes!" Jackson exclaimed happily.

"Emplumeus de- Applesauce?" Mark asked.

Jackson nodded happily, his toothy smile giving Mark a slight chill. "Haven't had it since I was a kid! Do people still make it?"

"I don't think we have applesauce, but I can order a pizza." Mark shrugged, picking up his phone.

"Can't really eat anything while I'm in a mirror though..." Jackson reminded Mark, looking around at the frame of the thin mirror.

"Oh, right. How do I get you out?"

"Same incantation you said to summon me. No need for candles or anything though." Jackson instructed, crossing his arms as he began to lazily levitate and play with his hair.

Mark nodded as he retrieved his journal, cleared his throat, and spoke the incantation clearly. "I nunc amit me te amare simul Joachim quoque sicerit in me ex caritate." he chanted.

The mirror began to glow and Jackson's form faded, appearing again in front of the mirror. "That's better." Jackson smirked, running a hand through his hair. "Now, what's pizza?"

"You don't know what pizza is?" Mark asked. "Oh yeah, you're from the fifteenth century. Well, a pizza is a kind of pie food about ten inches in diameter, and it's got tomato sauce and cheese on it, and you can put stuff like ham, pineapple, veggies, and meats on it."

"It sounds horrendous." Jackson admitted. "What else is there?"

"Well, there's hamburgers, noodles, sandwich stuff. What else do you like besides applesauce?"

Jackson rubbed the back of his neck, huffing a lock of hair from his eyes. "I don't really know, honestly. It's been such a long time..." he confessed. "What's a hamburger?"

"It's a meat food between two pieces of bread about the size of a pancake. You can put veggies on it, and condiments like ketchup, mayonaisse, mustard, relish-"

"Meh. Not interested."

"Well, what do you usually eat when you're in the underworld, or wherever you came from?" Mark asked, sitting on his bed.

"Usually we'd just feed on the life force of living humans." Jackson admitted, his form dissipating and reappearing behind Mark, his hands traveling down Mark's chest to his groin. "Usually an incubus takes it from a woman. But seeing as how I'm a special litte kitten, I'll glady squeeze yours out..." he whispered, the shell of Mark's ear.

Mark shot up from his bed, his face extremely red as he looked at Jackson with a huff. "Please don't do that again." he said quietly. "Look, either you tell me what physical food you want to eat, or you're going back in the ring."

Jackson groaned loudly, laying back on Mark's bed. "Fine, I gues I'll have a pomegranate."

"A single pomegranate?" Mark asked. "I think mom keeps some in the fridge. Why a pomegranate?"

"Dude I'm an inubus. Aesthetic thing." Jackson said blankly. "Besides, modern food sounds gross."

 

Author's notes found here.

I'm not so sure about this one. Lemme know what you guys think!

Saranghae,

Marzie♥