Chapter Text
Jesper knew he shouldn’t be watching the news, his Da always lectured him on why it was bad. He’d catch Jesper reading or watching something about a horrible situation involving the second army and tell him for the hundredth time why he kept Jespers abilities a secret.
“Do you really want to be used as a weapon?” Or “Your mother would have hated this.” And “That Jurda Parem is dangerous, it’d be a horrible idea to consume. It’s a drug.”
Jesper was well aware of all this, of course he didn’t want to be taken away to the second army, he was only twelve. He was just curious sometimes. He was Grisha, but it had apparently been proven years ago that Grisha were ‘biologically inhumane and made to serve as methods of defense and destruction.’
Jesper had never felt any different from anyone else, maybe he was a little self centered occasionally but he’d met much worse people.
He knew he wasn’t all that smart, but these experts had to be wrong. All the Grisha he’d known beforehand were wonderful people. Leoni was the first person to come to mind- she was sweet although an Alkemi.
Once she’d started taking those pills to suppress her abilities, that was when she started acting less human. Grisha in the army were the only ones who had access to the Parem that could stimulate magic.
Of course Jespers mother wouldn’t want him to join the army and become some emotionless monster, but she wouldn’t want him to hide his abilities either. The headline from two weeks that Jesper had managed to swipe read: Van Eck/Rollins corporations begin Jurda Parem mass shipments
Right, Jesper had heard about that. People wondering if they could strengthen themselves or even obtain Grisha abilities with the use of Parem. Why would anyone want that? Didn’t they know what Grisha magic would cost them. But of course, no one was thinking twice about whatever might happen to them. By now, people have probably been consuming it by the bottle. It had all happened so quickly Jesper wondered if anyone even knew what they were doing.
Jesper made a silent vow to never take that, any of these stupid Grisha drugs weren’t any good. There had to be some other Grisha that knew or resisted these things. He flipped through the article.
"We can assure that Jurda Parem is 100% safe, I myself have taken it and feel stronger each hour.”
A quote from Rollins. What did he need to be more powerful for? He was one of the richest men in the world. He didn’t understand why his father didn’t like him reading the news. It was just the same things about rich people getting richer.
Jesper tossed the newspaper under his bed and finally got up. His Da should have been home by now, which meant he would be returning from work soon anyway and start to ask Jesper about his homework. He always finished it in time, even though no one believed he could sit still long enough to focus, but he got good grades and participated in what he could. Jesper turned on the tv so there’d be some background noise while he worked.
Tap tap tap..
Jespers head turned toward the window, it was covered up by curtains so he couldn’t see anything. It was probably just a bird.
Tap tap tap.
Jesper could still hear this tapping as he took his math binder out of his backpack. Hopefully it would go away soon.
Scratch scratch..
“Saints..” Jesper muttered. Just as he got up to go look through the window, the channel on the tv switched. Directing his attention back towards it, the words Emergency Broadcast were written at the bottom. The scratching at Jespers window was getting louder and he didn’t know what to pay attention to. His mind was only able to sharpen at two moments:
The broadcast saying “Stay away from anyone acting odd, wait for the authorities, and don’t let anyone into your home-”
And the window of his room shattering.
Jesper heard a groaning noise coming from the window. A pale, rotting hand pulled the curtains away. Jesper could barely register the sickening face of his neighbor before he ran out of his room.
It was horrible, Jesper had seen them all yesterday, and they were fine, jittery but fine nonetheless. Now he was staring at a decaying looking version that launched itself at Jesper. What the hell was happening?
Jesper had slammed his door shut as the thing in his room nearly reached him.
He rushed downstairs only to find the horrifying sight of more.. things banging at the back door of his house. He heard a beeping noise that sounded like his Da’s car. Jesper pushed through the front door, thankfully no monsters were out there. Only his Da, in his car, there to help him.
Jesper jumped into the passenger seat. “Da, there’s these weird things outside.. they kinda look like people-”
“I know, Jes.” Colm quickly drove away from their home. Going too fast for comfort.
“What do you mean you know?” Jesper looked over his shoulder. The creatures were still trying to get into Jespers home. Would they leave? Would Jesper ever be going back home? Jesper looked back at his house, he could still see his mothers cherry tree in the yard. Hesitantly, he waved goodbye, praying he’d be able to see her again. “Da, where are we going?”
“After work today we were all warned about the- crawlers.. whatever they’re calling them and I tried to get home to you as fast as I could but this person came up to me and-”
“What are you talking about?” Jesper shouted. The car had made it into the downtown area. “Oh no..” Jesper muttered. They were everywhere, how’d they all appear so quickly? Jesper then watched it horror as a thing grabbed a hold of someone trying to run away and bite their shoulder. The person fell to the ground and started twitching.
“Da someone just got attacked by that thing!” Jesper unbuckled his seatbelt. “Someone needs to help-”
Colm grabbed Jespers arm and pulled him back. “No- it’s highly infectious, we can't go near them.”
“How do you know that?” Jesper asked, pleading at this point. How did he know so much about the things that seemed to have just popped up?
“I thought I had gotten those men that tried to take you away off our backs but they let you go because they knew they might need a Grisha who’d never taken their pills before-”
Grisha? Colm never brought that up. Jesper grabbed Colms arm and shook him. “What are you talking about?”
“These things are dangerous and I know a way to keep you safe, you’ll understand it if you just stay in the car.”
Jesper looked carefully at his Da, who was looking forward to the road. Jesper pulled his knees to his chest, breathing in and out, like his mom taught him.
Just as Jespers breathing was helping him calm down, a thing launched itself on the windshield. Colm was so focused on driving he only pushed faster on the pedal until the thing fell off.
Jesper had never seen his Da like this, what did he know and why did he know it? Colm Fahey was a normal person, he taught anthropology at a college, he was a gardener, he was Jespers Da. What was happening?
—
After driving for ten minutes, Colm stopped the car in front of a large group of people and got out. Jesper hadn’t dared to look up from the car floor on the way, he didn’t want to see anymore things happening, even though he could hear enough.
Colm opened the door beside Jesper and pulled his son out. Jesper scanned the crowd of people, there was a helicopter at the end of the crowd. People were begging to be let on.
“Da everyone here wants to escape, why would they let us in?” Jesper said, his voice was only a squeak.
“They will.” Colms grip on Jespers arm was tight as he pulled him through the crowd. There was a man standing by the helicopter, he was covered entirely by his clothes and helmet.
“Is this your son?” The man said over the shouting voices of other people.
Colm nodded and pushed Jesper forward. “Yes, he’s a fabrikator- please keep him safe, he’s only a boy.”
Jespers eyes widened. His father had never wanted to admit to anyone about that, why was he doing it now? Why, why was all this happening?
“Can he prove it?” The man spoke again.
Colm reached into his pocket and pulled out a Jurda flower. “Jesper, you can bleed the colors from this still, right? You used to do it all the time when you were little.”
Jesper looked carefully at the flower, then to Colm. His Da still had to bend his knees a little bit to be eye level with Jesper, but he’d said so many times Jesper would be his height soon. Of course he could bleed out the colors. “But wh-”
The look in his eyes told Jesper to not ask any questions and do it. Jesper pinched the petal and concentrated until it turned white.
The man shrugged. “Good enough.”
Jesper suddenly felt his Da hug him tightly. “I love you, Jesper. Please stay safe.”
“What?” Jesper shouted as the strange man grabbed his arm and pulled him through the door of the helicopter. The door shut so quickly he barely had time to register what was happening. “No- no! You have to take my Da too, please don’t leave him behind.” Jesper had never sounded so desperate in his life, why on earth couldn’t they take his father in this stupidly big helicopter? There was another man sitting behind them and still enough for one or two more people.
“We can’t risk any of the infected to get on.” The man said as he started the engine.
“He isn’t infected- wouldn’t you be able to tell? Please just bring him with us.” Jesper was screaming now as the helicopter started the rise. He hit the door, he didn’t want to go anywhere if his Da wasn’t with him. He tried opening it but it wouldn’t work. He looked out the window, Colm was looking up towards him but seemed unphased. He waved up at Jesper- he was waving goodbye. No no no no.
“Kid, if you let us do our job and are lucky enough that your dad isn’t infected, we can find a solution to this in a matter of months and you’ll be back home.” Jesper really hated this man, whoever he was.
“What job? What is all this?” Jespers eyes were going from the man to the window of the helicopter.
“They think unused Grisha might be immune to the sickness, so we need to round a few up.”
”Immune to what? Those things? Are more people going to turn into that?” Was something going to happen to his father? He was given no response.
Jesper didn’t want to be ‘rounded up’, he didn’t want to be Grisha, he wanted to be at home doing his stupid math homework and waiting for his Da to come home. “How long have they known that Parem shit is bad for people?” Jesper shouted as he looked down at Colm standing in the crowd of desperate people.
“That information is classified.”
Bullshit. If they had to use Jesper for an experiment why couldn’t he have any of his questions answered? Why couldn’t his Da come with him?
“I’m not going to leave him while those monsters are out, let me out of here please.” Jesper shouted once more. He couldn’t just be brought to some horrifying place and use powers he barely knew about without his Da there.
“Maybe you’ll understand when you aren’t so young.” Was the last thing Jesper heard when the man behind him stood up and knocked him out over his head.
All Jesper could hope for while his consciousness slipped away from him was that these men were right about this all being over soon. Whatever this was.