I suddenly turned around to face the little girl standing by the corridor, shocked. Luckily, it was just Mika.

“Hey there baby girl.” I said, walking away from Jack’s arms. “Shouldn’t you be sleeping by now?” I whispered nervously, picking her up.

“Mommy told me you didn’t want her to interrupt you, so she asked me to come here to see if everything was ok.” She said, hugging my neck and placing her head on my shoulder, so she could stare at Jack.

“Of course everything is ok Mika.” I said, kissing her hair, I didn’t want her to see Jack, she had already seen far too much.

“Who is this man, daddy?” She asked, as I feared.

“This… well this is…” I turned around, she turned around too, as now we both stared at the tall man standing in front of us, Jack was holding back a laugh. “This is Jack. Jack is daddy’s friend.” I sighed.

“Why isn’t he talking to us?” She said, while Jack just awkwardly stayed there.

“Maybe because you scared him.” I whispered. “This means you always have to knock on the door before interrupting daddy ok?” I said, serious expression.

“Maybe if I say I’m sorry he’ll forgive me, and then will he talk to me?” She said, staring at me.

“Maybe…” I said, rolling my eyes at Jack’s funny expression.

“I’m sorry Jack.” Mika said, jumping on the floor and hugging Jack’s legs.

“It’s ok little one.” Jack finally spoke, getting on his knees and messing Mika’s hair, who replied with a funny laugh.

“Now you’re gonna tell me what you were doing with daddy?” She asked, staring at him, with her back turned against me, Jack just stared at me, with an “I can handle this, don’t worry” look on his face.

“Hey little girl, do you mind sitting on the couch? This is going to be a looong story.” Jack said, picking her up and sitting her on the couch. “Before I speak, you have to promise me this is going to be our little secret.” He said, really serious, sitting on the floor in front of her.

“…” She stared at me, hesitantly, I just nodded. “Ok. I promise.” She replied, I really had no idea of what Jack had in mind.

“Good girl.” He said, smiling, that smile fucking scared me. “The thing is… I’m not human.” Ooh no, Mika openned her mouth to speak but Jack interrupted her, I just sat on the sofa and watched the show. “I’m a time traveler.” He said, serious.

“Why can’t you be a human time traveler?” Mika asked, even more serious.

“Because… humans can’t be time travelers. I had to became a… Emothius… you can only time travel if you became one.” He said, what the fuck did Emothius mean?

“And how can I became an Emothius?” She asked, she was getting interested, good thing is, it looked like she was forgetting what she saw.

“Oh… so you wish to time travel? I’m afraid this is not going to be possible.” He said, getting up.

“Why not?” Mika replied quickly, apparently annoyed.

“Because… you need to recover the eight dragon spheres from a very evil man.” He stopped, thinking. “And after I was transformed into one… you know… these spheres were destroyed. I’m the last of my kind.” He said, trying to look sad.

“I feel sorry for you.” Mika said, getting up and hugging his legs once more. “But you didn’t answer my question yet.” Dammit, she didn’t forget it.

“Calm down little girl.” He said, laughing nervously. “I told you it was a long story. Your dad is really confused these days, and I’m afraid he was cursed by the same evil man who destroyed my dragon spheres. Now what I was doing? It was a blessing, I was removing the curse from him, making him feel good again.” He said, finally staring at me and smiling.

“So you saved daddy?” She asked, her eyes suddenly brightening.

“Yes, indeed.” He said, sitting on the floor once more. “Now all your family is free from the curse.” He smiled, messing her hair again.

“Thank you so much Jack!” She screamed, throwing her arms around his neck, he stared at me, like he didn’t know what to do, I just laughed.

“Mika, do you mind returning to your bedroom now? Me and Jack have some things to discuss before he returns to… the future.” I said, laughing, what a story. “Tell mom everything is ok, that I’m just going out for a walk.” I said, hugging the little girl who jumped into my arms.

“Love you daddy.” She said, kissing my cheek and running towards the corridor. “Goodnight time traveler man! And don’t worry, I’ll keep our secret.” She said, dissapearing through the house.

We stayed in silence for some time, me on the couch, Jack on the floor, I stared at him, he stared at the floor, still holding a laugh.

“What the fuck is an Emothius?” I asked, laughing and breaking the silence.

“I don’t remember a single thing I said.” He laughed, getting up.

“Let’s walk.” I said, walking towards the door, waiting for him to come.

---

“Why are you staring at me like this?” Jack said, while we walked along the cold street. I couldn’t stop laughing since we left home.

“I don’t know man.” I said, catching my breath. “I kind of liked the way you handled the situation, I never thought you would be good with kids.” I giggled.

“I hate kids, but your girl is nice, I like her.” He replied.

“Oh you hate kids? Tell me something new.” I laughed.

“I hate everyone. This world sucks, everyone should die.” He laughed, funny thing is, he actually looked serious.

“Why do you hate everyone?” I asked, the streets were starting to get empty.

“Look around.” He said. “Tell me what do you see.” He stared at me.

“I see… people. They look… happy..? I guess. Some are drunk, some look tired. I guess that’s it.” I replied, I didn’t understand what he expected me to say.

“Exactly. See how empty this feels? They’re just people, doing absolutely nothing to change the world around them, they’re selfish, they just want what’s good for them. Give me a reason to like them.” He said, looking pretty annoyed, kicking a stone on the ground.

“But I also don’t see a reason for you to hate them.” I said, staring at him.

“You don’t understand Alex, obviously the world never harmed you, if it did, you obviously would hate it as much as I do.” He said, staring at the sky, it looked like he holded back tears.

“Of course the world harms me, I’m a cop, I see what the world does to people everyday.” I said, I couldn’t understand his mind.

“The world isn’t harming you directly, it’s harming people around you, people you don’t even know, or maybe people you once loved, but never you, that’s why you don’t understand.” He said, finally staring at me, his eyes looked empty, his face didn’t express eny feelings.

“…” I was going to say something, but I didn’t really know what to say, maybe he was right, or maybe he was just disturbed.

“Wanna see something?” He said, suddenly smiling while pointing to a building.

“Where are we?” I asked, looking around, I wasn’t really paying attention to the street so I didn’t know where he had taken me.

“We are where my dad was murdered.” He said. I didn’t know what to say, it was such a hard thing to say but he looked completely numb about it, like it was a natural thing.

“I… I didn’t know…” I tried to speak, but he interrupted me.

“You don’t know a thing about me.” He laughed. “But soon you’ll know everything, just as I promised, calm down ok?” He whispered, hugging my waist and pressing his chest agaist my back.

“Do you hate me Jack?” I wanted to ask this question soon, but I didn’t have the chance. I felt like I didn’t want him to hate me. “Like… you said you hate everyone.” I felt like a desperate teenager wanting to think what my crush felt for me, but I didn’t really care.

“I don’t see a reason to hate you Alex. You don’t understand me, but at least you don’t judge me, or maybe you do, but I’m glad you keep it to yourself.” He whispered in my ear.

I confess I got a little bit dissapointed to hear that.

“Let’s get inside? It’s freezing here.” He said, starting to lead me towards the door of the house if front of us.

“No… I should go home now.” I said, trying to escape from his arms. I had two reasons to go home, first, I didn’t tell anyone I wasn’t coming back that night, and second, it was fucking creepy getting inside a house where a guy was murdered, I was used to it, seeing dead people and stuff, but that didn’t mean I enjoyed it.

“You don’t have to be scared Alex, you won’t find any corpses, hanging heads or haunting souls in there.” He laughed, that creepy laugh.

We got inside the house, and it was rather comfortable actually. It was simple, nothing too fancy, just old furniture, but everything really clean. I didn’t expect Jack to be this organized.

He sat on the couch and turned the TV on. I just walked around a little more. There were some old books, picture frames, empty beer bottles. Many of the picture frames were broken, and some of the photos were ripped in half. I walked along that wall, without really looking around, all I could stare at were the pictures, pictures of young Jack with a woman, maybe it was his mom, but there was never his father, it was just him and the woman.

I suddenly got to a darker part of the house. There was a wooden door and it was stained by something, something I couldn’t really see since it was dark, something I knew exactly what was, but I just didn’t want to admit it to myself.

I openned the door and I got inside a even darker room. I turned the lights on and a small light bulb turned on in the middle of what appeared to be a storeroom.

The air inside was heavy and the floor was covered with ashes and burned paper. No, not burned paper, burned photos. I got on my knees and stared at that mess, getting one of the papers from the ground, one that was a little bit more intact - less destroyed - than the others.

It was a man, he was old, but looked a lot like Jack. I crawled along the room when I found a rug, it covered a small cellar door.

The cellar door, was covered in a black dry paint. Blood, dried blood, the same thing that stained the door.

“I wouldn’t open that if I were you.” Jack suddenly appeared and whispered on my ear, almost making me fall with my head on the floor.

“J-Jesus Jack, you fucking scared me.” I laughed nervously, grabbing his hand to get up.

“That’s what you get for sneaking into locked rooms.” He said, hugging my waist and leading me outside the room.

“What happened down there?” I asked, I didn’t know if I wanted to know what happened, but I was curious.

“Are you sure you want to know?” Jack pouted, closing the door.

“I think so…” I said, walking towards the living room once again.

“Daddy was murdered down there.” He said with a childlike voice, taking a sip of a beer he had recently openned and sitting on the couch on front of me. “In a very slow and painful way… you wouldn’t want me to describe it to you would you?” He said, staring at me with a funny look.

“No, you don’t have to.” I replied quickly, aparently his father was killed in front of him, I didn’t want to force him to speak.

“Oh, but I want to.” He said, leaving his beer on the table next to the couch. “My mommy used to be a bitch, and when my daddy discovered everything she did, he killed her lover, and hanged his head on her window.” He laughed, staring at the TV. “Quite lovely don’t you think?” He asked me.

“What does this have to do to you father’s murderer?” I asked, I couldn’t see where he wanted to get.

“After mommy saw that, she killed herself. Her son got really really angry, because he thought his mom’s death was daddy’s fault, so, after all he did to him and to his mommy, the son decided to kill daddy.” Jack said, smiling.

The son killed the father? I haven’t seen any other children in the family photos, does that mean…

“I know what’s on your mind Alex, you smart bastard.” Jack laughed, drinking more. “And I must say you’re right, I murdered my father.”

Notes

Sorry it took me so long to update, I'm an idiot and I ended up getting sick.
Thank you soooo much for the comments, on this story, and on Thanks To You, that I finished a few days ago <3
Surprises on the next chapter, bye.