[February 18] [Brokeback Mountain] Once Upon a Time - 18

[rhye.livejournal.com]

Title: Once Upon a Time - 18
Day/Theme: February 18th/How the Trickster Stole the Moon
Series: Brokeback Mountain
Character/Pairing: Jack Twist/Ennis del Mar
Rating: NC-17
WARNING: This chapter contains rape. I'm so sorry!

Chapter 18

"Jack, you 'member how I told you granmama came from back east?"

Jack nodded, pulling the quilt up over his cold nose, happy because he knew that every mention of his granmama meant his mother was about to tell a story. Her stories were the only assurance Jack had that a place existed beyond this place. He settled his head back, preparing for a story.

"Well, she heard this story from a Indian woman back east when she was a little girl. Do you want to hear it?"

Jack nodded, his runny nose brushing his mother's hand-made quilt.

"Well it goes like this. There was this man, an' he was a crotchety old fool, and he had a beeeautiful daughter. But he liked to keep his things to himself. One day a raven fell in love with the beautiful daughter."

"Mama, will I fall in love one day?" His voice sounded small.

"I'm sure you will, Jackie, now let me finish my story."

"Yes, ma'am."

Ennis was smoking on the front step.

Jack sat down beside him but not too close. "So, you gonna tell me the fuck's your problem, or do I have to guess?"

Ennis exhaled a string of gray smoke. "Don't got no problem."

"Yeah, sure." Jack felt his anger rising. He didn't want to blow the lid off his temper. He knew on some level Ennis's stay here was always on the verge of being temporary, and he didn't want to be the one to upset that boat. He doubted he could ever forgive himself if he did. But the truth was that what they were doing right now was not what Jack had signed on for. They'd had that kiss in the kitchen, one tumble in the bed the day after that, and then Ennis hadn't laid so much as one lustful eye on Jack in weeks. Jack knew something'd gone horribly wrong for Ennis that night of the fire. He knew Ennis had been sleeping on the couch, and he'd watched his whiskey drain away day after day until Ennis announced he had to go into town to look at some new feed and a new bottle of whiskey's what arrived. Dale went the next day to pick up the same old feed.

Jack didn't know what to think. Maybe Ennis thought Jack was too much of an idiot to notice. Jack felt a pang of sympathy for Alma, who'd no doubt lived this same life of secret-filled-silences and cold glances. Maybe Ennis del Mar simply didn't know how to share himself, not even with Jack.

"Well the raven didn't know how he could see the daughter as long as that old man was protecting her. So he turned himself white as snow, gussied himself up, you see?"

Little Jack nodded, big blue eyes fixed on his mother's animated face. She was only animated when she told stories, and when she tried to weave those same stories into colorful quilts. She was a beat down woman the rest of the time, but when her mind was off in her mama's stories, she transformed.

"So he turned himself white as a dove, and the old man let him come into the house to see his daughter. But when he was in there, the raven saw that the old man had other things. He had the sun, and the moon, and all the stars, and even fresh water, hanging up on his wall to decorate his house. So even though the raven loved the girl best of all, he didn't think it was right to keep those things from the world, and he stole them away."

"Isn't stealing wrong?"

"Yes, son, it is. And he stole from someone who invited him into his home. That's wrong too. But do you understand why he did it?"

"Cause... cause..." Jack thought for a few moments before he shook his head.

"Because everyone else had never seen the moon. If you got something worth sharing, it ain't right to keep it to yourself."

"Well, you play this little game much as you want," Jack answered Ennis's silence. "Gerry invited me out tonight to shoot some pool. Think I'll go. I could use some good comp'ny." Without waiting for a reply, Jack walked off towards the horse barn to see to the afternoon feeding. He was finally walking without a limp. The cast had come off just one week ago now, just in time for the coldest part of winter.

"The problem was, the raven had to leave his love behind to steal them things. And once he did, they're hard to carry. You think you could carry the sun?"

Jack shook his head.

"No, and neither could he. He dropped the moon into the sky, and everyone was happy. He put the stars everywhere, and everyone was happy about that too. He dropped the clear water and it made all the streams and rivers of the Earth, and the people liked him 'cause of that. But carryin' the sun around in his beak..."

Jack laughed his ass off when Tom sunk the cue ball for the forth time tonight. Difference was, all he had left was the eight ball, so it would be the last time this game Tom got to scratch. Jack'd had more than enough alcohol to find that fucking hilarious. "Shit, Tom, you couldn't sink the right ball if I paid you."

"Fuck you, I got plenty a them in."

"Yeah only 'cause I set them up for you, you asshole."

"Not my problem if you don't know how to not give me shots." Tom's eyes were warm with laughter, his big belly shaking with chuckles, his plaid shirt coming untucked at the belt.

"Shit, Gerr... Gerr... where the hell did Gerry go?"

"Went to the bar for refills I guess." Tom smacked his cue stick down on the table. "How 'bout another game, but this time we test your little hy-poth-eeee-sis?"

"What the hell you talkin' 'bout?"

"You said I couldn't hit the right ball if you paid me. Whatta you say we make this a man's game and put money on it."

"Hell yes! I got... I got three hun'erd... After I buy everyone a round! I fuckin' love this place. You all just 'bout made my fuckin' year. Gerry! Gerry! Can ya order a round a beer for the guys?," Jack called over the bar din. It was a Tuesday night and the bar only had about fifteen guys in it, but most were friends of Tom's or Gerry's, and several had taken an interest in the pool game. Jack hadn't had this much fun in as long as he could remember.

Gerry and a thin waitress with long, dark hair and a pointed nose brought over some trays of glasses and pitchers of whatever was the favored draught. A round of guzzling and backslapping later, and Tom and Jack were showing off across the field of felt green.

"...but carryin' the sun around in his beak, the bird didn't count on how hot it was. The cinders from the sun coated him in black and burnt him."

Jack watched with wide eyes. "So... so it was bad he stole the stuff?"

"Jack, sometimes there ain't a right or wrong. People just gotta do like they gotta do. He wouldn't a felt right lettin' it stay in the old man's house, but maybe what happened was more painful to him in the long run."

This didn't make sense to a child who had heard the Bible read from these same lips since he was little, so he didn't say anything.

"But sometimes people do things with the best intentions and end up bein' burnt."

Jack lay groaning. There was something hard and wooden against his back.

"Shit, Ger, ain't he your boss?"

"Yeah..."

"He looks pretty fucked up. How much he drink?"

"Lot I guess."

"His missus gonna whoop his ass," Tom laughed.

"Yeah he sure is."

"He? You mean this boy here's...?"

"Yup."

"Well he didn't seem like it."

"They're nice folks. You didn't hear 'bout the fire down our way?"

"'Course I heard about it. Just didn't know why... oh, you mean it was 'cause--"

"Yeah. Tell you what, Ennis find out I got Jack like this, I'm afraid I'll be fired."

"Thought you said they were nice folks?"

"Well, I guess nice really only applies to Mr. Twist here. Ennis got a mean streak on 'im. He ain't soft on the hands."

"Huh. Traded one John Twist for another just the same?"

"He ain't that bad, but he's mighty protective of Jack, an' he ain't gonna take kindly to this."

"Well... tell you what, I'll take care a him tonight. You go on home get up tomorra like nothin' happened. I'll bring him on by. He cain't fire me."

"Guess not. Thank, Tom. I owe you one."

Jack felt himself being man-handled, barely conscious enough to notice with the one part of his brain that was still awake. He heard a vehicle start, and it took him a minute to realize he was in it. He must have passed out, though, because the next thing he remembered was waking up with something warm and hard and startlingly familiar filling his mouth.

Recognition bolted Jack towards consciousness. His hands clamored to pull away, not sure what was going on as the hard dick pushed past his lips. He had no idea who this was, but by the unfamiliar growls, he knew well who it wasn't. He felt like he was underwater pushing towards the surface, wondering what he should do. Should he bite? Should he fight? What if the man had a weapon? How drunk was Jack and would he able to fight back? It was an agonizing hour of indecisions that lasted mere moments in real time before Jack dragged his teeth up the quivering dick. Tom pulled away with a yelp.

Tom. Holy fuck. Jack had a moment of doubts. Had he wanted this? Had he asked for it? Had he led Tom on? His mind raced back over the evening in the millisecond it took for Tom to slam Jack back into the truck seat.

"What the fuck, you awake?"

Jack's eyes blazed back at Tom's. He didn't have a clue what to say, and even his anger was slow to awake, his entire body seemingly disconnected from his brain, his brain that was shouting, "Punch the fucker! Give him one across the nose! Come on, Jack!"

"Come on, Jack. You know you want it."

And before Jack could protest, a pen knife was being held against his throat. Images flashed in his head of a deer in truck headlights, staring with big, dark eyes as its death came barreling towards it. He felt on fire all over. He roused himself a enough to swear, to curse and growl, a "get the fuck-- get the fuck-- what do you-- no fuckin' way-- you--" before Tom flipped him and sank in with a gleeful grunt.

Jack had had more than a couple men inside of him, but always 'cause that's just where he'd wanted them. This-- this was worse than being hit by a truck. He felt like he'd been hit be a goddamned train. The pain was so bad, but he could only stare and watch his lifeless body on the tracks. The pain faded until it was being felt by someone else, someone who looked like him. He couldn't feel anything. He could see, but it was like watching a movie-- a bad movie playing in painfully slow motion while everything shattered. For the moment, though, it was someone else's everything, and this was all a bad dream. He knew he would wake up and find himself up to his nose in his mama's quilt.

He must have passed out again, because the next thing he felt was the cold dirt hitting him as he was tossed on the ground. Somewhere a streetlight alerted him to the fact that he was in town.

Jack sat up and leaned against the side of the building he was next to. It was the very bar where he'd met Tom and played pool with Tom and slapped Tom on the back. The tremors started in his knees, and like the fire he'd seen engulf his house, spread all over his body as he shook like a newborn pup. It was only then that he knew for sure that the thing that'd shattered had been him.

"So the raven, burnt by the very thing he'd tried to steal, dropped it to the rocks. And that's how come when you hit rocks together, fire comes out as sparks. And that's also why the raven, who was once pure white, is now the blackest of all the birds."