Things that go bump in the night very often mean nothing more than a bump in the night. But when the air is charged with the smell of ozone and the sky takes on that electric yellow tin over the graying black of the of the night sky it means the bumps just took on a whole new meaning.

The wind blew cold as dead plants along the road up rooted in the brisk air that forced them together into a ball. And so this tumbleweed was born out of those plants combining. But it wasn't just any tumbleweed. As if the hand of a god pushed it forward giving it more momentum the tumbleweed grew as it headed down highway 9 heading towards the Archers farm. As it grew it picked up anything in its path. So by the time it rolled up the driveway it had gained tremendous force. Weighing close to 2 tons a ball of weeds, rocks, dirt, old soda cans and cow dung melded together in a solid mass smashed into the barn doors through the back wall and head straight through the Archers south pasture, taking cows with it as it rolled towards the center of Tempest.

There was nothing, no light and sound just nothing as Jack's consciousness stirred. He felt his body sit up in the dark moving his hands out in front of him feeling for any kind of surface. He felt some kind of mass under him. The buzzing in his ears from the absence of sound was maddening. He wanted to stand since at least the floor was solid from what a quick touch of the hands away from his person told him. But what if it was just the part where he sat, he asked himself. "I could stand walk an inch in any direction and fall into an abyss." The buzzing stopped when his inner monolog started. He sighed as he stood up glad for the relief from the silence.

"I can hear my thoughts at least I have that. But where am I and why am I in the dark?" And then it hit him. "There is just darkness, nothing." How many times did he hear this description of death? "Am I dead?" The briefest of joys danced around his thoughts that maybe he was at last dead. It was quickly followed by a wave of sadness that he would miss so much. Gwen, he thought of Gwen, she would be alone and unprotected.

"She has Rhys, she has her daughter. She can protect herself, I really haven't done a great job at it myself." He felt he muscles in his face frown. "Right, this isn't the time for self persecution, Jack. It is time to think."

He could think. The idea suddenly frightened him making the hair on the back of his neck stand as his palms began to sweat. It dawned on him that if he was dead with the ability to think that for the rest of eternity he would be able to relive all the mistakes he made. In Jack's eyes that isn't any better than living.

"I'm not sure I want this even after all the time I asked for it. Do I want to die now? It isn't like I would have a choice. I did once. And I have been through many different ways of dying save one. Old age, I would really want to try old age. I have watched so many age and die. But whole feeling that nothing is left of us but to sit in the blackness stewing in our own thoughts is just insane. Why is this…"

"Hell." Another voice finished his sentence.

Jack squinted in the darkness trying to see the form that spoke to him.

"You aren't dead." The voice said. "Even once your physical form fades, the likes of you will go on and on. You are as part of all of it as we are."

He didn't know the voice, it wasn't one that belong to anyone he knew. But then again it didn't sound like a voice, it was more of a thought in his head. Most important he didn't like the words the voice spoke.

He moved a bit when the space he stood in started to flitter in some light. The blackness began to lessen. "Let there be light" Jack applied the words from the Bible to his current situation. The space took on a box shape as the light poured in from unseen cracks. Jack turned around in a circle trying to figure out where the light seeped in from but the space was seamless as far as he could tell. The effect seemed surreal to him, like it was being created just for his entertainment.

"Everything is a dream." The voice said from behind him. He twirled around to face its source and there it stood wearing Ianto's face free from any blemish of death.

Ianto watched Jack as if he was observing an animal in a cage. "Your entire life has been a dream. Your kind is silly enough to call it reality. But you make reality up as you exists." Not a speck of emotion showed on Ianto's face. Jack watched lips moving speaking words without feeling from that familiar face. The voice wasn't even a match for Ianto's well-defined Welsh Vowels.

"I'm not some green kid here, I know Ianto is dead. You borrowed his image so I would trust you, or maybe believe you. But what is your game that you have to have my trust to play along? If you wanted me to trust, at least try to use his voice." He moved off the space he was on to test the structure's reality. It wasn't an image like the thing in front of him. It was solid. Whomever or What ever stood in front of him created a place that was at least firm and sturdy enough to seem a part of reality. "Your virtual image is most impressive. I have to admire the craftwork of it. Now where are you from and what do you want? Oh and also who or what are you exactly?" He frowned striking a menacing pose.

The image of Ianto didn't react to Jack's macho stance. He didn't even move when Jack began to gingerly move towards him. He also didn't answer which upset Jack. But just as Jack was close enough and reached out to touch Ianto he spoke. Jack's hand dropped back to his side.

The words sent a shiver down Jack's back bring fear to his very core. "You know exactly who we are Jack and you know why we are here. Now you can do something for us and we will leave these primitives alone. Otherwise, we will find ways to use them to satisfy us."

The image of Ianto crashed into Jack hard pushing itself against Jack's body. It furiously kissed Jack rubbing into him with a mock sexual urgency. Jack felt his body react to this image. He felt like it was Ianto grabbing at the pants, cupping his buttocks in his hands. He wanted this Ianto, needed to get closer, missing all the little things that Ianto could make him feel. But as soon as the frantic kissing and touching started Jack was left alone and back in the woods and lying on the ground.

Dazed he stood up brushing off his clothes that were covered in the beginning of autumn leaves that had stuck to the forest floor. He checked his wrist strap to make sure it picked up his little adventure and with a quick scan he verified that there was no trace of the thing he followed into the woods. He growled frustrated because of the sexual distraction he forgot to ask if Jess was in danger from its attack. His Vortex manipulated confirmed that both the creature that attack Jess and the image of Ianto were the same creature.

"One being or is it just the beginning of a larger force." He shook a little, his feet feeling unsteady from the drain on his life force. It suddenly became clear to that the thing tasted him for whatever reason; maybe he needed Jack's special energy. For what Jack could only guess at.

"I'm getting a little sick of being used by every energy life form out there. At least they could buy me dinner first. Maybe some flowers once in awhile. Instead they just take, take, take and not even a good-bye in the morning!" He knew he was grinning as he regained his strength. There was something just so sexual about having his energy drained. As he walked towards the farm he started thinking of vampires. They were always thought of as being sexual. There wasn't any sexual contact, but Jack assumed the rush, the sexual association was from the sensation of blood being drained from the body slowly and tenderly.

"It felt like that just now, that thing turned me on as he sucked the life force out of me. I find it odd that I never thought of it that way before nor have I ever had some type of auto erotic reaction to dying." He tried to shake the thought out of his head as he continued through the woods. For some reason he just couldn't let the thought go.

"I have to get this out of my head. I can't allow myself to get curious over this. It wouldn't be good to submit to it. At least not now but in the future, I could do some experimenting." He laughed a bit. It was amusing that after all this time he could still find kinks that turned him on.

Instead he turned his thoughts to the words the image said as he made his way back to the farm. Jack added it to the current information he had gathered about the events in Tempest. He still couldn't come up with an answer of who or even what he might be dealing with. "Oh great and they think I know them. Out of all the thousands of things I have run into and pissed off in my years I'm suppose to recognize this when they come to me as a dead lover." He felt like a failure. It was the same exact way he felt in the dark when he thought he was dead.

But whatever it was that had kissed him wasn't done playing just yet. In his head the mock Ianto said. "To set us free, you must die and with your death we will be truly free. The pleasure will be yours."

Dying he could do and quiet well, just how much did he have to do and if it was a permanent state had Jack more than curious. Also would it feel like it did when mock Ianto was sucking at his life force? Did they need trauma to satisfy them?

He felt the wind blow dropping a leaf off on his head. He picked it off and had a look at it. It was turning red still to young to have fallen off its maple tree. He turned it over a few times marveling at its deep red color. He suddenly felt like it was the last time he would see a leave in quite the same way.

Kyle paced back and forth in the emergency waiting room as Mauve pretended to read a magazine. "At least Jess is okay. I'm glad it just looked like a lot of blood." He watched Mauve as she put the magazine down. "I'm glad we can see him soon." He said as he went to make another pass.

She looked at the door and then the clock hanging on the wall above it. "Jack should be back by now. Kyle, I don't like this. From what you are telling me that thing may have laid eggs in our son. I've seen those alien horror movies. Our son could be a host."

He stopped in front of her. She didn't raise her head at his nearness but tried to return to the abandoned magazine instead.

"You don't think that will happen, really?" He grinned when he saw the corners of her much twitch trying to hide her smile.

"No." She gave in and looked up at him. "But still, it is strange that Jack thought so. I think the creature attacking Jess was more of away of getting Jack into the woods. That is what I don't like. Did you see that look on his face, it was like he some how knew this was all about him." She huffed as she closed the magazine.

"I think that in Jack's line of work it is always about him. He must have a lot of guilt carrying that entire burden with trying to save the world all the time. I don't think he ever really thinks about himself."

"Yeah, I feel that as well. But he is alone and that says something. Why here, why now does he show up and out of the blue all these strange events happen to occur? I don't want to sound like the idiots that live here, but what if he is the cause of this?" She frowned as he sat next to her.

"Even if he is, some how I don't think it is his fault. Some people just have the worst luck when it comes to life. Jack may just have bad luck and it follows him. He may just leave those he loves as far away from him as possible. He may not want to take on new folks all the time. But he let us in and he stayed and now he is a friend. I think because of that I'll stick with him. I happen to trust him, Mauve. And I know you do as well. He has been good for us. So lets show him we care." He nudged her with his elbow when he sat down next to her making Mauve giggle a little.

"You're right, I would rather be on the side that is knowing than those that are in ignorance. I'll stand by the both of you. Now, where the hell is Jack?"

The wind blew over a stark barren dead field of meadow plants. Jack stood in the middle of tall straw grass that came up to his waist brushing lightly on his belt. He looked up as the sun hit the dead plant life turning it bright yellow with a kind of greenish hue. To Jack the green signified some kind of life still remaining in the plants. He pulled at a tall blade with a spiky cattail at the top. It was soft as he brushed it over his palm. The sky darkened with the sun still out bouncing its yellow off of the darker grays of the clouds. The darker under layers felt cold to look at. He felt the wind blow harsh making the grass dance around him. Without a thought he crumbled the cattail up in his hand and let the grains fly with the next gust of wind. He watched them go far over the field as another shaft of light bounced off the clouds turning the fields tan to almost white.

"I'm not on my way back to the farm. This is another dream image. Yet I have been here before. But when?" He couldn't remember the time but this place felt like a memory to him. He shaded his eyes with his hand as the sun blocked his view of the horizon. To him the field was endless and he noticed another strange thing. There were no mountains or higher landmasses just the field with dead grass and no sign or another living thing.

"It beats the darkness from before." Jack laughed swiping at another cattail.

"Death, something you let take me, Uncle Jack." Steven stood in front of him with the wind blowing his blond hair. "And you were my grandfather, how could you kill me."

Jack's face twisted in horror as he saw the blood pour out of Steven's ears and nose. The boy convulsed once before falling to the ground. His image faded as the sky grew black. Lighting flashed jagged and landed straight down to the ground near by where he stood. He could feel the charge as the ground where he stood absorbed it. He smelled the ozone while the static in the air had his hairs standing up on the top of his head.

"This isn't cool. You put me in the middle of the real storm. What is it you want from me?" It was then he noticed he was back on Kyle's land and very close to the farm.

He didn't have time for an answer as several trucks pulled up on the road near the field. The rain plated Jack from all directions cutting at his face. People began to pile out of the trucks braving the rain to get to him.

"There he is, there is the Devil, enjoying his own handy work and dancing with the Demon lightning. Devil we come for you!" The group of men led by the Reverend stood tall as they came for Jack despite the wind.

"That's it God's soldiers take him, for it is his judgment day." The Reverend with a the Bible in one hand held his arms straight up to the heavens as another blot of lightening left a jagged image in the sky above him.

Suddenly to Jack looking at the image of Ianto and Steven standing once again in front of him he knew what the image of Ianto when he said he had to die.

The ball of debris died just short of town near the hospital. People that were inside upon hearing the loud crash and hearing a huge amount of farm animals carrying on went out to see what the fuss was about. Kyle's curiosity got the best of him. He left his seat and went with the crowd.

It was a mess of farm equipment, wounded and dying cows, chickens, sheep and a few pigs left in the middle of the street outside the hospital. The animals started to wander around dazed some falling to the ground dying. There was a great stench from the pile as one observer noticed a few dead bodies and rotting vegetation that seemed to have been older by the extent of the decay.

Hank arrived on the seen with some of his officers. The fire company showed up as well. Hank looked up to the sky just as the clouds that threatened to let loose seemed to break apart allowing some sun to show through a blue sky.

Kyle turned his head up to the sky and wondered if Jack had something to do with the change of weather. He didn't have to wait long for the answer as a truckload of people drove slowly passed with a person running behind it.

Kyle screamed for Hank as he noticed it was Jack barely able to stand and running with the speed of the truck. Jack fell and the truck kept going dragging his body along the paved road.

The crowded turned to look when Jack screamed as his flesh started to rip and tear off the parts where his clothes gave way.

Hank and his police officers went after the truck, Kyle right behind them. The rest of the bystanders didn't move as if they were too stunned by the torture that had just started in front of them.

The truck driver didn't listen to Hank's commands to stop. Those in the truck were yelling all kinds of cruel things at Jack drowning out anything Hank or his officers were saying. It kept slowly dragging Jack along until it came upon the town center. It stopped then and its inhabitants got out cheering as some kicked Jack's prone body. He didn't move and his blood was everywhere.

It hurt him to move. He felt his mind slip as he blacked out to get away from the pain. Something in the back of his mind told him to just let it be and enjoy the pain. He felt his mind dragged back to his body feeling a little tingle of pleasure.

It didn't last as he was wrenched back into consciousness when they picked him up, the pain of his injuries waking him up again and stealing away the pleasure he felt. He looked down at his legs and feet, they were bloody and he could see the white of bone peeking threw the some of the flesh. He laughter a little before he started to cry.

Kyle was next to Hank as they both made it to the square. By then the crowd had grown as many started to yell at Jack calling him a demon and evil. It was impossible to get near to Jack Kyle soon found out as the crowd just pushed forward leaving him way in the back.

Ken was visible to Kyle for a moment through the crowd as the one pulling at Jack to get him to stand still in the front of the Gazebo. He yelled for the crowd to be quiet as he began his tale of Jack's dancing in the forest with a demon. Two other men came over and tied Jack spread eagle up to the Gazebo while Ken went on with his tale.

Jack's head sagged forward as a rock from the crowd hit his head causing the spot to bleed heavily. He moaned a bit, but the cheering of the crowd drowned him out. He had one thought, only one. He hoped he would die before they did anything else to him. Judging by the way he was still focused his current injuries weren't enough to do that.

The pleasure crept back into his mind gliding down his body allowing him to enjoy the pain. He felt the heat rise to his face as his mouth twisted as he embraced the sensation.

Jack fell back to the pain as he became aware of Ianto and Steven standing in the front row of the group smiling. He nodded at them. After all he guessed by now this is why he was here, to die, to die horrible for them as they did for him. He laughed suddenly causing the crowded to go quiet. He couldn't stop laughing since he started to see the joke in all this. He just wasn't sure if his laughter was sane, the pain made him hurt so much. Surely he wasn't in his right mind as the pain once again took on a pleasurable feeling.

"See, he mocks us, as he mocked us in the forest with Satan. He must die and Satin with him!" The crowd started cheering again thirsting for blood.

Hank didn't like where this was heading. Jack wasn't evil and these people had in for a stranger not a demon. It was mass hysteria at its best and the life of an innocent was going to be taken unless they could break through the crowd.

He suddenly was thrown backwards. His deputy fell in the same manner as did some of the other officers prompting the rest to hold their ground.

"What in all Hell is just happened?" Hank furiously got up and wiped the dirt off his backside.

"Don't know it must be some force blocking us from getting to the front." One of the other officers stood. Tucker was up as well feeling his way in front before he hit the same spot that knocked him down a few seconds before. "It is like one of those Science Fiction force fields." He tapped it again seeing he slight change in the air around where his fist had hit.

"Well what the hell we do now?" Hank yelled as he heard the crowd cheer again. He was now able to get a clear view of Jack being beaten with a bat by one of the gang in the truck. He didn't recognize the man from this distance.

The crowd went crazy as blood splattered all over the place landing on key people in the front row, they fell to the ground and began to pray. Reverend Johnson was standing in front of those newly covered in Jack's blood telling them it was their rebirth, and they were absolved of sin. That this demon's blood was seeing to their absolution.

Kyle was crying as he grabbed Hank and shook him. He plainly heard Jack scream just from what he couldn't tell; the crowd had gotten thicker making visibility to the front of the Gazebo impossible. "Hank we have to stop this, they are killing him!" He didn't stop shaking Hank.

Hank was in shock. All his years of being a policeman and he never saw a crowd as out of control and violent as this. Even after spending time with Jack, he couldn't' wrap his mind around Tucker suggesting of a force field. None of this was making sense to him. It was as if he was stuck in a bad dream one he couldn't wake himself up from.

"It is a dream." He whispered so only Kyle could hear.

"No dream Hank, Jack is being tortured, they are going to kill him. Tucker, can you figure away out of this?" The rest of the officers have gathered fearful of what they should do next. Hank was as white as a sheet and sank to the ground when Jack next screamed.

"The poor bastard still isn't dead. My God in his mercy end this soon for him." Kyle heard one officer say. "We can't even help him. There is absolutely no way around this crowd!"

It was Kyle's turn to feel sick, his head hurt and sweat poured down his back. Jack yelled out one more time as something cracked against him. It sounded loud, sharp and the crowed stopped cheering for a bit allowing the sound to be heard.

"Oh dear God! They are beating him with a motorcycle chain!" Kyle wasn't sure who said it. But it made him hang his head down in shame. It was then he saw it, right next to Tucker's foot. He would know it anywhere; he had admired it on Jack's wrist enough. Jack's Vortex Manipulator had fallen off Jack. Kyle reached for it flipping open the little leather door that hid the controls. He wondered if he could figure this out. He hoped he could at least enough to get the barrier down in order to get to Jack.

Jack could see only red as his blood flew out of him in all different directions. He saw it head for the group of people closer to him. He watched as it landed on Ianto and Steven. They were still smiling. He felt warm tears splash down his cheek ashamed as the pain once again made him feel good. He felt it then, the energy leave his body and head away from his being once again bring him a wave of pleasure just as another crack of the bat returned him to feeling the pain.

The one beating him with the bat stopped satisfied in his work. He held the blood covered bat up over his head and strutted around the crowd in victory. The crowd cheered him on.

Jack's one eye was swollen shut and he tried to spit the blood out of his mouth but he just couldn't find the energy to. His vision was blurry as he watched the crowd cheer on his attacker. He also wondered what was next for he was far from done.

Reverend Johnson came up to him and began reading some part of scripture he didn't recognize. It wasn't like the Bible ever meant anything to him. He had a handle on God and had seen things bigger and more dangerous than this Human God could ever be.

He must have smiled for it upset the Reverend enough for him to make it part of the show. "He tries to mock the will of God! Demon you need more punishment, pain will save you, and in death my God find Mercy on your soul!" He waved a young man over who was holding a chain of sorts.

The first strike was against Jack's already smashed legs. He had lost feeling in them some time ago. The way he was tided gave him no protection from the lashings. So with the damage done already to his body, he heard each blow and to him it sounded painful . At least they hadn't started to carve him up. He didn't wish to see that, he hoped he was dead by than.

The lack of feeling pain didn't stop the equal portion of pleasure being doled out to him. His energy slowly leaked out as the chain took more of a vicious role to his flesh. The leaking energy gave him such great ecstasy renewed only by the blows the one wielding the chain brought to him. The crowded didn't notice his moans were no longer from pain.

The crack of his shin and then the last remaining intact rib had him thinking about what would happen if he were disremembered. After all an explosion didn't destroy him. Would his body parts seek each other out? Could he just grow back from his head alone? The explosion didn't yield much of him yet what was there aloud him to grow back fully. There must be parts of him left in order to reform. Could many parts create more of him? The thought made him dizzy as he heard another part of his right arm break.

He started to laugh again, scaring those in the front row.

"Be strong my children!" The Reverend Johnson coached his followers. "He can not harm those of the true faith!"

The chainman stopped hitting Jack throwing the chain to the ground and leaving the seen. The crowd went crazy at his performance and started to chant for more. Jack tried to open his now fully closed eyes. It wasn't to see the crowd to make sure that Ianto and Steven was still in the front row.

"This is after all for you." He said out loud causing those in earshot to still their joy. "I'm dying for you, just like you asked, just like you wanted."

The rest of the crowd stilled as well. Listening to Jack as his voice grew louder. "There isn't much for me left to do but die, just like you asked me to." He let out a little laugh and opened his one good eye. It looked up as the clouds moved away allowing the sun to shine on his head hitting the ground around his feet.

To the crowd he was glowing and when that glow faded Jack's eye closed and his breathing stopped. They got down on their knees one after another as what happen before them sank in. As the people of Tempest witnessed that day God had just taken the soul of a sinner to heaven.

Kyle blinked as he saw the light around Jack. He pressed a button and he saw a flash of light hit the force field in front of him and vanish. Walking forward he went past the people and found himself running to Jack's limp bloody body. The crowd didn't move from bended knees. Their prayers became louder the closer Kyle got to Jack.

Reverend Johnson stood watching the crowd shaking his head. He saw Kyle start to untie Jack. "He is evil not the Son of God. They are praying for him like he is the savoir!"

"You are all fools!" Kyle scream as Tucker and a few of the officers came up to Jack as well. One brought a stretcher and Tucker said he radioed for an ambulance. Kyle shook his head no for Tucker to see. They wouldn't need an ambulance Jack was already dead.

Tucker went to Reverend Johnson and turned him around snapping the handcuffs around his wrists. "I'm arresting you for the torture and murder of this man. You have the right to remain silent." The rest of the officers did the same with the others that part took in brutal displace. They didn't fight them, they knew now what they had done was wrong. The crowd didn't get up. They stayed praying long after Jack was removed from the scene. His blood stained the earth below the Gazebo leaving a violent mark on a once peaceful town.

a

Jess opened his to his mother's face. He didn't say anything for the longest time. But form the look on her face he knew something wasn't right.

"Jack's gone, isn't he?" She nodded. Jess turned his head and looked out the window.

Mauve didn't see the smile on his face. But did hear him say. "He is coming back, he made me a promise. We have to finish the story." He closed his eyes and went back to sleep.

She didn't have the heart to tell him that Jack was dead. She didn't really believe it herself. She smoothed her son's hair out of his face as she looked out the window. No she though to herself. To her Jack wasn't dead. Someone like Jack just doesn't die. It something she just wouldn't believe even after seeing his lifeless body. She just knew in her heart that she would see him again some day.

"Okay, you are sure his body is gone. Oscar, you have been known to misplace them before." Hank put his fist on his hips watching the coroner twist the end of his shirt.

" I swear Hank, it is like he just up and walked out. Even took a lab coat with him. I guess he didn't want to walk around naked." He started to smile but wiped the grin away when he realized it made him look insane. He though he even sounded insane. Dead, really dead bodies just don't get up and walk away.

"Oscar, if you have been drinking…" Oscar shook his head no. "Well what should I do, put an APB out on a dead man? The way the town is going on about the second coming, they'll think he is the messiah for real if they find out he is up an walking around!"

Oscar shook his baldhead at the sheriff. His slight little form nervous and shaking big blue old eyes framed by great crows feet looked close to tears. "I swear Hank, I had nothing to do with this!" He fell to his knees. "I was in the next room, just getting some tea when I heard a great gasp and what sounded like a tray crashing." His eyes went to the tray on the floor. "I didn't dare move. I heard the rumors about this man; I was there at the square like everyone else. If he was a demon…" His hands went up to cover his face.

Hank sighed. He had jus about enough with this affair. Jack was a good person; he died because this town just over reacted with a stranger living around them. The storms and weird thing didn't make it easier. Hank believed Jack when he spoke back at Kyle's about alien activity. But the crazy thing was they all stopped when Jack died. If Kyle hadn't convinced him otherwise Hank would have thought that Jack had lied about his past and his findings. Like a preacher had once told him the devil is the one that smiles and tries to mislead one with falsehood seen as truths.

One could argue that science was such a falsehood. Some of those in town were seeing these events like that. The town council was trying to band computers and the Internet saying they were tools of the devil. It wouldn't pass. Also it was strange that most of the town's folk are starting forget about the day that Jack died. Odd as that may seem Hank noted each day passing made the whole affair feel more like a dream.

"It might be for the best if they do forget. Reverend Johnson has gone insane and Ken and the others just don't seem to be in their right minds either. They are convinced they killed Jesus." Tucker spoke to Hank some time later when he returned from his chat with Oscar. "After all Hank, we can't let them know Jack's body rose from the dead."

"No we can't. That is something that will put us on the map for sure. I'm not sure that is the type of tourism I would want for Tempest." He went to the coffee pot and poured a cup. Tucker nodded and went back to his desk. At some point they gave up looking for the body and in time they never spoke of the incident again.

The town for the most part forgot what went on that dark day and went back to normal. Those guilty of killing Jack continued to sink lower and lower in to insanity. Hank had them locked up in a State facility telling the Doctor's never to let them out. He was glad that the hospital understood and kept their end of the bargain. At least no one believed their tale that they killed Jesus a second time.

After that Hank tried to go back to normal, he even stayed away from Kyle. He missed his friend but he didn't know how to face him. That day Hank let him down, standing around while a man was killed, a friend as well. Even with Jack's advanced knowledge he couldn't stop the mop from taking certain events out of context. Jack died because he tried to help a community. In Hank's mind Jack was a hero.

It was the same truth Kyle came to terms with. Jack died to save them. Whatever cosmic event or alien invasion was going on it ended the day Jack died. Kyle packed up all the equipment in the shed, as he got ready for the move. Months past and his family fell out of love with their home. With no regrets he sold his family farm and choosing a city life to replace the small town.

Jess didn't sleep well when he had gotten out of the hospital. He wanted Jack to come back and complete the story. He missed his friend terribly so he would often lie awake at night. Some nights he heard his parents talking in hush tones. He wandered to their bedroom door and listened to their soft words. It was on such a night he learned the truth that Jack had died. He was really gone just like his brother. At that moment he wasn't as upset about moving as his parents seemed to be. The place held to many memories. He would take the good ones with him. Those bad ones, the ones of loss, he would leave behind.

Kyle and Mauve sent the big stuff away first and loaded the boxes into a rented box truck to take to their new home in Seattle. Kyle pick the city carefully, just a house and an easy job in an office. He had gone to college so he managed to get a job with small company that sold office supplies. It wasn't much but with the money they put away after selling the farm it was enough. He just wanted to take his wounded family some place new.

Mauve didn't mind the idea when she got a job working in a clothing store a few days out of the week. It gave her a chance to explore her new home while Jess was at his new school. She did miss Jack. He opened up parts of her mind she thought lay dormant after marriage, motherhood and farm life took hold of her thoughts. She carefully wrapped up his things taking them with her. She made sure his pictures with the family went up along those of her family. She vowed never to forget him.

Kyle did see something the day they were ready to leave. He had a fit full night and rose early just as the sun came up. He was going to miss waking at this time a day to the quiet morning of the countryside. So he put the coffee on and went to have a think on the porch. His eyes took in the farm for one last time trying to imprint every detail off the place so he would never forget his home. The sun rose and that was when something caught his eye standing on top of the hill.

His heart stopped when caught a better look at the form, coat blowing in the lazy morning breeze. He ran taking the porch stairs two at a time straight for that hill. As he got closer he could tell it was Jack standing there. He yelled out to his friend waving and laughing as he made his way up that hill.

Jack waved back. At least that is how he explained it to Mauve some months later.

He kept the secret until they were settled in their new home. He didn't want her to think he was insane. He swore Jack was there but when he had gotten to the top, Jack had vanished. In his place was a letter. He held the letter close to his heart before he read Jack's words for the first time out loud to a teary eyed Mauve as she sat on the couch clutching a pillow to her chest.

"If I were to come back into your lives it would only complicate things. What happen that day had to happen, at least so I could move on. I have carried so much with me for so long. Some of it I will always bare but now at least I know that what I do does affect those I hold dear. So to keep you safe, I will move on. Remember me and give this to Jess when he is older, explain what happen in the end with me, and tell him I'm alive and well and some day I may run into him. Whether he chooses to remember me or not is up to him.

Tell Mauve I miss her baking and our chats. I love all of you so don't morn me, just remember me that way I will never die."

Under a letter was a parcel for Jess. Kyle decided to give it to him on his fifteenth Birthday. Jess jumped up and down when he saw what it was. In Jack's hand was the rest of the story. That day Kyle told his son what really happened while he lay in the Tempest hospital. Jack didn't die but in truth Kyle didn't think Jack could die.

Some how that was comforting to Kyle. It was nice to know there would always be someone looking out for them forever. It got him to thinking just how old Jack really was. It also had him pulling out his Bible just to make sure that Jack some how wasn't part of that as well.

The End.