I don’t want them to see how shaken he’s made me. I don’t want to admit that I’m afraid. I close the door, just as Jackson exits a door across from mine. He doesn’t notice me at first, and I’m about to call out to him, when he slumps against the wall, his head in his hands. He mumbles something to himself, and I see a dark gray aura swirling over him. He’s completely off his guard and he’s never off guard. I watch him, knowing I should let him know I’m there or do something to help, but I’m in a trance, mesmerized by how someone can act so in control but inside be so…gone. Finally, he kicks away from the door and hescans the room before landing on me. “Ari…” he says. “I was just…” I shake my head and meet him in the middle of the open foyer. “Me, too,” I say, hoping he knows what I mean, that he doesn’t have to explain. If his last hour was anything like mine, I get it. And now I feel more than ever that Vill is right. Maybe the Jackson I thought I knew is really nothing close to who he is and maybe the real Jackson is everything I had hoped he would be.
