12 Playing With Fire

While Daniel was looking up peacefully, as though he was relaxing in a hot sauna, Jack was panicking internally. He still hadn't done what he had set out to do, and he couldn't afford to have everyone become suspicious of him. If everyone knew why he had taken the job as a security guard at an amusement park, then not only would he be fired but he would never find out what really happened. So with no other choice, Jack tried to reason with Daniel and reach a compromise.

"Hey you, your name is Daniel right?" Jack lowered his body as he came closer to Daniel. At this point their faces were just and arm's length apart and if Jack wanted to do something to Daniel there would've been no one to stop him.

Daniel, who had already came back to reality, was dumbfounded by the change in attitude. Before Jack was very aggressive, but now it seemed to Daniel that he had mellowed out a bit. Thinking that he was acting somewhat suspicious Daniel cautiously answered, "Yea, so?"

"Well Daniel, I think that maybe this might've been just a big misunderstanding after all. So how about I let you go, and you don't tell anyone what happened here tonight, sound good?" Jack forced out an awkward smile as he tried to appear as friendly and convincing as possible.

"Hu?" Daniel felt that things were progressing rather strangely at this point. Now that the threat of death had seemingly passed, Daniel had regained some clarity and he couldn't help but think that there was something odd about this entire situation.

"Well I don't want to hurt you, but I can't afford to lose my job either, so why don't we call it even." Jack's attempt at sounding logical made Daniel even more suspicious than before.

That's odd, I don't recall the job market being that rough these days. If he really needed a job, then there should be a lot of other options for someone that's this fit. Hell, I'd bet he could easily get a job as a security guard or a bodyguard easily just by his sheer size alone. It almost seems as though he actually wants this job.

Daniel might not have been the bravest or the smartest person, but he was certainly able to adapt quickly. Even the time that he had spent at New Hope only served to make him even more adaptable to strange scenarios. Deciding that it was time to test out his theory, Daniel carefully probed Jack for answers. "It seems that you really care about this job?"

"Yeah, I really do, so why don't we forget about this whole mess, after all you wouldn't want to make a guy lose his job just because of one small misunderstanding. Besides if I lose my job I might just hold a grudge, do you understand me Daniel?" Even though he wanted to settle it peacefully and quietly, Jack decided that it was best to throw in a threat just in case. In most cases this would've worked, however Daniel had this strange gut feeling that Jack was actually all bark and no bite.

"Why?" At this point Daniel had fully committed himself to finding out what Jack's real purpose was.

Even Jack was a little dumbfounded by that response. He had expected an easy 'yes sir' but instead he gets a why. Without thinking too much about it he had answered, "Why what?"

Daniel stared defiantly at Jack before asking, "Why do you care about this job," . It's worth nothing that Daniel was still tied to the chair in an old haunted house that nobody really ever went near anymore. If it were anyone else in this position, they would've surely thanked their ancestors for another chance at life, but Daniel, who had perhaps lost a screw in his head, just stared back at his captor as he questioned him.

Jack stood up straight and crossed his arms in a thug-like manner, as he looked at Daniel curiously. "Why do you even care?"

"Just curious," Daniel blinked his eye innocenlty as though he had no other ulterior motives.

"Well I like this job," Jack obviously wasn't about to tell Daniel the truth so he lied without even breaking a sweat.

Daniel's lips curved into a barely noticeable grin. He could tell that Jack was lying, and since it didn't seem like Jack wanted to actually hurt him, it was time to expose him. Without any fear or panic, Daniel calmly said, "you're lying."

"Hu?"

"You don't really care about this job, if you had then you wouldn't have snuck into the haunted house after hours, or tied your boss, who you also don't even listen to, to a chair. I think there's something else, something you were hoping to find here." For some reason Daniel actually felt good. A cool sensation spread throughout his entire body, as he felt like he had done something good. Daniel was slowly unraveling this mystery and it filled his body with the sense of accomplishment, drowning out all other sensations.

Jack's heart skipped a beat as he felt as though he had been exposed. The person he had looked down upon just a few seconds ago, had changed completely and this freaked him out. Before Jack felt that he was in control of the entire situation, but now the person tied to a chair had made Jack feel that he had lost a little bit of that control.

"Keep moving those lips of yours and my fist might just get a little antsy." Jack panicked and resorted back to violence, in an effort to intimidate Daniel and get him to stay quiet. However, little did he know that Daniel was playing with fire and he wasn't about to stop anytime soon.

"If you had wanted to hurt me, you would've done that already. I don't think you want to hurt me at all."

Jack was stuck in a rather awkward position. He could easily silence Daniel so that his mouth stay shut, since dead man tell no tales, or he could submit to his rather crazy new boss. Jack felt like he had done some bad things in the past, but none of it comes close to murder, and he didn't feel like crossing that line ever.

"Alright, I'll tell you what, you stay quiet and in return I'll answer your dam questions."

Satisfied with his first victory, Daniel asked his first question. "Why did you break into the haunted house?"

"I was looking for something."

Daniel though back to all of the things that he had found while cleaning, and there wasn't anything that seemed worth taking. The only other thing that Daniel could think of was the locked cabinet on the third floor. Thinking that he was onto something Daniel pressed on, "what were you looking for?"

Jack hesitated as if deciding whether to say anything, however in the end he sighed and caved in.

"I was looking for some pictures that I left behind."

"Pictures? The ones about the previous owner, why would you want those?" Suffice to say Daniel was slightly disappointed. He had thought that maybe he had found a lead on the locked cabinet that was sitting on the third floor, but it looks like he was overthinking it.

"What do you care!" Jack once again lashed out at Daniel, but he didn't seem to mind as he just smiled back at him.

"Well if you're looking for those pictures, then I have them, but before I give them to you I just want to know why you want them." At this point, Daniel had already taken complete control of the conversation and was steadily leading Jack down a slippery slope.

"They're pictures of my dad." Jack was absentminded for a few seconds when he mentioned the words 'dad', however as if he remembered what he was here for he had quickly broken out of his stupor. "Just give me the dam pictures already!"

"The previous owner was your dad? How is that even possible, you both look nothing alike?" Daniel was caught off guard by the sudden revelation. The man in the photos looks so kind, inviting and he was rather stocky, whereas Jack is the complete opposite.

"Look if storytime is over, can I just get the dam photos so I can leave"

"Hu? Oh, yea sure, I put in them in a large box in the storage room." Daniel was still dumbfounded when he thought about the Jack being the previous owner's son and made the mistake of telling Jack where the box was before he could finish questoning him. As soon as he saw Jack leaving, Daniel woke up and quickly asked the question that had been on his mind the entire time. "Wait! Before you go, I just have one more question. What happened to your dad?"

Jack stopped in his tracks and clenched his fists. He turned his head slightly and looked at Daniel from the corner of his eyes. Daniel could swear that he had seen the pain of loss on Jack's face, after all Daniel was all too familiar with that feeling.

"He suicided," Having said these two words, Jack backed out of the room leaving Daniel to his own thought.

Daniel could feel Jack's pain just from his voice alone, and he couldn't help but sympathize with him. Just a couple months ago it was Daniel had gone through that same pain, and a couple of day after leaving New Hope he meets someone just like him. Even after minutes passed and Jack had been long gone all Daniel could think of was that expression filled with pain.

That expression, was that what I used to look like before? It looked so real like it had come straight from the heart, I can't help but feel bad for him now. I feel like I should do something but I don't know what I can do, we've both gone through drastically different things. God, I just feel so useless, it's like my hands are tied.

It was at this very moment that Daniel had realized that he had forgotten about something. In all of the drama that happened coupled with the fact that he had been tied for so long, Daniel forgot to ask Jack to release him. Now that Jack was gone and the park was closed, there was no one left that could help him, meaning he had to spend the night tied to a chair in the staff break room. Daniel bitterly shed a single tear as he thought of the long night that awaited him.