Djinn Ch. 01

When Jack arrived back in Australia for the first time in 4 years, you wouldn't have recognised him. When he had left, he was about 5'9, slim and healthy looking but not athletic, with a handsome face and neat, well cut hair.

The 19 year old that stepped onto the plane was 6'2 with a rather pale complexion as a result of being stuck in a commando suit for the better part of 4 years. He was definitely a lot skinnier now but that was due to their being no excess fat on his bones, meaning that he was now mostly muscle, even though he didn't look that impressive. His face had thinned out too, mostly due to an erratic meal schedule.

His now long, tangled, dark brown hair hadn't been washed properly for years and looked like someone had just draped black grass on his scalp and called it a day. It was lucky he couldn't grow a beard or his whole head would be a rats nest. He had black circles under his eyes from hundreds of sleepless nights, it had actually become a running joke among commandos to compare their longest period between siestas. Jack's record was 6 days, 4 hours and 20 minutes on an extremely difficult assignment involving a rather well guarded complex, putting him in the top 5.

But it wasn't just his outward appearance that made him look like a vampire, it was the look in his eyes that had made the pilot stare at him, one of sheer exhaustion and overexertion. The war had been far too taxing on the now young man, who was looking forward to going home. As the plane flew over the ocean, toward the military base where he was to be officially discharged, he looked out the window, thinking about everything that he had done during the war. A lot of it he wasn't proud of.

When the plane landed, an officer met him on the runway.

'Special Operative Jack?' Jack preferred the officers use his first name, since he didn't want his family involved in the war at all.

'Thats correct.'

'Im Lieutenant Danielson. I'll be handling your dismissal. Follow me and we can take care of the paperwork.'

He looked Jack up and down.

'And uh... maybe I should get you to a shower and a barber as well.'

'Do I look that bad?' Jack asked dourly.

The lieutenant pulled out his phone and took a picture of Jack, which he showed to him.

'Damn. Guess thats what happens when your stuck in one of these suits for a few years.' Jack said dryly, looking down at the padded black body suit he was wearing that was the standard uniform of the commando. The hemet, armour and the other equipment had been removed before the flight.

'Sir, is it true that the commandos weren't allowed to remove their uniforms until they were discharged?' Asked Danielson.

'Yes.' said Jack curtly. He just wanted to get this over with. Danielson cleared his throat nervously then directed Jack to the main building. The airports workers stared at them as they walked past. Jack didn't blame them for looking. He was a mess. It didn't help that overcast days like today tended to make anything look less than normal.

Jack was given a medical checkup by a military doctor which he passed except for a case of malnourishment. He was given an IV bag and told to increase his food intake until he gained enough weight. Danielson was as good as his word and after a good shower, he took Jack to get his hair cut. Jack asked the barber to tidy his hair up but to keep it long. He didn't want anything remotely resembling a military hair cut.

He walked out with his hair relatively short in the back and long at the front, in a prominent fringe that was swept to the left of his face, a long but not dishevelled look that actually rather worked for him. Danielson gave him some civilian clothes that were about a size and a half too big for him to travel home in. In truth, Jack was a little nervous at the prospect of going home, as he had no idea what had changed while he was away.

Lieutenant Danielson drove Jack home personally. The teenager looked at the city though the window of the car. It didn't seem to have changed much at first glance. But Jack knew that 4 years don't pass without something changing. Still he was glad to see that his parents haven't moved house. His heart leapt at the sight of the pale blue building and the water behind it.

Danielson dropped Jack outside his house and drove away after a final salute. Left with nothing but a set of oversized clothes, Jack walked through the gate and down the short garden path to the door. He hesitated briefly. Then with a shaky hand he pressed the bell. His mother answered it.

'Yes?'

Jack realised she didn't recognise him.

'Hey Mom. I'm home.' He said in a small voice.

His mother looked confused for a moment, then her eyes opened wide. They just stared at each other for a second. His mother looked older. Anyone else would't have thought that, at 40 years old, she still had a great body, nice brown hair and an attractive face, but Jack could see the stress lines around her eyes and her posture has slumped a bit. She looked tired. But she still nearly knocked him over when she bear hugged him.

'Oh my god! Jack! Is it really you Jack? I thought.... Oh my god, so many times i thought... You're so tall! And you're hair! You're so pale as well! God is that really you?'

'Yeah mom. Its me.'

His dad had come up to see what was going on. Jack could see the same wear on his dads face. He was barely 2 months older than mom but he looked older. He had gained a bit of weight and he had a slight colouring under his eyes. That said, he still looked pretty fit and still had his strong jawline, broad shoulders and black hair, which he had slicked back.

When he saw his wife hugging a young man with long hair and baggy clothes he was extremely confused. But when his wife turned to him with tears in her eyes and spoke to him, he instantly had his arms around his son in a massive hug, for the first time in 4 years. It was a long time before they went back inside.

The next week was spent talking, shopping, visiting family and organising a party at the end of the week. Because of the secretive nature of the commandos, his family hadn't received any news of him, let alone when he would be coming back. They had thought they wouldn't receive word until he was killed in action, as many of the commandos were. His relatives had all been told he was back and we coming from all over the country, and even a few people from overseas, to see him.

Jack spent hours listening to his parents talk about what had been happening while he had been away, now in some proper clothes. Once he would have never let his parents get a word in edgeways, now he listened with interest as they spoke a mile a minute. The deal his dad had been a part of had gone even better than expected and he had received 3 major promotions in the past 4 years, with massive pay raises.

His mom had left the firm she was working at and created her own with some of her colleagues. It had blossomed into one of the best in the city and were on several influential individuals payrolls, as well as taking smaller individual and family cases. They had quickly developed a reputation for their ability to win in court. His mom said she and his dad had tried to find him and bring him home but the military had blocked them at every corner with forms and secrecy.

Jack reassured them he understood, but secretly he wished they had succeeded. There were hundreds of experiences he wished he could have not gone through that had happened during the war.

The party day arrived and every single member of the family was going to be there. Jack was nervous. He was going hide in his room until the party was underway so he could slip in quietly. His dad came up to talk to him. While his dad was dressed in a good shirt and pants, Jack had black cargo trousers on and a black t-shirt with long white sleeves.

'Son, what are you doing up here? Everyones coming to see you.'

Jack looked at his dad with an exasperated look on his face.

'Dad, I appreciate that you care about me enough to put this thing together but the last few years, the only time I've been with a big group of people has been when I was about to have the building they were in turned into a pile of rubble, or during those surrender meetings when some assassin was planning to off one of the brass. Noise and people isn't exactly my idea of a good time right now.'

His dad frowned in concern.

'Do you want me to call it off?' He asked gently, placing a hand on Jacks shoulder.

Jack jumped. 'N-No Dad, its fine. I'll go down but just promise me no more parties while I'm in the house, okay?'

Jack left the bedroom and headed down to the kitchen to get himself a drink. No alcohol though, even though he was 19 he wasn't really ready for that yet. His Dad watched him go, the concerned look not leaving his face. He hadn't expected Jack to be so jumpy when he had put his hand on his shoulder. Just what had he seen or done during that war?

He went down to the lounge room where his wife was finishing with the food. Their house keeper was helping her arrange it onto the table in front of the television. He motioned for his wife to come over to the study, so she asked the house keeper to take care of the final plates. When she walked into the study, she realised something was on her husbands mind. After everything they had been through together, they could read each other like open books.

'Whats wrong babe?' she asked.

'You've noticed it haven't you? How strangely Jack's been acting since he got back?'

'Well yeah, but he has just spent the past 4 years in a war zone. I can't imagine what he saw there.'

'Yeah, but...'

'What?'

'When we were trying to find out if he survived or not, I talked to a few of the returning men and a few of them were commandos. 2 of them were out drinking and connecting with old friends, trying to forget it all. Another was angry at everything and was going through therapy. And I think I heard there was one bloke in Parramatta who was planning on going to uni next year.'

'No surprises on that choice. They all got HSC's the day they got picked, and scholarships to attend uni anywhere in the country, which they can't legally lose, even if they fail the first time. I was hoping Jack would use that privilege, not that he really needs it. It might be the only good thing he gets out of that bloody war.'

'Thats my point. Jack hasn't reacted like any of those blokes. He's not trying to move on from the war, he's just... drifting. And jumping at everything.'

She frowned.

'What do you mean?'

He explained what had happened in their sons bedroom. Now his wife had the same expression as he did.

'I know a lot of soldiers suffer from ptsd but that kind of nervousness... I guess it was hard wired into the commandos. That's probably how he stayed alive.'

'And thank god he did. But I think this might be more than just what happened over there.'

Her frown deepened.

'What do you mean?'

'I mean, he never really had enough time to deal with... you know.'

His wife was surprised.

'You mean this has something to do with' she looked over to make sure the door was closed, then whispered into he husbands ear 'with Sophie?'

'I think so. We know he was seeing those shrinks, so he was probably questioning his own sanity back then.'

He wife nodded. They had thought Jack would have been smart enough to have stopped looking for Sophie after he found no trace of her anywhere, to avoid being sent to a specialist, and try to move on, but to their surprise, a fews days after Jack had left, they got a call from a clinic asking why they hadn't dropped him off for an appointment his father had supposedly scheduled. It didn't take long for them to put two and two together.

'So you think what happened over there caused him to trust himself even less?'

'It would explain why the only real decisions he's made since he got back have been his new hair style and his insistence that all his clothes be black. Although to be fair, that was because he wanted to honour his comrades.'

'Still, he did go all long sleeves to hide the tattoo. To 'honour the men, not the military' he said.'

All the commandos had been given special identification tattoos, which looked like really long barcodes on the underside of their forearms, but in reality had thousands of complex, unique micro patterns in the bars to provide access to their equipment and their communication lines, since anything electronic would be too easy to replicate. Mom and Dad had both noticed Jack's nervous habit of scratching it whenever he got uncomfortable.

'More to the point, those are the only real things he's asked for. Every second he gets alone, he just stares at the wall or sits on the balcony or puts something on the TV but just ignores it. He's like a lost soul.'

'There is a way we might be able to solve it. If we get rid of the foundation of his self doubt, it might help him start to move on.'

'Or cause more problems for him. As much as I want to see him improve, I'm just not sure he's ready for that yet.'

'If we don't try it now, theres a good chance he'll never be ready, and she's been ready for well over a year now.'

Her husband hesitated for a minute, then opened a drawer and pulled a small box out. They had, at first, tried to hide it carefully where Jack wouldn't find it, but had ended up using it for support when their son was forced to leave.

'We need to consider her as well. She'll want to see him as much as he wants to see her.'

'Are we really sure he wants to anymore? We don't know whats going on in his head right now. He's changed more than we can know.'

'I'm sure it'll be okay. If anyone can get through to him, she can. After all, we both know what she'll be able to do for him' she said, with a suggestive wiggle of her eyebrows and a wink. He chuckled.

'Believe me, I know. Those days were incredible. Thats why I'm not worried about that. I'm worried about him passing the test.'

'I know. He can't fail if he doesn't try, but he can't succeed either. Benefit of the doubt, honey, benefit of the doubt.'

Her husband sighed.

'Ok. I trust you. I'll give it to him tonight, after everyone leaves. We don't want there to be a bigger chance of something going haywire than there already is.'

'Good point.'

He put the box back in the drawer and they walked out to finish getting ready.

Jack was out on the balcony with a glass of water in his hand. He leaning on the railing, watching the water shake about. His Dad was right. He was questioning himself, something he had promised himself he would only do once he got home. There was no room for doubt in a commando's life. But now he was back, he was giving himself the full philosophers pat down.

He wasn't thinking about Sophie. He hadn't thought of her in over two years. After a particularly nasty string of missions, he had finally managed to convince himself that the girl had been a figment of his imagination, something he had created during the war to help him cope. Ironically, he found that 'revelation' to have helped him cope better as the war dragged on, as he had also convinced himself that by accepting it, he wasn't actually insane.

Now he started to wonder. Not about Sophie but about the war. Their had been plenty of things he'd seen that he thought was real at the time but now didn't seem so likely. Children screaming, dark shapes and other little things were coming back to plague his mind.

He was pretty sure the children's screams were imaginary, since the Australians had made it a point to avoid civilian targets, especially where children were involved, but now, the more he thought about it, he was beginning to question the choices he had made as the details became cloudier in his mind and even if he had a right to choose anything at all anymore.

He pushed all that to the side when the first guest arrived. He politely greeted each guest but still didn't actively look for anyone to speak too. Everyone else was doing that for him. He gave a small smile and nodded at everything they were saying as they fawned over him but his commando trained mind was constantly scanning the room for danger, even though he told himself they were his relatives.

When the guests finally all left, he immediately went to his room, leaving his parents and the house keeper, who name he couldn't remember, to clean up. He was still pondering his psyche an hour later when his Dad came up.

'Hey Jack. Did you have an okay time?'

'It was pretty average.' replied Jack, which was the Aussie way of saying it was awful.

'Fair enough. I'll make sure their aren't anymore events.'

'Thanks.'

'Oh by the way, I've got something for you.'

Jack was surprised. Sure, he had missed 4 birthdays and 4 christmases ( which were only two weeks apart from each other ) but how could his Dad have bought him something when he was still figuring out what he liked himself? His Dad produced the box and tossed it to Jack. He caught it deftly and turned it over in his hands confused.

'What is it?'

'Look inside.'

Jack open the box and raised his eyebrows. Inside was a large ring. The band was a gold braid design, with dozens of strange, little inscriptions craved into the metal. But the most striking thing about it was the jewels that were set into each of rings recesses. 15 little green gems, each one cut into a hexagonal diamond, were inset in the gaps of the braid and in the light they almost seemed to be glowing.

'Wow. How much did this cost?'

'Dunno. Its been with our family for years now. Its got a special connection to us. I had planned to give it to you on your 18th but...'

Jack nodded, not needing his dad to finish his sentence. He slipped the ring onto his index finger. It was a really good, if not perfect fit. Jack swore he saw the gems shine a little brighter when he slipped it on but it happened so fast, he dismissed it as a trick of the light. The metal was cool to the touch but it was beginning to get warmer. Jack traced his fingers over it, feeling the inscriptions cut into the smooth surface.

'There's apparently a bunch of tests of some kind associated with the ring. A trial of some sort, supposed to test your character.'

Jack gave his dad a skeptical look.

'What, some kinda voodoo hooey? You don't really believe that do you?'

'Well, obviously I now have a more open mind.' grinned his dad.

'Obviously you weren't in the war' said Jack offhandedly, his attention so focused on the ring he didn't realised what he had said until his eyes widened and he looked at his Dad in shock.

'I-I'm sorry! I-I didn't mean...'

'I know son. It ok. Honestly I'm glad you finally said something about the war. You need to move forward son, don't let it take anymore of you life than it already has.'

'I know, I know. But what I meant was I don't blame you for not getting me out of it. I know you had commitments to more people than just me. The gov would have ripped you apart if you had tried to interfere.'

His Dad looked somber.

'Yes but I've regretted not trying every single day since you left. I honestly don't know if I should be letting you call me Dad anymore.'

'If you don't, I'll leave right now. I need you now more than ever Dad. I've had it with those fucking ranks and titles and the bloody command structure. It treats you like your expendable because you are to them. Right now I just need my family. I need home. I need... I need you and Mom.'

His Dad smiled.

'Okay son. I think this has made us both feel better.'

Jack smiled.

'Yeah it has.'

'Night Jack.'

'Night Dad.'

As he left, Jack's Dad smiled. What Jack hadn't noticed was that the jewels on the ring had started glowing as soon as Jack had finished talking. His Dad knew it wouldn't be long until Jack had passed the rest of the tests.