Chapter 52 : You Crossed A Line
The other kids, pampered and sheltered, completely lost control. Some screamed. Others turned away and threw up.
Ronan was the worst. He gagged and yelled through the gate, “You freak! That was my snake! I swear, one day I’m going to kill you!”
Allison was only a child herself, but even then, she knew Ronan had crossed a line. She was about to tell him to stop when something made her freeze.
She looked through the gate again and stared into the boy’s eyes inside.
That was the first time Allison and Jareth ever made eye contact.
He stood in that run-down courtyard, while she remained outside the gate, separated by a world that looked nothing like his.
Blood was splashed across his face. He held the freshly skinned snake in one hand. Even from where she stood, his cold and fierce stares were intense.
That look sent a chill straight down her spine. He was calm and emotionless, far more frightening than the snake that was still wriggling in his hand.
Allison instinctively shrank back, her heart pounding hard in her chest. She had not done anything, yet an unexpected guilt crept in.
She had not taken part in Ronan’s stunt. But she was the only one Jareth had seen.
Would he think I was part of it? That I was just like the others? The thought crossed her mind.
While her thoughts were still spinning, Jareth turned away and went back inside, but the snake was still in his hand.
Ronan kept ranting, swearing he would make Jareth pay for what had happened.
Allison should have gone home after that, but she did not. She was afraid Ronan might actually do something reckless. So she stayed behind, hiding out somewhere on the Lopez estate.
That night, Ronan never returned to the courtyard. But Allison, peeking through a crack in the gate, saw Jareth carrying a plate of meat to his mother.
“Mom, we have meat tonight.”
She recognized it. It was the same snake from earlier that day.
Nothing else happened that night. Jareth and his mother sat down quietly and, after gently urging each other to eat more, finished the plate of snake meat together.
That scene stayed in Allison’s mind longer than anything else over the years.
A few years later, when Ronan turned twelve, the Lopez family threw an extravagant birthday party. It was completely over the top. Half of Kansas’s elite showed up, business leaders, socialites, and everyone who mattered.
The ballroom was pure luxury. Every detail was glamorous, expensive, and designed to impress.
Jackson and Luke stood at the center under the lights, drawing all the attention as the city’s elite gathered around them, listening carefully to every word they said.
Later that evening, a Lopez family butler hurried over and whispered something to Jackson. His expression shifted immediately. His brows furrowed as he shot the butler a sharp, decisive look. Then, as if nothing had happened, he smoothly turned back to the guests with a composed smile.
Twelve-year-old Allison followed the butler as he rushed out of the ballroom. She clearly overheard him telling a maid to lock up the back courtyard. Someone had jumped inside. They could not let the news spread and ruin Mr. Ronan’s birthday party.
Allison spun around and ran toward the back courtyard.
A woman lay sprawled on the cold stone tiles, her body twisted, blood pooling beneath the back of her head and seeping into the cracks between the bricks.
She was still alive, but she could barely breathe. Blood ran down from her mouth and ears, and her body twitched weakly.
Allison dropped to her knees and pulled a Woundix pill from her pocket, slipping it between the woman’s lips.
But it did not help. Jareth’s mother died anyway.
And now Ronan had the nerve to ask her, “What’s so special about Jareth anyway?”
Maybe he had forgotten everything he did as a kid, how he used to drag her along to torment Jareth like it was some kind of game.
Allison had never laid a hand on Jareth herself, but that did not make her innocent. She had been there. And even now, after all these years, the guilt still haunted her.
Maybe Jareth did not even remember seeing her back then.
But Allison did. The way she looked out for him now, the way she stood up for him, was really her way of making up for the girl she used to be, the one who stayed silent and did nothing.
The more she thought about it, the emptier it felt.
As if doing the right thing now could wipe away what she had allowed to happen back then.
As if pretending it never happened could somehow make it disappear.
She hated the old version of herself, the girl who obeyed every word and followed every order.
And she hated Ronan even more.
She shoved his arm away from her collarbone.
She must have hit a sore spot, because he winced and sucked in a sharp breath.
“Easy. That hurts,” Ronan reminded her while clutching his arm. He frowned, then said, “I know I was wrong to hit you. And that ring that cut you? I’m not wearing it anymore.” He rolled up his sleeve, showing her the bruise spreading across his arm. “I didn’t walk away clean either. Can we just call it even?”
He was clearly trying to smooth things over. When Allison didn't say anything, he did something rare for her. He actually tried to lighten the mood. “My arm really hurts. Can you at least put some medicine on it? Yours always worked best.”
Back then, Allison could not stand seeing him hurt. Even the smallest scrape, and she would chase him around with that old jar of medicine, insisting on treating it.
He used to find it annoying. He called her a nag and often said she was like a clingy mom.
Now, Allison stared at him without flinching, and her expression was unreadable. “What makes you think you still get to tell me what to do?” she said in a calm but cold tone. “Just because you’re in pain, I’m supposed to take care of you? Like I owe you something? Like I’m your mother?”
She stood straight and bluntly added. “Where were you when I was the one hurting? You think just because someone else hurt you, we’re even now? Please. That’s not how this works.”
She scoffed at him. “You crossed a line, so I pushed back. That’s fair.”
Something in the way she said it made Ronan instinctively step back.
When did Allison change like this? She used to follow me everywhere, agreeing with everything I said. She never talked back even once.
Knock, knock.