Human beings always search for bonds. We’re inherently social, and at a young age are some of the most open and trusting one can be. Life is near impossible to do alone, and we’ve created a sort of a social currency to make bonds.
We call it trust.
It can be hard to earn, and surprisingly simple to break. Sometimes it’s something small, actions that have more weight to them than one can think. But more often than not, it’s something worse. Intentional, sharp as a knife and wielding massive damage.
The act of betrayal.
It feels like a cut, reaching deep into your flesh, piercing the soul. Shattered glass that refuses to let you sit there and heal, only cutting into you and leaving you ragged. A bleeding heart after putting something so close, only for it to break away from you.
Betrayal is inevitable, as all things will end. The choice is what to do after.
Some become consumed by it, making it part of who they really are. They let their obsession dominate their lives, consuming everything. To see the other one hurt, bleed as they have. Make them suffer and pay in ways that they couldn’t have imagined. Have them rue the day they crossed you.
And that’s what’s become of you Jasper. You had a blank start, free of the hell hole. You had one bond, a young lad that you helped sculpt in your own monstrous way. Of any other, CJ was the closest you had let anyone be, the closest thing to a family you had made. But to him?
You were just an easy betrayal.
And that fact has consumed you. Acting out in the gallery, moving in the shadows. You’ve let it consume you, that hatred and pain creating twisted works of art and destruction abound in the spades. You’ll do anything to get back at them, even if it costs you everything.
Out of anyone here, I speak from experience.
When I thought one of my own brothers had made the ultimate betrayal, I let it consume me. I did everything that I could to try and get him to pay, even when it took everything from me. And with one truth, I realized it was all for nothing. That despite the deaths of those, the pain and torment, betrayal wasn’t enough to operate on.
I had to let the betrayal go to become something more.
So you’re at this impasse. You want to get back at Jasper, you want nothing more than the Cade family to suffer for what CJ’s done. But someone has to stop you. Show you that you can’t go on, and beat that lesson into your head. That you should focus into something better, and really use that second chance to change how things are going for you.
That person is me, and I’ll go as far as it takes. Even if it means breaking your head over my shield.
And I won’t lose sleep helping you learn that.