m_findlow

Title: Haunted
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Gwen, Ianto, OCs
Author: m_findlow
Rating: M
Length: 50,847 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for spook_me 2020 Prompt - Ghost
Summary: The team investigate rumours of a haunted house in rural Wales.

The happy countenance on Ianto's face made Jack's anger twist and writhe inside him until he snapped. He reacted before he could stop to consider the consequences of his actions, lunging at his lover and throwing him bodily to the ground.

The pair of them hit the hard packed earth and strangling weeds with a thud. It would have knocked the air out of an ordinary person, but Jack felt Ianto go down underneath him, grabbing him tightly as he dragged Jack down with him, ready for a fight.

‘Jack, what the hell are you doing?’ came Gwen's surprised question.

Jack kept his focus on the man pinned underneath him. Were it not for the fact that he’d used a similar maneuver a hundred times, he might have struggled to get his knees either side of Ianto’s body to keep him in place. ‘Death got rid of you once. It can do it again,’ he said, wrapping his large hands around Ianto's neck and squeezing it tight. Ianto thrashed underneath him, stronger than Jack remembered - far stronger than any of their play fighting or hand to hand combat training. This was a man desperate to live, but Jack knew it wasn't life. This thing was just a parasite.

The others made no move to help him, nor to hinder him. He half expected them to grab him and try to haul him off of Ianto, stopping him from his attempts to kill. He didn’t have to see their faces to know the expressions that would be etched on them, unable to mask their horror.

He should have hated himself for doing this - for even thinking it - but there was a rising darkness inside Jack as well, one that he usually kept so well hidden. He'd been a cold blooded murderer before. He’d killed more times than he could count or remember. He knew what it was to want a man dead for his own selfish reasons. A little part of Gil was no different to him, yet he'd condemned the man for years afterwards for what he'd done. At least he'd been unwell. A part of his mind was damaged and didn’t distinguish between what was right and what was wrong. Jack had no such excuses. A single glance at Gwen and his old friend Elias, finally seeing their pale, shocked faces was enough to tell him they weren't sure who was more possessed, Ianto or Jack. Jack recognised that look as well. He’d seen it before in the faces of friends long ago. He’d been the monster then.

Ianto fought Jack the entire time he held him down. His body bucked up and down underneath Jack as he struggled to stay upright with his legs straddled either side of Ianto's torso. Ianto's fingernails bit into his hands, gouging the skin as he grabbed at them, trying to pull them away. He'd left several scratches on Jack's face and neck, clawing at him and doing anything he could to loosen Jack's grip. His legs kicked out behind Jack but could do nothing more to dislodge the man pinioning him. His noises were strangled and desperate but his eyes remained full of hate and loathing. Jack however had all the leverage as Ianto flailed beneath his weight.

Eventually Ianto's thrashing eased. It became more unpredictable, more desperate, but also weakened. Jack didn't loosen his own grip one bit. He would only get one chance at this and he'd see it through to the bitter end.

Ianto's arms swung clumsily without much effect, then his body went limp and loose beneath Jack, finally giving up its struggle. Jack held on, watching his face go from red to blue, and then white. He gripped tightly until he felt the last flutter of veins under his hands finally stop pulsing and then held on a minute longer. He wanted to sick up at what he'd done, strangling his beautiful lover to death.

He unstraddled himself, double checking for a pulse as Gwen stared down in horror at him, her hands covering her mouth as if she too were about to throw up. Jack didn’t wait for her to pass judgement, perhaps saving a bullet in her gun for him. He immediately began pumping Ianto's chest and leaning over to blow air into his lungs. There wasn't a moment to lose. Death and dying were not the same thing.

After their struggles Jack shouldn't have had a drop of energy left in him, but he kept going, drawing whatever strength he could to keep up the physical effort of trying to resuscitate Ianto. His mind blanked for a moment as the movements became automatic, disassociating himself from what he’d done.

‘Don't you die on me, you son of a bitch. I love you too much,’ Jack said, forcing more air into his empty lungs as he lay there pale and unmoving on the ground. Jack pressed on his chest harder, hearing a rib crack slightly. Jack didn’t let that trouble him. A cracked rib was a small price to pay for living. ‘Come on!’

There was a sudden gasp and a heave. Ianto's body convulsed as it struggled back into life. Jack rolled him onto his side as he coughed and gasped in more air, sucking it in huge heavy gulps. Relief flooded into Jack as he rested a hand on Ianto’s shoulder as he regained his breath before he finally pulled Ianto onto his back so that he could see the light in his eyes and kiss him.

When Ianto's head rolled back however, the eyes glowed with menace and a rictus grin spread across his face. The face hardly belonged to Ianto at all. ‘You can't kill me this time, Jack. I'm not leaving. It’s all or nothing.’

Jack’s jaw trembled as his own breath became ragged in his chest. ‘No!’

‘Yes! You can’t kill us, Jack. We’re going to live forever, and when this body finally dies, the three of us will take on another.’ Ianto’s eyes closed as he breathed in deeply, relishing his new life. ‘I can feel it. With each new soul I become stronger, and once I have enough strength, I’m coming for you, Jack. You will be the one that makes me invincible, all that darkness inside you.’

‘Not going to happen,’ Jack promised him. ‘Ianto would rather die than let you take another soul.’

‘Maybe not now, but in time. We will teach him to embrace the darkness. He will join us and it will be glorious.’ Ianto leaned towards him and Jack though he was about to kiss him. Instead he wrapped an arm around Jack's neck and pulled him close, so that Jack could feel Ianto’s breath against his cheek, cold like a winter breeze. ‘Until then, we shall enjoy playing with you,’ he whispered in Jack's ear.

It was only a split second Jack had to realise that something cold and hard was pressed against his chest between their bodies. He hadn’t seen Ianto deftly pick up the webley that he’d dropped on the ground earlier, and neither apparently had anyone else.

The gunshot rang out loudly and the bullet tore through Jack's heart, stopping it in an instant.

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