Chapter 28: Jonas Jourdan: Confirmed Dead
Pont-Vieux Village.
Jean Pierre Polnareff sat at his dining table, staring at the now-cold feast. He tapped his fingers, a rapid, anxious rhythm on the wood. He glanced at the clock on the wall. It was half an hour past the time Sherry was normally home. She was never late.
"Did... something happen to her?" he muttered. He shook his head, trying to force the thought away. "No, no, don't be ridiculous, Polnareff. It's just the rain. The roads are muddy, that's all..."
He waited another second. He couldn't.
He bolted from his chair, not even bothering to grab an umbrella, and burst out of the house, sprinting down the path toward her school. He couldn't stand the agonizing, unknown wait a second longer.
The rain fell in cold, steady sheets, plastering Jonas's clothes to his body.
"GUUUUAAAAAAAAAGHH! IT HURTS! IT HURTS!" J. Geil shrieked, his body a ruined mass of blood and mud. "THIS IS YOUR STAND'S ABILITY?! IF I SURVIVE THIS, I'LL... I'LL HUNT TEN GIRLS! A HUNDRED! I'LL MAKE THEM ALL SCREAM!"
The pain was so absolute, so soul-deep, that his face was a contorted mask of pure madness, veins bulging on his neck. [Maw] had torn him apart.
"Your mother managed to escape me," Jonas said, his voice cold and steady, his gaze merciless. "But you won't. You will become food for [Maw]."
He had originally planned to capture J. Geil, to use him as leverage against Enya to get to Dio. But the man was simply too repulsive. His very existence was an offense. Jonas had decided to end him, right here and now.
Hidden in the darkness a short distance away, Hol Horse watched the entire, gruesome spectacle.
After his cowardly retreat, he'd been terrified of Jonas finding him. His only thought was to find his new partner, J. Geil, and regroup. He'd found the same homeless man, gotten the location, and rushed over, expecting to find an ally.
Instead, he found this.
He was watching J. Geil be systematically, brutally dismantled. Any sense of security he'd felt at the thought of having backup evaporated. The idea of "supporting his partner" was thrown into the mental garbage chute.
"Yare yare," Hol Horse whispered to himself, already backing away. "Sorry, pal. It's not that I don't want to help, but that Jonas guy is a monster. You're on your own."
J. Geil, writhing in the mud, suddenly let out a low, gurgling chuckle. A tiny, insidious smile twisted his bloody lips.
Jonas's internal alarms blared. He's this close to death... and he's smiling?! He still has a trump card!
"You fool!" J. Geil spat, his eyes burning with hatred. "Why did you assume... why did you ever assume... that my [The Hanged Man] was limited to puddles?!"
"WHAT?!" Jonas's eyes widened. What other reflective surface is there?!
"My Stand travels through reflections, you idiot! Any reflection! And that includes the raindrops themselves!"
In Jonas's horrified gaze, a glint of golden light leaped from a puddle... and vanished into a single, falling drop of rain. He could see it, for a fraction of a second: the tiny, mummified form of [The Hanged Man], encapsulated in the water.
The drop fell... and just before it hit the ground, the Stand leaped again, a beam of light transferring to another falling drop. And another. And another.
Jonas's tension immediately eased. He sneered. "Useless! Even if you can travel through the rain, the drops are falling too fast! You have no time to attack me before they hit the ground!"
"HAHAHAHAHA! YOU'RE NOT PAYING ATTENTION, ARE YOU, JONAS?!" J. Geil shrieked, his face a horrifying rictus of pain and triumph. "HE'S GETTING CLOSER!"
Jonas's eyes snapped wide. J. Geil was right. The Stand, leaping from drop to drop, was rapidly closing the distance. It was ten meters away... now five... now it was right in front of him!
Jonas didn't know the plan, but he knew he couldn't let it happen. He had to end this.
"[MAW]!" Jonas roared. "WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! FINISH HIM! DEVOUR HIS HEART!"
Spurred by his master's command, [Maw] lunged at J. Geil's shadow, its jaws wide.
Jonas simultaneously leaped backward, putting distance between himself and the airborne Stand. He stumbled back, bumping into Sherry.
"Mister Jonas! Is... is something wrong?" Sherry asked, her wide, terrified, rain-drenched eyes staring up at him.
Jonas glanced down at her. "It's nothing, just—"
He froze.
In the center of Sherry's terrified, blue eye... in that tiny, perfect, reflective surface... he saw it.
The mummified form of [The Hanged Man]. It was already there.
"WHAT?!"
"HAHAHAHAHA!" J. Geil screamed, his voice breaking. "THE RAIN WAS NEVER THE WEAPON, YOU IDIOT! IT WAS THE DELIVERY SYSTEM! THE TRUE MIRROR... THE FINAL DESTINATION... WAS THE EYE OF THE GIRL BEHIND YOU!"
It was a perfect, stable, reflective surface.
In that instant, inside Sherry's eye, [The Hanged Man] turned to face Jonas's reflection and plunged its blade straight into his reflected heart.
"DAMN IT!" Jonas roared, trying to throw himself away from her gaze.
Sherry, realizing what was happening, slammed her eyes shut.
But it was too late.
A fountain of blood erupted from the center of Jonas's chest. His heart... pierced.
"MISTER JONAS!!!" Sherry's scream was heart-rending, tears of terror and grief instantly mixing with the rain on her face.
A profound, cold weakness washed over Jonas. The pain was secondary. All he felt was a strange, weary sense of release. Ah... he thought, his mind surprisingly clear. So, this is my third time... It's almost becoming a habit.
His body went limp, his consciousness fading. He began to fall backward, but Sherry caught him, desperately trying to hold him up. Her tears were useless.
With his last ounce of strength, Jonas's eyes, burning with a cold fire, fixed on the mutilated form of J. Geil.
Then, the light within them vanished.
At that exact moment, down the path, Jean Pierre Polnareff, running at a dead sprint, saw the faint beam of a flashlight.
And then he heard it.
His sister's scream.
"SHERRRRYYYYY!" he bellowed, his heart stopping. He pumped his legs, running with all the strength he had left, charging toward the light.