[ video ]

[hostage]

[Goodbye to the Jesse who was a clean and successful art student, hello again to the Jesse who looks like he spent the last three nights sleeping under a bridge.]

Been thinking about this the past couple days, trying to figure out how I really feel about it, but you know what? I still feel the same as I did before:

It was shitty.

It was shitty for you guys to change us back without asking if that's what we wanted. A lot of us were better off the way we were last week. The next time something like that happens, maybe ask how we fucking feel about it.

[He just had to get that off his chest.]

Comments

[coppelganger]

Not if you don't try.

[hostage]

Try what? Kidnapping my kid and taking him on the run? That's not something I want for him. I want him as far away as possible from all the shit I'm caught up in. I want him to stay with his grandma, wherever the fuck they are now, and keep going to school and making friends and I want him to forget I ever existed.

If - no, who am I kidding - when the feds catch up with me, either I'm taking a bullet the second they find me or I'm getting hauled to the electric chair. That's it. That's what I got left.

[coppelganger]

There are resources, people who can help you! There always are!

[hostage]

Listen... I'm serious. This isn't me being pessimistic or whatever you think I'm doing. This is the real deal, and the reality is there's nobody in the entire world who's gonna wanna help me. All the people who coulda saved me either left me to rot or got themselves killed. Everybody else? They want front row seats to watch me burn.

[coppelganger]

[ She's quiet, listening to him, but her jaw is set in determination. ]

I don't accept that.

[hostage]

Doesn't matter. That's how it is.

[coppelganger]

You think that.

[hostage]

I'm sorry.

[It's a little hard to accept, isn't it? When a friend is destined for capital punishment.]

[coppelganger]

Hey.

[ Her voice is softer now. ]

You don't have to apologize to me.

[hostage]

I feel like I'm disappointing you.

[coppelganger]

You're not. I understand. What it's like to be in that kind of trouble.

[ She sighs, looking away from the screen. ]

I don't want that for you.

[hostage]

This place is my only hope of ever changing it.

[coppelganger]

Maybe you can. You've got to hold onto that, at least.