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The wet snow crunched under Jack’s feet, his heavy boots and ice cleats leaving behind deep foot steps. A few twigs snap and crunch randomly, his breath starting to collect and solidify on his mask.
Never again.
He should have learned from the last time he went aimlessly hunting, to wear a scarf and hat instead of just a hood and his usual heavy plastic-cast mask. But of course he forgot until he has half way through his hunt. And he’s usually too stubborn to care about properly wrapping up. Because he’s
usually
very efficient. But this time his prey decided to run through a field full of snow up to his knees. He had to stuff his tail into his pants waistband like a belt to warm it up after that escapade.
But he had a full bag of meat so he was “happy”.
This
should
last him a few weeks if he doesn’t eat too much. This was his third winter after being forcibly transformed by Chernabog and his cult. It was difficult, but he managed. This winter it was the harshest, the coldest yet though so he was silently suffering.
The air was visibly freezing, his ears pinned back into his hood by his headphones. One of his best purchases, they doubled as earmuffs. And the noise cancelling feature was nice for when he was dispatching his prey.
This time around, as ironic as it was, People Eater by Sodikken was playing when he had dispatched his victim.
He tripped on a rock or something, pulling him from his thoughts. Fuck.
His ice cleat fell off his boot, forcing him to stop. Then he slung his meat bag across his shoulder and clipped it to his pack before bending down awkwardly and sifting through the snow.
Being roughly 6’ came with its challenges. Adding at least 2 1/2” on top of that with his thick military combat boots and the 1/2” treads made his gait a bit wobbly.
But he was at least intimidating enough through size alone for normal people to not bother him.
He had his black, heavy, wool army coat on, large loose and baggy winter camo cargo pants, a very well worn bug-out bag on him. Combo that with his hulking, loud clopping boots he was definitely wearing enough “do not interact” signs for the average person to notice.
Obviously his followers didn’t care how intimidating he was though, as they had orders.
He found the cleat, and pulled it back onto his boot, it snapped satisfyingly around the boot like a rubber band.
“There.”
He said instinctively under his breath.
The two stalkers turned to the other, exchanging a glance.
*So it can talk*
They were waiting for the best opportunity to strike, and this would have been the best chance but they were curious now.
They were informed about a merciless man-eating monster terrorizing the locals. Messing up proxies territory, and causing scouts to flee posts prematurely.
A few underlings having also fallen victim to the creature due to recklessness. Slender-man had made all of his proxies aware some time ago, but that didn’t stop some of them throwing all sense out the window when faced with the entity. He speculated it was an offspring of Zalgo, but he wasn’t 100% sure.
That’s what Toby and Jeff were sent out for, to hopefully gain knowledge of it or if possible, take it in.
So now that they knew this thing could speak, they were already more curious and speculative. And unknowingly, letting their guard down a bit.
Jack started trekking again, a large cloud of his breath escaping the air as he yawned.
It was well past 1am at this point, he didn’t even need to check his phone. He felt exhausted.
A cold freezin’ night by The books came on his headphones, a song he loved.
Without realizing, his tail snaked out and started twitching and wagging to the beat of the song. One of the few things he still didn’t have full control over or even full understanding, was his tail. But he also
barely
had feeling in his tail, similar to his feet. The cold did very little to it. And now that it had had time to warm back up he didn’t really “feel” the cold.
He hummed along to the music lightly, just barely enough to be heard through the frozen air.
Toby looked at Jeff, was this thing really humming to music? What kind of monster was this?
The song ended, and during the silence of the next song coming on Jack heard a noise he didn’t make. His tail involuntarily stiffened and waved up and settled back down parallel to the ground like a cat. His head moving to the side and twitching, managing to look back ever so slightly, he pupils shifted to the side, trying to look behind as he stayed walking forward. His ears peeking up into an alert position, although still obstructed by the headphones.
He just noticed a shadow further behind, hidden along the tree line shift, his whole body turning into alert mode. He stayed as indifferent as possible, but shrugged his shoulder just enough to dislodge his headphones. His thick hood not moving as they slid down onto the back of his neck. He turned down the volume on his cell phone in his pocket.
He walked slowly, being more careful at how loud his steps were. His ears shifting back to get a better listen behind him.
There were no voices, not even breathing that he could hear. But he heard something. It was probably a deer, but in his state, with his mask on, he couldn’t risk being spotted by a person. He was too tired and unfocused to hunt someone else down.
He wasn’t a confrontational person, nor did he have any actual combat skills. His hunting skills having come from his dad teaching him to hunt small game when he was a kid, and dressing. But discarding a person was a whole ‘nother ordeal he didn’t have time for. His face was also really starting to get wet, the condensation pooling in his mask. He pulled his hand out of his pocket and grabbed his tail, stopping to tuck it into his pants. While he stopped, he listened.
There was nothing, barely any wind either. But just as he was about to continue walking, there was a light crunch of snow. A single, hesitant foot step. But it was there. His whole body became anxious.
In a split second he had to decide what to do, and that was to grab his mask, and look back. Hoping his hair would obscure his facial features enough to make his pale grey skin look like a the effect of a shadow or face mask.
He turned his head, mask on his chest.
Nothing.
Just trees whistling quietly.
Now he knew for sure he was most likely being watched or followed. If a deer had been there it probably would have looked up at him and then hopped away.
His blood was pounding in his head.
Toby and Jeff froze, quickly hiding behind the trees as they saw the thing pause and turn around slightly.
Toby had accidentally relaxed his foot while the thing was standing still, it had only been slight pressure on the snow but it caused the creature to turn.
It must have heard it.
And now all three parties were thinking very different things.
Toby, that this is how he gets stabbed in his sleep by Jeff if they screw this up and slenderman gets mad at Jeff.
Jeff, that this is what puts him out of slenders good graces and gets him officially put under house arrest AGAIN.
Jack, that this is one of three things, maybe more but mainly three.
1, he gets spooked by an animal like an idiot and he gets home without another worry.
2, he’s been noticed by a hunter or something, and might have to kill someone else tonight.
Or 3, he’s being followed/hunted himself and this was going to be a very bad night.
Jeff would definitely be reprimanding Toby for this slip up later either way.
Jack had a good long look through the woods, looking for anything that could have made a noise but it was dead quiet. You could have heard a chickadee flap it’s wing it was so quiet.
His gut alarm going off, telling him to get home as soon as possible. He listened. He turned and started walking quickly, keeping his headphones off.
He lived in an abandoned home on the outskirts of the forest, an old highway being the only source of traffic around. Thankfully he had a small generator and basic necessities, if he was being followed by someone hopefully he’d be able to lose them if he crossed the highway and then doubled back.
But he didn’t know what was following him, he hoped he was just being paranoid. But whatever it was, it made his senses nervous.
He had probably been speed walking for 10 minutes before he started to see the occasional car lights flash past up ahead.
It was usually only truckers coming through, so he was never bothered or disturbed. He hoped that streak stayed the same.
He had found a book bag full of a manga that interested him by a donation bin, so he wanted to just get back and eat and read.
He crossed the highway, his cleats leaving little tiny holes in the ice, his boot treads not even touching the compacted ice and snow.
Jeff and Toby saw this, the creature crossing the road and hurrying across. Stopping at the other side to look back and watch. It was smart. Too smart Jeff thought.
Jack walked along the road, trying to hide his tracks in the slush and churned up snow. He saw nothing exit the tree line, but because of the faint moonlight, the shadows of the trees could be concealing anything within a few feet of them. He thought it safer just to continue on via the road, at least then he had the advantage of seeing anything coming should it turn up.
His hideout being at least another kilometre up the road, he assumed anything following him would lose interest because of any passing trucks if it hadn’t already.
He hoped.
A few trucks passed by as he walked, finally seeing his shack in the distance.
What a welcome sight.
And no other noises or tells of anything still following him had come up. So he was confident it was just his nerves back in the forest. What a relief.
It was strenuous, Walking for so long in deep snow, freezing their asses off as their target walked briskly ahead on solid and flat ground. Like a cat scurrying along packed snow, while they were swimming in wet waves of powder and ice crystals. They lost sight of the thing at some point, Jeff motioned to stop, turning around to swat Toby in the back of the head.
“Fucking idiot.”
Jeff cursed quietly.
“Ah-Ow!”
Toby exclaimed, rubbing the back of his head. He stepped away from Jeff, obviously not wanting to be in the strike zone.
“You cost us our element of surprise, Toby”
Jeff groaned, walking closer to him. He was a very physically intimidating kind of person, invading Toby’s space to send home his point. And Toby moving triggered his need to intimidate.
Jeff stared down at Toby, trying to assert his authority, maybe a little too hard. The air was freezing and Jeff was starting to feel the effects.
“Fucking
clutz
”
He spat, pulling his hood over his head to try and warm up a bit.
Toby just ignored him, pulling his own hoodie strings to cinch up his hood.
“I thought we should have jumped when it was fixing its-s boot or whatever but noooo…”
Toby sassed, Jeff turned, staring daggers at him.
“We need to keep looking, until your ears start freezing solid.
Then
I’ll phone Kate and have her pick me and
your
ungrateful ass up.”
Jeff grunted, ever stubborn.
Toby was less professional and more “immature” compared to Jeff. He hadn’t wanted to go on this scouting mission in the first place. But Jeff needed to get back into Slender’s good graces after accidentally killing someone of great interest.
They continued walking.
Jack crossed back over the road quickly, still vigilant. He wasn’t going to be caught because he let his guard down at the last minute.
Thankfully it had started to snow, his previous tracks gone. As he walked through the fresh snow, he tried erasing his tracks with his tail, messing up the snow like a tree branch.
It was freezing by the end of it, but his trail was mostly covered. And he was confident that after a few minutes his tracks would be indistinguishable.
He opened the cellar door, hopping in and erasing the last of his tracks as he closed the doors. He quickly took off his boots and hung up his coat on the rudimentary rack he had fashioned on the wall, it was a deer’s antler, drilled and nailed to a support beam.
His home was tiny, barely a root cellar. But it had a couch comfy enough to sleep on and a few boxes of belongings. A tiny mini fridge in the corner with a microwave on top, a few cans of soup and random food items on top of that. The small gas generator close by the door. He put his bag down on a small chair, and opened his rut sack. Kidneys, a hand and a few strips of flesh were carefully wrapped in recycled zipper bags in the sack.
It disgusted him, it really did. But he had to eat. Meat was scarce as it was, and human meat was more of like a medicine. He doses it, so to speak. Because of his “affliction” he needed to eat human meat at least once every few days. Of course today was bordering on his limit. He always put it off as long as he could. The hand, was usually the least disgusting tasting part of humans, so he would save the palm for when he felt like “indulging”.
He usually used the most off putting meat first, to get it out of the way. So he grabbed the kidney and grabbed one of his knives and a plate on his microwave. He cut it up into quarters and kept one on the plate. He put the rest back into the bag and put that and the other pieces in the fridge. Then he grabbed a can of soup, chicken and coconut curry. Yummy. He cut the kidney into tiny pieces, and put it into a hand fashioned metal bowl. He grabbed his hobo stove (a large coffee tin with holes in it) and placed the bowl on top. He grabbed a few pieces of tiny splinters wood from a bucket close to where the stove had been and lit them, a tiny flame flicking to life quickly.
He sat there, waiting for his soup to begin bubbling
After it reached that point he blew out the tiny fire and used a heavy cloth to pick up the bowl. Placing it on a cut tree stump close to the couch to cool as he wound down from this hectic night.
He opened his phone and hit play on his playlist, getting comfy on his couch. After reading some of his manga, he felt his body starting to fall asleep and he put a bookmark in it. Setting it down.
He had a full belly, a warm “bed” and another day of living. He turned his phone off and turned on his mp3 player, a soft song started as he sat back down.
He was content.
He closed his eyes and soon drifted off to sleep, a slight snore.
His tail lay limp trailing off the couch.
It had been roughly an hour and a half since the duo saw their target, they’d walked past an old, obviously abandoned farm property, a trucker washroom stop and even a small bus stop station and gas station combo. Nothing.
“And just like that, we failed.”
Jeff said, throwing his arms down in defeat. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, Toby handed him a lighter.
“I’m telling you, I have a feeling about that house we passed.”
Toby said, twiddling his thumbs. Jeff handed him a single dart.
Jeff took a deep haul, speaking as he exhaled.
“I swear to fucking god Toby, if we check that place and it’s not there, I’m going to equal out your fucking mouth.”
He said, pointing to his cheek, insinuating he’d slice Toby’s undamaged cheek to match his.
“Ya know, I’m lucky my masks metal.”
He said defensively, lighting his dart.
Which it was, it had been fashioned in thin metal, leather and metal straps, to keep him from biting chunks of himself off without realizing.
“Yeah. so lucky…”
Jeff groaned, finishing his cig.
He had flexible skin tone bandages covering his own facial wounds. it was an attempt to keep suspicions to a minimum if they ever came in contact with a regular person. Obviously, Toby’s face covering looked more like a bandana or a weird scarf, but he was forced to wear it at the moment.
Jeff did have the key for it, but only so Toby couldn’t unlock it randomly.
…
They opened the door to the house, it creaked open slowly, dust and decay rampant in the entrance. Ice coming from the ceiling from an obvious hole in the roof, it was unliveable.
They spent a good 15 minutes searching through it looking for clues or signs of inhabitance but there was none. And now, snow was falling heavily, their own tracks having been erased by the time they came back outside.
Jeff was pissed. Toby continued to insist his gut had a feeling.
They checked the barn and the shed too. Nothing. They were about to leave when Toby noticed a pair of cellar doors buried in snow behind the house that they didn’t notice before.
Toby walked up to it quietly, pulling his hood off to listen. As soon as he got to the doors he knew he heard something, music.
He motioned to Jeff to come closer.
They put their ears close to the snow covered doors, hearing the faintest song playing down below.
Jeff looked surprised, Toby was beaming, having
hopefully
found their target.
“What do we do?”
Toby whispered extremely quietly, his giddy voice muffled.
“Sneak in, hope for the best and that we have the advantage. Hopefully the things cornered.”
Jeff replied, matching his barely audible
tone.
He quickly pulled his “
hunting
” knife out of its holder.
Toby unclipped the snaps securing his hatchets on either hip, nodding to Jeff.
Toby carefully opened the doors, a tasteful smell faintly lingering in the air. But then a different smell hit their noses, it was a strong smell of tarnished copper and body odour.
Jeff peeked down and saw a couch, some boxes and a few pieces of rickety furniture littering the small room. Then noticed the tail popping out from under the blanketed heap on the couch.
Jeff turned back and nodded to Toby.
A look of triumph flashing in Jeff’s eyes.
They slinked into the cellar, barely opening the doors as to not let the temp change alert their target.
It was obvious it was asleep.
They stalked up to the couch, the blanket partially covering the monsters face.
Jeff turned his phone to silent and took a photo, sending it to Kate.
It was gray, with long dark hair, longish sharp ears, like an elf and a cat mixed. It mostly looked like a normal person. The rest of it’s body was covered by the blanket, besides it’s tail. It was long and slender, like a whip almost. A small point at the end with a small tuft of dark hair. It had multiple small scars scattered on it too. Bite marks, cuts and burn looking discolourations.
Looked like Hellboy’s tail, Toby thought.
Looked like Nightcrawler’s tail, Jeff thought.
Jeff took a few steps back carefully and took another photo.
He wrote in his notes on his phone for a moment and showed it to Toby.
*Handcuffs?*
Toby nodded after reading it.
Toby scrambled to quietly grab them, Jeff walked around and carefully lifted the blanket with the tip of his knife to show more of the… target.
It was obvious this thing was either dead or sleeping heavily. Jeff thought.
It was wearing a raggy tshirt, a small bracelet on it’s left arm and it’s clawed hands were curled together under it’s face.
It looked rather peaceful, for something that was a merciless man-eater.
Supposedly
.
If this was Stripes, she would have been trying to claw Jeff’s jugular out as soon as Toby started ruffling through his bag, maybe even before.
Well, now that he thought about it, it probably would have attacked them in the forest when it heard them if it were a spawn of Zalgo.
Weird, because it looked like the perfect definition of a Zalgo-esk monster.
He noticed the dirty cut in half coffee can on the wood round, a spoon sitting in it, is this thing like homeless? Jeff cocked his head, looking at the room closer.
Most of Zalgo’s children had some type of home, or were at the very least equipped with basic necessities if they needed them to Jeff’s knowledge.
This thing had a couple battered cardboard boxes, a fridge and microwave that were obviously from a dump or something similar, and a ripped up grubby as all fuck couch to sleep on. It reeked of stale food and rotten meat somewhere, and there was a few beaten up books by the couch. A tiny, red mp3 player was plugged into an outdated portable aux speaker on top of the books playing random forest sounding tunes and songs.
That was it.
Jeff was curious.
Toby finally held up the pair of position locking handcuffs, a smile in his eyes.
Everything was telling Jeff to just lock the things hands up now, while they were at the front of it, curled together. But he wanted to see something.
The carefully stroked his finger along the things hair, ever so slightly touching its ear in the process.
The ear twitched, but only slightly, like how a cats does when it’s asleep.
A muscle in it’s hands twitched to, but it stayed asleep. The knife was only a few inches from his head, but Jeff didn’t feel like it would be needed.
Toby had walked around to watch, he was just staring at it curiously.
He pulled out his phone and typed something onto it, showing Jeff.
“I think cute, reminds me of my cat”
Jeff just gave Toby a judgmental look back.
Toby raised his arms as if to say “hey dude cmon”.
Jeff blew him off, shaking his head.
He noticed out of the corner of his eye, a wallet sticking out of a coat pocket that was hanging off the a hook in the corner of the room.
He walked over, quietly pulling it out and opening it. It was dusty inside, obviously not used or opened in a long time. A few gift cards or loyalty cards in the slots, receipts, a few fivers. And there it was. A school ID hidden in a pocket. He pulled it out, examining it carefully.
University of Red River polytechnic.
A green RRP logo above a photo of a young man, smiling wide. Medium length brown hair, dark gray, almost black eyes bright and clear in the photo. He looked like a nice guy. Jeff wondered if this was a memento from a victim of the monster.
Jack Nyras, the ID said.
Under it was another ID.
A younger photo of this “Jack Nyras” was smiling slightly at Jeff. Cute guy, too bad he’s probably dead, and by the looks of this place, eaten and digested.
Making Jeff feel queasy.
A slight grumble came from the thing sleeping and it got Jeff’s attention.
Toby was inches from the things face, just watching it with fascination.
Jeff hurried over, his hand in his pocket grabbing Toby’s muzzle key.
He pulled Toby back by his coat collar, holding the key up. He pointed to it on Toby and then made a “give it” motion with his hand.
Toby just looked puzzled but did what he was “told”, unlocking and handing the muzzle over to Jeff.
Who had a very devious look on his face as he removed his cheek bandages.
It was quiet when Jack opened his eyes, cold air seeping through his body.
He was in a dark room, shafts of light coming through metal cell bars.
There was a hallway it looked like, and that was all there was beyond the bars.
The cheap cot creaked and groaned under Jack’s weigh as he shifted to sit up, his tail coiled tightly to his one leg. His ears were cold, his feet felt clammy and almost frost bitten. A shiver crawling up his spine as he set them down on the cold cement floor.
But he a sense that something wasn’t right.
They were normal looking, but they felt off.
His tail slipped from the bed, it was red with a sharp spaded tip, like a devil tail.
Jack started to breath faster and faster.
“Jack Nyras?”
A disembodied voice called, seemingly from the hallway. But nobody was there.
“Y-yes…?”
Jack choked out, in a voice he hadn’t heard in years.
“You have now been found guilty, of 36 counts of first degree murder, 21 counts of second degree murder, 4 counts of man slaughter, 11 counts of body snatching, 70 Desecration of a corpse charges, 67 violations of Human tissue transportation laws, that we know of, 35 counts of breaking and entering, 12 counts of trespassing, 3 counts of aggravated assault, 5 counts of possessing an illegal weapon, and 3 counts of criminal intimidation with intent to harm or kill.”
A man finally walks into view, he was buff and in full officer attire. A baton and a gun on his one hip, pepper spray and taser on the other, another officer walked up behind him, holding his hand out. The first officer handed him the clip board he had after flipping through the last few pages and turned to the cell.
“Please put your hands through the slot.”
He said, pointing to a small opening in the cell door, just big enough for his hands to go through.
Jack’s head hurt, he felt hollow inside. What? How could he…? How could he do so many horrible horrible things…?
Jack just stood up, his body moving by itself.
The walk over to it felt agonizing, random itching in his hair and pins and needles in his legs and tail. He felt half asleep still.
He slid down against the bars and dropped his hands through the slot.
Cold metal latching unceremoniously onto his wrists, the cold making him shiver.
“What a monster”
The guard said. Jack felt metaphorical knives in his back.
Did he really do all those things?
“Glad the judge gave you the death sentence. Lethal injection. I hope it hurts.”
The guard said with inhuman amounts of malice.
A cold sensation was felt over his face and he got scared, because there wasn’t anything he could see touching it. But he felt it.
Then he heard a loud click and it shocked him awake.
He shook his head to wake himself up, thinking it was just the dream until resistance on his wrists forced him to open his eyes. There he saw a pair of shiny silver handcuffs, glinting as they constricted his movements.
He raised his hands to his mouth, a metal contraption, a muzzle of some sort it felt like, locked around his head with a dead bolt and metal supports.
Fear and panic shot through him, his ears shooting up in alarm.
He scooted to sit up on his couch, scanning the room. That’s when he saw them. Two figures watching him from two corners of his home. One it seemed guarded the door, his only exit. The other near his old coat, studying him intently.
The exit “guarder” had dark clothing on, mostly all shades of black or dark brown. Any skin was covered, even their hands. Black fingerless gloves curled around a neon orange hatchet handle. Brown curls and wisps of hair spilling out from under a hood. The only colour on them was a black and white hat with a yellow emblem on it. They were hiding almost completely in the shadows, but the glow of soft light from his lantern illuminated them.
But the hatchet on his belt and the one in his hand made Jack nervous.
The other intruder was different, slightly taller for one. They had long jet black hair freely flowing out from their white, although heavily stained, hoodie. They looked comedically pale, their sleeves pushed up to their forearms. Gnarly burn scars or chemical scars were covering them like full sleeve tattoos. The large hunting knife glinted in the strangers hand.
Scarred, strong hands with thick fingers curling around the handle with a silent threat.
Fuck this wasn’t good.
This is how he gets caught, this is how he dies.
That dream must have been a sign.
Jacks mind started to spiral, but he kept his outward cool. Hoping he could worm his way somehow out of this situation. Although it didn’t look good.
He stayed silent, but made it known he saw both people. He sat there, for what felt like a life time. His heart pounding, waiting for his “visitors” to speak or make a move.
…
“Soooo…”
The taller
man
spoke.
Jack turned his head to look at him, but still keeping the other in his line of sight.
The room felt heavy, the air tense.
There was more silence, making Jack want to speak but he held his tongue.
…
Nothing.
Neither intruder spoke, or really moved. Jack was feeling more and more panicked. Neither party was making a move and it was killing him. He knew they were trying to get him to fill the silence but he felt choked.
…
Several minutes must have passed, the silence was becoming unbearable.
He was about to speak when the dark shadowy figure started.
“Jeff, can you just fucking get on with it…?”
The other
man
said, pinching his nose in annoyance.
“Yeah good job T-T-Toby. Just give this thing our full government names too why don’t you?”
“Jeff” said, obviously aggravated as he purposefully, mockingly, stuttered.
The thing comment hitting Jack hard, making him feel the prick of a few tears but he shrugged them off.
“Do you understand English…?”
He said.
Jack tilted his head.
What kind of question is that?
He cleared his throat.
“Yes, obviously”
Jack said, he wanted to be snappy but he didn’t want to risk a fight if he could avoid it.
“Oh thank fuck.”
“Toby” sighed, seeming relaxed now.
Jeff took a few steps forward.
“Good, so you’ll be able to answer my questions. We can be civil?”
Jeff said, getting closer, knife still in his hand.
“Yes, if you can put that away. I’m already handcuffed.”
Jack asked.
Jeff looked down and back up.
“*Heh* No.”
He laughed, started walking into the light.
Jack felt salt rub in the wound.
But then seeing the strangers face made him regain his sense of fear over the situation.
He was pale, more scars covering his face but also, his cheeks were both slashed, gaping open.
They were healed but it looked like he had his jaw almost cut off.
Both his eyes also scarred and really unevenly scarred. One looking like most of his eyelid was gone or scarred over, the other bulging out slightly, missing most of his eyelashes on the top and a gash going down his cheek, similar to a tear streak.
Jack tried to hide his uneasiness but the man obviously wasn’t a stranger to that
face. The wondering, judgmental eyes.
That face.
“Yeah I’m a real looker huh..?”
He laughed, his disfigured smile curling unnaturally.
“But then again, so are you.”
He continued, now a foot or so away from Jack, he knelt down a bit to be at eye level.
He had such an abnormal smirk, even without his damaged cheeks.
Now face to face Jack saw how parts of his face were scarred from injury and what looked like being melted. His nose half gone, his neck scarred and twisted. He was definitely not one to judge character, or was he? He seemed like someone somehow worthy to judge others appearances.
“So monster, what brought you to our neck of the woods?”
He asked, cocking his head to the side slyly.
“I’ve been here for years, what do you mean? And I do have a name…”
Jack said calmly.
Jeff looked puzzled.
“Okayyy, why have you been taking out my masters underlings?”
He asked, inching closer.
“Who? Am I supposed to know who they are?”
Jack asked.
“You’re taking them out. You’re killing people.”
Jeff continued.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Jack said, if he wasn’t handcuffed he would have crossed his arms.
“Toby look around for evidence.”
Jeff said, Toby started walking towards Jacks stuff.
“You aren’t cops, no way”
Jack said quietly, observing Toby shuffle through his belongings.
“Nah, but we are investigating.”
Jeff replied, staring at Jack.
“Just my luck.”
Jack grumbled under his breath.
Without warning Jeff closed the distance between them in a blink, the hunting knife at Jack’s throat.
“What was that?”
Jeff asked, his eyes wild.
“Just. My. Luck.”
Jack said slowly and carefully. The hair on his neck touching the knife, making it stand on end.
“Hey Jeff, might wanna see this. I think I found out what’s been happening to slenders n-noob proxies…”
Toby said, having opened the fridge and was checking inside. He seemed a tad uncomfortable, Jack knew why.
“Lookie lookie…”
Jeff said as he waltzed over.
“Oh fuck that’s gross…”
He said as soon as he noticed Jacks meat bag, obviously having seen the human hand.
“It actually… eats people…”
Jeff said, seemingly holding back the urge to puke.
Toby didn’t seem
that
effected.
“Need to…”
Jack said softly, quietly.
Jeff noticed and walked back.
“You what.?”
Jess asked, perplexed.
“I need to eat human flesh in order to survive…”
Jack said with regret, a pain in his voice.
“Fucking gross.”
Jeff cursed, scrutinizing Jack.
Him and Toby started walking over to the couch, Toby lagging behind Jeff.
“Yeah well thank Chernabog for that one, or more specifically Jenny…”
Jack said with sadness clear in his voice.
“What?”
Jeff looked perplexed.
“Yeah I second that, what?”
Toby asked.
Jack just felt cornered and vulnerable, but he figured honestly would help his situation.
“It’s a long story…”
He started.
“We h-ave all the time in the world…”
Toby said.
“Yeah what that stuttery fag said.”
Jeff said, Jack felt a stab at that word.
He felt uncomfortable, and scared. Also ashamed and guilty.
“I was turned into…this.”
Jack said, his hands opening reflexively as if to motion to his body.
He looked up to the two men, opening his damaged eyes wide.
“They took out my eyes, poured hot tar and stuff into the cavities….obviously after the ritual they grew back but they’re not the same.”
Jack said with great sadness in his voice.
“I was just a normal collage freshman, I made a friend, some girl, she was super nice, always helped me with my biochem homework…”
Jack continued, imagining Jenny before that horrible night. Jeff just groaned.
He curled his legs up to his chest a bit.
She was such a kind person, and friendly to everyone. But looking back now he realized she was just like a carnivorous plant. Luring her victims in before striking. Jeff realized something and started to put the pieces together.
Jack would never be such a heartless fake, at least he shows his victims the kindness to discard their remains respectfully and not toy with them for fun. Or only hunted people that were obviously bad people, like know abusers or pedophiles. He felt no joy or pleasure killing people, it was only out of necessity. For the greater good.
He knew how monsters like him react if they don’t “feed”. They rampage, massacre and go on killing sprees. And usually, those ended with them being killed.
Jack wanted to hold out hope that somehow he’d be able to have a somewhat normal life if he tried hard, but it wasn’t very realistic.
Jeff had noticed the thing getting distracted by something, staring off into space.
He snapped his fingers in front of him and he snapped out of it.
“So wait, are you
Jack Nyras
?”
Jeff asked.
Jacks eyes flickered at the mention of his name. He hadn’t heard anyone actually say his name for years. He didn’t have any videos or recordings of anybody saying it on his phone, so hearing it made him want to cry.
“Yes…”
Jack said, his voice breaking.
“Wow, if
you
turned into
this
, I’m scared what I’d look like…”
Jeff said, unintentionally hurting Jacks feelings further.
Who just curled up more into a ball on the couch.
Toby punched Jeff hard without warning in the shoulder, scowling at him.
“The FUCK was that for!?”
Jeff screeched.
“You don’t h-ave to be an apathetic asshole all the t-time. He’s in fucking cuffs and has my muzzle on already.”
Toby blurted out, looking winded when he finished.
Jeff just scowled back.
“How did you know my name..? Are…are my parents looking for me…?”
Jack said, a flicker of hope in his eyes.
“Parents? No. I found your ID.”
Jeff said bluntly.
Toby kicked his calf, giving him another scowl.
“What? What did I do wrong this time?”
Jeff asked, pissed off.
Toby didn’t say anything he just gave Jeff a look.
Jack felt a sad pant in his heart, he held hope maybe they had put up missing posters or there had been something go out when he went missing but it seemed not.
He felt like just giving up.
Jeff whistled, getting Jack attention and looking up. There was a bright flash and a shutter sound.
Great and now there was explicit evidence of him and his appearance.
Jack just looked on with sadness.
“Alright, Kates on her way. She should be here in about ten.”
Jeff told Toby, who nodded and started looking around.
“W-what…?”
Jack squeaked out.
“You’re coming with us, do you have anything you want to bring with you? You might not see anything in here again.”
Jeff said, bluntly.
Jack felt rushed and panicked.
“Uh-I…My-C-can I pack a box?”
Jack tried to keep a level head, but his brain was scrambled.
“Yeah I’ll help you.”
Toby said, obviously trying to calm him down.
He packed a few mementos in a small box, and some sentimental items.
“Kate” arrived quickly, pulling up along the highway.
“‘Kay, the Bitch is here… Alright “Jack” here comes the bad part”
Jeff said, groaning as he started pulling something out of his bag.
{Oh fuck what now?}
Jack thought.
Toby had a look of sadness on him, he grabbed his bag and the box and started walking up to the car.
“Now… let’s do this easy okay?”
Jeff pulled out a large leather bag out and shook it out. It was a body bag.
Jack cowered into the couch.
“I’m just gonna put you in the bag, that way you don’t know where we’re going or how you got there. Just let me put you in the bag and we’ll be off. Nothing bad will happen to you.”
Jeff said, finally trying to sound calm and unthreatening. As if he didn’t want this to happen, that it was simply his job or something.
Jack just decided it didn’t matter anymore.
He was done.
He was done for.
“Whatever.”
Jack got stuffed into the body bag, his tail getting caught in the zipper, only a dry cough from Jeff in the form of an apology.
“Fuck…”
Jack cursed as the skin got pinched in between the teeth of the zipper.
“Mm”
Jeff huffed.
“Hurry up!”
Toby could be heard from outside, obviously anxious to leave.
The snow was chilling him to the bone as Jack was dragged through the snow while in the body bag. He could smell gasoline, lots of old blood, cig and pot smoke. It reeked of young adults with no limits or responsibilities.
He got hoisted up and then unceremoniously dropped into what felt like a back seat. Then the car door closed and the engine roared to life. He heard some grunts and keys jiggling.
“Yep that’s the one. Surprised you didn’t jump i-…
him
… yourself..”
Jeff seemed to be saying to someone, but there was nobody else talking. His tone was raunchy, obviously suggesting
something
.
“Jeff, just because you’re a sex deviant doesn’t mean everybody else is. Especially Kate, obviously.”
Toby spoke up, obviously a bit ticked off.
“Yeah yeah, well
I’m
not
the one who assumed what I said meant anything vulgar, stutter boy…”
Jeff growled back.
“Take it as a learned behaviour then,
Jeff
.
Jeff The
killer…
huh, ha ha ha… the most
overrated
killer. “Hey everyone,
go to sleep…
! Or at least cover your eyes so I can figure my
shit out!!!
” “
Toby spits back.
Jack just zoned out, accepting his fate.
He’s as good as dead, he knew it. Despite his captors pretending to be polite or nice, they wanted his head.
This is how he died, he thought. Closing his eyes as his kidnapper continued to scream and argue, hurling insult after insult.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The second chapter is almost done! I am just taking my time to make sure it’s cohesive and how I want it to be