Chapter 11 - Jeff

'Twitching bastard...', I stood up from the floor still rubbing the side of my cheek, while blood started to come out of my nose.

I had the day off, so I decided to chill around the grounds. The cemetery next to the Mansion was always a peaceful place, so I would roam around sometimes, sitting among the dead. I was on my way there when I saw Toby come out of the Mansion, minus the girl. Hoodie and Masky were walking behind him, keeping up his pace.

"Hey! What happened? Where's the girl?" I couldn't help my curiosity, and it wasn't often that I saw Toby in such a state of distraught. 'What did Slender do now...'.

Hoodie looked at me, shaking his head. "Not now Jeff".

"Shit, ok, I was just asking", I said, raising my hands as a sign I meant no harm.

Toby just ignored us, walking right past us. His face was unreadable because of his goggles and facemask, but I knew he was having a crisis because of the way his body twitched and jerked. I knew better than to mess with Toby when he was like this, his hands were always dangerously resting over his hatchets and I wasn't looking forward to removing one of those from my arm.

Masky leaned over, making sure Toby wouldn't hear him. "We're gonna be out tonight and won't be back until tomorrow... For Toby's sake, if the girl is still alive after whatever Slender does to her, keep her safe?", he whispered.

'Huh...'

"Yeah, I'll pick up the little pieces that are left behind for him", I replied, almost laughing under my breath "make a cute little collage".

"Don't do anything stupid, Jeff."

"Jesus fucking christ why is everyone so on edge for this girl?? Fine, yeah, I'll keep her safe, whatever that means..."

Walking inside the Mansion, I heard the screaming and muffled sounds coming out of Slender's office. While I didn't know exactly what was going on inside, I knew what it was like to get on Slender's bad side. The breaking of bones, hallucinations, tricks and his flair for the dramatic. Slender was a master manipulator, and knew exactly how to mock you and get under your skin. I almost felt bad for this girl, almost.

I slouched down on a couch, just nearby the office, waiting for Slender to finish with her. But the hours passed and the screams didn't stop.

It was already nightfall when the door opened, and this passed out girl was dumped outside his office like yesterday's trash. She looked like a ragdoll, covered in blood and half dead.

"Jeffrey... Be nice and take her to one of the vacant rooms.", Slender said inside my head. I hated that, it made me feel violated. Slender's voice was almost giddy, excited, like he just had a blast torturing this girl.

He closed the door without much care, leaving her outside.

'Classy, dude...'

I stood up, keeping my word of trying to care for this girl once Slender was done. She was still breathing, barely, but she was alive. I crouched next to her, trying to pick her up in my arms. Her face was all messed up, with streams of blood coming out of her eyes and her mouth. Her clothes were dirty, stained with puke and blood and... 'Flesh? Did she kill someone in there?'

I decided to take her up to my room instead. I could clean her up a bit there. The vacant rooms in the house were all nicely decorated, like the rest of the mansion, but people came and went all the time. A lot of them were dirty or in some sort of disarray. Besides, it would be best if she woke up in a place that didn't look like a dungeon.

'Toby is gonna flip...', while carrying her I took a better look at her body. By the way her left arm was twisted at an odd angle I knew Slender had broken it. She was badly beaten, but I could guess that her mind was in a worse state.

"Hi, kitten...", I whispered as softly as I could when I saw her half opening her eyes. We were halfway to my room, and I could see she was trying her best to stay awake. "Are you hurt? Is all this blood yours?"

It was like I had lit a fire in her. She widened her eyes, looking up at me "stop, let me go! Who the fuck are you?! Ou-" she winced when she tried to move her broken arm.

"Relax, it's me, Jeff. We met earlier, remember? Your jackass boyfriend punched me in the face?", I said not trying to hide my bitterness.

"Toby...", she said, frowning. "Can you put me down, Jeff? I can walk", her voice was raspy and strained.

"No, I won't take any chances. You're badly hurt and for Toby's sake and mine, I'm keeping you safe, kitten"

"Stop calling me that", she barked.

"Well, you haven't told me your name, so what am I supposed to call you? Dumbass?"

"It's Y/N. Put me down, Jeff", she said, trying to wiggle her way out of my arms.

"Ok, Dumbass it is. And I already said no, so stop wiggling around. You look pathetic", I replied with a self satisfied smirk. She looked like she was going to say something, but instead she simply rolled her eyes, most likely too tired to retort. "Now, can you tell me if you're hurt?", I continued, -"I could call a doctor."

"You guys have doctors?", she said, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, sort of," I said, shrugging. I suppose they were doctors, once. At the very least they'll know how to mend a bone. "Can you answer the damn question, Dumbass?"

"My arm is broken, my head hurts and my legs feel like hell"

I nodded in response, thinking of a way to call for Smile or EJ. We had arrived at my bedroom by then, so I decided to put her down. She was looking wearily at my room, and without giving her time to change her mind, I pushed her inside. Maybe a little too hard because she came crashing down to the floor.

'Oops...'

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!"

"Sorry, I'm not used to being careful with humans, you know? I murder them, not care for them. Is all that blood on your hoodie yours?"I closed the door behind me, and walked over to my closet to find something clean for her.

"No... ", her eyes were fixated to the floor.

"What happened?" I said, trying to hand her over an old tshirt. Her eyes wouldn't meet mine, and she wouldn't acknowledge the clothes I was giving her either. "Hey, Dumbass, what's wrong? What happened?".

'What did Slender-'

"He made me kill her. I-... I thought it was my dad, an illusion. Toby explained how Slender is, I thought it was fake. Because my dad is dead, I saw him, I found him. I was a k-kid, but I knew he was dead. So I thought it wasn't real, I thought he was playing with me. So I k-killed it. I killed it. Like Slenderman asked me to, because I thought he would stop hurting me and everything hurt, so much, so mu-ch. But th-then... It wasn't him. It wasn't my dad. It wasn't a hallucination... She, I killed her-", her eyes were frantic and she was looking all over the room like her mind was reliving what had happened, she was shaking and talking hysterically. I had to listen intently to understand what she was saying.

"My aunt, it wasn't my dad, it was my- my aunt", she finally said at the verge of losing it. "I killed my aunt".

'Oh shit...'

"Kitten... It's not your fault. He does that, he's done that with all of us at some point."

"How do you live with that thing, how do you work for him-", she choked up.

"We don't have a choice, and if I'm not mistaken I don't think you have one either now, kitten...", I replied somberly. 'If she killed someone, if Slender made her kill someone. Is she part of this shitshow now too?'

Her face transformed from distraught and anger to hopelessness. I didn't know how much she knew about Slenderman and how you became a member of his little creepy family, but once you've killed someone for him there was no going back. He made sure of that.

"Don't worry about that for now. I'll let Toby explain when he comes back tomorrow. Now go to my bathroom, wash that puke from your hair and change into these."

"No, tell me Jeff. What the fuck happens now? Is tricking me into killing my own aunt not enough for that sicko?! Crushing my arm? Beating me up? I'm crying blood, Jeff! Blood!", she shouted at me, taking me aback a bit. I hadn't noticed, but she was crying blood.

"Look," I said, trying to calm her down. 'I shouldn't have to deal with this, fucking hell'. "Slender has a way of tying people down to this place and making them kill for him. It starts with a kill, usually, or you go full psycho and kill a bunch of people; but in one way or another you basically sell your soul to the devil. You think you can escape now? Run to the cops? No, he will make you look guilty for your aunt's murder. By this time tomorrow the cops will be looking for you, and I am willing to bet my ass that he also found a way to pin down the diner murders to you too."

'Blood is still slowly coming out of her eyes, she's gonna be like BEN or EJ. Gross'. 

She was in shock, and I could almost see realization washing over her like cold water. Y/N was fucked, but we all were. 'She'll get used to it, she has to...'

When she didn't say anything, I decided to break the silence before she had another mental breakdown. I was growing tired of this babysitting shit.

"Just go to the bathroom and wash up. I'll get someone to mend that arm for you and see if he broke anything else, ok? Go".

She was still shaking, and scarily quiet, but I grabbed her good arm and I helped her to the bathroom.

Once I heard the water running, I left and locked the bedroom from the outside. I couldn't trust her not to do something stupid and I needed to look for BEN. I couldn't leave her, and who knew where EJ and Smile were. At least BEN could glitch his way to EJ.

"BEN, where the fuck are you?! I need a favor...", I started shouting at him around the Mansion. "BEN!"

"What.", BEN said, appearing right behind me.

"Stop doing that shit, jesus", I said annoyedly, frowning at him. "I need you to find EJ or Smile, whoever is available."

"Why? You broke your dick jerking off?", he said with a big grin.

'I swear I'm going to make Toby pay for making me deal with this shit... I don't have the patience.'

"Just fucking find them, please?"

"Fine, but you owe me", before I could reply he glitched out and disappeared. Leaving me alone in the living room.

I waited for him for a few minutes, until he appeared back with a solem looking EJ.

"Here, I gotta go. You'll pay up later, dick."

'I swear I'm going to kill everyone in this Mansion'.

"You asked for me?", EJ said, the duality in his voice giving me the heebie jeebies. As much as I've known EJ for many years now, the fact that he has a literal demon inside of him always gave me the creeps.

"Yeah, I have a... Human," I hesitated at that, "sort of. Well point is, she is in need of your medical services".

"No.", he said pointedly.

"EJ, you won't fuck this one up and it's for Toby. Seriously, you'll see what I mean. Come on, please. I'm growing tired of this shit, it's not even my human toy.", I was almost begging at this point. I just wanted everything to be over and be by myself again.

"They're not toys."

"Says the guy who eats them", I said, rolling my eyes.

"I don't play with my food", he simply said, shrugging before following me up the stairs, "fine... I'm intrigued. Maybe there's hope for this one".

Opening my bedroom door, I saw Y/N sitting on my bed. She had washed up her face, and changed into my shirt. Now that she wasn't wearing a hoodie I saw the bruises all over her neck and her arms. Most of her body looked battered and hurt. A small stream of bloody tears was still rolling down her face, but it wasn't as jarring as it was before. Her broken arm was dropped uncomfortably to her side and she was looking at the floor, moving her foot around anxiously.

"Hey, kitten-", I felt EJ's stare down on me. "Ahem, oi, Dumbass. I brought you a doctor to fix you up."

"Good safe, Jeff", EJ said, walking past me towards Y/N. "Hi, my name is EJ. I'm not a doctor, but I did go to medical school for a while. I could help you". His voice was low and cold, but the demon inside of him wasn't as prominent as it was before. Still, it was almost soothing in a way.

'He's smooth, I'll give him that...'

"I don't think I have a choice, or so I've learned", she was still weary, but EJ had a way with humans. I suppose because he fell in love with one once, and learned how to treat them nicely. Until he ate her that is.

"Well, there's always a choice. Only in this case, your other choice is losing your arm to infection and sepsis", he said humorously. She looked up at him, deadpanned.

EJ started working on Y/N's arm, her face was expressionless, even when EJ moved her around. It was like she had lost herself, and whatever was going on inside her head was probably better left alone. The fact that Slender tricked her into killing her own family was low, even for him, but she would eventually learn how to live with that. We all did eventually and she would as well.

"Ok, remove your shirt, I want to check there are no open wounds or broken ribs", EJ said. I decided to leave them both alone, I had already done my part anyway and I needed some air.

By the time I came back, EJ was closing the door, leaving Y/N alone inside. "She's one of us now, Jeff. I can't believe Toby was so reckless, so selfish... One innocent person, now lost in this mess", EJ said sternly, the duality of his voice becoming stronger and more intimidating -"she's in shock, and will need some time before she's back to being herself... If she ever will be. Idiots."

"Hey, don't blame me, I just picked up the pieces. Blame Toby and his impulsivity, he's the one who fucked her over".

EJ continued past me, too angry with the whole situation to reply. I decided to walk in, it was my damn room after all.

"Hey...", I said tentatively, -"Y/N, I should take you to your room, and... Sleep."

Without saying a word she stood up, still looking down at the floor. Stains of blood adorning her face like streams down her cheeks and neck.

I took her to a room, close enough to mine, but far enough so that I could have some peace. I had done my part, it wasn't my problem anymore.

So I left her there, in the empty room alone.

- A/N -

Hi guys, just checking in.

I wanted to apologize, I know I'm not the best writer. I'm still having fun making this story though, but I wanted to know if someone is reading?

Happy Halloween!