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“You hungry?”
Jack turned from his anatomy book and tilted his head up at Jeff.
For many, this question may come off as a friendly lead up to a follow up question such as “Want a snack?” Or maybe something more romantic such as “Want to go get dinner?”
To the cannibal and the killer placed opposite each other, however, it had very different implications.
Jack, always the quiet type, gave a simple nod and got up quietly. Jeff leaned against the door frame and watched as the masked boy put away his book and notes, turning all the lights off and tucking in the chair like a good mannered young man.
Jeff had half the mind to laugh. How well mannered could a cannibal be?
The hooded boy tucked a carefully sheathed scalpel (Jack had made the cover himself when he’d once torn the inner pocket of his hoodie open) into his pocket, as well as a small, heavily blood stained bag.
“Ready to go, corpse skin?” Jeff teased. Jack, whose skin was tinted a pale blue much like a corpse, nodded his head and followed Jeff out the door, closing it behind him.
“Where would you two be off too at this time of night?”
Jack looked over his shoulder and saw the lithe form of a black suited man who had no face; Slenderman, the owner of the mansion.
“What do you think, pops?” Jeff asked sarcastically, not stopping his trek down the stairs, and consequently neither did Jack.
“Another date night?”
“Who the hell said that?!”
“You needn’t be particularly sharp to notice, Jeffrey. Even Laughing Jack has.”
“Well, whatever!”
Jeff took Jack by the wrist and sped to the mansion door, trying to keep his face out of sight. Though it was pointless, Jack considered, as his face was so damaged that you’d have to study his face before you could notice that he was blushing.
Luckily, Jack was a professor in the subject.
“We’re going out, Jack’s hungry and I’m itching to get my hands dirty.”
“You went out last night, surely you aren’t that bloodthirsty and Jack isn’t hungry yet?” Slender scoffed, though he knew what their true intentions were and was merely patronizing them for his own amusement.
“Shut up, no face.” And with that, they left the mansion, disappearing into the forest, now hand in hand instead of wrist in hand.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“P-please, let my go, I won’t speak a word, I swear!”
The begging woman’s words were drowned out by gargled screams, which were soon over projected by Jeff’s own manic laughter.
Jack, meanwhile, was observing the red spider lily that had somehow bloomed in the dirt path before him.
He’d never been especially fond of the killing part of his life, he’d never found death particularly interesting. All he cared about was feeding his hunger, what did it matter should his prey live or die? In fact, when he did have to kill, he tended to find it tedious. His prey would always make the same decision, there was no variety.
Jeff, on the other hand, was obsessed with it. He could drown in ecstasy at the sound his victims made when they screamed, practically got high off the smell of blood; what euphoria he experienced when killing! His favorite part, above all, was watching the light drown from his victims faces as he sank his knife into their warm, squishy body. He drank away the life from their eyes with his own.
Sometimes, he smiled so wide whilst killing, he tore his own scars and began bleeding himself.
Tonight was one of those nights.
He got up and whipped his blood away from his torn cheek with his wrist, and groaned in annoyance.
“Bloody hell,” he laughed half heartedly to himself. “Get it? Bloody?”
The other boy simply turned to look at him, his mask giving out no emotion. Not even a quite “Ha” under his breath.
“Tch, whatever,” Jeff ticked.
“Do your thing.” He gestured to the bloody body beneath him.
As Jack did his work, Jeff thought absent mindedly about their nights together. ‘Dates’ as Slender had called it, which Jeff still wrinkled his nose at.
Though, it wouldn’t be too far off if he were to be honest with himself.
They’d started a month ago, he’d noticed Jack was hungry and allowed him to come with him on his murders to eat. Jack was quite, practically silent, which Jeff appreciated. Everyone else at the mansion, that he ran into anyway, talked to much.
The other Jack was just a chatterbox, Slender only cared to discuss things Jeff didn’t even bother trying to understand, and Hoodie and Masky were just freaks. All Ben ever talked about was his video games, and for Sally, well, she was a child.
So the nights he spent with Eyeless Jack were nice, peaceful if not for the murder part. He’d come to enjoy the other boys presence. He listened to him ramble; whether it was the insane ramblings of a serial killer or the ramblings of a teenage boy, he listened. As for the few times Jack himself talked, Jeff listened. He found what Jack had to say valuable.
They’d started holding hands.
At first it was so that they wouldn’t lose each other when they were running through the forest from the police, but even when they’d gotten away safely, they’d both found they didn’t want to let go. It felt nice, even if it was such a small physical touch, it felt nice.
Jeff was broken from his thoughts at the horrible noise of Jack gnawing away at the raw organ he’d harvested. It was gone within minutes, which made Jeff laugh.
Slender was wrong.
Jack was hungry.
“Damn,” Jeff laughed. “Wanna go get ano-“
Jack turned to look at Jeff. He’d taken his mask off to eat, he always did, but he hadn’t bothered to put it back on before looking back at him.
Where his eyes were meant to be was instead dead black holes that looked as if they’d sunk into Jacks head rather than ever actually held anything. Black ooze was dripping out of them, dried to his face with new droplets coming and falling out ever so occasionally.
Though the rest of his body was tinted blue, it had nothing compared to his face. His entire face was corpse blue, with pieces on his right cheek tearing off and rotting; was the boy just and undead corpse?
His lips were covered in blood, and was slightly open. He had sharp, pointed teeth, and he could see an inhuman tongue licking the blood off his lips ever so hesitantly.
‘He’s beautiful…’ Jeff thought dementedly.
Jack noticed Jeff’s pause and looked down, reaching up to pull his mask back down as if disappointed with his reaction.
Jeff blushed and looked down, thankful his leather like skin made his blush near unnoticeable.
But Jack noticed. The blue faced boy took a step toward Jeff, then another, then another, until he was tipping his chin down to look at the shorter boy. He’d be staring him in the eyes if he had them.
He observed his face, studied its intricate details, the way the scar tissue of his engraved smile had healed; the way the skin pattern mismatched the rest of his bleached face. The rough blackness surrounding both of his eyes, like eternal bruises.
He had no eyebrows, the skin far too thick and the roots long dead. And yet Jack could still perfectly read his expression without the strips of hair giving him the cues that were so vital to everyone else.
Whenever other people saw Jeff, they screamed, they ran, they found his mutilated face horrifying.
Jack found it captivating.
Jeff looked back up at him, the blush gone and replaced with embarrassment and annoyment.
“You need something, corpse face?”
Jeff stares straight through Jack, trying not to stare at the beautiful rot on his cheek.
Jack stayed silent, as always. His eyebrows furrowed and he looked contemplative.
Jeff stood there, watching the minuscule details on Jacks face change and contort ever so slightly, almost unnoticeably. But, as Jack could notice his own hidden details, Jeff could notice his.
Before he could say something witty to break the cannibal (could Jeff even call him that? Was he human?) Jack swiftly took Jeff’s hand in his.
There was a moment where either boy was too shocked and nervous to do anything, say anything.
But Jeff, being the rash boy he was, spoke harshly, “The hell do you think you’re doing?!”
Jack didn’t reply, just stood there. He held Jeff’s hand silently, didn’t move, his muscles didn’t even twitch; he didn’t reach to bring his mask down.
Jeff looked at Jack, ready for anything.
But nothing came. The taller boy did nothing.
Jeff huffed heavily, feeling the tension in his body release with his breath. He turned his head slightly to look at their hands. He adored the way his snow white skin contrasted against the pale blue hand holding his.
He slowly, hesitantly, let himself rest his head against Jack’s chest. He breathed in the other boys scent. He could smell the rot of his flesh; he found it lovely.
His body was cold but he didn’t mind, the softness of his jacket provided enough comfort that he didn’t mind the chill of his skin.
Jack squeezed Jeff’s hand gently. The eyeless cannibal was intoxicated by the foreign warmth of the black haired boys body, in love with the way it melted the chill from his skin.
His hand was oddly soft, an alien texture amongst the rest of his body. Warm and soft. Jack was in love with it.
Jack raised his hand gently put it on Jeff’s head, feeling his hair. He heard the soft intake of breath from the smaller boy and felt the almost unnoticeable squeeze of Jeff’s hand in his. He let his mouth form an amused smile.
Jeff was nervous.
The raven haired boy had come to mansion when he was 12, he’d never been particularly close or affectionate to anyone before he’d arrived. Now he was 16, and the last 4 years of his life he’d spent surrounded by monsters and killers, murdering people as much as he liked. He'd never been close to any of the others, and he certainly didn’t have any human friends.
Jack couldn’t help but wonder, was this the most affection he’d gotten in the last 4 years?
Jack slowly dug his fingers into Jeff’s messy hair, it was so thick. It was a little greasy, he imagined the boy didn’t wash it often. The strands closer to the scalp were the greasiest, so he untangled his hand and just pet the surface of his hair.
It was long, it went down to his shoulders. Jack felt tempted to scratch at Jeff’s neck as he reached the bottom of his hair.
He didn’t want to upset the Jeff though; so he simply dragged it down further his back. He stopped just above the small of his back; Jack didn’t want to go to low, didn’t want to invade the smaller boys privacy.
Jack buried his nose into Jeff’s hair, disliking the texture but enjoying the smaller boys smell.
“Jack,” Jeff said gruffly, but beneath his tone was a heavy layer of vulnerability that dripped through the cracks.
Jack pulled away just enough to look down at him, keeping his hand in Jeff’s and his other in Jeff’s back.
“Unless you’re still hungry, we should go.” Jeff looked at the blue skinned boys eye sockets, an aggressive tone in his voice and facial features forming a harsh look.
Jack found it amusing yet again.
He shook his head. He was still hungry.
“Still hungry? All right, let’s ditch and find another-“
Jack wasn’t hungry for kidneys.
Jack and Jeffs lips connected harmoniously. Jeff’s were rough and scared, and Jack loved the texture.
Jeff’s pupils widened, his hand tightened in Jacks and his other flew up to entangle itself in the blue skinned boys jacket.
He could taste the blood from Jacks previous meal still staining his lips, it excited him. The hand on his back rubbed its thumb up and down his spine, causing sparks to fly through the bones of his back. He closed his eyes and let himself slip into the tender touch, into the warmth of Jack’s lips.
Jack licked at Jeff’s bottom lip, but Jeff didn’t know what he was asking.
Jeff licked at Jacks lip in return, and a low laugh tumbled out of Jack’s throat.
“What?” Jeff asked, leaning away enough to speak.
Jack took his hand from Jeff’s back and placed it on his cheek. He leaned in, an inch away from Jeff’s rough lips and breathed, “Open your mouth.”
Before Jeff had the chance to respond, a scream ripped through the air. The two boys separated and spun to face the source of the noise.
A boy holding a flashlight pointed at them was staring at them mouth agape. His eyes flashed to the mutilated corpse on the ground and he screamed again, “Oh G-d no!”
The boy foolishly dropped the flashlight and ran away, sprinting as fast as he could in the opposite direction.
Jeff chuckled and looked up at Jack, taking his knife back out and an insane look invading his features.
“Still hungry?”
Jack smiled wide, a piece of flesh peeling off and away from his rotting cheek and he nodded, sliding his mask back down.
Jeff didn’t say another word, just darted after their fleeing victim, his psychotic laughter reaping through the air.
Jack waited for a moment, putting a hand over his chest; just above his long dead heart.
For this first time for as long as the eyeless corpse could remember, he felt a single, heavy, beat.