Rose Petals - Eyeless Jack x Reader

Chapter 10

[10— What's Been Troubling Him]

|| Jeff's POV ||

Jeff had known there was a problem the moment Jack had walked through the front door, but he did not know it was going to get so bad.

He had been sat on the couch, sharpening his knife after a few hours worth of fun with the town's unsuspecting locals when the other man had returned. It wasn't hard to sense the way Jack moved slower, slugging across the room. At first, Jeff figured he was tired from whatever it was he had been doing for the past few nights, but when you've lived with someone for two years straight, you knew what was normal behaviour for them. Jeff had asked him what he had been doing all night, given his state. Jack had ignored him, so he'd gotten louder, asking again. The eyeless man stopped, back turned toward him.

"Back before you were a killer, when you were younger—"

A spark of anger made Jeff impulsively send his newly sharpened knife toward the other man. Jack had managed to dodge just in time for it to miss, hitting the wall beside his head and clanging to the floor at his mudded boots. Jeff glared hard at him even if the bastard couldn't see it. He needn't say anything, the thrown knife telling all he needed to be said.

"I'm gonna ask you again, and you're not gonna bring up shit about me," Jeff spoke sternly, "What the fuck were you doing, and what is your issue?"

Jack was motionless once again and as silent as a mangled corpse. Sometimes, that was all Jeff wished he could leave Jack as nothing but. Now was one of those times as he watched Jack back to leave the room without a word.

Oh, that would be the last time he was ignored by that moron.

Jeff was off the couch in an instant, hurrying for his knife on the floor and then after the other man. Jack had been retreating to the basement when Jeff caught up to him. "I'm not done with you!" he had shouted, throwing out a hand and taking Jack by the back of his hoodie. Jack had spun on him on the stairs, fighting to get him off, and Jeff struggled back to keep his hold. "Nobody ignores me! Not even you!"

The next thing the smiling killer had seen was a grey hand reaching for his throat, and out of what felt like reflex, Jeff shoved Jack back in retaliation as hard as he could. That was when Jack fell back, taking Jeff with him. Jeff released the other man, watching as Jack lost his footing on the steps and crashed down the stairs until he made a loud thud at the bottom.

It had been an accident, but he knew Jack would never believe him even in a reality where he was weak enough to admit it.

Jack hadn't moved. Jeff was frozen on the steps way above, peering down the dark staircase to the black heap on the floor. He watched intently for any sign of movement, any sign that the man wasn't unconscious— or worse, dead. He caught his breath, his stupid heart pounding unnecessarily hard. "Jack?" he called out. No response.

Jeff swore under his breath and descended carefully, not taking his lidless eyes off of Jack as the old, rotten steps creaked under his weight. "Say something," he spoke again.

A million thoughts ran through his head at once. There was no way Jack was dead. A demonic entity, killed by tumbling down the stairs? No way. Jack was just unconscious. I don't care. I don't. I barely tolerate the son of a bitch. I intend to kill him when that faceless fuck is taken care of. I think of killing him every day.

He went off the last step, looming over the slump on the floor, and he realised he could not tell whether or not Jack was breathing. His heart pounded harder. I'm worrying 'cause that means I'll be stuck doing this shit on my own. God, he sounded so pathetic.