Rose Petals - Eyeless Jack x Reader

Chapter 19

[19—  The Man with the Smile]

|| Your POV ||

   You sat in the living room of the abandoned building on a pillow you'd placed on the floor, Liam on the other end of the coffee table you were at, sitting on a the couch. Between you and him sat a halfway finished chess match, and you were currently waiting for Liam to make his next move.

   Jack was gone. He had left hours ago with Jeff to retrieve supplies. If it weren't for Liam, you would have insisted on going with them, as the last thing you wanted to do was sit around with hardly anything but your thoughts to keep you occupied.

   After Jack had left, you had the courtesy of unpacking all of the stuff from the backpack Jeff had taken. All that was left to gather in terms of ingredients was human saliva and hair, along with brain matter from one of its proxies. You had offered your own saliva and some strands of your hair, putting them next to all of the other ingredients you had set out.

   The verbena you had given Jack was already wilted. At the time, it had reminded you of the roses he'd given you, which were now sitting up in the room you'd chosen. You still thought it was strangely nice of Jeff to consider keeping them for you when taking apart your car.

   Liam finally moved his pawn. "Why do they look like they do...? I thought Jack was just wearing a costume."

   For you, Liam's calmness about their appearance had taken you by surprise, especially for someone as young as he was. Though, perhaps it shouldn't surprise you, and maybe he young age was why it didn't bother him as much. "Uh..." You rubbed the back of your neck. "Well, none of it's a costume. That's what they really look like. Jack kind of got caught up with the thing we're running from some years ago. I still have to ask him about it, so..." You shrugged. "And I couldn't tell you what happened to Jeff."

 "Jeff looks weird."

   You chuckled. "Yeah. Yeah, he does."

   You still had yet to tell him about what was going on, and you could not help but feel bad for it, but you had not wanted to rush him into all of it so long as you  had the choice. No nine-year-old should have to go through all of this.

   "And he's mean," Liam added with a bit more contempt. His bottom lip popped out as he hunched forward, resting his head on the palm of his hand. "He yelled at me in the car."

   You moved your knight, taking out the pawn he had just moved, and hummed in thought. "...What do you say we get back at him?"

   "We should kick him."

   "I was thinking of something more devious."

   He moved a piece, and then you did. Then, suddenly, he straightened up where he sat, a triumphant expression rising on his face. "Ha!" He threw out and swiped up one of his pieces. "You fell for my trap!" he exclaimed, knocking over your piece and slamming his down on the square.

   You mimicked his pout from a moment ago. "Agh, damn! You're way too good at this for it to be your second time playing."

   He giggled. "Nah, I'm just better than you."

   You rolled your eyes, but smiled and moved another piece. You weren't going to tell him that you were letting him win.

   The front door flew open and slammed against the wall behind you, causing you to jump. You twisted around where you sat to see Jeff hurrying into the building with a sack full of stuff in one hand. Jack entered much more calmly behind him, barely managing to stop the door from bouncing back on him before shutting it.