Isekai'd into my first fandom fixation (Jeff The Killer x Reader)

Prologue

* (Disclaimer: The prologue takes place 11 years earlier.)

It was deep into the night when a child could be seen from above, her body almost lifeless as it rocked with the current- face down into cold water.

Dead-man's Float.

Frogs croaked and screamed around the lining of the above ground pool in which she laid in, her back up to the stars. The summer air was humid and time all but ceased to exist as she held her breath.

"21...22...23..." she thought, eyes closed and lungs full of air.

It was just her out there, her family inside of their house and fast asleep. All of them unaware of the thirteen-year old girl that swam by herself in the darkness of their backyard.

"36...37...38..."

It was at that point that she slowly started to exhale in an attempt to stay below the surface for as long as she could manage.

"57...58...59..."

Another second passed before her body tilted and her head emerged from the water. She took a deep breath, her chest heaving up and down. Her eyes squinted, water droplets rolling down her cheeks as her pupils readjusted to the surroundings- and growing larger as she tried to look into the depths of the woods that threatened to swallow her whole.

"Where is he?" She whispered, pouting slightly.

Jeff.

For 2 years now she had a fixation for a character named Jeff The Killer. He was made up. A scary bed time story to frighten your friends. A thrill to pump your adrenaline and keep you up at night. But to her, he was real. He could be real. He would be real. And in her desperation to form some sort of meaningful connection, she had been out there for the past few weeks- just wishing he would take her.

She was at a delicate age where she internalized everything going on in her life and had a lot of feelings to go along with it. She felt neglected and unwanted. She felt like she wouldn't be missed had she disappeared. She felt misunderstood.

And what could possibly be more romantic than running away with a fictional psycho who she had felt was *also* misunderstood?

She knew what he did in the stories were wrong (ok, way more than just wrong), but she knew what had been done to him was cruel and only primed him for the path he had taken. Maybe things could change. Maybe they could love each other and live happily ever after in some mystical forest with a magical mansion. Maybe it could be like the smutty JTK x Reader fanfictions that she read, but with less trauma and stabbing.

Definitely not a cause for a few psych evaluations, right?

She swam out there for a while longer, her head half-emerged out of the water, like a nymph in the night. The woods around her remained unchanged, but there were moments where she could vividly imagine a white hoodie peeking through the trees.

He was on his way. He would find her.

Hours passed, her skin pruned, before she got out for what she wouldn't know would be the last time.

No, he didn't come to get her.

Life just happened. She started high-school, got into relationships, got out of relationships, focused on her mental health, developed new interests in some less-concerning hobbies, and really just... grew up.

She went to college, dropped out of college, weaved through jobs, helped her family, and before she knew it, thirteen turned into twenty-four.

There would be times where the Creepypasta fandom would find ways to reappear into her life; through car bumpers or relatable tik-tok videos (who knew that so many kids would thirst after a musty murderer with burnt eye-lids?)  but she'd pass it all by with a smile- thankful for the years that it gave her life meaning, in a time where meaning was scarce.

She'd always love Jeff's Character, and Slenderman, Hoodie and Masky... Jane and Sally, Eyeless Jack... Laughing Jack and of course, Ben...

But that love was severed by two knowings:

1) That she shouldn't romanticize a bunch of mass murderers.

And

2) They weren't real and never would be.