Obviously, I do not own Eyeless Jack. Enjoy.
And Now, You Must Stay With Me
Chapter 1: The Night Freedom Is Lost
"Jack," she pleaded. "I need a kidney."
Eighteen year old Dakota Ryling stood a comfortable distance away from Eyeless Jack, who lounged casually against a rotting tree. Slim, greying fingers picked at the perfectly polished scalpel he held in one hand. Though his mask veiled his face from the world, she knew that he was smirking.
"A kidney?" He asked, with a slight drawl. "What ever for?"
"My sister."
Her answer, firmly snapped in response, hung dangerously in the autumn breeze that whistled its way through the woods. The scalpel was brought up to his cerulean mask, and tapped on the surface where his lips lie underneath. His simple, drawn out actions annoyed her to no end. He understood the urgency of her situation, and insisted upon playing these pointless games. Beating around the bush, as one might've called it. For some reason, he enjoyed doing this around her. Any other time, especially during the harvest of his meals, he was precise, efficient, and moved with a rapid grace of a predator. He wasted no time silencing his victims with the cool, languid embrace of an anesthetic, before cleaving into their abdomen and robbing them of a vital organ.
And that very same ruthless (but admirable) killer, was standing there and silently taunting her by playing a childish game. In any normal circumstance, she would find it rude to stare someone in the eye, but this was no normal meeting. Eyeless Jack was no normal man. So Dakota found it acceptable to stare at the black voids carved into the mask that served as eyes, her own icy blue boring into his dripping blanks. She hoped that it would intimidate him, possibly unnerve him, but knew that a frail eighteen year old had little chance of frightening a thing straight out of nightmares at the slightest.
"Staring are we, Dakota?" He finally asked after an eternity of silence.
She was lucky that it was dark, for her cheeks burned with a furious blush. Quickly, she tore her eyes that had wandered down away from him, and cast a detached glare at the downtrodden ground. Though she had never once seen a glimpse of his face, and though his skin was an unhealthy shade of grey, she had always found him to be quite attractive. And he must've known, for he constantly exploited that fact.
"I was not staring." She stated, and struggled to keep her voice from wavering as it always did when she lied.
Another thing he must've known, because he chuckled lightly.
"Dakota, Dakota," he said, as if he could not get enough of her name, and shook his head slightly with each word. "You have come to the right man. I'll get you the kidney you must have for your sister...but..."
He straightened his lanky form, and pocketed the scalpel. Taking long, menacing strides, he closed the gap between himself and the young woman. A toned arm was slung across her shoulders, and drew her closer to him.
"Remember what we discussed when you were fifteen?" He tucked a loose strand of her toffee colored hair behind her ear.
Instinctively, her body stiffened as the tip of his finger traced the shell of her ear.
He let the question hang in the air for a moment.
"The House. I offered you a room amongst us, and you declined." He explained with a sigh. "But now you have no reason to. I offer you this, Dakota. I will obtain a kidney for your sister, I will perform the transplant, I will return her to a state of health...and you will come live with me. A fair deal, no?"
A fair deal it was. A life for a life. Dakota's sister, Janis, would be healthy again. She'd have her life back again. And Dakota would be erased from the world, and forced to live in a nightmare. She swallowed the growing lump in her throat. There was no reason for her to say no, because she had expected this. She expected that she would pay a hefty price in exchange for a large favor as this. But, now that she was finally faced with the offer, it scared her.
Since her first encounter with Eyeless Jack at the ripe age of fourteen, he had frightened her. Sure, she had developed a tolerance and learned to block out her fear during his frequent visits, living with him was an entirely separate subject. Could she relinquish her freedom without going mad? Be alright with living under a watchful shadow? Be alright with no human contact?
"I'm waiting..."
Her pearly teeth gnawed on her glossy lower lip, and she squeezed her eyes shut. She'd regret anything she said, but what must be done, must be done. For Janis...
"Yes." She answered with the word that would seal her fate. "I agree."
This time she could see his smile, a wicked grin on his pale lips, for he had lifted his mask partially. He turned her to where they were face to face, or face to mask (as she thought bitterly in her head).
"Mine."
With a delicate grip, he seized her chin and brought his lips to hers. It was strange, uncomfortable, and chilling, for his lips were those of a corpse. He brought a hand to rest on the base of her neck, while the other held her in place by her waist. It wasn't as if she would move anyways. Frozen in place by shock and fear, all she could do was stand. He pulled back slightly for a breath, and then kissed her again, but she still remained motionless.
Dakota was no stranger to kisses, and had had her fair share of them throughout her lifetime. In fact, she found them to be quite the treat, and when she had still been dating, she loved to receive them at any time she could. But she had shared those kisses with human men, of whom she felt affectionate towards. She held not a single ounce of love for Eyeless Jack.
And it would always be that way, even if she was forced to live beside him.
Either he must not have noticed, or cared not for how she felt, because he moaned and pressed her body to his. His tongue snaked past his lips, and lapped greedily at her lower lip as if to beg for entrance. She found it revolting, the way his muscular body ground against hers, and the way his wet tongue probed at her lips in a frenzied manner. It was blatantly obvious that he was getting excited, and venturing into a territory she desired to not follow.
With a gentle nudge, she pushed at his chest in an effort to halt him before he dove to far off the deep end. At first, he persisted, but after another push, he finally complied.
"Dakota?" He asked, breathlessly.
"Stop. That wasn't a part of our agreement."
Silence.
"Fix my sister." She commanded. "Now."
With a low, sweeping bow, he separated himself from her and smirked. "As you wish, my lady."
He slid the mask down, his lips disappearing behind the solid curtain of blue. Fishing the scalpel out of his pocket, he ran a finger over the blade and didn't flinch even as a bloody line appeared on the skin.
"I'll handle that affair, and while I'm at it, I suggest you pack. I'll come to fetch you sometime tonight."
Without another word he left, disappearing from the spot where he had stood before. Dakota would've found his sudden disappearance peculiar if other things hadn't been on her mind. She fell to her knees, the muddy ground squelching under her weight, and drew her arms around her body. Sobbing loudly, she screamed into the night.
This was the night her life ended.
