Hi guys! This is my first fanfic and based off of a RP I've been having. Please go easy on me!^^
"Aw, c'mon!" The girl cursed, kicking the rim of her car. She was standing on the edge of a narrow one-way road, that ran through the middle of an evergreen forest. It was a cold October night, icy winds playing with the girls hair. And if that wasn't enough, the front of her car was seeping smoke, caused by a failed engine. It was really not her day.
The woods were a calming, quiet place. That's why Jeff liked them so much. It was a nice spot to visit if one needed to get away from the city's buzz and think for a while, and Jeff didn't take too kindly when other people interrupted that peace.
But his luck wasn't on his good side this night, so it seemed. Hearing the distressed voice, he observed the girl from the side of the road, clutching the knife on his pocket tightly. He was quietly meditating as he decided whether he should help her and get her out of his way, or just kill her and get it over with.
The girl angrily pulled out her cheap flip-phone, yelling every curse she knew in her vocabulary when she had no bars. "Just fan-freaking-tastic!" She sighed, leaning against the useless car. From as far as he could tell, she wasn't very tall, only bout 5'1". Age wise she seemed no older than nineteen. She was probably a still in high school or freshmen college student of some sort.
The killer shrugged. Eh, fuck it: He'll just play it along.
Pulling his hoodie over his head and arranging his hair so that his face wasn't very visible, he got out of his hiding spot and started walking towards her, raising one of his hands to catch her eye.
"Hey, kid, need a hand?"
Flinching at the sudden voice, the girl lifted her face to look a him, not expecting another person to just randomly pop out of the woods that was in the middle of literal nowhere. "Unless you're a auto mechanic or a tow-truck driver, probably not…" She said, looking at him carefully. She was suspicious about this guy, but what threw her off most is that she couldn't see his face.
Jeff shrugged, discretely looking the girl up and down: Young, not big, didn't really seem strong - probably didn't know much about fighting. Killing her would be easy. Almost too easy. Pitifully easy. What was the point? She wasn't even going to put up a fight. Might as well try to get something out of her.
"I may not drive a toe truck, but I do have a car parked not too far away from here" He said, pointing further down the road "I'll get you out of here... for the right price."
She looked at him carefully, sighing before crossing her arms. "Listen, I have a "every-day-ramen" type of budget… I don't have a penny on me. So if you want to help, fine. But I have no money." The sad thing was that she was telling him the complete truth.
Once again, he shrugged, realizing he wasn't going to get much from the girl. "Though luck. Have a good one getting back home". He turned around. He was completely ready to leave the girl behind him and go back to enjoying his peace and quiet.
She thought for a moment, before walking after him. "Wait."
He stopped for a brief second, not turning around, just waiting for the girl to go on.
When he stopped, she went to go to her car quickly, and came back just as fast. She held out a book to him, one that looked new, and smelled the way freshly printed books did. The title said "Visual perceptions". Small writing underneath the title said "The psychological studies of how art effects society". The authors name on the cover was Danella Rogerson.
He looked at her perplexed and then back at the book. He snatched it away from her, eyeing it for a minute before asking: "What the hell is this shit?"
"Well.. er...book I wrote... It's was my graduation project... for my masters degree. " she trailed off, scratching behind her neck. " I don't know, thought you might like to read. That's the only thing beside money I would consider valuable..."
The killer looked down at the book, then back at her, then back at the book again.
Damn, this girl sure needed a ride. Was he really going to charge her just for what would otherwise be a small favor?He let out a long, fairly loud groan, terribly conscious of what he had to do now, before shoving the book back at the girl and turning around to continue his path.
"The car is this way. Bring whatever you need with you. You don't know how long it'll take you to get back here?"
She blinked, surprised he actually agreed to taking her home, and nodded. "Thanks…" She went back to her car to grab a bag and threw some books in there before returning back to him. Looking at her, not looking any older than 19, it seemed odd to have already almost graduated from college. She pushed her hair behind her ear, managing it enough to stop it from flying in her face.
Jeff didn't reply at all, just following his path through the woods and hoping the girl would be smart enough to trail behind him. It wasn't until after a couple of minutes of walking that he said anything:
"So, what are you doing here to begin with? It's pretty far off from everything, and not very safe, either."
"Evening classes… I use the back road here to get home without the nasty traffic we have in the city. " she said. She squinted her eyes in the darkness, using his white hoodie as a mark to follow. She was curious. "Why were you here?"
He thought about possible excuses for a minute before deciding that, for once, he had nothing to hide. After all, he had only come to the woods for a break. That didn't sound too suspicious, right?
"Just came here to get away from the city for a while. It's pretty damn noisy in there. Nice to get away from it all sometimes."
She nodded in agreement, even if he was walking in front of her and couldn't see. She hated cities, well, not cities in particular. She didn't like crowds of people, or actually just people in general. "I use to live in the city… back when I lived in Seattle." she said.
He wasn't much for chit-chat. Or conversation. Or human interaction in general. Still, he guessed he could tolerate the girl until they parted ways. After all, he was aware of the implications of having to drive the girl home. Trying to apparent normalcy was only one of them.
"Seattle. What brought you here?"
"My great aunt died a couple of years back, and my folks inherited her home… They didn't want it, and I certainly didn't want the opportunity for me getting out of that damn place slip. So, when I graduated school, I came here." She said, kicking a rock in front of her, her hands buried in her jacket pockets. "So, now I have a hundred acres of land outside of the city, and a fairly well kept house centering it all. All for free." She was glad she moved here. She learned that being alone was best for her the hard way.
Now, that sounded a bit more interesting. A young girl with a fairly big property under her name, most of which was unoccupied? Staying on her good side didn't sound like a bad idea at all.
"That sounds pretty cool. Must be great having so much space all for yourself and all."
"I guess." she said, walking next to him at this point. "Sometimes when I take off of work for a week and don't have classes, it's weird being there all alone… Not in a bad way though. It's like I'm the only person left in the world. Like some explosive apocalypse happened, and I was the only one who survived. Puts me at peace, in some odd way…" She stopped herself there, chuckling at her own words when she noticed she trailed off a little about the topic. "Sorry, you must think I'm nuts at this point…"
"Nah, I totally get it. Sometimes it's nice to think you won't have to deal with other people's bullshit anymore, isn't it?" Of course, by sometimes, he meant constantly. He didn't exactly enjoy company, specially considering how that company was (more often than not) trying to kill him. "Wish I could do that sometimes, but my place is kinda cluttered."
She looked over at him and wondered what he looked like. "Say… why are you wearing your hood up?" She could see a couple of dark strands of hair coming loose from his hood, but that was about it.
He just shrugged as an answer, attempting to appear non-chalant in order to not raise suspicion. "I just like to have it on, that's all. The car's not too far away now, just a couple of minutes."
She gave a nod, still wondering though… She didn't say anything until they got to the car.
The car wasn't so much a car as an old, beaten up pick-up truck, which had clearly seen brighter days a long time ago. Although it had recently received a new layer of paint, a good chunk of it had already been scratched off, and the front bumper was beaten up and bent out of shape.
"It's not the best, but it's what we've got" He chuckled "Jump in."
"As long as it drives, right?" She smiled, opening the passenger door and buckled up. Her car didn't look in the best shape ether, so who was she to complain.
"Yeah, don't worry about that. This thing is rock solid. It can handle some rough handling." He slapped the hood of the car a couple of times, as if to emphasize the point, before climbing on. He buckled up, started up the engine and got the vehicle moving in no time.
She leaned into her seat when they started driving, the low rumbling of the engine and the heater comforting her. She looked over to him again. She should thank him somehow… he was bringing her home, expecting nothing in return after all. Her thoughts wondered, thinking of ways to repay him, but ended up staring at him unintentionally.
He wasn't paying much attention to her, mostly focusing on the road ahead, but it only took him a couple of brief side glances to confirm that the feeling of being watched wasn't just in his imagination.
"Like what you see?" Asked the killer, his tone a bit more menacing than intended. "What'cha looking at?"
She snapped out of her thoughts. Noticing she has been starring, she quickly looked forward, her freckled cheeks reddening from embarrassment. "..I-i… ah.. nothing… I was just lost in thoughts… that's all." She paused to think about what he said. "Besides, don't flatter yourself. It's not like I can see you with your hood on and all."
He just chuckled a bit as a response, immediately turning his attention back towards the road. "Don't worry about it, I don't mind you looking. And there ain't much to see anyways, at least nothing you couldn't see anywhere else."
During the drive she pointed out to him where to turn. It was hard to see the cheap non-reflecting road signs in the dark. When they got close, they could see a large house, four floors high at the least, off the edge of the forest. It seemed abandoned for years. The Paint on the house was faded, the waterspout and other metallic objects covered in rust and the grass hasn't been cut in ages. Weeds and Ivy grew around the house, engulfing it on some areas. A dirt path lead them to the front of her house. There were no other houses in sight, or any sign of life for that matter.
Jeff examined the house carefully, trying to take it all in: The place looked abandoned, like it hadn't been given properly taken care of for decades and it was hard to believe that anyone (specially a young girl such as the one he was driving) could live here."Ya sure this is your house, buddy? This looks more like a crack house than an actual home..." Said the killer, completely oblivious to his lack of tact.
"Yeah, I didn't get the chance to fix it up from the outside… not that I could afford it anyways." She said, not taking any offense to what he said. "It looks better on the inside, though." She grabbed her bag and stopped to think for a moment. "Would you like to come in?" She asked, looking at him. She was then afraid it sounded to out-of-place and then added: "For a drink?" That was the only thing she could think of as a valid re-payment for his hospitality at that moment.
He hesitated for a moment, a little taken aback by her offer - he was expecting to just give her a ride home and get it over with. Then again, maybe declining her offer would come off as strange.
"Perhaps some other time?" He replied, in avertedly reaching for his hoodie and pulling it forward a bit "I'm not exactly decent right now."
She looked at him for a moment, before grabbing a notepad and a pen and started scribbling something down. "Here. These are the days I'm off this month and my number." She ripped the paper out, holding it out to him. There were only three days in the entire month she had time. Though she seemed extremely busy, she hated loose ends with the people who actually do help her. She felt like she owed him, and it was going to bug her if she wouldn't at least invite him for a drink or even dinner. "By the way, my name is Danella… you can call me Nelly for short"
He hesitantly took the note, nodding at the girl as a sign of acknowledgement before storing it on his pocket. He wasn't too sure under which circumstances they would be meeting again, but it only seemed logical to keep her number around... just in case.
"Nelly, huh? You can call me Jeff. I'll be calling you soon enough, alright?"
She gave a faint smile, before getting opening the door and hoping out. She hesitated. "Oh… thanks again." She then closed the door of his car and went into her home.
He returned the smile for a second, before realizing she probably couldn't see it, and proceeded to press the gas and drove away, leaving the small house in the woods behind.