Author's Note: Sorry about the weird formatting in the last chapter I have no idea what caused it. Glad I caught it though. I realize that a lot of this strays pretty far from canon. I've read so many spin-offs myself I can't remember what's canon and what isn't. Some stories, such as the original Eyeless Jack story, are less than 500 words and don't leave fanfic authors a lot to work with- but at the same time there's much more freedom than with say something like Laughing Jack's story. Yes, I'm incorporating him soon. Tim and Brian are from Marble Hornets (also known as Masky and Hoody, but that seemed a little informal for this story). I recognize that in canon *spoiler* Brian is uh... likely no longer on this earthly plane. My headcanon in this AU is that Slender is a slightly more neutral entity and brought Brian back from the void and he didn't actually die (I don't plan on including any other Marble Hornets characters).

Another interesting note on that- I noticed that in the original pc game and Marble Hornets Slender (to my memory) isn't actually shown... directly killing people? He takes people away, but I always believed that all those events were due to the pre-existing tension and darkness between the characters drawing him to them. Seemed almost like Slender could have been manifested by Alex. Just my two cents.

Also I know Jane is supposed to hate Jeff- don't worry don't worry... not all is as it seems.

Back to our regularly scheduled program!

*This chapter has been mildly edited recently for grammar

Jeff

After another futile hour of fluttering around the library restlessly, Melanie quietly made her way back to her new room. It didn't feel right either. After what she had learned of Jane she was beginning to agree with Toby about staying in a different room.

So it was that Melanie found herself lying on the couch staring at the ceiling. She had turned the gas lamps down and curled up with a blanket she'd dragged over from her room. It took her a long time to finally fall asleep, but to her surprise, nothing disturbed her. When she awoke she couldn't remember dreaming. The windowless room gave her no sense of how much time had passed either. She assumed it was probably the middle of the night. If she closed her eyes she could pretend at least for a while that she was back in her living room at home after a family movie night.

Eventually, her body's needs forced her to roll over. A shower was the most pressing of them at the moment. She didn't have much of an appetite after the woman in white dropped the bomb about Jane. As Melanie uncurled her fingers and leaned over the side of the sofa to stretch she nearly fell over the side when she saw the coffee table. She was positive that book and letter hadn't been there when she went to sleep.

With a significant degree of caution, she picked up the letter which had been folded haphazardly into layered squares. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes as she unfolded the note.

Mel,

Wait till you see the crazy haul Brian brought back! There was more in his car! I was going through a bunch of the books in there- most of em were crap, but you'll never guess what just happened to be in there. Didn't want to wake you, so I figure you'll just find this when you wake up.

Your new homie,

Toby

Resting on the table was a battered, weighty hardback with the silhouette of a barren tree on the cover, titled The Poetry of Robert Frost. Did Toby really just happen upon it? Stranger things had happened in the past day, but it still didn't seem like a coincidence. Still, she had no plans to complain. The book was well loved with dog-eared pages, sticky notes, and tiny pen marks. She smiled as she flipped back and forth through the pages in no particular order. The book was something physical to remind her of her family back home.

As she settled back on the couch and chose a poem something in the air changed. She tensed and snapped her head up in the direction of the door. Footsteps on the other side of the hallway were growing closer. At first, she thought they would surely turn the other direction, but whoever was approaching continued past the fork in the hallway. It was probably the woman in white wandering again. She waited with the book held open on her lap. The silhouette that appeared in the doorway even in the dim light was clearly not the soft-spoken spirit from before.

The figure didn't appear to see her sitting still and turned up the lights before reeling back in disgust. There was no mistaking that grungy grey hoodie.

"You know what I'm just gonna turn right the fuck around and come back to the library another time," the boy hastily declared with raised hands before backing out of the room.

Melanie slammed her book closed as Jeff's irritable mood began to rub off on her. "You know Toby made you seem like some menacing killer who actually deserved your name, but so far you just rub off as a short-tempered prat," she blurted out.

Jeff looked shocked before an approving grin crossed his face. "Finally someone who can take a punch. This house is filled with too many wimps," Jeff complained as he began to wander the library casually. So this was a game to him? She understood people having argument withdrawals but his demeanor was something entirely new to her. Heeding the woman in white's warning, she decided to opt for the opposite of friendliness if it would get her through the encounter unscathed.

"Funny I hadn't pegged you as a reader. What're you here for, John Green novels?" she teased.

She could practically hear Jeff rolling his grey eyes in response. "Haha. No, actually, but since you asked I'll tell you. I happen to be looking for a medieval torture book on live dissections."

Melanie snorted and readjusted herself so she was sprawled out more comfortably on the couch. A few moments later she nearly jumped out of her skin when Jeff snuck up behind her and asked, "You think I'm joking, funny girl?" as he reached around to shove an open textbook in her face. She nearly puked at the sight of the sketches of procedures in all their gruesome detail.

"Remind me to never doubt you again when it comes to your obsession with freaky shit," she said shakily. How quickly the mood could change around here!

He scoffed and leaped onto the cushioned chair across from here where the woman in white had been sitting at the beginning of the evening. The chair where she told her that Jeff had killed the last person who considered him anything close to a friend. How anyone with an ounce of sanity could be anything other than repulsed by the pale, disheveled killer perched in the library was beyond her comprehension. Amused in the moment, maybe. She had no plans of making the same mistakes as Jane. She was going to live.

And yet...

What the woman in white said about waiting also lingered in her heart. This was a place of death and limbo. Waiting for the next kill, to go home, to be human again, to die, for someone to return home, to discover a secret, for the next person to snap. Even as an outsider she could sense the atmosphere of disconnectedness. She didn't imagine people like Jeff often felt lonely per say, but who was she to say what anyone here truly wanted out of life? Melanie was beginning to understand perhaps why she was the first outsider brought here in such a long span of time.

Jeff's persistent snark interrupted her thoughts. "Whatcha reading? Let me guess, crappy supernatural romance novel?"

Melanie opened her mouth to retort something sarcastic before closing it again and turning the cover to show him. "It's Robert Frost," she said simply.

"Never heard of him but I see the word poetry in the title so it's a no from me," he commented, not bothering as usual to disguise his disdain.

"I dunno, he's got stuff in here about creepy forests and stormy nights? Some of it almost sounds like it could be about this place."

Jeff furrowed his brows and crossed his arms, staring intently at the book.

"You don't actually read much fiction, do you?" she asked as an observation rather than a judgment.

"Never had any reason to. Life was too busy to sit down and read a whole book," he replied with a shrug.

"That's why poems and short stories are great! Some of these are four lines long!"

"Four lines? What the heck can you say in four lines that's interesting?"

She rolled her eyes. "Well instead of me explaining it to you maybe you should pick up a book yourself and try it out. I'm taking this one with me when I go since it's mine and I don't want anything to happen to it, but I'm sure there's short stories or something here.''

"Meh. I'm good with my dissection book. I'm still pretty shoddy at live ones though; it's too hard to keep your victim still. Hey, want to be my next participant?" he asked with a manic grin.

Melanie's face turned milky white. "You wouldn't dare."

Jeff just threw his head back and laughed as Melanie paled from head to toe and retreated to the relative sanctuary of her room.

That chilling laugh echoed through her bones and haunted her for many nights.