Author commentary

I have found that I like writing in Jeff's POV. Perhaps this is because of his way of looking at the world. It is so similar to my own, just with the actual violence as opposed to my thoughts of violence that lay un-acted upon. Also, you may have noticed that Lily's thoughts are expressed more casually compared to her spoken words. There is a reason for that. Sort of filler chapter here, enjoy.

Lily's POV

I gripped the knife tightly, hesitating. Jeff sat in the chair beside me, waiting for me to either do this or not.

"The hell are you waiting for? Just cut the damn cheek. Or are you too chicken?" His slightly raspy voice made chicken sounds until my piercing violet eyes stopped him as I glared

Jeff simply laughed and said; "If you try and eat me, just make sure it's quick."

You know why I'm waiting. This has the possibility of morbidity plastered all over it." My words came out emotionless, although I intended for them to have a slight joking tone.

The night before, we had agreed for me to re-slice Jeff's face so that I could stitch them in exchange for him helping me dye my hair. The hand that held the knife went back up to Jeff's face. I took a breath, closed my eyes, and made the cut.

Immediately, my throat burned. The pain was excruciating to the point where I doubled over, whimpering. My birthday was the very next day, so if I wanted to survive properly, I had today and tomorrow to feed. Jeff held the wet towel I had given him to his face and leaned down to pull me back up. The look in his eyes was one of pain, and I could tell it wasn't from the cut. Over the night, there was a cycle of screams, shakes, and whispered words in the night. Over the course of eight hours, I had been roused from nightmares by Jeff fifteen times and we spoke to each other until we both fell back asleep each time.

I grabbed the glass of water I had gotten myself and chugged it down, trying to douse the raging fire within my esophagus. Jeff chuckled a little, and winced. I quickly refilled my glass and went back over to him for the next cheek. The process was the same with his left side as it was with his right. I had been surprised at the cold feeling of his skin that I hadn't noticed before in the alley.

I stitched his face carefully after making sure my cuts were along the same trail as his. He squirmed a bit in protest, each time earning something along the lines of; "Stop moving, it makes this harder than it is, and this is damn near impossible as is," or; "at least I didn't have to cauterize it."

When we were done, I ran up to the bathroom to wash the blood off my hands, then turned to see a silent, calm Slenderman standing in the doorway. "Have you found a place for him to stay yet, besides here?"His voice was in my head, and I responded out loud.

"No, we have not even been outside the house yet. We will look today after my hair has finished setting. I doubt we will find anywhere, though. He had looked through the entire town to find places to stay, without luck, and I am not going to have him wandering to another town." I dried off my hands and walked out of the room as impressively as possible. The previous night I had an internal war as to whether I would send Jeff out today or whether I would try to convince my host to allow him to stay longer. My voice seemed to make its own decision. I walked past the ever expressionless Slenderman and out to the main room. I made my way over to Jeff in the living room and asked him what he wanted to eat. The same look crossed his face as the one that it held last night; confused and shocked at the same time.

He simply said "I don't care," leaving me to my own devices to decide what to feed him. I settled on eggs, bacon, and a bit of buttered toast with a glass of milk. When I handed it to him, he simply took it and started eating. I walked back upstairs after telling him that I would be waiting for him to help me with my hair. I got everything, including myself, ready for the dying process. With my hair the way it was from my nature, I didn't need to worry about the dye damaging my hair, so I didn't need to wait extra days without shampooing it. I sat down on the chair I had set up in the bathroom with a towel in hand.

Jeff's POV

15 minute time skip

I finished eating and put my plate in the sink. Poking at my bandages, I walked up the stairs to the bathroom, grabbing the red and black hair dyes as I went. When I got to the bathroom, Lily, she had told me was her name, was sitting on a chair looking bored. She was holding a towel in one hand and a comb in the other. I poked her to get her attention. She flinched, snapping out of her daze. I could tell that she had to stop herself punching me again by the look on her face and her clenched fist.

"You a bit trigger happy?"

"What do you mean?"

"I can tell you were stopping yourself from mangling my face more than it already is."

She muttered something I either couldn't hear clearly, or couldn't understand because of what language it was. I knew it had something to do with my face, which I was very sensitive about. I was self conscious of the fact that my face was sliced in a blind rage. "You need to smile more, Jeff." The words were still clear in my head, my mother had been yelling at me for getting into a fight at school. I covered my eyes, the best I could do since I couldn't close them properly.

I hadn't noticed that she had stood up until she pulled my hands from my eyes. She looked both irritated and sad at the same time. "Why do you have such an expression? Have I angered you?" Her voice sounded like she had just seen a dog being hit by a truck. I paused for a moment.

Do I really want to tell this girl why?

Yes, you do.

I can't tell her something like that.

Why the hell not?

I would either chase her away, or she would coddle me, pity me.

There is nothing wrong with a bit of pity.

I looked to the side, thinking. I finally decided to tell her at least the part that mattered at the moment. "I'm a bit sensitive when it comes to certain things. I got used to people telling me to smile more. I eventually had enough of people's shit and went loony. I'm sure you can understand."

She took her hands off of mine, stepping back. She seemed to think for a minute. "Well, if we are getting my hair dyed, we might as well get on with it. I will put in the stripes myself. If you don't know how to dye hair, the box has instructions." She swiftly wrapped the towel around herself before sitting on the chair. I grabbed the two boxes of black hair dye and pulled the instructions out of one, reading it carefully. I got started separating her hair into four different parts. She tensed up at my touch. I did my best to ignore it; I understood not being used to touching people. I finished separating her hair, holding it in place with pins. I started on the actual dying process, my fingers running through her hair. I silently marveled at how soft it was, and how long. We sat in silence as the brilliant red of her hair was turned into a deep black.

I was nearly finished with one side of her head when she said something. Not paying attention, I only heard a select few words; "Specific," and "Sensitive."

"Say what? I wasn't listening," I said, trying not to go to either of the two places my mind was leading. She was both too young and too nice. She made a slightly disappointed huff.

"I asked you what, specifically, are you sensitive about." She said.

"I got burned by both chemicals and fire. My face took most of the damage, but my skin turned completely white and my hair turned black. I used to have auburn hair." I kept working on Lily's hair, but my mind went back to that day when my parents helped me take off the bandages from the plastic surgeons. "You already know the rest." I focused back on what I was doing.

When I had finished the first side of her hair, I ran out of the first bottle's worth of the hair dye. "Damn, I need the next box, I'll be right back." I walked out of the room to get the next bottle. "Damn girls and their long hair, making things difficult on me." I walked back into the bathroom, seeing that the girl had an amused expression. "What?"

Lily just snickered. "You know I can hear you when you do that, right?" I mixed the hair dye in the bottle as I walked back behind her.

"I don't really give a crap if you can hear me or not." I started working the dye into the next side of her hair, moving slowly back around to in front of her.

"Yeah, but I have the advantage of being able to rip off a guy's head in one move, apparently." She looked up at me. "I really need something to drink."

I put as much of a shocked look on my face as I could, I moved my hand up to my throat as close as possible without covering myself in black goo, stepping backwards. Her eyes widened, turning almost blue. I grinned underneath my bandages, some blood coming out underneath them. She noticed this and looked away. We didn't speak again through the rest of the process.

Author note

I am sorry for the abrupt ending on this one. This part of the story is a mix between filler and plot, so I am trying to get through it quickly, but still thoroughly. I had to stop here or end up with a fifteen page chapter. The next chapter will be a short summary and continuation of this one.