A/N: Well, here it is, guys! Consider this an early Christmas gift. I have another one for you...but you'll have to wait until the end of the chapter to see it. So, read away!

Disclaimer: (A big smile crosses my face. I look into your eyes. I open my mouth and say...) I don't own anything.

"You want me to what?" It was the next morning. Jeff had come back from a surprisingly quiet night and crashed until about ten o'clock. When he woke up, he decided to go get some food, only to be greeted with Sally's small form sitting at the table. Not that he had been surprised. After what happened the previous night, he knew that sooner or later, he, and the others, would have to confront her about their decision. Sally's voice calling his name was the first time he heard, and he could barely bring himself to look at her. He breathed slowly in and out, waiting for her to cry again, and ask why she couldn't go home. Or maybe scream that he was a monster. Honestly, he felt that he deserved it. But what Sally said instead was much, much more surprising.

The little girl looked seriously at the scarred boy.

"I want you to teach me how to use knives, like you and Jane and the others!"

"Sally, no!" Jeff said in a stern tone. "I'm not going to teach you to be a killer."

"I don't want to kill." Sally wasn't going to give up so easily. "I just want to be able to protect myself. I mean, I know I have these powers, but Slender Man said that I can't use them without hurting myself, and they wear off after a while, anyway." She looked at Jeff with big, determined green eyes. "I don't want to just sit here useless and have to be protected. I want to help in any way I can." Jeff was half-tempted to ask why she still wanted to help them, but thought better of it. Instead, he stared at her.

"I'm not gonna be able to talk you out of this, am I?"

"Mmm-mmm." Sally shook her head.

"You really want to go through with this?" Sally nodded, and Jeff sighed, defeated.

"Alright. But first, let me get some chow."

It was an agonizing few minutes as Jeff toasted some bread and fried himself some eggs.

"You hungry?" He asked.

"I already ate." It shocked Jeff how calm she was being about the whole thing. His mind was full of disturbing thoughts. He really didn't want to go through with this. He didn't want to see this sweet girl turn into a killer like him and the others. She was still innocent, so innocent, in fact, that she'd actually called them heroes when she met them. The thought almost made Jeff laugh.

We're lots of things, but we're NOT heroes. Man, if Liu could see what I've become…

Jeff forced those depressing thoughts out and forced himself to eat, though the rock in his throat made it hard to get it down. After about five minutes, he finished and motioned for Sally to follow him outside. The first thing he did when they got out the door was look around to make absolutely sure that they were alone out there. After all, Sally had been kidnapped by one of Zalgo's minions only yesterday; it never hurt to be careful. Once he was confident there was no danger, he looked at Sally seriously.

"Alright, before we begin, you have to promise me that you will never use a knife to kill someone. Only injure them, and even then, only if you have absolutely no choice."

"No killing." Sally nodded in agreement. "I promise." Jeff resisted the urge to bite his lip nervously. Even though he had caved in to Sally's request, he hoped the situation would never arise where Sally would actually have to use a knife, or any weapon, for that matter. Just because she was living with killers didn't mean that she had to become one.

"Alright." Jeff said. "First thing to know is how to handle a knife." He pulled out one of his knives and showed it to her. "See, you never, ever pull a knife out by its blade. You always handle it by the hilt."

"Isn't that common sense, though?" Sally asked. "I mean, you don't want to accidentally hurt yourself." Jeff chuckled a little.

"Yeah. But see, the same thing applies when you're handing a knife to someone else." He flipped the knife over in his hands, so the hilt was now facing away from him. "You don't want to hurt someone when you're handing over a sharp weapon, so then you handle it blade-first…while still making sure not to cut yourself." He handed the knife to Sally, and she took it with (Jeff was pleased to notice), shaking hands.

"Hold the hilt carefully." Jeff instructed. "Right now you don't have a good grip on it, so someone could just slap it out of your hands." Sally gripped the knife tighter.

"Not that tight." Jeff advised. "You have to be comfortable with it in your hands."

Though I'd really rather you not…

Sally loosened her grip a little, and Jeff nodded.

"That's good. Now, show me how you'd slice someone-purely in self-defense, of course." Sally sliced in the air, and Jeff shook his head.

"You were slow. You hesitated."

"I'm sorry!" Sally apologized.

"No, you know what, let's just forget all this." Jeff said. "What was I thinking, teaching a little girl to fight with knives?! Now give it back."

"No!" Sally held onto it, backing away from Jeff. "I want to do this!"

"You want to be like me?!" Jeff demanded. He got to his knees so that he was Sally's height and grabbed her shoulders, looking into her eyes. "Sally, I'm a murderer! I'm not a superhero, or a good role model, or anything! It doesn't matter that all the people I've killed were bad or possessed or whatever, they were still human beings I killed without a second thought! I can't even sleep without my knife under my pillow because I'm always seeing their faces in my mind! I'm a monster, can't you tell that from looking at my face?! Why…" His voice became choked with emotion, and he looked at the ground, unable to look at her anymore. "Why can't you hate me?" He thought back to everyone he'd ever killed since he was twelve, the people he'd stopped trying to keep count of because there were too many of them. A man who'd come out just as Jeff killed his wife, another whom Zalgo had left just as he stabbed him in the throat, his eyes asking 'why?'

Jeff was dragged back to the present as he felt two small arms drape themselves around him in a hug.

"It looks like you do enough of that on your own." Sally said, her voice full of sympathy. That small gesture of kindness warmed Jeff's dark heart just a little. He resisted the urge to hug her back. He couldn't risk tainting this perfect little angel any more. Instead, he just rested his chin on her shoulder, his lidless eyes shining with unshed tears.

"Jeffrey Woods! What's going on out there?!" And just like that, the moment was shattered. Jeff sighed as Jane glared at him from the kitchen.

"Come on." He said, pulling Sally off him and taking his knife back. "Let's try and think up a good excuse so that she doesn't kill me for trying to teach you to use knives. And Sally?"

"Yeah, Jeff?" Jeff turned a little and gave her a small, genuine smile.

"Thanks."

A/N: Jeff being a protective big brother figure to Sally gives me feels :*) Now then, for the next half of your Christmas gift, I'm going to reveal a few plot points I have for later in the story:

-Zalgo getting some more minions

-the appearance of the Rake and MAYBE Seed Eater

-Zero shows up (though I haven't decided whose side she's going to be on yet)

-some insight into Laughing Jack's past

-more with Sally's powers

-I'm going through with the FNAF subplot

-Liu gets out of the hospital, meets up with Jeff, and plays a HUGE part in the story later.

Well, there you have it. Hope you guys liked reading this as much as I liked writing it! Review, please! Merry Christmas!