A.N. ~ hey, just reminding you guys that I own none of the Creepypastas, just my ONs.
"You're sure?" Jakara blew out a long sigh, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed and one leg bent while Liu sat forward in his chair.
"No, but it's all I can think of with what little I know. For one, he's been muttering 'lairs' for almost three days straight, and the only time I've heard him really express any hatred for them was when he was telling me about what happened when his sanity snapped. And the part where that kid has eyes and hair pretty much exactly like yours." Her voice trailed into a softer, almost inaudible tone. "He probably looked like you five years ago."
With a start, the girl realized that she'd just said that aloud and probably loud enough for Liu to hear her and crimson grew on her cheeks.
"Sorry, that was—"
"It's fine. I don't mind. And you're right, that's probably it. I mean, he tried killing me, so maybe he really regretted it and something triggered it? Er, does that sound arrogant?" He was the one blushing now, self-consciously rubbing his bangs out of his eyes.
"No. And you're probably right. He probably felt really guilty about it." Then she paused and groaned sitting on the floor and momentarily pushing her face into her legs while pulling her hood up. "Or we're not right and it's a completely different reason. Nngh, the last time I asked him he got pretty mad. Why can't we be telepathic?"
"Because that'd be a huge invasion of privacy and we'd probably get sick of hearing other people's thoughts."
"Kk, true. Selective memory reading? Ah, better stop wishing for the impossible and start worrying more about what we can do." For a long stretch of silence, Liu had an expression of intense focus, until he finally sighed long and low.
"I'm not sure there is anything we can do." Almost immediately, Jakara's head lifted and the boy's eyes widened at her determined, intense gaze full of frustration. Her fingers curled to tightly grip the fabric of her favored black hoodie.
"Don't. I'm not saying Jeff's gonna be easy to help when he's being stubborn about it, but there's no way we can just…give up." Her bravado shattered and her chin dropped back on her knees.
"Who says he even needs help?"
"Let's see. He hasn't eaten once as far as I can tell since we got back, barely drinks anything, I'm willing to bet he hasn't slept much, since when something as small as even bad whether usually keeps him up. Ugh, this is really getting annoying." She contemplated punching the wall, but she wasn't in the mood for another broken hand after the last time.
"Hmph," a small smile replaced Liu's straight lipped expression. "You really love that idiot, huh?" Jakara flushed slightly and looked at him with a raised eyebrow, but still nodded.
"And since you're still talking to me about this, you too, right?"
"Yeah." They shared a long exhale before looking around the small study they were in.
Little did either of them know Dirk was leaning beside the door with a smirk on his face at the information he'd just gathered.
"What do you want?" Jeff's hard, exasperated tone only made Dirk chuckle – much to the ire of the scarred killer.
They were in a small block of abandoned buildings, which – after much arguing – the ghost had convinced Jakara's friend to follow him to.
"Just to tell you you're a scumbag."
"Pff, that's ironic coming from you."
"I didn't kill my own brother and parents. Or, should I say 'kill my parents and permanently scar my brother who I tried to kill'?" Almost immediately, Jeff tensed and gripped the handle of his knife tightly.
"Shut up."
"I mean, how much hatred and anger do you suppose Liu must feel? I wonder how it must have felt for him to be lying there in bed as his beloved brother who he trusted so much stood over him with a knife and hurt him."
"SHUT UP!" Jeff charged, swiping his knife. But in his frenzied state, Dirk found little difficulty in dodging the blade.
"Think about what he felt like all those years, alone and hurt with permanent reminders on his face of what his brother – you! – did to him! The heartache of losing his parents and knowing he lost his brother, who had done it!"
"Shut up! SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP!" Repeatedly, Jeff tried hurting Dirk, still easily avoided.
"The pain, grief, anger, sadness, all because of you!"
"Shut up!"
"Why? 'Cause you don't want to face reality? That's why you're the scumbag."
"STOP IT!"
"Jaka, you're gonna make a rut in the floor if you keep that up." Ben's voice startled Jakara out of her thoughts and she realized she'd been pacing. Again.
She'd never really done it before, and thought it was unrealistic in shows whenever somebody was walking back and forth like that, but she found the action slightly calming and the repetitiveness of it made her feel like things would be alright.
They were back at the mansion, but Jeff had disappeared near the end of the trip without a trace, leaving his girlfriend to worry and everyone else puzzled.
"Well, it's the floor or my sanity. What little of it there is. But isn't it bothering you? Jeff's been gone for over a week. Without warning." She played with her hair with one hand and toyed with the cross around her neck with the other, chewing the inside of her cheek, fidgeting and still pacing.
The Link-lookalike hadn't seen so many nervous actions jammed into one person before, which was saying something since he drove his victims insane and they were usually nervous wrecks by the time he killed them.
"He's probably just out on a killing spree. Don't worry about it."
"Easier said than done. Wouldn't he at least tell somebody first?" A chuckle escaped Ben and she glanced at him with furrowed eyebrows.
"Jeff doesn't have a habit of being the most responsible guy in the world. He probably got the urge to kill and just left without thinking about it. He'll realize his idiocy and then decide to just keep at it until he's satisfied anyways before coming back and apologizing. It's happened before. Well, except for the apologizing part, but nobody really cared whether he was out for a long time or not."
Yeah, but he was upset before he left. But…wouldn't that mean he'd need to blow off steam? Nngh, insane people are so hard to understand! Maybe I should just snap my sanity to figure him out. She face-palmed at her own deadpan humor and grumbled, just causing Ben to sigh before he left her in peace.
"Problem, love?" Jakara shuddered, already aware of who it was and already mentally preparing herself for torture.
"Go away. And I mean it, Dirk. Leave. My sanity is literally on the brink of snapping without your help." The girl yanked her hood up as far as it could go, glaring at the blond as he approached. Not that he could see her face anymore.
"Come on, you don't have to keep up the act."
"Huh?"
"You can tell me how you really feel. Nobody else is here and I'm not one to squeal. Come on, you're glad Jeff's not here, right? You finally don't have to spend time around that sicko."
"Sicko yourself, jerk. Go away. I can't kill you, but that doesn't mean I'm not capable of putting you in enough pain to make you wish you'd stayed dead." He crouched before the brunette, gently brushing his fingers over the bandages covering her right hand. She immediately jerked away from the contact and tried leaving the chair, but he was standing too close for her to do that. Well, she could always push him away or stab him.
"You still care about him? Or do you just not know how to get out of the relationship without looking bad? It'll be okay, nobody could blame you for it."
SLASH
"AAGH!" Dirk fell back, holding his side as crimson began staining his shirt. Jakara stood up, holding a bloody knife in one hand and slipping into a somewhat ominous position.
"LOOK! I don't know what twisted things go through your head, but GET IT THROUGH YOUR THICK SKULL THAT I. DON'T. LIKE YOU! I'm not interested, never have been, never will be. Honestly, if stabbing you and shouting won't get the message across, I don't know what will. Get over yourself and the delusion that you're just the cat's meow and that I couldn't possibly hate you because you're obviously the oh so wonderful god of your little world where everyone loves you and worships what you say and anybody who doesn't obviously isn't supposed to be. SCREW OFF AND LEAVE ME ALONE!" Her voice was laced so heavily with sarcasm that it was nearly sickening to listen to, and Dirk's expression darkened.
"Why don't you just get it? You don't have to be miserable with that Joker frea—"
Jakara grabbed the collar of his shirt and held the tip of her knife to the ghost's neck, ensuring he remained motionless.
"I'm the only one who gets to call Jeff 'Joker', got it you moron? And I love Jeff, hate you, go away. I am halfway to losing it and just gutting you like a fish." E.J., L.J., Ben, Masky, and Hoodie had all been disturbed by the commotion, as well as Slenderman and Sally. Everyone had already heard her previous rant, since she'd basically hollered it at the top of her lungs, and at that point, even the faceless killer didn't really want to stop her. Dirk was starting to be a problem.
"B—"
"No 'buts'! I swear I'm not lying when I say I'm hanging onto my sanity by a thread! Do you know what happens when my insanity takes over?"
"I bet it's really cute," he smirked. That just about did it.
Fog clouded Jakara's mind and she froze before grinning widely, then giggling, backing off to put a hand over her eyes and laugh hard. For a moment Dirk thought she was laughing because of the compliment, but then he heard the 'oh no's, 'here we go again', 'crap', and 'I'll get my med stuff' from the others while Slenderman simply sighed.
"W-well, hahaha, i-it starts like this, you know?" The girl laughed again with her tone high, sharp, and deranged. "I grin an-and gig—hehehee, g-giggle a lot, a-a-and then, hahaha, I-I just…" She cackled again, clutching her stomach with one hand before smiling broadly at the injured blond. "Hahehaa, g-go to sleep, jerk." And with that, she plunged towards him.
Dirk rolled, narrowly avoiding the blade before fleeing the room, and the instant he did, Jakara's grin dissipated and she smirked, chuckling again.
"Oops, did I mention that I'm a really good liar?" The other residents stared at her for a few stretched out seconds before L.J. burst into laughter.
"O-oh, Jackie, that is just precious! Pffhahah! I-I couldn't tell the difference!" A few nervous snickers escaped the others, though most of them were rather unnerved by what they'd just witnessed.
"So that means we're never going to be able to tell when you're faking it or not?" Ben raised an eyebrow and Jakara grinned again – for real this time.
"Oh, of course you will! If it's for real, I'll face-plant once it ends and act like a half drowned cat for the rest of the day." More chuckles rose, but soon everyone dispersed, leaving her to drop her smile and slump back down in the over-sized armchair.
"Nngh, did I also mention I was lying when I acted cheerful," she mumbled to herself, closing her eyes with a sigh.
"As a matter of fact, you did not." Jakara started, twisting her head to look at Slenderman with wide eyes. She was sure everyone had left, else she would have kept up the facade of being alright.
"I-I…I mean, uh… E-eh…crap." She plunged her fingers into the hair on the back of her head, looking down with a blush. The door closing caught her attention and the girl was instantly alert, wondering if she was in danger.
Maybe Slenderman was going to scold her for attacking Dirk? Maybe he was angry she was making a fuss. Maybe he thought she was overreacting? …maybe he was going to chase her off or kill her now that Jeff wasn't around.
However, the slim creature observed her tense body language – easily able to recognize it from living with the other killers – and if he had a face, his expression would have softened considerably.
"I mean no harm, child. However I wish to know, are you alright?"
"Y-yeah, just a bit worried for Jeff." She smiled slightly, though the stress of the past week was starting to show through the bags under her eyes and exhausted demeanor.
"He will be alright. Jeff is not a child." For a moment, some of the girl's sarcasm came back and she managed to grin a little.
"You're sure?" Slenderman paused a couple seconds before softly chuckling and shaking his head. He had to admit, Jakara definitely had good sense of humor.
"As a matter of fact, I cannot be certain." He extended a hand and before the teenager could even think, a warm hand with strong, gentle fingers was on top of her head, ruffling her hair. "However, I am sure he will return healthy soon."
A.N. ~ Jakara can be such a troll *troll face*. Man, I'm getting sick of Dirk, and I'm the one who made him up! *Face palm*