Chapter Twenty-Seven:
Aftermath
Jeff made it to Jessie's house within minutes. His ability to run extremely fast – developed by his years of running away from the police after a murder – had come in useful on more than one occasions. This was defiantly one of these occasions.
His hope was that when he reached her house, the girl he loved would just be sat in her living room, waiting for him, smiling and welcoming, like she usually was, probably also waiting to scold him for sneaking into the house when she knew that he knew that he could just knock for her and walk in through the front door like a normal person; he knew that this image was unlikely because of what he had heard and that he needed to face reality, but he couldn't yet. Not until he saw her and saw for himself if what John and his crew had been talking about had really happened.
After he arrived and was sat outside her house, he reluctantly peaked through her living room window, only to see Jessie sat in the middle of her wooden floor, only in a large hoody that was too big for her and that Jeff hadn't seen her in before and underwear; her face was covered in a white liquid and he could only just about see that her underwear had blood stains on them; instantly, Jeff's mind became a whirlpool of anger.
He gripped the knife in his pocket and gritted his teeth; what made him the most angry wasn't the fact that John had defiled her, or even the fact that he was so smug about it; it was the look on Jessie's face right now.
She was facing the floor, her eyes dull and red, most likely from crying; she seemed more tired than Jeff had ever seen her before. Her eyes had absolutely no light in them at all and it appeared as though her appearance had doubled through the exhausted look on her face.
He wanted to run in there and hold her, tell her that everything would be alright, see her smile and believe him, but the second he moved to do anything, Anthony appeared out of nowhere with a paper-towel and his hands wet.
He couldn't let anyone except for Jessie know that he was anywhere near the house, otherwise he'd be in so much trouble when he got back to America – he was most likely going to get into trouble for letting Jessie know where he was, let alone anyone else. He wasn't scared of the police – he had always been able to run away from them no problem and the majority of them that tried to catch him were absolute idiots – he was more frightened of what Slendy would do to him if he found out that he nearly got caught in Britain, especially since he didn't even know that he was out of the country yet. That wouldn't look very good.
Jeff just hid and listened in on the conversation, having to hold himself back so he wouldn't run in there and grab the girl he loved and drag her away from Anthony so he could comfort her by himself; he guessed that Anthony must've found out what John did and was helping her, since they were arguing the last time Jeff had checked. After all, devastating events like this can fix even the most damaged of friendships. Jeff also guessed that Anthony didn't hate Jessie enough to completely turn her back on her just yet, which gave him some sort of relief, since that was really playing on Jessie's mind.
"The baths ready for you, Jessie." Anthony put the now wet paper-towel in his pocket and knelt down to her level. "Make sure you wash thoroughly, okay…?"
The tired Jessie glanced up at him, seeing his smile, but not able to copy it; she knew that Anthony was trying to be the big brother that he hadn't been to her for the last few days and she was extremely happy to have him back with her, but with everything that had happened to her, her emotions were all over the place, but she was unable to covey them in a way that would demonstrate to her friend how she was actually thinking or feeling.
Why hadn't she gone crazy and tried to kill those guys that attacked her? Her bloodlust always appeared when she was near John, so why hadn't it this time? She was sure that it would appear. Since it hadn't, she had been taken by someone other than Jeff, and that hurt her more than the fact that she was raped at all.
Anthony noticed Jessie's depressed expression and lifted her chin up with his finger and thumb, trying to get her to look at him, like he used to do to get her attention when they were kids but stopped because she had told him that she found it condescending.
"Jessie…?"
B-Dump!
"I assume that you're still a virgin, right?"
"NO!"
Jessie screamed as she slapped Anthony's hand away from her face and backed away, pressed up against her couch; Jeff's and Anthony's eyes widened, shocked that Jessie would ever hurt Anthony after helping her as much as he was trying to. Jeff could tell that she wasn't dealing with her blood lust and felt the need to hurt him but didn't want to so she pushed him away, so he had no idea why she had just had that outburst. The scared girl began to tremble and tears formed in her eyes once again as she glared down at her hands.
"No…John…stay…away…" She lifted her trembling hands and held onto her head and covered her crying face; Anthony couldn't move. He had never seen Jessie like this before and never thought that he ever would. John had completely traumatised her.
"I…I don't want anyone…to t-touch me…except for Jeff…never again…never again!" These were the thoughts that ran through her head as she tried her hardest to curl into a ball, keeping away from her best friend.
"John isn't here…" Anthony softly pointed out. Jessie looked up at him, still crying and gasping; Anthony tried his hardest to smile, but tears were also forming in his eyes from seeing Jessie in the state she was in. "He's can't hurt you here…Jessie."
He moved closer to her, reaching out in an attempt to touch her face again; he just wanted to comfort her and try to cheer her up slightly. She had always been the type of person to deal with bad things by herself and he had accepted that – kind of – but he couldn't leave her by herself when she was like this.
"Jessie…" He gently caressed her cheek, which was a huge mistake.
B-Dump!
"Oh yeah…work your mouth more, girl…"
"Hold on! I wanna go too!"
"John, hurry up and finish up! We wanna have a go!"
"Damn…you're so good…Jessie…"
"Ah…yeah…move your tongue around more…"
Jessie screamed.
A scream so powerful and horrifying that anyone could've heard it from miles away; every time she was touched by Anthony, it just brought back memories of what John had just done to her and she couldn't handle it. She knew that John wasn't there with her and she knew that Anthony was just trying to comfort her, but she couldn't help but see John and his friends on top of her, touching her, thrusting into her. It was too much. It was as if the events were a dream that she kept reliving again and again; she tried to move and struggle away, but John and the other men were too strong for her; she couldn't escape them. Not even in her own head.
Jeff gripped his knife yet again.
"Jessie…what the fuck did he do to you…?" He softly muttered.
Anthony backed away, scared that he'd frightened her; Jessie leaned forward, hands on her ears, trying to block out John's crew's voices and laughter from her head and crying hysterically, laying on the floor.
"NO! JOHN! STOP IT! STOP! NO MORE! NO MORE! NO FUCKING MORE!"
Anthony was scared to touch her; every time he tried, it affected her more and more, and yet, the only thing he wanted to do to her by this point was hold her and comfort her. He and Jeff were one in the same; all they both wanted was to see Jessie smile and laugh like normal.
"I DON'T WANT YOU! I DON'T WANT YOU! I WANT-! I WANT-!" She was still hesitating even though she couldn't see Anthony in her daze; she knew he was there even in her breakdown, so she couldn't finish her sentence.
She reached out her shaking hand and reached for Anthony, still facing the floor; Anthony wasn't who she wanted there with her and she needed her loved one there more than anyone. She wished more than anything that Jeff were sat there in Anthony's place.
"Jeff…" She whispered quietly enough so Anthony didn't hear her.
"I want Jeff…"
Anthony began sobbing quietly to himself; he felt so useless right now. There was nothing he could do to make Jessie feel better; he couldn't even touch her without making her feel worse than she had to begin with. The friend who had stuck with him through thick and thin and even wanted to still be near him even after he tried to kiss her and then treated her like the dirt on his shoe, was stuck in a terrible state that he could do nothing about.
He grabbed her hand despite knowing that she would most likely slap his hand away and gripped it as tightly as he could; Jessie just stared at him and their connected hands, tears flowing from her eyes like a waterfall.
"I'm sorry…" He whispered. "I'm sorry…I wasn't there…this happened because of me…I'm so…so…s-sorry Jessie…"
Even though it was trembling and she could still see John and his friends in her head, Jessie wrapped her free arm around Anthony lovingly; she had flashes of her terrible experience rush through her head because of it, but she didn't care. Anthony's sapphire eyes widened as his glasses fell to the floor.
Right now, Jessie just needed to be held by someone, even if it messed with her head.
"Anthony…Anthony….I…I…I'm sorry…I…I…"
Anthony held her back, as tightly as if she would disappear if he let go of her; they both cried together in each other's arms, Anthony because of guilt and Jessie because she couldn't handle everything she was going through. It was all too much for her to bare.
"I need to get out of here…" She thought. "I…I wanna go with Jeff! I wanna leave this place with him!"
Outside, Jeff fell to the floor, leaning on the house's wall behind him; he used his knife to stab the flowerbed beneath him repeatedly from the anger inside of him. The girl he loved was suffering in there and he couldn't do anything about it until Anthony left.
"Fuck. Fuck! FUCK!" He gave the ground one last stab. "I'll kill that motherfucker! I'm gonna make him pay for this! He'll die crying and begging for mercy! He'll wish that he never laid eyes on Jessie! I wanna hear him scream and beg me to stop, just like Jessie probably did! I want his blood splattered all over the fucking place! HE'S FUCKING DEAD!"
