Chapter Fifty-One
Betrayal
Everything happened so quickly.
One minute Jessie was in the arms of her best friend crying and – for the first time since she had begun her killing rampage – allowed her friend to comfort her despite what she had done to the people around her and the people that Sally had cared about, hoping that she could somehow be forgiven for everything that had happened, and then the next minute, she was being pulled out of her friends grasp by her murderous lover, out the way of a knife that the person she had been crying to had pulled on her and used to try and attack her with. She was lucky that Jeff was classed as an 'entity' because if he were a normal human, there was no way that he would've been able to pull her out of the way of the blade before she would be cut like a pig by Sally.
The two murderers landed on their backs to the right of the knife-wielder with a large thump; Jeff kept his eyes on Sally during his fall, making sure that she didn't attempt anymore murderous actions while they were defencelessly falling to the ground – his suspicions of her were confirmed now and he wouldn't take any chances, for Jessie's sake as well as his own. Immediately after she hit the ground, Jessie stared up at her friend who had just attempted to kill her with immense disturbance and confusion, not entirely convinced that what just happened had actually just happened.
"Sally…?" She whispered as Jeff grabbed her and shuffled them both even further away from the gamer-girl in front of them. Once they were safely away from her and Jeff had stopped moving, Jessie swiftly stood up – as Jeff followed in her action, now armed with his own knife just in case something else happened that would require him to need a weapon – and kept her eyes on Sally, whose pupils were fixated on her and always had been since she attacked her.
"Sally? Why would you…? Why would…?" Jessie couldn't even finish her question before Sally answered it.
"Why would you have killed Lavinne and Ann-Ann?" She almost mumbled, but said just loud enough for Jeff and Jessie to hear. "I understand that you want to move with Jeff…I get that…but why would you actually be willing to kill your friends to do it…?"
Jessie couldn't prevent the tears forming once again in her eyes to fall to the ground. She thought that Sally had understood everything and was willing to forget it all and help her escape what she had done – even if she wasn't going to take her offer – but she was just acting and had lied to her. Sally hated her for what she had done and she was willing to kill her to show that. She knew that she couldn't talk because of everything she had done up until this point, but even so, she almost felt…betrayed.
Sally continued. "Even if you are a killer like you say…that doesn't mean that you wouldn't feel anything when killing people you love…so why?"
"I did feel something!" Jessie pleaded. "I did…I cried after every kill. Even after killing John and his friends, I threw up and cried all day long, hoping that I could just…I dunno, forget it all. It was agony…I felt so bad…"
Sally raised her undamaged knife and pointed it at Jeff. "And he's worth all of that, is he?"
Jessie also turned around to look that the ready-to-attack Jeff with wide, tearful eyes; he glanced at her as sweat began to fall from his forehead, but turned back to look at Sally, not wanting to lose focus and allow her time to attack him or Jessie again. Jessie turned back to her friend also and stared down at the floor.
"I'd follow him anywhere…" She began. "I love him…he's helped me get through all of this with a smile and a kick in his step, allowing me to know that it's all okay. So yeah, he's worth it."
Sally scoffed in disgust. "But he's the whole reason why you've gone through all of this pain in the first place!" She snapped, causing Jessie to make eye contact with her once more. "If he had never met you, your 'killing instinct or whatever wouldn't have awakened, you wouldn't have become like this and you wouldn't have started killing anyone at all! You could've just lived a normal life with us! This all wouldn't have happened if he had just stayed the fuck away from you!"
Jessie stood with discomfort at the truths that came her way through Sally's words. After killing John, when Jessie had spoken to BEN about her troubles, she had been asked by him whether she had wished that she had never met Jeff for these exact reasons; the thought had passed through her head for a split-second and she had wished that she had never met him so that she wouldn't have had to kill John or anyone, but once she had realised what she had just thought, she felt so much guilt that she didn't know what to do with herself.
She loved Jeff more that she had ever loved anything in her life; if she didn't feel that strongly about him then she would've never killed Lavinne or Ann-Ann or her parents in order to move with him back to America, but…was she just doing that for selfish reasons?
She had just killed for the first time and everyone she knew was talking about the case of her victim's disappearance; she knew that since she had murdered someone, her blood-lust would appear more often and therefore, she wouldn't be able to control herself. The safest option was leaving to go with Jeff back to America. He could let her know how to control her murderous tendencies and train her to be a real killer like he was, instead of just going a huge killing frenzy. It was the easy way out. Staying in England would've just caused her to kill everyone she knew and end up in a mental hospital or – more likely – behind bars for the rest of her life. She had no other option then to move with Jeff.
She hadn't decided to move with Jeff because she loved him and wanted to be with him – even if that were true regardless – she wanted to move with him because she knew that if she didn't leave, her life would've spiralled out of control and she would've ended up alone.
It was a selfish option.
Although, if she hadn't have ever met Jeff, none of these events would've even been possible or have happened. She wouldn't have killed John. She wouldn't have killed her friends or parents and she would probably be in sleeping in her bed right now, or she would've been doing her killers-research while watching the news or anime or even Pewdiepie videos, or she would be hanging out with Anthony or Sally or even Lavinne and Ann-Ann, laughing, playing and most of all…happy.
Although, with Jeff she thought she was happy. Her life before was so lonely…or was it…?
Now that she thought about it, her life wasn't as bad as she had made out. She had Anthony and Sally constantly looking out for her and making sure she was alright. She had Lavinne and Ann-Ann keeping her entertained and happy at school every day with their girlish antics. She could've gotten a boyfriend quite easily if she tried hard enough and had an ordinary adolescence. Her parents may not have seen her often, but gradually she had come to terms with that and moved on from it. She had an identity and a strong one at that.
She was…happy.
The doubtful girl turned to her lover, eyes leaking like a faucet and face full of sorrow and horror at her sudden realisation; Jeff glanced back at her, but this time his eyes stayed on her. He gave her a look of disbelief as he could tell from her face that she was beginning to believe what her friend had said to her. He couldn't even comprehend the fact that after everything they had been through together, that she would be so doubtful and hesitant and believe these things being told to her by someone who had just tried to kill her – even if they were friends.
"Jessie…" he said as she shook his head back and forth slowly. "No. Don't believe her. She just tried to gut you like a pig. How could you believe someone who would throw away your friendship with them like that?"
"Hey!" Sally exclaimed. "It's better than her going with you!"
"What the hell are you talking about?!" Jeff snapped, anger spreading through his whole body as he and Jessie both turned to look in Sally's direction. "Her being dead?!"
"She's so convinced that she's in love with you that she would've likely tried to kill me earlier!" Sally yelled. "I was trying to save her from dying on the inside while she travelled back to your place with you! She wouldn't have been happy there! She isn't like you! Jessie regrets easily and she can't handle hurting her friends by lying to them, let alone killing them! She would've eventually killed herself when she went with you because of all of the guilt!"
"No! She wouldn't have!" Jeff shouted back. "I would've been there for her! I would've made sure that she would forget what she did!"
"Like you did?!" Jeff jumped back slightly. "Oh, yeah! I know your story, Jeff the Killer. Killed your parents and brother when you discovered who you were and then ran away? Sound about right?"
Jeff grit his teeth from anger. Jessie glanced back at him and began to cry even harder. She knew what a difficult subject this was for him to talk, hear or even think about. She wanted to yell at Sally and tell her to stop talking about his past but her throat was so dry that no words could escape from it.
"You managed to forget what you had done easily! But Jessie isn't like that! She wouldn't forget it like you did! She's not a monster like you!"
Jeff snapped. "It would've have mattered! If you'd of killed her, I would've killed you straight away, you dumb bitch!"
"And I would've let you! I'd rather be dead and know that Jessie was safe from your dirty claws than be dead and know that she ran off with you, you psychopath!"
The silent Jessie brought her hands up to her mouth and began to wail like a child. She didn't know what to think anymore. Her reasoning for moving with Jeff had been questioned and her best friend was trying to kill her to prevent her from going with the man she loved, and with sound reasoning. Her head was swimming and she was without a plan or a steady train of thought.
Sally began to well up as she witnessed her friend crying even harder, but she tried her hardest to smile.
"I know, Jessie. I know that you can't live with what you've done…you can give, you know…" A tear fell down Sally's cheek as she reached her free hand out as she had a moment before Jessie had clung to her and she had attempted to stab her. "We can leave this world together…"
Jessie only just found the will to speak as she wiped her many tears away with the back of her hands. "D-Do you k-know what that means, S-Sally? You'll d…d-die too…"
Jeff snapped his head to stare at Jessie with surprise and concern the moment she said 'too'.
"I know…" Sally answered. "And I'm prepared for it…I knew that when I came up to this roof that I wouldn't likely get walk down again unless you were carrying me in a body-bag."
"Jessie! You can't be considering this!" Jeff snapped. "After everything you've done, you'd really just give up like that?!"
Jessie's body began tense as she stood in between her lover and friend. Sally's argument had some good points to them, but Jeff was right. There was no way she could abandon her mission with Jeff and give up now. Her future depended on her getting to America and she couldn't give in to the tempting offer that Sally laid before her. Besides, dying now meant that she would lose Jeff, and that was something that she most defiantly couldn't do.
"Don't talk to her!" The gamer with a knife yelled from across the roof. "You've encouraged her enough! She needs to make the decision on her own. Don't try and 'help her' make it!"
"There's no decision to make! Jesus! You can't change her mind like this! She's not gonna kill herself now after everything!"
"Let her decide that!"
All eyes were now on Jessie. She knew that she could take either option and the result would be equally as satisfying. She could kill Sally now and move with Jeff, resulting in her being away from her problems and being with the man she had worked so hard to keep at her side, or she could let Sally kill her and be done with the whole affair. At least then she could relax and not worry about what she had done; plus, her and her victims would be on equal ground. They would all be dead.
Jeff snorted after staring at Jessie for a few seconds and moved his vision to the ground.
"Well, Jessie…?" He growled aggressively.
Her choices ran through Jessie's mind as fast as a bullet. It took her almost a minute before she began moving towards Sally cautiously, never taking her line of vision off of the floor, hiding her eyes behind her dark fringe. Jeff stood open-mouthed at Jessie's actions, whereas Sally smiled as more tears ran down her face now pale face.
"Jessie?!" Jeff yelled out, not getting a response. Jessie just continued to wonder towards her friend slowly but surely.
Sally – now crying enough tears to fill a mini swimming pool – held her arms out for Jessie to wonder into with a sorrowful smile on her face.
"Jessie…" She said. "You made the right choice."
For a split second, Jessie stopped in her tracks. Almost immediately after, she began to move fast, almost sprinting towards her friend with the knife; before Sally or Jeff comment, the murderer had pulled out a knife that she had tucked away in the back of her trousers in case anything went wrong and she needed to use force to take Sally down.
In almost an instant, the knife was in Sally's gut. The whole scene was playing in slow motion. Sally just stood there for a moment, in such complete shock that she didn't even feel the knife in her for a few seconds; Jeff felt a sudden wave of relief but also surprise. His breath caught in his throat as he witnessed the most decisive moment in Jessie's life along with her.
Jessie whispered in Sally's ear "I chose Jeff…"
Sally slowly turned towards her friend before the pain really set in and saw that her eyes were widened and a huge grin was on her face; somewhere in between her beginning to walk over to Sally and her reaching Sally, she had released her blood-lust and was ready to take care of her 'problem' and with only one thing on her mind – killing and stabbing.
She released her sharp grip on the gamer and let her fall to her knees, release her weapon, grip her wound and then pull her bloody hands away to stare at the crimson wound that her school mate had made; as soon as the fact that Jessie had just stabbed her had sunk in, she leaned on her side and put pressure on her stab wound – all those years of taking an interest in zombie fiction had taught her that when she was wounded badly, she would need to put pressure on the wound to make sure as little blood as possible is lost, although she was beginning to think that Jessie wouldn't of allowed her to receive any more medical treatment than what she was already doing to herself.
The lover of Jeff turned towards him with the largest grin on her face that she could manage; Jeff knew immediately that she had allowed her blood-lust to take over her body – which was something that he hadn't seen happen in a while – and smiled with pure joy and happiness that she had chosen what he had wanted her to have chosen. He felt as though he could cry just from knowing that the killer he had trained and taken care of hadn't betrayed him and left to go and die.
"Jeff…" She chuckled. "I choose you…okay…?"
The killer nodded, pleased. "Good, Jess."
Rough coughing began to escape Sally's mouth as she grovelled on the floor. Jessie turned back to her and glared down to her new victim, chuckling quietly to herself. She knelt down to Sally's level and tilted her head with slight pity and made and began to tut.
"What a shame…" She said with an ounce of sarcasm in her voice. "You were persistent…not like Lavinne or Ann-Ann…"
Sally stared at Jessie with daggers in her eyes, but with a new sense of understanding. "So…this is what you become when your…fucking blood-lust, or whatever the fuck you call it, comes out, huh?"
Jessie winked at the grovelling girl. "Kind of…the Jessie you know isn't going to turn up. I can't give you any pity like she can...not anymore…"
"Damn it!" Sally groped her side and shut her eyes swiftly as Jessie continued to tilt her head.
"Aren't you going to try and run away or anything? That's dull…"
Sally growled. "Shut up…God fucking damn it!"
She began to cry out of frustration and pain, not sure which one was which anymore. She hated the fact that she couldn't get up out of agony and that she couldn't even attempt to save Jessie anymore. She was a lost cause and now she was about to die for nothing. She couldn't do what she had wanted or what Anthony had so desperately hoped for. It was so…frustrating.
"No! Sally! Stop it! Stop hurting her!"
Suddenly, Jessie paused as she loomed over her friends damaged body, her grin erased and replaced with a look of a puzzled child; Sally glanced up at her and instantly realised that her expression had completely changed and that she seemed to have stopped moving or even thinking. She didn't know what was going on, but she knew that she had to figure it out fast otherwise she would bleed out – and quite fast too.
Jeff would've blinked if he could've from confusion. "Jess?" He called out.
"Don't hurt Sally anymore!"
Jessie slowly reached up and grabbed her head as if she had damaged it in some way and began to tremble.
"Shit…" She hissed. "She won't let me do this without a fight? Is she fucking kidding me?!"
"Jessie!" Jeff called out. "What's wrong?!"
"It's that voice inside my head! It won't go away! For fuck sake!" She replied. "What a fucking nuisance!"
Jeff flinched, but nowhere near as violently as Sally did. This was her chance. If she could reach out to Jessie – the Jessie that she knew and the Jessie that she was sure was inside the killer in front of hers head – then maybe she could prevent her death – or at least Jessie being the one to kill her – and make her friend see sense. Maybe this was the way to prevent Jessie from heading to America with Jeff and to save her from herself.
"Jessie!" She screamed, still holding onto her wound. Jessie glanced down with little interest in her eyes. "I know you're in there! I know you can hear me! It's not too late! You can still walk away from all of this! We can just check out! You don't have to do this!"
Jeff was about to wonder over to the crime scene before him and cease Sally's talking when Jessie swiftly – almost without Jeff even noticing – shoved her knife into Sally once more, this time deeply in one of her arms, causing Sally to shed more tears from the pain and to instinctively let go of her stomach wound and grab onto her new arm wound, forgetting that she needed to keep herself from bleeding out from her stomach.
"Nice try, Sally…" Jessie jested. "But I'm not just gonna listen to my inner thoughts like that. I didn't when I killed John and his friends and I'm not going to now."
Trembling, Sally glared up at this evil side of Jessie and spat out blood to the floor before speaking once again – not to the other Jessie that floated over her like a teacher watching a student take a test, but the inner Jessie that she knew and spent her school days with up until Jeff came into their lives.
"Jessie…you can beat this…" She began again. "I know you can…I know you love Anthony and me and I know you don't want to hurt us…so please…PLEASE DON'T GIVE UP!"
Another stab went into Sally's gut and the damaged girl cried out with a silent scream. Her voice clearly wasn't entering Jessie's mind and wasn't having any effect on her.
"I told you, give it up!" Jessie was beginning to grow tired of Sally's attempts to escape this situation alive. "Even if I don't kill you, Jeff will."
"I told you, I don't care about that!" Sally screamed, startling her attacker. "I don't care…as long as Jessie doesn't leave with Jeff."
The murderous girl was astonished. She let out a nervous laugh. "Why would you go that far? You're dying and yet all you wanna do is make sure I don't leave with Jeff? Why?"
Sally used up her strength to make her next move. She steadily but half-clumsily moved her blood-soaked hand up to Jessie's cheek, causing her own red-liquid to stain the killer's face, and tried her hardest – even while enduring all of the pain that she felt, even while she knew that she was going to die and nothing was going to change that and even while she knew that she was speaking to the person that killed her best friends – to smile as convincingly as she could.
"Because…I know that…you don't wanna kill people, Jessie…"
B-Dump!
That was all it took to bring Jessie out of her blood-lusting state and bring her back to normality. Rashly and in a puzzled state, Jessie guided her eyes around her surroundings, realising what she had just done. She glanced for a split second at Sally's wounds, the bloody knife in her hands and the blood all over the floor before beginning to cry once more.
"S-Sally?!" Her eyes widened and she began to panic. "Sally! Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh…Shit!"
"There you are…" Sally began to cry even harder. "Jessie…there you are…"
Jessie gripped Sally's blood-covered hand that rested on her cheek as tears fell down to the bloody floor. "Sally…I'm so sorry…"
"I know…I know Jessie…" Sally whispered.
"Sally…What do I do?! What do I do?!"
"Nothing…" Jessie and Sally's eyes met for one last time. "Just promise me…that you'll think about…what I s-said…"
"Sally…" Jessie cried.
"You're still my friend, Jess…Still m-."
STAB
In that moment, a knife had appeared in the centre of Sally's forehead, held by a paper-white hand; her eyes had kept on Jessie for a moment, almost as if they were still looking at her, but then they lost focus, drooped and fell to the floor, staring at the blood that she had leaked out of her body. Jessie was fixed on her friend's dead face for what felt like an eternity, but then drifted to the hand of the knife-wielder and then to the one holding the weapon that was embedded in Sally's skull.
Jeff knelt beside his lover, a straight face and no expression showing in it. He turned to Jessie and simply said "You weren't gonna do it."
Jessie was horrified and expressed that in her facial expression; she let herself blubber like a baby without wiping her tears away and knowing that they were washing away the blood that Sally left on her face away. She felt as though as the blood washed away, Sally's imprint on her life should've been washing away with it…but that wasn't the case.
Even until the end, Sally had tried to save her. She stated that she was still her friend no matter what and that she could still help her to not make the irresponsible decision that she was about to make. Until the very end, Sally was still the most protective and caring friend she could possibly be, and this was making it harder for Jessie to just wipe her tears away and move on from all of this. This wasn't a murder that she could just walk away from.
Jeff stood calmly. "One more to go…"
He began to wonder off when he turned back around, realising that Jessie wasn't following him. She just knelt down beside her best friend, crying for her death. The killer sighed and realised that Jessie would take a minute to recover from this specific death, unlike the previous ones, considering all that was said. He was sure that if all of her victims knew what Sally had known when they were being killed, they would've done the same thing that Sally did: try and convince Jessie not to do it. That would've made this whole endeavour extremely difficult for the both of them and he was so glad that Anthony was the only person left to kill before they could finally leave.
Although, to his surprise, Jessie stood up, beginning to wipe her tears away. She turned around and wondered towards the door along with Jeff, but refusing to look at him. As she flew passed him she repeated what he had said.
"One more to go…"
She walked out.
Jeff jolted, but decided to just keep moving, following the girl her loved off of the roof, leaving Sally's dead body to rest in the deserted area, lost in the darkness along with the pocket knife her father had given to her all that time ago resting beside her. No one knew that she was dead and they wouldn't until the morning when the janitor came to school and realised that the door to the roof was busted and went up there to check if anything was wrong – he would be in for a huge surprise. Her family would receive the news after spending the morning worrying where Sally was when they woke up and realised that she wasn't there in her bed, sleeping like she should be. Jessie knew this, but kept on walking. She wouldn't move the body or change it in any way. She would let the whole thing happen naturally, as it was supposed to. Besides, Jeff seemed as though he really wanted to get moving.
'Killers usually only spend a limited amount of time at the crime scene when they have committed their crimes in open spaces.' She remembered reading that somewhere and it came into her head as she and Jeff walked on, but discarded the thought, seeing as it wasn't relevant to the situation at hand.
Neither John nor Jessie could've predicted it, but they both knew deep in their hearts and in the back of their minds, how much damaged Sally had actually caused that night.
The seed of doubt was planted, and a seed was all that was needed for Jeff's and Jessie's whole plan – and relationship – to crumble.
