AN: I have three hard classes this semester. What I'm trying to say is that I'm going to be drowning in Homework, so don't expect regular updates from me. I'll do what I can, but I have two tests next week and it's only going to get harder from now on.
Reviews:
Superkassu: You sister sounds like…pretty much everyone that I know. You're not going to like it. I'm not going to hide that fact. You aren't going to have one bit of fun at the end of this. There's going to be a period of about a week where you're going to be very angry at me.
7 (honestly though I've lost track)
[28] Eyes
6 June, 5:00 PM
52. Lea
I'm staring at the ceiling, thinking. Every few minutes the sounds of movement disturb me, but I don't move.
I'm sinking slowly back into that unfeeling numb state. It hurts. The man in the book store threw me off my pattern. He didn't know it, but he did. He's like Jeff: not human, and he affected me the same way.
All I can do now is wait for the aching in my chest to stop.
I didn't even get his name.
I twist the ring on my finger, slipping it partly off, just enough to break contact with my skin, then slide it back on again.
I hear the knocking at the door downstairs, and my eyes fly open. I sit upright, sending a blur of black and white back into the closet, and jump to my feet.
I yank the trapdoor open and scramble down the ladder, but I somehow already know what I'll see downstairs. My heart is beating out of my chest with excitement.
I stop at the top of the stairs and watch while Kaylee opens the door.
"Oh," she says, "it's you and-," but her voice fades out.
"Jack," A man's voice says, full and smooth, "nice to meet you, Mrs. Higgins."
Kaylee sticks out a hand for a handshake, and the man clears his throat.
"No," he says, "not a good idea."
I take three steps down the stairs, then one back up, then another.
Jeff's voice then, rough around the edges, "Is Lea here?" Typically tactless.
Poe meows at me from the top of the stairs.
"Yes," Kaylee says, suspicious.
"May we come in?" The man asks.
There's a moment of silence. "No," Kaylee says, and starts to shut the door.
A hand shoots out and stops it effortlessly. "With all respect," the smooth voice says, "I've been searching for this girl for eleven months, and I will be damned if you stop me now."
He shoves the door open, and steps into the house. Kaylee stumbles back a couple steps, and then puffs up like a rooster. In the doorway is the man from the bookstore.
I'm downstairs before Kaylee can start shouting and in between her and him, looking at Kaylee. I start to tell her it's okay, but my mouth has barely opened when I'm pulled around and into the fierce hug the man called Jack gives me.
He's freezing cold: much too cold to be human, but right then I don't care. It's obvious he knows me, really knows me, and cares about me. Jeff cares too, but there's a definite difference.
I bury my face in his chest and breathe in the coppery tang of blood and the sharpness of rubbing alcohol, and that same unmistakable musky smell Jeff has, like some kind of pheromone.
Jack, being a good half foot taller than me, has to lean over slightly to rest his forehead against my hair. Just that action sets off sets off a rush of blurred half-memories. I remember a thousand hugs like this one, and people resting their heads against mine, or on my shoulder. It makes me physically twitch, and Jack lets go of me immediately.
He holds me at arm's length, a frown creasing his brow, and says, "Was that a flashback?"
I barely register the abrupt change of pace. I nod, afraid if I try to speak that I'll cry. The things are gone already, and my head feels emptier than before.
Kaylee, I notice, is looking very confused. I turn to face her and say, with forced calm, "They know me from before."
The look of confusion only grows more pronounced.
"But Jeff-,"
Jack cuts her off, "was being selfish and inconsiderate, and if he ever does it again, I'll kill him."
Coming out of his mouth the last three words don't sound like a joke, but I've been around Jeff enough to know it won't last even if he makes good on the threat.
I look back to Jeff, but he's looking down, shoulders hunched, like a kid that's just been told off for playing too rough. He doesn't look at me. I suddenly see Jack in a new light. Whoever he is, he's Jeff's superior or elder or something else entirely, but anyone who can make Jeff sheepish is someone to be respected.
Jack tilts his head slightly, looking at me, "What did you see?"
Right: the flashbacks. "Not much. Things, people, but nothing clear."
"And that's what it's like all the time?"
"Yes. It's always blurred."
"That is interesting…" He trails off and walks past Kaylee and sets his backpack against a wall. Jeff follows behind him, a kicked puppy.
It's only then that I shake off the endorphin daze of proximity enough to look around. The twins are watching form the sofa, interested but not alarmed. Po is staring with huge yellow eyes. Minerva, Janey and Kip are nowhere to be seen, which is lucky.
Then I see Kaylee's face and my stomach sinks. I'm in for it.
"Lea," she says quietly, dangerously, "explain yourself."
Despite the act that I've almost killed someone in the past week, I take a step back.
Jack rescues me. I'm starting to really like him. He has a good sense of when he's needed. "Lea," he says, "come over here, please."
I obediently approach, content to obey someone who can pull Jeff the Killer around on puppet strings. Jack kicks a chair out from the table. I sit in it, and he pulls out another to sit behind me, not beside me.
"How's your arm?" Jack asks.
I frown, "What would be wrong with my arm?"
"The scar. Deep muscle trauma."
"Oh. It's fine."
"No weird pains or stiffness?" He's testing my arm, pressing on the inside of my elbow and examining the scar.
"It's bruised right now." I wince as he finds the purple spot.
"How'd that happen?"
My eyes flick to Kaylee, but my mouth is already telling the truth. "I got thrown against a bed frame."
He just nods like that's a completely normal thing to say. "But other than that?"
"No. Honestly I wouldn't have noticed. I'm left handed."
Jeff speaks up now, concerned. "You're ambidextrous."
"Or you were," Jeff corrects, "before half your brain was cut off."
I close my eyes, "Please, say you don't mean that literally."
"Don't worry. You brain is intact."
I sense we're approaching the real reason why they're here, what they're mixed up in, but I feel the opportunity slip away even as I take a breath to speak. I let it out, my mind stalling and refusing to spit anything out.
Instead I dig in my pocket and pop a red candy into my mouth. If Jack or Jeff notice they don't react.
"Coughing fits," Jack goes on, "vomiting?"
"Um," I look over at Kaylee. She's still glaring. Jeff actually has one hand in his pocket and I know his fingers are on the knife. I instinctively reach out and touch his arm.
The killer relaxes slowly, grudgingly. He removes his hand from his pocket. I'm very nervous all of a sudden. I don't want a blood bath, not now, not here.
I tug Jeff a bit closer to me, close enough that I can tackle him if I need to.
"Lea," Jack says. He's not testing the muscles in my arm anymore, but I hear the question in his voice.
"No," I say.
"Almost every night then?"
I take a breath to protest and then just say, "Ya."
"Well, we're not in too much trouble yet," he says, almost to himself.
I choose not to answer, rubbing the coldness out of my right arm with my left hand. Kaylee is still glaring.
"You can look at me all you want; I have no answers," I tell her.
I see the shock in her gaze, and I realize with a jolt that I haven't spoken honestly to her once, not once, since I got her.
"Ah, shit," I say under my breath.
Jeff snorts and I glare at him.
Minerva comes through the front door, followed closely by Janey and Kip, who is luckily on a leash. The small white dog begins to throw himself towards me frantically, snarling.
"Keep that thing away from me," Jeff and I say together. We look at each other, surprised, while Jack chuckles.
Minerva is frozen in shock, staring at Jeff. His fingers slide back into the pocket of his jacket.
Jack twists around to see what has the Killer so worked up, and Minerva throws her hands up.
"God have mercy on us all," she says, "Eyeless Jack is sitting at my kitchen table!" Displaying remarkable composure, she bends down to unclip Kip from his leash.
"Minerva," Kaylee scolds, glad to have someone to take out her frustration on, "For the last time that stuff is not real."
Kip comes rushing across the room, and both Jeff and I scramble backwards up onto the table. I pull my feet up when Kip starts trying to bite my ankles.
Kaylee turns on me immediately, "Get your feet off the table," she snaps.
I have to fight down an insane smile. I love everything about this situation, except for the Pomeranian threatening to bite my toes off.
Jack catches the dog by the scruff of the neck, "I guess that answers the 'who told Lea about Jeff question." Kip attempts to bite Jack's fingers, snarling and the being tilts his head slightly.
I feel a sudden pulse that chills my blood. My body tenses and I instinctively move towards Jeff. Kip whines in fear.
Jack pats the head of the now complacent animal and sets him down. Jeff and I gingerly lower our feet back to the ground. Kip crawls behind Jeff's legs and huddles there, his tail close to the ground.
Minerva is standing up again, and she adds her stare to her mother's as she looks at me. An uneasy prickle goes up my spine.
"Lea," Minerva says, "what the hell is going on?"
"I have no idea," I say, "but I sort of like it."
The twins have crept closer I notice. We're surrounded on three sides by people, all staring at us. I reach out and touch Jeff's arm again. The tension goes out of him again, but I know it's only a matter of time before I can't keep him in check.
"Then you tell us," Minerva looks at Jeff. The man shifts nervously and looks at Jack, who sighs.
"There is no good way to say this-" he starts, and is immediately interrupted by someone knocking on the door.
