Chapter Fifty-four: In Which A Convoluted Plan is Made

Jeff woke up to the rap of knuckles on Eyeless's door, loud and unapologetic. He felt Eyeless shift beside him and grumbled at the sudden absence of warmth against his side. "Come in," Eyeless said, his voice crackly and dry with sleep.

The door flew up, squealing on its hinges, and Toby barreled inside. "Good morning," he said, skidding to a cheerful stop beside the bed. Upon seeing them, his face melted into an sickly sappy expression. "Aw, you guys are so cute. I didn't even know that was possible."

Eyeless groaned and flopped onto Jeff's back, crushing him against the mattress in a way that wasn't wholly unpleasant. "Fuck off," Eyeless said. "It's too early for that."

"That's so mean," Toby said, jutting his lower lip out in a pout. "Are you still mad at us?"

Eyeless tensed, and Jeff's stomach plummeted. That may have been a terribly stupid thing for Toby to say. Was it going to send Eyeless spiraling off into an abyss of guilt again? Jeff seriously hoped not. He didn't have a problem helping Eyeless out if he felt that way, but they were hard-pressed for time after arguing away most of yesterday.

"No," Eyeless said—his voice was smooth and calm, but that did little to assuage Jeff's fears. Eyeless could regulate his emotions better than anybody (save for when he allowed himself to crumple, as last night, Jeff had discovered.) "I am sorry about that, though."

"Oh, it's okay," Toby say, waving him off. "Everybody gets mad sometimes."

Eyeless, thank god, didn't argue about being forgiven this time. He lifted the blankets, letting in a wash of chilly air that Jeff grumbled at. "C'mere, Tobe," Eyeless said, apologetically patting Jeff's head. "Rest a little while with us. What time is it?"

Toby beamed and sprawled on the mattress beside them. "It's almost nine. Hoodie said to wake you up so we could talk about, y'know, stuff."

"'kay," Eyeless said, yawning. "We'll go down in a few."

"Do you want me to go tell Hoodie?" Toby asked.

"Nah. He's not an impatient guy. He'll be fine with waiting."

Jeff stretched and sighed into his pillow. Even though he could feel the stress of today creeping up on them, he found himself content. His friends were alive, and they were all okay, and for now, at least, that was enough. "Who else is waiting on us?" Jeff asked, glancing at Toby.

"Just Hoodie, Masky, and BEN, as far as I know. There's breakfast, too."

Jeff checked in with his body and realized that yeah, breakfast sounded really good—he was starving. "Awesome," he said. "Eyeless did you—uh, you already ate, right?"

"Well, there was no sense in leaving a perfectly good body lying around," Eyeless said, hunching his shoulders.

"I know," Jeff said, stroking the back of Eyeless's neck and waiting for it to untense. "I wasn't mad, I just wanted to make sure you weren't hungry."

Even if the idea of Eyeless eating Josh's body kind of squicked him out, what did it matter? Eyeless's health was a million times more important than preserving an asshole's body for whatever petty funeral they could have given him.

"Okay," Eyeless said. "Thanks, I guess."

"Mm." Jeff wove his fingers into Eyeless's hair, scratching at his scalp and trying to pry a purr from his throat—there was a very slim chance it would work, when Eyeless had clearly moved out of last night's vulnerable state, but it never hurt to try. At the very least, it made Eyeless relax again.

"So, like, if you guys are done cuddling—" Toby said.

"What, you jealous?" Jeff said, sneering at him.

"Does Toby want cuddles?" Eyeless asked, in a childish, teasing voice. He rolled over, hooking an arm around Toby's neck and dragging him towards them.

Toby squirmed, pushing weakly at Eyeless's chest. "Nooo, you guys are losers."

"But you love us," Eyeless said, rubbing his face against Toby's hair. "And you're going to need a shower."

"Oh my god, did you get your eye goop in my hair. Oh my god. Eyeless. I hate you."

"And I love you."

"That stuff is so fuckin' hard to get out. Ugh. Fuck you, man." Toby's body fell limp and he dropped his head onto Eyeless's shoulder. "But, uh, I guess I love you too."

Eyeless buried his grin against Jeff's neck, and although he was hungry and anxious to begin the day, Jeff had to let them rest for a few more minutes. It seemed like it was helping Eyeless to be close to Toby, and to understand that he was forgiven, and that whatever lashing out he'd done yesterday wasn't going to be held against him. It might have been helping Toby, too, judging by the way he was relaxing against them.

Despite how much he loathed to ruin the warm tranquility of the morning, Jeff eventually had to. There were things to be done, and time was already running short—they'd used up a lot of it yesterday. It wasn't a waste of time, per se, but it was a setback at the same time it was a step forward. With Eyeless back to normal, they could undoubtedly plan faster and more successfully, but they also had less time to do it.

Squirming out from under Eyeless, crawling over Toby, and dutifully ignoring their complaints, Jeff got up. He wobbled on his good foot—his bad foot ached like a bitch—and glanced around the room.

"Hang on," Eyeless said, reaching over the other side of the bed and hauling Jeff's crutches up. "Here."

Jamming his crutches under his arms, Jeff made his clumsy way into the hallway. Eyeless followed him, messy hair and rumpled clothes and sleepy grumbling as Toby nagged him. They stopped at the bathroom first—brushed their teeth and combed their hair and pretended like everything was normal and fine for a few minutes. Eyeless washed eye-goop stains from his cheeks and plucked irritably at his shirt, which bore similar marks. Glancing down, Jeff realized that his shirt did, too.

The storage room was their next stop. Neither of them had gotten around to unpacking all of their clothes, so they dug through their boxes until they found something clean and warm to pull on. They shoved their pajamas back into their boxes, then followed Toby to the kitchen. The scent of fried meat and hot bread greeted them, and Jeff's stomach growled.

"Morning." Hoodie nodded at them as they entered, his eyes roaming over Eyeless from his place at the table—he doesn't even make an attempt to hide his curiosity (or his worry), the shit. "How are you guys?"

Eyeless slid into the seat next to him and said something, too low for Jeff to hear. Trying not to eavesdrop—and glaring at Toby until he got the hint—Jeff moved around the kitchen, slathering peanut butter onto a slab of toast and dropping several slices of bacon onto a paper plate. The fridge revealed nothing but lunch meats and water, so Jeff grudgingly settled and grabbed a bottle.

When he turned back around, Eyeless had an arm over Hoodie's shoulders, a shit-eating grin on his face, and Hoodie was snickering through a mouthful of toast. Toby jumped into the seat in front of them, and Jeff leaned his crutches against the table and—much more gingerly—did the same.

"Where'd BEN and Mask go?" Toby asked, looking around the kitchen as though they might have appeared in the five milliseconds that had passed since he'd sat down. "I thought we were all gonna talk."

"They got bored waiting for you," Hoodie said. "I think they're on the Xbox. I'll text them."

"They didn't invite me to play," Toby said, cramming bacon into his mouth and crunching it noisily between his teeth. "Jackasses."

"You can play later," Hoodie said. "Right now we have plans to make."

BEN and Masky strode into the kitchen a few seconds later, and Toby glowered at them as they sat beside him. "What game were you guys playing?" he asked, scowling—although it was missing the subtle twist that meant he was actually irritated, Jeff noticed. "I bet it was really fun. I bet you were just having a great time, while I was running errands and being helpful. I bet—"

Masky pulled Toby's hood over his eyes and ignored his spluttering.

"Kids, please," Eyeless said, propping his chin in his hand. "We have business to discuss."

Releasing Toby, Masky plucked a piece of bacon from Hoodie's plate and nibbled on it. Okay, he signed. Discuss away.

"Yeah," Toby said, shooting Masky a sideways glare, "what the asshat said."

"Great," Eyeless said, voice dry. "So, first things first: what are our goals?"

"Saving Slender," Toby said.

"Freeing the other proxies from the EMFP," BEN said.

"Staying alive," Hoodie said.

"Keeping all of Slender's proxies from killing each other," Jeff said.

Destroying the EMFP, Masky said, and Hoodie translated for Eyeless's benefit.

"Great," Eyeless said. "So what's stopping us and what can we do about it?"

"Well, for starters," Jeff said, "we're stuck in this hellhole house unless we're on a job—and even then, time constraints are going to prevent us from going after Slender."

"Do we have to go after Slender?" Hoodie asked. "I don't mean that we shouldn't, but if there's another way to get him back safely—or if there's even a chance that he does what he says he will and defeats the EMFP without our help—we need to know. It's pointless to waste our time and energy if we don't absolutely need to."

"You have a point," Eyeless said. "What do you guys think?"

Jeff bit his lip and allowed himself, for a moment, to wonder if Slender was actually telling the truth. What if he could do this all by himself? What if they were interfering unnecessarily?

"It's unlikely that he can do this on his own—or even with the help of all the other masters," BEN said. "I've been through their databases, and there's a wealth of information of exorcisms and banishments and other ritualistic shit like that. After cross-referencing it with what information I could find here, it all seems pretty legit, and that makes it a plausible threat."

"But we don't know for certain that Slender is a demon," Hoodie said. "It makes the most sense, but he's never explicitly said he is."

"That's the same line of thought to EMFP had," BEN said. "They compiled a shit-ton of ideas, so if one thing doesn't work, they'll try another, and then another, and another—just like they did with the proxies, trying to free them from their masters."

"But they would need time to try all of that stuff," Jeff said. "And maybe he's a demon and maybe he's not, but Slender is powerful. He could kill them before they could try a single tactic, if it didn't work right away."

"Provided there wasn't a salt-silver line involved to trap him," BEN said. "We know for a fact that salt-silver lines restrain, at least, Slender's mental powers. That's why he couldn't contact us while we were in the compound—at least, not regularly or strongly."

"And it seems to be the same for the other masters, since they didn't come for their proxies until after the line was broken," Hoodie said. "I think it's entirely plausible that the burners could trap the masters and run through a list of tests until they eventually found one that worked to exterminate them."

"So there is a threat," Eyeless said. "We're all in agreement on that?"

They nod.

"And there's no way we can help Slender from this house?"

"I've tried going through the web," BEN said, "but Slender's command seems to block that, too. I can't access anything outside of this place. I assume that nobody here has some magical Slender-disobeying powers?"

Masky's eyes flickered away from the group and Hoodie frowned, reaching over to lace their hands together.

"What is it?" Eyeless asked. "If you have an idea, tell us. We're not going to let Slender know."

Masky shook his head. "It's nothing," Hoodie said, "only—if there were someone like that, they'd have to be pretty powerful. And it seems to me like Slender's already taken all of his powerful proxies away. All things considered, having someone who could disobey Slender would probably just mean more problems for us in the long run. What if they're a traitor, and they're with him now?"

Eyeless's lips press into a thin line. "Well. Let's hope, then, that there isn't anyone like that. I may have another idea on how to get out of here, but what are we going to do once we get out? How can we help in ways that the other proxies can't?"

For the first time, none of them had an answer. There were lots of maybes and ifs, but those weren't worth risking their lives over. What could they do, that other proxies couldn't? What made them special enough to defy Slender's orders and go after him with delusions of grandeur like this?

"Well," Toby said, hesitating. "We've been inside of the EMFP compounds. We've gone through their files. We know more about them than a lot of other proxies."

"But we told Slender everything we knew," BEN said. "Our information is worthless."

"We're more motivated?" Toby said. "We have more reason to want to destroy the EMFP than any of the proxies Slender took with him."

"And what good is motivation if it can't be applied to something useful?" Hoodie asked.

"Strength in numbers," Jeff suggested—he knew it was a weak answer even as he said it, but they needed something. "Any little bit of extra manpower they can get will help. When all of the masters are trapped—assuming the EMPF does succeed in doing that—it'll be the proxies doing the fighting."

There is nothing extraordinary about us, Masky said, but we are useful. Eyeless is a surgeon—god knows you can never have enough of those on a battlefield BEN is a living computer, a wealth of information. Jeff and Toby are two of the best fighters I've ever met, and they're stubborn to boot. Hoodie's a genius. He can crack any code the EMPF throws at him.

"That's right," Hoodie said. "We're not the best at anything, really, but we're very good at very specific things. We'll increase the masters' chances of success by being present to offer our skills if they're needed, rather than moping around here like trophy proxies or something."

"Even if we can't do anything, even if they really don't need us—what harm could it do?" BEN asked. "We could die. Yeah, okay, but we're going to die if Slender dies, anyway, and we've already decided that there's a good chance of that happening. So why not die doing something useful instead of twiddling our thumbs?"

Eyeless nodded. "Okay," he said. "That's good enough for me. Does everyone else agree?"

Another round of nods.

"So what's the plan from there?" Eyeless asked. "How are we going to find Slender and get to him and help him? And how are we going to do it without getting killed, lost, or captured—because this time there's nobody back at home waiting to help us."

"You said you had an idea about how to get out," Jeff said. "What was it?"

"Well," Eyeless said, taking a deep breath. "I knew Slender would give us an out—if he's going this far to keep us safe, then he wouldn't make us stay here if something threatened us. Hoods, what did Slender say about leaving, verbatim?"

"He said, 'With the exception of your jobs and life-threatening situations, you are forbidden to leave this house—again, on pain of death.' But the jobs had time limits, so can I go out on a limb and assume you want to create a life-threatening situation?" Hoodie said.

"Clever as always," Eyeless said, grinning. "That's exactly what I want to do."

"Great," Jeff said.

"That sounds dangerous," BEN said.

Cool, Masky said.

"Um, but—how?" Toby asked, picking nervously at the bandages around his hands.

"The best thing I could come up with—forgive me, Jeff—was fire," Eyeless said.

"Oh, come on," Jeff said, scowling.

"Slender's smart. We can't just threaten each other. I figure we have to actually feel like we're in danger. That won't happen if we fight each other, and I wouldn't trust any of the other proxies to do it," Eyeless said. "Caving in the roof might work, but it'd be pretty hard. This place is old, but the rafters sound sturdy. Even if we broke them, the collapse might be unpredictable, and some of us could get caught in the debris. But if we set the place on fire, we'll have a pretty good idea of where it's going, and we can be prepared to escape it."

"How close would it have to be to us, though? To get everybody out at once, with a fire on our heels—people would get trampled, and you can't tell them to stay calm. That's not the point," Hoodie said. "They're supposed to feel scared."

"Not necessarily. Threatened and scared aren't synonymous. If there's a fire near us, and no way out but the front door or the windows or whatever, everyone will know that if we don't get away from it, we're going to die. It's a fact. That doesn't mean we have to be scared of it, if we know that we can get out because it's going to kill us if we don't. Does that make sense?" Eyeless asked, looking around the table at them.

"In a convoluted sort of way," Hoodie said, "yeah."

"So I'm thinking we get everybody together, explain what's going to happen, and light the place up somewhere near the front door, so we'll know if it spreads to the upper floors—and hopefully so that we'll be out before that happens. The command breaks, we get out of this place, and we hightail it to wherever," Eyeless said. "Sound good?"

They all exchanged agreeable looks, and Jeff groaned, dropping his head onto the table. "Seriously?" he asked.

"Sorry, bud," Eyeless said, reaching out to ruffle his hair. "You'll be the first one out."

"Ugh. Whatever. Fuck you."

"But before that, we need to decide what we're doing once we get out. Do we even know where Slender is?" Eyeless asked.

"If we don't, I know how we can find out," BEN said. Five expectant faces swiveled towards him. "Er, I mean—probably?"

"What is it?" Hoodie asked.

"Once Slender's command is broken, we're free to go anywhere, right?" BEN asked. "And Jeff, you talk to Jack on the phone, right?"

Jeff nodded, and he saw Hoodie's eyes light up across the table.

That's a great idea, BEN, Masky said. Do you think you could do it?

"Do what?" Toby asked, looking helplessly at BEN. "What are they talking about?"

"I can trace the call and figure out where Jack is—hell, I can go there myself, if I need to," BEN said, lifting his chin a little. "That'd work, right, Eyeless?"

"It definitely sounds like it. Now, we have limited supplies, so—"

The rest of the morning was spent hashing out logistics—what to bring, how much of it to bring, how to transport it, how to travel without being caught, and other miscellaneous boring crap that Jeff didn't care about. He spent most of the meeting tracing the patterns on the table and wishing he hadn't forgotten his phone upstairs, until at last Eyeless was satisfied.

"Alright," he said,. "We'll leave tonight, so eat up, take a nap, pack what you'll need. I'll tell all of the other proxies to do the same. Masky, Hoodie, I'll help you pack up the infirmary stuff in a little while, okay?"

They both flashed him a thumbs-up before ducking out of the kitchen. Jeff went to follow them—it was going to be hell packing with crutches, so he needed to get a head start on it—but Eyeless caught his sleeve. "C'mere a minute," he said, pulling Jeff off to the side. "You usually talk to Jack every day, right?"

"Well—yeah, but that's only because I'm trying to figure out where they are and what they're doing, it's not because—"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Eyeless said. "You're such a macho-man, you don't give a shit about him, yada yada. Listen, you haven't talked to him today, have you?"

"No. I've been a little busy."

"Awesome. Don't talk to him until tonight, 'kay? That'll make sure he answers when we need BEN to trace the call—and it'll keep him from suspecting anything."

Jeff nodded. "Okay, but, um—he said he would call last night, and I'm not actually sure if he did because I was with you, but—if he did call, and I didn't answer, then he's probably already worried. If I keep ignoring him he might flip."

"Well then," Eyeless said, grinning wickedly, "he'll just have to feel miserable for a little bit, won't he?"

Jeff couldn't help the little half-smile that tugged on his lips. He still liked Jack, but he did have to admit that he was just a teensy (fucking lot) bit pissed the fuck off about what he'd said to Eyeless. Maybe it would serve him right to be left out of the loop for a day. "Yeah. I guess he will."