"Jeff?"
He was sitting outside, right at the front steps of the grand castle. An odd place for anyone to be, considering the many rooms the building right behind them offered. But since when did Jeff make sense?
The killer didn't react, his haze seemingly directed off towards the forest in the nearby distance. Masky stood by the front door, arms crossed.
"Jeff," Masky repeated, "Do you know what happened to Eyeless Jack?" Jeff sat still once again. But before Masky could parrot himself once more, the killer turned around.
His face didn't show much sadness, but it never did. He didn't look happy either. He shook his head.
Though his dark eyes were obscured, Masky kept his gaze firm on the teen. "And that's the truth?" Again he shook his head, a little quicker this time, but expression the same.
Masky sighed. Could he believe him? Definitely not. But he wasn't going to press for answers too much. Mainly because he didn't care. They would come on their own, if they needed to.
Jeff turned around, again facing the vast field. Masky breathed in, just barely able to smell the freshness of the cool air through his mask. It seemed out of place in such a heartless world.
Maybe that was why Jeff came here.
Masky uncrossed his arms, putting them in his pockets. "What about the Rake? Nobody's seen him either. Smile, too."
Jeff sighed audibly. "If I knew," he whined, turning again to face him, "I would've told you."
But that wasn't true. He didn't say anything about Eyeless. He had to figure it out on his own, as did everyone else. He had to have known before anyone else.
What else could make him so quiet?
"Jeff," he said sternly, "If you're hiding something, I'll know eventually. The Operator will find out." A threat? A warning? Masky wasn't sure which. Perhaps just stating a fact.
Something in Jeff's face changed, but it was too small to interpret. "Yeah, I know," he brushed off with a glare.
Masky glared back, knowing it would be his own secret. He didn't know why he was making the effort. He didn't care about Eyeless, or at least not to the extent that Jeff did.
But he couldn't ignore a threat. Whether he actually thought there was a threat didn't matter. If the others in the castle were in danger, so could be the Operator. And, since serving the Operator was his life, he had no other option than to ask Jeff questions.
He didn't know if he believed his own wild assumption, though. The castle's residents disappeared. They died. They betrayed. This was nothing new. His hunch could hardly be called a hunch.
Jeff, a traitor? The teen was crazy, not stupid. Same with everyone else. He was wasting his own time. Hopefully.
"Are you gonna go?" Jeff groaned, eyeing him with anger.
Masky frowned. "Jeff, I-" he stopped himself. He exhaled, clearing his thoughts. "I hope you're not doing anything you'll regret," his tone was softer than normal. Not friendly, but softer.
Jeff shot him an icy look. "What do you mean by that?"
Masky couldn't answer. He didn't know the answer. He looked at Jeff's eyes, hoping the words would be somewhere in there, but they weren't.
So he walked away.
"Hey!" Jeff shouted, apparently now interested in speaking. But the door was already opened, and he had one foot inside.
Masky was about to close the door shut. "I thought you'd know it better than anyone!" he heard Jeff call out. But then the door was closed, the conversation over.
Masky closed his eyes. It was a stupid idea to talk to Jeff. It was a stupid idea to talk to anyone. He gained nothing, but somehow felt like something was lost.
He had to be apprehensive, didn't he? Everything was trying to kill him. Everything was trying to kill the Operator.
He only oped it would be different tomorrow.
