To Live without Fear [Jeff the KillerxReader]

26

"Jane."

Jeff spat out the name like it was vinegar on his tongue. "What are you doing here?"

"I figured you'd be desperate enough to take a shortcut through the Slender realm." Jane replied in a smug tone, running her fingers along the surface of the page she held. "Looks like I guessed right."

"Well, great job! You caught us. Now what?" Jeff replied with aggressive sarcasm. "We may not be able to leave without that page, but you're stuck here too. And it won't be long before-"

"You've always talked too much." Jane lunged forward, knife in hand. Jeff let go of your wrist and shoved you to the side. You hit the ground, causing the notes to scatter everywhere. You quickly began to gather them up as the scene before you began to unravel.

Jeff had pulled out his glass shard and was locked in combat with Jane. He was holding his own, which, you had to admit, was pretty impressive. And kinda hot.

"You know, I was pretty upset-" Jane said through grunts as she parried her blade against Jeff's, "-when I saw you'd escaped my fire. But I never anticipated you'd have a girlfriend around to save your hide."

"Sorry to hurt your feelings," Jeff said with a wry smirk, "but I guess I'm just too loveable."

You rolled your eyes at their ridiculous banter, and suddenly it occurred to you why they were such bitter rivals. When it came down to being an asshole, these two were equally matched.

Finally you picked up the last piece of paper. Now the only thing left to do was get the eighth note from Jane, but she had it clenched firmly in her hand, with an iron grip you'd experienced firsthand. Jeff wasn't making any progress either, so it seemed like you only had one choice. You kept your eyes on Jane as you slowly got up onto your aching feet. You crouched, ready, waiting for the perfect moment....

And then you football tackled that motherfucker.

A reckless move, perhaps, considering what happened the last time you wrestled with Jane, but reckless was your middle name. At first it seemed to work out; Jeff was able to quickly snatch the last note from the startled Jane. However, Jane was as agile as ever and quickly had a hold of you, with one hand pinning your wrists together over your head and the other holding a knife to your throat. She got up onto her feet and pulled you with her as she backed toward an open doorway. The other seven notes were once again scattered. Dammit. Everything was just....dammit.

"Alright, Jeffrey." Jane said with smug satisfaction, self-assured of her victory. "You're going to put that page down with the others, drop your blade, and back away to the other side of the room, or your relationship's coming to a premature end."

You could see storms brewing in Jeff's eyes as he tried to analyze the situation and come up with another plan, all while glaring at the woman behind you with ferocity that would send a normal person to his knees. But neither you nor Jane were normal people.

The situation seemed too straightforward to be outsmarted. If he made a move, Jane would kill you. If you made a move, Jane would kill you. And so, with reluctance, Jeff slowly set down his blade and the page. You watched as he suddenly became rigid. Simultaneously, you felt Jane's body tense up against you. Immediately you understood what was happening; the Slenderman was here.

You took advantage of Jane's pained state and freed yourself from her grasp with relative ease. Once you'd pushed out of her arms she dropped the knife from her shaking hand and you quickly scooped it up off the floor. You pointed it at her and backed up until you were beside Jeff. Then, for the first time in your life, you felt the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

You turned away from the defenseless Jane to point the knife at whatever was standing behind you.

The Slenderman (or at least you assumed it was him) was impossibly tall and thin. If the shack's roof had been intact, the thing would've had to bend over to stand inside. It wore a neatly fitted suit and tie, but its most striking feature was its face. Or lack thereof. Its face was like a blank white slate that was both transfixing and hard to look at. The instant you laid eyes upon the thing's face a bizarre static feeling crept into the corners of your mind. It was annoying, and made it a little hard to focus, but it certainly wasn't making you freeze up like Jeff and Jane.

You could feel it looking at you. It had no eyes, but you could've sworn it was staring at you. You weren't sure how much good the knife would do against this thing, but you kept it ready nonetheless.

The Slenderman continued to scrutinize you, like you were the biggest weirdo in the room. You thought you ranked pretty low on the hierarchy of freaks, but maybe that was a touch subjective. Finally its sourceless gaze tore from you and drifted over to Jeff, who had elected to shield his lidless eyes from the creature with his hands. You could tell Jeff was in much worse pain than before. Who the fuck did Slenderman think he was, waltzing about the woods, scaring people and causing migraines?

Dark tentacles grew from the tall creature's back and extended towards you and Jeff at a nonchalant pace. The static in your head grew louder and was starting to affect your vision as well. You put your arm around Jeff and glared at Slenderman over your dagger. He paused for a moment, to see what you would do. You uttered the first words that came to mind.

"Fuck off!"