Layla lay in her bed staring up at the ceiling. How long had she been laying there? It must have been an house by now. She couldn't stop thinking about the shadow in the ballroom. She remembered thinking that it was looking at her. Her heart rate had increased but not out of fear, no, she had been excited. The reaction had freaked her out, it wasn't normal to be excited about a killer staring at you like that and yet she was. It was hard to say why exactly but she had turned to look at her finace for a second, long enough to see him looking at another girl but when she looked back he had gone. She didn't see him again for the rest of the night but she wanted to. She found herself constantly checking the room to see if he was there and was disappointed when he was nowhere to be found. Was it Jeff? Was if really him? Or had her mind been playing tricks on her. No one else had seen the figure and he couldn't really have managed to sneak into the ballroom unnoticed with all the police officers walking around...could he? Layla's eyelids felt heavy. She was getting tired now. The ball had finished at about midnight and she was in bed half an hour later, it had to be the early hours of the morning by now. Layla watched as her eyelids began to slowly close. She couldn't fit sleep anymore, she was tired. Layla heard a faint sound from the dark corners of her room. Her eye flew open, she was suddenly wide awake again. Very slowly she began to sit up but a dark figure ran at her from the shadows. The figure pounced onto her bed and roughly pushed Layla back down. Layla laid on her back looking up at someone above her. She could feel their weight as they sat on her stomach, a leg either side of her waist preventing her escape. Although she hadn't planned to try and escape.

"I've been waiting for you to go to sleep for so long that I grew impatient." Said a male voice. There was something about his voice that screamed insane but at the same time Layla found herself intrigued by this person.

"Are you him? Are you Jeff the killer?"

"Who else would I be?" He replied with a small chuckle.

"Are you here to kill my family like you killed those other people?"

"Not your parents, just you. You see that was the plan all along. You were my victims and I think it's quite hilarious how you believed that a few police officers would stop me. Nothing stops me from killing my victims. Although most of my victims would have screamed by now. They would be fighting for their lives but the fact that you aren't putting up a fight kind of takes the fun out of things." Layla was curious to see what he looked like. She felt her hand slowly reach towards the lamp on her bedside table and she clicked it on. Her eyes widened as she looked at the face of the man that was planing to kill her. His skin was unnaturally pale, his hair black as the night, he seemed to have hand carved a permanent smile into his face and his unblinking black eyes seemed to stare right into Layla's face.

"It's true that I don't fear you. The fact that I don't freaks me out a little, anyone would be scared by this situation and yet I find myself more excited than anything else. I can't tell whether I'm excited by dying or if what I'm feeling is fascinated by you and the way in which you live your life. You are free to do and go wherever you desire while I am not." Jeff tilted his head to the side, a butchers knife still covered in blood from his last victims gleaming in his hands.

"You have to be the strangest human I have ever encountered." He said just before her let out a laugh but was immediately cut off by the sound of many people's footsteps rushing down the long hallway. Police. They were flinging doors open and calling out to Jeff.

"Jeffrey woods, I am well aware that you are here. Come out and this won't have to get messy." He said through a megaphone. Jeff let out a laugh at this statement.

"If I came out there it would get nothing but messy."

"Either way they have found you. I suppose the question now is do you stab me and run or just run." Layla said causing him to look at her with his black eyes.

"It is never as simple as stabbing. Besides I had something special planned for you. I want to take my time in killing you, think of it like a privilege for being so cute. It looks like I don't have time to do as I planned at the moment but don't worry...I'll be back to finish the job..." He said jumping off her bed and running towards the window. Layla watched as the white hooded figure jumped from the window. She frowned, would he really be able to survive that fall? The police opened her door with a bang and Layla instantly sat up.

"We're sorry to bother you my Lady but we thought that you were in danger." Said the police officer with the megaphone.

"That's quite alright but I'm perfectly fine." She told them with a polite nod. The police officer appeared to be in his early 20's suddenly blushed realising all of a sudden that Layla was in her nightwear. She had no makeup on, her hair was slightly messy from laying in her bed and yet she still looked as beautiful as ever.

"I-I apologise for the intrusion, please sleep well for the remained of the night." He stuttered bowing his head to her slightly. The other men her had brought in with him and left and he followed after, closing the door as he went. Layla sighed and laid herself back down, she really was tired now and soon enough she felt herself drift off into sleep...

A few hours later Layla found herself being woken up by a strange sound in her bedroom. The sun was coming up and she could see the morning daylight through the bottom of her curtains. It must have been about 5 in the morning. Her maid usually came to get her up at 7, so what had woken her up? Was it him? She thought. He said he would be back to finish the job but would he really come back on the same night. Layla looked around the room but saw nothing, there was no one other than her in the room. She sighed and looked at her bedside table , hoping to watch some tv before her maid came in to get her up. There was no way she could get back to sleep now. However next to her remote she found something...unexpected. A knife. It was stained with dry blood but it looked like someone had attempted to clean it with some kind of cloth. Layla thought back to the previous night. A butcher's knife. Jeff. She thought making the connection. This was his knife. It hadn't been there when she went to sleep which meant that he really had been back. The sound of him leaving must have been what woke her up. But why would he come back and leave her alive? And why would he leave his knife here? It was a good thing she woke up before her maid came in otherwise she would have totally freaked out. Layla should be freaking out at finding a serial killers knife on her bedside table but just like when she had met Jeff the previous night she was not. She knew these reactions were not normal and as she reached for the knife she began to question her own sanity. Layla wrapped her delicate hand around her knife and pulled it towards her. She stared at it as she held it inches from her face. It felt powerful in her hands and the handle seemed to fit the curve of her palm like it was made for her specifically. She had never felt so incontrol in her life, she felt like she really could do anything with that small metal object in her hands. Layla felt a sick smile crawl across her face, why was it that this knife provided her with happiness like she had never felt before? Layla ran her fingers across the blade, feeling the dried blood and being unhappy that it was blocking her view of her own face. She climbed out of bed with the knife in hand and went to the kitchen. Whatever Jeff's intentions were when he left the knife here didn't really matter, if anything it made her happy. It meant that he had no choice but to come back. She would see him again. Layla walked into the her own private bathroom. There was the bath that could become a jacuzzi in the corner, her white porcelain sink and of course her toilet. She got a flannel from one of the cupboard and began to clean the knife until it looked brand new. She smiled happily at her work and looked at her reflection in the blade. She felt complete with it in her hand, like this was the thing he had been missing all these years. One thing was clear to her, she didn't ever want to put this knife down...