"...alright, but you should know my twine's not strong enough for us to climb up a wall. Do you have anything else?"

After a moment, Jeff sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Then why would you even...fine. Just, give me your knife."

"How did you know I—"

"Because I knew you'd take one. Hand it over," he answered, twirling his own knife between his fingers in preparation. I reluctantly gave him mine, hoping it would be enough for whatever he had in store. Without another word he stabbed them straight through the wood of the house, one above the other as if he were going to climb that entire distance with just them.

Which is exactly what he ended up doing.

Luckily, the window wasn't too high off the ground and it had a charming little balcony right in front of it so Hodek could toss the knives back down to me and wait there. But let me tell you, climbing a wooden wall with nothing to hold your feet and pre-made carvings causing your knives to occasionally slip is a lot harder than he made it look. I'd had practice with these kinds of things before, of course. But it took a full upper-body workout and probably five "come on" and "stop breaking's" to get me to the top. I tried to mask my panting as coughs, but Hodek was able to see through that. I couldn't be sure of whether that was good or bad, because he let me rest for a minute or so, but I also knew he was never going to take me seriously again. Maybe almost killing him in his own home wasn't enough, after all.

After I'd gotten some of my energy back, I stepped inside first and found some crying teenage girl curled up in the corner of her bedroom. There were visible scratches on her arms, her hair was soaking wet, and what I assumed to be her phone lay almost completely broken on her bed. And based on her room's decor...she was a total spoiled brat. She didn't even realize I was there, though it may have had to do with the fact that she was crying incredibly loudly and her face was buried in her arms.

"Dude, why are you just standing..." Jeff came in behind me and faltered when he saw the scene. "Oh."

The girl finally lifted her head and jumped at the sight of us. But she didn't seem necessarily scared. She looked almost relieved that there was at least one other person there.

"Oh! Oh, my god, I...please, help me. I don't know how much longer I can take this. I shouldn't have picked on them so much, I shouldn't have listened to her when she told me to do it, and now..."

Jeff seemed to quickly regain his usual demeanor and stepped towards her, armed with a knife and a wicked smile. "Sorry, sweetheart. We're not here to—"

"Help you with what?"

I spoke without thinking, and suffered the consequence of knowing that Hodek was already deeply disappointed in me. He slowly turned his head in my direction, and it took all my willpower not to look back at him. I kept my gaze on the girl. She let out a shudder of a sigh, tears still leaking from her eyes.

"I-I don't even know what it is. My phone started acting up, and then something poured, like, a bucket of water on my head. I've been getting all these awful texts, and from people I don't even know! I'm starting to think...it all might be the same person. I know it sounds crazy, but—"

The phone buzzed, and she let out a yelp and covered her face.

"I shouldn't have done that. I shouldn't have done it," she said, over and over again like she was being forced to. Like someone had drilled those words into her head. I turned my attention to the phone, its screen cracking even more by the moment. Slowly, and carefully, I walked over and picked it up to read the message.

"Would you two mind?"

I felt a chill run down my spine at that, and nearly jumped when Jeff placed a hand on my shoulder.

"I know who's doing this," he said with a grim look on his face. "Let's leave. The little shit doesn't want us here, anyway."

Confused out of my mind but not willing to question this any further, I nodded and made for the window. I heard him warn the girl, "If he doesn't finish you off and you blab about this to anyone else, I'll come back here and do the job myself."

With that, he jumped out along with me and we started on our way again. I was ready to take his scorn for messing up the very first kill of the night, when I eventually realized he wasn't going to give it to me. I looked over at his face, and noticed it was lined with something between annoyance and fear.

"Mr. Hodek?"

"Huh?" He seemed to snap out of it, not even throwing so much as an irritated look in my direction.

"What was that? What did you mean by 'he'?"

"...oh. Right. You don't know any of that. Uh, let's just say that I'm...kinda glad you stopped me back there. If I'd stolen that guy's kill, I probably wouldn't be here right now."

"What? First, that's the only thing about this you find a little concerning? And second, can't you just...beat him, whoever he is?"

"Do I look like I'd be concerned by anybody else killing some teenage thing? Hell, she probably brought this onto herself. God knows why someone like her would do that, but it doesn't matter. She's already dead." He finally looked me in the eye with pity. "And here's a quick tip; not all of us killers, kill with knives." He nodded at my set of pliers and scratched behind his head. "Plus, the guy we just ran into...well, he's stronger than me. More durable. I would get into why, but it's not all that important and besides, we have a schedule to stick to."

"Um, okay." I didn't bring up the fact that his "tip" wasn't really much of a tip, and that maybe the reason why this person was stronger than him might've actually been important. Instead, I followed in his wake as we made our way to the next house.

[JEFF]

I seriously doubted this guy's ever even killed one person before. Of course, I'd have to take his word for it until I saw him in action, but could you blame me? And now I was thanking him for holding back, just because our first house happened to already be in the hands of that...thing. It was infuriating. But I couldn't show all I was feeling, at least not at that moment. I could wait until we got home; letting it all out on the street in the middle of a spree wouldn't help anyone, except maybe the police who were already on Jeff Woods's tail. Idiots.

While we were both onto our next kill I noticed he was acting just a little bit stranger than before. Not that I knew anything about him, but it was like he was trying to distance himself from all this. Like his mind was just somewhere completely different. Maybe because of what just happened. Maybe because he accidentally said something about what he was trying to "find"? Either way, I didn't ask him about it. I was still itching to use my knife for the first time in days.

We approached a neat little house on the corner of the street that seemed like it would only fit one or two people, in terms of resources. Though this time, there were no ledges on the windows of the second floor, making it near impossible to get in from those. And climbing stairs to get to these people would definitely be an uphill battle, both literally and figuratively. I clicked my tongue, trying to think, when Max piped up.

"Exactly how much do you know about the people you kill?"

"...enough."

"And how much would enough be?"

"Absolutely nothing. Do you have any ideas with how we could get inside, no close shaves, no loose ends?"

"Not really. I could tie a knot around a window latch if you can find one and see where that gets us, but otherwise, I don't know."

"I see."

He hesitated for a moment.

"...are you angry that you didn't get to kill that girl?"

"How could you tell," I deadpanned, folding my arms and starting to pace around the house. He followed me just barely, like he was scared of getting too close.

"Don't worry. There's plenty more people around here that might be assholes, you know."

"Yeah, I know that. Why are you saying these things?"

"So you can slaughter whoever's inside here later, instead of me right now."

"Thoughtful. You're not helping yourself here, though." I looked down and saw a tiny cellar window poking out of the ground, and felt gears turning inside my head.

It's way too small for me. But it's not just me this time.

"Okay. Here's the plan. You can jam those pliers through screen, right?"

Max nodded.

"Good, because I'm not lending you my knives again. I'm guessing that space right there is about one-by-two feet. You squeeze on in there, try to find the front door or some window near there. You'll probably see a road and a bunch of trees, that's how you should know. Then you let me in however you can. Got it?"

I couldn't see his expression through the mask, but I knew he understood. Without hesitation, he crouched down and got to work, while I took another stroll around the house to see what kind of person would live here. Not more than a minute later, I heard a quiet knock on the doorframe. I smiled.

"Now you're proving something."