Ch 6

Your POV

       It's been a few weeks of you living with your new guardian, Jeff The Killer. You've grown used to him and his rough, yet somehow 'caring' personality. You still had occasional moments where you sat down and sulked, remembering your parents and the life you've had with them. Every now and then you'd find yourself crying about the situation, but whenever Jeff would come around you'd make sure to shut up, as you had quickly learned not to cry around him or do things to irritate him.

       This ordinary night, you were sitting down on the couch playing on one of the phones that was once your parents—it was now yours, according to Jeff. Jeff had gone out for the night, but he wouldn't tell you where. He'd left you with a bowl filled to the brim with candy, a bunch of your toys he had gotten you over the weeks, and the phone for emergencies.

       He also gave you a bedtime for some reason—which he didn't used to do before, but you weren't going to listen to him anyways. It was now nearing midnight and you were still up, giggling at more Assassination Classroom episodes that you've been watching on your phone. You didn't really understand it but Jeff had introduced you to something called anime and you thought it was more cartoons so you were willing to keep watching them.

       In the middle of watching, you hear what sounds like loud scratching sounds coming from the back of the cabin. Your attention immediately turns in the direction of the scratching and you watch the area in silence. The scratching had ceased for a while until it shortly started up again.

       "Jeff?" You whispered, sliding off the couch and walking to the furthest wall of the cabin, the side where the single room was located. You press your head against the wall and hear the scratching coming from outside, but it stopped again seconds after you listened in.

       You backed away from the wall and stare at it in confusion, then stop when you hear heavy footsteps now pacing around the cabin, heading towards the front. You guessed that Jeff had returned from wherever he'd went and knew you might get in trouble if he saw that you were still awake far past your given bedtime.

       Hurriedly, you rip open the door to the small bedroom and and peep out from a small crack you leave in the door to see Jeff coming through the front.

       Instead, the front door shakes as if it's being tampered with for a long time, and you're hearing voices that do not sound familiar to you. Suddenly after a few moments, the front door gets forced open and instead of Jeff, you're met with the sight of two different men dressed in dark, curious clothing. You could not see the face of either person as they were both wearing tinted goggles over their eyes and masks to cover their mouths.

       You weren't going to waste a second watching them anymore, as once you saw the rusted, dark blood coating the sharp hatchet of the leading male, you knew you were probably in danger.

       You close the door till it was closed but not fully and scramble under the dirty wooden bed. You felt webs cling to your body, but you were more concerned about your life than any spiders that could be under there.

       "Jeff..." You whimper quietly, hoping frantically that the creepy male would return home and confront the strange intruding men.

       The door to the room eventually creaks open and you almost make a noise out of fear but quickly cover your mouth and stare beneath the bed with wide eyes as two pairs of heavy looking boots trudge into the room.

       "This whole place is a damn shame. Nothing like how we left it," One of the men growled, stopping just before the bed while the other continued wandering around the room. "We should just burn it all down."

       "Don't think so," The other quickly responded, "I'm thinking we wa-a-it for whoever's been living here to turn up so we can confront them. By th-th' looks of it, whoever lives he-ere's got a kid with 'em."

       "That explains all the fuckin' toys..." The first one scoffed.

       "Don't fret Cody, I'm s-sure whoever lives here will be easy to clea—clear out."

       You jump when you suddenly feel the loud vibration of your phone coming from beneath you as you cowered under the bed. You quickly grab it and see that Jeff was calling you, but you shut it off as fast as you could, although it was probably already too late.

       "You heard that from under the bed, right?" One of the men scoffed. You start shaking as you see both legs heading towards the bed and shut your eyes tightly.

       "There's so-someone under here."

       Next thing you know, you feel your leg being roughly seized and you get dragged out from underneath the bed. You turn in a panic to see both of the masked men hovering over you, looking down at you through their concealing goggles.

       "I knew there was a kid living here."

       You immediately scramble up from the ground and try to to run but the one with the blue goggles reached at you and grabbed your arms, forcing them behind your back. "Na-na-na-na-na fuck you!!" You taunted, stomping on his feet as hard as you could.

       "Owc—you little shit, what the hell?" He grunted, twisting your arms harder. "This kid lo-oks at least 6 years old or something. Where'd th-they learn that language?" The one wearing orange tinted goggles mused, folding his arms over his chest.

       "Let me go before Jeff gets mad! He said if anyone hurts me he'll stab you to death!" You yelled, trying to stomp on the one who had you in his hold. "Hold up. Did you-u just say 'Jeff'?" The other man scowled.

"No I said Jerry, stoopid!!" You stick out your tongue at him.

       "Jeffrey Hodek..." Orange Goggles muttered under his breath. "Isn't that the ugly-ass bleach faced psychopath we have on file?" Blue Goggles asked, glancing at Orange. Orange Goggles glanced at Blue and cocked his head, "What part of 'st-stay out of the damn files' and 'th-they're none-e of your business' do y-you not understand? You're only an Awakened."

       "That's close enough to being a Proxy for me. You think it's any fun being kept in the dark?"

       You didn't understand a word these two men were saying but the fact that Blue Goggles had insulted Jeff left you growing furious. You jump with all your might despite feeling your arms being twisted by him and crush down on Blue's feet as hard as you could.

       This however only provoked the man into kicking forwards your knees and forcing you onto the ground, your arms folded behind your back in a painful pretzel. "Knock it OFF you little punk, otherwise I'll bash your tiny skull in, got it?" He growled in your ear as you started wailing.

       "Lay off Cody, it's just a kid. Not like it'll take mu-uch to kill 'em anyways?" Orange Goggles huffed, jabbing Blue in the shoulder. "What we need to save our energy for i-is Hodek. He'll prove di-i-ifficult in apprehending, which means we need to come up wi-ith a plan."

       You watch as Orange's boots waltz around you and come to stand just before you where you were being pinned down by Blue. You stare at his dirt ridden, battered shoes and scoff ignorantly, "Why do you talk like that? You can't even talk normally, what's wrong with you? Jeff'll crush you!"

       There was a long moment of silence before Blue chuckled gruffly, "Just a kid, huh Toby?"

       Suddenly, you felt Orange grab your head and forcefully twist it upwards to face him. With his other hand, he'd grabbed ahold of your neck, and you were forced to look up at him, your gaze growing frightened by the sudden harshness from this man.

       "I don't give a sh-i-it if you're little and clueless. Fucking i-insult me again and you-u see this—?"

       He kept one hand around your neck and reached with the other for the sharp, rusty hatchet he had latched to his side. He pressed the blade against your forehead, causing you to start shaking and audibly whimpering.

       "—Yeah go ahead and cry all you w-want. See this thing? I'll split you-u open without a warning, got me? Watch your-r mouth, little shit."

       He then slowly removed the hatchet and roughly let your neck go, causing your face to smack the ground. You begin crying now, afraid and exhausted and more than anything, you wanted Jeff. Blue Goggles chuckled and his weight on you slightly laxed as he changed his position to only keeping his palm forged into your back while he positioned himself on one knee beside you.

       "Maybe this kid'll actually do us some good, Toby. We grab his little monster and use it as some sort of bait, maybe that'll get him to come onto our turf where we'll be more at an advantage."

       Your wet gaze strains to look back up at that Orange Goggled man, Toby, as he growled, "I don't need an advantage over that fucker, I-I'm already ten trillion times st-stronger than him." You've begun to notice that Toby seemed to be acting a bit more irritated after you'd questioned his manner of speech.

       "Yeah but think about the good it'll do getting him straight into the hands of the whole Syndicate," Blue pressed, "He wouldn't stand a chance, and we could all keep him out of commission."

       Toby looked to have paused, thinking for a while before training his concealed gaze back on Blue Goggles. "It's not a st-stupid idea, Cody. We may-y as well do it, since we're here. And burning the whole place down? Doesn't s-sound like a bad plan to m-me anymore, especially since we know whose been frequenting it."

       "No..." You break into the conversation with a sniffle, raising your head a bit more, "you c-cant burn it down. This is me and Jeff's house. Why would you do that...?"

       The Blue Goggled man, Cody, increased the pressure of his hold on your back and sneered, "Stay out of grown up conversation kid, before you find yourself in deeper shit. What we do is none of your business. All you need to do is cooperate."

       "...What does that mean?"

       "It means get up," Toby had suddenly reached down and grabbed ahold of your arm, raising you up off the ground as if your were a rag doll. You started panicking as he began pulling you out of the room with Cody following close behind. "NO! Let me go!" You shouted, tripping over your own legs, "JEFF!!!"

       You used your free hand to quickly reach into your pocket and grab your phone again but just as you'd flashed it, Cody had snatched it away, tauntingly dangling it in his hand. "No more phone for you, brat."

       You kept pleading and panicking as these two strange men dragged you out of the cabin you'd called home for just a few weeks and out into the cold, dark woods outside.

       "Cody, burn the pla-ce down, then leave a note that'll hint Hodek to the Syndicate. I'll take the li-little hellion to the Sængurlegu. That'll keep 'em quiet for a-a-a while."

       Cody nodded his head and turned back to the cabin while you began yelling again for them to stop. Toby ignored your cries as he yanked you further and further away from the cabin, towards something unknown and possibly very nightmarish...

•••

Jeff's POV

I trek my way back into the woods as fast as I can, grumbling to myself while repetitively calling (Y/n)'s phone, trying to get in contact with them. I told the little wretch to keep their damn phone on vibrate at least so they could hear me in case I had to call them.

"I'm gonna strangle that little shit," I scoff under my breath, eventually shoving my phone back in my pocket and stuffing my hands into my hoodie that was currently well soaked with fresh blood. They may be sleeping like I'd told them to be doing at this hour (which I highly doubt), but if they'd at least followed my directions they would've heard me trying to get to them.

As I'm getting nearer and nearer to home, the smell of smoke starts to become very prominent in the air. I scrunch up my nose and feel a slight pang of anxiety rise up in my chest. "Shit. Who the fucks starting a fire way out here at this hour?" I growl. Knowing how I felt about fire, it wouldn't be wise for me to go and investigate, but I had to make sure no one found out about my little hideout.

My phone suddenly vibrates in my pocket, causing me to jump. I utter a curse under my breath and whip out the phone, seeing it was (Y/n) calling me. I immediately answer and hound them.

"Kid, what did I tell you? Why didn't you answer me the first eight fucking times I called, huh??"

"#Heh, you really sound just like a father, Jeffrey. Unfitting, for someone like you."

I stopped in my tracks once I heard the voice on the other end, my grip on the phone loosening. The anxiety that was already building up from the smell of smoke heightened, and my grasp on the phone retightened again as I come to the realization that the bastard on the other end of the call somehow got ahold of (Y/n)'s phone, and (Y/n) could be in deep trouble.

After a moment of processing, my hands start shaking and I snarl through clenched teeth, "Where the hell is (Y/n)?"

"#(Y/n), is that their name? Such a cute kid. They're growing to be just like you, I saw. Too bad they're not under my watch anymore."

"I'm not playing around you son of a bitch. What did you do to them!?"

"#That's all apart of the surprise. Why don't you come home and find out?"

Before I could yell anything else at the caller, the call was dropped and I was left staring at my screensaver. "DAMMIT!!" I yell out loud, squeezing the phone tightly in my grasp, causing the screen to instantly crack. I didn't care about the glass that now penetrated my skin, I was more concerned about the fact that those mindless slaves have gotten to (Y/n) and who-knows-what could've happened to them.

Why I thought it was a good idea to leave a 5-year-old home alone was beyond me at this point.

I ran the rest of the way home without stopping, the smell of fire and smoke growing stronger the closer I got. I eventually reach the scene of what I expected to be the worse-case-scenario.

The cabin was in the midst of burning down, bright orange and red flames eating away at the rotted wood on every side. Everything I'd owned? Gone. (Y/n)? What else was I expected to think...

I trudge closer to the scene with the movement of a lifeless zombie, dazed by what I was faced with. After a moment of staring, I snapped back into my senses and looked out at the woods around me, calling out Kid's name, hoping for the smallest chance that I would hear something, that I would get some sort of response.

Of, course, I got no response. (Y/n) was either dead inside of that burnt cabin or...they had taken them.

Sure enough, as I stalk over to some of the damaged remains that the fire had left alone, I see a note that was left untouched amongst the debris. I pick it up and read with growing fury.

' This is your final chance.
The Syndicate requests your immediate surrender.
Wether the child survives or not is based off of your decision.
We won't wait long; His patience is waning.
See you soon, Hodek. '

⦻