Ch 2

???'s POV

       I walk slowly through the dark woods with the kid I just kidnapped in my arms. The little loser was holding on to me tightly, at the same time bitting their thumb like they were still scared. Or maybe it calmed them down, I don't know kids well.

       As I'm walking Im internally screaming at myself for taking this kid with me. I still don't fully know why I did it; at this point my only reasoning is because I fell for their stupid kid charm.

       I didn't think about the other important stuff; how the hell am I gonna feed it, keep it clean, and even keep it alive?? I knew this was a bad idea deep down but just holding it in my arms was enough to stop me from putting it down.

       "Aren't you like 6? Stop sucking your damn thumb, idiot child."

       "Im...5..."

       "Fan-fucking-tastic. I'll find you stroller while I'm at it."

       I wasn't kidding about the stroller, I'm not carrying this thing around all the time. It's heavier than a little baby even should be. I don't care if it's a bit too old.

       The kid actually stopped biting it's thumb though so I guess I made it feel bad. I sigh and glance at it slightly. "What's your name?"

       "I'm...um, my name is (Y/n)...(L/n)."

       "Alright (Y/n), well my name is Jeff."

       They stayed quiet for a few seconds before murmuring quietly, "Beff? I like that name..."

       "Jeff, you mutant."

       "...I still like it..."

       I smiled a bit at this. "Your names' not that bad itself. I'm still calling you "Kid" though." After that, neither us said more as I walked them through the silence of the night.

•••

       I approached my place slowly, this time walking the kid by their hand. I took forever to get there thanks to the extra luggage but I'm glad we finally made it. I'm tired as hell.

       "Is this your home?" Kid asks me.

       "Yeah. Have something to say?" I snark.

       Kid shakes their head. I shrug and lead them up to the old, rusty looking cabin that I called my home. Killer's gotta have some place to hide out, right?

       I pushed open the door creating a loud unnecessary creak and held it open for the kid. Kid looked hesitant and didn't enter. "Go on, there's no monsters in there to get ya. I mean, unless  you count me then..."

       The kid gave me a trusting glance before slowly stepping inside. To mess with them, I quickly rushed behind them and slammed the door shut, seemingly making the whole place rattle with the impact.

       Kid screamed and turned, grabbing my leg tightly, hyperventilating. I laughed hysterically for a bit before quickly calming myself down not to completely frighten off the kid and gently ruffled their head. "Just messing with you, chill out."

Your POV

       You give a half-hearted chuckle when you realized it was just Jeff slamming the door to scare you. It really wasn't that funny though and you were on edge. You were starting to miss your parents a lot. Not to mention, you were now in the hands of a stranger; the same stranger that took your parents from you. At least he didn't kill you...and he seemed nice.

       You watch as Jeff walked into the dark and eventually a small light brightens up in his hand. He was holding something that gave off a big, bright light, illuminating the whole room. To you, it was probably called a flashlight. You looked to the old wooden boarded walls and felt around for what you knew was usually in all houses; a light switch.

       "Where's the switch? To turn on lights?" You asked, puzzled when you couldn't find one. "Don't got none. This is a cabin in the middle of the woods, kiddo. No electricity. Life's a bit different here," Jeff responded, walking over to you with the light source. "Here, this is a lantern. Hang on to it so you can see where you're going."

       He hands you the "lantern" and makes sure it's light enough for you to hold before letting you hold it on your own. You swing the lantern in your hand and giggle a bit, then you begin waking around, looking at your new surroundings.

       It was a small area with an old, beat up coach placed against the wall and a small table and a chair at the center. There was a desk on the opposite side of the room with a basket overflowing of clothes on top and at the back of the cabin there was one more small room with the door closed.

       "You should come over to my house, we have more stuff and a TV and I've got toys," You say naively, coming to realize there was next to nothing that was interesting in this place.

       "Yeah, I saw. Speaking of toys, don't worry, I borrowed a lil something from your parents."

       You look over at Jeff and see him pull out your mother and father's phones from his pocket. You recognized them because sometimes they'd let you play games on their phones. However, for some reason seeing their phones made your stomach knot and you felt like crying.

       Jeff noticed and quickly walks up to you, kneeling to your level. "Don't start crying' on me, Kid. I'm gonna take care of you, ya hear? Hah, better than your lame parents. I bet they don't let you do whatever you want, do they? Like let you stay up late? Eat candy n' shit? Bet they made you go to...ah let's see, kindergarten, huh?"

       You wipe a few tears that slipped and nodded slowly because it was true. They had a lot of rules and school was no fun anymore like it was on the first few days of starting it. Jeff placed a hand on your head, "I'm gonna be the fun parent, unlike them. We're gonna have lots of fun, okay? All you have to do is not cry. Capeesh?"

       You nodded again, once more feeling calmed by how nice he was being. So, Jeff was going to be your new parent, you guessed. You wasn't sure how that worked just like that, but since he was a grown up and knew things, you trusted him. Something bugged you though, and you wondered if one day you were going to lose Jeff too. What if someone comes and kills Jeff just like he killed your parents. Is that how life went? You live with someone for a bit, they get killed, then you live with the person that supposedly killed them? Then repeat again?

       If that's how things worked...you weren't going to like living very much then. "Jeff..." You murmur quietly, and the killer tilted his head. "Are you going to die too and leave me one day? Like my parents?"

       Jeff looked off to the side, like he was about to burst out cracking up or something. He then glanced at you with his wide, almost burnt out eyes and shook his head. "Nah, I'm built different. I won't leave you, promise."

       You look at him for a bit and then held up your pinky finger, like you saw other kids do in school. "You have to say you pinky promise," You say, looking at him dead in the eyes.

Jeff's POV

       ...Why's this thing staring at me like that. Creepy little pipsqueak. I think we'll get along real well.

       I wrap my pinky around theirs and sigh, shaking it gently "Pinky promise ya little twig. Now stop crying and whining and worrying, would you?"

       Kid smiled and nodded, happily shaking my finger with theirs. Seeing them smiling for the first time kind of melted me inside. Oh god. I quickly let go of their finger and roll my eyes, "Alright, how about this. You wanna play a game or something?"

       "...YEAH!"

       "-Child. Alright, first you've gotta give me the password to your parents phone."

       I chuck one of the phones at them and the kid looks at it a bit before turning it on and quickly typing in the password. Of course a 5 year old knows how to operate a smartphone, it's 201X.

       They manage to unlock the phone and hand it back to me and I smile swiping through the screen. "Good little kid. Smart little kid. Now I'll download a bunch of Sesame Street games for you and I'll let you keep it. I'll hold onto the the other one, kay?"

       Kid nodded and I see a slight smile and form on their face.

       ...As long as they're happy...I guess. Maybe having them around won't be so bad.