Darkside (a Jeff the killer romance)

24

The rain that's been falling heavily all night finally starts to die down just as the first rays of sunlight appear in the sky. From outside of his bedroom window, Adrian can hear birds starting to sing. And with that sound, he's forced to accept that he has indeed been awake all night.

Sighing, the boy closes the laptop that he's been attached to for hours, lazily letting the device drop to the ground beside his bed. He rubs his eyes and groans. He's just in the middle of deciding whether to get some sleep or to go for a cigarette, when he hears something that instantly kills all thoughts of how to best pass another boring day: the distant yet unmistakable sound of the back door being opened.

Jeff. He must be back, sooner than he would usually be. Fuck yes.

Adrian nearly runs down the stairs and towards the kitchen, slowing himself down as he approaches, as he might be a bit too excited. After all, Jeff didn't leave in the best of moods and he wouldn't want to be too full on and risk agitating him when he's only just got here. Still though, he's ecstatic as he turns the corner into the kitchen.

However, his joy instantly shifts to shock upon seeing the killer.

Jeff, dripping all over from both rain and blood, braces himself against the wall for support as he staggers through the kitchen. He's hardly even managing to stay on his feet. The guy looks like he's been hit by a damn truck.

"Jeff, oh my god-" Adrian runs to his friend's side, offering assistance that is, surprisingly enough, actually accepted. The injured boy falls into his touch, allowing Adrian to help keep him steady on his feet. "Woah, jesus christ, um- Easy now, this way," He leads Jeff towards the table, trying his best not to let the trail of blood being left on the floor send him into a full blown panic. "Shit- Fuck- How badly are you hurt?" Despite his efforts, his tone borders on frantic.

"I'm f-" Jeff's words are cut short, replaced with a hiss of pain and a string of broken swear words as he pulls his damaged body up to sit on the table, with Adrian's help. "It's fine- I just-" Another strained grunt as he shrugs off his wet jacket and hoodie. "I've just lost a lot of blood." The killer's eyes fall shut and he breathes a shaky sigh of relief, just glad to have made it back without passing out. He honestly hadn't thought he was that badly hurt, until he started to get faint from blood loss whilst limping through the woods. Maybe he should have just found the nearest dingy hole to take shelter in and lick his wounds like he usually would. But, he rushed back here instead. Probably driven by some kind of natural urge to get his injured self back to somewhere he feels safe.

The adrenalin that must have been carrying him to this point now dissipating, Jeff's exhausted body finally gives up and he lets himself collapse into a broken heap on the table. He can hear Adrian's voice, filled with panic, but it feels distant. Not registering exactly what the boy's saying, Jeff just lays there, catching his breath and calmly staring up at the ceiling.

"Jeff! Jeff!" The warmth of Adrian's hand on his face pulls him back to reality and he shifts his head slightly, met with the brunette's panic stricken face, big brown eyes wide with fear. "I'm going to help you, okay?" Numbly, Jeff hums a barely audible sound of agreement, no longer having it in him to speak. Adrian then says something else, perhaps a question, but Jeff doesn't process the words.

Every inch of his body hurts like hell, and he's feeling more dizzy by the second. He's only vaguely aware of what's going on as his blood soaked shirt is cut off of him with kitchen scissors. There's definitely a shriek and more panicked yelling from Adrian upon seeing the extent of his wounds, but he's far past the point of words reaching him now. He just tries to keep breathing steadily through the pain.

He must have passed out at some point, because he regains consciousness to see a terrified face hovering inches above his own, Adrian's wide eyes brimming with tears as he stares down at him. His hand is again on Jeff's cheek. "J-jeff.. Fuck, Jeff, are you still with me?" Jeff groans in response, not enjoying how much it feels like he's been fed through a wood chipper. He tries to move, but Adrian places a hand gently onto his shoulder to keep him down. "Hey, slowly, okay? You're very injured, and I'm not a fucking doctor, so who knows if I've treated this wound right." Jeff shifts, getting as good a look at himself as he can. The worst of his injuries, his shoulder, is bandaged up tight, and the nastiest of the gashes on the rest of him have gauze secured over them. "I think I stopped the bleeding..." Adrian continues, biting nervously at his lip whilst looking over his work. He's done his best, but as he said, he isn't a doctor. Far from it, in fact.

"Here," Adrian carefully helps Jeff to somewhat sit up and places 2 pills into his hand, which Jeff instantly throws into his mouth and swallows dry. He's then handed a glass of water, which he takes a small sip from before handing it back. "What happened...?" Adrian asks, putting the water to the side. He's clearly quite shaken up and still kind of freaking out, but is doing his best to mask that with a calm, caring tone.

"Nothing all that interesting." Jeff mumbles dismissively, attempting to sit up fully and wincing in pain at the first tiny movement of his more injured arm. He hopes that those pills were painkillers.

"Jeff-" Adrian's voice comes out louder and more harsh than he'd meant it to be, so he quickly corrects himself and continues more softly. "Jeff, you have a bullet wound for Christ's sake."

Jeff looks down at his bandaged shoulder. "Yup." Having now assessed the damages and figuring that it's probably not that bad now that nothing's actively bleeding, he decides to bite the bullet and try to get up. He manages to, if cursing loudly the second he puts weight on a leg injury he'd forgotten about.

Adrian watches with concern.

"What?" Jeff asks with a questioning look towards Adrian, who's just staring at him with an expression that Jeff can't quite read.

"... Are you going to be okay?" Adrian's shaky voice comes out only just above a whisper.

"I mean, probably?" Jeff half laughs. "I haven't bled to death, that's a good sign."

It's then that all of the fear and stress finally gets the better of Adrian and the tears he'd only just been holding back start to pour down his face. Jeff goes to take a step towards him but struggles, Adrian quickly catching him and, still crying, helping him to walk. Slowly, they make their way out of the kitchen and into the living room.

"Why are you crying?" Jeff asks between pained grunts as he's helped onto the sofa, where he lays down as comfortably as he can. Adrian sniffs and wipes some tears away with a bloodied sleeve, kneeling on the ground beside him.

"... I thought you were going to die."

"Oh, don't worry," Jeff waves a hand dismissively, "If I die, just take me out into the woods and bury me, then scrub the house clean like we did before. Should be fine."

"Shut up!" Adrian snaps, causing Jeff to look at him, confused and taken aback by a tone that isn't usual for Adrian. "I care about you, Jeff! A lot!" The teen shuts his eyes tight, tears falling more heavily as he fully shouts at his friend. "You show up here in this state, pass out in a pool of blood in my kitchen and leave me to fucking google how to treat a bullet wound whilst my best friend bleeds out in front of me! And now you act like that's just fine?! Like if you died I would just bury you and be done with it?? How dare you!"

Jeff stares slack-jawed as Adrian yells at him, and as the yelling turns into just sobbing. For some reason, it's only now that he registers how much blood Adrian's covered in. There's a long moment of Jeff just laying there watching him cry, speechless. He's never yelled at him like that before, he's never even shown any genuine anger towards Jeff the whole time they've known each other.

"I'm... sorry..." The killer speaks, slowly, unsure of his words. "I guess I didn't think about it like that..." He carefully shifts himself to sit up as best he can. "Hey," With no idea how to make him stop crying, he reaches a hand over and lightly pokes him on the shoulder, which at least gets him to open his eyes. "Thanks. For patching me up..."

Adrian sniffles. "Will you be okay?"

"Yeah. I'll be fine."

"I was so scared..."

"I'm sorry."

Wiping the tears from his face, Adrian takes a shaky breath. "I can't believe you managed to get back here in such a state. What even happened to you?"

"Honestly, not much." Jeff relaxes and lays back down, exhaustion starting to catch up with him. "Just got a bit reckless..." He closes his eyes, starting to feel the effects of whatever pain medication Adrian gave him. At the feeling of a hand placed gently on his own, he slowly opens his eyes again to see Adrian looking at him with a serious expression on his face.

"Can you be more careful in future..? Please, don't get yourself killed..."

"Okay," The killer drowsily closes his eyes again. "I promise." He mumbles, before drifting into sleep.