FIREFLIES - Eyeless Jack X Reader

Chapter 4 - Please Stay

I didn't fight it.

"Why did you...kill...that woman?" I asked, eyes lowered and head hanging. I don't bother lifting my eyes to meet the hollow holes of the mask. I knew I wouldn't be able to see any kind of expression come out of them anyway.

He shifted, the sound of fabric rustling being the only thing to indicate this. I would've thought he stood up to leave, but I didn't hear the sound of the leather chair moving, which told me he still sat right there next to me. Same place as always.

The notebook sat on the bed, half leaning on my thigh. I saw a gloved hand slowly slide into my vision, grab the book, and retreat with it. I listened as he popped off the cap of the thick marker he wrote with, the sound of the felt tip scratching away. The strong scent of the alcohol made my head dizzy. It felt like it took an hour for him to write. My heart was pounding so hard in my chest that I could hear it in my ears.

He slowly turned the book around, hesitantly, as if he was unsure about showing me the response he just wrote out. I almost didn't look.

'I was hungry.'

My heart, which was just in my ears, now dropped all the way to the bottom of my stomach. I stared at the page in shock, my eyes begging the still wet ink to say anything other than what it did.

Despite having just finished an entire bottle of water, my mouth suddenly felt like it was full of sand. "You.....You...ate her?" I asked, my voice hardly audible from the sudden fear I found myself placated in. Tears and sorrow overtook me. Not just for myself, being at his mercy, but for the woman who already felt it. I tried to control my shuddering breaths, but my trembling refused to cease.

'Only the organs.' His movements were getting slower and he wasn't very responsive, almost like he didn't want to turn the book over to show me the writing. Like he was ashamed of it.

He's withdrawing from the conversation, and so was I.

I turned to look at him, his shoulders tensed and his leg began nervously tapping on the concrete floor. It was obvious that he was trying to retreat into himself to avoid me.

Is that why I'm here? To be a snack? A convenient meal for when he gets hungry again? I thought back to the notebook, on one of the last pages, how he said he didn't want to hurt me too. Is it because I wouldn't taste as good if I were damaged?

Choked by my terror, I ended up staying silent. My eyes, not wanting to look at him, drifted towards the ceiling. Bile rose to my throat and I swallowed hard to force it down. Only the organs? As if that makes it better! What, are the organs the most acceptable part of a human to eat? If so, what body part would you draw the line at? Which part is taboo for him?? I frantically shook my head, to banish the thought.

Ate someone. Ate someone! I don't want to believe it. The shame radiating off of him, though, was almost enough to convince me not to. I turned to him, mind going blank as I studied him. A question popped in, the only thought in my head now. I blurted it out, realization that I had spoken it aloud, hitting too late for me to stop it.

"Are you gonna eat me too?" For some odd reason my voice was steady and even. Tremors of horror sent cascading waves through my arms to my fingertips, like an earthquake. I wrapped my hands around one another, as it was all I could do to try and keep the shaking at bay. And yet, my chest didn't throb, and my heart didn't ache. Maybe it was the reaction he had to his own words, the shame of admitting it. It told me there was more than I was seeing.

He turned a page and I glanced back to look at the book. I was afraid to actually see the answer, but morbid curiosity won this round, it seems.

'I don't want to.' My mind flashed back to the hidden note I saw before 'I don't want to hurt you, too.' This one was similar, but not quite as desperate. This one felt like he was bargaining with himself, more than answering me. Something about him feels...Almost tragic.