Death and Destruction (Jeff the Killer Fanfic)

29. Betrayal

"What did you do to Ann?!"

"I— I didn't want to..." he stammered, his free hand reaching to clutch at his skull, "she wouldn't listen to me though. Ann— Ann said she'd leave if I kept following Jeff but I couldn't let that happen..."

"Liu, where is she?!" I screamed at him and I caught his low, maddened laughter while a chill crept up my spine.

"She's laying in a freezer in the morgue," he whispered, "what's left of her, at least."

I couldn't stop myself. I pushed past Thomas while I screamed like a banshee, slamming headfirst into Liu while he stumbled back in surprise. I could see the madness in his eyes as the railing bent and caved beneath beneath our combined weights and sent us toppling over the edge. I managed to dislodge his knife when we landed, his body a solid cushion between me and the car beneath us. Liu let out a gasp as the wind was knocked from his lungs and I slammed my fists into the side of his head, still screaming while the car alarm echoed in the empty streets. People would be coming out to see what the commotion was soon and arms wrapped around my body as Jeff and Thomas hauled me off of him.

"I'll kill you for this! She deserved more than you could ever give her!" I howled, "I'll make you feel everything she felt, motherfucker!"

"Snow, get to the car! We have to go!"

They set me down and I leapt into the driver's side of the Xterra, flooring it so that I could whip out of here as fast as humanly possible. Red flashed across my vision and all I could think about was the woman who treated me like I was a welcomed guest while he used me as bait. I slammed my fist against the steering wheel so hard I was sure the airbag would deploy but I was probably lucky it didn't. My knuckles ached and bled while searing hot tears left trails down my cheeks.

When we finally came to a stop somewhere in the city I let my body go limp, arms sitting in my lap while my fingers twitched. Jeff and Thomas talked about something while it was all I could do not to turn back around and go after him. That monster, she was trying to get you to see reason. Ann wasted so much time and energy trying to save you from your own spiral of self-indulgent revenge and now...she's gone. I'd wanted to believe he was lying but I knew from the sound of his voice that he was telling the truth.

"Snow?"

"I told her to run, so long ago." My chest heaved as the tears finally came. "I told her he wasn't worth it. I spent that whole year trying to convince her he was going to end up killing her one day and now...now..."

Arms wrapped around me and I leaned into them, knowing there was nothing I could do for her now. Jeff let me sob into his sleeves while my instincts tried desperately to choose between fight or flight; I wanted nothing more than to fight the whole world for everything that had gone wrong right now. For Nina, for Chelsea, for Ann. Eventually I eased and focused on taking deep breaths, still listening to the murmurs and mutterings of the boys while my head swam with static.

I checked the time and noted that it would be daybreak soon, reaching out to cut the engine and grabbing a blanket, not wanting to let the cold seep in. Thomas flipped through a few pages of the book Delilah had given to Chelsea before we left, the tiniest of smiles on his face a far bigger relief than I expected, finally seeing him something other than angry. I'm sure my outburst didn't help anything but I wanted to distract myself, get my mind off the lingering anger.

"Find anything useful?" I asked quietly to get his attention.

"A lot, actually," he started, "it's all healing, earthy magic; life and grounding energy. Well, save for one of these spells."

"What is it?"

"Fireball."

"Why am I not surprised," I laughed, remembering the scene I walked into bright and early on a Wednesday morning. "Jeff, did we ever tell you exactly how Chelsea got herself kicked out of school?"

"No, actually. Is it worse than you?"

"By a long shot," Thomas whistled.

"Tom, Jules, and I pulled into the bus roundabout when we were sophomores, heading down to meet Chelsea in the lot like we usually did when she didn't pick Jules up on the way into school. The moment we stepped foot into that lot there was this great, flaming ball of fury that Chelsea was standing atop like queen of the castle. Her hair was red back then, pretty fitting considering it was her boyfriend's car that she'd torched."

"They called the cops and everything but her ex didn't want to press charges. He knew he'd fucked up pretty bad and she was ordered to pay some fines and court fees and I think she got like what, six months probation?" Thomas hummed, a longing in his gaze as he closed the book. "I miss those days, before everything went to hell. The worst thing we had to worry about was passing our classes with D's and not getting caught smoking behind the locker room."

"Those sure were the times to be alive," I sighed, my hand twitching and reached back to grip Jeff's as tightly as I could, "I don't know if I'd give up now for then, though. Things are different but they aren't bad."

"I don't know, being hunted by an ancient deity and running from the cops on a consistent basis seems pretty bad to me," Jeff snorted and we all fell into laughter, the first dusty blue rays of the sun coming up over the horizon to shine into the car.

We tried to keep our hopes up for as long as possible until everything was finally painted in a fiery blaze. This was one of those sunrises I could appreciate on any other day but today and I reached for the key instead, starting the car before we drove to the next location. Liu was off the table as any sort of help now and while a little disappointed it almost felt relieving to have him more as a definitive enemy than a possible friend. I hated fighting people I didn't know for sure I couldn't save.

The mountain was still painted in fiery waves as we arrived at the base of it, noting that there hadn't been any new snowfall since the days prior and that there were tracks to follow that led deep into the winding trails. I took a deep, shaking breath when I heard the doors close behind me, knives held tightly in my hands while my mask perched upon my face. This was our Chelsea and I'll be damned if I'm going to let this son of a bitch get away with hurting her.