Death and Destruction (Jeff the Killer Fanfic)

32. No more regrets

"You're kidding me?" I balked, "What about Chris?"

"Him too..."

"Wait a sec, Nina? As in— Kitty's baby cousin Nina?" Jules asked and she responded with a wide, sheepish grin.

"Not such a baby anymore, you've been gone for a while," she laughed quietly, uneasily. "Some crazy shit happened. You're gonna need a drink."

"I'm going to need a fucking drink," I groaned as I slapped the window open, "how's Tommy?!"

"I need energy, I can't heal him anymore without hurting myself! If I keep going I'll have an aneurysm!"

"I have food in the car, I found the Xterra and parked next to it," Nina suggested and I nodded.

"Is that our Tom?"

"The one and only," I assured Jules, my body easing as we got to the base of the mountain and slammed on the brakes before I could hit Chelsea's SUV. "That fucking monster got him good, now this."

I took the keys and hucked them into the forest before I unlocked the Xterra, throwing Thomas's bag into the trunk while Nina sprinted to her mom's vehicle, pulling out a can of Red Bull and some protein bars. She clamored up into the truck with Chelsea while I gathered the rest of her things to put into the back of the SUV. My hands shook the entire time and I knew there wasn't a countdown overhead anymore but it still felt like I was moving too slow, like I needed to get to the finish line first. I had to save him before it was too late.

"Is there anything I can do?" Nina offered and Chelsea shook her head.

"Find me some ibuprofen, maybe," she laughed in defeat. "Come on baby, I've seen you sit through worse. Stay with me."

Thomas's body stopped shuddering for a few moments and Chelsea popped the tab on the can before she chugged the whole thing in one sitting, tracing a sign in the air again before she took a deep breath to place it on his chest. Jules watched intently, her wide eyes analyzing the situation while she untied the flannel from her waist, pulling it over her shoulders to try and chase away the cold shiver. He finally seemed to be back up and running after a good few minutes and we let out a sigh of relief, my knees buckling from the violent shaking that had taken hold of me before I finally collapsed and dropped onto the concrete.

"Kitty, holy hell girl, what's wrong?"

"We're in Colorado," I whimpered as Jules knelt beside me, her brows raising in surprise. "The man who killed you just traded his freedom for your life. Things are...so, so screwed up, you probably won't believe half the shit I tell you unless I show you."

"Well...um, let's start with Tom," she suggested with a hesitant wheeze, "why does he look like that? What happened to him?"

"He's sick with some— some curse, something that will eventually kill him if he chooses to stay human— man, I need a fucking cig. After you died, a lot of other people started dying because it wasn't just the Smiley-Face Killer in Silver Cove. Thomas was one of them but it's because he has to eat...human organs...to keep the curse at bay. It's rotting him from the inside out and now he's dying."

"So...you're saying Tom's not human?"

"Tom is not technically human," I emphasized each word, "but he's still our Tom."

"Honey, look in my glovebox," Chelsea piped up from the truck, "there's half a pack in there."

"You're a fucking saint," I groaned as I got up and popped the compartment open, pulling a cigarette out and lighting it with the zippo. "My head is going to hurt so bad in like, twenty minutes."