Heaven may welcome all those who are deemed holy enough to obtain entrance, but Hell is open to all the others. Hell, however, was not prepared for its next victim.
Jeff was laid in a lake of molten gravel, and he just sat back and laughed as if in a meadow. They put him in chains and he smiled and waved. They carved out his heart and he thanked them.
Hell ate Jeff the Killer and spat him back out.
Jeff crawled out of the wreckage of his grave and stood up, embracing the night. He stared skyward and spread his arms wide, laughing and smiling like the maniac he is.
“Hello world! I’m BACK! Beauty is back!”
He reached down and tore his knife from the ground and held it up to the moon.
“Someday I may even make you beautiful, dear Selene.”
He started off into the city, his mission clear in mind.
Jane was running back home. Her mission fulfilled, Jeff dead, she wanted to return to her normality. All she wanted was her old life. This is impossible though, she thought, as Jeff had taken her old life. She could make a new life she decided then.
She took a path into the woods and began jogging, deep in thought on what all she wanted next. She didn’t even notice the DO NOT ENTER sign on the tree near the fence.
She was in her state of contentment when she hit a wall of sound. It ate into her skull and dropped her flat on the ground, clawing at her ears.
She looked up and saw black shoes and black pant legs in front of her. She was about to question their cleanliness in the wooded environment when she noted that they were somewhat floating before her. She looked up to see the matching suit jacket as well as the pale white face of a blank man. A tentacle wrapped around her and lifted her up to be face-to-face with it. Her vision blurred slowly into a crackly image when it dropped her.
A knife was protruding from its shoulder. At first she suspected Jeff and went on the offensive, but then she saw the hooded figure with the blue mask and black eyes.
The faceless man wrapped a tentacle around the knife handle and tore out the blade, never making a noise, and threw the blade at the man. He jumped aside and the knife buried itself in the tree next to him up to the handle. The man reached over and grabbed the handle and began to pull vainly.
The tall, thin man slowly floated towards the man, stalking him, and he reached out and hooked the guy’s hood and pulled him away, tearing free the knife in the process. The masked man landed, rolled, stood up, and charged the suited man.
He was just about to collide when…
Jeff was musing when he spotted the sign in the woods. He smiled wider than usual and ran in.
He heard the sound of a tree cracking when he saw the man with no face standing in a clearing. He ran forward, and, seeing another man with a knife, redirected himself at him and tackled him to the ground. The man dropped his knife, but Jeff held his high and slashed a smile at his face.
The cut only marred the mask. Jeff angrily started to slash at the mask, but the man bucked up and threw Jeff. Jeff caught his balance and rushed in, driving the blade into the man’s side. He still stood, so Jeff caught his foot and dropped him, shoving the knife into his heart. The man lay still.
Pulling the knife out he turned and glared at the faceless man and, for the first time, just noticing, Jane. His smile was stretched to the point where his scars were tearing.
“Hello Jane. Thank you for killing me. It was a very rewarding experience. I was able to see others just like me. It was so beautiful.”
“You’re sick, Jeff. You are a curse on this world and all of the people who inhabit it. You need to die, Jeff.”
“That’s exactly what your father said when I saw him down there.”
“My father?”
“Yes. Your father. Your mother was even there. She says hi. She can say it in person soon enough, though.”
Jeff reached down and grabbed the masked man’s knife from the ground and held both knives crossed.
Jane pulled out her own, but the tall man stepped in between them, facing Jeff.
“Ah, Slendy, I missed you, you old worm you.”
The Slender Man just stared at Jeff and raised his injured tentacle before him, reminding Jeff of his intentions.
“Heheheheh. It’s like that, is it? Well, let’s see who will win, seeing how we were interrupted last time.”
Jeff raised his knifes high and brought them down in arcs, facing off with his foe.
The Slender Man remained still, waiting for Jeff to make the first move. Jeff burst forwards screaming and bringing his knife around for his swing. His blow connected with Slender Man’s arm and was brought to a very sudden stop. Jeff’s arm could be heard to have snapped from the force. He reeled back and, releasing the knife from his dead arm, charged again.
Blow after blow, dodge after dodge, the battle raged on for hours. Jane sat back, watching the two demons go back and forth, viewing the war of humanity and the world beyond. Jeff was beginning to grunt with each swing by the sixth hour, but Slender never slowed once. His tentacles never allowed Jeff the luxury of a relaxing breath. This was a fight to the death, and they both understood it.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, Jeff got one blow in and the monster raised his head as if injured. The knife had hit where any human’s heart would be. It tore the knife free with ease and hurled it at Jeff in frustration. The black ooze that seeped from the beat streamed behind the blade as it blew within a hair’s breadth of Jeff’s face, and the sludge blinded him. As he held his eyes in pain, Slender Man picked him up by his throat and bashed him into a tree. Blood started down Jeff’s face, but that sadistic smile remained there. He knew what he wanted to do. He wanted to create death. He wanted to make this blank man beautiful. He wanted him to smile.
Jeff kicked away and landed roughly on his side. He got up and gripped his arm tightly. With a guttural screech and a tearing sound, he tore his arm free and brandished it.
“Come and get it, monster. Let me make you beautiful.”
The Slender Man slithered forward, and Jeff held his new weapon and slashed it in one controlled swing, carving a smile right across the pale face.
The scream that ensued was terrifyingly animalistic and inhuman. Slender Man held his face in his hands and disappeared into the woods, giving up.
“Coward!” Jeff screamed after him.
Jane sat on the cold ground, horrified by what she had just witnessed. She didn’t even notice when Jeff had started towards her. The shock had crushed her heart and mind into powder and scattered it inside of her.
“It looks like you’re all that’s left, Jane. Your two friends fled you. I checked. Old blue face scampered away like the scavenger he is.”
Jane looked to the earth, but Jeff caught her chin and raised it up to look into his eyes.
“You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting to work on you, dearest Jane. I left you incomplete for a reason. One, you weren’t prepared for this kind of beauty, and, two, I wanted a project I could wait for. Every smile I carved was to perfect my art for you. I didn’t want to accidentally mess up such a potentially lovely face.”
“Go to Hell, Jeff.”
“Already been there. Not a bad place really, only kinda warm and too many imperfect people. I couldn’t help but play cosmetic surgeon down there. They didn’t appreciate it, and so here I am. All the better. Now I have you.”
He smiled at her. She glared back and gritted her teeth.
“You’re even sicker in the mind if you think I’m letting you do to me what you’ve done to so many other innocents. I don’t care how many times I have to kill you, I will not let you harm another soul.”
“Naivete. Simply cured.”
Jeff snatched up her knife and slit her ear to ear, first placing the knife in her teeth, then pushing backwards until he felt bone.
“There. Perfect.”
Jane stared straight ahead and fainted. Jeff had won. He had actually won. Now the world was truly doomed.
Jane awoke in a basement, tied to a chair, her mouth bound, a delirium about her.
Where was Jeff? Where was she? What were his plans?
As she had these thoughts she saw the basement door open and in walked Jeff with a tray of cookies and two bottles of alcohol.
“Well, well, well. Look who’s awake.” He grinned and chuckled lightly.
Jane struggled against her bindings. He couldn’t help but laugh at her helplessness.
Welcome home, Jane. You will be staying with me from now on. You have nowhere else to go, nor do I. I said you were my final project. I meant it. I can’t let out beauties be mingled with the features of the homely that walk the grounds above.
Jane furiously looked into his eyes and noted the sincerity in his voice. If she hadn’t known better she would’ve felt sympathy for this pathetic creature, but, alas, she knew just what he was.
He leaned forward and put his hand on hers. “I know it’s strange and not what you want, but if it’s any consolation, we do fit well together, in a sick sort of way. We’d be better off together than wasting our time at each other’s throats. And by that, I mean I’m keeping you down here while I continue my work.”
Jeff stood up. His arm had been reattached she noticed, but raggedly, as if home-done. He grabbed his knife from the wall hook and started up the stairs, smiling upwards, arms outstretched, chuckling and then laughing sickly.
“Jeeeeffffff!” Jane called out after him as he left, unable to stop the monster from causing the destruction he was well designed for.