Behind closed doors

Chapter 4

Jack dragged his feet as he made his way with ironic blindness down to the common room. He was alone, he shouldn't be alone. Last time he was alone he blacked out and when he came to he didn't know where he was, and more importantly, he didn't know whose corpse he had been feeding from. He hated himself, and he wished that he didn't have to do this, but it was who he was now. And that's what made it all the worse. He was trapped within himself, forced to cause pain on others that he himself had suffered in the past. Jack; Eyeless Jack, was never meant to be alone.

He paused a few yards from the common room door, just listening. Conversations, bickering, the static of the TV, it reminded him too much of what used to be. He didn't want to break the illusion just yet, so he'd wait a while. But then a new noise behind him made Jack turn. He couldn't see, but he could sense. Forever blind unless gorging on the life of another, in such cases he gets to live their life, just more a moment... But sensing the unseen was his gift. And he was using it now. He sensed someone, a Proxy, but not a branded Proxy so it must have been an original like Slender. But it had something with him, something alive but motionless. Something human.

"Not another." He sighed, shaking his head as he finally entered the common room.

"Hey there, Jackie, how's the happy pills treating you?" Jeff announced, "Could be stronger?"

"It's here." He answered quietly.

"What is?" asked Ben tiredly, not bothering to turn away from the TV.

"The new one."

Alice glared at him, "Are you shitting me?"

Jeff smacked a hand to his forehead and groaned, "For fucks sake... It's been a month, didn't she kill herself by now?"

Ben smirked, "Looks like someone's luck's just ran out..."

"Should've just killed her, but no, Slendy just had to step in, didn't he?"

"You're blaming Slendy for this? Seriously?" Alice scoffed, starting to shuffle her deck of cards with irritation.

"Kind of, but I'm blaming Toby more and if he was here I'd snap his neck! Fuck this shit!"

"I'm sure he'd snap his own neck for you." Ben shrugged, "What's the big deal anyway? It's just a newbie."

A newbie who's going to cut down my already limited freedom, Alice thought to herself; Jeff however was thinking of the amount of hassle he was going to get from Slender. A newbie meant all the trouble of going over the rules, going over explanations, answering countless questions and dealing with split-characters. The trouble wasn't worth it, and he had enough things to do without having a lost kid tripping up around the place. It wasn't his fault! Toby was the one who screwed that night up. He should have killed her when he had the chance. Come to think of it, he might make up for lost time later.

"I just can't be assed." Jeff admitted.

"Guys, guys, you're missing out on a good opportunity here." Ben replied in a mockery of a soothing tone, hovering in the air to circle the pair with a hint of patronisation, "You don't want the newbie here, no doubt she isn't too pleased about it either. She's alone, she'll be scared, she'll be running around every corner and fighting tooth and nail to get out of here."

"Get to the point cyber-glitch." Alice moaned.

"All she's going to see are monsters and killers. And who are we to deny our expectations?" The spectre paused and put his arms around their shoulders, grudgingly locking them in place, "Don't think of her as a newbie; think of her as the new entertainment."

Jeff thought about it. Things had gotten pretty quiet around here lately, and he'd missed giving a good jump-scare and putting his knife at work. Who better to get into mild practice with than an ignorant newbie? And if he did a good enough job, with any luck she'd put herself out of her misery, or flat out run and get herself killed anyway and problem solved.