Jeff the Killer

Absent Compassion

Jeff and Liu didn't hear from their parents for the rest of that day. They remained in their rooms late into the night, and finally came down to eat after they were sure their folks had gone to bed. Liu said that he felt relieved about that, but Jeff had a sinking feeling that the worst was yet to come. Jeff was correct,the next morning, when the two brothers came down stairs together to eat breakfast; their parents were already sitting at the dining room table, staring at the boys, approving of nothing they saw.

"Sit down," Matt stated flatly.

"What's going on?" Liu asked.

"Sit....down!" Matt stated again, anger dancing on the words.

The boys complied without further question.

Matt Woods began his diatribe, "Whatever that was yesterday, beating up some kids for touching your bikes, mouthing off at the police, disrespecting both me and your mother, that stops today!"

"We didn't beat anyone up for touching our bikes!" Jeff blurted.

"Shut up Jeff, this is a one way conversation!" his father barked. "That kid, Randy Hayden, his father is a partner at my firm, did you know that? Did you even think about that when you were assaulting him over your godforsaken bike?"

"You just didn't think, did you Jeff?" Shelia added.

"How could I have known that?"

Matt continued, "Well, I've spent the entire morning talking to his father on the phone. His dad is willing to let it all go, but shit son, I have to deal with that at work now. Do you have any idea how much damage this could have done to me, to our family?"

Jeff felt that rage coming back, and fought with all his might to keep it stifled.

Instead, he once more tried to appeal to the two adults' parental side, "Mom, look at Liu's face, they split his lip, can't you see, it's still swollen!"

Liu turned his head to better showcase the injury.

"My god Jeff, so some kid played a little rough with your brother, is that any reason to fight them? I wanted to make friends with some of the other families in this neighborhood but thanks to you... I just don't know..."

No sooner could Jeff or his brother construct a proper defense, than their father began speaking again. "So, your mother and I have talked this through. Since there are only a couple weeks of summer vacation left, we've decided that Liu should spend the rest of the season at Aunt Marcy's place. We've already spoken to her, and she is willing to let him come out there and stay."

Both Jeff and Liu were floored by this decision. Both boys began to protest at the same time, but they saw the look on their parents' faces. The decision was made.

"Why can't we both just go then?" Jeff asked, a last ditch effort to at least get away from his parents.

"Marcy doesn't want both of you there, she says you two are too rambunctious, and frankly we agree," Shelia answered.

And so it was, Liu was shuttled off to his Aunt's place in Abita Springs, Louisiana, a place even smaller and duller than Mandeville, if one can believe that. Jeff watched his brother leave, and then walked back to his bedroom. He felt that rage; however, it began to feel almost... pleasant to him. He couldn't explain it. He was furious at this turn of events, his parents had turned their backs on their own children. However, through it all, these new feelings he was experiencing weren't all terrible. This anger for example, he could almost taste it. It felt like thick, sweet syrup, stirring around in him. Of course, he knew the extra ingredient that would complete the flavor. That satisfying joy he'd felt when he had Randy and his friends on the ropes the day prior, that mixed perfectly with the anger, to create some intoxicating product that Jeff almost craved now. He fell asleep lying on his bed thinking about that syrup, that thick, viscous that seemed to work its way into the very fabric of his soul. He wanted it, yet he knew that it was destructive, and that nothing good could come from sampling it again.

Several days passed, and tensions were high between Jeff and his parents. Without Liu around, there was nothing for him to do except sit in his room and play video games. He went outside but didn't venture far from home. He knew if Randy and his goons showed up again, it would likely result in another fight.

For a few days, that worked well, and Jeff believed he could get through this. However, his mother changed all of that on an early Saturday morning. Jeff was awoken suddenly by sharp sunlight striking his face. He heard his mother humming, something that she rarely did. Even in his half sleeping state, he knew that humming was forced. She was doing it to wake him up, and figured the added sunlight would get things there even faster. When she noticed Jeff's eyes cracking open, she sauntered over to his bed, and began speaking in a tone that simply oozed false joviality.