Stay Awake [Jeff The Killer]

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐎𝐧𝐞: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐞

Tunes of light peak between the timber pillars of the forest. It's glean allowing for any nesting bird to have their feathers glisten, and it's heat creates the mirage of a warm lake abutting the road.

Jeffrey loops his playlist for the third time, nodding away to the serenities of the outdoors, keeping his watch just behind the vale of a car door window.

Him and his father, Peter, haven't uttered a word since they left Wisconsin that morning.

To Jeffrey, it wasn't a fair change. It wasn't for good enough of a reason.

Busy for Boring, all because his dad's heart got twisted into knots for a detective position that's half across the country.

His mother didn't seem to mind now compared to the first time he proposed the move. But ever since finding out that buying her drugs in Oregon is a way more discreet investment, she was sold.

Liu, his brother, was a fan as well. Jeffrey still doesn't know why — but he summed it up to Liu's optimism taking over again in every worst case scenario. Jeffrey's mood takes physical form with his constant frowning; they're passing by the 'Welcome to Sheeper's Falls' sign on the thoroughfare, and it's a quick reality check that things will never be the same again.

Population 2,000.

So it wasn't a very big town — in fact it's one of those towns where everyone knows your name. Jeffrey is half expecting a soirée or a line up on their new porch when the car pulls in. It's something strange that gets him to smirk, and he does so while rolling up his sleeves.

Bruises range around his wrists and go up his arm, passing under the sun's shade while memories of his past start their flood.

Liu cuts his gaze at his brother's home-given scars before he leans in, expecting it when Jeffrey sheathes his sweater sleeve over his arm so hastily. Playing pretend with his eyes, Liu slips Jeffrey a whisper: "At least no one can bother you here, right?"

Jeffrey didn't know how true that was but he made the conscious effort to nod anyway.

"Right.." he says briskly; his attention stalled on the road.

As soon as they as they arrive at the house their father makes it known: "We're here boys!" He hollers, rolling in the driveway with a giant smile smeared across his lips.

Jeffrey tries to spread the same enthusiasm, but it's painfully obvious to everyone in the car that such happiness was always forced when it came to him.

"Liu, help me unload the truck?"

"You got it sir." The car door pops open, Jeffrey and Margaret left with the visual of their new suburban abode that's made up of a birchwood colored red.

"We gonna sit in here all day, or are we 'gonna go inside?" Margaret asks after a sigh.

Jeffrey swallows everything in his throat before answering his mother with an action. He opens his door to go fish for his own luggage; well his own before his mother orders for him to get hers too.

Reluctantly he does as told, lungs flattening while he balanced a duffel bag and suitcase up to the porch and into the living room.

It's spacious for sure, unfurnished, but grand. And Jeffrey knows that all of this must've cost his dad a fortune, and only his dad.

"Fuck!" His mom was already at it—swatting the smoke detector after she lit a blunt in the kitchen she didn't even take the time to inspect first.

This means Jeffrey lost his bet against Liu:

"How long do you think it'll be before mom takes a hit?"

"An hour, maybe?'"

"I say 5.'"

"Hours?"

"Minutes."

"I should've said one," the boy mutters, his mother's wheezing and coughing somewhat pleasing to the ear.

"Jeff! You're not going to help!?" The alarm is still blaring, but all he could afford to do was turn up the volume on his phone and cue back in to the music.

His silence was his answer and soon enough he's marching up the steps to the one room him and Liu would share. He was hoping that they wouldn't have to again, but as captivating as the house appeared to be, a two bedroom was all their family could afford.

At the very least, the room is nice. Jeffrey is already halving it in his mind on where things should go, what they should look like...

Liu was never really big into decoration, and at their hold house, Jeffrey basically had free reign over everything that went on the room, besides maybe their shared closet. This time around they bought a bunk bed, and his fingers crossed to pray it doesn't fall apart when they bring it up. It isn't the sturdiest, so immediately Jeffrey knew he'd be on the bottom bunk—and he is—not being able to stare up at the ceiling. Wondering what or who awaits now that everything's different.

Just as he's about to drift into his slumber he's shook by the sudden company of his brother's voice.

"Jeff?"

"Yes Liu...?" Jeffrey drawls.

"You okay?"

"...yeah?"

"You sure?"

"...yeah."

Like a possum, Liu hangs upside down, feet hooking the loose edges of the upper-bunk while he dangles in front of his brother.

Startled, Jeffrey backs into a corner of his mattress, hand living over his heart.

"You sure you sure?"

Jeffrey's rubs his heavy eyelids, knowing his brother is clearly bothered about something.

"What's wrong Liu?"

"Nothing..." Liu fixes himself back on his own bed, rocking slightly while he lays back down on his back, stargazing out of the window adjacent to him.

"I just..."

"You just what?"

Jeffrey toughens his pillow and lays back down himself, ready to follow every word.

"Regret not being there for you back home. You know... when those guys—"

"They just jumped me," Jeffrey stops him at the painful memory, tears already seeping into his pillow.

"Besides, this is home now." The younger says, almost as if he had a hard time believing it himself.

"No, it doesn't make up for what I did."

"Liu you didn't do anything—"

"Yes I did." He almost yells, true anger behind every syllable.

"Okay? We're the Woods brothers. We're thick as thieves — lone wolves fighting the world together. With this new job, dad's not gonna be around, and mom even if she's here, she's never here. So Jeff, we need each other now more than ever. What happened back at home is not going to fly here. I won't let anything happen to you."

Jeffrey clutched his nails deep into his pillow, feathers falling out with his tears.

"You promise?" Jeffrey asks in a choky voice.

"I promise."