Distance||Eyeless Jack

Nine

Who's prepared for chapter ten? That's when Jack finally gets a damn shirt on.

Jeff brushed some of his hair out of his eyes, and looked around. "Judging by the fact that your stomach and chest are hollow of everything except blood, bones, and flesh, I'll assume you had an unfortunate meeting with the Damned."

"Maybe, if by the Damned you mean zombie-like things that come up out of the ground, then yes." Jack said, poking a finger into his hollow chest. "Huh. I wonder how I'm alive."

Jeff wrapped his fingers around Jack's wrist, and pulled him along, careful to avoid stepping on the dark reddish patches that dotted the landscape. "Don't step on those." He warned. "You'll trigger more Damned and they'll come up to the surface. And I'm not in the mood to regenerate another time."

"Regenerate?" Jack questioned, trying to keep a pace that matches Jeff's. "Oh, right. Regeneration. It's really difficult and painful. But it's not like you can stay like that your entire time here. You'll end up dead in the real world. So, let me teach you how to do it."

Jeff stomped on one of the patches, and sure enough, another fissure formed. Hands reached out, grasping for anything to devour. And once they'd made their way out, they went after Jeff.

They ripped at his hoodie and flesh, casting shreds of cloth and skin aside as they burrowed deeper, searching for the vitals underneath. Jeff just stood, arms crossed, foot tapping impatiently. "Hey bitches. What's taking so long?" He received no answer from the Damned as they slowly but surely emptied him of everything.

And, with fresh blood on their faces, they slunk off, crawling back into the fissure they came from whilst licking at the blood with long, snake-like tongues.

In disgust, Jeff made a retching sound. "Now watch. I'll show you how to do this." But to be honest, all he did was snap his fingers as everything was back in place. There were no rips in his hoodie, and all the blood had gone.

"Now you try." With a hand slightly shaking from what he'd just witnessed, Jack snapped his fingers, and noticed that he felt no different.

But when he looked down he was no longer hollow and bleeding endlessly. He'd healed, just like Jeff. "Well, you're about to wake up, so I better get going. "

"Wait!" Jack called out, reaching for Jeff. "I need to find you. Where are you?" Jeff only shook his head and smiled. "Find me." He said turning away. "Find me, then we'll talk, kitten."

And everything faded out, and Jack found himself still laying on the couch, body heavy with sleep. "Fuck!" He yelled, irritated, and got up. Laying, folded, on the end of the couch was a t-shirt. On it, there was a note.

Hey, you seemed pretty upset about Ben. But you needn't worry about him. It was quite painless for him. But I guess I can't say the same for you. I brought you a shirt.
- S