Painted Smile: The Return of Jeffery Woods

Returning to childhood...

After half an hour of walking, Becky and Jamila saw no sign of Bella. Becky held the teddy tight in her hand. Becky finally said, breaking the silence "Jamila, what if we never find Bella? What if she isn't even in these woods? What if she's..." Jamila interrupted, "Becky, you can't think like that. Bella is the bravest girl I've ever known, I know she'll find a way to get away from Jeff. We just need to keep our hopes up. Besides, these woods lead to a totally different area, we'll probably have more luck in finding her there. Jeff wouldn't keep her in the woods, not with all the teenagers wandering and exploring." Becky replied, "You have a point. I can't be thinking negatively. Wait, did you say these woods lead to a different area?" Jamila looked at Becky thinking that she would already know this. "Yeah, I honestly thought you knew. I don't know where they go to though. But I do know that it is quite a walk, maybe an hour to get there." Becky sighed. Suddenly, they heard a scream. "Where the hell did that come from," asked Jamila, looking in every direction. Becky replied, also navigating the area, "Shh, be quiet. See if we hear it again." Silence. Only to be broken by the spine chilling scream. "It's coming from that way," Becky pointed to their left. Both of them ran into the direction of the scream. Not knowing where they were going. Faster and faster they both ran. But they stopped.

They took a few seconds to catch their breath. The screaming had stopped. "You don't think that someone just, died. Do you," Jamila asked. Becky responded hoping to keep Jamila calm, "Hopefully they stopped screaming because they got away from whatever was chasing them." Jamila looked around. All she saw were trees, leaves and fallen branches. "We better not be lost in here. As soon as we heard the scream we legged it." Becky took her time to look around. "No we're not lost. We only ran to the left, so the way we were going was this way." She pointed in the direction they needed to go. Her best friend hoped she was right and not just making them walk into trouble. Again, they continued to walk. After ten minutes, Jamila looked up from the floor and said, "Becky, look. There's a small house. Who'd have a small house in the middle of the woods?" The girl's eyes squinted so she could see the house more clearer. Then she realised the state it was in. "Look at it. It's all burned. What the hell happened in here? The trees that surround it look like they've been burnt, maybe it was due to the fire of the house." Jamila added, "It looks abandoned as well. This must've been here for a while. Maybe for even years." Becky didn't want to but she felt like she had to check out the odd house. Jamila didn't want to, but she didn't want to wait outside for Becky. The house looked even worse up close. Before they explored inside, Becky spoke quietly, "I feel uneasy being here, but I don't know why."

From the light outside, the house wasn't very dark on the inside. However everything had been burned to ashes. The floor, the ceiling, the walls. Everything. It left a horrible black colour. They went into a room which had a light switch. Becky tried it, the light didn't work. It might've been the only light in the house. It was positioned in the centre of the room. "Becky, I don't like this. I'm getting weird vibes," said Jamila. After navigating the room, Becky replied, "I know this place. I recognise it, but where from? I don't know." Jamila ran her fingers along the wall, it was all rusty and parts of it fell off. She then reminded her friend, "Becky, we should get out of here. Bella needs us, we can't leave her in the hands of Jeff." Becky agreed and immediately followed Jamila, but she didn't go out of the room. Suddenly, the light turned on. By itself. Becky gasped and looked at the light switch. Slowly, she turned around. There was no one else in the room, which was odd. Becky then held her hand on her head after suddenly getting a headache. She fell into the wall, but when the pain went away, she looked up. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. Out of nowhere, there was a young girl. Maybe the age of thirteen, with brown hair. She was tied to a chair with two other girls, maybe her friends, who were tied to chairs in front of her. They had blood all over them. Out of nowhere, a boy walked over to the young girl. A carved smile in his face, with black hair and no eyelids. Jeff.

The boy sat near the girl and prevented her from screaming. Eerily, he turned his head to look at Becky. Like he could see her. All of a sudden, he burst into flames. From head to toe, he burned. What made things worse was the fact he started walking towards Becky, making her scream and run out the room. Becky sprinted and jumped out the front door. "Becky, what's wrong? What the hell happened," asked Jamila kneeling down. Becky tried to catch her breath. "This house. He took me here when we were thirteen. He stabbed you and Amy. I saw him, and myself tied to that chair. That's how I know what this place is. I know I'm not making this up because I've seen the scars you and Amy have." Jamila tried to calm her down. "Becky just breath. It's ok. We have to go. It's best if we both get away from here. We need to go now! We need t..." Jamila looked up to find Amy's body lying there. Her throat was slit, blood dripped from her neck and her mouth. Jamila screamed. Becky looked at what Jamila saw and also screamed. "OH MY GOD! AMY! NO! NO!" Becky's eyes started tearing up. For eleven years she and her friends had survived the killings and murders, but now Amy was dead. Her head was turned so that she was looking in Becky and Jamila's direction and her eyes were open. Watching them. Becky scrambled over to Amy's helpless body. What could've happened? If Jeff had Bella, who could've done this? She held Amy's hand, wishing that she knew what happened.

Becky closed Amy's eyes. She whispered before standing up, "Whoever did this to you, I'll make them pay. I'll avenge your death." Jamila wiped the tears from her eyes and Becky turned to look at her. Jamila looked and pointed into the distance in front of them, past the burnt house, and said "Becky, look." Becky looked in the distance and both of them headed to where she was pointing. It was the area that the woods lead to, like Jamila had said. Once they stood just outside of the woods, Jamila said recognising where they were "Do you remember this place? I do, I know where we are." Becky took a minute to think. Then with a gasp she replied, "This is... where... I lived. When we were thirteen. The countryside. Jeff must be here, it's the only place he'd be able to take Bella."  Jamila looked far in front of them, squinting her eyes. She asked Becky if she could see what she was looking at. Becky took time to process what it was, but it finally came clear. Beyond a huge grassland, was a house. Becky's childhood home. She told Jamila without taking her eyes off the building, "He has to be in there. Bella has to be in that house. It's the only place he'd take her, knowing that I used to live there. I'm gonna end this, once and for all. I'm tired of all these murders. My parents are dead, Baxter's dead, Amy's dead, now he has my daughter. I'm gonna make him pay for making himself known when I first looked out that window. The window to hell."