And When I Couldn't Stop Him (Jeff The Killer Romance)

Chapter One

"Maia." James followed on Maia's heels.

"James? Are you still following me?"

"Yeah, I am."

"Why?" Maia groaned. To their left was the dense forest, to their right was the highway, cars splashing small puddles alongside them. Rain beat down on their pale faces.

They just got out of school, a Friday. They didn't have backpacks, due to pre-exams.

"Hehe, you need to know?" Maia looked back, James had his head down, his red hoodies hood over his light brown hair. His glasses dangling on his nose. He was obviously smiling. Returning her gaze towards the path, she took in the beauty of the forest, that they were now deeply in.

"Enlighten me, James." She stopped and turned so she could see James's surprised face. He was about only a mere three feet away. "Why don't you enlighten me on how you think it's normal to follow me everyday." Maia meant to be sarcastic, but her words came out like shards of ice.

For a while James was speechless. He drew his red hood off the top of his head, and began to speak. "Right. I guess it's not normal, me following you and all," A smile appeared along with dimples. "But I'm not normal."

"No, you're not." Maia smiled, turned, and continued her path deeper into the forest.

Silence indulged the two for quite sometime. Maia's legs almost felt as if they were going to give out at any moment. She kept a steady walking pace, with James right behind her.

"So, Maia, where are we going?" James asked with a beautifully exaggerated groan. "My feet hurt."

"Aw, poor James."

"Answer my first question."

Maia snorted. "Where do you think?"

"Home. I'd like to go home. Maybe even a foot massage. That'd be nice. If I gave you five dollars would you-" James was greatly interrupted by a loud beat. Maia covered her ears, it sounded like a tree falling, loud, but not loud enough to be close.

She removed her hands from her ears when a smell shot her nose. A coppery pungent smell that instantly reminded her of blood.

"James... I think we should leave." Maia looked up at his dark green eyes, pleading for help.

She wasn't scared, Maia just didn't think it would be safe.

She noticed James was holding her shoulders, looking around as if searching for a hint on whom may have made this miraculously loud, and incredibly ear-splitting sound. As if protecting her and himself from the world. Maia took ahold of James's left hand off her shoulder, pulled it over and around her head, pushed his right hand off, and simply said, "Let's go." Stern enough to get his attention, yet soft enough for a plea.

James looked curious. "We should find out what that noise was. Maybe it-"

Maia frowned at him. "Don't you even dare to make another nerd reference that never make any sense whatsoever-"

The noise came again, this time more ear-splitting and louder. The smell of copper came back, only stronger. A greater pungent.

"James! Let's go." She started to trot off, but James still had her hand interlocked with his. He stood in place, making Maia jolt backwards an inch, anxiously recollecting her patience with this guy.

"No, Maia. Please?"

There was the silence of thinking. Finally Maia let a smile drift on her face lightly. "This better be fun."

Still hand-in-hand they walked alongside more and more trees toward the sound that seemed to repeat itself every few minutes.

After several minutes Maia retracted her hand, letting it dangle by her side. She froze, and James turned to look at her.

"James..." She whispered, not looking straight at him. "Did you hear that?" As they got closer, the noise became more audible.

Truth was, she hardly even heard it. But it was quite obvious what it was.

"Yeah... Sounded like a..." He looked at a loss for words, searching for the right one fill the senctance. "A yell, I guess."

"James! Let's go!" This time Maia yelled. She slightly tugged his red hoodie sleeve.

The forest got quiet, if as her yell killed anything with noise. Not a birds song, just the sting to her ears of the quiet.

"You've only just got here, minutes ago." A raspy voice echoed through the forest making the hairs on the back of Maia's neck prickle. She felt James's shoulder shiver in fear as well. "You can't just leave already!" Suddenly, a man walked towards Maia and James.

It was dark, but Maia could roughly see the colour of his hoodie was white, his pants a slimming black. He soon retracted his hood, and nothing terrified her more than his face.

A ghostly pale covered his entire face, his black-dyed looking hair only made him look more pale. His mouth was cut into a permanent smile, stained red and showing the inside of his mouth from all angels, ear-to-ear. He had no eyebrows, but that wasn't the scary part, his eyelids were non-existent. They've been cut out, poorly cut out, making his eyes look a large black colour.

James back away a little, pulling Maia with him by her opposite arm. "Who- who are you?" His Scottish accent quivered.

There was something about the man in front of them right now, something that seemed untrue, something as if by accident. The man was as intriguingly ugly and he was scary.

He pulled a large kitchen knife out behind his back after he neared only feet in front of them. They were cornered by trees, and backed up against one.

The man yelled out four final words before he gashed the kitchen knife into James's chest, then Maia's;

"Now, go to sleep!"