The Fog In The Morning - A Jeff the Killer and Homicidal Liu Rewrite

Part 1

 Liu had always loved pineapple cake, as far as he could remember. Which admittedly, wasn't far at all. Liu had a terrible memory, something which had earned him more than one concerned letter home even at the tender age of seven. He always found himself leaving worksheets, backpacks, and sometimes even his shoes at home. School materials were one thing, but shoes? That was unusual, or crazy, as Jeff liked to put it.

Jeff called a lot of things crazy. Their mom, their dad, and all of his teachers, for example. He called Liu's shoes crazy, since Liu forgot to wear them extraordinarily often. Even Jeff himself was "a complete nutjob," a fact which Jeff proclaimed almost proudly sometimes.

Liu didn't really mind Jeff's calling his shoes crazy. He didn't really mind Jeff calling himself crazy either, though he could never understand why Jeff would do so. Jeff was cool, and never afraid of anything, while Liu felt afraid almost all the time. He had mentioned this to Jeff a few times, but the response was always the same. Jeff would grin and shake his head, as if he'd never heard anything sillier in his life.

"What're you talking about," he'd say. "We're bros. We both gotta look out for each other, since Mum and Dad are too crazy to themselves. Or maybe not crazy enough, huh?" And then he'd smile at Liu. "I can protect you, if it really comes down to that. Heck, every kid in town knows not to mess with me!"

-

"Tag, you're it!" Jeff hollered, running across the parking area which served as St. Mary Mackillop Elementary School's playground. The third grader whom Jeff was now dashing away from yelled gleefully, and took off after another one of their classmates.

Liu kept watching from the corner of the parking lot. He didn't really recognise any of Jeff's classmates, since they were in the grade below him. Honestly he didn't know half of his own classmates, even though the grade sizes were small and he'd been at the school since kindergarten. He sighed, and leaned his head back against the warm brick wall.

A voice spoke next to him. "They look like they're having a good time." Liu turned his head sharply, jumping back. A larger boy had addressed him, and was now looking at him curiously. Red hair flopped into his eyes as he tilted his head and said "What, you paranoid or something?"

"No," Liu retorted quickly. "I just- you- euh- h-" He took a deep breath in, buried his face in his sleeve, and then let it out slowly, stale air filtering through the soft fabric and into his nose. Then he looked up at the other student. "You shouldn't startle people if they aren't paying attention. It's rude."

The redheaded boy shrugged. "Sorry," he said. "Didn't mean to." They stood for a few seconds in awkward silence, and Liu tried to work up the courage to say that he should go, or that he needed to use the bathroom, or really anything which would end this encounter. Thankfully, Jeff chose that moment to saunter over to Liu, his short brown hair sticking up stiffly with sweat.

"You should come join us!" Then he noticed the boy standing near Liu, and his chipper mood diminished ever so slightly. "You can too, I guess, if you want."

The redhead shrugged again. "Maybe." He gestured at Liu, who was standing rather still. "What's up with him? He crazy or what?"

For all Jeff's talk about Liu's shoes, he would never call Liu himself crazy, and he would definitely never, ever let some kid insult Liu like that, even if said kid was a solid six inches taller than him. Liu could see the spark of combat flash in Jeff's eyes, and he quickly said "Yeah Jeff, I'd love to. Let's go." He glanced at the other boy, who rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, I guess I'll play too." And with that, Jeff grabbed Liu's wrist and pulled him towards the middle of the parking lot.

The game of tag was mostly a blur. What wasn't a blur was the image of Jeff, staggering backwards with eyes wide and his knuckles pink from impact. The redhead was also staggering backwards, hands over his nose. Red dripped between his fingers, splattering on the pavement. A teacher, Mrs. Lorrie, was making her way towards them, and a small ring of other students clustered round to watch what would happen.