Chaos and Corruption (Jeff the Killer Fanfic)

6. Backup

Jeff

December 18th. One week left and I'd be able to go and see her again. Let her in on everything.

I'd just awoken from a pretty intense nap and saw that it was almost midnight, swearing to myself as I sat up and my stomach promptly grumbled at me. I'd missed dinner at this point and decided to get my ass up and moving before I stayed in bed all night again. I was definitely the house hermit by now— aside from our friendly little Firebrand, who I still hadn't met.

As I walked downstairs and rubbed at my eyes to the best of my ability I heard someone moving around in the kitchen, scanning the darkness and jumping at her shout when I flipped the light on. I realized who it was and swore as I apologized and flipped them off again, moving to make sure she was alright and offering a hand to Kate to help her off of the floor.

"I am so fucking sorry, I'm so used to catching Tom in the pantry," I laughed sheepishly as she rubbed at her eyes, "are you okay? You didn't hit your head, did you?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine, just a little dazed," she grumbled as she finally blinked and got a good look at me. "Oh, you're the new guy. You practically glow in the dark, you know that?"

"Just imagine me under a black light, I'd be shining." I cracked a grin while she laughed. "I'm Jeff. Fellow night owl and daylight-despiser."

"I was wondering when I'd finally see your sorry carcass around here," she held my hand tightly as she introduced herself, "I'm Kate, one of the more normal-ish people around."

"It's nice for someone to finally be somewhat civil with me. Mama coyote and twitchy-bitch fill you in on why I'm here?"

"A little here and there, I know Operator had a bounty on you that I definitely didn't care enough about to bother with."

"What about the other one? The third party."

"Didn't know there was one," she admitted with a shrug, "I just kind of...let things drift. I've got somewhere to stay that isn't a fucking mineshaft or a mental asylum, so I do what the big guy asks me to. Other than that I've got diddly-squat to be worried about here."

Suddenly her stomach roared and she wrapped her hands around a grimy jacket, laughing to herself while I let my body ease. Kate seemed pretty personable and I felt like I might be able to actually talk to her without the others' nasty attitudes.

"Want me to make you something? I was just coming down for food myself."

"I'd really appreciate that, actually." She blinked up at me gratefully before I grabbed for a pan and the eggs, finding that we had new vegetables in the drawer and pulling them out with the cheese.

"What's your story?" I asked over my shoulder as I chopped up some bell peppers, just like I'd seen Snow do in the past.

"Not much to tell. Spent my childhood getting chased by that asshole and ended up in a mental ward for a while until they deemed me stable. Stayed with my mom and took care of her until she died, then he started coming around again. Tossed my ass out a window and I started losing my shit, ended up with a weird split-personality and a shitty light sensitivity."

"Damn, you don't even sound like you like the guy," I observed, pouring the egg mix into the pan; luckily the fridge light was all I needed to really see what I was doing.

"It's a take-it or leave-it relationship," Kate explained, "either I take his help or he leaves me on the street."

"Harsh, I can see why you'd take it though, he sort of pinned me and my friends in the same way. Snow can't hear him so he can't reason with her, Habit had Chelsea duct taped and mutilated, Tom was dying the longer Operator stuck around. I took my own bounty just to get him off their backs and bring back someone I killed."