Chaos and Corruption (Jeff the Killer Fanfic)

38. NYE

Kitty

Tim and Brian managed to both get about a week off from whatever activities they'd had back home to stay in town, taking a little time to explore Friday and get their bearings while I stayed home and tried to get my own things ready. All my knives were sharpened, Jules put a little more gas into the chainsaw, and Nina was practicing with Pierce while teaching him how to fight at the same time. Poor kid was absolutely whipped but he seemed more than happy just to be around her.

It wasn't until late Thursday night that I realized I could hear voices downstairs, my steps pausing in my walk from the bathroom back to my bedroom as I listened. Out of pure curiosity I walked down the steps and looked to see Habit in the kitchen, a figure I didn't recognize sitting across from him. To my surprise he appeared oddly desaturated, almost like someone had slipped a black and white filter over his very existence. His hair was shaggy and dark, and his skin looked like it was burnt. He lifted a hand as he talked and I froze, a moving, working eye in his palm locking its gaze with me.

"Looks like we have company," he said loud enough for me to hear before turning to reveal his face. It was completely cloaked in shadows, his eyes nothing more than pinpricks of white while his smile was bright white teeth as well.

"Snow, welcome! You can quit your bitchin' now, I'd like to introduce you to my dear friend Noah. Otherwise known as Firebrand."

"U-Uh, hello," I started, finishing my walk downstairs and joining them in the kitchen, "sorry for eavesdropping."

"Nothin' to be sorry for, it's your house, ain't it?" Habit snorted, "Firebrand this is Snow, Jeff's lovely girlfriend and pretty much the ringleader of this little circus."

"I can admit, I'm surprised," he chuckled, leaning into the light and revealing he had a face after all, "didn't think that poor ugly bastard could land a real woman."

"Keep talkin', rogue god or not I'm not afraid to take a swing," I said sternly, both of them laughing. Two peas in a pod, great.

"I told you, she's great!" Habit grinned as he kicked back in his chair, "so we're breaking the proxies out of the slammer tomorrow night, we'll be going for stick-in-the-mud himself later this week. I was thinkin' we stick you with Eyeless, send us straight in for the kill and make it quick."

"I'm not against that, are we going to attack him on his home turf or try and lure him out here?"

"Chances are he's going to come looking for the proxies and he'll have a good idea of where to start," I explained, "I'd rather have him here where I know the area."

"We can definitely work with that plan," Firebrand agreed, "Habit will keep in touch. I have some business I need to take care of elsewhere before then, so it may be time to cut this meeting short."

"Take care you old bag of bones," Habit waved before the strange aura in the room disappeared along with Firebrand. I let out a deep breath I didn't know I'd been holding and felt him slap my shoulder while I glared, "there you go, happy now? You've met him."

"What was up with his face?"

"Sweetheart, he hops from timeline to timeline trying to seek out the way to end it all. He's no more human than you are a god," he explained, "he's setting things up for himself in another timeline to try and keep the whole thing from happening. It's complicated, I don't care for it much, all I know is he's trying to make the world a better place for himself and I respect that."

"So there's other ways all of this could have gone out there," I muttered, "different timelines, parallel dimensions, whole nine yards?"

"Yes ma'am. Me, I just like to ride it out and have a little fun."