Jeff The Killer Rewrite - "Go On To Sleep"

He was a flickering shadow across the snow’s untainted and relatively unmarred expanse.
His bloodied fists were clenched hard enough to make one fear the snapping of his bones beneath his pallid skin. Winter’s unforgiving grasp slowed his movements to a shuffle, but his soaked boots parted the knee-high snow at a steady pace.
“Why...can’t I sleep? Why why why….Is this my punishment, Lui? I won’t apologize for what I did. They pushed me too far this time, Liu. They took you...from me. Everything...that I ever…loved…I can’t forget you. Promise me, that I won’t forget you. I can’t forget….”
The young man’s breathes came in shallow gasps, trembling with a barrage of unwept tears and the sparks of his rekindling rage. Eyes the dull shade of Arctic ice stared straight ahead, fixed towards the apparitions of the past. He saw blood-smeared trees where there should be snowflakes, and a twisted heap of broken limbs where only the snow lay. A shuddering cough shook Jeff’s lean frame, and there it transformed into a shallow laugh. Insanity had been hounding him like a pack of wolves for so many years, that the bites and tears of their metaphoric attacks had seamlessly blended into his reality. A sadistic, deformed smile parted his lips, as he ran his fingertips almost lovingly along the scars that extended his smile to something ghoulish.
“I’m smiling through my pain, Lui. So beautifully. Mom and Dad would be...proud….”


||4 Months Previously||


“I don’t wanna go, Jeff...High school can wait for a few years, at least. Right?” Lui gave a nervous chuckle that he vainly attempted to cover with a yawn, and adjusted the backpack in his lap. He was set to start his freshman year in a new town, a new school, with a new set of kids to figure out. A small, timid boy, Lui clung to his older brother’s wrist to keep him from starting the car.
“We could skip today! Get some ice cream and go to the park, all of that jazz.” Jeff sighed tiredly at his younger brother’s antics, and pressed a fond kiss to his forehead.
“We’re going, and that’s final. Do I look psyched for Junior year? No. We gotta go, no matter how scared you are. Besides, you’re the one with the brain here.” Dark circles ringed the older boy’s vivid grey gaze, and his skin more closely resembled a piece of paper in color, than a teenage boy. However, he pulled a loving, vaguely teasing smile across his lips.
The previous night was spent fitfully, tossing and turning to rid himself of the crushing sensation that only he felt. Dread, and darkness, had curled in his stomach for the morning. Against his will, he’d occasionally twitch, and flick his gaze left and right for the threats that loomed in the recesses of his muddled mind. Highs and lows were the peaks and valleys that composed his little world, and it was a delicately hinged one that he lived in.
“You have a brain! Well, it’s only semi-functional, since you can’t seem to tear your attention away from the Internet very long. We may have a Class-A porn addict, here.” The sentence dissolved into giggles, and Jeff took the moment to start up the car, and roll his eyes to the heavens.
“My sweet, innocent brother is accusing me of such sins? Oh, the travesty!” For the moment, laughter dispelled his brother’s nerves, and for that, Jeff was grateful.
They travelled down the dusty, late summer roads towards the main part of town, music a soft background noise. It was in a particularly dense area of trees, that another car came screeching from the road to the left. The reckless driver plowed into the side of Jeff’s car, sending both lurching forward with a few gasps and yelps. In the few moments it took to collect themselves, there was a knock on Jeff’s window. From the opposite side of the glass a cold, livid gaze bore into Jeff’s. The dazed young man felt something of a heat spreading up his spine, and the beginning of an ache in his temples. His door was yanked open, and if not for his seatbelt, Jeff would’ve fallen from his wrecked vehicle.
“You drive like a fucking maniac, and now my car’s wrecked! Great, just fucking great. You better believe that you’re paying for it.” Jeff could hardly believe what he was hearing, as he gestured for Lui to slide across the seat to him. Instantly, his little brother scooted in closer, clinging to him. A faint snarl curled up across Jeff’s handsome face, before he forced out his next words in a civil hiss.
“You weren’t watching where you were going, and it was you who hit me. If I need to talk to some insurance person, I can do that, but you need to get your facts straight.” The stranger sneered in a most unattractive fashion, and it was with a sharp gesture, that two other males exited his car. One was heavy-set and dark haired, while the other was fair and of a lean build more closely resembling Jeff’s. Both sported cruel expressions similar to the drivers, but it was the muscular, vulgar alpha-male standing before the brothers that held such a disturbing glint in his eyes. Lui gripped his phone in his lap, as he read the tension between his brother and the strangers.
“Randy, are we gonna be doing something about these two, or what?” The shorter of Randy’s friends asked this, and his ruddy cheeks darkened further when the answer he received was less than coddling.		“Troy, take your fat ass somewhere else for now. These guys aren’t a threat, not at all.” His laughter wasn’t unlike a bark, as he eyed Lui from his place behind Jeff. A shudder ran through the elder of the two, and he instinctively unbuckled and stood, where he put himself in a fighting stance in front of Lui.
“We have a snowman and a fuckboy, woohoo. I’m quaking in my boots.” At these words, Jeff felt something close to rage bubble up in his throat. A retort danced like fire at the tip of his tongue, and he became aware of a metallic taste. He’d bitten his tongue, but any patience he’d reserved for dealing with idiocy was wearing thin. Jeff could tell from experience, that he’d begun to twitch. His vision was darkening, reddening, and for a moment, he wanted desperately to give in to a sadistic urge that he had to swallow back with his own blood.
“Back up, right now.” Each word sounded distorted to his own ears, a low hiss that enunciated each word very clearly and deliberately. Randy was a good five inches shorter than Jeff’s height of 6’4, but he had brute strength on his side. Just as he balled up one fist to sock the raven-haired young man in front of him, he saw a shift. Darkness, or something very close to it, danced in Jeff’s silvery glare. It was a wicked taunt, a dare to throw a punch and escape without his neck torn out. Uneasiness must have been apparent in his features, because a sickening grin spread across Jeff’s lips with the pace of dripping honey.
“The police are on their way!” Lui had ducked down into the small space between the dash and seat as Jeff and Randy had had their confrontation, and the green eyed angel peeped from under his disheveled mahogany hair in relief at his brother. Randy reluctantly called off his dogs, and slunk to his car. Secretly, he was almost relieved that he was able to put some distance between himself and Jeff, who still stared at him with an unblinking gaze.
“Fucking freak”. That was all he could mutter, as he shut his car door quickly.

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After the police had spoken with the two brothers and Randy, they’d been taken home. Randy’s Lexus had taken the brunt of the damage, with Jeff’s pickup wasn’t in much better shape. He’d spent the day with a pit of anxiety in his stomach, and a sickly sweet taste pervading his mouth. Every time his name was spoken, he twitched. Each brush with another person made him shiver and retract from further contact. He kept his gaze moving, for settling in one place left him shaky from shock, at the flashes of red and the new depths of each shade shadow that he’s encountered. What truly troubled him, however, was when he closed his eyes. Screams overtook the background noises to his thoughts, and the sensation of something squishy between his shaking fingers felt almost real.
The night greeted him with an unsettling dilemma; he didn’t feel as though speaking to Lui would be good for his brother, but he needed someone else to chase the darkness back a few feet, as it snapped at his heels before he closed each door.
“Go on to sleep, now...I’ll be right here to keep you safe, alright?” Jeff stared up at Lui with a wan smile, and scooted over to give the younger male some room.
“Thanks, Lui...those dust-bunnies are brutal, aren’t they?” Exhaustion overtook him, and sleep played a seductive melody to draw him further into her catatonic embrace.
“Love..you….” Lui stroked his older brother’s hair until he was finally lost in his sleep, and settled in beside him with the softest of smiles, forehead against his shoulder.
“I love you too, brother.”
 The night came and went in a flurry of nightmares, each bloodier than the next. Jeff finally awoke for good in the early hours, and it with a sleepy grimace that he noted the day; Saturday. He woke Lui with a gentle shake, and stumbled towards the shower with no small amount of groans and bone cracking. His tossing and turning had been quite a workout. It was after he’s turned on the water and stepped under the chilly spray, that he thought of the previous day in full. Jeff braced his fingers against the icy shower walls, and blinked several times in the direction of the drain. His brow furrowed for a split second, before a scream tore through the upper level of the house. The water had been replaced with blood, his soap with chunks of unidentifiable flesh.
Lui scrambled into the bathroom to calm his sobbing brother, and it was only after Jeff’s vision had returned to normal, that he suggested they take a walk into the woods. Jeff’s eyes roamed once again across the lines of trees on all sides, and claustrophobia began to set in. He set off towards the distance with no true destination in mind, and he was aware of a ticking. Faint as it was, the sound urged him farther, faster, until he found himself falling to the ground in a heap. Lui found him curled into a ball in that very spot some five minutes later, murmuring a soft apology to his brother.
They sat there in the dirt and morning dew for nearly an hour, and in that seemingly endless time, Jeff divulged his secret pains to Lui as though he meant to release a stream, but broke the entire dam in the process. It was because of this distraction, that they heard no footsteps, no human life, until the boys were upon them from behind.
“You little bastards just ruined everything!” Randy swing his bat at the side of Jeff’s head, rendering him unable to gather himself before the next blow was delivered to his side.
“We followed you all goddamn day for an opportunity like this, and you sealed your fate. This, is for totalling my car! This, is for threatening me!” His bat was replaced by kicks, as he shouted to one of his friends to restrain Lui. The boy had jumped forwards to shield his brother, but he was no match for the older teens.
“Keith, get this little fucker off of me!” The taller of his cronies grabbed Lui by the back of his neck, and tugged him upright. However, he misjudged the weight of the boy, and ended up flinging him across the path. Jeff watched in horror, as his brother slammed into Troy. More precisely, into Troy’s switchblade.
“Ahhhhh!” Lui’s cry of agony stopped Randy’s kicks, and gave his would-be victim the time that he needed. Jeff fumbled with dim, pulsing red vision for the other boy’s foot, and yanked him off his feet. Adrenaline negated the pain that had diluted his rage, and he was on top of him in a second. An inhuman scream sounded from his throat, as he picked up the discarded bat, and swung it into Randy’s face. A sickening crunch punctuated the air, and without a moment of thought, Jeff was on his feet. After Lui had dropped to the ground with a whimper, Troy stood motionless in shock and terror. A grey eyed demon, it seemed, yanked the knife from his hand, and drove it into his stomach.
“Y-You..This can’t be happening!” Keith took this moment to alert Jeff to his presence, as he himself took the bat in his hands and shakily held it in a batter’s position. He was hesitant to swing, to cause the suffering that his friends had. It was this mistake that ended his life, as Jeff drove the knife into the side of his neck. Insanity rang clear in the screams that continued to pour from the killer’s lips, but they slowly quieted as he was met with a reminder of his past.
Lui.
His brother lay crying in a pool of his own blood, slick with it. Tiny whimpers left him, but they grew weaker with each gasp for air.
“No.”
“No no no….”
Jeff dropped to his knees at his brother’s side, and gathered him up in their quivering embrace. Lui said nothing, and neither did Jeff, as they cried a rainfall of tears. They cried in mourning, and in pain, but as the life slipped like the last ray of sunlight from Lui’s emerald eyes, Jeff whispered the only words that fit into his ravaged soul.
“Go on to sleep, now…”
He carved the smile that he’d always been told to have, into his tear-streaked cheeks. He shut down from the inside out, as his brother escaped the endless night that was only just ending. He would bring death, and he would bring pain, but he would never sleep again.