A Tale of Nightmares (LJXReader) Part 5

Sighing with relief, you exit the building for the day. Your test was at your last class, and you think you did pretty well, definitely enough to pass. Your school bag hangs over your shoulder as you get in your car, and you toss it into the back. You take out your keys and start the vehicle, and turn to the passenger’s seat.

“Boo.” said a familiar black and white clown with a smirk.

Like always, you jump slightly at his unexpected presence. You roll your eyes and buckle your seatbelt and put the gear in reverse.

“Man, you scare easily. How do you even handle holidays like Halloween?” Jack rolled his eyes as your foot touched the gas pedal and you began driving out of the parking space.

“Well I’m sorry if I don’t expect clowns just popping up everywhere I go without a warning.”

“Well consider this a warning.” He replied. A small chuckle escapes your lips. He seemed to be over that whole ‘new friends’ thing. He seems a lot happier. But for some reason, that unsettled you, and you don’t know why.

“At least put on your seatbelt, Jack.” You remark, exiting the area of the building. He rolls his eyes as he does so.

“Why are you even driving home with me if you can just teleport anywhere you want?” you ask, glancing at him.

“Well, I haven’t seen you in 12 years, little (F/N).” Jack answered, shrugging.

“Whatever.” You mumble, keeping your eyes on the road in front of you. Despite your effort to keep it hidden, a small smile spreads across your face.
******

You sit at your desk with a textbook and math worksheets, tapping your pencil against your thigh impatiently. You sigh, resting your cheek against your left hand. Suddenly, you hear your cell phone ring and sigh with relief, finally getting a break from your dreaded math homework. Suddenly, you hear your cell phone ring and sigh with relief, finally getting a break from your dreaded math homework. You pick it up to see who is calling.

It’s your college.

Your heart sinks. Was something wrong? Did you do so horrible on the test that day that they couldn’t even wait until tomorrow to tell you? A million negative reasons for your school calling you this late at night run through your head. But, you have no choice but to answer it.

“…Hello?” you say nervously.

“Miss (L/N)? This is Mr. Lauren.” the man on the other end of the phone replies, sounding troubled. Mr. Lauren? That was your school principal.

“Yes? Is something wrong, sir?”

“We’re afraid so, Miss (L/N). We have been informed that you were close friends with Carrie, Mable, and Joey, correct?”

“Yeah, that’s right.” You say, getting more and more nervous each passing second. Wait. ‘Were’? You still ARE friends with them, last time you checked.

“Well, during an after-school study hall…they were in the library alone…or, at least we thought they were alone.” Mr. Lauren hesitated. “The librarian came in a couple hours after everyone should’ve left…and…” he couldn’t finish his sentence.

“…Yes? What happened?” you urge, but you’re not sure if you want to know what’s making Mr. Lauren so upset.

“…They were found dead.” He finished.

Your eyes widen as you gasp, speechless.

“The librarian immediately called the police. They were horribly murdered, several wounds and scratches all over the bodies, their necks torn out. But what was stranger was that they were cut open and filled with colorful...somethings. Police are investigating the bodies right now. It was almost impossible to find out who the bodies were. The thing is, is there was no evidence whatsoever. No fingerprints, footprints, nothing.” He finished in a rushed manner.

You couldn’t believe this was happening. You kept hoping and hoping that you fell asleep out of boredom, and you were dreaming all of this, and you would wake up the next day, to find them class, waiting for you.

But this was real. You swallowed hard, holding back tears, trying to process this horrible information.

“We regret to inform you this, Miss (L/N), but we thought you should know. One of your questions for you is, do you know anyone who had very strong negative feelings towards them?” he asked you.

“Well…no, I don’t think so. I mean, sure, there are tons of mean people there who don’t particularly like us, but none of them would want to straight up MURDER anybody.” You reply, trying to sound as calm as possible.

“I see. Like I said before, we are very sorry. And we have also sent out an e-mail to everyone informing that because of this case, the school will be closed for at least two weeks. Goodnight, Miss (L/N).” and with that the principal hung up the phone.

It was then you let yourself cry. You practically shoved everything off your desk, onto the floor and put your head down on your arms. Your desk and sleeves soon became soaking wet with your tears, and you wiped your eyes on your sleeve.

You then feel someone ruffle your hair. You put your head up and see Jack’s upside-down face in front of you, looking concerned.

“Something wrong?”

“Leave me alone…” you mumble as you stand up out of your chair, headed towards the living room. You sit on the couch, nudging away a few boxes you forgot to unpack. You rest your elbow on the arm rest and lay your head on your hand. As expected, Jack doesn’t give up and follows you, sitting next to you on the couch.

“Seriously, why the long face?”

You sigh. “I just got a call from my principal. Apparently...C-Carrie, Mable, and Joey were murdered today after school.” You say, your face now sticky and wet from your tears. Jack put his arm around you in a comforting manner and traced circles on your shoulder with his long, sharp talons, slightly scratching the skin, but not enough to draw blood. You turn to face him.

Wait.

Was he…smiling?

He was! He was grinning right at you! And it wasn’t even an ‘OMG I am so sorry friend, maybe if I smile then you’ll be happy!’ smile, it was more of a ‘LOL that’s so awesome!’ smile.

“I know.” He simply stated, the grin never leaving.

“…What? How?”

“I took care of it.”

“…What’s that supposed to mean?” Now you were starting to get concerned.

Then it hit you.

“Now you’re mine.” Jack said, his grip around your shoulder tightening. “And only mine.”

“Oh my God…” you gasp, putting your hand over your mouth. You remove his arm from around your shoulder harshly and stood up, realizing what he meant. “You killed them?!”

“Now now, ‘kill’ is a harsh word, (F/N). I prefer ‘removed’.” Replied Jack, as if he thought he’d done nothing wrong.

“Why the hell would you do that?!”

“You’re my best friend, (F/N), and nobody’s going to change that.” He said grimly.

“YOU DON’T GO AROUND KILLING PEOPLE JUST BECAUSE THEY’RE FRIENDS WITH ME!” you shout at
Jack sternly.

He almost seemed taken aback by your harsh tone, as if he expected you to be happy over him murdering your friends.

“I DON’T BELONG TO YOU, JACK! AND STRAIGHT-OUT KILLING THEM WASN’T THE ANSWER!” You take a deep breath and try to calm yourself a bit. “You’ve changed, Jack. You used to be all ‘gumdrops and rainbows and happiness everywhere’, but now you’re just...insane! I mean, you didn’t kill any of my friends before!”

He looked down, then up at you, twiddling his talons together. “Well…”

You gasp again as your eyes widened.

Caroline.

“…YOU KILLED CAROLINE, TOO? WHAT THE HELL IS THE MATTER WITH YOU? SHE WAS MY BEST FRIEND!”

He frowned at you and raised an eyebrow.

“I mean…second best friend…I mean…WHAT THE HELL?!” You sigh angrily, sitting back down on the couch. “Any other people you killed I should know about?”

“Um…well…I MAY OR MAY NOT have ‘removed’ your…mother…”

You turn to him, jaw right open. “My MOTHER?!” Tears start to form in your eyes.

Before Jack can reply, you storm off into your room, slamming the door shut. You lie down on your back, covering your face with your pillow. You know Jack probably just teleport into your room any minute now, but you don’t care right now.

Were you overreacting?

No, of course you weren’t. He murdered your friends and your mother!

But…he did do it for you. You guess he was just showing that he cared for you in his own, insane, homicidal way. You don’t know what to think right now, but you eventually fell asleep, having mixed feelings about all that was happening.