A Place in Grief
Eyeless Jack x fem!reader
Trigger Warnings: Parental death (father/ mother not mentioned), grief, slight suicidal tendencies/ideation, vulnurability, fear (If I need to add more, let me know!)
~After the death of your father, you find your way to the woods wherein you meet a stranger who needs something from you~
EJ has a medical cabin out in the woods because I said so
Also this may have eventual smut
Also not edited. I was too lazy
idk idk...
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Sitting at your father's funeral was not exactly the most stabilizing moment of your life. A cancer that started and spread faster than it could be stopped, then BOOM, the inevitable.
You could only hold back your tears so long. It seemed that they had been falling for weeks now, stopping only when you bit your lip and held your breath. The tightening of your throat holding you back from speaking too much, and simultaneously helping to hold back everything you felt in the moment. The pitying stares didn't help, neither did the constant unwelcome pats on your arm and back from people you hardly knew.
Then it was over and you were outside, walking away from the service unseen by the people grieving. You carried nothing with you, not a phone, a bag, or the will to care about the consequences. It wasn't a thought really, simply another moment, another movement, and you were walking away.
Soon you made it to the woods with eyes zeroed in on nothing but the space right in front of you. You continued on and on walking by trees and rocks that seemed so distant despite your closeness to them. Eventually, in front of you, is a stump. Your legs are shaky and your breathing is beginning to labor again from the tightness in your throat closing in on you.
You sit down on the stump with weary legs and a breath you can't quite catch. It doesn't matter how hard you try, the tears fall anyway. Rough sobs escape your throat and your chest tightens relentlessly forcing you to feel the pain of the past few months. Medical bills that will only be paid once the life insurance is sent, a rented house that you could no longer afford on your own, and two jobs that had no more vacation days left in the year. It was all too much, everything that had fallen on your shoulders, things that even the people who claimed to care about you wouldn't dare lift. The only comfort you had felt in months was the promise you had for yourself, the one that claimed you would get through it, that you would do whatever it took to make yourself strong again. But, sitting here on this stump, you had never felt more weak and alone. Your arms could tighten around yourself as much as you wanted, you could curl up into yourself and you still wouldn't be able to do any of it. That much felt like a certainty.
Time passed and the late summer heat began to subside into a calm coolness that did nothing to soothe the ache you felt. Sitting there forever seemed to be your best choice, letting nature take you, wasting away to become one with the dirt. But fate is hardly that kind.
You hear the crackle of a footstep, light and seemingly a purposeful hint of someone being near. Your head quickly shoots up and you look around you. Standing a few feet away right by a tree is a man. He was tall, dressed in a dark gray hoodie that covered the top part of what seemed to be a mask.
There are times you wish you had more of a reaction to things, when friends tell you of horrible moments of their childhood, when someone is hurt, or when you truly feel the worst mentally. You always find a way to analyze it separately from yourself in your mind. It is horrible that something happened to your friend, what are you going to do about it now? If someone gets hurt, they can simply bandage it. If you feel bad, what is anyone else going to do about it? This moment was no different. Seeing the masked man so close, alone in the woods, the temperature and light dropping second by second. Yet, you felt nothing but a calm wave of indifference mixed with relief fall over you. If he was normal, he would leave you alone. If he had bad intentions, maybe, just maybe, he would kill you.
You weren't exactly suicidal, you have never been able to call it that. Rather, you felt an indifference to death that seemed to always linger at the back of your mind. It wasn't until this moment that you realized that the relief was always mixed in with it. The relief of no longer having to deal with the real world, to finally have a real break, to just be still for a long long time.
Normally you would have called out or said something to the stranger, but in this moment your throat was too tight, and the tears were not yet done spilling, holding you hostage in the moment. You were sure you must have been a pitiful sight, eyes wide, face flushed and wet with tears, a black dress that had torn at the hems, and a cardigan that was a few sizes too big and ripped at the sleeve, chosen to help hide you from the events of the day. You couldn't do much else but simply wait.
The stranger didn't move for a minute, seemingly taking in everything about what he saw in front of him. Then he slowly walked forward, cautious and light footed. It seemed like he was waiting for you to run. But you didn't run, you stayed seated, watching the stranger in return.
Eventually the stranger made it closer to you, not quite enough to reach, but if you ran he could easily catch you within a couple of steps. Then he spoke,
"What are you doing here?"
His voice was calm and well rounded, deeper in nature, but nothing extreme. He spoke plainly without any real hint of curiosity, like the question was protocol. However, you could feel the intensity of his stare honing in on the state of your figure. Surely analyzing assessing the situation.
Unfortunately, you still felt unable to speak. A troublesome quirk that reared its ugly head when you felt emotional. It felt as if speaking were the worst thing in the world during that moment, not even a terrifying stranger in the woods could stop that feeling. Your brain was running plenty though. You mulled over every option in this moment and every tiny thing you felt. Would it be worth it to stay silent? Would he kill you if you did? Would he kill you if you didn't? Is that what you wanted? What if you ran? The thoughts had begun to be too much, your nose crinkling with a new wave of tears and the only thing you could do was bite your lip and stare at the ground in shame. It was frustrating not having control in the moment, simply waiting for your body to give back something you couldn't reach on your own. The man seemed to shift with your lack of response.
Another second passed and the man stepped forward and stood over you, hovering slightly and seemingly meaning to intimidate you. You could still only stare at the ground, now adding his shoes into the mix, dark ragged running shoes that had seen better days.
He spoke again, "Look at me"
It was a command this time, and it sent a slight jolt of fear through your body much to your relief. Maybe you weren't broken, maybe you were scared, maybe you didn't want to die. But the feeling was short lived and the other thoughts began to creep back in, the relief and hope you had for how the situation might end.
Bracing yourself, you slowly lift your head up and stare right back at him now close and above you. God he was taller than you thought. His new position gave you a better view of what was under his hoodie. The mask covered his whole face and the holes where eyes should go were deep and dark and leaking an even darker thick tar substance that you had never seen. You couldn't help the confused tilt of your head and the furrowing of your eyebrows, followed shortly by the shock. Widened eyes and a small gasp that showed your startled state.
What was he? Was he a he? Some monster in the forest roaming for his next kill? Was he a man playing a poor prank on someone who didn't consent? Was this fate? A monster sent to kill you on the day that you had wished for it? An answer to your prayer.
You did your best to relax your features, trying to calm the racing of your heart, willing the beats to slow down. Staring at the man seemed to help a bit, it gave your mind just enough distraction, waiting for his next move, pondering if his arm had just twitched in your direction. It took a while but eventually the man... or whatever he was... took a step back and turned around. He began to walk away.
The panic you felt was unexpected and unfamiliar. Your body seemed to act on it own as you stood up and finally swallowed enough of the air around you to speak, "Stop"
He did
He actually seemed to freeze, his shoulders tensed and his chest rose and fell with a deep breath. It lasted a mere second before he turned and rushed at you. The speed was uncanny, and you had no real time to react or even comprehend what was happening until you were on the ground with your arms held tightly against the grass and rocks you were slammed on. Your head ached after the impact and a sharp object was pressed against your skull under you, surely drawing blood.
He was on top of you, holding you down and staring again. He was silent except for the slight sound of his controlled and deep breathing. His body was stiff as you waited for something else to happen.
You weren't sure if it was going to, so you spoke again. "Did you want to kill me?"
Quite possibly the stupidest question to ask in that situation, and the feeling of your throat tightening again stopped you from saying anymore. You weren't even sure if you wanted to hear the answer. But some desperate part of you wanted to prove to yourself that you were either meant to live or die in that moment. It had become something that you were going to let him decide. The decision could no longer be in your hands, your judgement was too clouded.
Your voice seemed to startle the man again, maybe because of the hoarse nature of it, maybe because it was the only voice he had heard in a while. He released one of your arms, the blood rushing back into it after being held so tightly. You could see his hand now clearly too. They were big and the color was a sickly gray with darker veins running up his wrist. The shape was seemingly normal up until his nails which were dark and thick and sharp. You felt the light touch against your throat. The nails only lightly skimmed it, but his fingers pressed into it slightly, not enough to cause discomfort, but enough to be a threat.
He leaned down without a word. The forest was quiet, no noise to be hear besides the deep and rapid beating of your own heart. His face was next to your neck slightly tilted like he was listening to what seemed so loud to you. Was this it? Was he actually going to hurt you? Yes.
You closed your eyes and did your best to focus on calming yourself. The reassurance that you would soon have no worries was surprisingly easy to feel. You felt your body relax, hardly paying any mind to the creature on top of you listening to your heart beat. A light buzzing in your head steadily grew as you calmed yourself down. Nausea and tiredness wafted over your mind in a desperate attempt to release you from the stress of everything.
The creature now released the other arm and some of the tension it held itself was fading. Now it watched, seemingly knowing what was about to happen.
Eyes still closed, you went limp, your body had given up after being in such a state for so long. Losing a parent, running into the woods, the fear of a creature that still sat above you. All too much, and all at once deciding that the perfect time to release you from your thoughts was at that moment.
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Let me know if you like. I will probably post more soon!