This chapter contains vulgar language!

be prepared!

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It had been seconds... Minutes... Hours? Since Jeff had attacked you. The stinging pain on the tender skin of your neck told you that bruises would be forming there. Jeff had left a while ago, standing up without saying anything and then walking straight through that door.

He hadn't even bothered to lock it up. Not that you would get far through, you were way too damaged for that. You gave a huff when you realized that you were holding your breath, your body ached each time you inhaled or exhaled.

Gathering the little strength you had left you managed to sit up, feeling a little dizzy in your head. You had no idea what just happened, what in the world this whole ordeal meant. But the only thing that mattered now was that you were still alive.

Still alive and somewhat well.

Your eyes traveled towards your hand. You hadn't got the opportunity to ask Jeff who had tended to your wounds so skillfully, but that was something for later. You were extremely tired right now. Tired from thinking and lying on the ground.

That sounds really exhausting.

But it was true. The attack had severely damaged your body and even doing something as simple as to going to the toilet proved to be quite difficult for you. Staring at the bed you decided to sleep for a while. You didn't know when Jeff was going to come back and even if he was going to come back.

But you needed sleep.

You inhaled deeply, ignoring the burning pain in your lungs as you focused your attention onto the bed. With new found determination and strength you slowly and steadily crawled towards the other side of the room. You had to stop a couple of times, catch your breath and making sure not to pressure the wounds too greatly.

You could stand up and limp over to the bed, but you doubted that you would get up in this state without anything stable to hold on to. When you were nearing the bed you could feel the sweat dripping over your head, sliding over your cheek and falling onto the ground.

That something so simple would cost so much energy was beyond your knowledge, but you waved it off. It was probably thanks to all those wounds. You placed your good hand onto the bed, slowly sitting on your knees before crawling onto the mattress completely.

You gave a loud sigh of relief once you were there, feeling the soft fabric on your skin made you instantly tired. You grabbed the covers and slowly dug under them, almost immediately falling into a deep, black hole called your own dream world.

~~

Your eyes opened almost automatically. As if they knew when to wake you up, when to drag you back to a place filled with equally enough nightmares. But at least the real ones didn't repeat themselves as much as the dream ones. Right now, the real world felt safer than your own dream world.

A world where you were constantly being taunted by memories, by terrible and horrible events. The worst part of it all was that they were replaying themselves, showing you just how incompetent, useless and powerless you are over and over again.

You had seen Sandy and Lola dying thousands of times without even moving a finger.

Your senses send out an alarm when you felt a presence near you, making you aware that you were either in danger or that you were going to be in danger soon. Trying to calm your instantly raging heartbeat you slowly looked over to the side, sighing a little when you saw it was Jeff, lying in bed right next to you.

He was facing the ceiling with wide open eyes, yet his chest was slowly heaving up and down. You hoped and guessed he was sleeping, since his eyes were of no help guessing what he was doing. You then slowly turned your head to face the ceiling too, staring at a few bloody red drops on it.

You wondered how many victims Jeff had. How many people had met his ill fate and his knife? He had murdered families, with parents, with grandparents, kids and even animals. At least you guessed it. Jeff didn't seem like the man who would spare anyone. He was way too mentally disturbed for all that.

Yet you wondered why you were still alive. You were wondering what all this meant. What you meant to him. You knew he was unpredictable and you knew damn well that this wasn't going to end like a fairytale. He wasn't going to fall in love with you so suddenly and then live happily ever after.

You knew all that.

Though you couldn't help but wondering. Wondering why he attacked you constantly yet didn't finish you off. Even when you were ready to end it all yourself, giving your body to the wolves... He saved you. What had caused all of that?

Did he have more victims like you? Keeping more girls for his own entertainment and then disposing of them? How many families have been in despair because their child is missing? How many friends have seen their friend die by the hands of this killer?

You gave a soft sigh as you turned your head side wards, staring straight at a plate of food on the small chair. Food? Did he get that for you? It was a simply sandwich and some sort of juice. Although your body instantly became hungry, your mind didn't want you to move at all.

"You know that I honestly hate when you sigh like that. It makes me want to slice your neck." Your body tensed a little when you heard a voice speaking right next to you. A gruff, deep but slightly soft voice. Deciding against giving a soft sigh, you slowly turned your head.

You hadn't even noticed that you were making any sound.

Jeff was still in the same position, staring straight at the ceiling but this time you knew for sure he was awake. He didn't even look at you, or recognized your existence other than scolding you. It was as if he could read your thoughts, your doubts.

Remembering what this guy had done and could do made you keep silent for a little while. The fear of being attacked, of being taken down was still lingering in your mind. But... That fear had melted down little by little, making place for anger, revenge... And a feeling you couldn't recognize.

With every second that passed the thrive to ask him questions began to grow. The thrive to get answers began to grow. You could hear something different in his voice. It wasn't as cold as it used to be and thanks to this your determination also grew.

His voice wasn't as uncaring and angry as it used to be.

You could think of several reasons for that, but you wanted to go with the one which seemed the best fitting for you. The one which would make the most sense for a cold-blooded serial killer like him.

He was confused.

Confused with this whole situation, with whatever was going on. Confused like you. This wasn't a silence like before, a silence which was necessary... This was an opportunity. You knew that you had to speak now, make use of that confusion and get some answers.

You knew his limit; you knew when he wasn't going to strike you down so suddenly. Yes, he is unpredictable, but you learned to predict part of the unpredictable. After everything you've gone through you started to learn to read him better and better.

"Who tended to my wounds?" You decided to start a little safe, unconsciously still worrying about how he was going to react. You waited in silence for a little while, wondering if he was ignoring you or contemplating whether to tell you the truth.

When you still didn't get an answer you turned your head, seeing that he was still staring at the ceiling. However you could see he wasn't asleep. His eyes were tracing imaginary lines, moving to the left and to the right. Deciding to be a little braver you spoke up again:

"Was it you?" Now this did get a reaction from the smiley killer. You heard him snorting loudly, giving a rough chuckle before speaking:

"What do you think? That's way too much effort, dollface. I don't do that for you." Of course you could've expected this answer. He wouldn't tend to your wounds. But if he wasn't the one... Then who else in the world could it be?

"Then who was it?" You really wanted to know right now. Especially since Jeff was spazzing out each time you came even near another person. And now he let someone else tend to your wounds so easily? Either he was lying or he was becoming ill.

"Why do you want to know? You're alive aren't you? Don't push more buttons." Even though it sounded like a real threat, you knew that it was a weakened one. You were obviously entering forbidden territory here and he was sure to let you know.

However you weren't giving up this easily. Not like this.

"If it's so much effort to tend to my wounds, then why go through all the trouble to safe me?" Ding. That one had hit him hard. You were brave, you had decided to just confront him straight forward. He wasn't going to answer your questions the nice way.

Then tell him the harsh way.

You were preparing yourself mentally for another hit. For his hands to wrap themselves around your throat once more in order to cut off your air supply. You knew he didn't like what you had just done; you knew that he was angry and ready to tear you to shreds.

But you were going to tight back this time.

However instead of him charging at you, trying to smack or kick you there was silence. A sneering, cold and long silence. Your eyebrows furrowed themselves in confusion as you slowly turned your head towards Jeff's yet again.

"Fine, you want to know who tended to your wounds so badly? I'll show you."

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Hello lovely darlings,

I think I owe you guys an explanation as to why I am so late. As to why I didn't keep my promise like I always do and haven't been online to inform you guys about it.

Don't worry, it's nothing too serious or depressing. Or it may be for some of you who want an update every single day.

Anyway last deadline I told you guys that I would be a little later. Sadly this little later became a lot later. It was thanks to my job. You see I work part time as a nurse in a district team, combined with my college. Some sort of internship.

All my work could be combined with my hobbies such as writing quite easy, however the past few weeks/months it has become harder and harder thanks to co-workers being ill and co-workers who have been fired or resigned.

This resulting in me updating later and later but above all not being on to have a simple chat or be there for my friends. I only come online to reply or to update, but not really to read anymore.

Anyway, last week I got a call that one of my co-workers was ill and has a severe hernia. Normally that isn't a problem, but this co-worker is one of the few nurses with the same level I have. The only person beside me and some others who can do certain procedures which means that I had to work the whole weekend including this week.

We are talking about severely physically and (some) mentally ill people here, one day without care is not an option.

It had been really tiring for me and I totally forgot to message you guys about it. Luckily we're busy with a replacement so I hope we'll have that covered next week. Until then I cannot say when I'm going to update, merely because right now I don't have time to write.

DO NOT WORRY. I won't ever abandon 'Taken'. Especially since we are getting so close to the grand finale! The next update may take a little while and I'll keep you guys informed as to when it'll probably be. I also put it in an activity since some people fail to read.

But now you guys know about it and I am truly sorry for letting you in the dark. I apologize for that. I really hate when people do that and right now I'm one of them, it almost disgusts me. To make something clear: I'll always post when I'm not able to update in my activity. This time I didn't do that, so again sorry for that.

Thanks for constantly supporting me with everything, it really means a lot to me. Also that you guys don't get angry when I don't have time to update.

Pointing out that the update is late is something I really dislike, but since it was my fault this time, you guys are completely in your right. I would do the same if it happened to a story I liked since I hate when people don't update on the time they say without informing you otherwise. I didn't keep my promise, however even after 5 whole days it amazes me how little people pointed it out.

Normally, I always get messages telling me the update is late (when it's clearly in between the designated time, Quotev likes to place 2 weeks instead of 11 days. You can see it when you hover with your cursor over the last updated time).

But this is something for my journal, which I'll post later.

Again the date for the next update isn't clear yet. I'll POST IT IN MY ACTIVITY. So please read it. Oh and this time I'll keep to it and otherwise I will inform you guys about it.

Thanks for reading and have a terrific day.