ᴡᴏʀꜱʜɪᴘ ᴍᴇ (ᴇᴊ x ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ)

10: Accomplice

        When the sun set you found yourself staring at Isaac's house. From the tall bushes surrounding it to the chipping paint, you took in every detail. The whole drive over you'd been in a haze. This situation still didn't feel real to you, but now that you sat before Isaac's house waiting for Jack to lead you inside, you couldn't ignore reality anymore. Jack was here to kill him, and you were here to watch.

Your knee bounced as you stared at the brick building. The house Isaac had hidden in all this time, ignoring the past and what he did. As horrified as you were by the whole situation, you couldn't bring yourself to feel bad for him. Of all of the cult members, the committee had known what they were doing. They were the leaders, the ones who had brainwashed the rest of you. Though you had sat helplessly watching, the committee were the ones to torture Jack, to transform him.

Isaac wasn't innocent. He was a cult leader, and after everything he and the committee had done, he deserved what was coming to him.

As the last rays of sunlight disappeared behind the trees and your car was left in darkness, you shifted your gaze towards Jack. He sat straight and rigid with his focus locked straight ahead. The eyes of his mask seemed even darker than before, and the tar that dripped out of them shined ever so slightly from the streetlight a few feet away.

Jack hadn't removed his mask again after you'd knocked it off. Though it'd been days, his image was still fresh in your mind. His frown, his furrowed brows, his clenched jaw. It was all so vivid. You wondered why he hadn't taken it off again, but you wouldn't dare ask. You'd assumed the mask was to hide his identity, but now that you knew who he was you doubted that was the whole reason.

With a sigh, you turned your sights over to the sky, now turned a deep blue. It was time.

"Let's go." Jack's words sent a shiver down your spine. Your hands shook as you shut the engine off. Jack left the car first, then quickly moving to your side and waiting for you to do the same.

Your limbs felt numb and your heart was already racing. You wished so badly that you could just stay in the car and wait, but you couldn't bring yourself to speak up, not that it'd make a difference. Jack wasn't a stupid man, he wasn't just going to leave you unsupervised in a car. There was nowhere to go but forward, even if that meant following Jack into a house to watch someone die.

Leaves and dry grass crunched under your footsteps as you kept your eyes trained on the ground. Your hands were balled into fists, squeezing at the fabric of your sleeves. Jack walked beside you silently, one hand at his side and the other in his pocket clutching his scalpel. His body language told you nothing. He was as stiff and unfeeling as ever.

Jack led you wordlessly towards the tree line, then looping around to the side of Isaac's house that was mostly obstructed by foliage. Each of his steps were calm and calculated. Even without eyes he knew right where he was going and how to get there. Watching him was unnerving, but focusing on anything else made you feel sick.

You kept your eyes down as Jack began fiddling with a window. You didn't want to see anything that belonged to Isaac. You didn't want to see the bumper stickers on his car, the plants he raised in the backyard, or whatever he kept in picture frames inside. As angry as you were at him, knowing nothing about him made it easier to feel nothing. You didn't want to feel glad for his death, yet you didn't want to feel guilty. Feeling anything felt wrong.

The window cracked open with a click and your eyes snapped upwards, meeting Jack's gaze. He raised a gloved hand and pressed a finger to the lips of his mask, a nonverbal "Be quiet." You didn't reply, but he didn't seem to expect you to.