Creepypasta Reviews: Jeff the Killer

Creepypasta Reviews: Jeff the Killer

Welcome to the first of what I hope to be many reviews of Creepypasta. As an avid reader of horror I’ve come across a number of great stories online, some so effective that I would stay awake at night for fear of having nightmares. Or course, with the good comes the bad and that’s what the focus of these reviews will be. I intend to make sure that the story’s I pick are either well known or at the very least show potential. After all, if it were simply a matter of ragging on bad creepypasta, I could just go to Crappypasta.com.

So, Jeff the Killer. I’ll be honest, this is the very first creepypasta that I came across. At the time I enjoyed it, though I didn’t actually read it. I had listened to MrCreepyPasta read it and to be perfectly honest, I think that was the only factor that made me enjoy the story. After all, MrCreepyPasta has a unique ability to draw people into the stories he reads, regardless of quality. So, let’s take a look at it to see how well it holds up.

Excerpt from a local Newspaper:

OMINOUS UNKNOWN KILLER IS STILL AT LARGE.’

After weeks of unexplained murders, the ominous unknown killer is still on the rise. After little evidence has been found, a young boy states that he survived one of the killer’s attacks and bravely tells his story.

Before we go any further, I’d like to give a word of advice to anyone who decides to try doing this. The idea of this coming from a “local” newspaper is to subconsciously unnerve the reader. It implies that what happened in the story could potentially affect them. Granted, it’s not as descriptive as one would expect a newspaper to be, as it would at the very least mention that victim didn’t want to give his name for safety’s sake. I’d give credit to the writer for doing something right, though he quickly kills the momentum as soon as the kid actually starts talking.

“I had a bad dream and I woke up in the middle of the night,” says the boy, “I saw that for some reason the window was open, even though I remember it being closed before I went to bed. I got up and shut it once more. Afterwards, I simply crawled under my covers and tried to get back to sleep. That’s when I had a strange feeling, like someone was watching me. I looked up, and nearly jumped out of my bed. There, in the little ray of light, illuminating from between my curtains, were a pair of two eyes. These weren’t regular eyes; they were dark, ominous eyes. They were bordered in black and… just plain out terrified me. That’s when I saw his mouth. A long, horrendous smile that made every hair on my body stand up. The figure stood there, watching me. Finally, after what seemed like forever, he said it. A simple phrase, but said in a way only a mad man could speak.

I feel inclined to ask: how old is this kid? The newspaper excerpt doesn’t exactly clue us in to how old he might be. I ask because I don’t know many “boys” who talk like this. This is a problem that some people have when it comes to writing dialogue. There’s a distinct difference between something someone would write and something that they’d say out loud. This is presented as an interview, but it’s too descriptive and it seems like the kid is making an effort to try and make what happened to him sound menacing. I can see a teenager writing this as a journal entry of some sort but I can imagine that a kid, who was recently attacked by a serial killer mind you, would go out of his way to be as descriptive as possible.

“He said, ‘Go To Sleep.’ I let out a scream, that’s what sent him at me. He pulled up a knife; aiming at my heart. He jumped on top of my bed. I fought him back; I kicked, I punched, I rolled around, trying to knock him off me. That’s when my dad busted in. The man threw the knife, it went into my dad’s shoulder. The man probably would’ve finished him off, if one of the neighbors hadn’t alerted the police.

I’m assuming that their neighbors saw Jeff entering the house beforehand, because I find it pretty hard to believe that police would’ve come that damn quick after they heard a scream next door. Not unless Jeff was so stupid as to try and kills someone who lived across the street from the local police station.

“They drove into the parking lot, and ran towards the door. The man turned and ran down the hallway. I heard a smash, like glass breaking. As I came out of my room, I saw the window that was pointing towards the back of my house was broken. I looked out it to see him vanish into the distance. I can tell you one thing, I will never forget that face. Those cold, evil eyes, and that psychotic smile. They will never leave my head.”

Police are still on the look for this man. If you see anyone that fits the description in this story, please contact your local police department.

I somehow doubt he’s hard to miss.

Jeff and his family had just moved into a new neighborhood. His dad had gotten a promotion at work, and they thought it would be best to live in one of those “fancy” neighborhoods. Jeff and his brother Liu couldn’t complain though. A new, better house. What was not to love? As they were getting unpacked, one of their neighbors came by.

Not a very good transition into the perspective change, is it? Not even a border that separates this from the newspapers part of the story.

“Hello,” she said, “I’m Barbara; I live across the street from you. Well, I just wanted to introduce my self and to introduce my son.” She turns around and calls her son over. “Billy, these are our new neighbors.” Billy said hi and ran back to play in his yard.

Despite what I said about the newspaper excerpt, it was decently written in its own right. There are noticeable declines in descriptions in this story, this being one of them. The way it’s written makes it seem as though the author wanted to rush past the parts he didn’t care about so he can get to the “good” parts.

“Well,” said Jeff’s mom, “I’m Margaret, and this is my husband Peter, and my two sons, Jeff and Liu.” They each introduced themselves, and then Barbara invited them to her son’s birthday. Jeff and his brother were about to object, when their mother said that they would love to. When Jeff and his family are done packing, Jeff went up to his mom.

“Mom, why would you invite us to some kid’s party? If you haven’t noticed, I’m not some dumb kid.”

Oh, quit your bitching kid, you’re barely a preteen!

“Jeff,” said his mother, “We just moved here; we should show that we want to spend time with our neighbors. Now, we’re going to that party, and that’s final.” Jeff started to talk, but stopped himself, knowing that he couldn’t do anything. Whenever his mom said something, it was final. He walked up to his room and plopped down on his bed. He sat there looking at his ceiling when suddenly, he got a weird feeling. Not so much a pain, but… a weird feeling. He dismissed it as just some random feeling. He heard his mother call him down to get his stuff, and he walked down to get it.

And here we come to another problem with this story. The way that this story presents Jeff’s desire to hurt people makes it come off as something that he just started feeling. Maybe it’s just me, but I got the impression that there was some kind of external force that was driving him to feel this way. If it was said that Jeff sometimes feels this way when angry or upset, it would better give the impression that something may be wrong with him. Perhaps even give hints that Jeff had incidents when the feeling got the better of him and he hurt someone.

The next day, Jeff walked down stairs to get breakfast and got ready for school. As he sat there, eating his breakfast, he once again got that feeling. This time it was stronger. It gave him a slight tugging pain, but he once again dismissed it. As he and Liu finished breakfast, they walked down to the bus stop. They sat there waiting for the bus, and then, all of a sudden, some kid on a skateboard jumped over them, only inches above their laps. They both jumped back in surprise. “Hey, what the hell?”

Soooo, he just feels it randomly while eating breakfast? It made a bit of sense before when he was upset with his mother, but here? This kind of implies that Jeff would’ve eventually became a killer on his own.

The kid landed and turned back to them. He kicked his skate board up and caught it with his hands. The kid seems to be about twelve; one year younger than Jeff. He wears a Aeropostale shirt and ripped blue jeans.

I can’t help but notice that this is first time that only some characters are given physical descriptions. Not complaining, but a bit of consistency would be nice.

“Well, well, well. It looks like we got some new meat.” Suddenly, two other kids appeared. One was super skinny and the other was huge. “Well, since you’re new here, I’d like to introduce ourselves, over there is Keith.” Jeff and Liu looked over to the skinny kid. He had a dopey face that you would expect a sidekick to have. “And he’s Troy.” They looked over at the fat kid. Talk about a tub of lard. This kid looked like he hadn’t exercised since he was crawling.

Oh, I’m sorry, I called them characters. I meant to say caricatures.

“And I,” said the first kid, “am Randy. Now, for all the kids in this neighborhood there is a small price for bus fare, if you catch my drift.” Liu stood up, ready to punch the lights out of the kid’s eyes when one of his friends pulled a knife on him. “Tsk, tsk, tsk, I had hoped you would be more cooperative, but it seems we must do this the hard way.” The kid walked up to Liu and took his wallet out of his pocket. Jeff got that feeling again. Now, it was truly strong; a burning sensation. He stood up, but Liu gestured him to sit down. Jeff ignored him and walked up to the kid.

Word of advice: if truly feel it necessary to have bully characters in your story, actually have them talk like people. This guy sounds like something a nineties movie.

“Listen here you little punk, give back my bro’s wallet or else.” Randy put the wallet in his pocket and pulled out his own knife.

“Oh? And what will you do?” Just as he finished the sentence, Jeff popped the kid in the nose. As Randy reached for his face, Jeff grabbed the kid’s wrist and broke it. Randy screamed and Jeff grabbed the knife from his hand. Troy and Keith rushed Jeff, but Jeff was too quick. He threw Randy to the ground. Keith lashed out at him, but Jeff ducked and stabbed him in the arm. Keith dropped his knife and fell to the ground screaming. Troy rushd him too, but Jeff didn’t even need the knife. He just punched Troy straight in the stomach and Troy went down. As he fell, he puked all over. Liu could do nothing but look in amazement at Jeff.

Again, this sort of comes out of nowhere. We don’t really know who Jeff is as a character, so we can’t fully grasp why this is apparently a big deal. His brother was amazed that Jeff could actually fight, but what does that mean for us as the reader? At no point did we given signs that Jeff was passive or nonviolent person, so we can’t really tell if this is out of character for him.

“Jeff how’d you?” that was all he said. They saw the bus coming and knew they’d be blamed for the whole thing.

... Why? Why would they be blame for it? They could’ve easily explained to the bus driver that Randy and his crew were trying to mug them and they defended themselves. Randy mentioned that all kids paid his “toll”, so it’s very likely that he’s threatened and mugged people before. Later on we’ll see that they have no reservations for committing crimes in plain view, so the chances of them simply putting on an innocent face in front of adults are unlikely. I don’t know, it seems like a lot of issues that come later in the story could’ve easily been avoided using common sense.

So they started running as fast as they could. As they ran, they looked back and saw the bus driver rushing over to Randy and the others. As Jeff and Liu made it to school, they didn’t dare tell what happened. All they did was sit and listen. Liu just thought of that as his brother beating up a few kids, but Jeff knew it was more. It was something, scary. As he got that feeling he felt how powerful it was, the urge to just, hurt someone. He didn’t like how it sounded, but he couldn’t help feeling happy. He felt that strange feeling go away, and stay away for the entire day of school. Even as he walked home due to the whole thing near the bus stop, and how now he probably wouldn’t be taking the bus anymore, he felt happy. When he got home his parents asked him how his day was, and he said, in a somewhat ominous voice, “It was a wonderful day.” Next morning, he heard a knock at his front door. He walked down to find two police officers at the door, his mother looking back at him with an angry look.

“Jeff, these officers tell me that you attacked three kids. That it wasn’t regular fighting, and that they were stabbed. Stabbed, son!” Jeff’s gaze fell to the floor, showing his mother that it was true.

“Mom, they were the ones who pulled the knives on me and Liu.”

Which you could’ve easily explained to the bus driver. Too late now.

“Son,” said one of the cops,” We found three kids, two stabbed, one having a bruise on his stomach, and we have witnesses proving that you fled the scene. Now, what does that tell us?” Jeff knew it was no use. He could say him and Liu had been attacked, but then there was no proof it was not them who attacked first.

Double negatives are fun, aren’t they? By the way, take note of all the times the cop says “son”.

They couldn’t say that they weren’t fleeing, because truth be told they were. So Jeff couldn’t defend himself or Liu.

“Son, call down your brother.” Jeff couldn’t do it, since it was him who beat up all the kids.

“Sir, it…it was me. I was the one who beat up the kids. Liu tried to hold me back, but he couldn’t stop me.” The cop looked at his partner and they both nod.

“Well kid, looks like a year in Juvy…”

“Wait!” says Liu. They all looked up to see him holding a knife. The officers pulled their guns and locked them on Liu.

A little fucking extreme to pull out guns on a ten year old, don’t you think?

“It was me, I beat up those little punks.

What do you mean “little”? They were older and bigger than you!

Have the marks to prove it.” He lifted up his sleeves to reveal cuts and bruises, as if he was in a struggle.

Where those self-inflicted? I’m pretty sure nothing actually happened to Liu. If they were, then did he really punch himself in the arm enough times to leave bruises? Plus, wouldn’t the cops be able to tell that they there self-inflicted?

“Son, just put the knife down,” said the officer. Liu held up the knife and dropped it to the ground. He put his hands up and walked over to the cops.

“No Liu, it was me! I did it!” Jeff had tears running down his face.

“Huh, poor bro. Trying to take the blame for what I did. Well, take me away.” The police led Liu out to the patrol car.

“Liu, tell them it was me! Tell them! I was the one who beat up those kids!” Jeff’s mother put her hands on his shoulders.

“Jeff please, you don’t have to lie. We know it’s Liu, you can stop.” Jeff watched helplessly as the cop car speeds off with Liu inside. A few minutes later Jeff’s dad pulled into the driveway, seeing Jeff’s face and knowing something was wrong.

You know what would’ve been go to see throughout the story? Interactions between Jeff and Liu. I have no emotional connection to Jeff and his plight, because they never established what kind of relationship they had. Again, to get the reader drawn in what’s happening you have to actually give us a reason to care. For all I know, Liu hated his brother and purposely let himself go to juvy to be away from him!

“Son, son what is it?” Jeff couldn’t answer. His vocal cords were strained from crying. Instead, Jeff’s mother walked his father inside to break the bad news to him as Jeff wept in the driveway. After an hour or so Jeff walked back in to the house, seeing that his parents were both shocked, sad, and disappointed. He couldn’t look at them. He couldn’t see how they thought of Liu when it was his fault. He just went to sleep, trying to get the whole thing off his mind. Two days went by, with no word from Liu at JDC. No friends to hang out with. Nothing but sadness and guilt. That is until Saturday, when Jeff is woke up by his mother, with a happy, sunshiny face.

“Jeff, it’s the day.” she said as she opened up the curtains and let light flood into his room.

I forgot to mention, the writer is constantly switching from past to present tense. You’d think that’s something that you’d notice when editing a story.

“What, what’s today?” asked Jeff as he stirs awake.

Stirs awake? Stir already means to wake up. Redundancy much?

“Why, it’s Billy’s party.” He was now fully awake.

“Mom, you’re joking, right? You don’t expect me to go to some kid’s party after…” There was a long pause.

“Jeff, we both know what happened. I think this party could be the thing that brightens up the past days. Now, get dressed.” Jeff’s mother walked out of the room and downstairs to get ready herself. He fought himself to get up. He picked out a random shirt and pair of jeans and walked down stairs. He saw his mother and father all dressed up; his mother in a dress and his father in a suit. He thought, why they would ever wear such fancy clothes to a kid’s party?

“Son, is that all your going to wear?” said Jeff’s mom.

You’re*… and yes, that is something that I will always correct because it’s a pet peeve of mind.

“Better than wearing too much.” he said. His mother pushed down the feeling to yell at him and hid it with a smile.

“Now Jeff, we may be over-dressed, but this is how you go if you want to make an impression.” said his father. Jeff grunted and went back up to his room.

Just an impression? Not a good impression? Well, if that’s the case then just go over and take a shit on their lawn. They definitely remember it!

“I don’t have any fancy clothes!” he yelled down stairs.

“Just pick out something.” called his mother. He looked around in his closet for what he would call fancy. He found a pair of black dress pants he had for special occasions and an undershirt. He couldn’t find a shirt to go with it though. He looked around, and found only striped and patterned shirts. None of which go with dress pants. Finally he found a white hoodie and put it on.

“You’re wearing that?” they both said. His mother looked at her watch. “Oh, no time to change. Let’s just go.” She said as she herded Jeff and his father out the door. They crossed the street over to Barbara and Billy’s house. They knocked on the door and at it appeared that Barbara, just like his parents, way over-dressed. As they walked inside all Jeff could see were adults, no kids.

“The kids are out in the yard. Jeff, how about you go and meet some of them?” said Barbara.

Jeff walked outside to a yard full of kids. They were running around in weird cowboy costumes and shooting each other with plastic guns. He might as well be standing in a Toys R Us. Suddenly a kid came up to him and handed him a toy gun and hat.

What that a metaphor for the amount of kids or the toys? I can’t really tell.

“Hey. Wanna pway?” he said.

Something about this makes me want to punch something… can’t actually say why. I guess I’m use to writers children to make us feel bad when some shit goes down. I’ll admit, it could just be me.

“Ah, no kid. I’m way too old for this stuff.” The kid looked at him with that weird puppydog face.

“Pwease?” said the kid. “Fine,” said Jeff. He put on the hat and started to pretend shoot at the kids. At first he thought it was totally ridiculous, but then he started to actually have fun. It might not have been super cool, but it was the first time he had done something that took his mind off of Liu. So he played with the kids for a while, until he heard a noise. A weird rolling noise. Then it hit him. Randy, Troy, and Keith all jumped over the fence on their skateboards. Jeff dropped the fake gun and ripped off the hat. Randy looked at Jeff with a burning hatred.

Keep in mind, one of them is apparently obese. So, how the hell did HE get over the fence?

“Hello, Jeff, is it?” he said. “We have some unfinished business.” Jeff saw his bruised nose.” I think we’re even. I beat the crap out of you, and you get my brother sent to JDC.”

Actually, that was kind of your fault. If you didn’t run, you could’ve simply explained what happened to the bus driver. I hate to be on the bully’s side, but I’m not sympathetic to stupid people.

Randy got an angry look in his eyes. “Oh no, I don’t go for even, I go for winning. You may have kicked our asses that one day, but not today.” As he said that Randy rushed at Jeff. They both fell to the ground. Randy punched Jeff in the nose, and Jeff grabbed him by the ears and head butted him. Jeff pushed Randy off of him and both rose to their feet. Kids were screaming and parents were running out of the house. Troy and Keith both pulled guns out of their pockets.

What the serious fuck? Where did twelve year olds get guns? Isn’t this suppose to be a nice neighborhood? And I don’t know about you, but if someone two little shit heads where waving guns around my child, I’d do something about

“No one interrupts or guts will fly!” they said. Randy pulled a knife on Jeff and stabbed it into his shoulder.

And once again I have to stress, if they’re this damn willing to cause trouble in public, how the fuck did they never get caught? Why would they guarantee getting arrested just to beat up this one kid? This is almost as bad as the bully in Pet Semetary 2… oddly enough, the main character he was pointlessly bullying was named Jeff. Go figure.

Jeff screamed and fell to his knees. Randy started kicking him in the face. After three kicks Jeff grabs his foot and twists it, causing Randy to fall to the ground. Jeff stood up and walked towards the back door. Troy grabbed him.

“Need some help?” He picks Jeff up by the back of the collar and throws him through the patio door. As Jeff tries to stand he is kicked down to the ground. Randy repeatedly starts kicking Jeff, until he starts to cough up blood.

“Come on Jeff, fight me!” He picks Jeff up and throws him into the kitchen. Randy sees a bottle of vodka on the counter and smashes the glass over Jeff’s head.

I would feel it’s necessary to point out that this “epic battle” taking place is between and twelve year old and an eleven year old. Let that fact sink in.

“Fight!” He throws Jeff back into the living room.

“Come on Jeff, look at me!” Jeff glances up, his face riddled with blood. “I was the one who got your brother sent to JDC! And now you’re just gonna sit here and let him rot in there for a whole year! You should be ashamed!” Jeff starts to get up.

And how will kicking your ass get his brother out of juvy?

“Oh, finally! you stand and fight!” Jeff is now to his feet, blood and vodka on his face. Once again he gets that strange feeling, the one in which he hasn’t felt for a while.

It’s only been three days since he last felt it!

“Finally. He’s up!” says Randy as he runs at Jeff. That’s when it happens. Something inside Jeff snaps. His psyche is destroyed, all rational thinking is gone, all he can do, is kill. He grabs Randy and pile drives him to the ground.

Jeff pile drived him? That’s not exactly an easy thing to do.

He gets on top of him and punches him straight in the heart. The punch causes Randy’s heart to stop. As Randy gasps for breath. Jeff hammers down on him. Punch after punch, blood gushes from Randy’s body, until he takes one final breath, and dies.

He’s a scrawny eleven year old boy! Yeah, you can hit someone hard enough in the chest to momentarily make their heart stop, but I somehow doubt he could manage it! And blood gushed from his body? From being punched in the face? Is every orifice on his body exerting blood? Chose your words better!

Everyone is looking at Jeff now. The parents, the crying kids, even Troy and Keith. Although they easily break from their gaze and point their guns at Jeff. Jeff see’s the guns trained on him and runs for the stairs. As he runs Troy and Keith let out fire on him, each shot missing. Jeff runs up the stairs. He hears Troy and Keith follow up behind. As they let out their final rounds of bullets Jeff ducks into the bathroom. He grabs the towel rack and rips it off the wall. Troy and Keith race in, knives ready.

Troy swings his knife at Jeff, who backs away and bangs the towel rack into Troy’s face. Troy goes down hard and now all that’s left is Keith. He is more agile than Troy though, and ducks when Jeff swings the towel rack. He dropped the knife and grabbed Jeff by the neck. He pushed him into the wall. A thing of bleach fell down on top of him from the top shelf. It burnt both of them and they both started to scream.

Gee, I didn’t know I could get bleach in a “thing”. How much does a “thing” hold? Must be industrial stuff too if it burns the skin of contact.

Jeff wiped his eyes as best as he could. He pulled back the towel rack and swung it straight into Keith’s head. As he lay there, bleeding to death, he let out an ominous smile.

I think the writer heard the word “ominous” before writing this story and found it so esthetically pleasing to his ears that he decided to use it anywhere he could here.

“What’s so funny?” asked Jeff. Keith pulled out a lighter and switched it on. “What’s funny,” he said, “Is that you’re covered in bleach and alcohol.” Jeff’s eyes widened as Keith threw the lighter at him. As soon as the flame made contact with him, the flames ignited the alcohol in the vodka. While the alcohol burned him, the bleach bleached his skin. Jeff let out a terrible screech as he caught on fire. He tried to roll out the fire but it was no use, the alcohol had made him a walking inferno. He ran down the hall, and fell down the stairs. Everybody started screaming as they saw Jeff, now a man on fire, drop to the ground, nearly dead.

One bottle of vodka, smashed over the head, wouldn’t be enough, to set the his whole body, on fire… quit with the excess commas!

The last thing Jeff saw was his mother and the other parents trying to extinguish the flame. That’s when he passed out.

When Jeff woke he had a cast wrapped around his face. He couldn’t see anything, but he felt a cast on his shoulder, and stitches all over his body. He tried to stand up, but he realized that there was some tube in his arm, and when he tried to get up it fell out, and a nurse rushed in.

“I don’t think you can get out of bed just yet.” she said as she put him back in his bed and re-inserted the tube. Jeff sat there, with no vision, no idea of what his surroundings were. Finally, after hours, he heard his mother.

“Honey, are you okay?” she asked. Jeff couldn’t answer though, his face was covered, and he was unable to speak. “Oh honey, I have great news. After all the witnesses told the police that Randy confessed of trying to attack you, they decided to let Liu go.” This made Jeff almost bolt up, stopping halfway, remembering the tube coming out of his arm. “He’ll be out by tomorrow, and then you two will be able to be together again.”

Okay… I get that his mother’s trying to give him some positive news to try and make him feel a bit better about what happen, but the way it’s written, she comes across as an airheaded ditz who doesn’t give a damn that her son is in the hospital with burns on his face. Look at the way she fraised that. She just glossed over the fact that Jeff was attacked so she could mention that Liu was coming home.

Jeff’s mother hugs Jeff and says her goodbyes. The next couple of weeks were those where Jeff was visited by his family. Then came the day where his bandages were to be removed. His family were all there to see it, what he would look like. As the doctors unwrapped the bandages from Jeff’s face everyone was on the edge of their seats. They waited until the last bandage holding the cover over his face was almost removed.

“Let’s hope for the best,” said the doctor. He quickly pulls the cloth; letting the rest fall from Jeff’s face.

Jeff’s mother screams at the sight of his face. Liu and Jeff’s dad stare awe-struck at his face.

“What? What happened to my face?” Jeff said. He rushed out of bed and ran to the bathroom. He looked in the mirror and saw the cause of the distress. His face. It…it’s horrible. His lips were burnt to a deep shade of red. His face was turned into a pure white color, and his hair singed from brown to black. He slowly put his hand to his face. It had a sort of leathery feel to it now. He looked back at his family then back at the mirror.

Explain to me how his hair wasn’t just burned off. That typically happens when your hair’s fucking burning. Not to mention, where’s the nurse to keep him restrained so he doesn’t potentially flip out?

“Jeff,” said Liu, “It’s not that bad….”

“Not that bad?” said Jeff,” It’s perfect!” His family were equally surprised. Jeff started laughing uncontrollably His parents noticed that his left eye and hand were twitching.

“Uh… Jeff, are you okay?”

“Okay? I’ve never felt more happy! Ha ha ha ha ha haaaaaa, look at me. This face goes perfectly with me!” He couldn’t stop laughing. He stroked his face feeling it. Looking at it in the mirror. What caused this? Well, you may recall that when Jeff was fighting Randy something in his mind, his sanity, snapped.

You. Already. Said this. We didn’t forget what you wrote not four paragraphs ago!

Now he was left as a crazy killing machine, that is, his parents didn’t know.

“Doctor,” said Jeff’s mom, “Is my son… alright, you know. In the head?”

“Oh yes, this behavior is typical for patients that have taken very large amounts of pain killers. If his behavior doesn’t change in a few weeks, bring him back here, and we’ll give him a psychological test.”

“That sounds like bullshit to me, doctor”, his mom said raising a brow. “What can I say? I’m not very good at my job”, the good doctor said with a shrug.

“Oh thank you doctor.” Jeff’s mother went over to Jeff.” Jeff, sweety. It’s time to go.”

Jeff looks away from the mirror, his face still formed into a crazy smile. “Kay mommy, ha ha haaaaaaaaaaaa!” his mother took him by the shoulder and took him to get his clothes.

“This is what came in,” said the lady at the desk. Jeff’s mom looked down to see the black dress pants and white hoodie her son wore. Now they were clean of blood and now stitched together.

Little know fact: Hospitals also function as taylors.

Jeff’s mother led him to his room and made him put his clothes on. Then they left, not knowing that this was their final day of life.

Later that night, Jeff’s mother woke to a sound coming from the bathroom. It sounded as if someone was crying. She slowly walked over to see what it was. When she looked into the bathroom she saw a horrendous sight. Jeff had taken a knife and carved a smile into his cheeks.

“Jeff, what are you doing?” asked his mother.

What…. Kind of response is that?! Not an “oh my god!”? Nothing to indicate any resemblance of human emotion?! For fucks sake, lady!.

Jeff looked over to his mother. “I couldn’t keep smiling mommy. It hurt after awhile. Now, I can smile forever. Jeff’s mother noticed his eyes, ringed in black.

“Jeff, your eyes!” His eyes were seemingly never closing.

“I couldn’t see my face. I got tired and my eyes started to close. I burned out the eyelids so I could forever see myself; my new face.” Jeff’s mother slowly started to back away, seeing that her son was going insane. “What’s wrong mommy? Aren’t I beautiful?

Was “going” insane? What was your first fucking clue?! The insane laughter? The random twitching? Jesus!

“Yes son,” she said, “Yes you are. L-let me go get daddy, so he can see your face.” She ran into the room and shook Jeff’s dad from his sleep. “Honey, get the gun we…..” She stopped as she saw Jeff in the doorway, holding a knife.

“Mommy, you lied.” That’s the last thing they hear as Jeff rushes them with the knife, gutting both of them.

I can only assume that the knife was big enough to impale them both through the hurt, because the idea that an eleven year old boy could fight two adults and kill them is nothing short of bullshit. Why couldn’t he have killed them in their sleep? That would’ve made a bit more sense.

His brother Liu woke up, startled by some noise. He didn’t hear anything else, so he just shut his eyes and tried to go back to sleep. As he was on the border of slumber, he got the strangest feeling that someone was watching him. He looked up, before Jeff’s hand covered his mouth. He slowly raised the knife ready to plunge it into Liu. Liu thrashed here and there trying to escape Jeff’s grip.

“Shhhhhhh,” Jeff said,”Just go to sleep.”

So, that was Jeff the Killer. Was it a good story? No. No it was not. Though it wasn’t a terrible story. Trust me, I’ll cover far worse in these reviews. However, it’s a story that suffers from huge leaps of logic, unrealistic dialogue, a jarring perspective change, and just poor storytelling in general. Not to mention, the idea of Jeff burning his eye open without going blind. If there’s anything going for this story in the very least, it’s Jeff himself. While not the most interesting of characters, his character actually develops as the story moves along. For the most part, he actually comes of as a normal teenager and although I criticized his choice to run away, one could attribute it to his age.

I suggested that Jeff's violent impulses should've been better expanded upon, but I was trying to work off of the writers intentions with the story. If he was going for a tragic element to Jeff's backstory, it would've been more effective to leave that element out of the story entirely. Jeff getting the urge to harm and kill when someone provoked him makes sense, but he felt it when sitting down for breakfast. Again, I can't help but get the feeling that he would've gone on to become a serial killer even if he wasn't pushed over the edge.

All this said, one question remains: why is this story so popular? That's mainly a matter of opinion, though I attribute it solely to the image accompanied with the story. I'll admit, it gave me a when I first saw it, but the novelty quickly wore off. I do think that the character of Jeff can be properly expanded upon, though the story that started it all is a sloppily written mess.

Grammar – 5/10

Pacing – 6/10

Horror – 2/10

Originality – 2/10

Overall – 4/10