Torrentous Tears

by UmbraEquinae

Past Known

Body.

Mind.

Soul.

If one were to describe what became of Jeffrey Woods after he thoroughly drowned into that euphoric ichor, the 'syrup,' they would describe him as an empty shell now filled entirely with primal emotions. They would regard him as a lost soul; all that remained of the human boy was a disfigured body and a twisted mind, they might add.

Though somewhat accurate, they could not have been further from the truth. Liu Woods, Jeff's younger brother, struck this realization:

"On some days when Trace Dunkin or some other mean-spirited schoolmate chose to make Liu the target of their fun, he'd realize that Jeff was a catalyst, a one-of-a-kind event that could happen in almost any walk of life, but rarely does. Bullies, negligent adults, corrupt officials, ... they're everywhere. But very few of them ever see what their actions could really produce. Jeff though, he stood out from the typical victim of torment and abuse. Liu was convinced that no one believed that such rage could exist within a young man like Jeff, a child who'd been raised with good education and lots of outlets for his ever-growing connection to the world around him." (K. Banning Kellum's "Jeff the Killer: Liu")

Liu, having lived his entire childhood and most of adolescence with Jeff, knew what Jeff's 'transformation' into an inhuman monster was like:

"Liu theorized that perhaps what transformed Jeffrey Woods, brother, teacher, and friend, into the depraved ghoul known as Jeff the Killer was those little fail-safes, those little switches that kick on in peoples' minds, like the ones that told Liu not to instigate Trace. ... Well, in the case of Jeff, those fail-safes simply ... failed. Jeff had described his anger as a ‘syrup,’ a metaphor that made Liu cringe a bit but also hit home as accurate, if not perhaps a bit overused. It leak in, probably a little at a time over the years that Matt and Shelia ignored them. It got worse with the move to Mandeville though. Jeff didn't want to be there. Randy and his friends contributed a crack or two, and the outright cartoonish treachery of Officer Williamson added a few more. Their parents sending Liu away, not caring that Randy had started the whole fight, that perhaps allowed the cracks to spread enough to spider web into each other, turning several small, most likely harmless breaks in the wall into large, deeper, and far more alarming holes in the armor. The flare gun; Jeff's face; and the emotional devastation of having to hear the same parents that supported the criminally-negligent policing styles of Williamson – the same mother that forced her son to try to engage with the very kid who kicked off the damn problems – choose to believe said lying asshole kids even as he lay in the hospital... Well, that finally shattered the wall. The fail-safes were gone. Whatever was left of the old Jeff, the best friend and mentor, was now floating in the same raging sea of madness where the rage, the revenge, and that sweet syrup of sadistic bliss all met and became one." (K. Banning Kellum's "Jeff the Killer: Liu")

Liu's analogy of Jeff's transformation to the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a moth, well ... damn was that symbolic! The morphine drops of euphoric ichor had solidified around Jeffrey Woods like a cocoon, that encasing had simply been a shelter that hid the slow nurturing of insanity within the young man's mind. His body, especially his face – those burn scars spread across his cheeks and forehead, the blinded left eye – was the external display of a whole community's corruption and disease reflecting from the product of said corruption.

The transformation from struggling adolescent to deranged serial killer was a process that completed the puzzle of the human psyche, revealing to the world what lurks behind the veil of 'normalcy:' the animal mind. Giving in to those primal urges are what made Jeffrey Woods, a brother and friend, a beast in the eyes of society's normal and an idol to the other beasts. The scum of Mandeville looked up to him, some even worshiping him; Jeff the Killer became an example. Disappearing into the woods after that night of the murder of his parents, he became ... a mere figment of the dark reality. He was the product of sin, had committed the ultimate sin, and eventually, became sin itself.

Why did the embodiment of human malevolence not kill his own brother that night?

Simple answer, which is: love. Contrary to what humans make of animals, especially those feral or wild, it is a fact that they are still organisms. Organisms are living, thus they too possess a consciousness. Though not as complex and developed as those of mankind, animals can still feel some emotions. It was the monster’s love for the innocent being keeping Jeffrey Woods from doing what he had done to his parents that tragic, horrific night to Liu Woods, his younger brother and best friend. The very beast that stabbed his own mother – as stated by police reports – seventy-six times and finished his father with four rapid thrusts of a knife into his midsection without any emotion or hesitation, ... that same being spared his brother with love in its heart.

Long was gone Jeffrey Woods, Jeff the Killer was born a display of reversion into feral being for the world to see.

Biologists, psychologists, scholars, and sociologists probably did not think it was possible to revert an organism in the evolutionary timeline – not without the utilization of genetic modification, that is. It was believed that an organism cannot be degraded by nature into becoming almost a primitive, savage ancestral creature.

Those very scientists were right, somewhat. An organism of its species is of its own species. Comprehension of the unknown drives those educated groups or individuals to overlook such simple, common facts. The organism is what it is. As biology and sociology are studies on the environmental factors and their influence and interaction with an organism, it is safe to conclude that what happened that night in 2015 Mandeville was natural. Sure, it was intervention by Joseph Sawyer that started it all, but the products set naturally-occurring events into motion. Looking closely while simultaneously stepping back, it would be simple utilization of comprehension and unbiased logistics that shows a crucial revelation: That highly-influential social experiment was indeed an artificial factor contributing to the aftermath, but the community was still a natural environment influencing its residing organisms via interaction. What became a national sensation rooted from a series of heinous deeds by one individual, that was the fabric sown from complicated webs of string and yarn provided by an outside supplier.

Jeffrey Woods – no, – Jeff the Killer ... was just the organism to prove all those scientists dead wrong.

Author's Note:

Again, I would like to state my sincerest apologies to K. Banning Kellum, whose series on the titular character of Jeff the Killer directly inspired me to write this fanfiction story, if my actions are copyrighting and pirating your fabulous work.

Though this chapter is not much – being more about my views of Jeffrey Woods' life based off of the inspirational series. I am a quite choppy writer when it comes to pure originality, so ... the next chapter or so will come out likewise in this disorganized state of too many unnecessary elaborations.
My apologies, everyone and everypony!