Title: Killers always have motives.

Rating: K+

Genre: Family/Hurt/Comfort

Summary: Even the most malicious of killers, namely Jennet Humfrye, have motives behind their killings.

...

(A/N) Just my musings after watching the Woman in Black, and being the only one in a class of thirty-odd, to not scream or flinch at the movie. It's about the ending scene, with Arthur, Joseph, Jennet and the train.

Enjoy.

~ooOOoo~

Jennet stood on the train station's platform, feeling the temperature drop considerably. To unknowing eyes, she would have appeared to them as a woman in a black dress with a veil shielding her face. But to the rest, she was a vicious, malevolent spirit of a woman who killed children mercilessly, in order to satiate the anger and rage she felt for loosing her son.

That was anything but the case. Lies had fed her story in so many ways, that Jennet had became a character in a novel. But she was not a character, somebody who anyone could create a past for. She had been a human woman, thrown head-first into a world of rage, hurt and torment that she had never experienced before as she made the decision to leave this world.

Although her plan hadn't gone accordingly, she hadn't died peacefully - as peacefully as one who hung themselves could go - but rather she had stayed on this earth. Her body had expelled her soul, and by doing that, her rage and pain pinned her to the plane. Within the first few hours, she had taken her first life, three young girls. Innocent girls, but she had no remorse for them. Every other emotion she had ever felt, died along with her, and the cycle began.

Jennet truly didn't know why she killed the children of those who spotted her. It was like her soul was still searching for something to make it whole again, still searching for something to latch onto, and it found it in those children.

In her own twisted way, Jennet was trying to love again, but then she would always see them with a parent, and her anger would bubble away at her, then the child's life would be snatched from them.

But then the bond between parent and child would be broken, and Jennet would then be in search of another child. She was as double-edged as a sword, roaming the village of Crythin Gifford with little to no knowledge over what was driving her.

People had always thought of her as the Woman in Black, the malevolent spectre who kills for sport, but Jennet Humfrye, was anything but that. She was a scorned spirit whose flesh and blood was taken from her so cruelly, in more ways than one. But now she was re-united with Nathaniel, she was ready to leave this plane after doing something which would puzzle many, but satisfy two.

Through her veil, she eyed the little boy stood next to Arthur, and he turned around to look at her. He didn't back away, he didn't flinch, didn't falter, didn't move a muscle. He was captivated by the powers of mezmerization that Jennet had, had for all those years, but she still had no idea how she'd got them.

A whistle blared off in the distance, and Jennet turned her head to see the black billows of smoke rising up into the air. As gruesome as that death would be, it was necessary for the last lives she would ever take. Lifting a hand, she pointed her pale finger at the railroad track, and Joseph walked towards them in a zombie-like state. Heading towards his death.

Jennet remembered the first child she killed, how it had been racked with such anger and rage that could put the Devil himself to shame. She had been torn apart by her sister's betrayal, how Alice would never give Nathaniel any of her letters which she had poured her soul in to, or the birthday card she had written for him. But the worst, the one which caused her to spiral out of control, was the fact Alice, her and her husband, had let Nathaniel drown in the marsh. She hadn't even tried to save him.

You could have saved him. Jennet closed her eyes briefly in remembrance. The five chilling words, marking the wall in her blood, seemed irrelevant now. Arthur had saved Nathaniel, saved him from the bog he was left to die in, and placed him with his mother.

Initially, Jennet couldn't feel the connection between them, and had wailed out her sorrows, shrieking like a banshee, but after she had calmed down, she had seen Arthur and Sam placing Nathaniel's body in the grave with her. Then something unexplainable happened, all her rage, inner turmoil had dissipated from her very being. She felt the things she left behind when she died. She felt whole again.

As meddlesome a fool she had first thought Arthur Kipps out to be, was now merely a label. He was her saviour, saviour from all those years she had lived without her son, lived in such an exhausting and violent state of rage that had been getting her nowhere fast with making the townspeople understand her.

Jennet had only ever wanted people, namely her sister, to know of the pain she had felt for losing a child, but over time her grief turned into uncontrollable jealousy. Jealousy for the townsfolk around her who had children while hers was gone. She had wanted to shatter the unique parental bond for everyone else, so they would think twice about why she was doing what she was, but it only hardened their hearts towards her and solidified the label. The Woman in Black, the malevolent child-killer.

"Joseph!" Arthur's cry for his son ripped Jennet from her thoughts, and she could hear the fear in his voice as he started running towards him. Joseph stepped onto the track-tracks as the train sped ever-closer, and Jennet felt something gnawing at her spirit.

She knew what it was in a heartbeat, it was remorse. She could feel it now, but feeling it - and in such a powerful way - wasn't going to stop her from repaying Arthur. He had been the person to keep an open mind about her, and she would always hold him in high-esteem.

Arthur's horrified blue eyes locked onto her form, and if she had a voice, she would have explained everything to him, but she couldn't. Jennet didn't care much if Arthur would be angry at her, she knew her own motives for what she was doing. She would be the only one who ever would. She could only nod as he ran towards the train tracks.

Jennet sensed Arthur's emotions, and to her genuine surprise, he wasn't angry, he was confused, hurt, and frightened. She watched - for that was all she really could do - as Arthur finally made it onto the tracks, scooping up his son and holding him in a tight embrace. Jennet felt her control over the young boy break, and he began to frantically clutch to Arthur, and scream for his life. The train was getting nearer and nearer.

Arthur glanced her way again, and his expression was completely mystified. She willed him to understand, but she had no way of telling him. She was just hoping he wouldn't die angry like her, and be stuck on this plane. It had been a truly miserable experience for her, one she wouldn't wish upon anyone, no matter how angry and bitter she had been.

The train's whistle blared into the air, louder than it had ever been, and Jennet saw Arthur running towards the platform, trying to clear himself of the on-coming train, speeding towards him as fast as a bullet. Arthur's hand was outstretched, while his arm cradled Joseph, as he desperately strained his arm to pull himself and his son off the tracks.

But he wasn't quick enough.

A sickening crunch echoed throughout the desolate station, and Arthur's body flew through the air, clinging onto Joseph while his screams flew from his mouth and into the atmosphere. The train immediately screeched to an abrupt halt, but it was too late. Arthur's body hit the tracks with a thud, as did Joseph's.

Arthur's body was twisted, mangled and sprawled at an odd angle, with the locomotive of the train covering his ankles. Jennet didn't fail to notice how his arms, although bloody, still clung to Joseph. At least their bond hadn't been shattered into pieces. She heard the commotion from inside the train as the conductor realised what had happened, and then several, gutteral cries as the passengers spotted her.

She only stared back, not feeling jealous of the parents anymore. It was uplifting to say the least. Jennet felt a slight tug to her ghostly form, and she knew she wouldn't be on this plane for much longer. But she felt like she needed to stay. She had to see if Arthur and Joseph would be leaving this world together, otherwise their deaths would have been for nothing.

Jennet felt the sharp drop of the temperature, it being a lot colder, then she felt elated, relieved. It was because she wasn't the only spiritual entity on this platform anymore. She breathed out deeply, feeling Arthur and Joseph's souls leave their bodies and drift peacefully into the Netherworld.

She turned her head, feeling another presence materialize beside her, and her son was stood next to her. She gripped his hand, feeling her body react instantly to the little infant's touch. If Jennet was not a ghost, she knew she would be crying. But not out of anger, out of happiness. Arthur had given her back the thing she had craved most in the world.

An act of kindness for Arthur. He had shown it to her, and she returned it. By killing him and Joseph, she had done exactly the same as what Arthur had done for her by giving her back Nathaniel. She had given Arthur back his wife, and given Joseph back his mother.

Made him whole again, as he had her.

~ooOOoo~

(A/N) So, what do you all think? (It's probably the shortest thing I've ever wrote and posted on this site in my life, and I'm sorry for that) I'd had this idea that Jennet killed Arthur and Joseph as a thank-you for giving her Nathaniel back, because I couldn't think of a better reason for her to show up at the platform and kill them both randomly, then Stella showed up, and they were all reunited, so this is what my subconsciousness came up with.

I hope you enjoyed it, and will leave your thoughts in a review. Oh, and if you still think I'm crazy after I had Jennet explain everything in the story, your loss.