I have crossed a line I can never return now...
P.S. This is going to be the first time I'm trying to write out Jack's accent in story form, so be prepared for choppy accents going on here.
Mark gently tapped his keyboard impatiently as he stared at the skype screen. His friend Sean McLoughlin, AKA, Jack, was offline, normally it wouldn't bug him but the fact that Jack's been offline for a full week now did bother him. Jack was never offline for more than a day now, and what's worse, he stopped uploading videos as of yesterday. Something was wrong. Looking at his clock, it was currently four in the morning, with a heavy sigh, Mark turned his monitor off, he'll try again later.
Of course this hasn't just caught his attention, over the course of the week he's gotten at least five calls from Bob and Wade each, ten from Felix alone, even Ken and Cry called him once or twice about it. He told them all the same thing,
He doesn't know Jack's every waking moment, he's as lost as they are.
Plugging his phone in, he rolled onto his bed in a huff. He then rested his glasses next to his phone before getting comfy in his bed.
"Chica." Patting his bed, he felt his dog jump next to him and lay down almost instantly, humming out in comfort, Mark allowed himself to close his eyes and slowly shift away into sleep.
He knew he hadn't been asleep long when his phone lit up, the brightness of the screen hurting his eyes, Mark groaned and sloppily reached over to grab it. Once in his hands, Mark inhaled deeply as the bright screen continued to repeatedly stab his corneas, after a few moments he got use to the light and stared at his blurry phone. Squinting a bit, he saw that he had a few missed texts, rolling his eyes, Mark clicked on his messages and instantly his heart fell into his stomach.
Wade, Bob, and Felix all had sent him a text that pretty much said the same thing.
Look at Jack's newest video.
A bit more awake, Mark pushed his covers off, waking Chica from her slumber as well. Grabbing his glasses he hurried off to his computer, Chica jumped from the bed as well following her master diligently as he practically ran full speed to his beloved computer. Kicking his chair out of the way, he turned his monitor back on and quickly went to Youtube. Making sure he had his glasses on for this he went to Jack's channel and pulled his chair back up so he could sit.
'Please...Please be an update on what's going on.' He silently begged to no one, it had to be an update, right? what else could it be?
His heart jumped out of his stomach and into his throat when he saw the title of Jack's latest video. It didn't have the normal clickbait title, just the title any video is given when they're uploaded via phone recording. It didn't help that the thumbnail was nothing but blackness. The video was only fifteen seconds long.
Mark was shaking.
Click on the video, he bit his knuckle waiting for it load up, it did in under three seconds, turning his sound up, he sat there, holding his breath. At first the only sound he could hear was just his own speakers, until,
"Help..."
It was a whisper, a very faint whisper, like he was trying to not wake someone. Mark put a hand to his mouth when he heard Jack let out a soft whimper before softly continuing,
"I'm in Kilk-"
The video ended there.
Sitting there, Mark wished to god that this was some sort of sick prank Jack was playing.
But deep down, he knew it wasn't. This wasn't something Jack would normally do.
Against his better judgement, he scrolled down to the comments. The dislike bar was overpowering the like bar by almost a thousand people.
'Is this a joke? Jack, C'mon what the hell man.'
'Lol, What's with all the dislikes?'
'Jack, sweetie is everything alright? You shouldn't mess with your fans like this.'
'Is Mark in on this? I bet this was some sort of publicity scheme they thought up together, lol, you can't full us.'
That comment was the last straw. Getting up, he turned on the lights the room before starting up his webcam, he didn't care if he looked like shit, he had to let the people know, he had no idea what was happening right now. Making sure everything was on and functioning properly, he didn't do a silly intro, he didn't say who he was, he just looked dead into the webcam before he finally spoke,
"I'm going to Ireland. I know that I shouldn't start a video like this, but, that video that Jack just posted...I've known Jack long enough to know he wouldn't post something like that as a goddamn joke. I think he may really be in trouble. So in short. I'm going to Ireland to find out myself. That means videos will be on hold for a few days, I'm sorry, but...Jack is my friend, he called for help and I'm answering it."
Sighing, it was sloppy and unscripted but it was going to have to do for now, he needed to get everything ready. Uploading it, he paused at the title of the video and after a few moments of tapping the keys in thought, he finally just decided to label it,
'Going to help a friend.'
Clicking the upload button, he opened a new tab while the video uploaded he started looking for plane tickets to Ireland, he forgotten all about his recent upload for about an hour when out of nowhere he suddenly got a group skype call.
Wade, Bob, Felix, Ken, and Cry.
Accepting the call, he waited as everyone's video started to buffer for a moment, except for Cry, he was the only one to not be in video. Finally the first voice he heard was Felix.
"When?"
"Are you both insane!?" Cry asked.
"I agree with Cry. You guys don't even know where he could be!" Bob brought up as he leaned back in his chair.
"He stated with some sort of place." Mark argued.
"He never finished! Have fun trying to find one specific place that starts with Kilk." Wade cut in.
"What are we suppose to do? He's in trouble." Felix spoke again.
"...Ken, you've been quiet." Mark said finally to Ken, the man leaned back into his chair, he seemed to be thinking. He seemed slightly torn before just sighing out.
"You guy's haven't seen the other video, have you?" Ken finally asked with a sigh.
"What other video?" They all pretty much asked at the same time. There was a moment of silence before the notification in the chat came up. Going to the chat, Mark clicked on the youtube link.
"It might help find out where Jack is. The thing is...He's not in the video per se. He's off in the background, and yeah, it's definitely him." Ken explained just as the video popped up for Mark. The video itself was only about a minute long, the video was titled 'taking a break' it was from a channel called,
Attinoon350
whoever this guy was he or she had less than two thousand subscribers.
A redheaded guy came on the screen, couldn't be older than thirty, Mark was quick to note that he seemed to be sitting in some sort of dance studio, the mirrors in the background gave it away, Attinoon smiled at the camera brightly before speaking,
" 'Ello lads and lasses it's me Attinoon, and I'm sure ye've all guessed by the title that yes I am taking break from me dancing for a bit."
The man was Irish, it was clear by the accent but that wasn't anything to be suspicious about, Jack wasn't exactly the only Irish man in the world.
"Ye see, things have been going a bit...rough for me-" The camera moved a bit.
Mark paused the video, off in the background, like Ken had said, Jack showed up it was just his reflection in the mirror, it was obviously him, the short stature, and of course the iconic green hair. Mark pressed play again.
The man smiled again, turned around noticed the reflection and made a hand movement, telling Jack to get out of frame. Jack did as instructed. Mark paused the video again and went back to skype.
"Who is this Attinoon?" Mark asked Ken, Ken shrugged a bit.
"Mary was looking at some dancing channels, she showed me this and asked if that was Jack. That's all I got, unfortunately, aside from the fact that the guy is Irish, I can't get anything off of him. I even tried messaging him." Ken responded.
Everyone was oddly quiet, Mark went back to the video and clicked on Attinoon's channel. Scrolling through the few videos Attinoon had, Mark suddenly paused and scrolled back up. With a heavy sigh, he spoke again,
"...If we could find that studio-"
"No, absolutely not, do you know how many dance studios are probably in Ireland alone?" Asked Bob. Felix was the first to argue.
"He has to be close to Jack! How else could they have met? If we go to Athlone and look around-"
"What if the studio is just for his dancing?" Cry countered,
"It's not..." Wade suddenly spoke. "Look at some of these thumbnails, he's with others, some look to be as young as thirteen."
Mark tapped his fingers a bit before sighing out,
"There has to be something. We can't just sit back when Jack legit calls out for help."
"Well..." Felix muttered something softly, everyone looked up at his video, he seemed to be shaking his head bitterly before shutting his eyes. "We could..."
Everyone waited, after a few moments of silence Bob was the first to yell,
"Get on with it!"
"Keemstar..." Felix sighed.
"Oh..." Everyone practically groaned out.
Keemstar had a pretty good team that could probably find almost anyone, hell, if they paid him, he'd probably dox the person, but...
"He's not going to help us. Not with all the shit talking you've been giving him, Felix." Ken shook his head, there was more silence between the group before Mark finally spoke up,
"Let me talk to him then, aside from him reporting the fact that I stopped uploading do to Daniel..." Mark paused and gulped slightly before finishing, "Anyway, we haven't quarreled with one another at all, he might help me."
Cry scoffed,
"Please. Him? Help you? You might physically have to beg, I mean get on your knees and kiss his ass beg."
"Do you have any other ideas?" challenged Mark.
"Guys?" Ken spoke up.
"What about a private investigator? With that we won't be breaking any laws." Wade ignored Ken.
"Do you know how long that will take? What if he's in serious danger here?" Felix countered.
"Guys!" Ken yelled this time.
"We can't just sit here! I'm with Mark on this one, Lets just dox the guy." Bob admitted.
"Do you know how illegal that is though?" Cry spoke once more.
"GUYS!" Ken finally screamed and all at once everyone responded with a very angry and bitter,
"WHAT?!"
"Jack just uploaded a new video!"
It was like magic the way everyone instantly started typing away. Mark made it Jack's channel and felt his breath hitch in his throat.
The thumbnail had Jack sitting in a dark room, there was something wrong with his eyes, yes he was smiling but his eyes held a sort of...'help me' vibe to them, but, that's not what scared it Mark, the title did.
'It was only a Joke.'
Putting Skype on low so the sounds didn't overlap, he clicked on the video.
Jack smiled at the camera but it seemed so forced and unnatural.
"Hey guys it's me, that video I posted about a hour or so ago it was honestly just a joke..." Jack paused and shut his eyes before gulping. He then continued, "...Marcus...Don't come to Ireland, it's just a joke, I feel like I needed to let off some dark humor...Recently it feels like ...YouTube has...I don't know...A gun to my head."
Mark's heart made it's way to his stomach in a record time. Jack was so...Obvious about everything. Jack had a grimace on his face before letting out a bitter fake laugh.
"Don't go taking that seriously now, Ye lot. Anyway, I'll have a new video up in the next few days, sorry for the delay. Until next time. Bye." He waved and the video ended. Mark sat there, petrified his heart racing a thousand miles a minute.
"Mark! Bro!" He heard Felix shout through the low volume. Going back to skype, he turned his volume back up. There was a moment of uncomfortable silence between them all before Mark finally spoke up, his voice mimicking the slow anger bubbling up inside of him.
"I'm calling Keemstar."
Whew boy, this chapter took me forever to do and I'm loving this idea. So...Yeah please review I'll love you for it.
P.S any pointers on getting Jack's accent right would be greatly appreciated Please and thank you.