Mark's POV

After a few more moments like that, I reluctantly let go of Jack. I helped him up slowly, as to not harm him even further. I looked at him with worry-filled eyes. He seemed even worse up close. The gashes covering his body were worse than I thought, and parts of his skin were stained black, most notably his wrists and ankles. There were bags under his eyes, and you could see his ribcage through his shirt. He truly looked like he had been through Hell and back.

I thought about asking him about what happened, but I decided against it. It was probably better to ask him about it later, to let him calm down and sort himself out. "Hey, you should probably go take a shower or something. After that, I'll patch you up." The green-haired boy gave me a small nod, before limping off to the bathroom.

As I got up to go get a drink, I heard a loud thump from inside the bathroom. I quickly walked up to the door and knocked. "Jack? Are you okay?" Silence. I leaned in closer to the door, trying to hear him. As I got closer, I could hear whimpering on the other side. I quickly barged through the door and saw Jack, curled up on the floor, in the midst of a panic attack.

Hurriedly, I knelt down next to him and pulled him into an embrace. "Jack, calm down. You're okay. Everything is fine. You're fine." After a few more minutes of trying to calm him down, his breathing finally slowed. He buried his face into my chest and began sobbing. I pulled him towards me, comforting him.

After a while, he finally spoke. "I-I thought he was back..." He pointed to the mirror as he looked at me with tear-filed eyes.

I glanced at the mirror, perplexed. "He? Who's he?"

He sat there silently for a moment. "...A-Anti..." I stared blankly at him, trying to process what he just said.

Anti? Does he mean... No, that's... That's not possible...

I spoke softly, confusion woven into my voice. "Jack, do... Do you mean Antisepticeye?" He flinched at the name. He looked down and gave me a slight nod. "How Is that even possible?" He shook his head. We sat there silently for a few moments. "Let's talk about this after you get washed up, okay?" He gave a silent nod. I walked out of the bathroom so he could do his thing. As I closed the door, I felt my phone buzz in my pocket. I dug it out and answered, putting the device to my ear. "Hello?"

"Hey, Mark!" I heard Wade's voice on the other end. "How's it going over in Ireland? Met any leprechauns?" He laughed.

I rolled my eyes. "Just one," My tone became more serious as I went on."And he isn't doing too well..."

He answered with a bit of worry in his voice. "Are you talking about Jack? Is he okay?"

I replied, my words filled with sadness. "Far from it... I-I think that he's been tortured." My eyes began to tear up.

I could hear Wade gasp. "Oh my God... Do you have any idea who might have done it?"

I gave a loud sigh. "You won't believe me when I say this, but I believe that Jack's 'Made-up' counterpart, Antisepticeye, did this." Wade was quiet for a moment.

"Mark, are you positive? I'm not saying I don't believe you, it's just... It sounds crazy." He sighed.

I had a serious look on my face. "I'm positive because Jack basically told me himself... Well actually, he didn't tell me, but I connected the dots and it makes the most sense, even though it's not logically possible." There was silence for a few moments. "Wade, I've been thinking about taking him back to LA with me."

He responded, the surprise in his voice evident. "What? Why?"

"Because I-... I don't want this to happen again, so I figured if he doesn't live alone, then it's less likely to happen..." I stopped for a moment. " I just... I care about him too much to let this happen again, Wade." There was more silence.

I heard giggling from the other side of the phone. "Septiplier away!" He laughed even more. (A/N: Wade is me XD)

Caught off guard, I blushed immensely. "Wade, what the fuck?! Now is not the time!" I groaned at his childish attitude.

When his laughing finally stopped, he sighed "Sorry, I had to." I rolled my eyes while he continued "Anyway, I think that you should do what you think is best for him, with his consent, of course. I've got to go, so I'll call you later. Bye."

"Bye." I ended the call and sighed. I sat on the bed, trying to sort out my thoughts. I was confused in so many different ways, from how Anti even existed to why he tortured Jack. I heard the bathroom door creak. I looked up to see Jack practically dragging himself out of the bathroom. "Hey, how're you holding up?" I asked in a soft tone.

He gave a small shrug. "Okay, I suppose..." He was silent after that. I went into the bathroom and grabbed the first-aid kit from beneath the sink. Afterward, I walked back into the room.

I approached Jack with quiet steps. "Hey, I'm gonna need you to take your shirt off." He flinched when he heard my voice. He looked at me and hesitated, then nodded. When I saw the damage, my face grew saddened. I sighed and began wrapping his torso in gauze.

We were silent for the most part while I was tending to his wounds. The only times we spoke were when I needed him to move. I did notice a few new things, like burn marks and missing chunks of skin. I didn't say anything, but it worried me greatly.

What in Hell did he do to you?

Once we were done, I led him to the kitchen to get some food, seeing as he looked like he hadn't eaten in what seemed like weeks. All he had that hadn't expired was some bread and a few slices of ham, so I just made some sandwiches for the both of us. He nodded in thanks and began to scarf down his food.

We sat with a deafening silence hanging over us as we ate. Sick of the tension, I sighed and turned to look at Jack. "Jack, look, I understand if you don't want to tell me about it, but I have to ask you this; What in God's name did that bastard do to you?" as the last few words came out my mouth, I saw Jack grow pale. He just sat there, not responding. "... Jack?" I looked at him, waiting.

"...Can we talk about this, uh, tomorrow..? I, uh, I'm pretty exhausted..." He replied, his voice lacking his usual confidence.

I smiled at him. "Sure." I grabbed our plates and set them in the sink. I turned towards him. "Hey, is it okay If I take the guest room?"

He gave me a weak smile. "Sure, go ahead."

I gave him quick thanks before grabbing my stuff and heading down the hall, towards the spare room. I looked around for a bit, then set my stuff down and flopped onto the bed in the middle of the room. I grabbed my phone from my pocket and began going through all of my social media accounts, replying to messages. Mostly it was just people wondering if I made it to Ireland safe and sound.

It wasn't long after I had started going through my phone that I heard Jack pass my door, presumably going to bed. I decided to do the same, and get some shut eye. I got up, put on my very fashionable Markiplier Pajamas, turned off the light, and faceplanted into the bed superman-style. It wasn't long until I was out like a light.

Then, I hear Jack's scream.

A/N: Ooh, a cliffhanger! Yay! :3

So, in this little author's note thingy, I'm going to talk about how I want this story to progress, before I get any comments saying 'Where's the Septiplier?! I NEED MY FUEL!' or 'I thought this was an AntiSepticEye story, but so far, there's only been a small fraction of him, and he didn't even physically show up! Pick up the damn pace, lady!'. NO. I want this story to have a slow build-up because that's how I like writing. It's my story, and I'll do whatever the fuck I want with it! Sorry for the small rant, but one of my close friends suggested I bring this up before there are any comments like this, because on my past stories (Which I have deleted because they were pieces of crap :/), there have been so many comments like this, and I was just peeved. Once again, sorry. Okay, onto something else. I was thinking about doing one of the Kik group chat stories because I thought it might be fun. What do you guys think (If there are any of you out there, that is. ;w;)? As per usual, tell me about any spelling or grammatical errors I made and I'll fix them as fast as I possibly can. Author's note over.

Bye! :3

Word count: 1562