Mark looked down at his phone impatiently, tapping his foot he let out an irritated sigh.
"How long does it take to get off of a plane!?" Mark growled and Matt sighed,
"Just be patient, Bob, Wade, and Ken should be here any minute."
Mark sighed softly and looked around. He looked over to Felix and Matpat, Matpat was on his phone, face timing Stephanie while Felix was just idly playing some app on his phone.
"Mark! Buddy!"
Hearing Wade's shout, Mark turned he saw both Bob and Wade walking towards him their suitcases in their hands. Ken just a little ways behind them
"Thank God!" Mark yelled and ran to the two of them.
"Ok, Ok, give us the details," Bob spoke as everyone joined together. They all walked and talked as Mark filled them in.
"As of right now we have to go to this cigarette shop outside of town, we were going to go there first but you know...your plane and whatnot." Mark finished.
They all walked to the new uber car that was now a van able to fit all of them.
"Our old driver couldn't fit all of us," Mark explained as he helped Bob, Wade, and Ken with their luggage.
"I'm sure he's glad about that." Matpat laughed. Everyone finally piled in and the driver took off. Mark rubbed his tired eyes.
"...Mark?" Felix asked concerned.
"Jet lag. I'll be fine." Mark muttered.
They left it be as everyone silently looked at their phones, distracting themselves for the majority of the ride. Finally, the Uber stopped in front of their hotel and Mark handed the guy the money.
"We'll be back," Mark told the man as everyone piled out. Bob and Wade grabbed their luggage and together all six of them headed inside. The person behind the desk raised an eyebrow as all of them piled into the elevator, Felix just flashed her his key and her eyebrow didn't lower. The doors closed and up they went. Once on their floor, everyone went to Felix's hotel room.
"Oh dear god, it's tiny," Ken spoke as the door opened to show the room, one bed that Felix probably already claimed with someone, probably Mark, taking the couch while there were two blankets and pillows on the carpeted floors.
"Pick a spot, any spot," Felix told them as they just slowly came in. putting all of their suitcases with the rest in the corner.
"Ok...So what're we doing?" Bob asked noticing that Mark seemed to be suddenly changing out of his clothes. That was when Bob saw the Winnie the Pooh Scrubs Mark had on under his normal clothes.
"...Mark?" Bob asked getting everyone to look at him.
"Yeah?" Mark asked kicking his jeans off he straightened his scrub pants.
"Ok...What the fuck are you wearing those for?" Wade asked and Mark gave them a look.
"Oh right, I forgot to tell you, I'm impersonating a nurse to get to this kid in the hospital." Mark nonchalantly said. Wade and Bob's jaws dropped while Ken just laughed,
"Alright!" He high-fived Mark.
"Don't high five him! Mark you could go to prison for this." Bob pointed out and Mark snorted,
"You don't think I know? Matpat and Matt already told me the dangers, but I'm going through with it. This kid knows where Jack is, I just need him to answer one more question." Mark told them as he picked up his clothes. He placed his normal clothes into a plastic bag and sighed out, "Ok, so here's what I think we should do, half of us go to the hospital so I can finish talking to Benny, the other half should go to the cigarette store and see if that is the guy whose selling American brands." Mark simply said, Matpat, Ken, Felix, and Matt all nodded but Wade and Bob weren't exactly on board.
"Bro, I love you, but you're being a major idiot right now! If you get caught you could go to jail, go to prison, be deported back to the US face major charges for that as well I mean...Just..-" Bob rambled throwing his hands around as the million of horrible things that could happen to Mark flashed through his head, Mark finally spoke, cutting his friend off,
"Bob, If I wasn't going to get away with it, I wouldn't be doing it. I'm bribing a security guard to let me through. He knows who I am and all I need to get him is an autograph for his daughter and...a hundred and fifty euros." Mark laughed. Bob's jaw dropped,
"a hundred and fifty euros?! Do you know how much that is in American dollars?!"
"Yeah, a hundred and sixty-eight dollars and twelve cents...I already looked it up." Mark smiled as he tied the bag. Bob pursed his lips to the side and just sighed softly in defeat,
"Ok then...I guess if you have a plan..."
Mark gave him a small smile before putting on his mask and cap. Once on, he spoke his voice slightly muffled,
"Let's go."
Felix lightly rasped his nails against the Uber's seat as the driver drove him, Matt, and Ken to the cigarette shop. The others went with Mark to the hospital. Sighing he looked outside the window, the sky turning dark as dusk was starting to set in. He looked over to Matt and Ken the two in the backseat looking like they were ready to fall asleep any moment. Chuckling he smiled a bit, jet lag didn't really affect him seeing how he only lived forty-five minutes away from Ireland.
"I think this is the place." The driver told them as he pulled into the parking lot.
"Thanks, We should be out shortly." Felix flashed the man a smile before leaving the car with the others. They silently walked into the store, a bell above their head ringing as they did so.
"Welcome!" A man greeted them from behind the counter. All three of them made a beeline for the man, Felix looked at the name tag and smiled,
"Heya, Brendon, we were hoping that maybe you here would import an American brand of cigarettes called Pall Mall for us?"
Brendon gave Felix a strange look before shaking his head,
"Nope, sorry."
Felix frowned and Ken spoke up.
"You sure? Another guy said you should be able to..."
"Well, he lied, I don't. Sorry." He told them with a non-convincing shrug. Matt just tsked out slightly before nodding to Felix.
Felix nodded back and pulled out his wallet, reaching into it, he pulled out a fifty and laid it on the counter.
"Oh no...I dropped a fifty," Felix sarcastically mumbled as he pushed it towards the guy. "I'm sure I'd be able to forget about this fifty if only someone could tell me about a man that imports Pall Malls..."
Brendon bit his lip and then shook his head.
"I don't import American brands. They're too expensive." Brendon tried to tell them.
"Ok...Oh look I dropped another fifty...Maybe you could tell me about someone who buys Palls Malls off of you then." Felix added another fifty on the counter, Brendon opened his mouth before shutting it and shaking his head,
"No. I can't do it! Clients have to remain anonymous!"
"So you do sell Pall Malls to someone? Ok..Will this hundred change your mind?" Felix added a hundred bill on top of the other currency.
"Why? What did he do?"
"No? Fine. How about this one then?" One more hundred to the pile and finally Brendon sighed out,
"Ok...Ok...Look, I'm telling the truth here...I don't know much about the guy. He calls whenever he needs a new shipment, a carton maybe once a week or bi-weekly...He pays a lot for them. He doesn't talk to me at all he just comes in pays for his carton and leaves. I swear now please..." Brendon reached over and grabbed the money.
"When's his next shipment coming in?" Ken asked as he leaned on the counter.
"...Should be here tomorrow. He's never late, always here at opening time, noon."
"Ok, thank you. Let's go." Felix told them they nodded and waved Brendon goodbye and walked back to the uber.
"Hopefully Mark and the others get more information than we did," Matt mumbled as he opened the door and got in, the others nodded in agreement.
"No worries, we'll be back tomorrow anyway." Ken laughed.
Mark walked stiffly down the hospital hallways, mask and cap on. He already paid the guard now he just needed to talk to Benny one last time. He even had a small gift for the boy. Going into the room he paused when he saw Benny's mom sitting in a chair facing the door, one leg crossed over the other, arms crossed, with a very sour look on her face.
"...Wrong room." Mark muttered about to turn away.
"Ye stay right there Mark Fischbach. Give me one reason why I shouldn't call the cops on yer arse?" She asked standing.
"Ma!" Benny protested.
"Ye keep quiet! Well? Start talking." She demanded.
Mark slowly shut the door and sighed, taking off his mask and cap.
"Look...I just want to help find the guy. He has my friend-"
"That doesn't give ye any fookin' right to come here and harass me son!" She yelled at him, quickly Mark put his hands up.
"I know. I know what I'm doing is illegal, but, Ma'am I'm only doing this so the cops-"
"Bah! Cops...I told them me son here. About my concern, ye know what them people told me? 'Well, I'm sorry madam, but he is a teacher after all I'm sure there's nuthin' to worry about'...Fookers." She growled out as she threw her arms up in frustration.
"Ma'am...Your son escaped a man that traffics people for a living. That man has not only one of my friends, but also four other children. I want to find him...You know how useless the cops are now if you have his address-"
"Why? What are you going to do? Yer just a yertuber...YE PLAY VIDEO GAMES FOR A LIVING! What are you going to do against a man, most likely armed, who does this shite!? Huh!?" She demanded and Mark stood there for a moment,
What was he going to do? Attack the guy? No, he doesn't fight people. Ask for Jack back? Yeah, that'll go over well.
Standing there, he rubbed his upper arm before looking down.
"See! You have no plan! Ye'll just end up dead..."
"No," Mark spoke finding his voice once more. She put her hands on her hips and waiting once more. "...I don't plan on going to his home when he's there...I'll sneak in and free everyone."
"Who do you think you are? Captain America or something? This isn't a movie! You can't do that shite." She bitterly snapped at him before crossing her arms.
"Someone has to, Dammit! There are five people in need of help! If you don't give me the address then I'll find another way to obtain it. You cannot stop me from this." Mark simply put, breathing out heavily, he narrowed his eyes and focused his attention on Benny, the poor boy just sitting there, picking at his sheets.
"Anyway, I wanted to ask Benny something. Just...Does your teacher walk with a cane?" Mark asked, ignoring the mother's scoff. Benny looked at Mark, then his mom, then back to Mark.
"...Only sometimes...Like if he tried to show us a dance move...He'd normally have to walk up the stairs with it because his leg suddenly gets stiff. I don't know why."
Mark nodded and smiled, "Alright...That's all I wanted. Oh...Here. I figured you might like this." Mark said realizing he still had the gift in his hands. Handing it to Benny, the boy took it gratefully then laughed. It was a teddy bear from the gift shop, but that wasn't what made Benny laugh.
"It's a girl?" Benny asked.
"It was the only one in the shop," Mark rubbed the back of his head. "But, I did sign it, if you like that I guess. Sorry, It's not more."
"No, No, It's fine, really. Thank you. and...Be careful." Benny told him as he tucked the bear away under his arm.
"I'll do my best, you get better, Benny." Mark smiled and put his mask and cap back on. About to open the door and leave, he paused when he heard Benny's mother,
"Wait...Wait..."
Turning back around he watched as the woman took something out of her purse.
"Here...I..I don't want to hear about ye dyin' horribly, understand?" She warned Mark as she handed him a small piece of paper.
Mark gratefully took the paper and unfolded it, reading the address, Mark gave a small smile even though the mask hid his mouth.
"Thank you."
"Stay safe." She told him curtly before sitting back down in her chair, "By the way, next time ye sneak into someone's hospital room, take the fookin' cart back with ye." She added.
"Oh...right, I'll remember that next time." Mark laughed, turning around he walked out of the room, needing just a small moment to himself, Mark made a beeline for the bathroom, once inside the public bathroom, he slowly sighed out and leaned against the nearest wall. Shutting his eyes he took off the mask and cap. Sinking against the wall, he rubbed his eyes with the palm of his hands.
"God..." He breathed out, everything just falling on him like a massive weight, but he was close to Jack, so close. Sitting there, Mark stared at the wall opposite of him for a few seconds. He only looked away from the wall when the skype on his phone went off. Grabbing his phone, Mark saw that Scare was trying to call him.
Answering it, Mark looked at Scare's worried face.
"Mark! Thank god! Whatever you do don't go directly to Attinoon!" Scare yelled.
Mark sat up more fully and raised an eyebrow,
"What? Why!"
"Mark it's a goddamn trap! I reviewed all of his video's again and Jack's, as well as everything we came up with. He wants you there! That's why he took Jack!"
"That makes no sense."
"Yes, it does! He wants you! For whatever reason...Think about it...He let one kid go, he left his cigarettes in the shot knowing that would probably give him away, he had Jack personally skype you telling you not to come, classic reverse phycology. You need to listen to me, he wants you out there...THAT'S WHY HE LEFT JACK IN HIS LAST VIDEO! He knew you'd come! Mark, back down from this!" Scare yelled.
"...I can't. I'm so close-"
"IT'S A FUCKING TRAP!"
"...I gotta go."
"MARK-"
Mark hung up the skype call and quickly shut his phone down. Getting up from the floor, Mark walked out of the bathroom.
No one was going to stop him from getting to Jack, not now, not when he was so close.
Everyone met back up at the hotel, once in their room door, Felix spoke directly to a very tired Mark,
"Scare called all of us earlier. Mark if what he's saying true-"
"I don't care! Dammit! We are so fucking close! I have his address!" Mark yelled showing them the piece of paper.
"Mark, please calm down...Let's just...sleep on it? How does that sound? You're tired, I'm tired, we're all tired from jet-lag and everything that. Let's sleep we'll figure it out in the morning. I swear." Bob tried to calm an angry Mark down.
Mark breathed in and out heavily running his fingers through his hair, he growled out,
"It could be too late! Jack could be dead!" Mark tried to reason with them, Matpat spoke up,
"Not if it really is a trap. Mark. Let's rest on it...Please."
Mark looked everyone, everyone was all looking at him and finally he sighed in defeat,
"Fine. First thing tomorrow we talk about this. Let's rest up..."
Everyone else sighed out as well and quickly found their resting spots. Mark laid on the couch and looked up at the ceiling, Felix turned the lights out and slowly one by one everyone fell into sleep.
Well...
Almost everyone.
Wade slowly and stiffly got up no more than two hours later, the lights still out. Weakly and still drowsy, he moved towards the restroom, nature calling, making sure to step over Bob, he felt for the bathroom. Finding it he turned on the light, cringing a bit, he shut the door and turned away letting his eyes rest from the harshness from the bright light. Once his eyes were well enough he reopened the door and walked inside of the restroom. Doing his business, Wade sighed out and flushed the toilet once he was done. Turning he opened the door and the light flooded into the room on everyone. Instantly his blood ran cold as he looked at the empty couch.
"Mark?" He whispered hoping his friend decided to rest on the floor.
"Turn off the light..." Felix moaned.
"Mark!" Wade yelled this time, waking everyone.
"Mark!" Bob added, Felix jumped from the bed and turned on the lights and instantly everyone felt horror run through their bodies.
Mark was gone.
