Chapter 18: Music to his ears
No POV change but a few hours later
I was dreading this moment. Sean wanted to play some Prop hunt with Wade and Bob and I hadn't come up with a reason to tell him no. So here we sat in my recording room, playing a game with the guys for the first time since our secret had slipped out. I had already heard Anti slip through the cords.
"Don't worry sweetheart. You'll see me again in no time." he had said, a glitchy laugh following.
I still had no idea what he meant but I was sure it was horrible and I needed to keep Sean away from whatever was going to happen. But how? If I had no idea what they were up to how could I possibly stop it?
"You can't Mark. Everything is already in motion." Dark's cold emotionless words ran through my head. I shook to erase them, gaining the attention of my friends.
"You ok there buddy?" Sean asked.
"He's probably just thinking about your dick!" came Wade's voice through my speaker.
"How'd you know?!" I shouted back, making the group laugh when I found Wade immediately after saying that and killing his prop.
"That's what you get for making fun of their love Wade!" Bob teased.
I just groaned. It had been non-stop gay jokes since we had started. And we found out that our fans had already made a name for us. Jackiplier or something. Why couldn't we just play? They used to tease us all the time, but now it was ridiculous.
"Fuck you!" Sean hissed as he beat Bob's prop to death with a crowbar. There was something different. That wasn't Sean's voice. It had a cynical note to it.
I couldn't focus. I needed to do something and I obviously needed to do it now or it was all going to be too late. I hit Wade's prop with a grenade and called it quits, the guys complaining that it was gonna be too short of a video to post but I really didn't care. I shut down skype and leaned back into my chair, the stress I had been holding back suddenly showing on my face. I groaned and closed my eyes.
"You can talk like yourself now Anti. The camera's off." I said, eyes still closed.
"Your friends are nice." He chuckled in his mechanical way
"How long has Sean been gone?" I asked, fearing the answer.
"Oh he's just been a little tied up for….ohhhh….maybe half an hour now!" Anti stretched in the chair next to me, "But he's fine so don't worry about him."
I sighed. That sentence would never make me think anything good was happening to Sean. "Can I have him back please?"
"Since you asked so nicely, no," he replied in a sing-song voice before laughing. It was like something out of a movie. He rocked as he laughed, like he was possessed. I guess that's what it was, but it gave me chills. "Dark told me I could play if I was kind to him."
"And what is kind?" I grumbled, folding my arms over my chest.
"I won't hurt him," Anti replied with a smile. His movements as he shifted in his chair were disjointed. It reminded me of the way the animatronics would twitch in FNAF. "I promised Dark."
"Why are you here, Anti? I am not in the mood. Especially after feeling what you're capable of when you were in my head."
"Awe," Anti said back. "You didn't like the fun we had?"
"You know?" I took a deep calming breath and rose to my feet. "No I didn't like it!"
"How much of it do you remember?"
My eyebrows furrowed together at the question. His smile was just a small pouting of the lips; a narrowing of the eyes and a tilting of the head. It was so subtle, it was even more infuriating for me. But the more I thought over his words, the more I realized that I didn't know the answer. I didn't remember. All I remembered was that Anti had been there. And something about talking to Dark, but I couldn't remember anything other than that.
"He took my memories," I muttered, receiving another laugh from Anti.
That made more sense. That's how I was getting these flashbacks I didn't understand. He was hiding memories from me. How many had he kept from me? How many horrible things had he found to use against me?
"You have some interesting information stored up there, Mark. I can see why he did what he did." Anti rested back in the chair and folded his hands on his stomach. "But hey. What you never know, won't hurt you." Anti looked like he was trying to hold back his laugh and only let out a snicker. But his face very suddenly became more serious. "How are you feeling?"
It was my turn to laugh. It was all I could think of to do. What a ridiculous question. "Why are you asking me that?"
"I'm worried about Dark. He's not healing from the bot that got him. Are you healing?" Anti pushed, leaning forward in his chair like Sean did with his elbows on his knees.
I gave him a confused look, my hand subconsciously going to my chest, where the burn was still present just as much as it was on my back. "It doesn't hurt as much, but I don't think it's gotten any smaller."
Anti ran his hands through his hair, shaking out the longer curls that needed a trim. He sighed, his hands coming to rest over his mouth. "Alright."
I stared at his actions, the words leaving my mouth before I could stop them. "You really do care about him, don't you?"
Anti's eyes darted back to my face, something bleak in his eyes that were oddly still both sea blue. He quickly looked back at the floor, unanswering.
"What happened to your face, Anti?" I questioned. "Sean got those scratches and he doesn't know where they came from."
"Dark scratched me," was his answer. "He turned into this monster with claws and scratched me."
"What did he look like?"
"Why?" Anti looked back up at me with a snarl on his lips. "What could you possibly-"
"He had claws. Did he have this unusually bright red eyes, and sharp teeth?" I watched Anti's face change into one of question. "He does that when he surges with power. I've only seen him like that twice before."
"With power?" Anti asked, his voice unusually small.
"Yeah. It happened once when I was in middle school and once in high school. It was when I thought I was going to completely lose myself. You will see that again, if he's planning what I believe he's planning."
"But he said-"
"Can I have Sean back now?" I blurted out. I was tired of being kind. I was tired of talking to this murderer.
His eyes narrowed again, almost as if he was going to say no again. But within a few seconds the expression changed again and a bright smile curved his mouth.
"Why are the guys so quiet Mark? Did they leave or something? Weren't we in the middle of a match?" Sean asked.
"Uh..ya." I said, trying to think up an excuse for them to leave so quickly, "But Bob said something about Mandy wanting to go to dinner or something remember?"
"Oh. I guess I never heard him say that."
"Ya. You were getting into the game haha."
"Well….now we can get into another game." Sean said, winking at me.
I gulped. As much as I'd love to do that right now, my mind was on other things. I needed to explain to Sean what I knew and what I thought was coming for us...or...at least what i remembered thinking.
"Sean...I...we need to talk."
Immediately his face fell and for a split second an eye changed from blue to green, almost as if he wasn't completely in control. But I had to take my chance to explain.
"I need to tell you about some things." I said, taking a deep breath. "So here goes nothing...I need to tell you how Dark became part of me."
"Dark? The alter ego your fan-base created? What does a made up character have to do with any of this?" Sean asked.
"Well...that's the thing. He's not exactly made up. He's a part of me."
"A part of you? What do you mean?"
"Well…"
*Beginning of a long story*
It was around the beginning of my first channel, around March 2012, when I first met him. I was gonna do a video for a new horror map so I thought it would be awesome to mess around with some fake Voodoo shit. Well. It turned out to be not so fake and kinda real. I didn't think much of it at first because I didn't believe in that crap, so I changed the lights that kept flickering, and I turned on the furnace when it got strangely cold in my apartment. I didn't believe it until I saw him in the mirror one day. He looked almost exactly like me, except his hair was slicked back, his eyes were a red color, and he wore an old tattered suit.
"Hello Mark." He said to me in a very cold voice, "It's been a long time since I last saw a face that looked like yours."
"What the...what….who are you?!" I yelled.
"I'm….an old friend of someone related to you."
"No way. I've met all of my family's friends."
"Well. You see. The friend who knew me and myself have been...dead...for many years now Mark."
"How do you know my name?"
"You called me. Therefore I know all about you."
"Wait...called you? Do you mean all that fake voodoo shit I got online?"
"Yes. You called me through that 'fake crap' and now I'm here. I've been trying to get your attention for a few days now. Do you know how much energy I'm using right now to stay here, talking to you?"
"I...What do you want?"
"I want you to let me in. I want to use your body. Just to feel what it's like to have one again."
I was taken aback by this. "What do you mean?"
"Look. I haven't had a body in a few decades. I just want to know what it's like again."
"How….how would you do that?"
"Well. If you agreed, I'd simply...possess you for a little bit."
"Possess me? Isn't that something demons do?"
"Well. I am a demon."
I just stared at my reflection for a few minutes, absorbing what had just been said to me. I was talking to a demon. A real living demon. Well...sort of living.
"Do we have a deal?"
I thought about it for only a few seconds, because I was young and didn't know what I know now. So I said yes. But under some arrangements. I told him he had to let me control him. And I made him tell me his real name. Which he's almost completely erased from my memory. But that doesn't matter. It's of no use to know his real name anyway. But I let him in. I let him use my body as he wanted. Which was a mistake. I don't know how long I was under his control and I don't remember most of it. But I remember having to fight my way back out. I had to tear and claw at him to regain control. And when I had control it wasn't complete. He could take control of me whenever he wanted for as long as he wanted. For a year this was my life. Until I read online how to trap a demon inside you. How to control him and make him do my bidding while he was still possessing me. Dark was trapped with me and there was nothing he could do about it. But there was nothing I could do to get rid of him either. He just became me.
*End of a not as long as I thought it was, story*
"And that's been my biggest mistake. I've let him stay with me for too long without caring to try and get rid of him. And now he's trying to regain full control again….I think." I finished, looking up at Sean as I did.
His blue eyes were filled with so many questions but he didn't seem to want to ask any of them. He just stared at me. I didn't know how to feel about his silence so I just stared back at him. We stared at each other until he suddenly stood up from his chair and walked out of the room. I stayed in my seat as I listened to him get further and further away until I finally heard a door closing a ways down the hall. I sighed. I knew I had to go after him but I didn't know what I would say to him. What do you say to someone after they've heard a story like the one I just told him? I sat in my chair for a few minutes longer as I thought about what I was going to say and the questions I might have to answer. I stood and started to walk down the hall in the direction I heard Sean disappear in. I walked to the one closed door and knocked on it softly.
"Sean? Are you ok?" I asked through the door.
"No. But that's ok right? After all, we're keeping secrets from each other now." He said, his voice coming from lower down on the door, as if he had his back against it and was sitting on the floor.
I slowly went down to my knees, leaning my head against the door as I got to the ground. "Sean. What's wrong?"
"You've kept this from everyone...it's like you don't trust anyone enough to tell them that he's real! You've been living with this horrible asshole for so many years and you've said nothing...you haven't even thought of getting some sort of help."
"Sean…"
"Don't! I don't want another excuse for not saying anything until now! I want the truth Mark. What does he want with me? What does he want with us? And what does he want with this stupid voice in my head!"
"Sean...I...I don't know." I said with a sigh, closing my eyes. "All I know is that he has some sort of plan for us...and he's treating it like a game."
"Then why tell me anything! If you don't know why or what he's doing why say anything about him?!"
"Because I wanted you to know. I wanted you to know the one thing about me that everyone else only saw as a spooky thing I do around Halloween. I wanted you to know all of me."
There was a long moment of silence before anyone said anything. The silence was one that hurt. Almost as much as having someone say they want nothing to do with you anymore. It hurt as much as having someone throw you aside after torturing your heart and body…
-I was being gagged. They were shoving this tube down my throat. And I didn't know why. Everything was a blur as if I was just waking up, but this wasn't right. This feeling was strange and I knew it needed to stop.
I fought against hands that restrained me, the invading continuing, shoving further into my body. It burned my throat and I had an overwhelming want to vomit, to empty everything from my stomach.
But why was this happening to me? I couldn't remember. My memories were as fuzzy as my surroundings. I could make out crying in the distance among the voices, but not much else. It must have been my mother though. It was a woman and I couldn't think of any other woman in my life that would cry over me.
There had been sirens earlier. Had I been in an accident?
N͜o͘͜,͠͡ ̨y̛̛͞o͠u̴ ͜͠f́͡ų͝c͏̶̛k̶̴̢t͏a͏͞r͠͡d̵̵, Dark's voice replied in my head.
Why was he here? I was sure that I had finally gotten rid of him. I had done everything, short of an exorcism, to be rid of him. But he didn't act like how myths said. He didn't flinch at things that had to do with religion and holy water and silver didn't burn my skin.
W̴̛͜h҉͟͏a͡͠t̷ a̴ ļ̕ǫa̴d͜ ̴ò͟f ̕s̡h̢͘͜it͟! T͏ḩ͏at͟͏ ̴͝ca͏̢̕n̴'t̨͠͞ ģe͜͠t̴͘͜ ̛͢rid̵ ͠͡o͜f̵̀͜ ̕m̨e̛.̢̡ On͜l̢͘y͝ ̀y̧͠ou̶͝ŕ̷ ̨̢d̴͡e̵̵͞a̡͏̵t̶̨h ̵͢͢w̡i̴͘͡l̶̨l pà́͝r͝͝t͡ ͝m͠͝e ́f̢̡͟ro̶m̶͜͢ ͢y͘͘o͘u͏͡. ̷
Death... death... I had taken pills. I had tried to overdose. Had I really gone that far? Had I really tried to kill myself just so that he would disappear? Had I been that desperate? I couldn't remember. God, I couldn't remember. But my mom must have found me passed out or something. I must be at the hospital.
T̕̕h҉é̢͢r̡͜e͘͢͡ ̷̨yóu͟͞͡ ̡̀g̶o.̸̨
Go away! God, go away! I didn't want this disembodied voice in my head anymore. It would be the end of me. It would kill me if medical help didn't get to me in time. But I wanted him gone. I wanted to be dead. I didn't want to do this anymore.
Y͜ou'r͘e͝ ͟ḿy ̡b҉itch.̀ ͡A͝nd we҉'͠re̡ g̢onna hav̵e ͞s̛o͟me f̀un, ͠Mar̶k͞.͘ You͜ want͡ to͘ ͡d͡ie,̧ lȩt ̛m̡e ͢h̷el͡p̷.
And I was outside myself as if I were a ghost of my own body. And the more I moved, the worse it gets. And I could hear shouting. Something was wrong. Something was worse than it had been. What was he doing to me?
"He's having a seizure," I could make out, though it almost sounded like it was fake. A robotic voice.
I could feel myself lose all motor control and slipped into the darkness, a laugh all that surrounded me. And it was like I was falling, only someone had hooked my mind onto a taffy puller somewhere far above so as I fell, my consciousness stretched and it got harder and harder to think. I knew my body was writhing, but my mind was spinning. I felt scared but mostly because it was just so hard to think and I was so alone except for the laughter. Dark's laughter that was drowning me.
I̛͏'m̀ ̶͜n͘ot̡ ́͢g͘͡ó̧i̛n̴͝g͞ ̶t̕ó ҉l̶e͢t̷̛ ̀͟ỳ͢ơu̕ ͘͢d̵͠i͏͘e͟,̛ ̕b̡̕ų̴t͏͡ ̕͝a̕r̀̕e͟ ̸́y͟͞òu̶͘ ͜h̨a̛͡v͝in̸͢g͟ f̵͠͝ư͝n̷̵ ͢ỳ͞ét?-
I don't know how I got there but I was on the floor in a fidel position, gasping for air that wasn't coming. I remembered all the feelings I had had that day. Everything was hazy and nothing made sense. Why did I remember that? What was going on? I….I suddenly had a rush of memories. Everything Dark had said to me earlier came rushing back. I could suddenly see Sean leaning next to me, shaking me softly as I slowly regained my breath and everything else came back into focus. I could hear him now too.
"Mark?! Mark are you ok? What the fuck happened?!" Sean was yelling at me. God I loved that he cared about me this much.
I sat up slowly and looked him in the eyes. My head hurt, and my stomach was turning but I needed to tell him what I remembered. What I knew.
"Sean…" I stopped when a voice screamed in my head.
'We had a deal Mark!'
And I pushed his voice away. I blocked him out. I regained enough control to keep him locked up for maybe an hour. Just enough time to tell Sean what we needed to do and what they planned.
"What is it Mark?" Sean asked, only concern in his eyes.
"I remember what they're planning."
{AN: Hi! I'm not dead! Sorry I havn't posted in a few months. But life got in the way and I wasn't able to finish this chapter until now. I hope there are still some people reading this! Hope you enjoy this one and I promise the next few chapters will be out sooner than this one was! Thanks for staying with me if you're still here!}