Jack couldn't believe what he had seen, let alone what he had just heard. The words rang in his ear, even after the room had fallen into dead silence. He held his breath, the shock of what was in front of him stealing the air from his lungs. His mind rejected the words he just heard. Had he even really heard them? They couldn't be true. This must be-
"This is a trick," Jack said, his words rushing out. The only answer was a chuckle.
"A trick?" Vlad Masters's grin widened. Hands behind his back, he strolled closer to Jack, eyes still glowing a frightening red. Jack felt the urge to step away from the burning stare, but was immobilized by the metal restraints that kept him in place, helplessly standing to face his best friend.
"A trick. Ghosts are liars. You're possessing Vlad! You can't be him. Get out of my best friend, you ecto scum," Jack said with forced bravado, there were no weapons or tools to back up his demands. He once more tried to break out of the metal cuffs around his arms and legs. To no avail.
"You really are dense. There is no one in here but me," Vlad took another step closer. Jack tried to lean away, but could barely move an inch. Vlad tilted his head, smirking as Jack flinched.
"The only trick was you believing that I would forgive you after all these years. That after twenty years, we could just pretend that nothing happened. That you didn't ruin my life," Vlad continued, grin fading with every word. His eyes glowed an even a brighter red.
"Vladdie, I never-"
"Visited while I was in the hospital? While I was dying from your incompetence? Never thought to check on me? Never considered me when you married Maddie, when you knew I had feelings for her?" Vlad asked, carefully watching Jack's reaction to each word. The bigger man couldn't help but flinch as if he had been slapped. "The things that you never did, Jack Fenton, could write a book. The only 'never' I care about now is Never Again ."
With that, Vlad stepped away, back turned to Jack. Jack felt a trickle of fear settle in his gut. The sharp clack of Vlad's shoes against the metal floor seemed abnormally loud as he walked away. Like thick nails hammered into a coffin.
"Wh-what are you doing?" Jack stuttered. Vlad did not answer, nor show signs of even hearing the larger man's question. He typed on a large computer, his back completely toward Jack. Jack gulped and sweat started to bead on his brow as he listened to the click of the keys. The methodical sound caused Jack to shiver.
"V-vlad, talk to me. I'm sorry everything happened this way, but I'm here now. We can fix this. We can find a cure," Jack squirmed against the metal. He startled when the harsh squeal of metal scraping against metal sounded overhead. He couldn't see into the darkness, but he heard the screeching noise come closer through the shadows. He swallowed convulsively. "Vlad, just talk to me! I'm sorry."
"You're not sorry. Sorry would mean that you had the self-awareness to realize you did something wrong," Vlad tapped a key, before turning toward Jack. Jack could only make out the glowing red eyes, Vlad's features skewed by the dull glow of the computer screen. Jack shuddered, imagining he could feel the heat of the hatred in those inhuman eyes. A hatred that seemed to burn against his very soul. "No, you're not sorry. You're just afraid. "
Jack's breath sped up as he continued his struggle against his restraints. An electric whirring sound filled the room. Jack's eyes locked onto a pinprick of growing green light. It seemed to twist in the air, pulsing as it grew. From the size of a dime, to a quarter, to a tennis ball. His heart hammered in his chest as the green energy grew. The pulse of the machine sped faster, small bursts of electricity zipped through the air at random intervals, causing the air to taste of metal and ozone. The light grew larger, spinning and twirling in an unstable elliptical. Jack gasped for air frantically, his hands shaking and teeth painfully chattering. The light grew more lopsided and unstable. A low hum grew rapidly in pitch until it hit a note so high Jack's ears ached from the noise. The soft hum of the machine transformed into a monstrous roar. Jack tried desperately to move away, the heat of the energy-the ectoplasm started to burn his cheeks, like standing too long near an open oven.
"Vlad, please! I have a family. I have kids!" Jack begged, trying to look past the growing energy. He saw nothing but two dots of red.
The energy seemed to break free of whatever tethered it in place. Jack screamed as the ectoplasm rushed into his exposed face. He imagined this is what it would feel like to dip his head into molten lava, the burn sticking to his flesh. He writhed as he felt the charged energy sear off his skin, the dying flesh seemed to slough from the muscles of his cheek in great chunks. His eyes boiled in their sockets, the goo trying to pour down his cheeks before they sizzled away from the intense heat. A mockery of tears he wished to shed. Jack continued to scream, even as his tongue fried in his mouth, the taste of blood and charr choking him as the melted muscle slid down his throat. Still Jack screamed and begged wordlessly for Vlad to stop, even as the ligament in his left cheek gave out and his jaw detached, hanging by sizzling strings of meat. He thrashed, trying to get away from the heat, the pain, the horror of the feeling that went beyond physical. The knowledge that he wasn't the first to experience such agony. The world seemed to twist in impossible shapes, nothing but the horrible green.
Suddenly the heat was gone and he felt a jarring thump against the side of his head. He could finally focus on something other than pain. Other than the insensate revelation that pain was all there was. And yet now. He felt nothing, nothing but deep-seated wrongness and the memory of the trauma. Not cold, nor pain. He knew that he had no eyes, but somehow he could see. See even clearer in the dark lab than before.
The green light was above him, focused in a single line. It was the only thing he could focus on, the brightness doing nothing to illuminate the room. How was he on the floor? Was he able to free himself? He couldn't move. He couldn't even speak. How did this happen? What is happening?
The green light began to fade, dissolving away far quicker that Jack would have assumed. And as it faded, Jack felt a bone-deep horror.
There he stood, still attached in the cuffs, unmoving and slumped against his restraints. His hazmat suit torn and burned, the rubber melting to his skin. The material barely held his left shoulder in place, the joint having given out as the intense heat sheared off the skin and muscle, the arm nearly dragging on the ground with a bit of blackened bone sticking out where it was once attached.. But what sent him into mental hysterics was further up.
All that remained was the blackened bone of his neck, each vertebrae precariously balanced. As he watched, the top two toppled to the ground with wooden clacks. His head was completely gone.
Once more, he heard the tell-tale sound of Vlad's shoes clicking against the metallic floor. Jack's soul trembled as the sound came closer.
Those two glowing eyes stared down at him with satisfaction. Jack could do nothing as one finely polished shoe lifted and settled just over where his eye should be.
He felt a crack.