"Evan? You okay?"
"Is he still in the call?"
"I think he fell asleep."
"Evan?"
Evan's eyes snapped open. He gasped for air, bracing himself for the pain of the Come Back. His hands pressed to his chest to stop the blood that oozed from his wounds.
There wasn't any blood.
There wasn't any pain.
There wasn't any gauze on his hands.
There was no red and white jacket.
He did not lay on the white polished floor of a garage.
He sat in his chair in his office, his headphones on his head, controller held limply in his hand. He was home. It had all been a dream.
"I-I'm here…" Evan stammered. "I'm here."
"Did you fall asleep or something?" Tyler laughed. His voice crackled through his headphones.
"Something like that." Evan said, relaxing into his chair.
"I told you to pinch yourself if you were falling asleep! Didn't I, Wildcat?" Brock laughed.
"I don't think that really works, Moo."
"Should we end the session here, Vanoss?" Jonathan asked. Evan had never been so happy to hear that name.
"Yeah...Sleep well everyone." Evan said and left the call. He pulled his headphones from his head and set them down on the desk with his controller. It had all been a dream. He had fallen asleep playing GTA. Of course he would have a nightmare about it. "That's what they say...If you play too much of one game…" He whispered to himself.
He sat for a long time in that chair, staring at the blank screen in front of him. Glitches weren't real. Come Backs weren't real. His friends were not around him and they weren't trying to kill him. They were all over the county, some farther than that. The Jonathan in his dream couldn't be the real Delirious.
Everything was as it should be.
Evan pushed himself away from the desk, the chair's wheels spinning on the wood floor. The sky was starting to brighten as the morning dawned over the city. Evan breathed a sigh of relief.
There was no neon.
He couldn't hear anything but the occasional sounds from the city.
Evan had never loved the silence so much before. Turning away from the window, he left the room, moving slowly down the hallway. His fingers brushed against the walls, touching everything. He wanted to make sure it was all real. He could remember his dream so clearly. It felt so real. He could remember the pain so clearly that he could still feel it. He had to put his hands to his chest again to remind himself that there wasn't a wound there.
He made his way slowly to the bathroom, the bright white light flicking on with a soft buzz. He turned the taps on, splashing cold water onto his face. Something warm trickled down his face. He opened his eyes, seeing the water run red with blood. He stood up, looked at his reflection and screamed.
A Glitch stared back at him in the mirror.
The side and back of his head had been smashed in from a serious fall and the front of his chest was covered in blood, the wound oozing blood like it was fountain. His face was covered in the blood that came from the wounds on his head. His eyes were wide and glitching aggressively. Evan screamed, falling back against the wall. The Glitch in the mirror did the exact same thing. Evan had become a Glitch without even noticing it.
Evan screamed, looking down at his chest and saw all the blood. He put his hands to his smashed head and they came away bloody, bits of flesh hanging off his fingers. His legs gave out under him and he crumpled to the floor, blood splattering onto the white polished floor where he fell.
"I'm not the Glitch… I can't be the Glitch…" Evan whispered, tears falling from his glitching eyes. He hit his head off the floor and the world spun around him. The room began to blur and faded into darkness.
Blood pooled on the white polished floor.
"Evan! Come on! Come back! Come back to me! Come on!"
"Let him Glitch!"
"Come Back...Evan! Come back!" The white garage came into focus. Jonathan's face hovered over Evan. He couldn't see his eyes through the mask but Evan knew he was crying. "Hey...Hey! You're okay. You're okay! See...The wound is gone. You're okay." Jonathan spluttered, holding Evan tightly.
"Get away from him, Jon! He's the Glitch!" Sydney's voice hurt Evan's head. He wasn't sure what was real anymore. The pain he felt was real but his home that he had just seen and the Glitch in the mirror was just as real.
"No he isn't! He came back and didn't Glitch! He's fine!" Jonathan cried. He lowered Evan down to the floor and stood up to face Sydney. She held her ground despite how terrifying Jonathan looked with blood, old and new splattered across his mask and blue hoodie.
"He should have Glitched! If he isn't the Glitch, then simply being around that monster would have turned him into a Glitch with the next wound he got! Can't you see it, Jonathan? Trust me! I'm right! Evan is a monster!" Sydney cried, still aiming the gun at Evan as he sat up shakily.
"He isn't! Put the gun down and listen to me!"
"No! You listen to me! I'm a Glitch Hunter! What are you? Nothing but a Glitch waiting to happen!"
"Please!"
"He's the Glitch! I'll show you!" Another gunshot echoed through the garage. Evan cried out in pain as he fell back onto the white floor, another wound in his chest oozing blood. He gasped in pain, tears falling from his eyes "See! He should be Glitching but he isn't!"
"Stop this! You are making him suffer! Isn't that worse?" Jonathan screamed in anger. Evan gasped for air, blood filling his airways. He choked and coughed up blood, the taste of it making him feel sick.
"J-J...J-J...Jonathan…" Evan choked out, reaching for him. He didn't notice, only continued to yell at Sydney.
"If he's suffering, he should be turning into a Glitch! Why isn't he turning into a Glitch? Why, Jonathan?" Sydney yelled. Evan couldn't breathe. Blood filled his lungs. He felt like he was drowning, the world becoming blurry. He tried to roll over in an attempt to spit the blood out but the pain was too overwhelming to move.
"Because he isn't a Glitch! He couldn't be…right?" Jonathan said quietly, looking back at Evan whose head fell back onto the floor as the world went dark.
"You believe me...don't you?"
"Don't…"
"You can't deny it. He hasn't been the person you love since that fall. You have to destroy him."
"I can't…"
"If you won't let me do it...You have to. If you care about him take him far from here to do it. The others won't have any mercy on him. I won't either."
"I thought you loved him."
"I love Evan. Not a Glitch."
Hands grabbed Evan under the arms and began to drag him along the floor. He was pulled into a car and laid down on the backseat. The sound of the car door closing hurt his ears.
"How do I do it?"
"A hit to the head. If it's quick...He won't feel a thing."
The hum of the engine was soft and soothing. Evan could see the palm trees going by the window from where he laid in the backseat. Morning had come, the bright light blinding to him as he opened his eyes. Putting his blood soaked gauze covered hands to his chest, he realized the wounds were gone, leaving only holes in his jacket and dried blood.
He didn't know how long he had been out for. His memories of what had happened to him in the garage had become faded and painful when he tried to remember them.
He turned his gaze to the front of the car, seeing Jonathan driving. His grip on the steering wheel had turned his knuckles white. He seemed nervous. Evan sat up slowly, pressing a his hand to his aching forehead.
"J-Jon?" Evan stammered. Jonathan jumped, looking back at Evan. He had kept his mask on, hiding his expression underneath.
"You're awake! How...How do you feel?" Jonathan sounded nervous, stumbling over his words. Evan didn't question it. Maybe he was just nervous about being found by the others that they had hoped to leave behind at the apartment.
"Achy…" Evan leaned his head against the seat in front of him. "I need to wash this blood off...How did you get us away from Sydney? I thought for sure that she would destroy me."
"I uh...fought her. Yeah. Pushed her back and dragged you into the car and hit the gas. I had to drive through that mob of Glitches. It was...terrifying." Jonathan stammered. Evan should have asked what was making him so nervous but he didn't.
"Where are we going?" Evan asked instead.
"You don't know?" Jonathan looked back at him then saw Evan's serious expression. "Right...Of course you don't fucking know." He sounded angry. Evan shrunk back, leaning against the back seat. "We're going to a place in Long Beach." Evan nodded slightly at Jonathan's answer, fidgeting with his bloody gauze.
His muscles ached and his clothes felt stiff with dried blood. He wanted to wash it off and change his gauze. His hands were starting to scab, the burning sensation starting to fade. He was glad that the reminder of what he had done to Brock and Marcel was starting to fade.
"Are you mad at me, Jonathan?"
"No."
"What's wrong then?"
"Stop talking for awhile...okay?" Jonathan sighed, leaning his head back against the chair. At a stoplight, he glanced back at Evan and sighed again. "Come sit up with me, okay? Just...this once...pretend that you are my Evan. I won't ask you again to pretend. Just this once. Please?" Evan nodded slowly, and climbed into the front passenger seat. He didn't say anything, only sat there awkwardly and gave Jonathan the occasional smile every so often. His presence relaxed Jonathan, his grip on the wheel relaxing. "Don't ever think that I'm mad at you, Ev. I'm mad at the universe...at everything that lead to this happening."
"We're all upset. I understand, Jon."
"Evan...You'll forgive me, right? For anything I do? You'll always forgive me, right?" Jonathan suddenly asked, his eyes wide under his mask. It looked like he was going to cry.
"O-Of course...Jon. Besides...I doubt you could do anything that would upset me that much."
The sports car came to a stop in front of a chain link fence that surrounded an old, abandoned motel. Palm trees lined the property. They got out from the car, jumping the fence and landing on the pool deck. Shattered glass from the broken windows crackled under their feet. The pool was empty but it was still painted a bright blue like the sky above. Evan looked around, hearing the faint buzz of neon lights and the sound of the traffic on the highway a few streets over.
"We found this place one night when we had gone down south once and it was late at night when we were coming back. Both of us were tired and we thought this place was still open. Till we saw the fence." Jonathan laughed, glancing back at Evan as they walked around the empty pool. "But you said that we should just jump the fence, kick down a door and crash here anyways. I said that it would be overrun with bugs but surprisingly...it wasn't. Every time that we've wanted to get away from the guys, from the major downtown of Los Santos...We came here. I wish you could remember those nights."
"I do too." Evan said, smiling sadly. Jonathan looked back at him a bit confused.
"I thought that you wanted to stay yourself...the youtuber Evan." The words sounded strange when Jonathan said them. Evan didn't answer, looking down at the empty pool. At the bottom, a puddle of dirty rainwater had formed. Evan stared down at his bloody reflection, the memories of waking up in his home only to see himself as a Glitch running through his mind. He shook his head, trying to get rid of the memories.
"What are we doing here?"
"I wanted a quiet spot. She told me to take you far away."
"Jonathan what's going on?" Evan stared at him as he stopped on the other side of the pool, looking down at the dirty water. "Jonathan!" He reached into his jacket and pulled out a gun. He moved slowly around the pool, towards Evan. He took his mask off with his free hand, dropping it to the pool deck.
"I need you to do something for me. I need you to be my Evan. I don't believe this other world bullshit anymore. Either you're Evan or you're the Glitch! Sydney is right! You should have been Glitching from all of those wounds...from the suffering you went through. If you are the Glitch...I have to destroy you! You always said that you never wanted to suffer once you became a Glitch." Jonathan sobbed. Evan stared at Jonathan with wide eyes, shaking his head.
"No...No...You said you believed me! I need you, Jonathan! I need you! I'm so scared and confused! I'm so lost and you are the only thing that seems familiar to me! Please! Don't...Don't...Just stop! Put the gun down and let's talk, okay?" Evan cried.
"No! I can't do this anymore, Evan! Either you are going to kill us all, or we've left a horrible Glitch back home and it's going to kill everyone! So the faster we do this...the better! Take this. I can't live with myself if I have to destroy you!" Jonathan shoved the gun into Evan's hand, forcing him to curl his burned hand around it. "Shoot me. Shoot me right now! If you are Evan, you'll laugh and I'll come back and it'll all be okay! If not, you Glitch me and I don't have to fucking deal with losing you anymore." Jonathan's voice caught in his throat. Tears fell from his wide eyes to the cement that sparkled in the warm sunlight.
"No! I won't do it!" Evan cried. "I need you!"
"Shoot me, Evan!"
"No!"
"Shoot me!"
"Stop this!"
"Fucking do it, Evan!"
"Stop!"
"Shoot me!"
The gunshot rang through the courtyard. The bullet had flown past Jonathan and hit the wall of the motel behind him. Jonathan stared at Evan with wide eyes, anger and fear running through him. Evan struggled to breathe, angry with himself for pulling the trigger and almost hurting the person he loved so much. He felt sick.
"I'm sorry…I can't do it."
"I thought...I thought that I could make you...you again." Jonathan sobbed. He sat down, his legs dangling over the edge of the pool. He covered his face with his hands as he sobbed. "I thought that if you did something that wasn't anything new to you...you would be you again. I want you to be you again so bad. I tried to believe you! I tried so hard! I lied to you and to myself. Sydney told me what I have to do but...But I don't know if I can do it! I keep trying to tell myself that you are you so I don't have to do it but...you aren't you anymore...No matter how much I try to tell myself otherwise. Are you the Glitch, Evan? Don't lie to me. Please."
Evan sat down beside Jonathan, setting the gun down between them. His dream of seeing himself as the Glitch ran through his mind. He could very easily be the Glitch...But he didn't feel like a monster. He still felt like himself. "Honestly...I don't know. I want to give you a yes or no answer but I can't. I feel like me, Jon. I feel like there is nothing wrong with me. Just the world is wrong." He looked at Jonathan whose eyes slowly got wider. "What does a monster feel like, Jon? Do Glitches know they are gone? Do they know they are Glitches or do they continue to try to live their normal lives? If so...And if I am the Glitch...Then maybe that is what I have been doing this whole time. Maybe I'm not from the world I think I am. Maybe I have always belonged here and I think life is normal...but I've become a monster? I don't want to hurt you, Jonathan. I don't feel a need to inflict harm on anyone. I don't want to be a monster." Jonathan couldn't stop staring at Evan. Fear seemed to make him freeze. Evan didn't notice, looking down at the dirty water and his distorted reflection. "I think this world is beautiful in it's own...disturbing way. I got to have my friends around me. I got to see a world that I normally just see through a computer screen. As odd as it all is...Nothing else seems wrong. I think...I think that I am me."
Jonathan didn't say anything. He only stared at Evan, reaching slowly for the gun between them. "Evan…" Jonathan finally said. Evan looked up at him, finally seeing the fear on his face. "Your eyes are glitching."