Part Three of the Switch AU
A JSE Fanfic
[This is part of an ongoing fic series I started in April 2019. Strange things are happening to the group, first to Marvin and then Jackie. What—or who—is behind this?]
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JJ closed the front door behind him, immediately leaning against it and closing his eyes. Home again, home again. He’d been out most of the day, and he hated it. Sure, days like these were necessary, arranging shows and venues and meeting with various stage managers and agents, but they drained his energy quickly. Not to mention matters had been complicated when he originally left without a jacket since it was unusually warm when he left, and then a cold front had moved in and made everything worse by the time he’d driven home in the evening. And now, he really just wanted to take a nap.

“Marvin? I’m home.” What had been intended to be a call turned into a semi-loud awkward squeak. JJ cleared his throat and tried again. “Marvin? I’m home!”

No answer. That was…odd. The walls of the town house were not thick; even if Marvin was on the second floor, he should’ve at least been able to hear his voice, if not his words. JJ frowned. “Hey Marvin? Are you—well, I don’t know what you’d be doing that would be loud enough to not hear me. Unless you’ve finally stolen my headphones.”

He poked his head into the living room, which was where Marvin was usually sitting, in his claimed chair next to the fireplace. But it was empty. So were the kitchen and the dining room. He couldn’t have gone to bed already, could he? JJ decided it would be best to check. He climbed up the narrow stairs to the second floor, which was where the two bedrooms and the study were located.

The door to Marvin’s room was slightly ajar. JJ knocked on it anyway. “Marv? You’re in there, right?” There wasn’t even a “go away” in response. Now fully concerned, JJ pushed open the door wide enough to look inside. The room was dark, but from what he could see, there wasn’t any lump on the bed that would indicate Marvin might be asleep. So, JJ eased the door open further and flipped on the light switch by the door.

Marvin’s room was empty. And it looked fairly normal. Bed sloppily made, a stack of books on the desk in the corner. But there was one thing odd. Marvin’s jacket was on the floor.

JJ stared at it for a moment. Marvin never took off his jacket. Or, he did, but only when he was having his version of a lazy day. And when he took it off, he always hung it up in a closet or on a coat rack. In fact, JJ couldn’t remember ever seeing any of Marvin’s clothes just lying on the floor. The sight was setting off tiny alarm bells in his head.

Something must have happened. But what? And where was Marvin? If he’d gone somewhere, he would’ve left a note. Jameson darted into the room and picked up the jacket. There was one way to tell where Marvin had gone. Jameson closed his eyes and muttered something under his breath. “Vrite ai’ftó pa gráf tikye edu.” When he opened his eyes again, they briefly flashed a brighter blue before fading back to their normal shade. And now he could see a faint trail of blue, mixed with strands of green, leading out the door and down the hall.

Holding the jacket close, Jameson followed the trail back downstairs and out the front door. If the tracking spell was to be believed, that meant Marvin was outside, when it was dusk, and in the cold. In fact, JJ could see small flakes falling through the window. Marvin was outside, in the dark, when it was snowing, in a city he had admitted several times he still wasn’t entirely sure how to navigate on his own. Biting back the rising surge of fear, Jameson grabbed his coat and ran out the front door. The trail continued through the streets of the city, visible only to his eyes. Hopefully Marvin hadn’t gone far. And hopefully, he’d left for a harmless reason.

No such luck on the first frontier. It was a long walk, following the trail, and Jameson was starting to go beyond worry and into panic. By now, the trail had led him into one of the more run-down sections of the city, mainly composed of shabby apartment buildings. Jameson kept looking over his shoulder for trouble. But the trail was getting steadily brighter, more green entwined with the blue. That meant he was getting close.

The trail was mostly green by the time JJ rounded a corner and saw him. Marvin was sitting cross-legged on the sidewalk, leaning against the graffitied wall of one of the buildings. He was wearing his green vest over a white dress shirt, but even with the double layers and long sleeves, he was shivering slightly. His cane was on the ground some ways away, out of arm’s reach.

“Marvin!” JJ shouted, running the rest of the way. “Marvin, what on earth are you doing out here? It’s dark and cold and—and dangerous! You better have a good reason.”

Marvin didn’t answer. Didn’t even look up by the time JJ was standing next to him. He just kept facing ahead, staring at nothing.

“Are…are you okay?” JJ knelt on the sidewalk next to him. “Hello? Earth to Marvin?” He waved his hand over Marvin’s glassy eyes, with no response. “Are…are you cold or anything? I brought your jacket. Well, I had to, the spell doesn’t work without something belonging to the seeked. Here.” He draped the jacket over Marvin’s shoulders, but still got nothing. After a moment of slight hesitation, JJ pressed his finger to Marvin’s neck. His pulse was steady. So what was wrong? Was this some side effect of being out in the cold for too long? He didn’t know, he wasn’t a doctor.

A doctor! Jameson reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He opened his contacts list and typed out a quick message. He wasn’t sure how long it would be before Jackie checked his texts, but it better be soon. He put the phone back in his pocket, then reached forward and shook Marvin gently. “Marv. Please. Y-you’re starting to scare me.”

He blinked. Once, and slowly, but it was something. Jameson exhaled slowly. “I-I know you’re in there. Just—just say something? Please?” Apparently the blink was all Marvin had planned to do. Jameson swallowed a whimper. This was scary. He didn’t know what was happening, if Marvin could hear him, or what he could do about it. Maybe—maybe if he shocked Marvin enough, he’d snap out of it? How?

After a moment more of thought, Jameson decided on something. He wasn’t super skilled at these types of spells, but it would work in this chilly environment. “Ignesa,” he whispered, pushing his magic out through the words into a shape it wasn’t used to being in. His hands, holding Marvin’s upper arms, burst into blue flame that didn’t burn, but still felt close to hot enough to.

There was a sharp yell, and JJ found he was being pushed away. “Wh-what the hell, Jems?!” Marvin, eyes no longer glassy, was furiously rubbing his arms where the fire had touched. “I t’ought you did water tricks!”

“Marvin!” JJ lunged forward and wrapped him in a tight squeeze. “I was so worried!”

“W-worried? ‘Bout what?” After a moment, Marvin pulled away, looking up and down the city street. “Where…where are we?”

“According to the last street sign I passed, we’re on Somerset Road. This…isn’t exactly the best part of town, Marv. What are you doing out here?”

“I…I don’t know.” The confusion on Marvin’s face was mixing with a tinge of fear. “I was goin’ to take a nap, wait for you t’come home. But then…I don’ know. Me head went all fuzzy, and I…left. Why did I leave?” He looked around once more. “I r’member walkin’, but I don’ r’member how I got here.”

JJ didn’t know how to respond, but he didn’t have to. The phone in his pocket buzzed, and he hurriedly pulled it out. Jackie had replied, "What do you mean somethings wrong with marvin? Where are you? What happened?"

“Hang on a second, I texted Jackie about this, I need to explain what happened,” JJ said, already typing.

“Texted him ‘bout what?” Marvin was trying hard to hide the frantic note in his voice.

JJ looked up. “Marvin. When I got here, you were sitting on the ground, like you are now, and you weren’t responding when I asked you to. You were shivering, but you had a steady pulse, but you didn’t seem quite…here.”

Marvin blinked. “I…I sorta r’member you gettin’ here, tryin’ t’talk to me. But…I couldn’…it was like I wasn’ in my body…” He shivered, and pulled the jacket closer. “’s cold.”

“I know it is,” JJ said reassuringly. “If you want, I can give you my coat? You’ve been out here longer.”

“No, ‘m…’m fine.”

And that was the sign JJ needed. He finished the text to Jackie, then pulled off his coat and gave it to Marvin, who didn’t say anything and just let him wrap it around him. “Alright. We’re going to go home now. I walked here, do you think you can walk back?”

Marvin nodded quietly, and let himself be pulled to his feet. JJ picked up the cane from where it had fallen on the ground and handed it to him. As the two of them started walking, JJ’s phone buzzed again, and he checked the new message from Jackie. “Huh. He says you might have been dissociating.”

“I don’…know what t’at means,” Marvin admitted.

“It means…well, it’s like what you said, actually. It’s when you feel you’re not entirely connected to something, and that can be a task, the world around you, or even your own body. I think in extreme cases, the world can seem a bit…ah, what’s a good word? Out of sorts? Like an illusion? Distorted? Or—”

Marvin suddenly grabbed Jameson’s arm, looking at him with wide eyes. “I saw a man who cried red.”

Jameson could only stare. “Marvin? What—what does that mean?”

“I don’ know,” Marvin said, eyes still unusually wide. “But I just—I saw somet’ing like that. I just r’membered, and t’at…was the best way I could say it.”

“That’s…a bit concerning,” JJ said slowly. “Do you…want me to tell someone about that?”

“No!” Marvin suddenly shrieked. Then he looked around, and said in a normal voice, “No. I don’ know why but it—it’s a bad idea. I know it.”

JJ sighed. “Alright, if you insist. But if it happens again, you might want to consider—” He stopped.

“…Jems?” Marvin said cautiously.

“I don’t feel good,” Jameson whispered. Suddenly, he could feel his heart racing in his chest, pounding so hard he could feel it in his throat. Despite being in the snow fall without a coat, he was hot. And he couldn’t breathe. He was trying, but every effort was reduced to short gasps.

“Jameson!” Marvin yelled. “What’s happenin’?! Tell me!”

“I don’t—I-I don’t—” His legs were trembling. He stumbled, ending up falling against Marvin, who stumbled in turn but managed to hold him. “I-I-I—” Talking was hard, there wasn’t enough air in his lungs to fuel it, so he focused on breathing. Hyperventilating, more like, everything becoming a wheeze. Tears were prickling at his eyes.

“Jameson, you have t’breathe!” Marvin said. “D’you want me to sit you down?” He looked around. “I-I—somet’ing’s wrong, Jems. I-I feel…like…” He couldn’t finish the sentence. “There’s someone…”

BANG!

The sound was enough to startle Marvin off balance, and both he and Jameson toppled to the ground. Marvin flipped his cane in his hand into a defensive position, covering Jameson with it while still holding him. His eyes darted around, landing on a silhouette. He glared in its general direction. “Stay back!” He growled.

The silhouette stepped forward into the flickering light of a street lamp. “Really? That’s your plan? What were you gonna do against this thing?” He shook the handgun he was holding in Marvin’s direction.

Marvin relaxed, but only slightly. “You, huh? What’re you doin’ here?”

“I live here,” Anti said, walking forward. “What are you doing here?”

“…I don’ know,” Marvin grumbled. He was getting tired of saying that.

Anti sighed. “Whatever. What’s up with your friend, there?”

“I-I-I’m fine,” Jameson wheezed. “I’m f-fine, just—I think I had a-a-an anxiety attack.”

“Actually, that would be a panic attack if it came on quickly, which I’m guessing it did.” Anti pulled open his jacket, holstering the handgun in the shoulder holster hidden underneath. “And I don’t blame you. That guy looked freaky.”

“Wh-what guy?” JJ asked, looking up.

“The…the guy that was standing right in front of you?” Anti asked, raising an eyebrow. “Okay, not right in front of you, but pretty close. He scurried away after I fired.”

“You shot somebody?” Marvin asked incredulously.

“No, I shot at somebody. Huge difference.” Anti laughed. “But yeah, he’s gone now. Neither of you noticed him?”

Marvin slowly shook his head.

“Bit-bit more important th-things going on,” Jameson gasped, pulling away from Marvin.

“Uhh…yeah, what-fucking-ever. You two are the blindest bitches I’ve ever met.” Anti rolled his mismatched eyes.

Marvin scowled, using the cane to push himself to his feet and pulling JJ up after him. “So…what did he look like? T’is man y’saw.”

“He looked…” Anti trailed off. He looked up into the sky. “Um. He looked…I dunno, like a guy. Skinny. He had a…a hat, I think?”

“Brilliant,” Marvin drawled.

“Shut up, it was dark.”

“W-well…” JJ took a deep breath, finally getting his breathing back to normal. “Thank you for getting rid of him, I guess.”

“Sure.” Anti stuck his hands in his pockets, looking back at the two of them. “So, do I need to text Jackie back and tell him you’re alright or are you gonna do that yourself?”

“He texted you?” JJ asked.

“Yeah, he was freaking out, apparently something was wrong and, y’know, I live in the area, so.” Anti shrugged.

JJ looked around. “You live…here?” The brick buildings were dirty, there was trash in the streets, and the installed street lamps were either broken or breaking.

“Yes. And you’re not gonna see where exactly, so don’t ask.” Anti glared at Jameson, who didn’t look away. “Should I text him?”

“I’ll do it,” JJ assured him. “You can go back home if you’d like, we’re just going to walk back. And again, thank you.”

“…yeah, uh. Yeah. No problem.” Anti backed away. “You two stay safe, okay?” And without a goodbye, he turned and walked back down the street.

Marvin stared after him, eyes narrow. “I t’ought you said guns were ‘gainst the law.”

“They are, but…maybe he has a good reason. Let’s not jump to conclusions.” JJ had his phone out, already texting Jackie like he said. “You’re still good to walk?”

“Yep. Let’s go.”

“Alright. But,” JJ looked up, “once we’re home, we need to talk about what happened in more detail. Promise?”

Marvin hesitated, then nodded. “I promise. Now, let’s go.”

As they started on the way back home, Marvin glanced over his shoulder once more. Why did it feel like they were being watched?
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It was a week later, and Jackie was just wrapping up his shift at the hospital. His mind was on the incident. He’d barely gotten home after spending a night with Rama, and he checked the messages he missed to see one from Jameson, saying there was an emergency and something was wrong with Marvin. The next few minutes had been a storm of worry. He wasn’t about to let someone get hurt! Especially not a new friend! Luckily, it had all worked out, though Marvin and Jameson were being strangely secretive about the whole thing. Maybe they just wanted to move on from it.

“Hey, Parker.”

Jackie looked up from the clipboard of paperwork he was supposed to be filling out to see Dr. Green, one of his colleagues, peeking out from around the corner of the hall. “Yeah?” he asked. “I’m almost off shift, is it an emergency?”

“There’s a patient in 234-C who wants to see you,” Green explained.

Jackie frowned. He wasn’t attending anyone in a room 234. But the C designation meant the children’s ward, which he was the assistant head of. So maybe the patient just wanted to see someone high up. Surprisingly, not the first time that’s happened. “Alright,” he said, putting the clipboard and pen down on the nearest flat surface. “Hey, if a guy comes in who looks basically exactly like me, but with shorter hair, no glasses, and probably wearing a sweater, tell him where I am, okay?”

“Will do. Your brother?”

Jackie huffed, hiding a small smile. “Surprisingly, no. But he might as well be at this point. His name’s Henrik, I’m planning on seeing a movie with him after my shift. Tell him where I am, and, uh, don’t try to stop him if he attempts to get past you and into the hospital. It’ll just waste everyone’s time since he can get past you anyway.”

“Jeez. Well, alright.” Green waved at Jackie as he walked past. “Remember, 234-C!”

“I got it, dude!”

The rooms in the children’s ward were smaller, but painted more colorfully than the plain white of the other wards. And the kids who unfortunately had to stay there usually had their own rooms, with the option of asking for a roommate (and a bigger room) if they got lonely. The nurse at the nursing station greeted him familiarly as he took the elevator from the ground floor to the next floor up. 234 was one of the outer rooms, situated near the back of the building.

Jackie entered, his first glance going to the bed. Which was, to his surprise, empty. He glanced around the room. There wasn’t a kid in here. But there was a man, standing at the window. Actually, leaning out of the window. And that shouldn’t be possible. All the wards of the hospital had windows that could slide open, but they also had screens in place to keep anyone from reaching out. Just in case. “Uh, hello?” Jackie asked.

The man turned around. He was wearing gray all over. Shirt, pants, trainers, cap, basically all gray. Even his skin and hair seemed to have a grayish tint, obviously not healthy. Jackie tried to catch the man’s eye, but…his face kept slipping away. It was a bit…odd. Maybe he was tired after his shift? God, he hoped that wasn’t the case. He didn’t want to fall asleep in the theater.

“Hello!” The man said, grinning. “You’re one of the doctors here?”

“Uh, yeah, I’m Dr. Parker. Most people just call me Jackie, though.” Jackie shifted his weight. “You didn’t…ask for me, did you?”

“Actually, I did. I know I don’t know you, but I overheard some of the patients talking about how nice you are.”

“So…you’re not actually a patient here?” Jackie laughed quietly. “I mean, of course you’re not here, this is the kids’ ward. Which is…kinda confusing about why you’re in this room, specifically.”

“I like kids,” the man said simply. “They’re nice. Cute. Little bundles of happiness.” He backed up a bit, leaning backwards out the open window.

“Whoa, hey.” Jackie took a few steps forward into the room. “Be careful. You could fall.”

“So? It’s not high enough to kill me.”

“Yeah, but you could still get hurt!” Jackie took another step forward. The man wasn’t leaning out any more, but he wasn’t showing any sign of getting entirely back inside either. “Maybe even permanently, if you’re unlucky enough.”

“Good to know.”

Jackie didn’t know what to do. This guy didn’t really sound overly concerned with the threat of injury. Maybe it was time to change the subject. “Well. Anyway…” he said tentatively. “You…wanted to talk to me? Why?”

“Oh yes.” The man smiled. “Like I said, I heard you’re really nice. Everyone here seems to love you. Except a few of the staff who are upset that you’re not ‘professional.’ I dunno what they’re talking about. I like how you dress.”

“Uh, thanks.”

The man stopped leaning out the window, and Jackie breathed a sigh of relief. Which turned out to be short-lived, as the man then hopped up onto the window sill, sitting on a precarious balance between inside and outside.

“What are you doing?!” Jackie half-ran towards the window, quickly closing the distance between him and the man, until he was within arm’s length. “Are you crazy?! Did you lose your mind?!”

“/I lost it long ago./”

“Wh-what?” Something had been…off about the man’s voice that time. It was like…Jackie couldn’t quite grasp it, as the tone and pitch slipped out of his mind. In fact…he didn’t remember what the man’s voice sounded like at all. Even though he’d been just listening to him talk. “What did you say?”

“/It’s not important./” The man shrugged. “/But I still haven’t answered your question!/ Why did I want to talk to you? /Well./” The man grabbed the edges of the window, leaning even farther back. Jackie half-reached out, afraid he might fall if he tried to grab him. “/I’ve been really lonely. /Anyone I talk to eventually goes away, you know. /Even after I try to make new friends. /And I’m thinking that maybe nobody cares to stay for long./ But then I started hanging out here! /And Jackie, you sounded perfect!/ You’re so kind, and persistent, and actually, really care./ And you’re able to befriend anyone./ Even someone who clearly doesn’t trust you with anything, not even his real name./”

Jackie wondered for a brief second how this guy knew about his friends, especially Anti, who didn’t come around the hospital too much. But the thought slipped away, not quite registering enough to cause alarm. “Thanks, I guess. And I’m sorry you’re…you’re going through this. Is there anything I can do to help?”

“/I thought you’d never ask!/” The man smiled. Or…had he always had that grin? “/And yeah, there is something you can do./ I want you to be my friend, Jackie. /You seem cool./”

“You want to be friends?” Jackie blinked. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion, even his thoughts. “But…I don’t know you that well.”

“/We can get to know each other. /Or I could, you know…/” He leaned backwards and let go of the window. Just for a split second before latching on again, but that split second had been enough for him to quite nearly fall out of the window.

“No!” Jackie had lunged forward the moment the man let go, only to stop short when he realized he was okay. Fuck this, he couldn’t have someone get hurt if he could do anything about it. “Don’t do that, you’re right. We can, like, hang out or something. I’m sure we can become friends quickly.”

The man’s smile widened, and he righted himself into a sitting position. Jackie realized he was standing a lot closer to him that he had been just a second ago. But he couldn’t find the thought to take a step back. “/That’s great! Jackie, you have no idea how happy I am to hear that./” He grabbed the front of Jackie’s hoodie. Jackie registered this fact dully, and wasn’t able to find a reason to care about it. “/We can start now./”

“I…I think I had plans,” Jackie mumbled.

“/Really?/ What? /Can you tell me?/”

Jackie scanned his mind, but he didn’t find anything. Just…gray fog. “I can’t remember. Guess it wasn’t that important. I feel kinda…fuzzy.”

“/That’s okay, we all do sometimes./ It’ll go away./”

“Really?”

“/No. /But it’ll get less. /And you can still come with me./”

“I…I can?”

“/Uh-huh./ C’mon/.”

He was leaning backwards again. Wasn’t there something wrong with that? Jackie couldn’t remember. But he was still holding onto him by the front of the hoodie, so as he leaned, Jackie leaned with him—

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”

Jackie jerked backwards. He knew that voice! That was an important voice! Then he was jerked forward again as the man pulled, and all of a sudden there was a hand there, prying at the man’s fingers until Jackie’s hoodie slipped away. The man vanished backwards, and Jackie was yanked away.

“Jackie! Jackie, you fucking moron, look at me!”

Someone slapped him. That cleared up a lot of the fog, but Jackie still had to shake his head a bit and blink several times to get rid of it completely. He looked at who hit him. “Vol—sorry, I mean Henrik? What’s going on?”

Schneep was staring intently at Jackie. He was wearing a gray sweater with a blue scarf, one of his favorite outfits for when he wasn’t busy vigilante-ing. “What’s going on?” he repeated. “What’s going on?!”

“Yes, that’s what I—don’t do that again!” Jackie caught Schneep’s hand by the wrist just before the hand made contact with his still-stinging face. “I came in here…because there was a patient who wanted to see me, but there’s no kid in this room, it was just a guy, and he was at the window, and I thought he was gonna jump—” His eyes widened, and he spun around. The man wasn’t in the window anymore. “Shit, he fell! He really fell! Oh my god!”

Jackie started forward, ready to look out the window at the damage, but Schneep caught him and held him back. “That was no ‘guy!’”

“Oh yeah? What else could it be?”

“I do not know!” Schneep yelled. “A fucking monster!”

“A fucking what?” Jackie asked, bewildered.

“A monster, Jackie!” Schneep grabbed his friend by the shoulders, staring him in the face. “That thing had—had black blood eyes, and sharp dead nails, and it was smiling too much for being about to fall!”

“What?!” Jackie wrenched out of Schneep’s grip and took a few steps back. “No no no, you’re gonna have to explain more.”

Schneep took a few deep breaths, before continuing on, calmer now. “It was very gray, you see. And it looked like the shape of a man, but then it had sharp nails, and its arms looked dead, black from the elbow down! And its eyes were black, too, completely black! And they were bleeding! And the smile! Jackie, it was too happy that it was about to pull you out of the window.”

Jackie stared at him for a moment more. “Schneep. Henrik. Volt. Are you off your meds?”

“No, I am not!” Schneep insisted. “I still have the compartment thing you sent me, I use it.”

“Are you sure?” Jackie asked gently.

Schneep threw his arms into the air. “Fine! Check down there, out the window! See for yourself!”

“Thank you.” Jackie turned and strode over to the window. After a moment of hesitation, he peered downwards, only to receive a shock. “There’s…nobody there.” The pavement outside the window was empty, except for a red stain that wasn’t there before. A small splatter that, he estimated, was what it might look like if someone hit their head on the pavement too hard. But if someone did do that, then they wouldn’t be able to just walk away. He turned to look at Schneep. “There’s…no way someone wouldn’t still be there.”

“I am telling you, it was not a someone, it was a creature,” Schneep insisted. “I…I don’t remember much about it aside from what I have already told you. It was like a…I do not remember the word, the sort of-of fake seeing?”

“Illusion?”

“No, well yes, but I am thinking specifics. I think it has to do with deserts.”

“Mirage?”

“Yes!” Schneep said triumphantly. “But what I told you, that was very real. It is the details I do not remember.”

“I mean…” Jackie looked back out the window. “Maybe…” He recalled the man’s voice. Or rather, he tried to, and failed to remember anything beyond the words said. There was a sort of vague sense of tone, but not much else. And he couldn’t picture the man’s face, either. And the way his head had suddenly gone fuzzy, full of gray fog… “We can talk more about this later,” he said, sliding the window shut. “We’re gonna be late for the movie, probably.”

“Oh yes!” Schneep’s eyes lit up. “I forgot! Are you excited?”

Jackie chuckled. “A little. But hey, it’s gonna be with you, so it’s definitely gonna be exciting.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“You know exactly what I mean,” Jackie grinned. “I just need to officially clock out and drop my coat off in the office, then we can go.”

“I will walk you there, of course,” Schneep said matter-of-factly.

“Thanks, Volt. I’d appreciate it. I feel a little…” Jackie glanced back at the window. “…uneasy, all of a sudden.”
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Night fell on the city eventually. And someone was sitting on the rooftop of a run-down home in the suburbs. His legs were hanging off the edge, swinging. People wouldn’t see him. Nobody ever came close to this house, and even if they did, they would forget all about him the moment they looked away.

He was smiling. He always was, but this one was real.

He’d almost got two in a week. That was a good record. Sure, two others had come in and ruined everything, and there was that third one he didn’t know what to do with, but you had to look on the bright side! You had to keep smiling. And the ideas he was getting were more than enough reason to smile.

Part Seventeen of the PW Timeline
A JSE Fanfic
[This is part of a complete series I wrote from July 2019 to July of 2022. Chase and Marvin panic after finding out JJ is missing, but try to go on anyway. Meanwhile, JJ is reunited with Jackie under... less than ideal circumstances.]
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“Good night! I’ll see you later!” Chase stood on his front door and waved as the car pulled away from the side of the road. In the windows, a pair of small faces pressed up against the glass and waved back. Chase kept at it even as the car drove down the street, right up until the moment it disappeared around a corner. At which point he dropped his hand and turned around to head inside, smiling softly to himself. Halloween wasn’t his favorite holiday, but this? This was a good holiday.

He turned on the front room lights and was about to sit down when his phone vibrated in his pocket. Quickly, he dug it out to see a text from Marvin: "Hey call me now please!"

Perfect timing. Once he got settled in, he was planning on calling Marvin anyway, to tell him the good news. He guessed he could do it now. Quickly navigating to his contacts, he called Marvin’s number.

The other end was picked up on the first ring. “Chase!” Marvin said.

“Hi Marv. Are you out of court by now? You better be, it’s late.” He glanced out the window at the twilight sky. They ended up only going trick-or-treating for an hour, but the kids were still young and Stacy was worried, so it was fine. They’d go longer next time. “How’d it go?”

“Good, but Chase, there’s a thing—”

“So you won?”

“Yeah, that’s what I meant, but Chase!” Wait a second… Marvin sounded… frantic. “Have you seen JJ today?”

“Huh? No, not yet. I was gonna go over later. I was actually thinking about asking you if you’d seen him today. I expected you to rush right over after you got out.”

“I wanted to stop by home and pick up his present first,” Marvin explained. “So I did, and I went to his flat, but he’s not here.”

“That’s not too weird, is it?” Chase asked, wandering over to sit on the sofa. “Maybe he went out for dinner or something, it is his birthday, after all.”

“Maybe, but he would’ve told us, right? He knew that we were going to stop by.” Chase could hear the sound of Marvin’s nervous footsteps on a hardwood floor. “I’m still at his place, and the only thing that’s different is there’s these weird cupcakes on the counter. So maybe he did go out, but he has to have been here since then to drop them off, if that’s the case. I texted him a couple times, but he hasn’t answered any of them! There’s not even the little ‘Seen’ message popping up.”

“Whoa, Marvin, calm down a bit,” Chase said gently. “He’s probably just…maybe his phone is out of battery?”

“I don’t think so. He likes to keep it fully charged. Even has one of those portable battery things. Chase, it’s really weird that he’s not here,” Marvin insisted.

“Well, yeah, but there has to be an innocent explanation, right?” Chase wasn’t too sure himself, but he had to get Marvin to stop freaking out. He could hear faint thumping sounds on the other end now. “Are you hitting yourself? Marv, be careful, that could bruise.”

“R-right.” The thumping sounds changed, now more like knocking on a wall. Marvin’s breathing was shaky. “Should we call the police? I really don’t think he’d be gone, especially not today.”

“You can call them if you’re sure. Or I can, if you don’t want to talk.”

“Right. Right. I-I’ll text him one more time, just in case.”

There were a few moments of silence as Marvin took his phone away from his ear and started texting. Chase waited patiently, slightly amazed that Marvin’s phone could stay on a call while he needed to use it. He must have a more advanced model.

“Wha…?” Marvin made a small, confused sound. Then, after a slight pause: “Chase, his phone is here. JJ’s phone is HERE.”

“Well, no wonder he hasn’t been answering texts, then,” Chase said, trying to sound lighthearted.

“No no no, Chase, he wouldn’t leave his phone here if he was going out! He uses that text-to-speech app for people who don’t know BSL. A-and I can see his usual notepad on the coffee table, he didn’t take that either. He wouldn’t risk leaving both of those at home when he goes out!”

Chase’s heart slowly sank into a sea of dread. It was true; Jameson always made sure he had a backup way of communicating in case he ran into someone who couldn’t understand him. “The only way he would do that…” he said quietly. “…is if…either it was an emergency, or if someone…”

“I’m going to call the police now Chase!” Marvin practically shouted.

“Dude, do it! I’m hanging up right now!” And Chase did just that, ending the call.

It couldn’t be true, could it? Something couldn’t have happened to Jameson, right? He didn’t have any enemies or—

No. Wait.

“Shit!” Chase cursed. He was an idiot! The day had been going so well, he’d completely forgotten about Anti. He would certainly count as an enemy, even if he was Jameson’s brother. Maybe especially. Chase quickly sent a text to Marvin. "WAIT I JUST REMEMBERED. Yo don thin kit could be that anti guy??.? Tell the police that too!"

“God damn you,” Chase growled. “Fucking…Anti.” He’d never even met him, but he just kept making his and his friends’ lives hell, didn’t he? For over a year, now.

Would this ever end? Or would this cycle continue?
.............................................................................................

Someone was driving a chisel into his head with a hammer. That’s what it felt like. His head was pounding, and each new spike of pain could have easily been in time with the smack of a hammer. He couldn’t even move, the headache was too overwhelming, tears leaking from his closed eyes. The moment it started to lessen up, he quietly drifted off to sleep.

Then, of course, he woke up with his head still hurting. But this time it was bearable. Still awful, but he managed to open his eyes.

This…wasn’t his room. This wasn’t his apartment. Nor was it a room in any of his friends’ houses. He didn’t recognize the pale yellow wall he was staring at, or the white blanket covering him. Slowly, he rolled onto his back, not wanting to make any sudden movement in case it aggravated his headache, but he didn’t see the ceiling. Instead, he saw wooden slats and the bottom of a mattress. A bunk bed? He didn’t know anyone who had a bunk bed. Where was he? Actually, what had happened before he ended up here? He cast his mind back, and—

Instantly, Jameson sat straight up, hitting his forehead against the oddly close bottom of the bunk above him. Crying out, he fell back and rubbed the spot of impact. That definitely didn’t help the headache.

Movement. Coming from the bunk above him, it sounded like, accompanied by creaking and the sound of fabric on fabric. “Wh-who’s down there?” A voice asked. “Are you—you’re awake?”

Actually, that voice sounded familiar. JJ pushed away the blankets and rolled over to the side of the mattress. He grabbed the headboard to help him stand up, since he felt strangely dizzy. Once up, he transferred his grip to the edge of the top bunk, pausing a moment to stop swaying. Then he looked up at the person on the top bunk.

“Wait a second. Jameson?! That’s you?!” It took JJ a moment to recognize Jackie, but once he did, he gasped. It had been almost a year since he’d last seen him, and in that time period, he’d changed a lot. Now he was a lot paler, his hair grown to shoulder-length, and his red hoodie was significantly darker, apparently not having been washed in a while. Jackie was holding onto the railings that surrounded the edge of the top bunk, dangerously leaning over. There was a metal cuff around one wrist, a length of chain connecting it to another cuff attached to one of the railings.

JJ slowly nodded, letting go of the bed to finger-sign. 'J-A-C-K-I-E?'

“Oh my god. You too?! Why don’t we get everyone in here?! Fucking…Kidnapped party with the boys, hey-o!” Jackie laughed hysterically.

'…Are you okay?' JJ asked.

“Well, uh, relatively, I guess. I’m not, like, actively hurt or anything.” Jackie pressed a hand against his head. “Killer headache, though. You too?” JJ nodded. “Great. Fantastic. Probably from whatever drugs he used. Are you okay? What the hell are you doing here?!”

'I’m fine. But it’s a long story.' JJ looked around the room. The walls were all painted pale yellow. No windows, but he thought a square on the wall looked a bit different, so maybe the window had been bricked up and painted over. The bunk beds weren’t the only furniture. There was also a white wooden dresser and a similar-looking table, along with two chairs. A corner of the room had a mini fridge and several cabinets that looked like they belonged in a kitchen. There were two doors. One, open, led to an attached bathroom. The other door was closed. Though he knew it was probably a waste of time, JJ walked over there, staggering a bit with the dizziness, and tried the doorknob. Locked, of course. 'Do you know where we are?' He signed, turning around to face Jackie.

“Where we are? No, sorry.” Jackie shook his head. “I’ve been held hostage in a couple different places by now, and this isn’t any of the previous ones. Or maybe it is. It could be in that first house, just in a room I didn’t get to see. But, uh. Yeah. We’ve probably been asleep for a while, judging by his usual style. So there’s no way of knowing.” He paused. “You, uh. Seem weirdly calm about this.”

'I’m saving the emotional breakdown for later and looking for a way out now,' JJ said, then idly tried the door again. He leaned down to look more closely at the knob. It looked normal. No loose screws when he shook it or anything.

“Oh.” Jackie paused. “Well then, fair enough, but I mean. You haven’t even asked who kidnapped you or why I’m here or what’s going on. Just where we are. I was expecting a bunch more questions.”

'Well I already know all those, so I only wanted to know where.' JJ tried to peer through the gap of the door. Weren’t there some locks that could be worked around if you slid something through there? Idly, he patted his pockets despite knowing there probably wouldn’t be anything in there. But then he had to stop. He didn’t have any pockets. What? Impossible. He looked down at his clothes, and noticed for the first time that they didn’t belong to him. Blue T-shirt, black pants, white socks. Strangely, he still had his pocket watch, now hanging around his neck. 'Also I want to know where my clothes are.'

“Man, he gave you new clothes? Lucky,” Jackie said jokingly. “But anyway.” He returned to being serious. “What do you mean, you already know? That is what you said, right? You can’t already know everything.”

JJ turned around. Jackie wasn’t as knowledgeable in BSL as all the others, given how he’d been abducted before he could become fluent, so he signed slowly, finger-spelling occasionally. 'I know I’ve been taken by a man calling himself Anti, and that he took you back in December and Henrik in August. He’s a mercenary who has apparently started kidnapping and serial killing as a hobby. He made Henrik help him with some of that, and now Henrik is in a mental hospital because of all the trauma combined with previous issues. And I know Anti isn’t going to kill me.'

That was a lot, and Jackie went silent for a bit as he processed it. “Well. Okay, then. You actually know more than I do.”

JJ tried to smile, then walked over to the dresser and started pulling open its drawers. More clothes, similar to what he was already wearing. No shoes, only socks. 'Jackie. Do you think you could get down from there, or are you stuck?'

“Uh…I think I’m stuck, but honestly, I haven’t tried yet,” Jackie mumbled. “I woke up like. A few minutes ago. Oh hey, there’s a clock on the wall! That’s new. Man, this is the nicest place I’ve been captive in yet. Hang on, I’m gonna see if this chain is long enough to let me get down.”

The ladder to the top bunk was over at the foot of the bed, while Jackie was cuffed to the railing near the head. He crawled over, managing to put his feet on the top rung. But that’s where it got difficult. Spinning around, he could only reach the middle rung before he had to stop, arm yanked taunt to the side. “Yeah, no. Sorry, JJ.” He climbed back to the top bunk, sitting once again at the top of the ladder.

'It’s alright,' JJ said, frowning. 'But I can see several complications with that.'

“Oh yeah, trust me, it all sucks,” Jackie sighed. “Uh…so. How do you know Anti isn’t going to kill you? I mean, honestly, I’m still not so sure that I’m…um…” He suddenly looked uncomfortable, and more than a bit scared. “A-anyway, you seemed like you definitely knew.”

JJ sighed. He walked over to the chairs at the table and sat down, taking a break to press his hands to his throbbing head. He should probably tell Jackie, right? After all, he’d told Chase and Marvin. And it would be good for them all to be on the same page. 'Anti is my brother,' he explained.

“What?! Like, biologically? For real?”

'Yes, unfortunately. He’s my older brother, I lived with him for seven years. Well, technically longer, if you count when we were kids, before we were put into the system. But I mean, he practically raised me from sixteen.' Jameson paused. 'He wasn’t good at it.'

“I can imagine,” Jackie muttered. “Wow. Wow, man. That…that sucks.”

Jameson nodded. 'I thought I’d never see him again, but then he appeared in this city, got involved with all of you, and…I guess it was only a matter of time before he…realized who I was. But I hoped…' He squeezed his eyes shut against the sudden wetness in them. 'I hoped that this wouldn’t happen.'

“Wait, did you know he was going to kidnap you if he found you?”

'No, but I knew it was a possibility.' JJ laughed quietly. 'That really says something about the kind of person he is, doesn’t it?'

Jackie shook his head slowly. “I’m…so sorry, Jameson. Is there anything I can do?”

Jameson thought about that. 'Well, we need to get out of here. I know it’s going to be difficult, but if there’s anything you can do…'

“Right.” Jackie glanced down at his cuffed wrist, then nodded. “Right. H-how about I start with…telling you everything I’ve noticed about him? Maybe if we know how he acts, that’ll help.”

'That sounds like a great idea.' It had been three years since he’d seen Anti, after all. A lot could change in that time. 'And I’ll tell you what I remember.'

“Pool our information,” Jackie said. He took a deep breath. “Right. Okay, so to start from the beginning…”
.............................................................................................

A day passed. The police looked over Jameson’s apartment, finding nothing suspicious. Marvin identified everything in the rooms as belonging to JJ except for the cupcakes in the plastic packaging, with their blue frosting. Normally, the police probably would’ve dismissed them, but once Marvin explained the situation—namely, that JJ was part of the friend group that included Dr. Schneeplestein and a missing private detective named Jackie Donovan, both of whom had been proven to have been kidnapped—they decided to run tests on them.

Two days passed. Chase finally got around to explaining the good news he’d received earlier on Halloween to Marvin. That cheered him up briefly, but he was quickly overcome with worry for JJ again. And Chase felt that same worry threatening to engulf him as well. Especially after the detectives contacted them both and said that the strange cupcakes had definitely been laced with illegal sedatives: namely, the strong, but slow-acting, variety. That pushed them to label the case as a definite abduction, with this strange Anti as the main suspect. The same detectives that were working on Jackie’s case took this one, as well, since it was so likely to be linked.

Four days passed. Marvin wasn’t doing so well. Chase was newly busy, but he made sure to check on him. A good thing he did, too, because there were a couple times when he walked in the house and Marvin was just lying in bed, clearly been there since he woke up that morning, often with a cat or two nearby and a bunch of tearstained tissues. Chase wasn’t one to miss the irony of the situation, having been in that position before with his friends being the ones to check in on him. But at least he knew what to do. Make food, insist on hydration, encourage movement, and offer distraction. And also feed the snake and the cats. That part was new.

A week passed. No news from the police. Chase had to admit that maybe there wouldn’t be news for a while, though he didn’t express that to Marvin. After checking in on his friend one more time, he headed out for his other business of the day, which was, incidentally, more visiting and checking in on people.

Chase had stopped by the hospital every day that week. Honestly, the routine distracted him, and it was good to see some progress being made somewhere. By now a lot of the staff were familiar with him, and didn’t even bother to ask him who he was there to visit. Though a lot of them still directed him to the appropriate wing. It was probably required to.

One short trip up an elevator and down a hallway, and Chase pushed walked through the open doorway of the room, making sure to put on a cheerful expression. “Hey bro. It’s me again.”

Jack’s eyes immediately opened at the sound, head swivelling over to look towards him. He managed a small smile—that was good, he was having trouble with facial movements—and a slight up-and-down hand motion that wasn’t really a wave as much as it was a flop. “Hhh…hhiii. Sha-ays.”

“Hi Jack.” Chase took his usual spot in the chair next to the bed. “You’re looking good.”

“Mmnh.”

“No, really.”

Jack reached to the side and hit the controls for the bed, raising it into more of a sitting position. He pointed towards the table next to the bed.

“Oh, right.” Chase twisted around and picked something up. A board about the size of a large school notebook, with rows of squares printed on its surface. Each square had a different word or phrase written inside, some accompanied by handy pictograms. This was a communication board. Dr. Emerson had explained it was meant to help people who had difficulty speaking normally. It looked a bit childish, with the pictures and color-coded squares, which made sense, because they were apparently primarily used for kids. But Emerson said that, since Jack was still having trouble talking and moving, this was a good alternative. “Here you go, dude.”

Jack dipped his head in a slow nod. He adjusted the bed a bit more, then propped the board up using an arm and used the other hand to point. Chase scooted a bit closer to look at the square he was indicating: 'How are you?'

“Oh, I’m good,” Chase said. It was, of course, a bit of a lie, since he was still really worried about Jameson. But that was a complicated situation that he didn’t really feel like talking about. “What about you? How are you feeling?”

“Mmnn.” Jack pointed to a square labelled 'Bored.'

Chase laughed. “You need a TV or something in here. I thought hospital rooms were all supposed to have them. Like, they came pre-installed with those old boxy models that hang from the ceilings.”

“Heh.” Another small smile, though this one was a bit weaker and quickly fell. Ater a moment, Jack pointed to a different square, this one simply labelled 'Phone' with an accompanying simple picture.

“Yeah, I have my phone.” Chase pulled it out of his pocket. “Why? Do you want to text someone?”

The 'No' box, accompanied by a slight head shake.

“Okay. Then…do you want to take a picture or something?”

The 'Yes' box.

“Really? Well, I don’t know if you can hold the phone,” Chase said reluctantly. Jack was having trouble even holding a pencil, hence why he couldn’t write. “Here, we can take a picture together, okay?”

“Eeuh.” The 'Yes' box.

“Alright.” Chase opened up the front-facing camera, then leaned over next to Jack. “Look at the camera.” Jack appropriately turned his head towards the raised phone, and gave one last small smile. Chase matched him with a big smile of his own, and took a couple pictures. “There we go. Look at us.” He showed the phone to Jack, swiping through the photos. “I like this first one, what about you?”

“Ffferr.” Jack tapped a box with the number 'One' in it.

“Right? We look good.” Chase laughed a bit, then put the phone away. “Hey, none of those tubes got mixed up or pulled out while we were doing that, right?”

Jack turned to look around, then slowly reached up and touched his nasal cannula. 'I don’t think so,' said the box on the board he tapped.

“You have a call button you can press, right?” Chase asked fretfully.

Y'es' box.

“Good. Good.” Chase let out a short breath. If anything happened to Jack after all of this, he would…he would…well, he honestly wasn’t sure what he would do, but it wouldn’t be good.

“Shhays?” Jack asked. “Wh…wherr Mahffin?”

“Where’s Marvin? Oh, uh.” Chase hesitated. “He’s been busy lately.”

“Mmmm?” 'I don’t think so' box.

“You don’t believe me, huh?” Chase shrugged. “Well, it’s true. I don’t know that much about it, either. I guess maybe one of his holidays is approaching. That or he’s looking for a new job.” That second one was actually true. Or at least, it had been before Jameson disappeared. Chase knew Marvin had put in applications at a couple different places, but he didn’t know if any of them had been accepted.

“Mmnnh.” Jack blinked slowly. “Sshays? Whh…whhbout faays?” There was a worried edge to his voice. “Ffay Shays. Fffay Mhffin.”

“The fakes. Right.” Chase nodded slowly, swallowing back a lump in his throat. “I guess I did promise to explain that.”

“Eeuah.” 'Yes' box.

“Well…” Chase hesitated. “Did…did the doctor explain to you why you were in a coma?”

'Yes' box. “Ssneeep.”

“Yeah, Schneep made some mistakes. I-I guess only you know what really happened that day.” Chase sighed. “And I guess you can explain that once you figure out how. Y’know, I…explained the whole situation to you a couple times, while you were asleep. I don’t know how much you heard. But…basically. What’s important when it comes to the matter of ‘the fakes’ is…” And he hesitated again.

“Shaays,” Jack said, sharply gesturing to the 'Now' box.

“I know, I know, it’s just…it’s hard, bro.” Chase took a deep breath. “Okay. So there’s a criminal running around. Which is, I know, freaky. But basically, he’s one of the dopplegangers. Looks like us, you know? So ‘the fakes’ are when he…would pretend to be us. A-and I guess he came in to see you while doing that?” He shuddered. “I don’t know why. None of us do. But it’s going to be okay. The doctor knows, a-and he knows to make sure it’s me. Uh…because Marvin’s been…busy this week, he hasn’t come in to see you. And when he does, I’m gonna come, too. So…if Marvin comes in alone, that’s not him. But you, uh, probably shouldn’t indicate that. Um. Got all that?”

Jack stared at him for a long while, then slowly tapped the 'Yes' box.

“It’s a lot, I know,” Chase said reassuringly. “It can be uh…do you need a moment?”

Another long pause. Then the 'I am okay' box.

“Okay, if you’re sure.” Chase let out a breath. “What would even happen when ‘the fakes’ showed up? Would they just talk to you?”

'Yes' box.

“Probably not about normal stuff.”

'No' box. Followed by the 'I am scared' box.

“Wha—” Chase coughed awkwardly. “Y-you mean he said upsetting things?”

Jack made a small sound, almost like a whimper. 'Yes' box.

“Oh…oh no.” Chase shook his head. He knew from experience that it was really easy to talk to someone who couldn’t answer, to pour out everything you wouldn’t normally say because you knew they couldn’t tell anyone what you said. In the past, talking to comatose Jack had been a way for him to be honest when he felt terrible, but for an actual criminal to come in and talk like that? Those secrets would probably be a lot darker. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Jack blinked at him. Then indicated the 'How?' box.

“…right. The board is good, but I guess it wouldn’t have all the words you need.” Chase nodded. “Well. I mean, later. If you want to talk about it, you can. I-I can teach you BSL, when you’ve got, y’know…better hands.” Jack wheezed at that, a short laugh that made Chase smile. “Yeah, JJ taught me. You remember me telling you about him, right?”

'Yes' box. “Hhee…sow-sounsss…nai-nais.”

“He is really nice. I think you’d get along.” Chase went quiet. What was happening to Jameson now? It couldn’t be good, not if Anti was involved. Damn it. He couldn’t let anything else happen to his friends! All of them have been through so much already. Marvin was breaking down, Schneep and Jack were in hospitals, and Jackie and Jameson were being held hostage by Jameson’s psychopathic older brother. Enough was enough! He had to do something!

“Shays?” Jack’s head listed to the side, and he tapped the 'How are you?' box.

“O-oh. Yeah, I’m alright, bro, don’t worry, I was just thinking.” Chase shook his head. It was settled. He’d figure out a way to deal with this situation more directly. “Anyway, I was wondering. Can you, like, eat normal foods yet?”

'No' box.

“Aw, man. I was gonna offer to bring you coffee tomorrow.”

Jack’s eyes widened a bit. “Waa-aay. W-whhayy!”

Chase laughed. “Glad to see that hasn’t changed. But, well, doctor’s orders and all that.”

“Ahhhh.” Jack tried to frown, but only managed a twitch in his mouth.

“One thing to look forward to after all that physical therapy,” Chase reached over to squeeze Jack’s wrist. “You know, you’re already improving really fast. You might be out of here in a couple months.”

“Heh.” That definitely cheered Jack up.

Chase smiled, and quickly moved on. Later, he’d try to think up a way to deal with other situations. He couldn’t just abandon his friends, after all, and he was getting real sick of all this terrible shit happening. But that would need some more planning. For now, he’d focus on one thing at a time.
.............................................................................................

They’d been stuck in the room for a week, and JJ was starting to get really worried. Why hadn’t Anti showed up yet? What was he planning? Luckily, they wouldn’t starve, as it turned out the mini fridge and strange cabinets had been stocked with food. But that had to run out eventually. What was going on?

The room was locked down tight. The door outside was solid, and that weird square on the wall that might’ve been a sealed-up window showed no signs of wear. There wasn’t a window in the bathroom, either. But on the morning of the second day, JJ did find a small key in the bathroom’s medicine cabinet, which turned out to unlock the cuff on Jackie’s wrist. “Thank god for that,” Jackie had muttered when JJ unchained him from the bunk. “Not gonna lie, though, it’s weird being able to actually walk around.”

Jackie seemed mostly bored with the whole situation, to be honest. Which probably made sense. After all, he did keep reiterating that this was the most comfortable captivity he’d been in since Anti took him. But Jameson just found himself getting more and more worried as time passed. He tried to distract himself by helping Jackie catch up on his sign language learning, but eventually that didn’t work, and he just kept pacing the floor, anxiety slowly growing with every passing hour.

When the locked door finally opened, JJ was almost relieved that the anticipation was over with. But that relief was quickly overshadowed when someone stepped into the room and shut the door.

It was Anti, of course. He didn’t look too much different from how Jameson remembered him. Same brown hair, same single blue eye accompanied by a fake green one. Same scars over half his face, though the long one across his throat was new. However, that watch hanging on a chain around his neck…that was not new. Jameson recognized that immediately, and resisted the urge to reach up and grab his own watch, around his own neck.

The moment Anti entered, Jackie went pale, sitting down hard on the bottom bunk and scooting back until he hit the wall. But Jameson couldn’t move. He stopped his nervous pacing against the wall by the dresser and instantly froze, eyes locked onto Anti. And Anti stared at him in turn, eyes occasionally flicking up and down as he looked him over. The room was silent enough for the three men’s breathing to echo in the air.

Then, slowly, Anti took a couple steps away from the door. He was still standing in between the other two and their only exit, but he didn’t keep guarding it. JJ then noticed that Anti was holding two plastic bags in one hand, which he then set on the ground. Finally, Anti looked away from Jameson, searching the room with his eyes before landing on Jackie. He frowned. “What are you doing? That’s not your bed.”

Jackie flinched. He scrambled up from the bottom bunk and towards the ladder, climbing up it to the top, where he resumed his position with his back against the wall. Anti nodded, then glanced towards the other end of the cuffs still attached to the railing. “Where’s the key?”

Nobody answered, but Jackie instinctively glanced towards Jameson before glancing back. That didn’t go unnoticed by Anti, who looked back towards him. Jameson still couldn’t move. He couldn’t if he wanted to. He was a statue with limbs made of cold, solid stone, a beating heart in his chest pounding loudly in his ears.”Well…I guess it’s fine, then,” Anti finally said, not looking away from Jameson. He went silent for a few seconds. Then: “Jamie.”

That finally broke the spell, and Jameson backed up. What was he supposed to do? He’d been so worried about why Anti wasn’t showing up, that he didn’t think what to do when he finally did. His mind was scrabbling for purchase on shaking ground. His pulse was racing wildly. He couldn’t think of a solution. It wasn’t even an option underneath the sudden appearance of emotion whirling around his brain. Fear? Grief? Dread? Surprise? Relief?

“Do you…like the room?” Anti asked.

It was such an absurd question that the only response Jameson could muster was a strangled choking sound.

“I-I mean, it’s not exactly a five-star hotel, but I tried to make it nice. You have to share it, unfortunately, limited space. Do you two know each other? You’re friends the rest of the group.”

He just HAD to respond to that statement. 'How do you know that?' Jameson asked, signing shakily.

“I’ve been keeping an eye on them,” Anti stated plainly. “Didn’t realize who you were until I saw you signing with that long-haired one, Marvin. You’re not online, so I couldn’t figure it out from tagging or anything. Took some more old-fashioned work.”

'You were stalking me,' Jameson said. 'Weren’t you?'

“I had to find out where you lived, didn’t I?” Anti said, ignoring the faint shake of Jameson’s head. “But you caught on. Hah. You always were a clever boy.”

'What do you want?' Jameson asked. 'Why did you do this?!' He added, signs growing steadier.

“Well you were going to freak out if I tried to talk to you normally, weren’t you?” Anti’s voice was unnervingly calm. “And I was right. I didn’t want to do this, but you kind of made me. So here we are.”

‘I didn’t ‘make you’ do anything!’ Jameson protested. 'You never have to kidnap people!'

“This isn’t a kidnapping.”

Jameson just pointed over at Jackie, staring at Anti significantly.

Anti hesitated. Then he laughed. “Alright, I guess it is. Like I said, you’re a clever boy, Jamie.”

Stop calling me that! Jameson signed sharply, feeling a rise of sudden white-hot rage. 'I hate it, I’ve always hated it, and it doesn’t make this whole thing better if you keep calling me by that stupid nickname! It doesn’t change the fact that you drugged me and took me to some place far away and are now keeping me here against my will!'

“Against your will? Aw, you mean you don’t want to see your big brother again?” Anti tilted his head to the side and smiled sickeningly.

Jameson shook his head violently. 'No! You’re a murderer who just abduct—'

“Because I’ve been dying to see you again,” Anti interrupted, walking closer. Jameson paled, but found he couldn’t back up. “Did you know I thought you were dead? Did I tell you that already? I doubt you planned it to look that way, honestly, you’re clever but you never plan ahead. So I guess it was just a coincidence that the note you left sounded like a…permanent goodbye. Why’d you throw your jacket in the river, though?” Anti slowly reached up and grabbed the watch around his neck. “Did you think about what that would imply?” he asked softly.

And once again, Jameson was a statue, petrified by Anti’s dual-colored gaze like a real-world victim of Medusa. God damn it, why did Anti sound actually hurt by this? WAS he actually hurt? JJ hadn’t really been thinking when he’d dropped his old jacket in the river three years ago, he just saw his reflection in the water, and suddenly wanted to get rid of the jacket his brother had bought him. So he did, then fled with the suitcase he’d packed. It was true, he hadn’t really been planning ahead when he left, though he’d thought about how Anti would react. Sometimes he wanted to go back, hating to make him sad, but convincing himself he was probably angry. Still, he remembered almost doubling back at a couple different bus stops, thinking it wasn’t worth it.

Had Anti really thought…? Something like that would be upsetting to anyone, especially over someone who’d been under your care for years. He never meant to—

Why was he thinking about this?!

Jameson shook his head, and pushed Anti back. 'I don’t care what you thought,' he said harshly. 'I don’t care how you felt.'

“Of course you do,” Anti said. “I saw how you were hesitating. We’re brothers, Jameson, we care about each other. And you’re so sensitive, of course you can’t help it.”

No, no, no. Jameson continued to shake his head. 'I don’t care how you felt because you never cared what I felt. A seventeen-year-old shouldn’t be helping to dispose of a body. A twenty-year-old shouldn’t be afraid to go outside because his brother convinced him enemies would be after him.'

“I didn’t want to get you involved in any of it,” Anti insisted. “But sometimes I had to! I couldn’t do it alone. Jamie—Jameson, it killed me to ask for your help. I just wanted you to be safe, but I was putting you in active danger out of necessity. So I had to make sure that nothing happened to you, especially when I was out and couldn’t protect you. I was just trying to keep you safe.”

'You’re contradicting yourself,' Jameson signed, keeping his face carefully expressionless. 'Keeping me safe, yet continually involving me in your work? You were a hypocrite back then, and you’re a hypocrite now.'

“Oh my god, why can’t you just understand?!” Anti suddenly shouted. “No, of course! You don’t understand! You’re not even trying! It was so fucking difficult, Jameson, I did what I had to.” He took a deep breath. “Please, Jamie. You’re a sweet boy. Always have been. Why can’t you be now?”

'Because you fucking kidnapped four people and killed thirteen!' Jameson signed, aghast. 'Are we forgetting that? Or are you just trying to get me to?'

Anti sighed, looking disappointed. “Alright. We can stop for the night.” He backed up, glancing over towards the bunk beds to make sure Jackie was still sitting there. “It’s a complicated situation, all of it. But you’re my little brother, and I care about you.” He reached the door, and grabbed the handle. “I brought you groceries, since I saw you were about halfway through them. I’ll stop by again.” And quickly, he opened the door and slipped out, the lock clicking behind him.

Silence.

Then Jackie let out a long, slow breath. “That was…that was f-fucking terrifying.”

JJ relaxed, letting out all of the tension he’d been holding. 'I told you he wasn’t aggressive all the time,' he said, walking over to the plastic bags Anti had left on the floor and crouching down to look through them. A lot of dry foods. No drinks, but that was fine, since the mini fridge was full of them. He grabbed the bags and moved them over to the cabinet area.

“Yeah, but…it’s an entirely different thing to see it in person.” Jackie slowly inched back over to the bunk beds’ ladder, sitting with his feet on the top rung. “Mother of fuck. I thought it couldn’t get worse than the time he was strangling me, but that. It wasn’t exactly threatening, but it was…wow.”

'Sorry, the time he what?!' JJ asked, eyes wide as he turned to look back at Jackie.

“Oh. Uh…I-I’ll explain later, if you want,” Jackie mumbled. “What did he bring?”

Dropping the subject for now, JJ glanced through the bags again. 'Everything we need,' he said. 'You’re right. He’s watching us.'

Jackie nodded. “Of course. Wonder where the camera is this time.”

Jameson gave the room a sweep with his eyes. There wasn’t anywhere obvious, but then again, modern cameras were so tiny. It could be anywhere. A direct connection to Anti. He’d be always there, always watching…

Suddenly, Jameson’s legs gave out and he fell to the floor.

“JJ!” Jackie scrambled down the ladder and rushed over. “What happened?! Are you okay?”

“Hhhhnnn.” Jameson covered his mouth. His furious blinking couldn’t hold back the tears anymore, and a few slipped out. He got into a kneeling position, slowly shaking his head.

“Are you hurt? I-I mean physically?” Jackie reached out to touch Jameson’s shoulder, only for him to sharply pull away and shake his head harder. “I—okay. What’s wrong? What do you need?”

He just kept shaking his head, now trembling all over as he bent over and covered his head with his arms. It was just one conversation. One conversation, and in the course of that conversation, he had frozen up, gotten angry, then slowly started buying into what Anti was saying. He managed to catch himself this time but…It was going to go back to the way it used to be. There was no way to escape it. And now, he was physically trapped as well, unable to leave. He’d just keep listening to Anti. God damn it. God damn it! He couldn’t do this!

“H-hey, it’s…I mean, that looked really hard to do.” Jackie sat down on the floor next to him, crossing his legs. “But you did it, you know. It was really impressive, actually.”

Jameson looked up, and managed to start signing. 'I won’t be able to do it next time.'

“What are you talking about? Of course you will!” Jackie smiled a bit, before looking grave. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s still going to be hard. But you’ve done it before. Hell, sounds like you managed to run away from the bastard in the past. When you were on your own, too. I probably can’t do much to, like, fight back, but I’ll still be here. Kind of have to be, ha. So…that’s different, I guess. Tell me if you need anything. Okay? I promise I’ll help.”

Jackie’s positivity was a bit awkward, but his tone was genuine. JJ found himself relaxing. He took a few deep breaths, then looked around the room. Things he could see: bunk bed, bags, bathroom door, mini fridge, Jackie. Things he could hear: his heartbeat, breathing, Jackie talking, slight humming from the lights. Things he could feel…he went down through the list.

“You…are you okay?” Jackie asked.

'Better,' JJ replied. 'But a bit drained. I think I’m going to take a nap.'

“Alright. Go ahead. I’ll get these groceries sorted out.”

JJ nodded, and stood up, making his way over to the bottom bunk. Pushing the covers aside, he climbed in, turning to face the wall. His pocket watch was still hanging from his neck, and this time, he couldn’t stop himself from holding it. Then he took it off. Not around the neck. Somewhere different. To remind him that things weren’t the same.

Slowly, he fell asleep to the sound of Jackie rummaging in the cabinets.
.............................................................................................

That hadn’t gone well. Anti sat down at his desk, replaying the conversation over. Where had he gone wrong? There must have been a couple places. Jameson clearly didn’t trust him, for obvious reasons. So, he’d need to find some way to gain it back. If Jameson wanted him to leave him alone, then he would. For a bit. Refine his conversation skills and what to say. Put more effort into it. He might have to lie at times, but that was fine.

He glanced at his phone. Some notifications alerting him to new messages in his…“work” email. Eventually, he’d have to answer some. That was how he got money, after all, which allowed him things like this new safe house.

What about Jackie? He’d been pretty quiet during that encounter. Good. If he was trying to gain Jameson’s trust, it would be a shame to hurt a friend of his. He’d let him be for now.

Anti looked over at the other item on the desk. A small turquoise notebook. After a few seconds, he reached over and picked it up, fanning through the pages until he reached one in particular. Then, he slid something out from between them. A keycard. He’d been reading this notebook for a while, and based on the contents, he could guess what this card was for. Why Marvin had it, he wasn’t sure, since it clearly belonged to that doctor woman.

And he wondered…should he make use of the card now? Or should he wait a while?

He played with the card for a minute, flipping it over his fingers. No, he’d wait. He already had enough to deal with at the moment. Maybe once he’d adjusted to the change. Still, it didn’t mean he couldn’t give the idea some thought. Bring it into solid reality.

Three at once might be a little much, but he could handle them.

And Jameson might like another friend.

Part Seventeen of The Stitched AU
A JSE Fanfic
[This is part of a completed fanfic series of mine with 24 total chapters. I started this October of 2018 and finished it May of 2021. Now reunited with the others, Schneep has some explaining to do. But at least Anti has been defeated... probably. It seems there are odd goings-on in the city, unknown to the group.]
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The evening was clear, the twilight sky tinged purple. Chase, sitting on the front steps of the house, watched the cars drive down the street. The concrete steps were still a bit warm from the late summer sun. It might’ve been peaceful, if…

The front door swung open, and Jack poked his head out. “Hey, uh…you good, Chase?” he asked. “You’ve been out here for a while.”

“I’m good,” Chase said idly. “How’re Lily and Moira?”

“They’re good. Lily went to sleep.” Jack paused. “We got to think of something to say other than ‘good’ to describe how people are. Anyway, Schneep wanted to talk to all of us.”

“Hmm…yeah.” It was about time. The guy disappears for a month, then comes back all…different. Chase supposed he wanted to give out explanations. He sighed, and stood up. “Alright, let’s go, then.”

Chase followed Jack into the dining room. JJ and Schneep were already there, with JJ sitting at the table and Schneep hovering nearby. Jack took a seat at the table as well, but Chase hesitated. He glanced at JJ, who immediately glanced away. In all the commotion of the day, they hadn’t really had time to make up for the fight they’d had. Regret pooled in Chase’s stomach. He…he really hadn’t meant it, when he snapped that JJ never had any friends. He hadn’t meant it to be that hurtful. God, why did he have to do things like this? He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. What if he made it worse? And JJ didn’t look too good right now; he’d been sleeping most of the afternoon, ever since he apparently drained his magic. If Chase said the wrong thing now, it would be kicking him while he’s down.

“Chase, are you going to sit, or what?” Schneep snapped.

“Ak!” Chase jumped in surprise. “Alright, alright.” He took the chair across from JJ. “What about you? Are you going to sit, or just stand there?”

Schneep hummed. “No, I do not think so.”

Chase rolled his eyes. “Of course.”

'You don’t have to, of course,' JJ said. 'But I feel we should get down to business quickly. What is it you wanted to talk to us about?'

There was a moment of awkward silence. Then Jack jumped in, “Hey, uh, JJ wants to know what you wanted to talk to us about.” JJ winced, apparently having forgotten that Schneep couldn’t see the signs to understand him.

“Oh. Yes, yes, well…” Schneep shrugged. “I am sure you all have questions. I thought I would give you some time to process what happened—”

Chase suddenly laughed. “Oh, you mean how you suddenly showed up and fucking killed Anti, who we’ve barely been able to hold our own against in the past?”

“Well…yes,” Schneep said.

“Yeah, I mean…” Jack jumped in, “first of all, how’d you do that, second of all, how’d you know to do that?!”

Schneep laughed, folding his arms and bouncing in place. “Well…if I am to be honest, I…am not sure.”

The other three stared back at him, then glanced at each other. “Uh…how do you not be sure about something like that?” Chase asked. “Like…I mean, I’m pretty sure you would remember figuring out how to kill a glitch monster.”

Schneep rolled his eyes. “Well, for some people, memories are not so certain, Chase. Especially after having their head fucked with by nightmares.”

Chase winced. “…sorry,” he mumbled, looking down at the surface of the table.

Jack reached over and placed his hand near Chase’s. After a moment, Chase grabbed it and squeezed his fingers tight.

“Is okay, Chase,” Schneep said, voice a bit softer. “I suppose it is part my fault for not talking about it.”

“Hey, you’re not obligated to talk about it, Hen,” Jack pointed out.

“Anyway, back to what I was saying,” Schneep said, hurriedly changing the subject. “I am sure that something happened to me, that somehow my magic—mein Gott, it still feels strange to say that—it went all over the place.”

JJ tapped on the table, then started signing. 'Jack, please translate to Schneep what I am saying.'

“Okay,” Jack said, nodding.

'Your magic is teleportation, correct? From what I understand, that is a difficult power to master.'

After Jack translated, Schneep nodded, pursing his lips. “I believe it is something like that. Though it might be something more.” He finally sat down, taking the last chair at the table. “What happened…after Anti revealed himself, and we fought, something happened, and I disappeared, though I did not mean to. You all saw that, yes?” The other three made sounds of agreement. “After that, I…somehow, I…I went to…to many different places very quickly.” He seemed to be struggling to describe the events. “And it went quicker and quicker, and then I saw things.”

“You saw things?” Jack repeated, sounding a bit surprised. “But you…can’t.”

“It was not with my eyes, it was as if in my mind,” Schneep explained. “But they were still seen by me, which is why I doubt that these things were true, though they might have been. What is more unbelievable was the voice afterwards. I am starting to highly doubt that was real, but he did help me figure out how to…ah, what is the word?” He snapped his fingers a couple times. “Something like…get a…something with hands, but not exactly, it is in the word…”

'Handle?' JJ suggested, tapping out the word in morse code.

“Exactly!” Schneep grinned. “Get a handle on what I could do. So either that voice was real and helped, or it was my brain trying to tell me how it worked. Either way, it is the same.”

Chase raised an eyebrow. “Who could’ve done something like that? I mean…I guess they’d have to know how to teleport, how likely is that? JJ said that was hard to do.”

“It is besides the point,” Schneep dismissed. “The point is that this started me to figuring out how this magic works.”

“Okay…” Chase said slowly. “But why’d you take a month to meet up with us? Where were you?”

“It…did not seem like a month,” Schneep said. “I could’ve guessed it was a week.”

'I suppose your powers could’ve…gotten out of control for three weeks,' JJ said. Jack quickly translated the signs again.

“Well again, there is a possibility that none or only some of this happened,” Schneep said. “And I could have been having a breakdown and wandering the city the whole time.”

“I think we would’ve heard of that, if that was the case,” Chase muttered. “Cause I mean…we were looking out for you. We had the news on and stuff.”

“Okay, but I feel like we’re getting off track here,” Jack interrupted. “How’d you figure out how to defeat Anti?”

“Well, after everything calmed down, regardless of if it existed or not, I spent the rest of the time practicing,” Schneep said. “I was staying in my apartment—”

Chase suddenly slammed his hands on the table. “How did we think to check everywhere but there?!”

Schneep chuckled. “Is understandable. We have not been back to any of our homes in a while.”

Still, Chase shook his head, looking disappointed in himself. “Anyway, you were practicing?”

“Yes. The whole time, getting better at things like this.” The air seemed to split, and suddenly Schneep was standing in the corner. Then, only a second later, he was back in the chair. “I knew we had to find a way to get rid of Anti forever. I thought that we had done well, taking out that string that was part of him. That defeated him for a while. So I thought if we could destroy it, that would defeat him forever.”

“So…basically, you guessed that it would work,” Chase summarized.

Schneep huffed. “It was a theory. I also thought that those stitches on his neck and wrists had something to do with it, and that getting rid of those would help. Honestly, I did not think it would take that short a time.”

“Turns out that practice makes perfect,” Jack muttered. “Or…practice makes you able to fight a glitch demon.”

“Well, practice and these.” Schneep suddenly placed something on the table that he definitely had not had before. A pair of scissors. Oh the whole, they looked rather ordinary, or average size and made of a shining silver metal. The only exception was that the blades looked unusually sharp.

The other three leaned forward to look at them. “…huh,” Chase said after a while. “I mean, they don’t look that strange.”

“They are not,” Schneep said. “Except for the fact that when I thought of getting something that could cut through Anti’s strange soul string, I pulled these out of nowhere.”

'That’s impossible,' JJ signed.

“Why’s it impossible, Jay?” Jack asked.

'You can’t conjure items out of thin air,' JJ explained. 'They have to be either summoned from somewhere, or transformed from something else. In all my studies, that is one of the consistent rules I have found.'

“Well, then, where could these have been summoned from?” Chase asked. “Schneep?”

“I do not know,” Schneep answered, brows furrowing. “I did not think too much about it. I just needed them, and they appeared.”

“Well, if your magic is teleportation based, I’m guessing you must have teleported them from somewhere,” Jack reasoned. “Though that does leave questions like, I dunno, fucking…who had them in the first place? Would that person miss them? And how did that person make them so that they could cut through weird ass soul string?”

Before the discussion could continue any further, there was a cough. At some point, Stacy had appeared in the dining room entrance. “Hey, so, two questions,” she said. “One, are all of you going to stay here for the night? And two, can you tell me now what’s going on?”

The group was silent for a bit. “Um…well, I guess we’re going to be staying here,” Chase said slowly. “I mean, the three of us are. Schneep, I dunno about you…”

Schneep nodded. “I will be, too, but do not worry about space, I can just stay on the sofa.”

“And, for the second, um…” Chase looked at the other three, vaguely distressed. What was he supposed to do? It seemed like they defeated Anti, but what if they hadn’t? He couldn’t get Stacy and the kids anymore involved! Hell, the kids had already been taken! Jack shrugged, and gave him a thumbs up, but JJ wouldn’t meet his eyes. That caused a twinge somewhere in Chase’s chest. But he turned back to Stacy without acknowledging it. “Um…I guess I could…I mean, just the basics of what happened…but, um, can we do it tomorrow?”

Stacy leveled him with a stare, then sighed. “Yeah, alright. The girls have had enough excitement as it is.” She started to leave. “I work from 7 to 3, though, so we better have that conversation in the afternoon,” she said before disappearing down the hall.

Chase let out a breath, looking down at the dining room table. His hands were shaking. He curled them into fists. Suddenly, he stood up. “I’m, um…going to bed.” Without any further explanation, he turned and also left. Jack called after him, but he didn’t look back.

He made his way into the guest bedroom, and flopped down heavily on the bed. His chest rose and fell heavily as he blinked back tears. No, he wouldn’t cry again. He’d just been crying that morning, after they got back with the kids. After they’d defeated Anti, and…

He took a deep, shuddering breath. Well…he couldn’t lie to himself. He’d been expecting to find Jackie and Marvin again, just like they had when they defeated Anti the first time. But it seemed that…killing Anti had also killed…

No, he wouldn’t cry. He’d cried enough back when they’d first found the two of them dead. And besides, none of the others were reacting so strongly. It was just him that had gotten his hopes up for getting them back.

Chase rolled over onto his side. Now facing the other side, his eyes landed on the nightstand. Its drawer was closed, but he knew what was inside it. He froze for a moment, unable to look away. Then he suddenly buried his face in the pillow. No, he couldn’t. He couldn’t.

Slowly, twilight faded into night, and Chase stayed where he was, not moving once, not even when Jack and JJ came in to check on him. A few long hours later, he finally drifted off to sleep.
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Most people probably wouldn’t open their door if someone knocked on it in the middle of the night. They might be asleep, and if they weren’t expecting anyone, why risk it? Luckily, he knew that the person in this particular town house would be awake. Or…he did know that, right? Or was he thinking of someone else? He thought he knew this person, but things were…things felt disconnected, not quite there. Nonetheless, he’d been wandering most of the day, and he could remember it being dangerous to be out in the city at night. He needed to get somewhere safe, and this address came to mind.

When there was no answer, he knocked on the door again, pounding on the wood. Putting just a little more force into the motion suddenly made him dizzy, and he leaned heavily against the doorframe as his head swirled.

Some time later, there was the sound of footsteps behind the door, and he realized that at some point a light had turned on inside, and could be seen through the window. When had that happened? A few moments later, and he heard the sound of the door unlocking. It opened outward. He stepped back to avoid the swinging door, and saw that there was now a black-haired man standing in the doorway, wearing a loose t-shirt and pajama pants. The man’s eyes were impossibly wide. “Wh…” He seemed at a loss for words. “How…? What…? Is this…some kind of joke?”

He opened his mouth to answer, but instead, suddenly lost all feeling in his legs and fell forward.

“Whoa!” The other man caught him just in time. “Shit, I…hang on.” He managed to lift him into his arms, awkwardly closing the door and bringing him into the house. Speaking of the house, the layout seemed…familiar. He’d been here before, hadn’t he? Because he wasn’t surprised at all when the man carried him into a nearby living room and set him down on a black couch. “Shit…” The dark-haired man backed up. “You, uh…need anything? Water? Medical attention? Also, please tell me if you’re actually here and actually are who I think you are.”

“Hmm…” He blinked slowly at the room. Yes, he’s been here before. He recognized the homemade paintings on the wall and the armchair that stood out due to its bright pattern of colorful spots. He tried to sit up, but his head was still spinning, so he decided to lay back down.

“Uh…can you talk?” The dark-haired man was hovering nearby, and he was sure that he knew him. “I have a text-to-speech app on my phone, if that’d help.”

“I…know you…” He finally managed to say. “I do.”

“Um…yeah, if you are who I think you are, I knew you, too,” the man said, shifting his weight where he stood. “Well…‘knew’ is the operative word here, ‘cause…aren’t you…you’re supposed to be…” He seemed hesitant to say it.

Suddenly, something clicked into place. He sat up straight, only to lean heavily against the back of the sofa. “Malcolm,” he said. “That’s your name, I know it. It sounds like…my name? No, not my name. The other name?” He blinked slowly. “It’s definitely not my name.”

“No,” the man—Malcolm said slowly. “Your name—if you’re actually who I’m seeing right now, your name is Jackie.”

Another click as a piece fitted neatly into the bigger picture. “Yeah…yeah, that’s me.” Jackie nodded, slowly at first, then faster. “Yeah, I’m exactly who you’re seeing right now.”

“Oh. Okay. Yeah.” Malcolm nodded as well. “On one hand, that’s good, ‘cause it means I’m not seeing things. On the other hand…okay, no more beating around it, how the fuck are you alive?!”

“Ummmm…” Jackie shook his head. “I don’t…know. Did I die?”

“I mean, as far as everyone knew, yeah!” Malcolm stepped back, running his hands through his hair. “God, I went to your funeral. We fucking cremated you—”

“Oh, I did want that, didn’t I?” Jackie said idly, vaguely remembering a conversation that he had with someone about things like that.

“—I mean, was that not you?” Malcolm continued. “Was this some plot? I fucking—oh yeah, and then they investigated the scene and found that vigilante suit, what the fuck about that? Did anyone else know about that, or did you just not tell me?”

“Oh. Oh, you do the, um…” Jackie snapped his fingers a couple of times, scrambling to find the right piece of memory. “You do the police things. You’re a cop.”

“Oh no, I am a detective, you know that,” Malcolm emphasized. “There’s a difference.”

“Anyway, I don’t…think anyone else knew about that…?” Jackie said slowly. “No, the other one did. The other, the other…we lived together, he had to know, but I’m pretty sure he told the, uh…the doctor one, the nightmare one.”

Malcolm stared at him. He slowly walked over to the spotted armchair, sitting down heavily and leaning forward. “…Jackie,” he said. “So it is you. But you’re…you seem confused. Is everything alright?”

Jackie considered this. “I think so,” he said.

“Really? ‘Cause you seem to be having, um.” Malcolm pursed his lips. “Some memory problems. And the last time I saw you, you were dead, with no obvious cause of death but very clearly dead, and it looked like you kind of…well, killed your roommate. Whose name you also seem to have forgotten. You do know this isn’t normal, right?”

“Yeah.” Jackie laid down again, staring up at the ceiling. “I…something happened. How…how long ago was this thing you’re talking about?”

“Um, about two and a half years, now,” Malcolm said. “The department could never figure it out, though.” Jackie gave him a look, and he continued. “Y’know, it looked like some occult shit, there was a circle on the ground with candles, and both of you were dead, and you were holding a knife.”

“I remember that,” Jackie said, pressing a hand to his head. “It was…I-I still can’t remember the name, the other one, he—he tricked me, I lost my temper, I—something happened. I wanted to stop it…I think. I was the one with the knife? Then I must’ve been the one who wanted to stop it, I know it was one of us. Which means I’m the one that—well, I mean, I remember not meaning to, the other one, he moved at the wrong moment. I-I…I need to…fuck.”

Malcolm suddenly stifled a laugh. “You need to fuck?”

“What? No!” Jackie looked over at him. “I’m not the one who feels—no, wait, I am. I think. What’s the one with the, um…the pink, yellow, and blue? That one’s me, the other one’s the purple and black and white one, I don’t remember what they mean, though…”

“Um…okay, sorry I brought that up.” Malcolm glanced over at the room’s entrance. “God, Benjamin might come down to ask what’s going on.”

“That’s your…roommate,” Jackie said slowly. “Right?”

“Right.” Malcolm paused. “So…it’s clear that you don’t have any idea what happened. Or if you do, you’re not in a state to puzzle it out. So do you need anything? Do you have a place to stay for the night?”

“Oh. I thought I would stay here.” Jackie nodded. “Yeah, I…I remember it seemed like a good place to stay.”

“Really?” Malcolm asked. “I mean, I’m flattered, but…I mean, we’re not that…Can’t you stay with your Jack friend? Or the other ones, what is it, Henry and Chase—”

“Chase.” Jackie suddenly lurched, clutching his wrist. The force of the movement caused him to fall off the couch onto the floor. Malcolm cried out, and rushed over, but Jackie didn’t acknowledge him. “Chase, Chase, the hat one, Chase. We need him. He should be with us. Chase, Chase, puppet. Our pup̕pe͞t̶.”

Malcolm was taken aback for a moment, but he quickly moved on. “Okay, I’m sure we can call him or something in the morning. I don’t know his number, but you probably do, if you can remember it. Are you okay with me touching you, right now?” He waited for a response, but Jackie just kept mumbling, so he slowly reached out. When Jackie didn’t react, he helped him into a sitting position. “Okay. Jackie, how do you feel? Can you tell me?” No response. “Alright. That’s alright, if you can’t talk. Can you give me anything? Nodding? Can you blink twice if you can hear me? No? Alright, that’s fine, Jackie. I’m going to help you onto the couch, okay? There we go. I’m going to be right here, okay?”

Jackie still didn’t react at all, continuing to talk to himself, like he expected someone else to answer. Someone else who, up until recently, had always been there. But was now gone. Or was he the one who was gone? Had they separated, or had he split in half? Either way, he felt the absence keenly. Part of him was missing. Or he was the missing part. Or both. The pieces wouldn’t settle.
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On the other side of the city, while Jackie and Malcolm were having their exchange, something very similar was going on with two others. It was happening inside a small shop that looked like a defunct clothing store, but once inside, turned out to be much more than that. The interior was cluttered with tables and shelves, piled high with books and knickknacks. Behind the shop’s counter, there were two open doors, one of which was ajar and revealing a small bathroom. And looking through the open door, you could see a man and a woman. The man was leaning over the sink, coughing, while the woman rubbed circles on his back.

“There, there…” The woman said awkwardly. She was dressed in a holographic vest and a skater skirt, her hair dyed blue and purple, and she also looked very confused and unsure. “Just…yeah.”

The man coughed again, and a spatter of red flew from his mouth, joining the pool gathering in the bottom of the ceramic sink. “Nnn…” he said.

“Jesus christ,” the woman muttered. “What happened to you? Besides, um, dying.”

“I died?” The man asked vaguely. He coughed again, staining his lips and teeth crimson.

“I mean, yeah. We buried you. Under that tree like you said.”

“Good…” The man mumbled. “That’s…” He didn’t continue, slumping against the sink.

“Whoa, hang on, there,” the woman said, catching him before his head smacked against the faucet.

“Don’ touch me…” The man waved her away, taking a few steps before falling against the counter.

“Jesus.” The woman crouched by him. “Look, what happened?”

“I…don’t…” He shook his head.

The woman paused. “Do you know who I am?”

It took him a moment to answer. “…Eve, right? No. No, that’s…that’s only part of it. It’s like…spelled weird.”

“Starts with a Y,” she prompted.

After another moment, he suddenly straightened. “Yvonne. That’s…that’s you.”

“Yeah.” Yvonne smiled. “Do you know who you are?”

There was no answer this time. Unless you counted the tears that suddenly sprung to his eyes.

“Okay, it’s fine, you don’t need to answer right now.” Yvonne paused. “I’m guessing you don’t know what happened to you, then, so I guess it’s no use asking.”

“You said I died,” he said. “I…I remember that. The other one, he…he wanted to kill me. He did. It…it hurt.” He reached up to his neck. There was a slight red cut across this throat, no blood leaking out.

“It must’ve,” Yvonne said sympathetically. “I…well, if that happened for sure, I…” She hesitated, then blurted out the rest. “I can only conclude necromancy, but you’re too solid to be a spirit, and after two years, you’re too…there would’ve been some sign of decay, if you were brought back the other way.”

“Haha, my good looks.” He smiled a bit, the effect ruined by the blood on his teeth.

“Yeah, um, right.” Yvonne glanced towards the bathroom door. “Look, are you good now? I mean, there’s probably a whole trail from you throwing up blood all the way in here that I need to take care of. And as for you, uh…probably not a good idea to be in the bathroom if you’re gonna pass out or something.”

“Hmm…” He stood up, then started to list to the side. Yvonne caught him before he fell.

“Something’s wrong with you,” she muttered. “I mean, beyond the obvious. You feel…different.” She blinked, her eyes turning sky blue. Wisps of blue light, tinged with yellow at the ends, floated away from her fingers. “Révél e mai tamystiká oue animai,” she muttered.

“That’s a spell,” the man mumbled. “Anim, anim…root of something. Animal? Soul. Soul spell.”

“Yeah, that’s my specialty,” Yvonne said absentmindedly. “Yours, too. God, you must’ve been real…messed…up…” She trailed off. “Marvin…your soul is…” She could only gape. There were no words for what she was sensing.

“Mar—oh, that’s me! Me!” Marvin laughed, trying to step forward but quickly losing his balance, making Yvonne catch him. He didn’t notice; he was still laughing. “Me, me, me, just one, no actually, I think two, we think two, like there are two halves, but where’s the other one? Oh, oh. Where’s the difference? We need the other one, where is he, where is me?” A few more scattered laughs fell from his mouth.

“Shit, Marv.” Yvonne shook her head. “You need—” Suddenly, she stiffened, and her head whipped back towards the bathroom door. “Someone came in.” She shifted her position to see who it was, and her eyes widened. “Shit! Marvin, stay here, stay quiet.” She slowly set him down on the bathroom floor, still giggling to himself. Then quickly, she left the room, shutting the door behind her.

Marvin leaned his head against the closed door. “Me, me, we, me, we,” he whispered to himself, a few odd tears slipping from his eyes. Was there a difference between those words? He thought there might’ve been, once. But now they’ve blurred together. They meant the same thing, didn’t they? He wasn’t sure he liked that. Where did he stop? Where did the other begin? Or were they interchangeable? He definitely didn’t like how he didn’t know the answer to any of these questions.

There were voices coming from the other side of the door. He recognized Yvonne: “Ah, Mae, it’s a bit late for a raid, isn’t it? I tell you, this business has come clean.”

“We’d be fools to believe you at face value, Bell,” said another voice, one of an older woman. “But this isn’t us coming in to check on the legality of your wares.”

“Oh?” Yvonne sounded amused and confused.

“The Magi has done some poking around,” said the voice of Mae. “Set off by something I witnessed myself. Someone teleported directly into our library, disregarding all our shielding. This started an investigation, and after some searching, we have detected an oddly high amount of soul magic in this city.”

“Oh. Well, that’s…weird,” Yvonne said. “This someone must’ve been pretty powerful, to teleport directly there.”

“That’s besides the point,” Mae dismissed. “The soul magic is why we’re here. You are the only soul-based magician currently in the city.”

“Really?” Yvonne said, feigning intrigue. “I could’ve sworn there was another. I think he was some kind of stage magician?”

“Marvin Moore has been dead for over two years, leaving only you behind,” Mae said firmly. “And you have a record of disregarding ABIM laws.”

“I did, but I’ve turned over a new leaf,” Yvonne said. Her voice suddenly became serious. “I…learned about the results of my actions the hard way.”

“Nevertheless, this is a preliminary inspection,” Mae said. “We’re searching your shop, your storage, and your living area.”

“By all means, feel free.” Footsteps. “But if you’ll excuse me, I was just about to use the bathroom, so please.”

“Very well.” More footsteps, heading away.

Yvonne opened the door, slipping inside the bathroom again, keeping it closed enough to block Marvin from view of the other magicians now searching her shop. “Alright, that’s that,” she said under her breath. “Marvin, what the fuck have you been doing?”

“What have we been doing?” Marvin repeated idly. “Hmm…I can’t quite…it’s all jumbled.” He sighed, and closed his eyes.

“Marvin? Marvin are you—don’t you dare pass out on me! Not while there are ABIM agents in my shop! I need you to—Marvin!”

He felt her trying to shake him, but didn’t respond, already drifting. There was something missing. He felt it keenly. Or maybe he was the something that was missing. He couldn’t tell. The pieces wouldn’t settle.
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There was a place in the city where all the electric lines met. It was walled off with a high fence, barbed wire at the top, to make sure that no one would sneak in and get hurt. But the fence couldn’t stop the thing slithering across the ground, green and glowing like a radioactive snake. The thing was small enough to squeeze right through the links in the fence, though on the other side, it fell apart. It wasn’t one long, solid unit like it had initially appeared, rather a bunch of small green strings, their ends cut, all moving in unison.

The strings crawled across the gravel of the walled-off space. Here, the power lines gathered and buzzed, held high off the ground. Boxes were attached to poles, with yellow warning signs and instructions plastered on them. The strings gathered around one of these poles, snaking up and spiraling around it, heading towards the attached box.

Here, the various pieces broke apart, wiggling into the seam of the box and managing to pry it open. Once inside, they reacted with the fuses. Green electric sparks flew from the box, and soon it lit up, white-hot electricity flying outward, frying the circuits inside.

The strings fell to the ground, unharmed. And they headed to another one, repeating the same process. And once that was done, they headed to another. And another.

And once everything inside the walled area was broken and smoking, the strings headed out to another, similar part of the power grid.

Hours later, morning dawned over a city without any power at all.

Part Five of the Inverted AU
A JSE Fanfic
[This is part of a fic series I wrote from December 2018 to August 2021. Jack's been living with his housemates for a while, and they're a bit odd, but he doesn't see anything necessarily wrong. Until Anti posts a video on his YouTube channel, trying to get through to him.]
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Jack woke up with a pounding headache. For a moment, he tried to remember if there was a reason for that, but when he couldn’t come up with anything he gave up. Must just be a bad day. He groaned, and rolled over to look at the clock. It was nine-thirty. That meant it was time to get up. He sighed, then managed to pry himself away from his bed. He stumbled toward the dresser, grabbed some clothes, then considered taking a shower. He decided against it; he was too tired and the water would just wash out the color in his hair. After getting dressed he climbed down the stairs to the kitchen. And then he realized he could hear the shouting. Already? It was so early.

“Some of us have a personal life, unlike you, discount Punisher!”

“I have a personal life, bitch, I think the word you’re looking for is ‘limits,’ and in that case you’re the one lacking!”

“Well I’m fucking sorry that I want to do more with my life than jump around in spandex beating the shit out of criminals!”

“Do more with your life?! I’d say that—”

Jack walked into the kitchen, and everything immediately stopped. “Morning guys,” he yawned. “Glad to see we’re off to a fantastic start today.”

Nobody said anything. Jackie was standing by the toaster, glaring at Marvin, who was in turn standing behind the counter and glaring right back. Chase was sitting at the dining table, picking at his scrambled eggs. After an awkward silence, he looked up and said, “Hey Jack. Didja sleep well?”

“Yeah. I have a headache, though, so maybe I slept too long. Did someone make breakfast or is it a free-for-all?”

Chase pointed towards the fridge with his fork. “There’s still some leftover eggs from yesterday in there, but if you don’t want those you’re gonna have to fend for yourself.”

The toaster popped. Everyone jumped. The atmosphere in the room was way too tense for sudden noises. Jackie sighed, the plucked the two bagel halves out of the slots, then strolled over to the silverware drawer, grabbed a butter knife, grabbed some butter from the cupboard, and began applying said butter to the bagel. He did this all while not looking away from Marvin, who was standing still as a statue.

“You know what? I’m just gonna…grab some cereal.” Jack edged around the staring contest, quickly getting the box from the cupboard and some milk from the fridge before power-walking over to the table and sitting down next to Chase. “Where are the others?” he asked.

“Still asleep,” Chase explained.

“Yeah, I figured Schneep would be.” The doctor’s clinic was usually open all night, so his sleep schedule was pretty off. “But Jameson?”

“He was out late. You know that, uh…fuck I can’t remember what it’s called. The, like, police charity gala? He got an invitation and went.”

“Huh. Didn’t know he knew anyone in the police.”

“Apparently it’s a new thing.” Chase shrugged. He glanced over towards Jackie and Marvin. “Jesus, they’re still…hey, are you two losers goin’ to actually eat or are you too busy having a Mexican stand-off but with eyes?”

“Fuck off, Chase,” Marvin said automatically. “You know what? I have better things to do. See you guys later, unhopefully.” He turned and left.

“That’s not a word!” Jackie called after him, causing a flurry of purple sparks to shoot towards his head. He barely ducked in time.

“What is with you two?” Jack griped. “Why are you always about to tear each other’s throats out?”

Jackie sighed. “It’s just…he’s a dick, but he thinks I’m one.”

“Don’t worry about it, man.” Chase said. “It’s not like they’re out to murder each other or anything. It’s…well, maybe I should have done a personality assessment for potential roommates. They’re too different.” He shoved a bit of breakfast into his mouth before continuing. “Anyway, what were you planning on doing today? More recording, or do you want to go down to the shop with me?”

“Probably just the first thing.” Jack sighed. “But god, that’s gonna be hard with this headache.”

“You can do it, man! I believe you can power through it!”

“Thanks, dude.” Jack rubbed his head. “Guess I’ll have to, huh?”

“Yeah. But it’ll be okay. I promise.”

After a bit, Jack went back upstairs. Chase immediately turned to Jackie. “Dude, if you’re going to shout at Marvin, can you shout things that WON'T clue Jack in?” he hissed.

“What? What did I say?”

“It was what you were about to say. You were like, ‘more out of life, I’ll say that’ and then you stopped when Jack came in and I just know if he hadn’t you were gonna end up mentioning Marvin’s…you know.”

“Oh, you mean murdering people and worse in the basement?!”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I mean!” Chase coughed, uncomfortable. “Look, I get it, Marvin’s…yeah…but Jack can’t find out! He’ll freak, and you know that! Plus, you’re giving Jameson extra work and he has a life outside of us. I don’t think it’s a good idea to piss him off when he could decide to leave at any time.”

Jackie thought about this, then sighed. “Yeah, you’re right. But if I have to listen to him brag about his ‘discoveries’ one more time…” He didn’t finish the threat, just clenched his fist like he was dramatically squashing a bug.

Chase rolled his eyes. “You don’t have this problem with Schneep,” he muttered.

“Th-that—that’s different! Henrik’s a doctor, we need him. And he’s all…well…y’know, so I can’t blame him. Plus, he doesn’t call me a no-good do-gooder under his breath every time he sees me.” Jackie took a bite out of his bagel. “I’m goin’ upstairs to check the web, text me if you need anything.”

Chase gave a little salute. “Will do, Mr. Boy Man.”
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Jack took a break from recording around noon, coming back downstairs for a quick lunch before heading on to the next game. He passed Schneep and Jameson in the living room, the former curled up on a couch with headphones and his phone and the latter sitting in an armchair with a book. They weren’t talking, though for all he knew Jameson actually was but he was projecting to Schneep alone. Jack waved to them, but neither responded. That was okay. He made himself a quick sandwich/chips combo, ate fast, then went back upstairs.

“Jack! Wait a moment.”

Jack stopped where he was on the staircase, looking back down. “Yeah, doc?”

“You were not planning on going to the Pax this year, were you?”

“Uh…” Jack bit his lip, trying to remember. “No, I…I think I decided there was too much to do here, and travel was too hard.” He gripped the banister tightly. He was feeling dizzy all of a sudden, his vision going in spirals. “Anyway, why?”

“Well..” Schneep held his phone up for Jack to see. “…because there is now a video on your channel called ‘Pax Special Announcement/Surprise.’”

Jack felt his heart stop. “I…didn’t upload that. You don’t think…?”

“It is possible. I have not watched it yet. Do you want to join me?”

“Yeah. Yeah, that’ll be good.” Jack climbed back down the stairs, settling on the couch next to Schneep, leaning over his shoulder to stare at the tiny screen of the phone.

The video started out…normal. Jack, or someone who looked like Jack, began by saying “Well hello there! Before we get right into this, I just want to come right out and say I won’t be going to Pax this year. I’m really sorry guys, but unfortunately life is…being a bitch right now…” A small giggle. “And I just can’t make it. There’s so much planning that you need to put into travelling, and I’m still sort of behind on videos from the time I was sick—”

“When was I sick?” Jack blurted out.

{Back in January.} Both Schneep and Jack startled at the mental interjection. They looked over to Jameson. {Don’t you remember? It was after that disturbing dream you had, right before Marvin strengthened the wards. You were bedridden for a week, it was horrible.}

“Oh. Yeah, uh, now I remember. Thanks, dude.”

The “Jack” onscreen was still talking. “—actually originally planned on going, and I filmed a speci-sp̵e͏ci̧a̕l vide͏o͞ for you guys, to show there.” That glitch didn’t go unnoticed by Jack. “I figured it wouldn’t do anyone any good just sitting on my hard drive, so I might as well post it. But first, you guys have to do something. You know how much I love audience interaction, so what I need you to do is all take out your phones. Or, you know, your iPad, anything with a camera. I’ll just…wait a minute. This is—it’s kinda awkward, isn’t it? But you’re all ready now? Okay, so what you hav͟e͟ to ̧d͢o is—̢” The video was interrupted by a horrible, electronic breaking sound as the screen went black. But the visual came back, severely lowered in quality and lagging. “—place ̸yo̕ur̕ p̶h̡o̡ne̢ in͟ you̷r̕ ͝han̡d͝,̡ ̴an͝d ͝j͏ust—” another glitch to black.

Jack glanced at Schneep, who only gave him a worried look. Then, the video returned, red and green pixels flashing across the screen, partially hiding images that…they looked familiar to Jack. Maybe he played games like that? But they seemed more real than anything. Then, black. Nothing except for a question, echoing. “A͡re you ̷th̢ere?” Jack found he was nodding. Why was he nodding?

And then he was there. His appearance was slightly different, more align with Jack’s than his own, most noticeable in the green hair and the lack of an eye-patch. But there was no mistaking the knife, or the bloody bandages around his neck. “Lo͢o̕k ͞a̵t you al͝l̴! J͏u͢st sittiņg͟ ͟t̴here—y̷o̧u͝ tho̶u͢g̨ht it̵ wa͠s ov̶e̶r̛—no̶t͟ ̷w͝o̸rryi͏n͢g̨ a̵b̢o͝ut ͞a͝ny̧t͏h̵i̵ng͝. You a͝ll͞ t̢h͟ought I wa̶s ̶gon͞e͡…̵b͢ut̡ I͏'͟ve b̨e̸e͡n ḩere̴ this͡ ͏entire ̕t͡im͟e!͡ ̢Kee͏pi͢n̷g an—̶ e͏͖͖͉̗̞y͇̭̞͓̗̰͡e̫ ̮̥̜͖̞͕o̼̗̪̬̻̰̳̕n͖̥̫͍̫̝ ̤̣͟t͎hi͖̥̱n̡̻̞̭͉̲̱̖g̱̰̤̬̫̥ș̜. Yơu͢ stopped̨ pa̡yi̵ng ̡a͢t̶te̡nti͟on!̕ We͡l̶l, I̧ ho͏pe yo͏u're̛ happ̸y. You ca̡n't͢ se͏e the͞ ̛s͠ig͞ns.̛ Thręw m͢ȩ aside! Did̶n't̴ r̡e̵ad͏ t͢he ͝warn͝i̸n̛gs.̸ I'm̨ ͞not g̷o̸ing̕—͠a̢n̷yw̢he̵r͝e̕!̷ ͡I̸'m̨ ͡alwa̢y͡s ͝the̶re, Aļw̨ą͠ys̶ Wa͠t͟c̵h͞͞in̴̡g. They ca̶n̸'̛t͝ ̡get ri͢d ̧o͞f͞ m͟e.” One final cut, and…“E̕nj͏o̴y your ̴'vid̷e̢os͟.‘̷” The words sounded bitter.

A few more seconds of dark silence, and then the video ended. Jack leaned back. “What…what does it mean?” he asked, a tremble in his voice.

“I think it is a warning.” Schneep turned off his phone. “To your viewers, saying he is still there, and to us, saying he can get inside the channel whenever he wants. He could make how many fake videos and ruin your life.”

“He wouldn’t do that.” Jack didn’t know where the words had come from. Yes, of course he would, he was a monster, he was a demon…and yet…he had the strangest, niggling feeling in the back of his mind.

{Jack, I think your eye friend wants your attention.}

“Wh—Sam!” Jack looked over to the tank in the corner of the room. They’d made it relatively recently, because he hadn’t really…trusted them with the secret of Sam’s existence. But he’d decided they were safe. So he told them. He couldn’t remember the actual moment he did so, but how else would they have found out about Sam?

Jack rushed over to the tank. Sam had been bonking on the lid, looking at him. “What is it, bud?” Sam wanted to see the video. “Well, Schneep can bring his phone over—” No, that wouldn’t work. He scared Sam. “C’mon, Sam, you gotta get over this.” Sam would not. They knew something was off, they didn’t like the way he looked at them. “Well, if you insist. Hang on, I’ll open the tank and you can come upstairs, I’ll show you on my computer.” Sam thought that was a good idea.

With a little effort, Jack pried the lid off the tank and Sam burst out in a spurt of green liquid. They immediately settled on Jack’s shoulder. “Comfortable?” They were. “Alright. Hang on, then.” Jack dashed upstairs. Jameson and Schneep watched him go in silence.

“How do they talk?” Schneep asked. “It has no mouth but Jack understands it just fine!”

{I’m…not quite sure, to be honest,} Jameson admitted. {If it’s a form of telepathy it’s not one I can detect. Jack just seems to know what Sam is feeling. They are definitely connected somehow.}

“Fascinating…” Schneep turned his phone back on, opening up the YouTube video again. “I think we will have to go over this with the others, yes?”

{Indeed.} Jameson stood up, then took Jack’s vacant spot on the couch. {I could feel a definite shift in Jack during that video. I believe Anti thought it would help jog his memory.}

“But how did he do this? How did he reach into Jack’s channel? And how did he change his appearance to match closer to Jack’s? Can he shift shape?”

{My good doctor, I think you need to calm down and focus on the more immediately problem. Jack cannot remember.}

“True, true…but someday I want to find the answers to these questions. And maybe I can answer my questions about Jack’s eye as well. Anyway, will you need to undo his mess?”

{Hmm…perhaps not. I’ll wait until the end of the day to see if there’s any lasting effect. But if there is…I think I may need to strengthen my approach, if one glitch’s video can break through it without too much difficulty.}
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Jack was starting to get uneasy. After he showed Sam the video, he’d scrolled down through the comments, reading the viewers’ reactions. He thought he’d done something like this before…looking for the viewers freaking out in reaction to a video he posted. But when would that have happened? He was a gamer, he never uploaded anything this level of shocking. The closest it got was Halloween, but he’d been scared then because Anti was taking over…that…was how it went down, wasn’t it? He just couldn’t shake the feeling of the glitch over his shoulder, but not…in a hostile way…

Most of the comments were very typical. Along the lines of “Aaaaaaah oh my god Anti is here!!! Aaaaaaa!!!” But there were a couple theories, comparing this sudden dropped video to the Halloween one, which had been built up.

Well, if he was looking for theories, he needed to be on a different website. On a whim, he switched over and searched up the jacksepticeye tab, scrolling through the results. Lots more of the “Ohmigodanti” reactions. He kept refreshing the search, looking for new…yeah, he definitely remembered doing this before. Only now there was Sam with him, instead of…but that wasn’t possible.

Then, he came across a post. Just a single question: “Does anyone else think that Anti isn’t, well, particularly evil?” Reading that, Jack felt…he didn’t know how he felt. Like he’d just remembered something, but there was nothing there. Most of the responses to the post were like “He possessed Jack and slit his throat, how is that not evil?” and that seemed the rational response…it was, wasn’t it?

Boop. The sound of his text alert startled Jack out of his…whatever this was. He picked up his phone from where he’d dropped it on his desk and read the text from Chase: "Dude, are you coming down for dinner or what?"

“Yeah, yeah,” he muttered to himself. “Sam, you ready to go back in the tank or do you want to hang around a bit more? I…miss hanging out with you. We don’t do it as much.” Sam missed it too, but they wanted to return to the tank. It was safe, and they didn’t think his friends were. “They’re fine, Sam. If they wanted to, like, murder me they would have done it by now.” Sam was worried about him. “…thanks, bud. I appreciate it, but everything is okay.” Sam wasn’t sure about that, but if Jack insisted.
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Dinner was the only time when everyone was home and awake to eat at the same time, so it was usually an event. Jackie or Jameson usually cooked, and they all sat at the table and made (sometimes awkward) conversation. There wasn’t really a defined seating arrangement, but they all sort of fell into the same pattern. Jackie and Marvin sat as far away as possible from each other, Jack usually sat next to Chase, or sometimes Jameson or Jackie, Schneep usually sat near Jackie or occasionally Chase, and Jameson sat near Marvin. There were only so many ways to sit with those requirements.

It was spaghetti night, because neither Jackie nor Jameson felt like cooking and spaghetti was easy. Jack was hungry, but he couldn’t bring himself to do more than pick at the noodles. He had too many thoughts, and they all contradicted each other.

“You okay, Jack?” Jackie asked.

“Uh…yeah, I’m just…thinking.”

“About what?”

“Well…I don’t know.” Jack dropped the fork. “You all saw that video on the channel today?”

Everyone nodded. “Are you going to delete it?” Chase asked.

“Maybe. But…after watching it, I feel…” Jack put his head in his hands. “I feel…like I’m forgetting something. Or that something is wrong. And I keep thinking about Anti, and I think I have weird memories…and Sam is worried about me…”

“Okay, that’s cool.” Marvin didn’t seem to be paying attention. He kept glancing toward Jameson.

“Maybe your headache is just playing tricks on your brain, Jack!” Schneep suggested. “That is a thing that can happen if it is bad enough.”

“Really?” Jack was skeptical. He would know about that, wouldn’t he?

“I think you need to get your mind off things,” Marvin said. “Hey, Jameson and I are working on something, and we need a third person. You wanna help?”

“I…literally don’t know anything about magic.”

“Well, that’s okay. We just need you to observe what happens, take notes, tell us if you feel anything, like, psychically. Not too hard.”

“I don’t…” Jack paused. It wouldn’t hurt to help them out, would it? {No, it wouldn’t.} And it could help him forget this whole mess of a day…{it seemed like a good idea.} “Alright, if you insist. After dinner.”

And indeed, after they’d all finished Jack followed Marvin and Jameson down into the basement. The other three, stuck cleaning up, exchanged looks.

“You don’t think…this will have any side effects, do you?” Chase asked.

“I hope not,” Jackie muttered.

“What kind of side effects?” Schneep asked.

“I don’t know! Just!” Chase glared in the general direction of the basement door. “That’s my friend! And I don’t know if this new thing will work. Doesn’t it seem kind of risky to have two people doing the spell at the same time? Like, they’d distract each other?”

“I think it will be fine,” Schneep said dismissively. “Jameson is knowledgeable, and Marvin is very skilled. They will be fine together.”

“Well…I guess this is our best option,” Jackie said reluctantly. “Still never liked this whole…thing, but…”

“It will be fine.” Schneep’s voice left no room for argument. “You will see.”
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Jack woke up with purple at the edges of his vision. It faded away. He wondered why that was, and then he forgot what he was wondering about. He felt great.

To his surprise, when he came downstairs to get something to eat before starting the day, everyone was awake. That was something he’d only seen maybe twice since joining the household. Schneep, Jameson, and Marvin were all in the living room, and Chase and Jackie were sitting at the table eating in the kitchen/dining room. “Is there an event or something?” he asked. “Why is everyone awake? Did all our sleep schedules just align?”

“Oh hi Jack!” Chase said. “You feeling alright?”

“Yeah, actually. Pretty good! I might do some VR games today, full of that energy.”

“Nice, dude. Here, I got you some toast.”

“Aw, thanks.” As he sat at the table, munching, he felt…like he was forgetting something. “Hey, uh, what day is it?”

“Friday,” Marvin called from the living room.

“Uh, actually I meant date. I think my phone’s off.”

“It’s the tenth of March,” Jackie said. “Why?”

“I just felt like there was…something I was supposed to be doing. But I think it must be because I’m not at Pax this year. I had my panel scheduled for today until I had to cancel it.”

Chase shrugged. “Well, unfortunately travel difficulties don’t just go away.”

“Yeah.” Jack finished off the toast. “I’m goin’ back up now. You guys know where to find me.” He disappeared up the stairs.

Everyone left collectively relaxed. “Either he is a better actor than he thought, or he really does not remember what happened the day before yesterday.” Schneep breathed a sigh or relief.

“And…you’re sure I’ll never have to do that again?” Marvin asked, turning to Jameson. “I have more important stuff to do with my day.”

{Relax, Marvin.} Jameson waved away his concern. {Now that the spell’s set in motion, it can run on its own energy. It just needs to be kicked into gear every week or so, and that is something I can do on my own.}

“Alright. Okay. Good, we’re all good.” Chase laughed nervously. “God, that was close. We almost lost him.”
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Across the city, a screen was smashed. Then the smasher immediately regretted it. That security monitor was an important window into what the hell was going on in that house, he really needed to stop this.

Anti forced himself to breathe, the strange, steadying motion bringing him back down to earth. It was okay. He’d just adapt. First, he’d see if he could still reach Jack through the combination of the house’s wards and the mind spell, whichever spell it may be. Then, he’d get a new screen. Then, he’d figure out what, exactly, this new and improved method was. It was fine. It was fine. He just had to try again. Some of the keener fans were starting to catch on, though they still thought this was all a game. So that was a helpful thing that came out of this.

But still, it stung knowing he’d almost had him back.