Part Thirteen of the Inverted AU
A JSE Fanfic
[This is part of a fic series I wrote from December 2018 to August 2021. Chase is determined to talk to Stacy again, despite her obvious avoidance. They finally confront each other about what's been happening, and it doesn't exactly go in Chase's favor.]
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He’d given her a phone number after their last meeting, telling her to call or text him if she ever got in trouble. Stacy wondered exactly how the number worked, if it led to an actual phone or if it connected to somewhere in digital space that only Anti could access. Either way, she hadn’t expected to use it so soon. It was May 20th, three days after he last showed up. She was sitting in the front room, having just dropped off the kids at school. In one hand, she clutched the letter. In the other, she typed out a one-handed text on her phone, and sent it.

And just a few minutes later, the lights overhead flickered, and Anti appeared, leaning against the television. Where he made contact with the screen, it flickered with colors. “So what’s the problem?” he asked.

Stacy didn’t say anything, just held out the letter. Anti stared at it. Then all of a sudden she wasn’t holding it anymore, he was, and he was reading it intently. His eye got narrower the longer he read. “When did this happen?”

“That same night after you told me they could be tracking me,” she said quietly. “I—I think they were.”

Anti looked up. “Do you want to keep this?” he asked, holding up the letter.

Stacy bit her lip. “I…don’t know.” She really didn’t. Obviously, it would be better to get rid of it, to move on. But it was hard. Mostly because it had actually been a really sweet letter. For a moment, she could almost forget everything that happened between the two of them, and pretend they were back in university, having the time of their lives swept up in the early years of young love. Before the stress of working two jobs to provide for the kids, before the financial problems, before the alcohol and the fights and everything else. She knew it was impossible to go back, but she liked the reminder of happier days.

“How about…I keep it for you, and you can text me if you ever want to read it again?” Anti proposed. When Stacy nodded, the letter disappeared, falling apart into fading pixels.

She took a deep breath. “I…I’m sorry for calling you over something so little. But…I just needed to talk to someone about that. Figure out what to do.” She laughed. “And also, I-I guess it would be good for you to-to get an update on the stalking situation.”

He shook his head. “Come on. It’s fine. It’s just how humans work, talking about a situation makes it less big and scary. Though I do wonder if you don’t have other people to talk to.”

“I have some friends,” she said defensively. “A lot of them I know from work now, or they’re parents to the kids’ friends. But…I don’t th-think they could help, um, with this.” She folded her arms, shrinking into the couch cushions. “Not only would it be weird to tell them I think my ex is magically stalking me, but they don’t…they don’t even know everything that happened. Just that I’m divorced and it’s a sore subject. I think Shelly assumed there was an affair somewhere. Dunno if that’s better or worse.”

Anti shrugged. “If you’re asking me for romance advice, you’re absolutely talking to the wrong person. I don’t much care for it.”

“Do you care for any sort of connection?” Stacy asked impulsively. Then she regretted it when she saw how much his expression darkened. He looked over his shoulder at the television screen. Colors flashed wildly on it. “S-sorry,” she mumbled.

“Accepted,” he said, voice blank. “You can keep talking if you want.”

Stacy looked down, face getting red. She couldn’t bring herself to say anything for a while, and the room was silent except for a low electric whine. “It…it was a nice letter,” she finally said, voice so quiet she wasn’t sure he could hear her. “That’s why I didn’t know if I wanted to get rid of it. I th-thi-think the only thing that was…you know…was that there was a moment he said he couldn’t live without me. That might be…you know, a reference. Or it could just be trying to be romantic. Worked for both, the way it was written.” She sighed. “I don’t know when it happened for him. I know when it happened for me, but I don’t know when…when he stopped loving me. If he ever did in the first place.”

He was quiet, for long enough that she started wondering if she’d somehow upset him. Until he spoke again. “I think he still loves you,” he said. “Sure, it’s a dysfunctional kind of love, and his way of showing it is pretty fucked, but in his mind, he still loves you. I don’t know if that makes any of this better or worse, but I think it’s true.”

“…maybe,” she sighed. “Maybe. I don’t know.” She blinked rapidly. “Thanks, by the way. For just…listening. I know it must be interrupting something important, so I…I really appreciate it.”

“I can always catch up on security footage,” Anti shrugged. “And I can check the city’s cameras at the same time I listen to you.”

“You can?”

“Of course. I can be in multiple places at once.” He said this casually, as if he wasn’t currently breaking the laws of physics. “And so far, nothing’s happened. I don’t have anywhere to be until I need to try another dream contact tonight.”

Stacy hesitated before asking, “Dream…contact?”

The TV screen flickered with colors again. The overhead light switched off and on again. “Yes,” Anti said shortly. “It’s just…an attempt to jog some memories.”

She dropped the subject. Clearly, whatever this was, it was a bit too close to home for Anti. “Alright.” She turned around, looking out the window. “What…what are we gonna do about this? They’ve found me, and…I don’t want to…” She couldn’t find the words.

Anti was quiet, thinking. “I already gave you the phone number. That was what I planned to do about this. I could go out and confront him, but it could go badly for you if word got back to the others that I’m helping you out. If you want, I could put some cameras around your house. Or even inside.”

“Maybe outside,” she said. She briefly wondered where, exactly, he got the cameras, but if he could hack bank accounts just by thinking, she figured he didn’t have any problem with breaking in to more…material places. “Just around. So you can keep a closer eye on things. Doesn’t the neighborhood have cameras by itself?”

“A few, but this is one of the safer areas so there’s some blind spots that someone could easily use to sneak around undetected.”

Well, that was worrying. “Yeah, I think just around the house cameras would be helpful,” she said, standing up. “While you do that I-I’m going to go to the shop, get some food. Is that okay?”

“Hey, it’s your house. Your groceries. I don’t care.”

“Okay.” She took a deep breath. “I’ll…I’ll see you later, then.”
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The grocery run to the shop should’ve been easy. But as soon as she left the house, Stacy once again felt like she was being watched. She assumed that this feeling was the result of being tracked, and since she couldn’t do much about that, she forced herself to ignore it. It faded as soon as she got to the grocery store. But she didn’t quite relax.

And it turned out she was right not to.

She was in the cereal aisle, picking up her son’s favorite sugary excuse for breakfast food. She glanced to the side for a mere moment, and saw a head duck away at the end of the aisle. It looked like someone had been peering down the stacks towards her. And she knew who it was. She’d recognize that hat anywhere.

For a moment, she stared, her feet frozen to the ground. She forced herself to take deep, even breaths. She knew it was happening. But that didn’t stop the squirmy feeling in the pit of her stomach. Her first instinct was to turn and run, but…maybe it was getting rid of the letter, maybe it was her brief conversation with Anti, it didn’t matter which. All that matters was that she realized she had a chance, right here, right now, to put a stop to this. She took a deep breath, then pushed her cart down the aisle toward the spot where she’d seen him. He wasn’t at the end, but when she turned into the next aisle, she spotted him. “Hello, Chase.”

He looked as shocked to see her as she’d been to see him. Maybe he hadn’t been expecting her to confront him. She hadn’t even been expecting that. “H-hi, Stacy,” he said.

“What are you doing here?” she asked tiredly.

“Oh, uh, y’know, just getting groceries. It’s a weekly chore in—in the house.”

“You don’t have a cart,” she pointed out.

“I left it back at the beginning of the aisle. It gets heavy.”

“Chase. No more excuses.”

His mouth opened, perhaps to deliver a pre-prepared denial, but then it snapped close again. “I…wanted to see you.”

“You’ve been wanting to see me for a while, then, haven’t you?” Stacy said, staring. “Chase, I’m not blind. I know you’ve been following me.”

“I…yeah.” He shoved his hands deep in his pockets. “I know it’s creepy, but I just —I needed to make sure you were…okay. I needed to see you.”

“Have you been following the kids too?” she asked.

Chase shook his head. “No, I didn’t—they’re always around someone who would freak out. And, well, a grown man hanging around the elementary school would seem a little suspicious.” He paused. “Are they…doing okay? Physically and, like, mentally? Do they…miss me?”

They did. They’d been quieter ever since the separation. “They’re fine,” Stacy said simply. “Healthy, in both ways. And emotionally too, as far as I’m aware.”

“That’s good.” He took a deep breath. “Stacy—”

“No.” She was surprised at how firm her voice was. “Chase, I don’t want to listen to you. Last time I did, you managed to convince me to stay, and another year passed with no change at all. And if you’re—if you’re fucking stalking me instead of showing up at my house like a normal person would, I think that’s a sign that everything’s still the same.” Her voice softened a little. “It’s better this way, Chase. I can’t—can’t help you the way you think I can. I can’t make everything alright just by being there and telling you it’s going to be okay. And the kids are in a better environment now, one where we don’t have to worry about them overhearing raised voices or finding empty bottles. So just…just leave, okay? Find a better way.”

Chase’s eyes widened. His hands, now out of his pockets, were shaking. “No, no you can’t—Stacy, you can’t just—everything was better when we were together. We were all happy. A family.”

“At first, yeah. But things change. You changed. And I stopped being happy the way you were.” Stacy sighed. “Let’s just leave it here, please?”

He was speechless, wide-eyed. “You can’t…just leave again. At least listen to me.”

“I can’t, Chase,” she said softly. “Every time I listen to you, you convince me to stick with these…these bad habits.” She took a few steps back. “I’m…going to check out now. Don’t follow me.”

“Stacy?” He reached out, but then froze, hand dropping back to his side. “I…I love you.”

Stacy stared at him, her eyes pools of sadness. “I loved the person you were.” And with that, she turned and left. Something…something had changed. She breathed more easily now. There was still a tight knot inside her, one she’d have to work to unravel, but…it had loosened, just enough. She didn’t look behind her as she walked away.
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Chase remained rooted to the ground. She…she hadn’t even heard him out. He hadn’t even been ready to talk to her yet, despite all this time trying to find the words to say. He could feel the hot tears coming, so he squeezed his eyes shut until they went away. Why…why did everyone leave? Well, it might have something to do with him. Him and the hot pile of garbage that was his personality. But she…she stayed before. What changed? Why couldn’t everything go back to the way it was before? He needed this. He needed it to be like that.

An inkling of an idea dripped down into his mind. For a moment, he recoiled. But then, thinking about it further…he’d already done it, hadn’t he?

Chase pulled out his phone, opening up his messages. He typed out a simple text: "Hey do you remember that idea you had a while ago?"

The reply was almost instantaneous. "Of course I do! Did you something happen to change your mind?"

"I guess you could say that. Not exactly tho. Im still sure i can do it, i just need her to sit down and listen to me. But shes not gonna do it shes gonna keep walking away. She just needs to stop doing that."

"I see your problem. I’m sure I can get her to come down for a visit. You can have your chance to convince her, and if that fails, well. My original offer still stands."

"No. This is different. I can do it on my own."

"If you insist, Chase. I’ll swing by tonight, if that works for you."

"Yeah, thats fine."

Chase took a deep breath. He was really going to go through with this, wasn’t he? God, this was like something you heard on the news, not something you ever thought about doing.

But…he’d already done worse, hadn’t he? What was one more sin, as long as it was in the name of love? And if that didn’t excuse it…well, he’d long ago accepted that he was the villain.

Part Twenty-Three 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 set about finding information and people that will help in their investigation into where Anti took Schneep and JJ. Meanwhile, Mina continues to gather information about what happened to Schneep during the time she was away—turning to unlikely sources to do so—and Anti continues his attempts to manipulate Jameson.]
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Someone was at the front door. They had been for the past minute or so, knocking regularly every couple seconds. Given the very clear ‘No Solicitors’ sign out front, this person was either a very stubborn salesman or visiting for some other reason.

But Jennifer Newson—formerly Dr. Newson, now unsure if she had the right to call herself that—didn’t trust visitors who dropped by without a call. They were usually strangers, and not the nice kind who were all “Oh I baked too many cookies so I’m delivering them to the neighborhood!” No. Recently, all the unexpected visitors she had were either journalists or there to tell her what an awful person she was. Which…they had a point. But it didn’t give them the right to harass her.

Still, out of curiosity, she peeked through the peephole in the door. The visitor was a dark-haired woman, wearing a brown jacket. She kept checking the time on her phone. Worried about something? Did she have somewhere to be? That possibility only further intrigued that curiosity. Newson hesitated, then slowly opened the front door a crack. “…hello?”

“Hello, I am sorry to bother you.” The woman’s voice was instantly familiar. Or rather, her accent was. “I just wanted to ask you some things. You are Newson, yes? The doctor who was on trial?”

“Why are you asking?” Newson narrowed her eyes suspiciously. She’d instantly known where she heard that accent before, and her mind was already forming connections. Could this woman know Henrik von Schneeplestein? A friend, perhaps? If she was, there could only be unpleasant reasons for this visit.

“I wanted to talk to you,” the woman said. “My name is Mina Pfeiffer—”

“You’re his ex?!” Newson blurted out.

“No! No, we are not exes,” Mina said. “We may have separated, but we did not get a divorce. It is different, a-and for different reasons. Anyway, can I talk to you?”

Newson was too shocked to say anything at first. What was Henrik’s ex-wife—or separated wife, whatever—doing here? Again, Newson was struck by the thought that nothing good could come from this. “I’m sorry, I’m actually uhhhh busy right now.” She started to slowly close the door. “You know how it is. Sorry.”

“Wait!” Mina hurriedly put her foot in the door, just in time to prevent it from closing. “This is not what you think! I am not angry with you.”

…That was even more unexpected than her appearance in the first place. Newson was stunned into silence again, for a significantly longer period of time, as she processed the possibility that someone so close to Henrik wasn’t angry at her. Was this…a trick?

Mina tried to fill the silence. “I know, I probably should be. And I have to be honest: I cannot say I…like you. But I need to—I-I need to know everything that happened. I have seen the news stories, and I’ve talked to the other doctor at the hospital, but…I-I don’t know. I do not know. I think you could help.”

Newson couldn’t help but laugh. Without opening the door any further, she said, “If you saw the trial, you know I was fucking awful to your husband. Why would you want my help for anything?”

“Because nobody will talk to me!” Mina’s voice cracked. “His friends hate me, Dr. Laurens was nice but I know she cannot discuss details. I even tried to find some of Henrik’s coworkers, but they were all busy and awkward and didn’t want to talk to me. I-I have—” She let out a small breath, heavy with exhaustion, and ran her hand through her hair. “I have been trying so hard to make up for the lost time. I-I need to talk to him so badly. But then, Dr. Laurens says he is…gone. Again. That he has been taken. So I cannot do that, a-and I…might not be able to ever again.” She pauses, blinking.

Unconsciously, Newson has opened the door a bit. It was…scary. Having someone so close to you disappear. She knew that. “You never know. The police could find him,” she said gently.

“But if they do not, I am missing this time,” Mina said quietly. “I need…I need to know what happened to him while I was gone. So that I can…” She pauses significantly, hesitating to finish that sentence. “I just need to know. Everything. You are the last person I can talk to.”

Newson laughed again, grimly. “Things must be really bad, then.”

Mina didn’t say anything more. She just…looked at her.

After a few moments, Newson sighed, and opened the door. “Alright. I can talk to you about him. It’ll put me in a horrible light, but I’ll help.”

Mina brightened up immediately. She started to step forward, but then hesitated. “You will tell me…everything you know? Even though it will make you look bad?”

“Yeah. I mean, I can’t hide from it, you know? I was…terrible. Can’t pretend I wasn’t, that’s how you stay stuck.” Newson sighed. “At least, that’s what Tom says.”

“Who?”

“My, uh…counselor,” Newson said awkwardly. “I should have gone to see someone sooner, but—a-anyway, I get it. You’re missing someone, so you’re trying to do what you can to make up for that. Seeking out information is pretty harmless.” At least compared to what she herself did in that same situation. “So…yeah, you can come on in. You don’t have to stay, though. If you decide you actually do hate me.”

A pause. “Thank you very much,” Mina said, her voice almost a whisper.

“You’re welcome, I guess.” Newson stepped aside so Mina could come in. She really hoped this wouldn’t turn out to be a mistake.

But…somehow, she didn’t think it would be. Maybe it was because…for the first time in a while, she felt there was someone who knew, if only a little.
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“I must say, I’m surprised to see you, Mr. Brody. Is everything okay? People don’t usually just drop by the police station.”

Chase laughed awkwardly, shifting in his chair. For some reason, he was flashing back to the couple times he’d gotten in trouble in elementary school. Probably because it was the same setup, with him sitting across from an authority figure sitting at a desk. But this was different. Detective Nix was much nicer than his school principal. Of course, he also had the power to get him in much more trouble. So maybe that was why he was a bit nervous. “No, everything’s fine. I was heading somewhere else and this was on the way. I, um…I wanted to ask you about something.”

“Oh?” Detective Nix idly straightened some of the papers on his desk. “And what is it?” He sounded like he already had a good idea.

“Well…” Chase hesitated. “I just wanted to know if you could…like…tell me how the case is coming along. With the search. And stuff.”

Nix nodded, his expectations fulfilled. “You know you could have called me. You still have the number I gave you, right?”

“Yeah. But, uh, like I said, it was on the way.” Chase laughed again. God, why was he laughing? That didn’t sound suspicious at all. Not that there was any reason to suspect him of anything illegal. Nope. Just nerves. “Anyway…do you guys have anything new? Figured out?”

A pause. Then, Nix sighed. “Mr. Brody. If you’re worried about us being able to find Anti and your friends, you don’t have to. The police force is very capable, after all.”

“You didn’t manage to track down Anti or Schneep during those nine months.” Chase immediately regretted saying that the moment the words left his mouth. He hadn’t meant to; it was just a knee jerk sort of reaction.

But, surprisingly, Nix gave him a small smile. “Well. That’s true. But that was because this Anti was well-supplied, with various stashes and safe houses across the city, and probably outside of it as well. Now, we know about his existence, we’ve found many of those safe houses and confiscated their contents. And, with your help, we’ve even uncovered his website on the dark web. He’s running out of places to hide, and it’s really only a matter of time before we corner him.”

Chase nodded. “I know, I know. I’m not doubting you guys or anything. I don’t know why I said that, really. Sorry.” He took a deep breath. “But…even knowing you guys are on the case, I’m still worried. A bit less worried, but…still. That doesn’t just go away. And I’d really like to get updated on what’s happening. Preferably…frequently? If it’s not too much trouble.”

Nix stared at him. The silence that followed could not have been longer than a few seconds, but it felt like minutes to Chase. What he said, about being worried, that was true. But he and Marvin had decided they would no longer sit on the sidelines and wait for something to happen. They were going to look into this on their own. Which required information. And that was the true main purpose of his stop by the police station.

It was also why he was so nervous. Sure, doing an investigation on their own time wasn’t illegal. There was nothing saying that only the police could look into cases. Private investigators existed, after all. Not to mention true crime shows and podcasts did their own amateur investigations anyway, and those weren’t against the law.

But still. He was nervous. If Nix, an experienced detective, figured out what they were planning and tried to talk them out of it, Chase was worried he would cave easily and give up. And that meant going back to just watching…and waiting…and worrying. And he was so tired of that. He so badly wanted to help, and this was what he could think of doing.

“Alright, I can tell you a couple details,” Nix finally said, breaking the silence. He leaned back in his chair and pulled open one of his desk drawers. “Just so you know we’re on the case.”

Chase slumped in relief. “Thank you.”

“It’s no problem.” After a short moment, Nix pulled out a file and set it on the desk, opening up to a printed street map of the city. “Here’s an example of our progress.” He pushed the map towards Chase, which had circles and dots on it in pen. “Those circles are where we suspect Anti has safe houses and weapon stashes. If it’s crossed out, that means we’ve found something there. Those two scribbles were mistaken locations.”

Chase looked over the map. “That’s a lot of X’s,” he muttered. There were about ten circles drawn on the map, and only three remained un-crossed out.

“Exactly.”

“How’d you find all these places?”

“Well, it appears that Anti has himself a symbol. Hang on.” Nix pulled a loose piece of notebook paper out of the stack on his desk, then grabbed a pen from the nearby cup and started drawing. “It’s a semi-common practice, often used in gangs. It signals to other gangs, as well as anyone deep in the black market or various criminal enterprises, that this territory belongs to them. Anti seems to be using it for a similar purpose. Possibly to either attract his ‘customers’ or warn off threats.” And Nix slid the drawing across the table to Chase.

At first, the symbol appeared simple. A circle, inside a diamond, inside a square. But in actuality, it was a bit different. The ‘circle’ was actually a dot inside a hollow circle, and the left and right corners of the diamond were curved. The overall impression was that of an eye tilted ninety degrees so it was vertical instead of horizontal. “Huh.” Chase furrowed his brow. “Isn’t that…the one…?”

“That your friend Henrik saw, that led us to finding the first safe house with your friend Jackie inside,” Nix nodded. “It was painted on the street sign, but we’ve also found it scratched on fences and spray-painted on building walls. Never any bigger than hand-sized. It always means that Anti has something nearby.”

“That seems…kinda stupid, honestly,” Chase muttered. “If someone figures it out, it’s all over.”

Nix shrugged. “Gangs usually bank on the safety of numbers, thinking we’d be too scared to get in a fight with them. But in this case, we know it’s just one person. Not as much risk.”

Chase nodded slowly. “Um…can I keep this?”

“Sure.” Nix shrugged.

“Thanks.” Chase folded up the paper and put it in his coat pocket. “Uh…do you have any ideas…where Anti himself could be?”

“Hopefully, at one of these remaining locations,” Nix said, gesturing at the map again. “We haven’t found the symbol at any of these places yet, but we’re looking. And if he’s not in any of those, well, there’s only so many places in one city someone can hide.”

Again, Chase nodded. But what if…what if they weren’t in the city? What if Anti had fled, taking Jameson and Schneep with him? He pushed the thought out of his head. No, he shouldn’t assume things that they had no proof of. That wasn’t good for his mental state, he knew. “Thanks, Detective,” he said, standing up. “Can you…You have my number, right?”

“I’ll call you with any updates,” Nix assured him.

“Thanks.”

Nix tilted his head. “You have a good day.”

“Yeah, you too. Bye.”

“Goodbye.”

Chase turned around, trying not to walk too fast as he left the police station. He came for information, and he was walking away with some. Not as much as he would have liked. But it was a start.
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Marvin took a deep breath as he stood outside the door. It was cool. Everything was okay. Nothing to worry about. In fact, shouldn’t he be happy? He was visiting a friend, one they had feared they’d never see again. That was great. He was just anxious. That’s all.

He cleared his throat, and stepped inside the room.

Jackie yelped, sitting straight up in bed and wildly looking around. He calmed down when he noticed Marvin, but still looked a bit shaken. “By jesus! Marvin!” He leaned forward, breathing out. “You almost gave me a heart attack.”

“Sorry, I thought you’d noticed me. I mean…the door is open. I was standing right there.” Marvin shifted awkwardly on his feet.

“You were. I was just, uhh…not paying attention,” Jackie said.

Marvin narrowed his eyes. The TV wasn’t on. Jackie didn’t have a book or a phone or computer. When Marvin had approached the doorway—and stood there for quite a while—Jackie had just been staring at nothing. Marvin assumed he didn’t say anything for some other reason, but…“Daydreaming again?”

“Yeah,” Jackie mumbled. “But hey. You’re here now. C’mon, sit down.” He gestured to a nearby chair.

Walking closer to the hospital bed, Marvin grabbed said chair and pulled it over. He sat down slowly. “So…How are you?”

“Uhhhh good, I guess. I mean, all things considered.” Jackie shrugged. “I can, like, walk better. But apparently I still have to stay in bed most of the time, unless it’s for physical therapy. Kind of boring. But that’s fine.”

“You’re…impatient, right?” Marvin asked. “It’s only been like two weeks, you know. This kind of thing doesn’t just fix itself overnight.”

“No, no, I know that.” Jackie waved off Marvin’s comment. “Doesn’t make it better, though.”

“Yeah.” Marvin nodded understandingly.

“Especially since…” Jackie hesitated. Then he scooted a bit closer to Marvin. “I met up with Jack a few days ago. He told me…he told me that Anti got Schneep again.” His voice cracked.

“…he did,” Marvin growled. “Fucking freak.”

Jackie was gripping the edge of the hospital blankets. He squeezed them tight, wringing them back and forth. “I—I can’t stop thinking about it,” he said quietly. “Schneep…Hen. The thought of—Anti—and Hen being stuck there again, it’s—it’s just awful.”

Marvin nodded awkwardly. He wasn’t sure if Jackie was looking for reassurance or just venting his anxieties. “Do you…want to talk about it?”

“About what?”

“I—I don’t know. Why it’s so awful, I guess.”

Jackie looked at Marvin directly in the eyes—something that his friends rarely did, since they knew how Marvin wasn’t comfortable with eye contact. “Because Anti is FUCKING TERRIBLE,” Jackie said, dead serious. “Nobody else was there. I know how he interacted with Schneep. I-it was…” Jackie took a deep breath. “Are you sure you want to hear about this?”

“If you want to talk about it,” Marvin said evenly.

“I-it was just—the things he DID, Marvin. It was like the whole thing was a game for Anti. I mean, I wasn’t there for all of it. Hen and I were separated a lot, I was stuck in the basement most of the time and he was upstairs. But what I did see a-and experience…fuck, man. I’d go a few days without seeing Schneep, maybe even a week or two, and then he’d show up again, a-and he’d just be a wreck. Half the time, he’d be sobbing because of what Anti made him help with. The other half, he wouldn’t even know where he was, o-or what he was doing there, because Anti would feed him a bunch of these lies, fucking… DELIBERATELY twisting his delusions.” Jackie shuddered, his tone disgusted. “Fucking…evil. Evil is the only word I can say.”

He paused, but then continued. “I-I remember one time, Schneep came down the stairs, and I had to just sit with him because he was terrified. He kept saying ‘Anti gets power from speaking his name,’ over and over, in English and German, too. Crying about Anti’s eyes being in the ceiling, or something. Calling him some sort of shadow monster. A-and I had to—I had to help him. He was having another panic attack, and I had to ground him.” Jackie’s eyes grew distant. “It…it hardly ever worked. Usually he just wore himself out and eventually fell asleep. I wonder if Anti was drugging him or something. Using some sort of substance to make it all worse. Because…it never worked. It never worked. He was just so…so scared of it all.”

Marvin couldn’t say anything. He was stunned, shocked speechless. Even if he could put the horror he felt into words, his throat had closed up. All he did was shake his head.

Jackie buried his face in his hands. He took a few more deep breaths, until the shakiness eventually subsided. “Sorry, Marv,” he mumbled. “You didn’t come here to hear all my trauma.”

“U-uh a-act—” Marvin struggled on his words for a bit before giving up and turning to sign language. 'Actually…I did come here to talk about something serious. I guess it’s related.'

Jackie looked up at him. “What d’you mean?” he asked cautiously.

'Chase and I are going to investigate,' Marvin said. 'We’re going to find out where Anti is, and where Schneep and JJ are.'

“…what.” Jackie blinked. “You…are going to…Marvin. I’m not sure if you know this, but that’s exactly how I got kidnapped. And I have experience in investigation.”

'We’re not going to confront him or anything. Might not even go to any physical places. But we have to do SOMETHING,' Marvin emphasized. 'So, if we can at least figure that out, we can tell the police and they can do all the dangerous shit.'

“…okay.”

Marvin made a strange choking sound. “Y-you—just—like that?!”

Jackie smiled sadly. “I told you, right? I can’t stop thinking about Schneep being back there. And JJ, too, fuck. Anti was pulling every trick in the manipulation book on him, and it’s probably even worse now. So. Yeah. What can I do to help?”

Honestly, Marvin hadn’t expected it to be this easy. He didn’t know if Jackie would want to talk about the serious stuff. But apparently, he did. So…might as well. “Um…just talk about what you remember, I guess. Like, any details that might help find him.”

Jackie nodded. “Right. Of course. This detective came by a while ago, asked about the same thing. Only fair that you guys know too. Apparently the police have found a whole bunch of locations, including the first house.”

“First house?”

“The one Schneep and I were trapped in,” Jackie explained. “And Rya, too—er, Dr. Laurens. You know her?” He waited for Marvin to nod. “Yeah. She was there for a bit, but she escaped. And after that happened, Anti moved me back to that second house, where the police eventually found me. Well.” He paused, thinking about it. “Actually, I was in that flat for a while.”

“…you were in an apartment?” Marvin asked, confused. “Do the police know about that?”

“Yeah, yeah, I told them, too. It was—okay, let me start over.” Jackie sat up straight, holding his hands out in front of him as if indicating the length of something. He gestured vaguely along this imaginary length, silently getting his thoughts in order. Putting together a timeline. “Okay. I track down Schneep. He’s in this house with Anti, and I get caught and also kept there. That’s the first house. After months, Anti abandons Schneep or something, and for some reason takes me to this flat. I don’t remember much of that trip, I was drugged for most of it. But eventually, we go back to the first house. Rya—Dr. Laurens—is there for a while, then she escapes, and Anti takes me back to the flat. I think he was out of sedatives, because I was conscious for this. Then JJ gets caught, and Anti takes us to a second house, where we stay until he decides to take just JJ…and Schneep, apparently. And leaves me behind.”

Marvin nods. “So, those two trips to an apartment. You’re sure it was the same place both times?”

“Uh-huh. I recognized the wallpaper and stuff.” Jackie shrugged. “Probably not all that reliable, considering the drugging I mentioned before, but I’m like 90% sure.”

“Huh.” Marvin pulled his fingers. “Sounds like he retreats to this apartment or wherever when things get tight for him. It sounds like the two times he brought you there, he was worried about information about him getting out through Schneep or Dr. Laurens.”

“I thought so, too,” Jackie muttered.

“Do you think he’s there now?”

Jackie blinked. “Huh?”

“I mean…if he goes there when shit gets rough, and the last times he did was because he lost a hostage or whatever, wouldn’t he do it now?” Marvin reasoned. “After all, you could tell the police information same as Schneep or Laurens.”

“…huh. I…hadn’t thought of that.” Jackie sat back, and considered it. “But…I know about this flat. Would he risk going there?”

“You don’t know anything about what’s outside, though, right? And that’s what’s important.”

“You’re right, I don’t.” Jackie looked at Marvin, impressed. “Good job, man. I didn’t catch that possibility. You ever think about being an investigator?”

“Nope. Sounds like too much pressure.” Marvin shrugged.

“But…you’re doing investigator stuff right now.”

“Yeah, but only for JJ and Schneep. I can’t imagine doing it for strangers like you do. Seems…overwhelming,” Marvin said carefully.

Jackie gave him a small smile. “Well…if you ever change your mind.”

“I’ll make a note of that.” Marvin returned the smile, then dropped it, going back to the serious matter at hand. “Now. Is there anything else you remember?”
.............................................................................................

Laurens wasn’t sure why she continued to come in to work. She hadn’t had anything to do for the past two weeks. Dr. Fells didn’t want to assign her any more patients because of the “pressure she must be under,” and without patients, there was nothing for a psychiatrist to do.

Yet, it seemed a good thing that she kept clocking in. Because visitors kept coming here looking for her.

She was working the front desk today. Technically, she didn’t HAVE to, but again, there was practically no job for her without anyone to work with. So, she volunteered to take over the desk during her shift so that busier people could do their duties. She was idly playing solitaire on the desktop computer when the front door opened. And when she looked up, she saw a pair of familiar faces.

“Oh cool, you’re just right here.” Chase smiled and waved at her, quickly closing the distance between them as Marvin followed.

Laurens nodded at them, faintly surprised. “Um…hello. What are you two doing here? You know, now that…” She hesitated to say it. “Well, there’s no reason to.”

“We, uh, wanted to talk to you, actually.” Chase fidgets with the zipper on his jacket. “See…we had this idea. We really wanted to, like, do something to help. You know? A-and we thought…you might want to help, too?”

Laurens stared at him over the edge of the desk. “Sorry, I’m a bit confused. Help what?”

“Uh—”

“So you remember how I broke in here?” Marvin asked. “To do some investigating? We’re gonna do more of that.”

“Breaking and entering?!” Laurens asked, alarmed.

“No, investigating!” Marvin hurried to correct. “We’re probably not gonna break into anywhere.”

“He means we’re DEFINITELY not going to do that!” Chase added, somewhat panicked. “Because that’ll be illegal and dangerous!”

“Okay, okay, you don’t have to be so loud about it.” Laurens was still unsure what the two of them were proposing. “What do you mean by investigating?”

Chase coughed, clearing his throat. He leaned closer to Laurens, across the front desk. “We’re going to try and find Schneep and JJ.”

Laurens blinked. “…wait. You mean…like vigilantes?”

“We were thinking more like private eyes,” Marvin said.

“But…don’t you need a license for that?”

“Actually, no,” Chase said. “I mean, you CAN get one. It gives you some credibility. But it’s not required by law, according to Jackie. At least, not in the UK.” He paused. “HE has one, though. Says it makes it a lot easier. But, uh…we’re not becoming investigators. We’re just…looking for them. On our own. And…we wondered if you wanted to help.”

“I…” Laurens had to process this. Honestly, it seemed like a very dumb idea. Because…what if, in the course of looking for their friends…they found them? And, therefore, found Anti? What would he do if he knew they were searching for them? “Ar-aren’t the police handling this? You two really don’t need to—”

“We’re not going to just WAIT,” Marvin interrupted, frustrated.

“Well, why not?” Laurens stood up from her seat at the desk. “Yes, it’s terrible waiting, but it’s a lot less dangerous than looking for a serial killer!”

“Look, we might be in danger anyway,” Marvin said. “We’re friends with the two guys who Anti seems to be obsessed with. I wouldn’t be surprised if he decides to kidnap or murder us one day.”

“Grim, much?” Chase muttered.

“Grim, but possible,” Marvin insisted. “So, might as well try to do something along the way.”

Laurens started to protest again, but then stopped. Didn’t Marvin have a point? After all, Anti had…taken her, as well. Just because she was assigned to Schneep’s case. She didn’t like reflecting on the month she’d spent in captivity with Jackie, but that didn’t erase it from the past. Or erase the possibility that Anti could, once again, try to find her. She shuddered. “…alright. I guess…I can help a bit. I don’t really have much else going on, anyway.”

Chase and Marvin exchanged a look. Happy that she agreed, but also not forgetting the seriousness of what they were doing. “Thanks,” Chase said softly. “Is there…a time we can get together to talk, or…?”

“I have a pretty regular schedule. My shifts are around ten to three each day,” Laurens said.

“Great. Neither of us have anything to do, really. My only thing is when I have the kids over for the weekend, and it’s Monday so they’re already back with Stacy.”

“Yeah I got nothing. Sooner the better,” Marvin added.

The three of them talked for a few minutes before agreeing to meet tomorrow at 3:30, with Chase’s house as the designated meeting spot. Once they decided on that, the two men quickly left the hospital, with Chase once again thanking Laurens for agreeing to help them. Marvin didn’t say anything, but he nodded every time Chase thanked her.

Now alone again, Laurens sat back down, leaned back in her chair, and let out a long, slow breath. She couldn’t believe she was doing this. Her every instinct was screaming “Danger! Danger! You’re going to get killed!” But…Anti had already planned to do that. So, really, what was stopping him from doing that on his own? Marvin was right. Might as well try to fix this mess on the way. So, even if she was still uneasy about it, she would try. She would try.
.............................................................................................

It had been two weeks exactly. JJ could tell that Anti was going crazy being stuck in the tiny apartment. He was spending more and more time pacing about randomly, or muttering to himself angrily while on the computer. When not doing either of those two things, he was either messing with Schneep—he tried to do it when Jameson wasn’t paying attention, but JJ could still hear the things he was saying to Henrik—or pretending everything was normal.

That seemed to be his new strategy for dealing with Jameson. Pretend everything was normal. Like they were a normal family, and not, in fact, an assassin/serial killer and his estranged brother who he’d kidnapped. At first, Jameson tried to resist this strange new change. It was…weird. But that only led to Anti’s mask cracking, giving in to threatening him and Schneep. So, now? Jameson just went along with it. Not to say he cooperated. But he didn’t cause any trouble. Maybe, if Anti slowly lowered his guard enough, JJ and Schneep could find some way to escape.

Part of the “normalcy” strategy was dinner. For the past five nights, Anti had dragged Jameson over to the apartment’s kitchen, where there was a small square table set up, and made him eat dinner with him. As if that could convince Jameson to be friendly again.

Either way, Jameson refused to participate. Every night, he would just sit there quietly, listening to Anti talk. Afterwards, he would go back to the bedroom to bring Schneep some food, since he wasn’t allowed out. He’d stay there, talk with Schneep some more, and eventually fall asleep, waiting to see if the next day would bring an opportunity to get out of here.

This night was no different. At around 6:00, according to the living room’s wall clock, Anti put away his computer and silently appeared in the bedroom doorway, staring at Jameson until he stood up and followed him into the kitchen. Tonight was soup. Not that it mattered. The same thing happened anyway, they sat down, and Anti started talking about something or other.

It was always the same. Why? Didn’t Anti know by now that this wasn’t going to get Jameson to like him again?

Maybe he knew. But maybe, he just wanted to pretend.

“—swear to god, it’s like they’re trying to be as annoying as possible.”

Anti sounded irritated. Jameson briefly snapped out of his internal reflection on the fruitlessness of this exercise, wondering what he was going on about tonight.

“Maybe I just never noticed it because I never spent this long in this place,” Anti was saying. He scowled. “But I don’t think that’s it. I think they’re new in the building. Fucking hell, though, I swear they’re tap dancing up there. Have you noticed it?”

Jameson blinked, and said nothing.

“Of course you have, not sure how you couldn’t,” Anti continued. “It’s at like three a.m., too, fuck.”

Wait a minute. Jameson actually knew what he was talking about. A couple times the past few nights, when he couldn’t sleep, he could hear the sound of heavy footsteps from upstairs. It didn’t help the sleeping matter. Partially because of the noise, partially because it was really bizarre to think about other people, going about their lives, completely unaware of what was happening literally beneath their feet.

“I don’t want to talk to them or anything,” Anti muttered. “Don’t want to show my face to anyone around here. It’s very identifiable.” His tone sounded bitter as he unconsciously reached up to touch the scars on his face. “And I don’t even have anything here to make a proper disguise. Shit sucks.”

Jameson started to space out again. This wasn’t anything important. He looked down at the table, stirring his soup with a spoon. He wondered where all the utensils were. He hadn’t seen any in the two weeks he and Schneep had been stuck here.

“Luckily, nobody here cares. Which is good, that’s why I picked it out. This neighborhood sucks, most people know not to poke their heads into places where they might lose it.” Anti chuckled, but then his expression darkened. “Although…there was this one guy. A real fucking pox. He’d show up at everyone’s doors asking them to keep the place neat. Shut the fuck up, nobody cares about neatness in a place like this.”

Where was this apartment located, anyway? That bit about the neighborhood sucking was the first hint Jameson had gotten about that. Huh. Maybe, if he figured it out, he could then find some way to get a message about where they were to…someone? The police, maybe?

“He might’ve just been annoying if he hadn’t gotten all hot about the graffiti.” Anti leaned back in the chair. “Wanted to find out who in the building was doing it. And at that point, he crossed the line. Can’t have anyone paying too close attention to that.” A smile twisted his face. “Well. Doesn’t matter now. That guy’s been taken care of.”

He said it so casually. Jameson tried to keep his expression neutral. It didn’t matter. He already knew what sort of person Anti was. Anti had made that abundantly clear two weeks ago, when he’d left Jackie behind.

Was he still talking? He was. Jameson gave up on paying attention and let his mind wander. He wondered if Schneep would be awake when he went back to the bedroom. Wondered if he’d ask him about how dinner went. Wondered if…if Anti would follow through on any of his threats he’d made towards Schneep.

Well. According to Anti, that depended on Jameson.

And he knew he couldn’t let that happen.

So, for now, he sat at the table and pretended to listen to Anti. Pretended Anti was right, in thinking everything would go back to normal.
.............................................................................................

It was late into the night by now. Newson could see the moon through the gap in her curtains. She couldn’t remember the last time she spent so much time with someone. And of all the people, it was Henrik’s ex-wife. Neither of them had meant this to happen. But somehow, they were here now. Honestly? Newson strongly suspected the half-empty bottle of wine on her coffee table had something to do with it. But she didn’t care.

“It’s the chance that…that we could have missed this, you know?” Mina was saying, half-lying and half-sitting on Newson’s sofa. “I think we never should have took a break in the first place. That everyone was right, I should have stayed by him both times.”

Newson leaned back in her chair, settling against the upholstery. “What was the deal in the first place? Why’d you take that break? Fighting or something?”

“He started to act strange,” Mina said. Her eyes glazed over with recollection. “Looking back now, I recognize the symptoms. But at the time, I just thought he was having weird mood swings from stress. I did worry he was depressed. But he did not want to talk about it. Eventually, out of nowhere, he accused me of…of…ah, what’s the word? Being…unfaithful.”

“He thought you cheated on him?” Newson repeated, surprised. “You seem really nice, though.”

“Danke. I mean, Thank you. But see, this is the strange part. He thought the other man was my tennis instructor. But…I do not have one. I like playing, but only with friends, for fun. Why would I have an instructor? And I think, at the time I think, I think…” Mina stumbled over her words for a bit. “I think he is wanting me out of the picture for some reason, and making up an excuse. So I say, ‘we take a break.’ And we do, and then about a month later he realizes the truth. This disorder that he has.”

“But you said you wanted to get back together, right?”

“Well, this is the thing. We were starting to. Around in…last June…ish.” Mina shrugged. “His idea. But he was not quite sure, so he didn’t want to be public about it in case we didn’t fit anymore. I say, yes. I want this. And…and things were all going great. Until that August.” Her eyes started to tear up. “And then I left. And I never should have done that.”

“Hey, I mean, it’s not your fault, is it?” Newson shrugged, mirroring Mina exactly. “Everyone was fooled. That other guy, uhhhh I’ve forgot his name, but the real bad guy. He did a good job of setting him up. We all thought he did it.”

“His friends hate me now,” Mina muttered. “Because I left.”

“Tell them to fuck off next time you see them. I bet they thought he did it, too.”

“I should have come back sooner.” Mina leaned forward, rubbing the sides of her head. “Before he was taken again. Because now…now I may not see him again. I may not get to tell him I’m sorry, or that I really…I really still love him. Or that…” She trailed off. “They’ll never meet. A-and I cannot bear to think of that. I should have come back sooner. Should have kept up with the news. But I did not. And now I’ve missed him. I-I cannot see him again. It’s too late.”

Newson fell quiet. Then, she nodded. “It sucks, doesn’t it? It’s like having a hole inside you.”

“You understand?” Mina asked, looking up.

“Kinda. It’s not exactly the same thing, but…kinda.” Newson paused. “I had a brother, you know. Jeremy. We were twins, each other’s only family. But he’s gone now. I thought Henrik killed him, but apparently it’s that other guy who did it.” She blinked. “That lost time…I hate it. I hate that we’ll never celebrate our birthday again. Or that I can’t text him and ask if he wants to go to dinner at that new shop that opened recently. Even the little things, you know? Like, he used to constantly complain about people vandalizing the building he lived in, talked about all this little graffiti. It was annoying, sometimes, but…now I miss it. He was determined to find the culprit. But he never did.”

Mina nodded. “The little things. Henrik and I would watch TV together. Only with each other.” She giggled a bit. “He would always complain when a character was injured and then instantly got back up. He said it was inaccurate and no fun, anyway.”

It was strange to hear these things about Henrik. And, really, it made Newson feel even worse than she already did about how she treated him. For the longest time, he was just the bad guy in her mind. The one who killed Jeremy. Not someone who had friends and a job and a partner. Not someone who did things like complain about TV shows. Maybe that was why she didn’t have any problem doing those things. Hard to be cruel to someone you knew was a person.

“…Mina. Listen.” Newson sat straight up. “You have a chance.”

“Huh?” Mina glanced at her, confused.

“Henrik isn’t dead. I don’t think this bad guy would hurt him. Er…at least not permanently. You have a chance to talk to him a-and watch TV shows together again.”

“Jennifer, they can’t find him,” Mina said softly.

“Well, then, you fucking do it. I don’t know.” Newson shook her head. “And if you can’t, get help. Henrik had friends, they’re probably as upset as you are.”

“Did you hear me? I said they probably hate me now.”

“I dunno,” Newson said vaguely. “Maybe they’ll put that aside if you’re real with them. Like you have been with me. I mean, seriously. How did this happen?”

Mina didn’t say anything, but she still looked unsure.

“Hate is a product of love,” Newson said quietly. “If you love someone, you hate those that hurt them. Even if it was an accident or misunderstanding or you only thought you knew what was going on. Henrik’s friends love him a lot. He’s lucky like that. Not everyone has that. So it makes sense they’re defensive of him. It’s not really your fault. After all, you didn’t mean any harm. So you have that going for you.”

“It is getting them to listen that’s the problem,” Mina mumbled.

“Well they can’t listen if you don’t talk,” Newson pointed out. “You gotta try, at least. Maybe you start out with the big news. You know. Come right out and say it. That’ll get them to think about it further.”

“I think…you are right,” Mina said tentatively. “It will be tough. But I have to try.”

“You have to,” Newson repeated. “Oh. And, uh, if I can give you any other advice? Just…about life in general? Don’t…hate. Even if it seems right. It’s just poison.” Her voice fell quiet. “It’s just poison.”

Mina stood up, staying surprisingly steady. She walked over to Newson, and took her hand, squeezing it tight. “Thank you,” she said softly.

Newson rolled her eyes. “It’s still weird to me that you showed up. But…well. You’re welcome, I guess.” Her voice softened. “I should be thanking you, actually. So…thank you. You’re a good person.”

Mina smiled a bit. “I will be seeing you, then.” And without another word, she left, heading out into the hall. The front door opened and slowly closed.

Newson stared at the moon out the window for a moment. She leaned back into the chair. “You’re a good person,” she repeated. “Better than me.” She closed her eyes, and slowly drifted into sleep.

Part Twenty-Three 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. The four boys confront Jackie and Marvin for the last time.]
.............................................................................................

Twilight had covered the city, and the last of the sunlight was quickly fading. There were cars out, but no pedestrians. Well, actually, there were four pedestrians. They’d been running for a while, but were now slowing down, as the spinning blue disk they’d been following was gradually losing speed. If anyone had bothered to look, they would have thought it weird to see four men following a flying, glowing disk. But the four didn’t care.

'If it’s slowing down, that means we’re getting close,' JJ explained as the group shifted from jogging to walking.

Jack looked around. They were now surrounded by apartment buildings. Not particularly tall ones, all boxy and generally looking the same. “This place…we’ve been here before,” he muttered.

'Really? It doesn’t look familiar to me.' JJ looked around as well, confused.

“I don’t think it would be, J,” Chase said absentmindedly. “Not to you.”

“Where are we?” Schneep asked, tightening his grip on Jack’s arm. “It does not sound too busy.”

“We’re near Jackie and Marvin’s old apartment is,” Jack explained quietly. “I think…I think that’s where we’re heading.”

“…ah.” Schneep’s expression fell. “So. They decided to head there.” He took a deep breath. “It makes sense, I suppose. We are coming full circle.”

“Well, now that we’re getting close, we should figure out what to do.” Chase’s hand drifted to his belt, where he’d tucked his gun. “I-I don’t want to hurt them. But…would we have to?”

'We’ll have to defend ourselves, at least,' JJ anticipated.

“What we really need to do is get rid of the strings,” Jack said. “But, well, we can’t destroy them, apparently.”

“Maybe we can contain them, somehow?” Chase speculated. “Like, while they’re in that box, they didn’t really affect Jackie for a while. I mean, it doesn’t look like it’s working anymore, but something like that?”

“I don’t know,” Jack said quietly. The disk is slowing even further, and the area is definitely becoming familiar. He recognized the striped [awning] set out in front of one of the apartment buildings. They’re getting close. “Maybe…if we put them far away, a-and somehow contain them, then they’ll stop influencing them. JJ, you’re the magic man, do you think you can do that?”

JJ looked skeptical, clearly frowning under his mask. 'I don’t think so,'he signed slowly. 'I tried before, back when the strings first came after Jackie, remember? He just used his new magic to destroy the brief moment I had them under control.'

“I don’t remember that,” Chase said.

'Well, it definitely happened,' JJ said. He paused for a moment, thinking. 'Henrik. I have a question. Where do your scissors come from?'

Jack translated the signed question for Schneep, who frowned, confused. “I…am not sure. They sort of come from nowhere.”

“Hey, y’know…back there, you pulled out like three of those, right?” Chase asked. “And that cane you sometimes use comes from nowhere, right?”

“Yes, I think so.”

“Well, if you can take things out of nowhere, do you think you can put things away into the nowhere?” Chase asked. JJ nodded eagerly, apparently having had the same idea.

Schneep blinked. “Oh. I had not tried that, not with things I had not already pulled out. Perhaps.” He nodded, slowly at first, then with increasing surety. “Yes, it makes sense that I would be able to do that. And we might as well try, yes? That would probably contain the strings, and put them far away.”

“Great, so we have a basis,” Jack said. “Now we just—” He suddenly stopped walking. The tracking disk had turned a corner, and there it was. “Oh. We…we’re here.” The building with Jackie and Marvin’s apartment. It looked exactly the same, even years later. Despite the disk not changing pace, the boys hurried up, getting ahead of it.

Once the disk caught up, it headed down a side alley. Then, strangely, it paused. And floated upward. Up to a fifth story window, with a fire escape outside. Once it reached there, it disappeared. 'Is that their apartment?' JJ asked.

“Yeah,” Chase muttered, nodding. “That’s it. Wonder if it’s still empty.”

“Wonder how we are going to get inside,” Schneep added. “Can we just…walk in?”

Jack leaned to the side, looking through the glass front doors of the building. “Well I mean…no one’s in there.”

“It can’t be THAT easy,” Chase said.

But it was. The boys walked right into the apartment building’s waiting area, heading straight for the elevators. Nobody appeared to stop them. The elevator doors slid open, and the four of them piled inside.

“Shit. I forgot about this,” Jack swore. He pointed at a keyhole in the elevator’s button panel. “To access the floors with rooms you need a room key. Otherwise…” He pressed the button for the fourth floor above the ground story. It didn’t light up. “Yeah, that.”

“I do not suppose either of you two kept a copy of their room key,” Schneep muttered.

“No,” Chase said. “God. I really don’t want to climb up the fire escape. I know Jackie always said it was fine, but that thing looks rickety as all hell.”

'Hang on, let me try something,' JJ said, pushing past the others to be closest to the button panel. He stared down at the keyhole, then pressed two fingers on either side of it. A small bit of blue magic flickered into existence, flat and long. It slid right into the keyhole, and JJ made a turning motion. Then he pressed the same button Jack had. This time, it lit up, and the elevator started moving upward.

Chase whistled, impressed. “I didn’t know your magic included picking locks, J.”

'It’s not exactly like that,' JJ explained. 'It’s just that my magic is purely focused on helping others. I concentrated on ‘we need to move the lift so my friends can get upstairs,’ and it worked.'

“Still, that’s pretty cool,” Jack said. “But okay, while we’re here, we need to figure out what exactly we’re going to do. Get a game plan going. Anyone have any ideas?”
.............................................................................................

The fifth story hallway was eerily normal. It felt out of place for what they were about to do. Jack, Chase, and Schneep still remembered the room number: 515. Near the end of the hall. The group walked silently down the corridor, until they stopped outside the room with the number stenciled on its door. After a moment of hesitation, Jack reached out and grabbed the knob, turning it. “It’s unlocked,” he said, surprised.

“Either that’s how they got in here, and they left it open, or they knew we would come,” Chase guessed.

'Personally, I hope it’s the former,' JJ said.

Jack looked at the other three, taking in their expressions. Nervous, but not backing down. “Are we ready?” he asked. They all nodded. “Alright. Let’s get in there fast. On three. One…two…” He pulled the door open. “Three!” And the four of them hurried inside, the door shutting behind them.

The apartment hadn’t changed at all in the past few years. That was a bit odd, wasn’t it? Shouldn’t it have been sold to new owners, or at the very least cleaned up to show it off to potential buyers? But no. Perhaps being the apartment where a murder-suicide happened was enough to scare people off. Or perhaps there was a supernatural reason for it. Either way, everything was the same. EXACTLY the same.

All of the living room’s furniture had been pushed to the walls, even blocking the doors to the other rooms. There was a circle burned into the wooden floor, with five melted black candles along the perimeter, now just lumps of wax.

Jackie and Marvin were kneeling on the floor inside the burnt circle, facing each other with the box containing the strings between them. The coppery metal sides were pretty banged up, covered with scratches. But the box was still holding strong. The moment the four entered the room, Jackie and Marvin’s heads shot upward and turned to stare at them. “Leave,” they said, in perfect, eerie unison.

Jack instinctively took a step backwards, bumping into Chase. The moment he did, Chase reached out and squeezed his hand, giving him an encouraging nod. Jack nodded back. He took a deep breath. “No,” he said. “We can’t let you do this.”

“Why not?” They asked, still perfectly in sync. “We need them. We need to be whole.”

“You two are whole by yourselves,” Jack insisted. “You’re two people, not one.”

“Can’t it be both?” They tilted their heads. “Things can be two and one, half and whole.”

“Not people,” Chase added. “C’mon, guys. You remember who you were before! I know you do!”

They looked at each other. “The memories are there,” they conceded. “But which is which? We don’t know. We can’t tell. It’s all mixed up. But when we are whole, it doesn’t matter. Because our memories are mine. My memories are ours. Everything is there. Everything is complete.”

“But do you know what that—that ‘whole’ does?” Jack asked. “He hurts people! You two don’t like to hurt people. You never have. So how can you let this—this black magic do things like that?”

“It doesn’t matter. We need to be complete.” They stand up. “Back off. Or we’ll make you.”

Jack clutched his chest, as if this was physically hurting his heart. “No,” he whispered. “I already said so. We can’t let you.”

“One more chance,” they warned. “We WILL open this.” They pointed at the box—no. At the spot on the floor where the box had been. But it wasn’t there anymore. When they glanced down and saw that, they froze. Then looked up, towards the back of the room. Schneep, who’d jumped behind the two while the rest of the group was distracting them, had slowly pulled the box away, dragging it out of the circle. The moment the silence fell, he realized that the jig was up. And he picked up the box.

“No!” The two broke up. Jackie lunged backwards towards Schneep and tackled him to the ground, where the two of them struggled over the box. Marvin ran forward towards the other three, blue strings of light appearing around him, reaching forward.

Jameson pulled up his shield, diverting the strings to either side. Chase pulled his gun out of his belt and pointed it towards Marvin. “We don’t want to hurt you!” He shouted.

“Oh, shu̧ţ ̴u̵p,” Marvin snarled. He pounded on the shield with a fist. “We don̢'͟t̸ ̵c̵ar͢e.̧”

Schneep suddenly cried out as Jackie threw him backwards, hitting the draped windows. Now clutching the box, Jackie retreated to the circle in the center of the room, kneeling on the floor again. The burnt circle sizzled, like embers coming to life, and suddenly huge red spikes shot out from the black circle, each half the size of a person and sharp as a knife. Jackie was now defended in the middle, as he struggled to open the box.

“Fuck!” Chase darted out from behind the shield, running towards Schneep. But a blue string wrapped around his ankle, lifting him up. He yelped in surprise, dropping the gun. Jameson looked towards him and made a gesture like he was throwing something. A light blue disc sailed through the air, slicing through the darker blue of the string and dropping Chase to the floor. Unfortunately, as a result of this magic, the part of the shield covering himself flickered a bit. Just enough for two different strings to snake through and wrap around him, pinning his arms. The rest of the shield then died.

“Schneep, get Marvin, I got Jackie!” Jack shouted, jumping straight into a sprint to avoid more of Marvin’s strings.

“Right!” Schneep got to his feet, now holding two pairs of scissors, one in each hand. His eyes briefly glowed turquoise, and he disappeared. Then he reappeared behind Marvin, practically on top of his back. “Jamie! Catch!” He threw one of the scissors in Jameson’s general direction. It clattered to the floor, and Jameson immediately got down, awkwardly picking them up while his arms were still pinned. Meanwhile, Schneep held the open blade of the scissors to Marvin’s throat. “Sorry about this.”

Marvin shrieked, grabbing Schneep’s arm and trying to push him away. But Schneep held fast, trying to keep the blade close, but not touching. Unfortunately, after one particularly hard shove from Marvin, he overcorrected. The blade sliced—not through Marvin’s skin, though. Instead, the scissor blade cut through the green stitches holding his neck wound closed. Immediately, Marvin cried out, finally managing to push past. He leaned forward, bracing against the wall, and made several uncomfortably harsh choking sounds as the strings wriggled out, falling to the floor. They inched past Schneep, heading towards the circle where Jackie was.

Meanwhile, Jack and Chase had met up on the edge of the circle of spikes, giving each other unsure looks. Slowly, Chase raised his gun again. “Jackie!” He shouted. “Put the box down!”

Jackie ignored him, frustratingly prying at the seam where the lid met the rest of the box. He growled, and the spikes got a little longer, forcing Jack and Chase to back up. “Shit, okay, not the way to do it,” Jack muttered. He hesitated, then reached out and touched one of the spikes. Immediately, he withdrew his hand, hissing. “They’re, like, hot or something.”

“Right. Okay.” Chase took a deep breath, then pulled the trigger on his gun.

The BANG! filled the small room. The bullet hit one of the spikes, shattering it like ceramic. Jack and Chase covered their faces, but bits of the shards still cut their arms. Jackie, to the side of the spike when it shattered, cried out as shards bit into his arm as well. One of them sliced right through the green string wrapped tightly around his wrist, which fell to the floor. That finally made Jackie look up. “Go a͟w̢ay̧.”

“No,” Jack said. “In fact, we’re getting closer!” Quickly, he grabbed Chase’s arm and ran, darting into the circle through the gap caused by the broken spike.

Jackie screamed as the two of them entered the circle, and shot to his feet. “Leave us a̷l̶o͞n̕e!̡” He ran at the two of them, and Jack stepped in front of Chase, grabbing Jackie’s arm as he went to hit him. Then when Jackie’s other hand shot up, he managed to grab that one, too. He looked pretty shocked and impressed with himself, until Jackie stomped on his foot and made him let go in surprise.

But during that brief window, Chase dove forward, and managed to snatch up the box. He gave a triumphant grin, which faded as he realized he was still trapped in the circle.

Back on the other side of the room, Jameson finally cut through the strings with the scissors, quickly regaining his feet. Marvin, recovering from the slice, noticed this. “F͝a̶k̵e̛ magician,” he hissed, and pounced.

Before he actually got to JJ, Schneep grabbed him, knocking him to the floor. The two of them rolled across the room, struggling with each other.

Jameson quickly backed up, looking around to regain his bearings. His eyes landed on the circle of spikes, with Chase holding the box inside. Jackie had turned on him, and Chase was backing up, head darting from side to side. Jameson started waving his arms, drawing Chase’s attention. Chase nodded, and got ready to throw the box.

Just then, Jackie ran at Chase and grabbed him. He still managed to throw the box, but his aim was now off, and the box landed on the floor in the corner of the room. Jameson hurried to get there, but then tripped. Another blue string. Schneep had managed to pin Marvin to the ground, but accidentally left one of his arms free, which he used to send a string to grab Jameson’s legs. Eyes wide, Jameson raised his own hand, conjuring a protective blue dome around the box.

“I’ve had ęno͢ug̴h͝ of this!” Jackie shouted. He made a throwing motion, and a streak of sharp red light headed straight for the box, piercing through the dome and slicing right through the coppery metal side, leaving a huge gash.

For a moment, everyone froze. For a moment, everyone was waiting.

And then the strings poured out of the new opening, moving almost like a liquid as they pooled on the floor. The strings from Marvin’s neck and Jackie’s wrist inched over to join the lump of writhing green threads. And once they were all together, the strings began to slither forward across the floor.

Jackie and Marvin started to laugh. Their eyes started to glow green, Marvin’s right, Jackie’s left. A static buzz filled the air.

“No!” Chase cried, breaking the stillness of the moment.

Jackie started to run, but Jack and Chase grabbed him and held him back. Schneep doubled down on keeping Marvin pinned, and Jameson hurried over to help. This only lasted for a moment before Jackie grabbed a knife of glowing red light and slashed at the two, cutting up their arms further, and Marvin’s strings burst outward, wrapping around Schneep and Jameson and tying them back to back. The two ran for the strings, which wriggled closer to them.

Schneep quickly cut through some of the blue strings, giving Jameson enough room to pull an arm out. A blue sphere enveloped the green strings, flying into the air where it hovered near the ceiling, keeping them temporarily contained in a glowing bubble. Marvin and Jackie shrieked in frustration.

“God damn it,” Chase muttered, pressing a hand against a particularly nasty cut on his upper arm. He looked up at Jackie and Marvin, just in time to see Jackie holding another red knife, gearing up for a throw. “JJ, watch it!”

The sphere jerked to the side, just in time to avoid the streak of red, which embedded itself in the ceiling. Marvin tried next, blue strings shooting forward to try and wrap around the sphere. It dodged them, weaving through the air in a series of maneuvers, but Jameson was starting to look a bit strained. Schneep was about halfway through the strings binding them.

“Chase?” Jack glanced at him, then nodded at Jackie and Marvin. He nodded back.

The two were distracted, standing beneath the sphere and shooting magic towards it, attempting to get it down. Jameson was fully concentrated on keeping it out of their grasp. He didn’t even notice when Schneep finally cut through the last of the strings. But he was slowly losing speed, the sphere becoming a little bit more unwieldy every second. One of Jackie’s knives sliced through the side, and he diverted focus to fixing that before the green strings could escape. In the process, the sphere temporarily stopped, and Marvin’s strings started to wrap around it.

Luckily, before they could get a good grasp, Chase and Jack sprang forward, grabbing Jackie and Marvin, respectively. “Take it now!” Jack shouted, knowing they couldn’t hold them much longer.

The sphere lurched through the air, crashing down on top of Jameson and Schneep and immediately breaking up. Schneep took off his coat and used that to catch the strings as they fell, wrapping up the bundle so none of them could escape.

“Give them b͞a͢ck̴!” The two yelled.

Anticipating an attack, Chase let go and ducked, barely missing a whirl of blue magic strings. Jack wasn’t so quick, and cried out as a red glowing blade lodged itself in his side, losing his grip and staggering backwards. The two rushed forward the moment they were free, and Jameson barely managed to conjure a shield in time. They slammed into it, stumbled back for a few seconds, and then immediately pressed forward against the blue magic, their expressions twisted viciously.

“You…two…” Jack panted. “You have to let this go! Let THEM go!”

“They are p͢ar̵t͝ of u͝s̛!” They cried.

And for a moment, Jack hesitated. They all did. Because wasn’t it true, on some level? Those strings were black magic, but trapped in their twisted fibers were actual bits of Marvin and Jackie’s souls. Would it be cruel, separating them from those shattered remains?

But what would happen? What would happen if the strings took hold of them? The magic they were made of was a poison. The two would be poisoned in turn, and the rest of them would have to fight back once again, starting everything over. That couldn’t happen. Something had to change. “We’re sorry,” Jack whispered. “But we have to.”

The two snarled, and shoved forward, breaking through the shield. Jameson backed up, raising his hands to defend himself, but the attack never came. Because the strings weren’t there. Schneep had been holding them, and Schneep wasn’t there anymore.

In unison, the two whirled around, and saw him. Schneep was standing against the far wall, his eyes glowing turquoise with black scleras. His coat was wrapped around the strings, but they still struggled against the fabric. Sensing the attention on him, he raised the scissors, and made a slashing motion. And the world…the world was sliced. A tear opened up in the air, beyond which could be seen only darkness.

“Ņ̴͓̹͞o̸̩̟̪̬̥͎!̡͇͞” The two started to rush at him, but they were just too far away. Schneep threw the ball of fabric just as a few green threads started to slip from in between the folds. It was a perfect throw. For just a second, the ball of strings was frozen in the middle of its arc, a few strands trying to escape but not fully able to.

And then, with an anticlimactic quietness, the strings slipped through the rip in the air and disappeared from this world for good.

The two screamed, piercing the silence, and everyone hurried to cover their ears. Those screams could be heard all throughout the building. But then the rip closed itself up, disappearing as if it had never even been there, and they stopped. And the instant they did, the two of them collapsed, falling to the ground like puppets whose strings had been cut.

For a moment, the other four just waited, staring. What now? Was it really…over? They weren’t moving.

Then Schneep gasped. “Th-their souls!” he said. “I-I can feel them! Like with you!”

That broke the spell. Jack, Chase, and Schneep all ran forward, [getting down next to] Jackie and Marvin. They shook them, checked their pulse, called their names. JJ stayed back for a few seconds, before slowly walking closer, wary.

“They are alive, at least,” Schneep said. “Heartbeats.”

“That’s not a sign,” Chase said, shaking Marvin’s shoulder. “Remember what they were like the first time Jack grabbed the strings and Anti disappeared? Alive, but all…empty.”

“No no, I-I think this is different.” Jack tried to sound confident. “I think that, whatever happens, it’s not going to be that.” He rolled Jackie over, onto his back, noticing his eyes were closed. “Jackie? Jackie? It’s us. You need to wake up.”

They must have sat there for a couple minutes, trying their best to get a response. Jameson was just about to suggest they get out of there, when something finally happened.

It started with a small groan, then a whimper. Marvin moved first, lifting up his head before squeezing his eyes shut and burying his face in his arms with a small cry. “M-Marv…?” Chase whispered. “Are you awake?”

Another whimper. Marvin blindly reached up and grabbed at his face, pulling his mask off and dropping it before once again hiding his eyes.

“A-ahh.” That was Jackie. He opened his eyes, squinting, even though the light was fairly dim. “Wha…? Wh-where…?”

“Jackie! You’re up!” Jack laughed, beaming. “Oh thank fucking god.”

“How are you feeling?” Schneep added.

Jackie didn’t answer, turning his head to look around. “Where…am I?”

“You’re in your apartment,” Jack explained. “Do you…know what happened?”

“What…happened? I…” Jackie reached upwards, watching his hand as he turned it around. Almost as if he couldn’t quite believe it was his.

“Marvin, are you okay?” Chase asked, leaning down closer to the floor. “Do you need us to—well, we can’t turn the lights down, there’s only one ceiling lamp and there’s no dimmer. But…can we do something?”

After a moment, Marvin raised his head, covering his eyes with his hands and looking out through his fingers. “I…don’t know…what’s happening,” he said quietly. “Chase?”

“Yeah, it’s me, bro,” Chase nodded.

Marvin’s eyes darted over towards Jameson. “Who…is that?”

“That’s JJ, don’t worry, he’s a friend.” At Chase words, Jameson waved, still a bit wary but relaxing just slightly. “You’re alright, right? Are you?”

“…my neck hurts,” Marvin said quietly. “And my head.”

“Oh.” There was an open wound across Marvin’s neck. Not too deep, but definitely there. Chase tried to smile. “Well, we’ll get that fixed. Can you sit up?”

Marvin closed his eyes again, making a quiet keening sound. But he sat up. Slowly. And once he was upright, he swayed a bit in place.

“Someone tell me what happened,” Jackie said.

“Well, what do you remember?” Schneep asked.

“I…think I talked to you? And…and Chase? My chest hurt…it doesn’t…doesn’t anymore, but my head…” Jackie pressed his hands to either side of his head. “I gotta—gotta get up.”

“Oh, here.” Jack offered his hand, and Jackie let him pull him upright. “You look a bit off balance there. Are you sure you’re alright?”

“Head,” Jackie repeated. He started to look around. “What happened to this pla—”

Jackie glanced to the right. Marvin glanced to the left. The two of them made eye contact. They stared for a few seconds…and then screamed. Jackie scrambled backwards until he ran into Schneep, while Marvin grabbed Chase by the shirt and buried his face in him.

Then they both seemed to lose all strength, slumping down. Jackie’s eyes glazed over, and Marvin let go of Chase’s shirt.

“What was that?!” Schneep hissed.

“I-I don’t know!” Chase shook his head, at a loss. “They saw each other and—and flipped out.” He tried to shake Marvin, but got no response. “Are they…okay?”

“I think they’re just overwhelmed,” Jack speculated, waving his hand in front of Jackie’s eyes and getting nothing.

JJ snapped his fingers, drawing everyone’s attention. 'I hate to interrupt the moment,' he said, 'but don’t you think we should get out of here? We’ve caused quite the commotion, with smashing against the walls and screaming and such. And Chase did fire a gun, as well. I wouldn’t be surprised if the neighbors are calling the police.'

Schneep nodded. “You are right, we have to leave here. It would be difficult to explain everything.”

“But where do we go?” Chase asked. “I don’t think we can find our way back to the magicians without, y’know, magic. A-and I don’t want to go to Stacy’s place, just in case…things…happen.”

Jack sighed. “Can I be honest, you guys?” He looked at each of them in turn. “I just want to go home.”
.............................................................................................

Opening the door led them to a disaster zone. The last time they’d been in Jack’s apartment, it was falling to pieces around them as Anti and Schneep fought, their magics colliding and tearing everything apart. Plaster had fallen from the ceiling, leaving the beams overhead exposed in some places. The paint on the walls had peeled, more plaster fallen out in chunks. Some furniture was completely unusable, and the furniture that wasn’t still leaked stuffing or was missing legs. Jack didn’t even want to look at the rest of the house.

Sighing, he reached over to turn on the lightswitch, relieved when the ceiling lamp half-dangling from the ceiling still turned on. He stepped inside, feet crunching on the plaster, and the others followed. Chase was carrying Marvin in his arms, JJ was carrying Jackie in his. Schneep kept a hand on the wall and slowly inched into the room, not raising his feet so he wouldn’t trip over any debris he couldn’t see. “This place…is a wreck,” Chase said plainly.

“Yeah, I know, but we gotta stay somewhere, right?” Jack asked. “I figured this place was pretty safe. For now.” The sofa was mostly intact, save for the cotton tumbling out of bursts in its seams. But it was soft, and would hold weight, so Jack brushed off the plaster that had landed on it and hit the cushions a couple of times to get rid of dust. “I guess eventually we’re all gonna have to try to go home.”

Chase laughed. “I bet the landlord sold my house a month into me not showing up. God. All my stuff, gone.” He gently set Marvin down on the sofa, who blinks, briefly looks around, then curls into the broken cushions, eyes still open and glazed.

“Oh, not all of it, Chase,” Schneep says, slowly creeping around the room. “When it was clear the landlord was going to sell, Stacy had to go to collect your belongings. I think all the furniture is gone, but your clothes and things like your computer are okay. Did you ever check that spare storage room while we were with her?”

“O-oh. No, I didn’t…didn’t think to.”

JJ put Jackie down on the sofa, next to Marvin. Similarly, Jackie looked up, took in the state of the room, then just…mentally checked out. 'Well, my shop should still be fine, at least,' JJ signed. 'I do own the building, after all. Henrik, what about your flat?'

Chase translated the question, and Schneep shrugged. “I am not sure. I was there a few times, and everything seemed the same. But I am sure that the situation is more complicated.”

“Well, I’M probably going to be living here for a bit, at least,” Jack muttered. “So we should clean up. Um…maybe we could start by getting all this plaster into a corner of the room? A-and we should see what the damage is everywhere else.”

It was slow going. A brief look at all the rest of the rooms showed the kitchen and the living room were the worst off. The walls and ceilings were more intact in the rooms down the hall, and Jack’s room, at the very back, even had all its furniture together. So they did start by cleaning up all the plaster. Jack found his cleaning supplies in the hallway, some of which weren’t alright, but at least the broom could still be used, even with its handle snapped in half. They cleaned silently, starting by making the living room…livable, then spread out through the rest of the apartment, getting all the broken bits of ceiling and walls out of the way.

“Done in here!” Chase called from the kitchen. “With the plaster shit, anyway!” There was still a lot wrong. Cabinet doors had fallen off, every single dish was shattered, and the table was missing one of its legs and part of its surface. He didn’t even want to think about all the perishable foods that had no doubt gone bad inside the fridge.

“Great.” Jack appeared from down the hall, white dust in his hair. “Everything’s stable in the bathroom. I even found a first aid kit, so we can wrap up these cuts. Hope we have water. I think we should, I mean, I didn’t see—oh shit!” He jumped backwards. While they were talking, Marvin had appeared in the entrance to the living room, and was now staring very intensely at Jack. “Oh my god, Marv, you scared me,” Jack breathed. “Um…is everything good?”

“What happened?” Marvin asked bluntly.

“Oh, uh, we took you and Jackie over to my place. It’s…terrible, but it was close by. So now we’re cleaning—”

“No, I don’t mean that.” Marvin’s eyes were wide and a bit wild, his chest rising and falling rapidly as his entire body visibly shook. “I mean what happened to me. A-and to Jackie too. What happened to us? What happened?!”

Jack took a step backwards. “Whoa, calm down a bit—”

“Why do we remember the same things?!” Marvin stepped forward, leaning closer. “I-I don’t understand! You know, right? Tell me. Please!”

“Marvin, please, I know you’re freaked out, but you need to breathe, okay?” Jack said, fighting the urge to step back again. “You’re just going to spiral at this rate.”

Suddenly, Jackie appeared, peering around Marvin’s shoulder. “What’s going on?”

“Oh, Jackie, hi.” Jack looked back over towards Chase, who was still in the kitchen.

Nodding, Chase joined the rest of them in the hallway. “Marvin’s a bit freaked out,” he explained.

“I-I-I’m freaked out too.” Jackie tried to laugh, but it just came out as a wheeze. He wrapped his arms around himself. “A-after everything, I—we talked about it and—you guys have to know, right? You can tell us what happened, right? You can—please? Please explain. I-I’m so confused.”

Chase and Jack glanced at each other. “You go get Schneep and JJ,” Chase said. “We’ll sit down in the living room.” Jack nodded, and disappeared down the hall.

It took less than a minute for all of them to gather together. The sofa was the only piece of sitting furniture that was still usable, so they sat on the floor in a circle, unconsciously not wanting anyone to be above the others. Marvin and Jackie sat next to each other, a slight gap between them and the other four. Jack was the first to speak, clearing his throat. “So…what do you two remember?”

Marvin and Jackie glanced at each other, and Marvin made a ‘go ahead’ gesture. “W-well…chronologically,” Jackie started. “We…remember doing the spell. We did a spell, i-it was supposed to—” He took a deep breath, steadying himself. “It was supposed to make us…b-better. Stronger. But…” For a moment, his eyes glazed over, then he squeezed them shut and opened them wide again, and he pressed forward. “It didn’t work. And from there, it was just…ni-nightmares. Awful, awful things…”

“Nightmares,” Schneep muttered to himself.

Taking that as a cue to elaborate, Jackie nodded. “Like…i-images of terrible things…happening to…people.”

“Don’t say people,” Marvin said quietly. “It wasn’t just people.”

Jackie flinched. “W-well sometimes they were just faceless people. But…i-it was…you guys. Most of the time. E-even him.” He pointed at Jameson. “A-and we talked about it, and we had the exact same ones, and we’re—neither of us are sure, if we were just…imagining them, thinking really hard about these things. Or if…they were real.”

“What do you remember after that?” Chase asked gently.

“Just…a lot…of bad things,” Marvin said haltingly. “More…nightmares. Tha-that seemed to go on forever. A-and then suddenly…my chest hurt. And I was on this street, but then…things got…jumbled up. And then I was in the flat. And now I’m here.”

“I had something that was like that,” Jackie said. “With you guys, and then thing were…my thoughts all…” He put his hands on the side of his head. “Mixed up. And then there. A-and it’s weird, that was the only place where our memories were different.”

A moment of silence. Marvin and Jackie waited for the others to respond, but they just looked at each other. “Do…do we tell them?” Jack asked quietly.

“They said they wanted to know, yes?” Schneep added.

“But it’s so fucked up,” Chase whispered. “All of it.” He glanced towards the two. “Maybe we just…just keep to the basics? Not tell them about…us?”

Jameson shook his head. 'They’ll find out eventually, and we can’t keep it from them forever.'

“Okay, but we don’t have to do it all now,” Jack said.

Schneep huffed. “I think we should. Ripping off the band-aid, as it is.”

“What if they get overwhelmed?” Chase asked. “You remember what happened last time. And back at the apartment? They just had to look at each other to go unresponsive.”

'We can check in on them as we explain, make sure everything is fine,' Jameson suggested.

“I…okay, after all that, I…think we should tell them everything now,” Jack said. “It’s gonna suck for all of us, but…if we do it all together, we’re getting it all out. We won’t have to drag it out.”

Chase hesitated, but then nodded slowly. “I guess that makes sense,” he said reluctantly. “It’ll be easier to move on if nothing’s holding us back.”

“Okay, then. I’ll start.” Jack turned back to Marvin and Jackie, who looked decidedly uneasy about the explanation that was about to follow. But their expressions weren’t identical. Marvin was rocking a bit where he sat, face drawn in dread. Jackie’s eyes were wide and he leaned back, like getting distance would help. The differences made Jack relax a bit. They were two people. Not halves of a whole. “Well, you said you remember casting a spell, right? We figured out what it was for. And that it went wrong. When the spell was over…both of you…were dead.”

Explaining everything took nearly an hour. Jack laid the groundwork, explaining what Anti was and the early days of haunting them, with the others jumping in to add their experiences. Jameson, of course, couldn’t tell his experiences by himself, as neither Jackie nor Marvin understood sign language. So Jack translated that as well.

They progressed to how Anti slowly took them out. Chase took off his bandanna briefly, showing the stitches that remained, and Jameson did the same with his mask. Schneep told the story behind why he couldn’t see anymore, and Jack explained why one of his eyes was a slightly different blue. For many of these moments, it was the first time they’d said anything about what happened to them, about all the physical and mental scars left behind. They had to pause several times to collect themselves. Ironic that they were the ones being overwhelmed by emotion, when they’d been worrying about Jackie and Marvin.

Then there was the discovery of what Anti was, them fleeing to Stacy’s house, finally taking Anti apart, and keeping Jackie and Marvin—in their distant, not-quite-there state—away from the strings that remained. Marvin and Jackie sat quietly through everything, nodding when the others asked if they were still listening, if they were okay, but not saying anything. Finally, Jack, his voice now hoarse, told them about what had happened that evening, ending with bringing the two of them to the apartment.

And it was all out there. They waited for a response, but got none. Jackie’s eyes had glazed over again, and Marvin had stopped rocking and was just leaning against the base of the sofa. “I guess it was a lot,” Chase said. “Hey.” He started to reach forward, but then stopped, not knowing if either of them wanted to be touched. “It’s fine if you two need some time. That would make sense. Don’t worry about it.”

“Is it okay if we keep cleaning up around you?” Schneep asked gently.

Nothing. Then, after a few seconds, Jackie nodded.

“Alright.” Schneep stood up, and was soon followed by the other three. “We will try to be quiet about it.”

They left, discussing in low voices what to do next. The living room was left alone for now, as none of them wanted to disturb Jackie or Marvin. So they dispersed throughout the rest of the house. Jack took Chase into the bathroom, and the two of them used up all the first aid kit’s bandages on their various wounds. JJ started with the kitchen. It looked like all ceramic dishes had been shattered, but the trash bin was intact, so he started sweeping all the broken pieces into there. Schneep did his best to get order together in the bedrooms, feeling around for things that were too broken to salvage.

At some point, Chase joined Schneep in the spare bedroom, where he found something under a fallen shelf. It took both of them to get it out, one to hold the shelf, the other to grab it. “You want to keep that, yes?” Schneep asked.

“Of course,” Chase said. “But, uh…h-hang on, I’ll be right back.”

He returned to the living room. Jackie and Marvin were still sitting on the floor, turned slightly away from each other. Chase cleared his throat. “Hey, uh…so. I found this.” He held up the object in question—his weighted blanket. “Jack got it for me a while ago, but like…it’s supposed to help with anxiety and stuff, and it does kinda work, so…I thought you guys might want it.” Walking over, he set the blanket on the sofa. “It’s heavier than you expect, ha. But…yeah. I’ll just leave it here.” He backed up, then turned to leave.

Before returning to the hall, he heard the slight rustle of fabric, and glanced back to see they’d pulled the blanket off the sofa and were now sharing it. Chase smiled softly, then left, heading back towards the bedrooms.

All the digital clocks had stopped functioning, but the analog clock in the kitchen slowly ticked through the minutes. Eventually, the apartment was made livable again. There was still the problem of the broken ceiling and occasionally broken walls, not to mention the furniture that was now unusable. But livable was the ideal.

As they finished up, the boys would occasionally glance into the living room, asking the two if they were okay. There was never a spoken response, but eventually, Jackie started to nod, and then Marvin. And then they stood up and moved to the sofa. And eventually, Jackie started walking around the room, pushing the plaster and broken bits of furniture into the corner. Marvin dusted rubble off the sofa and half-intact coffee table, then tried to put the stuffing back into the torn pillows. It took both of them a while, dazed as they were, but once the rest of the boys were done with the apartment, they were done with the living room.

The clock read 12:35. Judging by the darkness outside, that meant midnight. Everyone was exhausted, but they were also hungry. Most of the food in the kitchen was ruined, but there were boxes of dry pasta and a single, large pot. The water worked. It only took another half hour to make the pasta and scoop it into six tupperware boxes, those being the only bowl-like things to survive fully intact. The utensils were okay, too. No glasses, so they used more tupperware.

Once the food was ready, Jackie and Marvin joined the others in the kitchen/dining room. They took the only two chairs left and sat at the half-table to eat while the other four stood at the counter or sat on the floor. Everyone ate silently.

Now the clock read 1:20. “I think…” Jack spoke up for the first time in a while. “…we should go to bed.”

Jameson nodded. 'The beds are alright. And there are still blankets in the closet. We might have to double up.'

“Doubling up is fine for me,” Jack said. “Chase? Schneep?”

“Yes, fine,” Schneep agreed, yawning.

“I’ll just sleep on the floor again,” Chase mumbled. “My sleeping bag is alright.”

“Are you sure, Chase? It is all dusty, and there could be things inside that we missed,” Schneep said.

“I…” Chase hesitated. Then he took a deep breath. “Alright. I can double up with someone. But can we put a pillow or something in between?”

“That’s fine, Chase,” Jack said. “You can stay with me.”

'What about these two?' Jameson asked, gesturing to Jackie and Marvin.

“Well…” Jack looked at them. “Do you two want to have a bedroom, or are you okay with the living room? Or, uh, I have my recording room, but that’s kind of a mess, computer parts all over.”

No answer for a bit. Then Marvin held up two fingers.

“The second option?”

He nodded.

“Alright. Jackie, what about you? Do you want the same?”

Jackie nodded too.

“Okay, then. We’ll bring you guys some blankets,” Jack said. “And some spare pillows.”

And slowly, everyone drifted off. They made up the beds, gave Jackie and Marvin any blankets and pillows they could find, and one by one, they all went to sleep. Jameson went first, Schneep following soon after, closing the door to the spare bedroom. Then Jack, disappearing into his own room.

Chase lingered for a bit, cleaning up dinner as much as possible. He yawned, and eventually concluded there was only so much he could do. So he headed out.

“Um…Chase?”

The soft question made him jump. He turned to see Jackie standing awkwardly in the doorway to the living room. Behind him, Marvin was lying on the sofa, Chase’s blanket pulled up to his neck, facing away from them with his head cushioned by two pillows. All the other blankets and pillows had been made into a bed underneath the half remains of the coffee table.

“Y-yeah, Jackie?” Chase asked. “Is everything okay?”

Jackie hesitated. “I…everything you told us…it really happened. Some of the memories th-that Marvin and I share, they…line up.”

“Oh.” Those memories weren’t really theirs, were they? They were Anti’s. “I see.”

Jackie took a deep breath. “Which is why…I’m sorry, Chase. I-I’m so, so sorry.” Tears started to gather in his eyes. “I-I don’t even know if I can apologize, but I really am, I feel so fucking sorry, a-and I just hope that—I just want you to know that—”

“Hey, Jackieboy.” Chase stepped forward, gently grabbing Jackie’s hand and holding it. “It’s fine. You weren’t…yourself. There was some black magic going on, and it…made things different.”

“…but still…” Jackie whispered.

Chase smiled softly. “It’s okay. I forgive you. And Marvin, too. Tell him that.”

Jackie nodded. “He’s sorry too, you know.”

“I know.” Chase squeezed his hand. “It’s late. You should go to sleep.”

“Alright. Alright.” Jackie let go, and backed up. “Good night.”

“Good night, Jackie.” Chase waited for him to get under the blankets of the bed under the table. He watched for a minute, and then turned to go, walking down the hall to the room at the end.

And for the first time in years, everyone rested. Truly, fully, at peace.

Part Eight of the Switch AU
A JSE Fanfic
[This is part of an ongoing fic series I started in April 2019. Schneep runs into Distorter, and comes away mostly unscathed. Though, later, he has to admit it was more serious than he initially thought.]
.............................................................................................

“Henrik, what are you doing back there?”

Schneep pulled off his headphones, stuffing them back in his backpack. God, he really had to be more aware of his surroundings when back here. He managed to zip up his pack just as Jennifer, his coworker, poked her head into the back room. “Just listening to music.”

“Well, alright. It’s almost lunch, though, so you might want to get out here.” Jennifer disappeared again.

“Understood.” Schneep pushed his backpack behind the nearest table. They should really get lockers in the back room. Not only would it be convenient, not only would it prevent random thefts, but it would save him a lot of worrying. He didn’t like thinking about people finding the police scanner he hid in his backpack and listened to on break. That would be awkward at best, and a giveaway of his secret vigilante identity at worst. He sighed. He was basically having to juggle two full-time jobs, and sometimes it was more stressful than he thought it was worth.

But then again, if he didn’t have a job he wouldn’t be able to afford an apartment AND superhero gear. He kept that in mind as he pulled on his apron and headed back out into the front of the coffee shop. Jennifer, manning the percolators, glanced at him. “Hey. So before you do any sort of work, I think someone just walked in who’d want to see you.” She grinned, and jerked her head towards the entrance.

“Hmm? Oh.” Schneep smiled. He approached the counter, waving down the pair who’d just entered. “Hello Anti. And William, nice to see you. What brings you here?”

“Came to see if they’d fired you yet,” Anti said, grinning.

“Ha! No such luck, I am afraid.”

William jumped, red curls bouncing as he gripped the edge of the counter. “Hi Uncle Hen!”

“Also I need a hot chocolate,” Anti added. “Small size. And a medium ristretto.”

“And a cake pop?” William asked hopefully.

“Alright, fine,” Anti agreed. “But just for today.”

“Ah, I’d think you only use me for my connections, Anti,” Schneep muttered with a smile, writing down the order on two cups. He turned to leave, but found Jennifer interrupting him, taking the cups with a smile and a glance. “Oh! Okay, I suppose we can talk.”

“Nice.” Anti looked down at Will. “Hey, kid? Want to go find a comfy seat while we wait?”

“Yeah!” Will jumped up one more time before scurrying off.

“So, what is the occasion?” Schneep asked.

“Well, Will just started spring term, so I promised him a treat if he got through the first week,” Anti said. “And it’s all cold outside, so hot chocolate made sense.”

“Is unusually snowy, I will say that,” Schneep agreed. “It was very cold walking to the bus earlier.”

“Yeah, I know. Nearest stop’s like fifteen minutes away from here, I have no idea how you manage to do that every day in winter, it totally sucked today.”

“I have been colder.” Schneep shrugged. “Do you have any plans today?”

“Nothing new. Maybe some more recording.” Anti suddenly perked up. “Oh. Hey, how are you liking that game I told you to play?”

Schneep froze, suddenly glaring at him. “I hate you.”

“Whaaaat? Why?” Anti was trying very hard not to laugh.

“I knew something was up from the very beginning. I thought, wow, it is odd that he told me to play this since it’s very cute, there must be some dark twist inside it. But then!” Schneep threw a hand in the air. “I got too attached to them! And I was not expecting the entire second half! The game just decided to kill everyone and it was terrible!”

Anti was giggling now. “But you had fun, right?”

“It was…interesting,” Schneep conceded. “I can see why it is your favorite, it does all those programming things. And it was honestly scary.”

“Great! Now you can check out the videos I did on it,” Anti said cheerfully. “Who do you like best?”

Schneep rolled his eyes. “Actually, I liked Monika. She was very…fascinating. I wondered a lot about her.”

“That’s fair. I like Natsuki.”

“Really? I think you have more in common with Yuri.”

“You’re only saying that because of the knives.” Anti hesitated for a second. “I do…relate to her the most. But that doesn’t make her personality interesting.”

“I am never playing any game you tell me to play ever again,” Schneep mumbled. “I am never trusting you ever.”

“When should you ever trust me?” Anti grinned. “Anyway, do you have any plans today? Since you asked about mine.”

Schneep looked at the clock mounted on the wall. “Well, my shift ends in two and a half hours, and after I get home Jackie is coming over.”

“Oh? And you didn’t invite me. Wait!” Anti held up a finger, thinking. “This is that thing you told me about last week. Batman movies?”

Schneep nodded. “If you have changed your mind you are free to come. We plan on ordering pizza.”

“Hmm, tempting. But I think I’ll pass.”

“If you insist.” Schneep glanced away. “Hey, I think Jennifer has your order now.”

“Oh? So she does.” Anti looked over. “You like her?”

“She is friendly, yes,” Schneep said slowly.

“Good, I don’t need to be a bi—a jerk about anything.” Anti grinned again. “Heh, there are kids here. Anyway, text you later?”

“Sure. I will see you.”
.............................................................................................

Two hours and forty-five minutes later, Schneep walked outside to find dusk waiting for him. He scowled vaguely at the sky. It was barely five o’clock. Stupid winter nights. The sun hadn’t set yet, but he had a hunch it would if he waited around for an hour. But he had no intention of waiting that long. He zipped up his coat, adjusted his scarf, made sure his backpack was secure on his shoulders, and started walking.

Fifteen minutes. It was only fifteen minutes walking to the bus stop. What could happen in fifteen minutes? Apparently a lot. About halfway to the stop, a pair of hands reached out and pulled Schneep into the gap between two buildings.

Schneep cried out, but found a hand covering his mouth. Instincts kicked in, and he stomped down hard on the assailant’s foot, simultaneously jabbing his elbow backwards. The hands released, and he gasped, looking around. There was no one in sight. Or at least, no one he could see in the shadows. He shook his head, and started towards the street, only for his vision to waver and blur. Between one blink and the next, he was suddenly staring at a wall. He turned around, looking back towards the street, only for the same thing to happen again.

He groaned. Not again. “Okay, where are you?” he said, spinning around. “I know it’s you.”

Silence. And then the slight sound of laughter. “/Clever boy./” The world suddenly shifted its view as the illusions faded away. Distorter was leaning against one of the building walls by the entrance to the street. Still smiling. Still dripping blood from his eyes and the wound on his head. “/You know, there’s one good thing about you. /It’s so easy to make fake things in your mind./ Because of your…/” He twirled a finger beside his head, the sign for cuckoo. “/You know?/”

Schneep flinched, then growled. “You gang up on me when I am walking home? Really? Were you getting tired of having an even playing ground?” All the past times he’d fought Distorter had been at night, when he was out on patrol and had his suit and gear with him. But now? He didn’t have anything. And that made him wary.

“/I like how you make everything about you. /And let’s be honest, were you really doing such a good job before?/” Distorter pushed away from the wall, reaching above his head and stretching backwards. And kept bending backwards, until several cracks echoed through the alleyway. Schneep took a few steps backwards. Distorter laughed, righting himself. “/Don’t worry, this’ll only take a few minutes./”

“No thank you.” Schneep turned around and ran, intending to make it to the other end of the alley and out onto the street. But he only got a few steps in before he ran into something solid with a smack! He stumbled backwards, rubbing his forehead as the world shifted again, showing how he’d been running right into a wall.

Distorter laughed. “/Wow, I wish I had a video of that. /I could play it in a loop./”

“Motherfucker,” Schneep said, glaring at him.

“/Oh, I know. /Now stay still./” Distorter took one step backwards, and then launched forwards.

Schneep yelled in surprise, ducking to the ground and rolling out of the way before he even knew what he was doing. Distorter crashed against the wall, but didn’t seem bothered by it in the slightest, just pushing away for a second attack. Schneep scrambled to his feet, backing up while keeping one hand against the wall to make sure it was really there. The moment Distorter was in range he shot out with a fist, connecting solidly with his face. Distorter stumbled back, then laughed. He suddenly dropped to the ground like a ragdoll. Schneep found his feet being pulled out from under him. He cried out as he fell to the ground, barely managing to catch himself before he could hit the back of his head against the cement.

“/Wow, not so tough without your lightning gadgets, are you?/” Distorter’s nails were digging into his shoulder, blood dripping on Schneep’s face from the creature’s eyes and nose. “/Now stay. /STILL./”

Schneep managed to fling an arm out, fist connecting with the side of Distorter’s head, snapping it to the left. “If you want to kill me, I will not go down without fighting.”

Distorter recovered easily, grin unphased. “/Who said I wanted you dead?/ Well, YET./”

Schneep opened his mouth to retort, but instead suddenly gasped as he felt a sharp pain in his midsection. For a moment, it felt like a strong punch, and then he felt wet leaking.

“/Have fun with that./” And between one blink and the next, Distorter seemed to disappear.

Schneep climbed into a sitting position, pressing a hand to the painful spot. Did…did Distorter just stab him? That…was different. He couldn’t remember that creature ever using a knife before. Slowly, with the help of the nearby wall, he stood up and walked back out onto the street. He looked down. It wasn’t bleeding too badly. And he’d been stabbed before, and this didn’t feel like the worst wound he’d had. But that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt. He unwound the scarf from around his neck, unzipped his coat—no, this was his only winter coat, and it had just been ruined!—and pressed the balled-up scarf to the wound. He had a first aid kit at home. He could probably get there quickly, provided the bus was on time.

Wait, the bus! Schneep reached into his pocket with one hand, withdrawing his phone and checking the time. Oh, good, he should still be able to get to the stop before it came. He replaced his phone, zipped his coat again, and started off.

Part of him thought it was ridiculous that he wasn’t calling anyone. But it didn’t seem too bad. Nothing he hadn’t survived before. Maybe he could just handle it by himself, without needing to bother anyone.
.............................................................................................

And once he got back to the apartment, it seemed like it wasn’t anything to worry about. The wound was small, probably from a small blade, and he managed to bandage it up well enough. He hadn’t lost a lot of blood, and he got to the bus stop without much difficulty. Despite the searing pain, it was probably fine.

Probably.

“Okay, I know I am bullshitting myself,” Schneep said, glaring at his reflection in the bathroom mirror. “But Jackie is coming over, and if it really starts to cause problems, he is a doctor. He can help.” Though he’d feel terrible about ruining what was supposed to be a fun night. “It will be fine, I promise.” His reflection didn’t answer any of his ramblings.

He’d arrived back at his apartment at about 5:40. Jackie arrived twenty minutes later, at six. “Okay, so we’re good to go all night,” he said the moment Schneep opened the door. “I don’t have a shift tomorrow, so we can stay up late and watch all three.”

“I doubt you’d make it that long,” Schneep muttered fondly, standing aside to let Jackie in.

“Hey! Not everyone’s a night owl.” Jackie breezed past him, then paused, standing in the center of the studio apartment. “It’s kind of hot in here, did you turn up the thermostat?”

“Oh, yes. Because it is cold outside.” It didn’t feel too hot to him. He was actually a little chilly, slightly shivering as he closed the apartment door.

“Huh. Won’t the landlord charge you for that?”

“I do not think so.”

“If you say so.” Jackie pulled off his hoodie, draping it over the back of the nearest chair. “Still hot, though.”

Schneep decided to change the subject. “So are we ordering food now, or do we wait until we actually have the movie set up?”

“We can set it up first.” Jackie flopped onto the sofa.

“Alright. Don’t hurry to help or anything.”

Jackie hesitated. “Did you want me to, or…?”

“No, it was joke, don’t worry. I will get it.” Schneep joined Jackie over in the living room section of the apartment. He bent down to turn on the TV, but when he stood up, a dagger of pain from his wound suddenly flared. He hissed, hand instinctively pressing against it.

Jackie sat up straight. “What was that?”

“Is nothing, I just…pulled a muscle at work today,” Schneep said, coming up with something on the spot.

“You work at a coffee shop,” Jackie stated.

“Well, yes, but sometimes we have to carry boxes and bags of ingredients from storage to the front.” That wasn’t a lie, at least.

“And that would result in…you pulling a muscle. In your stomach. And not your back or your knees, which is where that would usually happen.” Jackie raised an eyebrow.

“…yes,” Schneep said after a long pause.

“Okay, what happened?”

Schneep sighed. He should’ve known better than to hide anything from Jackie, He had a sort of sixth sense when it came to something being wrong with his friends. “It is nothing to worry about. I got pulled into an alleyway walking home.”

“Pulled into a what? Like a mugging?”

“Yes, like that.” Schneep pressed his hand against the wound again. “The man had a knife, and he used it.”

“You’ve been stabbed?!” Jackie shot to his feet.

“I took care of it!” Schneep hurried to say. “It was not bad!”

“There’s no such thing as a ‘not bad’ stabbing! Here, sit down, I want to look at it.”

Schneep sighed. Well, at least this’ll be quick. Then Jackie could stop worrying and the two of them could relax. Schneep sat down on the couch. “Happy?”

“Yes. Now pull up your shirt so I can look at it.” Jackie waited patiently while Schneep did so. “You actually did a really good job wrapping. Unfortunately, I have to undo your hard work.” Jackie sat down next to him, slowly unwinding the white bandages.

Schneep tried to stay very still, despite the way the pain would surge every time he shifted weight. This was actually worse than the walk home. How was that possible? Maybe shock, or something like that. After a moment of silence, Jackie placed his hand against Schneep’s stomach. “Ah!” Schneep instinctively pulled down his shirt. “Jackie, your hands are cold, do not do that!”

“Okay, that’s weird,” Jackie said, not responding to what Schneep said. “Lean forward.” He put his hand against Schneep’s forehead. “Um…I don’t think it’s my hands that are cold, I think it’s you.” He bit his lip. “I think…did you lose a lot of blood?”

“Not a lot. There was not a lot of bleeding, and I had something pressed against it a lot of the time.”

“Weird…” Jackie leaned back, thinking. “You’re cold, and also you look like you’re sweating a bit. Huh…did you put any disinfectant on the wound?”

“…ah.” Schneep tried not to squirm.

Jackie sighed. “Who knows what was on that knife? I keep telling you—well, never mind now. I know you have some. First aid kit’s in the bathroom, right?” Schneep nodded. “Wait here, I’ll get it.” And with that, Jackie stood up and left.

Schneep had nothing to do but sit. The day had started off so well, now this was happening. He sighed, blinking around at his surroundings. He was tired…really tired, all of a sudden. He leaned back against the couch, now staring up at the ceiling. Was it…was it spinning?

“Alright, I’m back! I have the…are you okay?”

“What?” Schneep rolled his head over to look at Jackie. “Yes, I am just…I just got very tired very quickly.”

“That’s…just suddenly?” Jackie’s brows furrowed. “Are you sure you didn’t lose too much blood?”

“Yes, I am sure.” Schneep blinked again. For a moment, everything was swimming.

“…okay.” Jackie sat down next to him. “I’m gonna put this on the stab wound, now. It might sting a little. Okay?”

Schneep didn’t answer.

“Hey, Volt, buddy?” Jackie patted the side of Schneep’s face. “I need to know that you understand.”

After a moment of silence, Schneep said, “The walls are melting.”

“Wh-what?” Jackie asked, taken aback.

“They are melting.” Schneep’s eyes fluttered. “I think I am seeing things. That happens, but this time I know it is happening, so that is a start.”

“…I’m just going to take a look at the wound real quick.” Jackie lifted up Schneep’s shirt. His eyes widened, and he looked back between the wound and Schneep’s face. “I’m…going to take a pulse, okay?” He pressed two fingers against Schneep’s neck. Then he withdrew them sharply. “Holy—” He dug into his pocket and pulled out his phone, dialing a number.

“What is wrong?” Schneep asked. He tried to focus on Jackie’s face, but it was blurry, like it was hidden behind a pane of frosted glass.

“I-I don’t know what was on that knife, but there was definitely something,” Jackie said, pressing the phone to his ear. “It’s doing something to you, we need to get emergency—what do you mean no service?!” He pulled the phone away.

“The lines nearby have been down for a while,” Schneep mumbled. “There was a storm…though I remember they said that it looked like…sie wurden sabotiert…”

“Okay, I don’t know what that last part was.” Jackie stood up, hurrying to the door. “I can drive you to the hospital, I—what?!” He pulled on the doorknob, then pushed on it. “I-it won’t open!” Giving up on getting it open, Jackie started pounding on the door. “Hey! Hello? The door’s stuck, someone let us out! It’s an emergency!”

“Jackie…” Schneep looked back up at the ceiling. It was dripping into his eyes. How was it melting when it was so cold? “You are doctor, you can fix…”

“I’m not trained for-for poison!” Jackie stammered.

“You can try…or maybe we can go out the window, it is not too far.”

“I can’t go out the window!” Jackie had come back to stand next to Schneep at some point, now standing over him and chewing on his hair nervously. “I-I can try? But I gotta keep trying to get someone, too!”

“Mm…you do that.” Schneep paused. “Jackie…I should tell you. The one who stabbed me…was not just some random thief…it was…lächelnde Mann. Distort…” He closed his eyes.

“It was Dis—?! No no no no, Volt, Henrik, stay awake!” Jackie leaned over him, shaking him slightly, only to get no response. “Oh, fuck fuck fucking fuck.” He took his pulse once again, finding it just as rapid as before. “Okay. Okay, Jackie, you can figure this out. You can do this.” He took a step back, lifting up Schneep’s shirt to expose the stab wound once again. It was yellow around the edges, the blood darker than it should be. “Okay, uh. I have no idea what that is. I can find out, I guess?”

Jackie picked up his phone, opening a window to the Internet and typing as quickly as possible. Luckily he knew several websites that knew what they were talking about, so he didn’t have to search through shady sites. “‘Get to the hospital as quickly as possible’—yes, I know, I can’t do that. Fuck. Okay.” He pushed Schneep to the side, lying him down. Schneep’s eyelids fluttered. “Cleaning is always a good place to start. Okay.”

He ran to the kitchenette, throwing open the cupboards until he found the largest cup possible. Turning on the sink, he filled it with water. Warm or cold? God, if he knew what was in the wound, he’d know which, but he had to settle for lukewarm and hope that would work. He grabbed a wash rag and dashed back to the sofa as quickly as possible, kneeling nearby. “I don’t know if you can hear me, but this is going to sting.”

As soon as the water touched his skin, Schneep’s eyes flew open and he screamed, flailing. “I know, I know!” Jackie said. “Just, please! Stay still! Stay—hey!” He grabbed Schneep’s arm with one hand to prevent him from whacking him in the face. “Please, you have to let me do this.”

Jackie reached out, ready to…to…what was he doing? He shook his head, clearing away the sudden fog. He had to clean the wound, that was a good starting place.

It wasn’t easy, but he managed it. As soon as he was sure he’d done as good a job as possible, he checked Schneep’s pulse again. It was slower than before, but…but it was also slower than it should be. “No no no no no,” he muttered, a constant stream while he tried to look up what else to do. “There has to be a way, I have to…” he trailed off. What…? His head turned, and his hand reached out, fingers exploring into the open bleeding—

Schneep screamed again, and Jackie jerked backwards. What the hell?! What had he just been doing?! “No no no, I-I’m sorry, it’s okay!” It wasn’t okay, but that didn’t matter now. He stood up, once again running to the door, but it was just as unmovable as it had been before. He pounded on it once…he…his head tilted to the side, his arm dropping. Was someone laughing nearby?

No! Jackie shook his head. He had to—there was something on his face. Something warm and wet, and coming from his eyes. He reached up, fingers coming away red. “Shit, no, fuck!” He looked around the apartment, not finding anything. Well, did it matter? His friend was dying!

There had to be something else he could do! He rushed back to Schneep’s side, checking his pulse once again. His breathing was slower, a wet, rattling sound coming from inside his throat. Fuck, this had happened so fast. Jackie tilted his head back, keeping his mouth open. What else could he do? The disinfectant? It was probably better than nothing. Jackie grabbed the small tin, unscrewing the lid. He dabbed his fingers inside, then tried to gently apply it to the surface around the wound as gently as possible. Schneep didn’t protest beyond a slight twitching. There was red dripping on the sofa in between them; he knew it was coming from his eyes.

“Come on, come on, please please please.” Once more, he checked the pulse. He checked the…the…

He couldn’t find it.

“No. No no no no no no—” He tried to find it by pressing fingers against his wrist. Then by pressing his palm against his chest. He still couldn’t find anything. “No, Henrik, please don’t—wake up! Please, wake up!” The world seemed leeched of its color, everything in gray. He couldn’t concentrate on anything, anything. He was shaking him and getting no response. “Henrik, no! No, my friend!”

There was nothing, nothing, nothing but gray distortion.
.............................................................................................

A steady, slow beeping was coming from somewhere. Everything felt heavy, especially his eyelids. Yet he managed to open them somehow, staring uncomprehendingly at his surroundings, until something cleared and he recognized that he was in a hospital room somewhere.

After what felt like forever, he rolled his head to the side, catching sight of a woman in nurse’s scrubs. She was watching him. He closed his eyes again…
.............................................................................................

The beeping was back, as well as a low murmuring. He could hear two voices.

“So how are you related to him again?”

“I’m not, he’s my neighbor.”

“And you found him how?”

“Well, I heard shouting from his apartment, so I was a little worried. It went away after a while, but I thought I would go check anyway. And when I did, his door was wide open, and so I peeked inside and I…”
.............................................................................................

More voices, muffled like they were through a wall. A few sounded familiar…

“Fuck you, he’s our friend and you’re going to let us see him!”

“Sir, if you would please calm down—”

“Fuck calm! I have a hunting knife in my backpack that I’d think you’d like to see!”

“Now, really, Anti, that’s going too far.”

“Yea, a bit. Y’wouldn’ want t’get arrested.”

“There’s nothing illegal about knives. Guns, maybe, but knives?”

“I’m sure threatening a doctor has some consequences. They could throw us out.”

“Mnngh…”
.............................................................................................

He opened his eyes again, looking around at the same hospital room. Everything felt…floaty. Like he could bounce away at any minute. But he was awake. He tried to sit up, fell back, and looked around. The same nurse from the last time he looked around was still there. She watched him for a moment, then smiled. “Oh, good, you’re awake. Everyone was worried.”

“Wh…happened?” He asked.

“Well, we’re not too sure. You were found unconscious, and wounded. I personally don’t know too many details, but they had to hurry.”

The stab wound. Schneep tried to bolt upright as soon as he remembered, but just ended up falling down again and knocking the breath out of his lungs.

“Oh, be careful. You could tear open the stitches.” The nurse paused. “You know…there are some friends of yours waiting outside. I could let them in, if you want.” Once he nodded, she stood from her chair, opened the door, and poked her head outside. “He’s awake,” she said. And then the door opened wide as three people came in.

“Henrik, what the FUCK dude?!” Anti demanded. “In the span of a few hours since I’d seen you, you manage to almost die?!”

Schneep smiled at him. He couldn’t remember the last time Anti had called him by his first name, he must’ve been really worried.

Marvin poked his head around Anti. “I don’ t’ink our group should be makin’ a habit of visiting others in the hospital,” he said, smiling.

“Had no say in th’matter,” Schneep mumbled.

“How are you feeling?” JJ asked.

Schneep paused for a long moment, trying to find the right words. “Bad,” he settled on.

“Yeah, I bet,” Anti muttered. “I did some research on what the doctor said got to you, and it’s pretty nasty. I mean, you were out for a night and half the day.” He looked over at the nurse. “Hey, can we get some privacy here?”

The nurse pursed her lips. “It’s against policy.”

“Sh’s fine,” Schneep said. “‘M just…happy you all’re here…” His eyes darted around the room. Something was wrong…“Where’s Jackie?”

The three boys looked at each other. “I thought he came to see you earlier,” JJ said. “Do either of you two know?”

“I was just assumin’ he was somewhere in the hospital,” Marvin said. “Because he works here, I t’ought…”

“He doesn’t have a shift today,” Anti said. “Wait! I texted him.” Anti dug into his pocket, pulling out his phone and checking his messages. His brows furrowed. “And…he hasn’t even seen it, let alone replied yet.”

Schneep tried to sit up one more time, finally managing to prop himself against the pillows. “He was with me…”

“Wait, he was with you when you got stabbed?” JJ asked, eyes wide.

“No, later, when…everything started…I blacked out…did he bring me here?”

“No, some neighbor lady of yours checked on you, and lucky she did,” Anti said. “She…didn’t mention anyone else.”

Schneep made a strangled sort of gasp, covering his mouth. “He’s gone.”

The others looked around, expressions confused and worried. In the background, the nurse opened the door and left, standing outside.

“We don’t know that,” JJ hurried to say.

“Jems, I don’ t’ink…” Marvin sat down in the nearest chair, realizing the truth before anyone else. “Henrik, d’you mean…?”

“He poisoned me,” Schneep whispered. “He knew Jackie would try to fix it…” It had all been a trap. A plan, of some sorts. How long had Distorter been planning this? Since he first met them all? “So he could confuse him, and take him, and if I died…well, two birds, one stone.”

The others said nothing. There was nothing to say, in the face of such knowledge. It weighed heavy on the air of that room.

And somewhere across the city, a man dressed in gray was smiling, perfectly delighted.