Part Twenty 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 group gains a couple of new allies, just in time for a new enemy to confront them.]
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“Sorry for dropping in on all of you like this. But we really need to talk.”
For a moment, everyone just stared at the person who’d just walked into the room. The same magician from…was it really just earlier that morning? One of the ones they’d fought with, the one named Delyth Mae. It took a moment to sink in. And then everything burst.
Schneep shot to his feet, wielding his scissors like a knife blade. JJ threw his hand in an arc, conjuring a shield right in front of Delyth, in case she tried to cast any spells. Chase cried out and tried to stand up but was dragged back down by Jackie still clinging to his arm. Jack scrambled backwards, tripping over the chair’s arm in an attempt to back away. “What are you doing here?!” Schneep snarled.
Delyth looked unfazed. She raised her hands like she was surrendering. “I said we need to talk,” she repeated calmly.
“You tried to kill us!” Chase squeaked.
“NO,” Delyth emphasized. “That was never the plan. It wasn’t even the plan to fight you unless you were hostile. Tavish and Nairne were out of line, and I’ve removed them from this team. Now, I hope to approach this diplomatically.”
Schneep barked out a laugh. “You think we are going to trust you—”
JJ lowered the shield.
“Jay what the fuck?!” Chase shouted.
“Wait, what? What just happened?” Schneep asked, suddenly shifting his mood to confused.
“Your friend seems to be reasonable,” Delyth said, stepping further into the room. “I’m so sorry to impose on you, Mr. Akela.”
“Uh…no, it’s fine,” Malcolm said, remaining in the doorway. “I’m just…gonna…wait here.” He looked visibly awkward, standing in the entrance to his own commandeered living room.
“Hey, uh, JJ, I appreciate your…trusty-ness,” Jack said, warily edging around the room. “But is this a good idea?”
'When the other two magicians were fighting us, she was trying to stop them,' JJ remembered. 'I think she’s willing to talk it out, at least.'
“She tried to stop the other two who were fighting us, huh?” Jack repeated. “I guess that makes sense.”
Schneep grumbled, but lowered his scissors. “Fine, but I will stay on my guard.”
Delyth walked yet further into the room, now standing in the center. She looked around, and her eyes landed on Jackie. “Oh hello.”
Jackie blinked. “Do I…? No, I definitely don’t know you.”
“Just say why you are here,” Schneep prompted.
“Well, last time, I told you about the unusually high levels of soul magic in the city.” Delyth folded her hands. “I believe you may know something about it. If you would give us information, I give you my promise, the ABIM will do everything we can to help you with any troubles you may have.”
“Huh…I guess that could be helpful,” Chase said reluctantly. “If you’re telling the truth.”
“Of course I am!” Delyth’s tone became suddenly impatient. “Look, we’ve been chasing this soul magic for a long time now, people above me want results. I’m sure we can help.”
“Uh…well I guess it might be good to have some magical knowledge when it comes to this.” Jack held up the water bottle with the duct-taped lid.
“Jack, please,” Schneep said, exasperated.
“Oh, sorry, Hen, I’m just talking about the strings,” Jack said.
“Well, I could get context clues, but still.” Schneep hummed. “I suppose you are right.”
“Well, I’m glad we’ve come to an agreement, then,” Delyth smiled. “Now. Can you please tell me what—wait, hold on a second.” She reached into a pocket and pulled out a small tape recorder. “I have to record this as a testimony. None of you mind, do you?”
'I would like to point out that you can’t record me,' JJ immediately said.
“Yeah, JJ uses sign language, how’s that gonna work?” Chase asked.
“Well I suppose one of you will have to translate,” Delyth said. “Other than that, is everything okay?” Everyone made sounds of agreement, though Schneep’s was a bit reluctant. “Great.” Delyth pressed a button on the recorder. “This is Delyth Mae, member of the Magi, Investigation Level 4. Case 3-10100703. Witness interview for information. Please state your names for the record.”
Uh…” Jack blinked, and glanced around at the others. “I’m, uh…Jack McLoughlin.”
“I’m Chase,” Chase says, now squirming to adjust positions while Jackie was still refusing to let go. “Chase Brody.”
“Dr. Henrik von Schneeplestein,” Schneep states clearly. “And this is our friend Jameson Jackson, who unfortunately cannot talk for your recorder.” JJ waved.
“Thank you. Now, two of you, Mr. McLoughlin and Mr. Schneeplestein—”
“Doctor,” Schneep said tersely.
“Sorry, Dr. Schneeplestein.” Delyth paused. “Out of curiosity, what are you a doctor of?”
“I…was a surgeon,” Schneep said slowly.
“Well, the two of you give off distinct signatures of soul magic, is that correct?”
“Apparently,” Jack laughed nervously.
“And on that basis, I thought that you may know something about the high levels of soul magic in the city.” Delyth seems to be providing an explanation for the tape recorder. “Now, can you tell me what that is, that you know?”
Nobody really wanted to start. But after a moment of admittedly awkward silence, Chase said, “Well, I guess it started with this guy and his roommate.” Chase pointed to Jackie. “This is…well, he’s a friend of ours.”
“What’s your name, sir?” Delyth asked.
Jackie blinked. “I’m—we’re—I’m Jackie. But I think I—we—I have more names than that.”
“Look, it’s a long story,” Chase interrupted. “Just…don’t say anything until we’re done.” And he started to explain.
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Someone was walking through the city streets. It was eleven o’clock in the morning, and a lot of people were out, pedestrians and drivers alike. But no one seemed to notice him. Which was unusual, you would think a man wearing half a mask, stained blue and shaped like a cat face, with green string stitching across his neck, eyes glimmering blue and green and occasionally red…you would think a man like that would be noticeable.
He was heading somewhere. He wasn’t sure where, but he could feel it tugging at him. Like a string pulling him to a destination. Though he didn’t know where he was going, he knew what would be on the other end of the string. More pieces of him. They were all together.
A woman was following him for a while. Until she noticed he was going in a straight line. Directly straight, cutting through alleyways and yards whenever he could. Puzzled, she opened up a map of the city on her phone, tracing a straight line in the direction he was heading. There wasn’t really anything important in that part of the city. Just a section of townhouses. But he might have been going to one of them. She hurried ahead, and halfway through running, poofed into a cloud of blue smoke. When it faded, she was gone.
The man hadn’t even noticed her disappearing. He hadn’t even noticed her following. All that was important were the missing pieces. And he was getting closer.
White noise flickered around his grinning face.
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The silence after the explanation was deafening. Delyth didn’t say anything as she processed what had just happened. Chase had done most of the explaining, though naturally, there were parts he didn’t know and the others had to fill in. Malcolm had left halfway through, muttering something about stupid crazy magic shit. Jackie had stayed, but he’d stayed silent the whole time, and after a while closed his eyes. Nobody thought he was sleeping.
“This is…frankly unbelievable,” Delyth finally said.
“Don’t worry, we know,” Jack muttered.
“It’s just—” She couldn’t even come up with words to describe it. “The four of you—well, the five of you—you knew Marvin Moore?”
None of them had expected her to grab onto that, out of the whole series of events. “Well, Jameson didn’t,” Jack said. JJ shook his head, but said nothing, aware it wouldn’t be picked up on the recorder. “But yeah, we all did.”
“You know me,” Jackie said, giggling. His eyes stayed firmly closed. “You know me̶.”
The others stared at him for a moment. After a while, when it was clear he wasn’t going to say anything else, Schneep cleared his throat. “Why is that significant?” he asked.
“Marvin Moore was one of only two soul magicians in this city,” Delyth said. “Both of them, coincidentally, had a history of subverting ABIM regulations.”
Chase blinked. “I…never knew Marvin was part of this magical organization. Or, uh, going around it, whatever. Though to be fair, we didn’t think Marvin’s magic was ACTUALLY magic until all this crazy shit started happening.”
“If what you say is true…” Delyth said slowly. “About this…together…fusion…thing…” She couldn’t help but give Jackie another wary glance. “Then this thing would probably have soul magic as well, thus accounting for the high amounts of trace soul magic in the city. Sounds like it was…active. Until recently.”
“Well, these string things might be…whatever’s left of him.” Jack shook the water bottle, hearing the faint sound of the strings inside. “And they’re very active.”
Delyth shook her head, visibly stunned. “Nothing like this has ever—ever—happened before. Not in all our records, and they go back quite a while. Influencing electricity, this intense hypnotism—opening the Nightmare, for god’s sake. ‘Black magic’ doesn’t even cover what this thing is. It’s—it is a magical abomination.”
Jackie’s eyes suddenly flew open. They seemed to flash red, and he growled, glaring at Delyth. She tensed, her eyes glowing a slight purple in return.
The tension was broken by the doorbell ringing. Malcolm, who’d been listening quietly, made a cry of frustration. “I swear, if it’s anyone else involved in this fucking stuff…” He muttered under his breath as he went to get the door.
“But even if you’ve never heard of something like this before, you can still…like, fix it, right?” Chase asked hopefully.
Delyth frowned. “That isn’t my area of expertise. I know some things about soul magic, but I haven’t studied it, exactly. We’d need to call in people who know more about experimental magic than I do, just to even figure out what we could do.”
“Okay,” Jack said. “So how do we do—”
“Hey!” Malcolm shouted.
Everyone looked towards the sound, just in time to see a young woman with purple and blue hair run into the room. “Mae! It is you!” she said, visibly relieved.
Malcolm ran into the room after her. “I’m sorry, she just pushed right past me, do any of you know her?”
Delyth blinked. She quickly turned off the tape recorder and stood up, shoving it in her pocket. “Yvonne Bell. What are you doing here?”
“It’s a long story, but basically—” Yvonne looked like she was starting with a conversation, but then she glanced around the room and stopped. She stared, wide-eyed, at the group. “Wait, who are you?”
“Bell, please,” Delyth said, exasperated. “You are on thin ice already—”
“Ohhhh no, wait, I get it now,” Yvonne covered her mouth with her hand. “You’re friends of his, right? Marvin.”
“Oh my god, how the fuck does everyone know Marvin?!” Schneep threw his hands in the air.
'Are you a magician too?' JJ asked.
“You—also—magician,” Yvonne said out loud, watching JJ’s hands move. “I’m assuming that’s what that is, I’m a bit rusty. Yes, I am.”
“Yvonne Bell is the second soul magician in the city,” Delyth explained. “It’s only natural that the two of them knew of each other.”
“Well, uh…yeah, you can say that,” Yvonne said, her voice slowly rising in pitch. “Hey, so uh, Mae, I ducked in here cause I thought it was a bit weird, sensing you in this area, I thought you might be able to help, but I think I ended up finding something more important. You are friends of Marv, right? I think I recognize you. Definitely recognize him.” She pointed at Jackie, who was now looking around as if searching for the source of a strange noise.
“Yeah, we knew him—know him,” Jack said. “Uh…why?”
Yvonne laughed, a bit hysterically. “Well so long story short I ran into him and he’s pretty off his rocker! And also he was heading in this direction last I saw so I tried to find where he was going and that might end up being here.”
Silence fell instantly. It stayed for a few seconds, and then Malcolm immediately turned around and left, muttering something under his breath. Everyone in the living room heard the sound of the stairs creaking. “You know honestly I don’t blame him for that,” Chase sighed. “Uh…Yvonne, is it? What do you mean he’s off his rocker?”
“H-he showed up at my shop last night,” Yvonne started. “And he—well, he was bleeding from this wound on his neck, and at first I thought he was acting weird ‘cause of the blood loss, but it wasn’t that big. He didn’t know where he was or who I was or who he was, kept switching from I to we, saying stuff about puppets, it was all really weird. Then there were these green strings—” Everyone stiffened. “—that showed up, and he, like, it was creepy how he acted with them, and some of them reached him and—and he was all hostile, and he headed out, and it was like he was looking for something, but that must be you, right?”
Another few moments of silence. “Jesus,” Chase muttered, and stood up, managing to push Jackie away only because he seemed more concerned with…something. “You’re not joking, right?”
“Why the shit would I joke about that?!” Yvonne yelled. “It was freaky as fuck!”
“So when you say ‘green strings,’” Jack said, “do you mean this collection of green, slightly glowing, pieces of thread that crawled across the ground like creepy worms?”
Yvonne blinked. “Yeah, why?”
Jack held up the water bottle and tapped the side. “They showed up here, too. We caught them, but…Jackie reacted weirdly to them.”
“Clearly, these strings are somehow connected to the both of them,” Delyth said.
“Well no shit!” Schneep snapped. “Anti was held together by string, it is probably what is left of him!”
“Okay, look, we can discuss it later,” Yvonne said. “Right now we have to—”
Jameson happened to glance towards the window at just the right time. He stiffened, and threw out a shield. The window burst, glass flying inward. Most of it bounced off Jameson’s shield, which managed to cover Chase, Jack, and Jackie, all sitting close together. Schneep yelped, but was mostly blocked from the shards by Yvonne, who threw up her arms to try to protect herself. Delyth reacted as soon as she heard the sound, conjuring a personal shield of her own out of crystalline purple magic.
Strands of blue light started to crawl inside the broken window. Jackie suddenly snapped to attention and shot to his feet. Chase grabbed him, sure that this couldn’t be a good thing.
The blue light—blue STRINGS—wrapped around Jameson’s shield, twisting along the edges. Jameson took a step back, the magic flickering. Without warning, the strings shot towards him, wrapping around his torso and pinning his arms to his side. The shield died.
“What is this?!” Delyth asked, scrambling to her feet.
“Watch out!” Yvonne shouted.
Something jumped through the broken window, moving too fast to be anything but a blur. Jack was suddenly knocked to the ground, dropping the water bottle, which rolled across the floor. He gasped, partly because the breath was knocked out of him, partly because of the sight before him. It was recognizably Marvin, but…at the same time, too strange. He was wearing a mask that looked rather like his old cat-shaped one…if it was blue instead of white and snapped in half. Behind that mask, his eyes flickered between blue and green, teeth clenched in a snarl. Green stitches crossed a line across his throat.
Jackie shouted something, and pushed Chase away. He only took two steps forward before Chase tackled him to the floor. “Marvin!” Yvonne shouted, and ran over to pull him off Jack. Delyth quickly joined her. While they were doing that, Schneep was by Jameson’s side. Trying to pull at the magic strings proved unsuccessful, so he took out his scissors and cut, managing to slice right through them, though he got very close to Jameson’s skin a couple times.
There was a burst of light, and Yvonne and Delyth got thrown back, covered in blue strings that stuck to the walls. Schneep spun around. “What is happening?!”
Jack sat up, Marvin suddenly gone. He looked around for where he went, and caught sight of him just as he grabbed the water bottle with the strings inside. “Don’t let him grab the bottle!” Jack shouted, lunging forward and landing on Marvin’s back. He managed to startle him enough to make him let go, but as the bottle rolled away, Marvin hissed, and reached for it. Jack grabbed his arm. “Chase, help?!”
“Sorry bro, bit busy!” Chase was dealing with a struggling Jackie, who kept trying to get closer to Marvin and the bottle.
Jameson shook off the last of the magic strings, and flung a disc of magic forward. It rolled across the floor and hit the bottle, knocking it across the room. Marvin and Jackie shouted in identical unison.
Schneep finished cutting Delyth and Yvonne out of the magic strings, and Delyth yelled something in a strange language. The ground quaked, and a purple spike shot out of the ground directly under the water bottle, sending it flying into the air, in a perfect arc right into Delyth’s hands. She wiggled it, as if taunting Marvin and Jackie, then threw it out the window.
Marvin screamed, and disappeared in a flurry of white noise. Jackie’s eyes flashed red, and Chase was thrown backward, staggering, bleeding from a cut that went straight from his shoulder to his navel. Not even looking back, Jackie ran forward and jumped out the window.
“Come on, outside!” Delyth said to the room. “There’ll be more room to maneuver!”
It took a few moments for everyone to get their bearings, but they knew time was of the essence so they hurried. As a group, they all ran out the front door onto the street.
Marvin had picked up the water bottle, and was struggling with the duct tape holding the lid closed. Jackie was standing a few feet in front of him, eyes fixed on his face. After a moment, Marvin seemed to notice, and looked up as well. The two of them were frozen.
Just long enough for Jameson to throw a shield up between them. Jackie stepped back, his surprised expression turning to anger. He cried out, and red light started slicing at the shield. Marvin was smarter, and whirled to look at Jameson. He threw out his hands, and more blue strings shot forward. Chase pushed Jameson out of the way, but got entangled himself. Schneep ran to him, and upon feeling the strings, started cutting at those as well.
“Get the bottle!” Jack shouted, running forward. Marvin turned to him and scowled. More strings burst out of the ground, wrapping around his legs and stopping him in his tracks.
Jameson’s shield flickered and died, and Jackie ran forward, latching onto Marvin’s side. Marvin seemed to relax a bit, his eyes starting to glow a softer green. Jackie’s eyes glowed as well, the exact same color.
“No no no no no.” Yvonne ran forward, stopping right behind Jackie. She pressed her hands to either side of her head. “Dor me sonum,” she whispered, and Jackie’s eyes rolled back in his head. He crumpled to the floor, but then Marvin’s eyes instantly locked on Yvonne. She didn’t even have time to react before she was sent flying backwards, landing heavily on the asphalt of the street, and not moving again.
“Fuck this!” Schneep hissed under his breath, turning towards Marvin. Marvin laughed, static crackling along with the sound, and threw out another wave of strings. But Schneep disappeared. And between one step and the next, he was behind Marvin, grabbing at the bottle he was holding. He managed to wrench it out of his grasp, then stepped backwards and disappeared again.
Delyth turned to Jameson. “Can you keep him busy?” she asked. He looked surprised, but nodded. “Good.” She took a deep breath, and started muttering something.
Jameson stepped forward, throwing a disc of light at Marvin, who seemed stunned at the fact that he was no longer holding the water bottle. He didn’t recover in time to avoid the disc splashing in his face. He gasped, and stumbled back, then immediately glared at Jameson. He raised his hand, and a few more strings curled around his arm and shot outward. Jameson ducked just in time to avoid them, but another few quickly wrapped around his arms, pulling him downward. “Useless f͡a͟͝ke magician,” Marvin hissed. “W̵or͠thle͟s͞s replacement.”
“Leave him alone!” Chase shouted. In one swift motion, he pulled out his gun and BANG!
Marvin staggered backwards, more surprised than hurt. He glared at Chase and reached upward.
Delyth suddenly threw her hands out in front of her, eyes glowing bright purple. A wave of purple light flew out from her in a circle. Once it reached Marvin, pale lavender crystals started to grow out of the ground around his feet. He looked down, but the crystals accelerated, and soon they were covering him up to his armpits. There was only enough time for him to scream out in frustration before he was completely encased.
“We should hurry to get out of here,” Delyth said, not wasting any time. “That spell only lasts an hour at best. Quick, let’s all get in my car.”
“Your what?” Schneep asked.
“Yeah, what?” Chase repeated.
Delyth pointed to the side of the road. A blue car was parked there. “It should be a tight fit, but I think we can all squeeze in. Bring Bell and that…what was his name? Jackie?”
“Hang on!” Schneep had finished cutting Jack free of the strings, and was now standing up straight and glaring in Delyth’s general direction.
“I just pointed to it,” Delyth said, annoyed.
“I am fucking blind!” Schneep snapped. “Was that not obvious?!”
“…oh.” Delyth had the good grace to look embarrassed. “I suppose that would explain some things I noticed. I just thought that…nevermind. My apologies.”
“It’s okay, I’ll get you there,” Jack said to Schneep.
For his part, Schneep looked frustrated. “The first thing I am doing after everything settles down is getting one of those white canes. That way everyone will know and I can find what is around me without asking people.”
'Where are we going?' Jameson asked.
“Yeah, where are we going?” Chase repeated. “You’re a magician, are we going to some secret magic place?”
Delyth glanced uneasily at Marvin, still frozen. “I’ll explain on the way there.”
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The car ride was short, which was lucky, since it was also very cramped. Delyth drove and Chase was in the front seat, which left the other three to fill the backseat. It wouldn’t have been a problem if they didn’t also have to fit in Jackie and Yvonne’s unconscious bodies. So they ended up having those two partly on top of them.
True to her word, Delyth explained while she drove. “Marvin clearly means you harm. We need a place with strong wards to protect you from him. And somewhere to keep those…strings safe. To study them, as well as what happened to your friend Jackie. I know a place that fits all those qualifications, near the center of town.”
After a while, Delyth parked in front of what looked like an old bookstore. The sign had fallen off and the windows were dusty, but through the clouded glass you could see lines of shelves and empty displays. They all piled out of the car, watching Delyth as she ran her hand along the edge of the building’s front door frame. It lit up with purple light, which faded to white before disappearing entirely. And without an explanation, she opened the door and stepped inside. Confused, the others quickly followed, with Chase and Jack carrying Yvonne and Jackie.
The interior wasn’t at all what it looked like it would be from the outside. In fact, it looked more like a hotel lobby than anything, decorated in white and gold colors. “Wait, what?!” Chase blinked in surprise.
'We stepped into a TARDIS,' JJ said succinctly.
“Fancy,” Jack commented. “Looks like the entrance to a hotel or something.” This last statement was probably for Schneep, clinging to his arm.
“This is an ABIM Sanctuary,” Delyth explained. She walked over to a desk with a computer and started typing something in. “It’s for any Magi agents or employed wizards to stay while in town.”
“I…cannot take the phrase ‘employed wizards’ seriously,” Chase said.
Delyth huffed. “‘Wizard’ just means they study magic. It’s an actual term with a long history—you know what, I can explain later. Or maybe Bell can, when she wakes up. We should probably get one of the healers here to look at her, make sure the damage from that blow wasn’t too severe.”
“What about Jackie?” Jack asked.
“It looked like Bell hit him with a sleep spell,” Delyth said. “He should wake up any minute now.” She backed away from the computer. “There. I’ve checked you all in, as my guests, now I’ll show you to your assigned rooms.” And she headed towards a set of elevator doors in the back of the room.
'You said we needed strong wards,' JJ asked. 'Does that mean Marvin can’t find us here? And what about these strings? You said we could study them.' Jack translated the signs for Delyth.
“Yes, the wards here are very strong,” Delyth said, pressing the Up button next to the lift. “Tracking spells shouldn’t be able to break through them. And we’ll have to talk to some of the wizards here about the strings, I’m sure they can help. If not, I’ll call in for backup. Now come on.” The elevator doors dinged open.
Surprisingly, there were seven floors to the building, which had been just a single story from the outside. Delyth led them to the third floor and down a series of corridors, all lined with doors, until they reached one labelled 314. “I have two extra rooms, they all have two beds and a sleeper sofa. Bell can stay with me. You five can work out who stays in 312 and 313. Don’t worry, the doors aren’t locked to any of us; I put your names on the registry.”
“Uh…I’m gonna assume that’s some type of magic and say ‘thanks,’” Chase said. “Uh…well, if Jackie’s gonna wake up, I think I should stay with him? I-I don’t know, he might get upset if I don’t.”
“Okay, yes, but Jackie also became…aggressive,” Schneep said. “Are you sure about this?”
“Yeah…” Chase said, sighing.
'I can stay with you, Chase,' JJ offered. 'That way, if Jackie does try to attack, I can protect you.'
“Oh.” Chase blinked. “Um…thanks.”
“So it’s you three, then me and Schneep,” Jack summarized. “I guess we’ll take 312 then.”
“Excellent,” Delyth said. “Now can you please hand me Miss Bell so I can take her inside?”
“Oh yeah, sure.” Jack handed her off to Delyth in an awkward transition, and Delyth quickly went inside her room. “I guess we should just…check out our rooms, then.”
They all dispersed. Chase was mildly surprised when the door to room 313 opened without resistance; that didn’t seem very secure, but then again, it could be magic. He flipped on the lights, revealing what looked like a hotel suite, with a living room and kitchenette in view, two open doors showing the bathroom and bedroom. There were a pair of thick curtains on the opposite wall, no doubt hiding a window. Like the lobby downstairs, the room was mostly decorated in white with hints of gold. Chase walked over to the sofa and set Jackie down, breathing out slowly. He turned back to JJ, who was looking through the kitchenette’s cabinets. “I, uh…don’t know if they have food, bro.”
'Well, it can’t hurt to look,' JJ said.
“Haha, yeah…” Chase trailed off. He shifted awkwardly. “Hey can I uh…talk to you about something?”
Jameson stopped his investigation, and looked over at Chase curiously. He nodded.
“So, uh…about that…comment I made,” Chase said. “It was, like, a couple days ago. About you not having friends before we met you. I, uh, know I sorta apologized but it was really awkward, and…just, are you still mad about that? You probably are.”
'It did sting, to say the least,' JJ said. His expression was hard to read, but that might have been because he still had the scarf covering the lower half of his face.
Chase winced. “Yeah…look, I really didn’t mean it. I said it in the heat of the moment, I was frustrated about…just stuff, I guess. It was horrible and I’m really sorry, I…”
'Chase, it’s okay, I’ve forgiven you,' JJ interrupted.
“R-really?” Chase breathed.
'Like you said, it was in the heat of the moment,' JJ said. 'You were upset about the possibility of never seeing Jackie or Marvin again. And, well…you’re not technically wrong. I wasn’t too good at getting to know people. I’m still not, really.'
“Yeah, but that didn’t mean I had to say it,” Chase said. “Really, I’m so, so sorry, a-and I really appreciate that you’re staying with me to protect me even though I said it—”
'Of course I am, we’re still friends, right?' JJ asked.
“Yeah, of course.”
'One fight isn’t going to change that.' JJ’s eyes crinkled like he was smiling under the scarf.
Chase chuckled. “Well, yeah. I’ve fought all the time with Schneep and Jack, and we still hang out.” He sighed. “It was still just…a bad thing to say.”
'It’s water under the bridge,' JJ assured him.
After a moment, Chase reached forward and grabbed JJ’s hand, squeezing it. “Thanks.”
There was the sound of rustling fabric, and a groan. Chase and Jameson looked around, and saw Jackie sitting up. He seemed confused as he glanced around. The confusion soon gave way to some sort of frantic panicking. “Where am I? Where am I?!”
“Whoa, hey, Jackie, it’s fine.” Chase ran on over. “You’re in a safe place, okay? It’s fine.”
“But where am I?!” Jackie insisted, scrambling to his feet. “Where is the rest of me?! We were here, all of me, and now not anymore. Where is the other me?!”
Chase felt his heart sinking. “It’s fine,” he repeated. “We’ll…figure it out.”
Jackie’s eyes locked onto him. “Chase! Do you know where I am?”
“Uh…no, but we’ll figure it out.” He didn’t have much else to say.
“Figure it out, out, out,” Jackie muttered. He started walking around the perimeter of the room. Aimlessly, automatically, like he was just looking for something to do. “We’ll find me, we’ll find me.”
“Um…yeah.” Chase glanced at JJ, who gave him an uneasy look in return. “For now, let’s just…relax. It’s been a long day, and it’s only noon.”
'Sounds good,' JJ said, and turned back to the cabinets, looking through them again.
Chase collapsed on the sofa, and watched as Jackie continued to walk, walk, walk. Hopefully these magic people could figure out what to do about him And those strings. True, Delyth had said that nothing like this had ever happened before, but he believed there was a solution. One that would save everyone. And he did mean everyone.
He had to keep believing that. He wasn’t sure what would happen if he stopped believing.