Demon Dads (DarkiplierXAntisepticeyeXIdkAnymore,Someone)

Something's Wrong

I completely lost track of time in the basement. The Host didn't tell me jack shit. I did notice him give me a slightly disgusted look when I sat down, but then he lead me on a melodramatic tale about two people stealing a box. It was all over the place, but admittedly amusing. I was pretty sure he was keeping me in the dark on purpose.

Especially since Dark eventually came running down the stairs hollering my name.

I stood up and went to the bottom of the stairs. "What?"

"Something's wrong! C'mon!"

Frowning, I followed Dark up the stairs, feeling a little scared. I had never seen Dark this anxious. Not even when Anti threatened him...

We went up two flights to the second floor, but I fell behind with a stitch in my side. When I got to the top of the stairs, I saw Dark vanish into the study and followed him. When I reached him, he had the Border door open and was just... standing there. Staring into the black with a mixture of confusion and fear.

"I... I don't understand."

I peered around him. It looked fine to me.

"How did it get bricked up?"

"Um, Dark? It's just the Border."

Dark looked over at me, then back at the door. "Do you just not see it?" He brought up his hand and touched the blackness in the doorway. While it still just looked like the Border to me, his hand somehow refused to pass through. Confused now, I reached up and put my hand through the doorway. It passed into the darkness like it should've.

Dark took a deep breath. "All right. So it's that game." He turned to me and put his hands on my shoulders, surprisingly calm. "Aaron, I need you to go into the Border and find Anti. Something went wrong, and he needs to come back. Okay?"

I nodded and stepped up to the door. I half expected to run into the bricks Dark saw, but I just... walked right through into the pitch black.

Once inside, I started climbing.

I was a hundred feet up when I stopped, hoping to see Anti from that height. As I scanned the ground for a bright green glow, I had a sudden reminder of a scene from Peter Pan, after the hideout explodes. Peter searching for Tinkerbell through the ruins, only finding her because she glowed bright yellow...

I almost missed Anti because of that. In my hunt for neon green, it took me a while to recognize the darkened figure sprawled on the ground some distance away. When I did, I felt nausea rise and I fell, catching myself before hitting the ground and running towards it.

When I got closer, I stopped. There, bending over him, the white demon caressed his cheek, smiling. After out encounter earlier, I wasn't happy to see her, nor did I think she was up to any good, so I lifted my feet and climbed stairs for a little while, until I was directly above her. I fell silently, aiming for her head, and landed hard on top of her, bringing her to the ground.

We both landed on top of Anti.

The demon was surpisingly light. I scrambled to my feet and hauled her up, punching her in the stomach and shoving her away. She snarled silently at me, but stayed a few feet away.

I looked down at Anti. Something was wrong indeed. Not only was his glow dimmer, it was a much darker shade of green. Bits of him—the back of his neck, his left forearm, his ankles, his right hand—were pixelated and further discolored, and his arm was flickering purple, like a broken screen. His eyes were closed. Did demons have a pulse? I checked my own. Nope. Fuck.

But I had to get him back to the house. Somehow. I gently reached under his waist and attempted to haul him up onto my shoulder. He was heavier than he looked, and I ended up putting him back on the ground and thinking for a while longer.

If I could lift myself, could I lift him?

He couldn't exactly climb stairs in this state, but in that... encounter I'd had, I had a vague memory of flying along near the ground. I hadn't tried it yet, but if I could do it to myself, could I use it to lift him?

Honestly, once that occurred to me, it was surprisingly easy to pick him up, and I got to see what happened when I flew. Bright flue flames formed under him, burning gently upwards, bearing him on their tips. I got him a solid foot off the ground and set off, trailing him behind me like he was on the world's smoothest wagon.

Then I heard the shriek.

I whipped around to see the white demon diving after Anti, making the first noise I'd ever heard from her: an ear-splitting cry, like a demented baby wailing. That's really the best way to put it. My impulse was to cover my ears, but when I saw her dive, I panicked and lunged, shoving her to the ground. Then I took off running, pulling Anti behind me by a glitched-out ankle.

She appeared in front of me as I ran and I aimed for the face, punching hard, using the force of my speed. She howled even louder and stumbled away as my ears began to ring. I kept running, but stopped for just a second to search Anti's waistband. Once armed with his knife, as bright as ever somehow, I hauled ass out of there, and when the demon challenged me again, I aimed for the gut.

The knife sank in with a satisfying squish. I shoved the surprised demon out of my way and pulled the knife out to keep running.

We had one more encounter before I reached the door, but this time, she only appeared briefly to laugh, back to silence at last. Then she vanished with a smug smirk. I had no idea why she was so happy to see us go, but I ran straight through the door, slamming into Dark and accidentally stabbing him.

"Oh my god! I'm sorry! There was someone after us and... I'm so sorry!"

Dark grimaced and pulled the knife out. "Nothing to worry about," he said soothingly, dropping the knife on the floor. "Where's Anti?"

I turned around and pulled Anti all the way out of the Border, slamming the door after him.

Dark looked shocked to see Anti's limp form. Then, shaking himself, he scooped Anti out of the flames and carried him, bridal-style, out of the room. I scooped the knife off the ground and followed.

Dark lay Anti down on the grey couch, which quickly developed little glitches along with him. I set the knife down on the end table next to him. It seemed wrong to deprive Anti of his knife.

"What's wrong with him?" I asked.

Dark didn't answer.

"Will he be okay?"

Dark did answer that one after a second. "...I don't think so."

I looked up at him. "What?! Why not?"

"There are some things Anti can't pull through. I doubt even Dr. Schneeplestein could help with this."

I looked back down at Anti, nauseous.

Dark looked over at me. "You should go."

"I'll stay." For some reason, I felt a little protective of Anti. Back in the Border, when he couldn't defend himself... He would kill me if he thought I was protecting him.

But then, he isn't awake right now, so he can suck it.

"Suit yourself." Dark pushed gently past me. I let him go.

I sat on the floor and had a good hard think. And in that think, I had two realizations.

Firstly, the Host had been far too stubborn about telling me what was happening with Dark and Anti. As if he—or someone else—had a damn good reason not to tell me.

Secondly, there was only one thing that could kill Anti.

Something was very wrong, indeed.