Opening YouTube for the first time this morning, you immediately check your subscriptions to see what uploads you missed whilst you were sleeping. Your heart leaps when you see a video from 'Nathan Sharp - Natewantstobattle' in your feed. The video title confuses you though, it's called 'Goodbye.' and the thumbnail is of Nate looking utterly distressed.
"Oh god," you mutter, "This... this can't be happening. Nate..." You hope this is just a promotional teaser like 'help' was, but something in your gut tells you otherwise. Hesitently, you click on the video and make it full screen.
The video starts and Nate is sitting on a chair or stool or something in what looks like the same dark room that he records his music videos in. There's no smoke or anything, just Nate. His dark eyes seem sad and they're bloodshot, like he'd been crying. He takes a deep breath and starts speaking. "Hey guys," he says. The lack of energy in his voice shocks and concerns you, he sounds so weak. "It's been fun, hasn't it, these past few years. So many songs, so many conventions meeting so many of you wonderful people. But... but all good things must come to an end. As you can tell by the title of this video, I'm ending the channel. Not because I'm bored with it or anything, but because..." there's a long, drawn out pause where Nate looks like he's searching for the right words to express what he wants to say. "I've noticed quite a bit of fanwork lately has been showing a more dark persona of me. It's not your fault I'm doing this, I wanna make that very clear, but it has a little to do with it."
Your stomach knots, you think you know what he's talking about. You silently hope you're wrong, but all the signs point to you being right.
Nate continues, keeping his eyes away from looking directly into the camera, "That dark persona, the being you guys call Natemare... it's... he's more than just an act."
"Shit!" You shout, then flinch and hope you didn't wake up the rest of the house. You knew it. You knew it had to be that, that He had to be more than just a creepy mask Nate put on. But why would that mean he had to stop making music?
"He's real and, as you've all noticed, he's become a lot more prevalent in my work. He's been taking control more and more. I need to do something about him before he hurts anyone; Morgan, Matt, Hunter or any of you. So, as always, please make sure to have a fantastic day, week, month, year, life... and, well, goodbye." He reaches forward to stop the recording but his hand freezes in place half way there, his eyes widening in pain and fear. "NO!" he shouts, his free hand clutching his head, "Don't do this, please don't do this!"
Your heart pounds in your chest, you can tell what's going on, a fight for dominance in Nate's mind and Nate is apparently losing. Your fear climbs as you see Nate's eyes slowly begin to darken.
The hand that was reaching to the camera moves back to Nate's side and reaches to his pocket. His whole body starts shaking and tears well up in his eyes, "Don't subject them to this please!!" he begs, "You can't make them see this!" He looks right into the camera now, his eyes full of fear and despair. It's the exact face from the thumbnail. "Please, guys, stop the video now. I mean it, stop it now and go watch something else, anything else. Just stop watching this... please, I don't want you to see this."
Your finger hovers over the 'K' key, debating whether to pause the video, but the decision is made for you as the next events unfold.
Nate, with a trembling hand he's clearly not in control of, brings up a 9mm handgun and places the muzzle to his right temple. Nate's voice is reduced to a weak whimper at this point, barely audible. "Please no... don't do this, not while the camera is recording. Please don't make them watch this."
You're shaking now, you want to minimize the screen and go watch something else but there's something about Nate's now black eyes that hypnotize you and keep you fixated on the screen.
The hand not clutching the gun is now hanging limply at Nate's side, either he's lost control of his body completely or he's given up fighting. Both would've likely resulted in the same thing anyway. Nate, or, Natemare you suppose, smirks at the camera. "That fool was planning on killing himself, thought ending his life would end mine. Such an idiot. How about we see how wrong he was huh~?" Calmly, Natemare pulls the trigger resulting in a deafening bang. Nate's head jerks to the side, blood and brain matter bursting out of the exit wound, before he falls limp from the chair.
You're left sitting there in silence, your ears ringing from the sound of the gunshot in your headphones and tears in your eyes. Did you really just see what you thought you saw? Did Natewantstobattle really just... commit suicide on video? No. He didn't do that of his own free will. He was forced to... but Natemare's words still linger in your head; "That fool was planning on killing himself..." You look back at the screen and go to minimize the screen, but you notice there's still time left on the bar at the bottom. So you sit and wait, wait for the video to end. Praying that Nate will pop up and tell you it was all a joke so you can berate him for joking about suicide like you bet a lot of people have done in the comments already.
The seconds tick by and eventually, you hear a groan and Nate seems to get up, shaking his head like he's just woken up. Your heart soars, hoping that maybe, just maybe, Natemare has made Nate immortal or something.
"About the channel ending," Natemare's voice says, rich and deep and seductive. "Change of plan, it's just come under new management." He looks into the camera, his eyes piercing your soul. "Welcome to my world of fun~"
The video ends abruptly with the same dark chuckle you remember hearing at the end of Mangled Remastered and you just stare at the screen, watching but not registering as AutoPlay loads Nate's Clattonia cover. This was it. This was the end.