Warning: There is a trigger warning in this chapter. It is labeled when it starts and ends.
Jackie wanted to be brave when he stopped hearing the whispering. It was stark silent and that bothered him greatly.
"Jameson? What's going on in there, man? You okay?"
If it wasn't Jameson, the silence would be worrying but he didn't hear any footsteps, either.
He didn't know or realize . . . . .
"James?" Jackie reached for the door to try and break it open only to feel someone tap at his shoulder.
Jackie flinched violently and leapt back against the wall, "Ah!"
Only to suddenly relax, seeing Jameson in front of him, "Oh fuck . . . thank god. It's just you, James."
The mute looked . . . confused to say the least. He didn't know exactly what had just happened but seeing Jackie so terrified worried him, 'What's going on?'
Jackie sighed heavily, "I uh . . . I don't know. Oh! I heard. . something coming from your room, man. Like. . .whispering or something. Then it all went quiet and I was about to break . . .in"
Jameson just smiled and waved his hands around, 'Oh silly! I left my radio on! You must have heard THAT'
Jackie sighed heavily as if it calmed him, "Oh. ..okay, that makes sense. Must have just coincidentally shut off when I came up to the door" he chuckled lightly and Jameson just smiled.
There was a sudden awkward silence between them then until Jameson shrugged lightly, 'Well I'll be going into my my room again, now. Nice talking with you'
Jameson edged sort of strangely to his door and almost made sure that Jackie couldn't see inside.
Jackie did, though, and saw that his little 'puppet stage' was up.
Jackie already knew something was strange, though.
Jameson didn't own a radio.
Jackie bit his lip and walked away outside to think to himself for a bit. He wanted to think about this before bringing it up to the others.
A few hours later, with no other alcohol in the house, Henrik finally came back home to go find Chase so he could talk with him. He knew Chase and he knew that he was having a hard time again but he had to find out why so they could get past it together.
Henrik was a father, too, after all. He knew Chase's pain just as much.
Finally, Henrik found Chase in his room sitting on the floor. The doctor cleared his throat to let him know he was there and Chase glanced up at him.
"What do you want?"
"Vhat was that about earlier?"
"Nothing. Don't worry about it"
"Tell zhat to Anti. Chase, you-"
Chase snorted, "Oh what do you care? You'd have done the same not long ago."
"Zhere is something you're not telling, Chase. I may not like Anti but I am coming to terms with him-"
"You say that now" Chase scoffed, "After you've seen what I did, though, you'd have a hard time thinking about trusting the bastard"
Henrik stared at him, "So something DID happen."
"Just a nightmare . . . . . had to be if Anti really was in his room with Jackie and Marvin. It was nothing"
"Obviously it was NOT nothing, Chase! Now TELL me!"
"I saw my kids in hanging by a shared noose in my bathroom, Hen! I saw Antisepticeye pop out of my fucking mirror! He touched me and got in my fucking face, alright?! Fuck, man!" He hit the floorboard under him in a momentary rage. Just thinking about it again, sent him in a ball a stress.
"Hm"
Chase stared at him, "HM!? That's all you have to fucking say!? HM!?"
Henrik took a moment to think about it but then sighed, "Anti said he had a nightmare similar. This . . copy of him appeared to him and taunted him. Slit his throat and slapped him across the face. Would make sense by his bruise but he's not sure it if was a nightmare or not. Marvin's convinced he was just-"
"Wait" Chase stopped him and stood up from the floor, wobbling slightly as he did so, "Anti got hurt?"
"Oh, now you care?"
"Oh, nOw yOu CaRe?!" Chase mocked him, "Fuck off, Hen! If Anti's having the same nightmares . . . . are you sure this thing isn't real, then?"
"I honestly don't know. Maybe ve should ask zhe others, too. If zhey have seen zhe same thing then we need to let Sean know and get rid of whatever zhe fuck it is immediately."
Chase nodded, staring off into space in thought, "I agree. . . . . I'll talk to Jackie first"
Henrik nodded, "I'll speak vith Marvin and Jameson. Let me know"
Without waiting on an answer, Henrik left his room.
Jackie sat outside enjoying the fresh air and he must have fallen asleep at one point thinking about what happened earlier that morning with Jameson and Chase and then Marvin acting like that thing with Anti last night was nothing . . . . something was definitely off and he needed to find out what.
'Maybe I should get a hold of Yan and see if they could help. . . .'
Suddenly a brush of leaves rustled around him, making him flinch.
Jackie looked around but didn't see anything.
'Did Marvin let Basil outside?'
He heard the rustling again and looked behind him, seeing a shoe slip behind a nearby tree. They had a whole acre in the backyard to mess around in for fresh air so they also had quite a few trees. Only now . . . in this creepy sense. . . . it reminded him of a dense forest.
And someone was watching him.
"Hey, who's there?!" he called out but he was reminded that Jameson was in his room, Chase was up in HIS room, Henrik never messed around like this and was down in his basement clinic after coming back home from work, Anti obviously COULDN'T run . . . .
"M-marvin?! That you, man? Come on out and quite messing around, man! I don't need this, today!"
No response. This only proceeded to make Jackie worry even more.
'Was Anti's nightmare. . . not really a nightmare?' picking up his bravery, Jackie walked towards the last sound where he heard rustling from behind some bushes at the edge of their property.
There was more rustling suddenly and he stopped, "Who's there? If you come out, I promise I'll be less mad. Do you need help?"
A soft growl was heard that sounded like a dying animal.
"H-hello?" Jackie moved the large bushes lightly to peek only to suddenly freak out and fall over, tripping over himself as he tried to get away, "Oh fuck!"
Trigger warning: Animal Mutilation
There in the bushes was a cat but it wasn't . . . okay or normal.
Jackie felt tears flow down his face and he whimpered uncontrollably seeing its condition.
It was mutilated and skinned as if someone was about to cook it up and eat it. . . . Or just eat it raw. The poor thing bled horribly in the grass, gasping at its last breathes and softly crying out for someone to end its misery.
Then Jackie noticed the scars on its face and the color that its fur used to be. White.
"Oh god" he covered his mouth in horror to prevent himself from screaming, "M-marvin!?"
Out of nowhere, a shoe abruptly stomped down on the cat's head, crushing it and killing it instantly.
Jackie shot up out of shock and looked up, "AaaahHH!"
Only . . . he couldn't believe it.
"Anti?" he could only whisper his name.
The man with the scar on his neck grinned wide, "No, no, no . . . ." he laughed as he leaned down to pick up Marvin's dead cat-body by the scruff.
Jackie was too freaked out to attack him and watched in utter fucking horror as this man. . . no. This CREATURE . . .. ripped off the flattened head and started to drink the blood from the corpse, grinning as he did so. When finished with that part, he flung the cat-body into the grass nearby.
End of Trigger
"I'll save the rest for later" he giggled, " . . . Hahahahhehehe . . .. heh hehe . . What's wrong, Jackieboyman? Mr. Sunshine and rainbows HERO? You . . .sickened by me?"
Jackie stepped back, unable to look away from him. Memories flowed back into his head but he was totally unprepared for this!
"Who . . .who are you?"
"WHO WHO! WHO WHO!" The man laughed, "Oh sorry! I was thinking of a song . . . . . you know who I am, hero" he wiped off his mouth, only serving to spread the blood all over his face across his cheeks, "Oh, you know~"
Jackie gulped, ready to run if he had to, to warn the others, "You're from Anti's nightmare"
"DING!! DING!!" Septiceye laughed, "Oh, GOOD guess! How'd ya know?! What gave it away!?"
"You're walking. Anti can't walk right now"
"Oh darn! Completely forgot about that! But you know-"
Septiceye suddenly appeared in front of him just inches from his face, "-Doesn't mean I'm not a VERSION of the little bastard.. . . Oh what's wrong? Afraid of me? After all this time? You always were such a coward. Bet you LOVED beating Anti when he was so defenseless . . .. not fighting back" he placed his hands on Jackie's shoulders and gently rubbed them.
Jackie wanted to do ANYTHING but let him touch him but he found he couldn't move. Why couldn't he fucking MOVE!?
Septiceye hummed softly and whispered in his ear, "Always liked you the most, you know. So . . pliable. Similar to Chase but . . . more sturdy. Less apt to kill yourself. You were so FUN to play with my little hero~" he crudely dug his sharp nails into Jackie's skin and that was just enough to stun him out of this thing's hold.
Jackie shoved him off and leaped away from him, "Fucking monster! Who are you!? You're not real! You're not Anti! Why even pretend to be him!?"
Septiceye popped his lips, still smiling, "Who says I'm pretending? I'm just how you all remember me, aren't I? Even Anti is terrified of what he used to be. Can't bring himself to accept it. I've tried to make him give in again but he's a lot tougher than I thought! You all have changed him, haven't you?! Or so you think! You think I'll just let that happen!? You all will rot and I'll have so much fun watching it happen, even if I have to do it all myself!"
"Why?" Jackie growled at him, "You've been giving the others nightmares, haven't you!? Why even bother!? Why do you want to hurt us so bad!?"
"It's fun" Septiceye chuckled as Jackie obviosuly wasn't expecting just a blatant confession, "I LOVE to hear your screams. . . . . I LOVE to see my knives slip through your soft flesh . . skinning and tearing you apart. Watching the blood ooze out like a chocolate lava cake . . . . tasting just as sweet"
Jackie felt his anger build up again.
"I love to hear the screams. . . the wails . . . the crying and sobbing and pleads. Your brothers were so loud but you already knew about that, didn't you? What you DON'T know was the children were the MOST fun and-"
Jackie shouted and it was so fast that not even this amalgamation of horror couldn't dodge him as he landed a hard punch on the bastard, knocking him back to land into the bush.
Unfortunately, he didn't look damaged and leaned back on the bush to lay against it, "Always so temperamental Hehahaha. . . . I've always loved seeing you fall apart"
Jackie rushed to beat him only . . . .
Suddenly he was gone.
He was just . . . .not there anymore.
It hit him suddenly and he rushed over to Marvin's dead body
But he was gone, too.
'Was . . . he wasn't even really HERE, was he?' Jackie gulped but refused to believe it wasn't real.
He knew it wasn't. For he just admitted that Anti and Chase had seen him, too.
'I have to go find them and-'
"Jackie! Hey Jackie! There you are!" Marvin was running up to him and teleported to get there quicker in front of him, "I saw you from the window. I'm looking for Anti but I can't find him and . . . You okay? What happened?"
Really, Marvin looked just as freaked out but before he could say anything, Chase was calling out to them both, "Hey! Just the assholes I was looking for! Get in here! We need to talk!"
Jackie and Marvin glanced at each other but left their conversation for another time, not that it'd be forgotten.
Jackie stared down at where Marvin's dead cat-body had been but there wasn't even a trace of blood left.
His mind was really starting to test him and honestly. . . he didn't know what to think anymore.
Earlier, Marvin was up in his room. He found something groundbreaking that could come into play as to what was really happening with Chase and Anti.
In his book, he read that what could be happening was a forced memory repression. It could be coming out from Sean's regretful acts when he created them and now with spending so much time with Anti, they were all experiencing some sort of magical dilemma they couldn't counter.
And every time Marvin tried to think about what he and Anti discussed in private the other night, he started to lose more and more. The same thing happened when Dr. Iplier came over.
'I could try and force that memory back' he thought to himself, 'I could try. Maybe it could help in figuring out how to fix the OTHER problem'
Opening his book to another page, Marvin uttered a few small words in another language. He closed his eyes to help himself concentrate.
Only, he started to feel a little. . . dizzy. He tried to shake it off but the feeling only persisted to get worse and worse.
Then his scars started to burn along with his arms. He reached to itch one of his arms only to feel something wet.
Opening his eyes, Marvin hissed in panic, seeing the blood on him along with a knife in front of him . . .. someone holding it. . . . .
Marvin cautiously look up to see a familiar face smiling back at him, "Hello there little magic boy. Why'd you move? I was almost done adding to your collection!" he started to laugh.
Marvin was suddenly forced to remember everything he and Anti discussed and he remembered the shadow of this person he saw when Dr. Iplier came over.
"The hell are you?" he didn't pay any attention to the marks this thing left on his skin. They weren't real. Just a figment this creature implanted in his head.
The thing grinned ear to ear, "Why does everyone ask that? You KNOW-"
"No" Marvin growled at him, "You are NOT Antisepticeye. . . .YOU are a foul thing created to root up old nightmares of my family's past that never even happened! Only thing I don't know . . . . is who created you"
"Would you believe me if I told you it was Seany-boy?" he chuckled, leaning closer to the magician, "You have such pretty eyes, you know? So pretty, I want to rip them out and eat them like grapes"
"I know it wasn't Sean. He's not so sick to create you. Who was it? Who made you?"
"He was sick enough to leave you all with such horrid false memories . . . .You can call me Septiceye . .. close enough to your demon-boy handicap PET"
Marvin cringed when Septiceye summoned a ball of fur that suddenly writhed around in his grip and hissed and yowled, "So you wouldn't need this one anymore, right?"
"B-basil? N-no . . w-wait. . wha-what are you doing!? Let her go!"
"Oh but I thought this wasn't real to you? Just as you think your new scars won't stick around" Septiceye laughed at him, holding the cat away from his grasp and held his knife in the other hand, suddenly teleporting off the bed to stand, giving Marvin a proper view, "THEN YOU WOULDN'T MIND ME DOING THIS!? IT'S NOT REAL AFTER ALL, RIGHT!?"
"STOP!"
But Marvin was too late and could only watch as Septiceye stabbed the crying cat clean through, killing her instantly.
Marvin cried out in horror but was too stunned to move, "GaAAaAaH!-"
Septiceye threw her body aside, limp as a ragdoll, "Feel familiar to you? Just like you could only watch as Antisepticeye killed all the kids . . . . tortured your brothers and ripped apart the whole family. You failed so miserably. Just like the others. None of THEM could do anything either. You're all so WORTHLESS!" He laughed at Marvin, "Just as McLoughlin made you . . .."
But Marvin closed his eyes tight, "You're not real. You're not real. You're not real"
"Aren't I, though!? Don't you feel the pain I inflict!? Hear my voice!? You saw what I did to Anti, too, didn't you!? I AM REAL!" he shouted loudly to him.
Marvin reopened his eyes and they glowed white as he seethed in rage, "No . . . . You're NOT"
"Uentis Non realis et sic non erit! Creatura sequuntur somnia? Tu nihil!"
(Begone! You are not real and thus will not be! Creature of nightmares! You are nothing more!)
In a bright flash, Septiceye was gone. It was abrupt and not as dramatic as he thought it'd be. . . . but he was gone from him and that was all that mattered.
Marvin breathed heavily and heaved, seeing indeed that Basil was not there on the floor at all and he didn't have any marks on his skin.
With this sudden realization, Marvin bolted off the bed and ran downstairs to the living room.
"Anti! You were right! You were. . I didn't. . I'm-" but he stopped, only seeing Basil on the couch, looking startled by her owner's appearance.
"Mrrooow!" she scratched her ear and flicked them, purring as Marvin came closer to pick her up in his arms and hug her.
"A-anti?" but his wheelchair was still there and Marvin lightly kissed Basil, "You know what happened here, sweety?"
"Mrow!" she responded, wriggling out of his grasp to jump onto the wheelchair, flopping herself down to lay on it since Anti wasn't there to use it.
Looking out the window, Marvin then saw Jackie outside and he ran out to see if he knew where Anti was, leaving Basil behind to sleep more.
Marvin ran out as fast as he could to Jackie.
"Jackie! Hey Jackie! There you are!" Marvin was running up to him and teleported to get there quicker in front of him, "I saw you from the window. I'm looking for Anti but I can't find him and . . . You okay? What happened?"
Jackie looked just as freaked out as he did but before he could say anything, Chase was calling out to them both, "Hey! Just the assholes I was looking for! Get in here! We need to talk!"
Marvin couldn't agree more.