Work Text:
Beware, beware, be skeptical
Of their smiles, their smiles of plated gold
Deceit so natural
But a wolf in sheep's clothing is more than a warning
Mark and Jack sat on the sofa in Mark’s living room. Jack had been spending the week at Mark’s house. It had been incredible but for some reason, Mark couldn’t help but think that Jack had seemed a bit off. Something just wasn’t right about him, but Mark couldn’t tell what. “What’s been up this week, Jack?” Mark asked.
“What do you mean?” Jack responded.
“I mean” Mark answered “All week you’ve been acting different for some reason. I don’t know what’s wrong, but if you tell me, then maybe I can help out”
“It’s nothing you can-” Jack started, before suddenly twitching. He then closed his eyes and placed his head in his hands. Mark wasn’t sure what was happening, but he knew that it was something big.
“Are you okay,Jack?” Mark asked.
“Run” Jack replied, not answering the question. He lifted his head up and stared at Mark.
“What? No!” Mark responded “I’m not just going. What’s happening, Sean?”. Mark used Jack’s actual name in an attempt to get through to him. Maybe he’d listen. Maybe he’d let Mark help.
“There’s nothing you can do for me” Jack replied “It’s nothing either of us can control. So, please, go before you get hurt”
“Hurt? What the hell is there that could get me hurt?” Mark questioned.
“You don’t want to know”Jack replied.
“Yes, I do” Mark told Jack “I want to help. I want to listen and at least try to do something”
"You’re not going to like this” Jack said, closing his eyes for a few seconds.
“Why? What is it?” Mark asked. When Jack opened his eyes, Mark looked at them and saw horror. Whatever was happening, it wasn’t something to be taken lightly.
“So, you know what I was telling you about Nate a while back?” Jack said.
“About the monster...thing that was controlling him?” Mark questioned. Jack nodded. “What about it?” Mark added.
“Well, I was spending some time with Nate, and Natemare took over” Jack told Mark “It attacked me. I fought back, of course, but I didn’t do too much because I couldn’t bring myself to hurt Nate”
Mark noticed that Jack was growing particularly fidgety. He seemed incredibly tense.
“When Natemare had me cornered” Jack continued “This weird purple smoke came out of his mouth and forced its way into mine. Once it was inside me, I suddenly felt incredibly angry. Like, ‘I’m-going-to-kill-someone’ kind of angry”
Mark’s eyes widened. ‘ No, not Jack ’ he thought ‘ Anyone but Jack ’. He’d already seen things like this with Nate, Matt and Felix, it couldn’t be happening to Jack too. “All of a sudden, I couldn’t control my body” Jack added.Tears filled the blue eyes of the green haired boy. He tilted his head forwards and began to speak incredibly slowly. “You know that attack at the bar near here?” Jack asked. Mark nodded. He knew exactly where this was going. “That was me” Jack added.
“It wasn’t you” Mark told him “It was that thing inside you. You never hurt anyone. He did”.
“It still happened at my hands,Mark” Jack replied “I still saw all of it and had no power whatsoever to stop it”
“Exactly. There’s nothing you could have done!”
“But it’s more than that” Jack said, looking back up at Mark “Since then, he’s taken over at random times. He’s made me hurt people and it’s so difficult to control him. I keep having to hide what he...what we’ve done. I have to try and forget, but when I think he’s gone, he takes over again”. Tears fell from Jack’s eyes as he stammered “He..I..we even k...nevermind. I don’t want to talk about it”
Jack twitched again and quickly raised his hands to cover his eyes. He began to puff and pant like he’d just run a mile. “Run” Jack begged “Mark, please run!”
“No!” Mark replied “I’m not leaving you. You have to fight it, Jack!”
“PLEASE” Jack yelled “I don’t want to hurt you!”
Suddenly, Jack’s hands dropped from his face. Mark noticed his eyes had changed. All of what was supposed to be the white of his eyes had now turned green, and his iris had turned red. A psychopathic grin covered his lips. Jack clenched and unclenched his hands a few times, as though using them for the first time. “Well, well, well” Jack said in a much lower voice “This was supposed to be a surprise, but little Jacky-boy just couldn’t keep his mouth shut. Oh well,I still get to see the fear in your eyes before I kill you”. His irish accent was almost completely gone from his voice.
“Jack. Jack, please, I know you’re in there. Don’t let him take over!”
Jack let out a deranged laugh. “You really think he can stop me? Wow, you have too much hope for a situation like this” Jack stated “I think it’s time to show you what I’m capable of”. Mark rushed upstairs and locked himself in the bathroom. He had to find some way to fight back, but he couldn’t think of anything. His only option was to get through to the real Jack.
“Jack, listen to me, I know you don’t want to do this. Control him!” Mark yelled through the bathroom door.
“Now,now,Mark, I thought you’d be smart enough to understand that he can’t stop me. Felix couldn’t, Nate couldn’t, Matt couldn’t- What makes you think Jack can?” Jack responded through the door. He let out a loud laugh that sent chills down Mark’s spine. This wasn’t Jack. Mark was still struggling to process that it wasn’t his friend that was talking to him. He stepped backwards slowly, moving away from the door. He ran his hands through his hair as he panicked. It was so difficult to think of what to say to Jack.
“P-Please. Jack,stop him!” Mark shouted “I need you right now!”
“Do you really think he’s going to respond to you?” Jack replied. Suddenly, he punched a hole straight through the door. “He’s not here. You’ve just got me now”.
“Wh-Who are you?” Mark stammered, cowering even further away from the door.
“That’s not a very good question” Jack responded. He peeked through the hole in the door before continuing. “A more accurate question would be what am I?”
“What are you then?”
“I’m a being with immense power. The closest thing to me that you know of is a demon. I control the bodies of those I see strong enough. Those I see worthy of me” he told Mark “For the sake of this body, let’s call me… antisepticeye”.
Mark took a few moments to process the words he’d just been told. Why Jack? Why Matt and Felix and Nate? What on earth did it want with them?
“Okay. So what do you want?” Mark asked.
“Chaos” Anti responded.
“Just chaos? Why?”
“It’s fun” Anti answered before punching through the door once again. “I only do what I do because it’s fun. Isn’t that why anyone does anything?”
Mark began to grow more and more terrified of the creature on the other side of the door. It had no motives, no purpose, no true motivation. All it wanted was fun and chaos, and it seemed like nothing was going to stop it from getting what it wanted. It would do what it wanted, when it wanted, how it wanted, and no-one could stand in its way.
But Mark had to at least try.
Mark rushed to the edge of the room and grabbed his razor that he used to shave. He held it tight and grabbed one of the blades. He used all his force to wiggle the blade out of its spot. He slightly cut himself while getting it, and it wasn’t much of a weapon, but it was better than having nothing at all. He had to fight back in some way, and he couldn’t just do it with his fists. “Quiet all of a sudden, Markimoo?” Anti commented “Too scared to say anything?”
Without giving Mark a chance to respond, the creature kicked the door open and began striding towards the red-haired man. “It’s time for a bit of fun” it said, cracking its knuckles. As soon as he reached Mark, he punched him in the face, sending him tumbling to the floor. “That was too easy. Come on, I thought you were stronger than that. Or is that all just an act?”
Mark suddenly swung at the monster, slightly slicing its arm. Anti didn’t even flinch. Mark became incredibly confused and started to mutter random letters and sounds, trying to form a sentence. “You thought your weapons would work on me?” Anti asked, laughing maniacally “That won’t hurt me. All that will do is hurt him, you absolute idiot”.
The monster threw another punch at Mark before picking him up and throwing him across the room so he hit his back against the bathtub. “You know, I could have attacked you with Nate or Matt, or even Felix, but none of them would have been quite as fun as Jack is. It’s funny to see how much you want to help him and be kind to him, even when he’s tearing you to pieces” Anti commented, walking towards Mark. When he reached him, he put his face close to Mark’s and said “You. Care. Too. Much.” Tears began to fill Mark’s eyes as he heard the words. As cruel as this monster was, it was right. Mark knew he cared too much, particularly about his friends. He’d do anything to help others, even if it meant he got himself hurt in the process. “There we go. I knew he’d be able to make you hurt” Anti said “And you know what the best thing about your reaction is? That was all in Jack’s head. He was the one thinking that. I was just telling you what he couldn’t”
Anti gripped Mark’s neck and pulled him up from the floor. Mark stared into its eyes and knew that it wasn’t Jack looking back at him. His friend was trapped in there somewhere,with no control over his body, and there was nothing Mark could do. “You know, killing you is definitely not the most fun I’ve had since taking over this body” Anti stated “No. It was killing his darling little girlfriend, Signe. That was the best thing” Mark stared in shock. Jack had killed Signe? No, he wouldn’t. He couldn’t. Jack wouldn’t be able to do that to her.
“At least when I attacked her, Jack seemed to try to fight back” Anti continued “With you, he’s not even trying. He’s just sitting back,watching the show”. Mark shook his head, trying to ignore the words he heard. It couldn’t be true. Anti had to be lying to him. Jack wasn’t like that.
“No” Mark said “You’re lying. He’s fighting back. I know he’s in there”
“He’s in here,alright. But he’s not giving a shit” Anti replied,laughing “He doesn’t care about you”
Mark then felt the grip on his neck loosen slightly. A feeling of hope flooded him. He knew it was Jack. Jack was taking control, a little at a time. “Ah, no, no Jacky-boy” Anti said, using his other hand to pull Jack’s phone out of his pocket “You know the deal if you try to take over. Quit it”. Mark glanced down at the phone and saw the name ‘Felix’ on it. Anti was going to make Felix cause some trouble. Who knew exactly what?
“Jack. Don’t fight him. I don’t want anyone else getting hurt” Mark said, breathing heavily as panic overwhelmed him.
Anti immediately dropped his hold on Mark and collapsed to the floor. “Jack?!” Mark yelled,crouching beside his friend “Jack, are you alright?”. Suddenly Jack looked up and green smoke flew out of his mouth and out through the window. “Jack?” Mark asked.
“Mark?” Jack responded, his voice shaking. He was back to his normal pitch and his irish accent was back. It was actually Jack. Mark had his friend back. Tears quickly began to fall from Jack’s eyes, which had returned to their normal blue colour. He pulled Mark into a tight hug. “I’m so sorry,Mark” Jack sobbed “I didn’t want to hurt you. I didn’t want to do that. I couldn’t stop him. I had…”
“It’s okay” Mark interrupted “I know. I know you couldn’t stop him. I knew he was lying about what he said to me”
“I’m sorry,Mark”
“You’ll be okay,Sean” Mark comforted.
The pair both pulled away from the hug, their eyes full of tears. “What he said about Signe...was that true?” Mark asked.
“Yeah” Jack replied, starting to cry again “Every word of it. It made me kill Signe. He made me hurt her over and over and over. I saw her begging and screaming for me” Jack began to speak quicker and quicker “I tried to stop him, but at the time I didn’t know how. I had no idea how to push the monster back or force it out. I tried, but I just couldn’t. I just had to stand there and watch as this thing made me tear my girlfriend apart”. Mark gently placed a hand on Jack’s shoulder. Jack was shaking and sobbing as he recollected the trauma. “I wish I could have stopped him. But I couldn’t. I loved her, and he made me watch her die”
Mark pulled Jack into another hug. “I’m so sorry, Sean. Just know that it wasn’t your fault. It was that creature that did it, not you. You didn’t deserve that. She didn’t deserve that. I know how much you loved her”
“I did. I still do. I already miss her” Jack responded, heartbreak evident in his voice “I just wish I could see her one last time and tell her that”
“I’d like to think she’s still out there, listening to our conversation and beginning to understand everything”
“I hope so” Jack replied.
Then, a slight breeze came in through the window and made the shower curtain move in such a way that it lightly brushed against Jack’s shoulder, but completely missed Mark. “What did I tell you?” Mark commented.
“Maybe I might be alright eventually” Jack said.
Mark shot Jack a sad smile and pulled Jack in for one last hug.
Eventually, everything would be okay.