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“Ze wound vill never truly close. I have done ze best I can but even ze greatest doctah can’t help.”
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Anti had a plan. He had almost gathered enough energy to take over Jack permanently. All he needed was a boost from the community. He decided to gradually show himself in Seàn’s videos, starting with small glitches and ending with a big final where he would kill Jack on camera.
The first glitches were easy to make as Seàn was unaware of how much power Anti already had and as such wasn’t fighting against him. Once Jack noticed Anti’s actions he started fighting back, but it was already too late. Anti was feeding on the attention the community was giving
him, drawing power from every piece of artwork made for him, every discussion, every theory. Soon Jack had no control left. Anti was making his days awful and his nights even worse. He couldn’t sleep anymore, he was in a constant state of panic but he knew he had to keep going. The community was counting on him, he couldn’t bail on them like that.
It was the day before October 31st and Jack was getting ready to film his last video, a pumpkin carving one similar to the one he’d done the year before. Unfortunately for him, Anti had other plans. Jack should’ve been used to the demons ways of manipulation, to the sound coming from somewhere and the images appearing only to him but he was too tired from the lack of sleep and the constant mental torture to care about all of it. He only needed to film this video and then he’d be done with it. Maybe he’d even take a break after all of it. Anti’s powers were always the strongest around Halloween, where he was hard to contain. Once October 31st was passed, Anti was back to only be a voice in the back of his head, where he was easily manageable.
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Anti knew how to take control of Jack’s body. Now that the Youtuber was exhausted from the month of October, it would only be easier.
During the last video Seàn had planned for October, Anti was more present than ever, glitching the screen, making Jack hear things, messing with the white board on the wall. Jack was in a perpetual state of panic near the end of the video. Anti let him crave the whole pumpkin, just so that the fan would think this would be the end of it. A month of glitches all over the videos, the last one more prominent than ever and then that was the end. Anti would be gone, right? Once Halloween has passed, Anti wasn’t needed anymore, so he would disappear until next Halloween. Except no. Anti wasn’t done. When Jack picked up the knife one more time, Anti took over. He now had complete control of the body, but that wouldn’t last long. He has to act quick if he wanted complete control for an indefinite amount of time. Lifting the knife to his throat, he sliced Jack’s neck open. The pain was bearable on his end; he was used to torture and wounds but he knew Jack wasn’t. If the screams inside his head were something of an indication, he’d say his plan was quite successful. Jack was gone, rendered useless, whimpering in a corner of Anti’s mind. Now this was his show.
Seeing the camera still recording, Anti decided to launch into a monologue. He wanted the people watching to feel guilty. After all, they too were responsible of his creation. They couldn’t just blame it all on Seàn.
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The next day, after everything was back in order, Anti went to see Schneeplestein as the wound on his neck still hadn’t healed. This was unusual for him, as he would usually heal by himself in a few hours. Ha had expected the wound to take longer than usual time heal, considering how deep it was, but there didn’t seem to be any difference; if anything it looked even more infected.
The verdict from Schneeplestein was final: as long as Anti was the one in control, the wound would never close, and would probably get more infected if he didn’t do anything about it. So he could either let Schneeplestein take care of his wounds every morning and evening or he could give up control and let Jack heal.
Anti didn’t want to give up the control he’d taken so long to gain but he also knew that taking care of his wound would easily become a chore he wouldn’t do and that would only result in it becoming more and more infected, which would be inconvenient to say the least. Besides, Seàn needed Jack to post videos.
Reluctantly, Anti gave up. He found Jack hiding in the corners of his mind, in a fetal position, whimpering, hands covering his neck. As Anti approached him, he realised that Jack looked worse for wear. His hair was unkempt, his eyes rimmed with red; he must’ve been crying a lot. Anti put his hand on his shoulder, startling Jack, who looked at him with big pleading eyes.
“Let’s get you back in the driver’s seat shall we?”
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Somewhere in the real world, a brown haired man smiled. His plan had worked perfectly.