Chapter Text
When Dr. Iplier woke in the morning to find a cold, empty bed, he, rightfully, panicked.
He scrambled out of bed, completely foregoing changing out of his pajamas in favor of tearing down the hall. He burst into the kitchen, eyes wide and dread settling like a stone in his gut when he noticed one particular ego was still missing. “Has anyone seen the Host?”
Every single elder ego – Dark, Wilford, King, and the Jims – stood in a panic, pushing away from the table and exchanging glances while the younger ones shifted nervously. King grabbed his cape, wringing it in his hands. “Wait, you mean he’s not with you?!”
Dr. Iplier glared at King. “If he was with me I wouldn’t be fucking asking!” He tore at his hair, breath beginning to come in rapid gasps. “God, he knows he shouldn’t be alone today, he knows that, so why would he run off?!”
Eric and Reynolds were looking everywhere, confusion and slight panic present in their faces. “What, what’s happening, what’s wrong, is the Host okay?!”
Dr. Iplier drew a shuddering breath, staring Reynolds in the eye as the two youngest egos waited for answers. “Today’s February 6th,” he said. “Today’s the day the Author was born.”
“Wh-who’s the Author?” There was a collective flinch at Eric’s innocent question.
To everyone’s surprise, the Jims were the ones who answered. They gripped onto each other’s hands, pressed close together. “The Author was who the Host used to be before…” RJ began, trailing off and staring at the floor.
CJ swallowed, pressing closer to his twin before finishing. “…before he tore his eyes out.”
Both Eric and Reynolds paled. “You mean…he did that to himself?! What the fuck?!”
Dark opened his mouth to reply to Reynolds, but then a loud crash! shook the manor, reverberating from below. Everyone stiffened, and Dr. Iplier began backing away from the group. “That came from the library. I have to go find him!”
Before he could move very far, Dark caught his arm, pulling him back. He fixed him with a hard look, glowing with concern. “Hold on a second. We don’t know what state he’ll be in. You shouldn’t go down there alone.”
Dr. Iplier broke away with a snarl, staring Dark down with such raw fury and indignance that the demon backed up a couple steps. “How dare you,” he hissed. “You’re so Goddamn afraid of the Author that the mere thought of him still paralyzes you, all of you, even after going on six fucking years! Well, I have news for you; you may know the Author, but I know the Host. You weren’t there in the weeks during his shift. You didn’t see how Goddamn afraid he was, how terrified he was of himself. No one is more afraid of the Author than the Host. And I am going to go down there, and I am going to make sure he is okay, and you can shove it right up your ass.”
He spun on his heel and practically bolted to the library, forgetting the others in the wake of the fear making his body run cold.