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It should’ve been impossible.
Yet there he was, looking up at Marvin’s smug face through the barrier, before the magician sheathed the knife, and left him in endless darkness.
Alone.
He tried to glitch out, holding his breath while building up charge. Trying to teleport, to shatter his prison, to bust out and get his revenge-
None of that happened. Instead, he just hurt himself as the flurry of glitches bounced right back at him.
Nowhere to go.
He wondered if time still passed. Nothing seemed to happen on his end. He wondered if Marvin would show the others what he did, if they would hang his knife on the wall as a trophy. Or if Marvin would keep it quiet, stash the knife away somewhere. Who knows how long he’ll be stuck before someone tries to free him?
He was just beginning to wonder if, perhaps, he had already died, when the knife was unsheathed again. More faces stared at him, and he stared back, scowling and swearing as if he stood undefeated, despite his current circumstances clearly arguing against that.
He saw the cowardly doctor, the fear in his eyes as he looked at Anti, and then away, his lips posing a question Anti couldn’t hear, to someone he couldn’t see. When he looked back, he was a little less afraid.
He saw the worthless father, the demons behind his eyes ever-present, just as Anti had left them. And then he saw him laugh, laughing at him, cracking jokes about him. Enraged, Anti slammed on the barrier, a newfound force motivating him to break out, break through, and slit the drunk’s throat. He only laughed harder, the knife in his hands shaking, before another hand took it.
The mute. His gaze was cold, emotionless. There was a certain bravery in it, the type he’d never seen in the mute’s eyes before. Bravery, and… recognition. He had held the knife before, when Anti had possessed him, much like he had possessed Jack, all those years ago. Anti could see how he tried to swallow the knot that formed in his throat, and he passed the knife along.
And finally, he saw the failed hero, the one who was too weak to do what had to be done, who left the magician to pick up his unfinished mess. He looked shocked, blinking a couple of times to ensure that his eyes did not deceive him. They did not, it was true, Marvin had succeeded in trapping their enemy, once and for all.
He tried to scare them, glitching erratically, scowling, threatening, pounding on the barriers. None of it had any effect. They couldn’t hear him, and he could not escape his prison.
The knife was sheathed again, and Anti waited. Waited, and planned, planned out all the things he would do to the egos, and to Jack, when he finally gets out of his prison. He allowed himself to get worked up, stacking his anger, his rage, his ire, and keeping it inside.
He was sitting down, and his glitching had just stopped, when the knife was unsheathed once again. His mirror image stared back at him. Or, well, “stared” - Jack was still asleep, after all, a pale face with greyed circles around his eyes, tubes in his nose and wires coming out of his hospital gown. Not quite dead yet, but not really alive, either. They’re in the same boat now, he realises with shock.
The knife was moved, held above a notepad. Neat handwriting - Marvin’s.
[TELL US HOW TO WAKE HIM UP]
With a flip, he was faced with the magician and the doctor. He remained completely unresponsive, merely breathing and blinking, and imagining his revenge.
The doctor moved out of view, and he was shown the notepad, again. The same message as before, but with an addition, in a barely legible doctor’s script
[... YOU’VE LOST.]
“Nơt ye͟t, I ͞haven̷’t͡.” He replied, smug as always. They tried their best to hide their desperation. It was not very successful. Seeing them like that filled him with renewed hope. As long as Jack was asleep, he would be kept around, and eventually, one of them would be desperate and dumb enough to make a deal.
[GIVE HIM BACK.]
“S͞e҉t ͡m̕e fręe̸,̴ a̷n̡d͠ ͏w̡e’̨ll͘ t͏al͜k̵.͏”
The two faces disappeared in the dark, the knife sheathed once again. Sooner or later, he ponders, sooner or later, I’ll be set free. And I will get my revenge.