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Soft laughter greeted Henrik as he entered the hospital room.
Chase sat on his normal chair beside the bed which held the man whose awakening had the entire hospital in complete uproar.
A miracle.
That was what they called it.
One night, out of nowhere, a nurse rushed into his office with a pale face.
“Doctor Schneeplestein, you have to see this,” she panted out, gripping the frame of his door as if it was her lifeline, “your-your patient in room 1031—”
He didn’t wait for her to finish, having stood up the moment the room number came out of her lips. His heart thundered inside his chest as he ran past all the other staff still doing their shift that fateful night.
He had wondered what he was going to see the moment he stepped through that door. Was it to the sight and sound of Jack’s heartbeat monitor in a flatline? Or perhaps those eyes… those eyes would be green—
Henrik froze at the doorway. His eyes were as wide as a dinner plate at what he saw before him.
Jack.
He was completely awake, being surrounded by the nurses as they tried to ascertain that he was completely conscious. As Henrik stepped through the door, the doctor could almost weep when the color that greeted him was blue rather than green.
“-’ve kept your channel running while you were gone so don’t worry about that,” Chase’s voice snapped him out of his memories. He was waving his hands around animatedly as he reassured Jack.
The bright smile on his face made Henrik’s chest ache . How long has it been since he saw that expression lighting up the troubled shadows that darkened and aged his dear friend’s face? Chase’s shoulders were lighter these days, less hunched over like he was carrying the weight of the entire world on his back.
Jack was propped up against the raised back of his bed. He was just listening to Chase ramble on whatever topic popped up in the man’s mind with an indulgent smile. His blue eyes drifted to glance over at Henrik’s direction the moment he opened the door.
A fleeting flicker of sharp ice had the doctor tightening his grip around the doorknob—
Just as quick as it appeared, the steel was gone in a blink. Those eyes were filled with the warmth that he associated with Jack once more.
It must have been his imagination, he tried to convince himself. He was tired. The exhaustion from all the ceaseless shifts was taking its toll on his mind.
But the ribbon of unease did not unknot itself around his chest no matter how hard he tried to reason with his paranoia.
Chase finally noticed his presence. He twisted his upper body around in his seat to give Henrik a beaming smile.
“Hey Hen!” he raised a hand in greeting which Henrik returned with an acknowledging nod. “Here to check on Jack?”
“Yes,” Henrik answered with a curt voice as he crossed the space between the door and Jack’s bed in a few long strides, “don’t mind me. Carry on with your conversation.”
He moved over to check on the machines monitoring Jack’s vitals, making sure that they were all within the range of health.
“Typical Hen,” he heard Chase chuckle, “ever the worrier of our group. Then again, that’s why you’re always the first one to notice if something’s wrong with us.”
“He has always been the most observant among all of us,” Jack agreed, turning his smile towards Henrik who stifled the urge to flinch when he caught the strange upwards curl at the corner of his lips, “Marv comes in second though.”
Chase winced. It was no secret that Marvin’s reaction to Jack’s waking up had been very… colorful. He still refuses to come visit Jack no matter how much the others tried to convince him. The magician merely buried himself deeper into his studies.
Jackie and Jameson, the two people that Marvin would listen to the most, said that they would talk to him. But god knows that cat can outstubborn even a god.
“He’ll come around,” Chase placed a hand over Jack’s, rubbing his thumb on the back in a comforting circle, “Marv always does.”
Henrik carefully kept his eyes on the screen of the heartbeat monitor. He doesn’t voice out his own thoughts which are more aligned with Marvin’s points of suspicion.
“Fuck!” Chase cursed out of nowhere.
When Henrik looked back, Chase was staring down at his phone with a kicked puppy look.
“Gotta blast,” sighed Chase before he pocketed his phone, “I have to record a new video for the channel and then send it to Robin for editing.”
In a move that surprised the other two occupants of the room, Jack raised Chase’s hand to his lips and brushed a light kiss over his palm. Chase gaped at Jack while the other smiled back at him with an innocent expression even as he kept his lips over his hand.
The moment caught up to Chase and his face burned red as he stammered and tried to get the words out of his mouth.
“I uh… Jack, um, I need to uh…” Chase’s eyes were shaking.
Henrik was concerned that the poor man was about to pass out from all the blood that rushed up to his head in that second.
Taking mercy on Chase, Jack finally released his hand with a teasing grin.
“Cat got your tongue, Chaser?” teased Jack.
He barked out a laugh when Chase glowered at him without any heat. “Sorry, sorry… I couldn’t resist.”
“See if I ever visit you again, dick,” joked Chase before he stood up. “Want me to sneak you something in when I come back tomorrow?”
“Just you’s enough,” said Jack, eyes sparkling in delight at the red that climbed up Chase’s neck, “I wouldn’t say no to some greasy fries though.”
“Not allowed,” Henrik deadpanned on instinct.
He arched an unimpressed brow at Jack’s childish pout.
“Don’t worry, I’ll sneak some in under the mean doctor,” Chase mock-whispered at Jack who giggled.
Henrik rolled his eyes at their mischief.
Chase gave Jack one more wave before he made his way towards the door. Henrik glanced at Jack. The man’s eyes were trained upon Chase’s back as if nothing else but him existed in the world.
It made him wonder… Has Jack always been that intense when it comes to Chase…?
He shook his head at that ridiculous thought. Jack had always treated them all with the same affection. Perhaps he was a bit more affectionate and casual with Chase but he has never played favorites with them.
Henrik followed after Chase, ignoring the gaze that moved to him once he took the leaving man’s place at the exit.
Just before he closed the door behind him, Henrik could swear that he saw a glimmer of that heart-stopping green flickering over Jack’s eyes.
He managed to catch up to Chase before the other man entered his car.
“Oh Hen,” he looked surprised when Henrik grabbed him by the shoulder. “What’s up?”
“How are you so quick to conclude that everything is alright now?” Henrik decided against beating around the bush.
Not when so much was at risk if they were wrong.
Chase’s bright smile vanished the moment he asked his question. It was replaced with a dark scowl, irritation sparked in his eyes.
“This again?” Chase crossed his arms in front of his chest. “You just had to ask me about this again, huh?”
“I just cannot understand how you could simply wave off all the oddities circling around… Jack,” Henrik insisted. He grabbed Chase’s shoulders when the other ego avoided the doctor’s eyes, “Chase—”
Chase tore his hands away from his body, glaring at Henrik with a ferocity that had him taking an instinctive step back.
“Is it so wrong to want to believe that for once in my fucked up life something goes right?” Chase burst out, his teeth bared back in a snarl.
Henrik bit down on his tongue to stop himself from snapping back. He knew that if he did, it would simply drive his friend further from him.
“I don’t want you to get hurt again,” Henrik pleaded after an entire minute of heavy silence pushed down on the two of them.
Chase stared at him, the anger in his eyes dimmed down to irritation. He let out an angry huff and pinched the bridge of his nose to stave off the emerging headache.
“Do you think I’m some sort of kid that you have to shelter from the world?” Chase was annoyed. Henrik’s heart dropped down to the pit of his stomach. “I’ve been alone with him for hours . Don’t you think that if Jack was Anti, he would’ve already done something to me or the rest of the people at the hospital while the rest of you were busy?”
Henrik… He couldn’t deny the validity of those words. Chase and countless others had been alone with Jack in his room and he had yet to notice a single injury or problem with them.
“Just… be careful, please.” Henrik relented for the day.
When Chase was this frustrated, he would close his ears to the other side’s argument, no matter how reasonable or logical their points are. They would get nowhere if he continued to persist today.
Chase rolled his eyes. Without another word to Henrik, he turned around, unlocked his car, and pulled the door close with far more strength than necessary.
He drove away with Henrik watching his back with hurt and anxiety churning in his chest.
Henrik could not judge Chase for his desperate wish for their troubles with Anti to be over and done with. However, it still hurts when his friend accuses him of not wanting their Jack back.
He wants nothing more than to have his friend back, safe and wholly himself.
However, his logical mind and the instincts honed from being in close contact with the glitch for months was telling him in bolded, red font that something was wrong .
Things did not add up.
Why did Anti vanish without a single word to them? Did he finally get bored of his games?
Henrik’s observation of the anomaly would say otherwise.
Anti was obsessed and possessive of all of them, especially Jack and Chase.
Even if he had grown bored of them, why did he leave without causing them one last trouble? Why give them the gift of leaving Jack as himself with an unnaturally fast recovery from his coma?
Speaking of which, there was also the matter of Jack…
He had been lost deep in his own thoughts that he didn’t notice his own feet leading him back to the source of his internal conflict. It was when he felt the ice cold touch of the door handle on his fingers that he jolted back into the real world.
He pushed the door open.
“Back so soon, Henrik ?”
Henrik inhaled sharply.
Jack was holding the paring knife that Chase placed in the plate of fruit on top of his bedside drawer. He was using it to skin the apple in a long smooth motion with ease. He wasn’t even looking down at the apple.
Instead, he was smiling at Henrik.
His blue eyes reflected the cold glint of the steel of his knife.
“ You. ” Henrik gritted out.
‘Jack’ tilts his head to the side in a mockery of confusion.
“Me?” he widens his eyes to seem innocent and lost.
It made his skin crawl with how easy Anti could mimic Jack’s mannerisms. The fact that he can feign being his friend without flicking most of his wary instincts as long as the glitch didn’t intentionally let the mask slip…
He wonders just how thin the line between Jack and Anti is.
“What did you do ?” Henrik clenched his hands on his side, his nails digging deep crescents into the skin of his palm.
“What did I do?” Jack… no. Anti’s smile widened to a devilish grin. “I’m not the person you should be asking that question to, Doc.”
Anti placed the paring knife over his lap before he tapped his chest, a silent direction to whom exactly he should be looking for answers from.
Henrik’s eyes narrowed. This was more in place with how Anti usually acts. Words of trickery meant to misdirect… Anti could never bring himself to be clear on his motivations and goals. Sometimes, however, he decides to mix his games up and blindside them by tossing them a truthful bone here and there.
It drove Jackie mad as he tried to predict when and where the bastard would strike them next.
The only thing they could depend on was his personality. While Anti often changed up his plans to keep the game ‘interesting’ for himself, he himself was unchanging in his ways.
“What are you planning with Chase?” Henrik knew he hit the nail on the head when Anti’s grin widened even further, and the madness that he could barely keep back lurked beneath the depths of those sharp eyes.
“As I said before, observant,” Anti purred, “however, you should be more concerned about yourself before worrying that smart head of yours about others.”
If anyone entered the room right now, they would notice the odd mood in the air. Henrik’s body was tensed up like a stuck springlock about to snap while he stared wide-eyed, almost fearful, at the relaxed form of his patient in his bed. Jack-Anti was still smiling, only the curl of his lips had taken on a more cruel turn that shot ice down Henrik’s spine.
“You’ve discovered my mask and you’re all alone with me,” Anti leaned forward, his hand gripping the handle of his current knife, “do I need to remind you what happened last time we were in this exact position?”
The doctor’s heart skipped a beat. The room was freezing and yet… he could feel a bead of sweat trailing down the back of his neck.
It was galling just how easy it was for the bastard on the bed to turn the tide of the room on a whim.
He could feel the scars littered all over his body itch and twinge as if they were about to open again while he stood, pinned underneath that hungry, predatory gaze like a butterfly collector’s specimen.
“So how did your talk with Chaser go, Doc?” Anti relaxed back onto his backrest and Henrik felt as if he could breathe again. “I think it’s cute how he clings to my every word like an excitable puppy ready to please.”
He must control himself.
He cannot fall for Anti’s obvious attempt of riling him up.
He cannot fall for such a simple trap.
Henrik swiftly turned on his heel without replying. If he stayed in this room any longer, he was going to do something he may or may not regret.
The bastard burst out into peals of laughter behind him. His voice was scratchy and high-pitched, grating on the doctor’s already frayed nerves.
“Touchy~,” said Anti in a sing-song voice, “careful now Henrik. The more you and the other idiots make him mad, the faster he’ll push himself right into my arms.”
He slammed the door shut with far more force than needed. His heart was rabbiting itself into a frenzy inside his chest as his mind worked overdrive trying to decipher Anti’s cryptic words.
This was all the confirmation he and Marvin needed to know that their entire conundrum was unfinished. They have to tell the others, warn them of what is about to come. They have to—
Chase.
This will destroy him. If they tell him that Anti has fully taken over Jack’s body and has been pretending to be his Jack… It might drive him over the edge.
But Anti… If he doesn’t tell Chase…
Henrik shook his head.
Chase wouldn’t believe him. Not as he is right now.
As much as it grates on him, he’ll have to keep this, the truth, from Chase. At least until his friend is more amenable to the truth.
He walked away from the room that held the most dangerous being in this hospital. Henrik grabbed his phone from his pocket and dialed Marvin’s number.
“I told you I’m bu—”
Henrik cut Marvin’s grumblings off, “we need to talk about Anti. All of us except for Chase.”
The grim pitch of his voice left Marvin speechless for a few seconds before he recovered.
“Tonight then?” He could hear the sound of paper being shuffled from the other side.
“Yes, I will leave my shift early,” Henrik nodded, even though he knew Marvin wouldn’t see it.
“I’ll grab the other two then.” A pause. “And Henrik?”
“Hm?”
“Be careful.” With that, Marvin cut off their brief call.
Henrik closed his eyes, far too aware of the stiffness on his shoulders, before he slipped the phone back into his pocket. He hastened his pace towards his office, intent on grabbing all his research on the glitch to bring back home to the others.
The game is afoot and Henrik…
Henrik has no intention of losing another dear friend to the darkness that was threatening to swallow them down into its maw.