I don't remember moving.

However as the tears slowed, drying upon my pale cheeks, and choked sobs turned to ragged breaths. As the world came back into focus, and the reality of the situation wore on me, adding a new weight to my shoulders. As I finally regained the ability to think clearly I was on the floor, curled into a pathetic ball as though that could somehow protect me.

I blink a few times, allowing the smog clear from my vision. Finally I force myself to push up, wincing slightly as I move my arm. Hesitantly I let my eyes wander to it, the ache within it, nearly driving me to tears once more.

It looked almost worse than it felt. Hues of purple and green wrap around it like vines, splashes of almost a blue towards the outer center of my bicep. It was almost sickening, pulling my eyes away I force myself to stand on shaky legs, using the back of the couch beside me to help myself up.

Once up I let reality crash down once again, a new sense of dread cast over the room. My eyes instinctively move down the hall, for a moment I almost expect him to stand in a doorway, watching me with those hawk-like eyes, but it remains empty, I don't dare go to investigate.

What happened?

The voice startles me, a quick moment of surprise before it quickly fades to anger.

"Where the hell have you been?"

I can almost feel him shrug, a pathetic effort at indifference. I feel my eyes move to my discolored bicep again. Despite the site nauseating me to the point of sickness I don't look away, feeling Anti study it for a long time before finally speaking and allowing me to glance away.

Dark do that?

Soft voice almost comes out almost more matter-of-factly rather than a question. I nod.

"Why weren't you here? Why didn't you help me...?"

A new hatred drenches those words. Of course I'd never particularly liked the demon, however meeting Dark certainly changed my feelings about him. He's been my crutch, the one I know can control the other demon at least a little bit, yet when I needed him...

I was busy...

He mutters, strangely intrigued by the anger in my voice.

Besides, you've had every opportunity to leave... But you refused to listen to me...

I open my mouth as to argue, but no words manage to form. He's not wrong. The amount of times the demon told me to leave this place, the amount of times he'd warned me about both Mark and Dark... Feeling my hesitance he speaks again, voice growing a semblance of sympathy with each word.

Look... Dark won't leave you alone... It'll only get worse... You're best option is to leave here, go as far away as possible...

A part of me wants to argue, I want to tell him he's wrong... I don't want to agree with the words echoing around my head, but... He's right...

As far as I can tell he knows Dark a lot more than I do. The way they interact with each other... that memory... It's clear Anti despises the other demon... Maybe it's for a good reason...

Anti goes silent, as though waiting on an answer. I don't know what to say. I can't leave Mark... He needs me as much as I need him, but with that thing in his head, threatening to take control any second...

I feel myself shiver at the thought.

On the other hand I'm a wanted man... I'm sure my face is all over the news still, how could I possibly hide out there on my own...

You wouldn't be on your own dipshit... I'm still here...

A breath as to calm himself and he continues, ignoring the fact that he'd basically intruded my thoughts.

Look, I'm not asking you to trust me... I just...

He pauses, a sense of almost fear dancing through the silence in my head. I can't tell if it's from me or Anti...

I don't want to see someone else be broken down by that... thing...

This time I can tell the fear was his own, the way his voice choked up, hesitating as though afraid to speak his mind on the matter. Anti never pegged me as fearful, the cocky smile he always wore giving me the feeling he could do anything... He wasn't one to fear, he was one to be feared.

But as he talked about Dark... As he talked about Hell... And in that memory...

I'm seeing a whole new side to the demon I loathe, a side that didn't frighten me, nor piss me off... It merely filled me with a sense of hopelessness. The kind of feeling that sat at the bottom of your stomach like a rock, the kind of feeling that made the world gray around you, that made every little thing bleak.

My eyes dart once more to the discoloration on my arm, blue slowly beginning to spread out along with the purples and greens, grotesque against my pale skin.

"I'm sorry Anti... I can't leave Mark alone..."

I speak hesitantly, a part of myself sure I'm making the wrong choice. But the thought of leaving Mark to be tortured by that creature hurt almost more than the dread settling throughout me.

I feel my demon pause, I almost feel as though he's studying me, pitying me... Yet keeping that intrigued nature as he speaks up again.

...Fine... But whatever you do... Don't piss him off again... Trust me when I say this is only the beginning... The rabbit hole goes much deeper, Sean...

With that his voice fades away, leaving an ominous silence to echo through my head. Yet, unlike before, I can feel his presence, a strange comfort against the crazy world.

~~~~~Mark's POV~~~~~~

It's not the pounding of my head that forces my eyes to open, nor the aching of my muscles or pounding of my heart.

It's the soft creak of a floorboard that forces me to peek my eyes open, the gentle sound hardly there at all.

I blink a few times after they open, letting the blurriness recede to the corners of my vision. Letting my groggy gaze wander I take a minute before recognizing the room as my own. I feel as though I've slept for years, only now to be woken up. However, unlike my ever so familiar bed I expected to feel beneath me, it's a hard wooden floor, stiffening my back so every movement sent a shot of pain through my spine.

I let myself roll over a bit, internally wincing at the tightness of my muscles, and the pounding of my head.

I remember... Almost nothing...

Sean kissed me... and then... Blackness.

I vaguely remember loud voices penetrating the darkness, yet I can't place them.

Another creak pulls me from my thoughts, I let my eyes follow the sound until they landed on the door to the hallway, it pushed open slowly.

I meet a set of oceanic colored eyes, they widen within a second of meeting my gaze and in a flash their gone. Footsteps sound down the hall, as though he runs from some monster...

It takes me a minute, but finally I manage to peel myself off the floor, ignoring the strain on my sore muscles, and the crack of joints. Once I'm standing, that's when the wave of nausea hits me, threatening to topple me over.

I take a moment, clenching my eyes shut as to force the sickness away. Once it fades, at least a little bit, I make my way to the ajar door.

Opening it the light assaults my tired eyes, I almost have to squint. Yet as I walk down the hall the feeling of illness fades, until I almost feel okay if it weren't for the steady pounding of my skull. At the living room I let my eyes wander, until landing upon a head of soft brown hair.

Sean sits on the couch, facing away from me, distracting himself by picking the lint from his t-shirt, almost nervously. I walk forward hesitantly.

"Sean?"

As though a switch had been flipped his muscles tense, he sits up straighter and fingers freeze on his shirt. I could tell his eyes were wide despite being unable to see his face.

"You alright? You look like you've seen a ghost..."

I mutter, lame attempt at a joke falling flat. He takes a minute, I can almost see him inflate his lungs, before he stands, legs shaking beneath him, and eyes hardly meeting mine.

"I-I'm fine..."

He speaks softly, as though afraid to talk to me, afraid to even be in the same room as me. I feel my eyes narrow in question. My eyes travel over him, finally landing on his hand, which sat gripping the opposite arm gently, a few hues of purple managing to peek through the edges.

"What happened??"

I ask quickly, walking forward despite his silent rejection. I gently touch his hand, as though asking for permission to move the hand. He hesitates, eyes clenching shut, but finally he gently peels the hand off of his arm, exposing the massive bruise covering a majority of his pale skin. I feel a new wave of nausea pass through my stomach. There's no way he did that to himself...

"Did he do that...?"

I let my fingers graze over it gently, only now noticing the seemingly emptiness of my mind without the demon. Sean hesitates again, almost shivering at my touch, before he nods. Head down he steps away from me, feeding the confusion that already pressed against my skull.

"Sean I-"

His eyes move up to mine, silencing me midsentence with the resentment within them, something I haven't seen from him in a long while. His next words come out a forced growl, the same one I'd gotten from him on my first day. The same tone he'd had before everything... before we grew so close... With two little words he makes me feel like everything, from breaking him out to the kiss from before... it all meant nothing.

"It's Jack..."