((hey guys i'm currently running on 3 hours of sleep, and can't focus on anything :D So I figured that's a perfect time to write :) ))

~~~~~~~~~~Anti's POV~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once I had finished recounting all that I'd seen, all that Anti had told me, everything was silent. My head rang with a certain kind of fuzz at the lack of noise, Mark didn't move to speak, and even Chica lie in another room, as though aware of the situation herself.

My hand had not left his, the warmth a gentle comfort amongst everything. His thumb moved to rub small circles into the back of my hand, skin shivering pleasantly with the tender touch.

A few minutes pass, silence gnawing at their insides. It hung in the air like the suspended moment before a falling glass shatters on the ground. The silence was like a gaping void, needing to be filled with sounds, words, anything. The stillness was poisonous in its nothingness, cruelly underscoring how dire their situation had become. It was eerily unnatural, like a dawn devoid of birdsong, clinging to them like a poisonous cloud that at any moment could choke the life from them.

Mark is the first to break it, voice cutting through the thick fog of uneasiness with its gentle nature. Words drenched in a sense of apprehension, adding a sense of urgency to every word that rolled off of his tongue.

"How do you know...?"

I feel my heart drop, lower than my stomach, past my feet only to be buried beneath me. The silence in my head echoes. Where I expected anger to erupt, annoyance to interfere, or even the familiar sense of resentment. Instead it resonances with an emptiness, I could feel him within my mind, listening, but he stayed silent. I could almost feel his thoughts wander, see those green eyes gloss over with unforgotten pain.

"Sean... I trust your judgement..."

He speaks softly, thumb pausing toward the middle of my hand, comfort fleeing as the tingle of his finger halted. As though seeing the hurt that stung my eyes with his words, desperate to explain himself.

"But we can't forget what Anti has done... What he's put you through... What if this is him trying to get to you again... To break you..."

I feel my teeth catch my lip, chewing on it thoughtfully. I don't know what to believe anymore...

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

I let my eyes wander downward, watching his teeth chew the skin on his lips attentively, a new confusion dancing in those sapphire eyes.

I feel his hand tense in mine for merely a moment. Looking back up to his eyes I watch them glaze over with unspoken thoughts, until finally they close.

Simply a moment, his hand pulling away from mine, leaving it with a cold emptiness, they open again.

A neon green floods those eyes, slowly overtaking the gentle blue. I feel my back straighten, however as I study those eyes I feel my body relax.

They swam with a mix of emotions, each one hiding another just behind it. A fog of nostalgia sits atop, as though he held a certain kind of fondness to the memories. Under that it only got worse. The nostalgia gave way to a dull ache, one that very clearly weighed down on him, driving him closer and closer to giving up.

Even further into that soft green lay a timeworn anger, a rage that once burned so bright whittled down to a faint vengeance. One that struggled to stay alight, yet burned away to an emptiness. The emptiness wasn't necessarily void of emotion, rather any remaining emotions were buried in it. Hidden away from the surface, struggling to be forgotten, yet clinging to the surface with a pitiful desperation.

"I wouldn't make something like this up, Mark..."

He spats my name out pitiably, voice low and desperately struggling to stay monotone despite the mix of feelings throughout his emerald eyes. His hand moves up to his throat, rubbing the jugular softly, a mist of pain crossing those eyes only to be shoved back again, buried in the nothingness he fought to keep alive.

"I'm not the good guy here... I won't pretend I am..."

He succeeds in keeping his voice low, almost managing to mask the quiver of  emotions with indifference.

"But as terrible as I am... As evil as you perceive me... He's even worse..."

He chokes up slightly on the last words, letting his voice break with a gentle breath before returning to his apathetic neutrality.

"A corrupt human soul is malevolent, sick, twisted... Just one corrupt soul, can spread so much chaos, can do so much... Dark however... He has two, both just as vindictive as the other, imagine what he can do without so much as breaking a sweat."

The words slowly turn to an ill-omened snarl, an uneasy silence following his words. I can't bring myself to speak afterward, letting the silence settle upon the room like an omen, promising disaster.

He sits back in the chair, eyes in my general direction, yet seeming to focus anywhere but. Faintest hint of a memory creasing into his forehead.

~~~~~~Anti's POV~~~~~~

He goes silent, puppy-dog eyes showing a genuine confusion. He doesn't know who to trust, that much is obvious... It'd be almost amusing given different circumstances. There's always been a certain charm to causing such mixed thoughts, mixed emotions, chaos within the mind so to speak.

I let my body lean backwards, a nonchalant stature if my form weren't so tense. Sean stayed back, unsure what he could say even if given control once more. I feel the human's brown eyes on me, but I hardly see him, letting the silence wrap me in a venomous comfort, which I accept with open arms. A familiarity to it, I've dealt with silence for as long as I can remember.

Silence was once my crutch, still is, the one peaceful thing I had left. No screaming, no shouting, no snapping of bones beneath my skin... Silence meant for that one moment, I had been free...

Free from him...

I almost missed being a human when I let myself fall into his trap... I missed my own pitiful ignorance.

I never believed in any of this... Demons I mean... It was all just fantasy, made up by others out of mere boredom.

I didn't believe it until I became one... Until I was brok-... Trained, to what I am now...

Even then I didn't want to believe it...

I didn't believe in monsters.... Until I met him...

I didn't fear anything... Until he showed me what fear truly was...

He spoiled me, gifts, care, and all the affection I desired. I didn't realize... I was slowly falling into him, I began to rely on him, to submit to him... By then it was too late... I had lost every bit of who I was, I still haven't gained that back...

I still can't close my eyes without seeing red stain the underside of my eyelids, without feeling the pain erupt in my throat, feeling all breath leave my body...

I can hardly look at myself without seeing the pathetic, broken thing that I was... That he made me into...

Every scar, every faint reminiscence of the purple bruises that had littered my skin, every time I let him boss me around.... Every time I let his hands cause all that pain because I was afraid... Of him, but also how lonely I was before I met him.

He made me feel complete... I still feel that emptiness in me, the place he once filled so perfectly....

It aches, a hollow pain that only served to drive me further down the rabbit hole of senselessness.

I long to fill that hole in me.... That empty space... I don't want to crawl back to him... I can't... But...

I let my eyes wander over to the human across from me again, meeting those brown eyes for only a moment before moving away.

I feel my posture straighten, any ghost of a memory wiped away from my eyes and replaced with cold resolve.

"Anti..."

I perk up a little at the mention of my name. Letting my eyes meet his again I force the smallest twitch of a smile to my lips, hoping to look like myself again, rather than the sad sack of shit I had been mere moments before.

"What's the plan?"