"Why would he be hard to communicate with?" Jackie asked Henrik.

They were already on their way to Jameson's room but Henrik's words had suggested a lot of questions.

"Well, it's not that it's hard to communicate with him but rather it's hard to understand him"

"That didn't really answer my question"

Marvin answered for the doctor, "What he means is that Jameson doesn't talk but he does use sign language. Problem is, though, none of us know sign language."

"All of zhe PhDs I have, it seems useless to pursue another language" Henrik huffed.

Jackie blinked, "I know sign language"

Marvin and Henrik stopped walking and whipped their heads around to stare at him.

Henrik gaped, "Vhat!? How!?"

Jackie seemed bewildered by the question but shrugged, "Took it as an elective in college and it kind of stuck somewhat.  . . . I mean, I dropped out of college but I still learned some things here and there"

Henrik rolled his eyes and scoffed, "Unbelievable"

"But this is good!" Marvin grinned, "We actually have a real conversation with him now!"

Jackie stared at the magician, "Aren't you magic, though? How come you can't understand him?"

"Well, I DO have my limits!" Marvin laughed, "Sure, I could put a spell on all of us to make it so we all understand him but that's considered forbidden magic and I'd rather not break any laws yet if I don't have to"

"Laws?"

Marvin waved it off, "I'd rather not get into it. Let's just go see Jameson and have a chat, huh?"

Henrik nodded, "And zhen we can go on our search for Anti and Chase"

Jackie grumbled to himself. Really, he retained SOME sign language but not a lot. He hoped Jameson would be forgiving of his rustiness.

They got to the door and Henrik knocked before entering.

There he was.

He was dressed in an old-timey suit with a pocket watch dangling from his front vest's pocket. A bowler hat rested on the table next to the bed.

What was concerning, however, was that Jameson had his socks on his hands moving them as if he were mimicking them talking.

Jackie nodded, "Oh . . . so he's crazy, too. You forgot to mention that, doc"

Jameson looked up at them and hopped up quickly before giving a tiny wave with his hand-sock, a grand bow and a big, friendly smile.

_____________________

Anti had been following Chase around the house all morning, watching him, trying to learn from his movements. 

He even tried to mimic him here and there, driving Chase crazy.

Chase made a cup of coffee so then Anti made a cup of coffee.

Chae took a sip and then Anti took a sip. 

Anti looked confused.

"Why do you drink this?"

"It's coffee. It's to help people stay awake or give you energy"

Anti stared at the cup in his hand, "That wouldn't help me, though. I get my energy from you and I don't have to sleep"

"Then don't drink it"

"Shouldn't I, though, to be human?"

Chase ran his hand through his hair, "You don't have to. Plenty of people in the world don't drink coffee."

"Oh"

 . . . .

They were sitting at the table in the kitchen after Chase had finally gotten it cleared off of all the junk. He didn't know how long he could get away with staying there now but so long as they were there, he'd keep living there as if he hadn't been evicted.

Something else was bothering Chase, though.

"Hey . . Anti?"

"Yes?" Anti was swirling the liquid in the mug with his finger.

"About earlier. What you said. . . . why do you think you feel sad?"

"I don't know"

"Well there has to be a reason."

Anti just shrugged, "I don't. . . . remember a lot. I feel like. . . there's more to me. Maybe I'm just not remembering. I think it has something to do with that dark entity"

"Okay. . . that's something" Chase nodded, "So you think that maybe the more human you are, the more you'll remember? How do you even know you'll become human?"

Anti shrugged again and licked the liquid on his finger but it was apparent that he still didn't like it.

Chase smirked, "I drink my coffee black . . but a lot of people prefer coffee with cream or sugar or both. Do you wanna try it?"

Anti wrinkled his nose a little, " . . . . . On the TV, there were commercials for products with sugar in it. People really seem to like it. Sure"

Chase nodded and got up. He got the sugar and convenient little cups of creamer out of the cupboard and set them on the table for Anti, "Alright. So maybe just try-"

Anti easily dumped a fourth of a cup of sugar into his cup.

"a little. . . ." Chase finished, "Nevermind. Measure with your heart, man"

Anti took some of the creamers and dump them in as well. He stirred them around with his finger.

Chase tried to offer a spoon but he was ignored.

Anti cautiously lifted the mug again and tried it.

His eyes immediately widened and lit up.

Chase almost wanted to smile at how delighted he seemed.

Anti licked his lips, "Hm . .. that's a lot better"

"Good?"

He nodded, "Good"

"Good.  . now back to the previous conver- . . . ."

He just watched as Anti basically chugged all the coffee in his cup until it was gone.

Anti got up to try and get some more but Chase stopped him, "I don't think so. Maybe wait a while now. If you're trying to be human, you don't wanna kill yourself from all the caffeine and sugar"

Anti sat back down, mildly disappointed.

A few seconds later, Anti looked back at Chase, "Reading your mind again, you're wondering if there's a way to speed up the process of me becoming human so I'll leave you alone"

"I wasn't-"

"You were"

Chase kept his mouth shut.

"I think it's going faster anyway since I'm so close to you now. If I had to guess, I'd say a few more days"

"And then what?"

"And then I'll leave you alone. Then you can go kill yourself like you planned"

Chase blinked, "Geez man"

"What? It's what you've been wanting."

He couldn't look the creature in the eye, "It's not. . . It's not that simple, I guess."

"You're afraid"

Chase didn't have a comeback for that one and just took another sip of his coffee.

"What are you going to do today?" Anti asked out of nowhere.

Chase was thrown off by his sudden change of subject but thought about it, "I don't know. Maybe watch TV. . . . eat. Drink a few beers. Sleep"

"Do all humans do this?"

"Probably only the most depressed ones"

"Because you're sad?"

"Yeah, I guess"

"Should I be doing it, too?"

Chase already wanted to die from all these questions, "Because you're sad? Only if you feel like it, I guess. Most people know WHY they're sad, though, before they go mope around like that"

"Like you"

"Yes, Anti, like me" he was so done.

Anti had that confused look on his face again and took a long, deep breathe, ". . . . . I don't know why I'm sad. But I know I'm confused. Frustrated. I don't know why that other creature is after me. I couldn't read his thoughts. I think . . . I think maybe I was trapped before the delivery boy freed me"

"Delivery boy?"

"The man in the red hoodie and blue mask on his face."

"Oh yeah. That dork. Delivery boy? Wonder why the hell HE was with that other guy with the glowy hands. He seemed important"

"The delivery boy calls himself Jackieboyman"

"Even has a stupid name, too"

"He has his own powers. Accidentally transferred from me. He's very strong. He's the one that helped trapped me inside of that facility by ripping apart the robots to make a wall around me"

Chase blinked, "Okay. . . maybe he's not SO lame"

"I wouldn't know" Anti mumbled, " . . . . . . . .the dark entity trapped me in that void space, though. The scientists were studying me inside, I think, before the Jackieboyman accidentally hit a button and released me"

"So you being here is all HIS fault? Great"

"That hurts"

Chase gave him a strange look, "What?"

Anti looked sad again, "That hurts." he repeated, "It's not my fault that you're in so much pain, Chase. All I did was teleport you to that parking garage to stop you from killing yourself. And then I got you out of the facility."

"I would have rathered you let me kill myself like I wanted" Chase spat back at him, "But . . . . When you put it that way. . .  I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings"

Anti sighed and stood up, " .. . .  You're lying. You're not sorry at all"

He walked out of the room and Chase cursed at himself, forgetting he could read minds.

'Dammit. . . . I have to stop being so spiteful to him. When this is all over, who's to say he won't try and kill me when he's human with all those brand new emotions of his? He won't need me anymore when he's human, after all'

Chase stayed at the table and sipped his coffee for a while until it was finally finished.

When he went back out into the living room again, Anti was staring at Chase's laptop.

Chase hated that he understood what was on his mind, "You're curious about what's on it? It's the internet. You can learn anything and everything off of it. Maybe you'll become human faster. Wanna check it out?"

Anti was still looking a little down from their conversation a while ago in the kitchen but he nodded.

Chase came over to the couch and opened the computer for him, typing in his password.

"There you go. You gonna do that weird. . . thing. . . again? With your eyes and stuff?"

Anti looked a little distrustful but understood what Chase was talking about and nodded.

Chase did give his permission, after all.

Anti put his hand on the screen and his eyes went black. The screen started to glitch out and heat up and Chase suddenly wondered if he should run in case the damn thing blew up.

A few minutes went by and Anti still hadn't moved.

Chase realized then, though, that perhaps this might take while. He didn't know how long it took for Anti to do this to the TV and to practically download the entire internet to learn off of it?

He might be stuck like this for a while.

'Hopefully he doesn't break Google' Chase joked to himself.

But since Anti was in his own little world again, Chase decided he could just sit back and watch TV for a while.

He went and opened up a beer and sat back down next to Anti, turning on some comedy show.

_____________________

Jackie sat in a chair across from Jameson, who still had sock puppets on his hands.

"Uh . .. so . . . . can we talk? Do you mind taking off those socks from your hands?"

Jameson smiled and made the puppets nod their heads.

After a moment, Jameson finally gave another big grin and waved it off as if he were saying he was joking. He took the socks off his hands and cracked his knuckles.

Jackie nodded, "Good. . .thanks.  So uh . . . Do you know why you're here?"

Jameson shook his head.

That was an easy one.

"But you understand us when we talk to you?" Jackie had to know since he didn't have any information.

Jameson nodded and started using his hands to sign.

"Here we go" Henrik mumbled to himself.

Jackie tried to just keep up. He was just looking to try his best to try and interpret whatever Jameson was saying.

"Doctors. . . . question. . . . thing. . . ..  possessed."

Henrik and Marvin stared at Jackie.

Marvin crossed his arms, "I thought you said you knew sign language?"

"I do. Just not fluently."

Henrik face palmed, "Oh for fucks sake"

"Oh shut your cakehole, already" Jackie snapped back at him, "At least it's SOMETHING"

Jameson was signing again.

"No . . . talk . . . . . easy. . . . . . write"

Jameson made a writing motion with his hands.

It was Henrik and Marvin's turn to look stupid now.

Jackie crossed his arms, "You guys never tried to see if he could write to communicate?"

Jameson just gave a big smile.

Henrik grunted and fixed his glasses, "Well, we DID but he just kept drawing some stick figure. All we assumed was that it vas Anti. If he could write, why didn't he write, zhen!?"

Jameson looked like he was silently laughing.

Marvin conjured a pen and paper and gave it to the mute.

Jameson took it graciously and began writing. His handwriting was very good. Beautiful, even as he wrote in cursive, the dead handwriting skill.

Jackie read the message out loud, "Sorry.  . . you guys weren't giving me any information, so why should I have given any to you?" Jackie looked back at Henrik, "See? He's got a point."

"Shut up and keep reading" Henrik growled.

Jackie read the next message Jameson was writing, ". . . .But if you must know. . . I believe I'm here because of when I was possessed by that creature. It wasn't a good experience. It was scary and I don't really remember a lot of it. Only that I couldn't control my own movements like I was a puppet."

Jameson looked over at the sock puppets on the floor.

Henrik nodded, "Now zhat we understand you, it makes things easier. The entity that possessed you calls himself Anti. We had been keeping him contained here but he's reached out to two different people. You and a man named Chase. Unfortunately, he has taken Chase in his escape and there's another entity after them as well. We need to find zhe two before it does first or before Anti hurts Chase. Most of my men were murdered, though, so you cannot stay here alone in case you are another target. You vill be coming vith us. Do you understand?. . . wait, what is he doing?"

Jameson was drawing little cartoon eyeballs on the paper.

Jackie cleared his throat, "Mr. Jackson?"

Jameson kept his head down but glanced up at Jackie from the page. It appeared that Jameson trusted Jackie more than he did Marvin or Henrik.

"Do you understand what Henrik told you? Will you come with us?"

Jameson didn't really have a choice but Jackie wanted him to feel like he did. 

Jameson smiled and looked at his pocket watch, opening it as if he were checking the time.

He closed it and nodded.

Marvin mumbled to Henrik, just as confused, "What, is he late for something?"

They decided not to ask any more questions.

It was time to go find Chase.