Sean had a plan. He didn't intend on hurting anyone. He wasn't the kind of person to hurt someone on purpose. This was just a part of a scene was all.

This was just another part of the story he had planned.

'Anti wants to hurt me and the others, then I'll give him the opportunity. He won't get close but it'll make him feel like he did. This is perfect!'

He smiled down at his plans in his notebook, 'I don't really care all that much if he tries to ruin my videos. If I can get it on camera, then fine. Taking BB was an overstep but Jackie said he made him pay for it . . even if he got away'

He shut the notebook and bit down on his pen slightly in thought, 'Should I tell the others? Usually it works best if I don't but I don't wanna freak them out too bad . . . then again, Chase never tells me everything anymore and the others don't talk to me as much as they used to . . . Maybe I shouldn't do this?'

Sean sighed and groaned, 'Maybe I need to focus this more on Anti. Bait him out and make him come to me again. If I can find out what exactly he wants, we might be able to work something out. I don't wanna resort to this if I don't have to'

Thinking back to how things used to be, Sean smiled slightly, 'Things were a lot simpler back then. I miss those days'

He leaned back in his chair and motor-boated his lips in boredom, 'I should take Evelien out tonight. We haven't had a date night in a while. It'll be nice to chill out a bit and maybe Chase and Jackie will want to come out a bit together. Chase can do some editing and Jackie can guard the house from Anti in case he tries anything. Perfect idea!'

He called for them to come out and Sean watched as Chase and Jackie appeared before him.

"Hey guys. I was just wondering-"

"You want a date night?" Chase guessed it.

Sean laughed out loud, "Yeah! How'd ya guess?"

Jackie rolled his eyes, "You think pretty loudly."

"That and you're blushing so you MUST be thinking of your girl!" Chase teased him.

Sean scoffed, "Oh whatever. You can edit some stuff out of my folder and Jackie, would ya mind keeping the fort to make sure you know who doesn't sneak in again?"

"Right"

"If he can anymore" Chase made a comment.

"Shut up, Brody" Jackie chastised him but Sean was curious now.

"What you mean by that, Chase?"

Jackie gave Chase a warning glare but the father wasn't about to cave into him, "Jackie stopped working out"

This concerned Sean deeply, "Wh-what? What do you mean? Jackie? What's going on, man?"

"It's nothing!" Jackie huffed, "I just wanted to relax a little is all! Chase is blowing it way out of proportion anyway. I only took two days to chill is all. I'll get back to it tomorrow a bit"

"You better." Sean crossed his arms, "We NEED you to be strong, Jackie. We-"

"So that means I can't just have one day a week to myself?" Jackie couldn't belief this was actually happening, "I wake up and I work out continuously, Sean. ALL DAY. I just want to relax sometimes is all, you know?"

Truth be told, Jackie LOVED not working out for a couple days. His body thanked him for it and he actually got more sleep than usual.

Sean didn't look happy, though, "I don't know. You really think you can keep up your level of strength without working out a day? Anti gets stronger every time we see him and one day, he could kill us all if you're not ready"

'I find that hard to believe' Jackie resisted the urge to roll his eyes, 'After our last visit, Anti seemed scared shitless to even be around me. Said he might not even best Chase in a fight which is sort of sad'

But Jackie wasn't in the mood to argue right now and just nodded, "Fine. I get your point"

"Good. I just want you guys to be ready is all" Sean sighed, "I don't mean to sound mean about it. I don't want you guys to get hurt like last time. At least now, we're on our guard"

'Last time . .  right' Jackie couldn't help but believe Anti more and more. He was right. Sean really wasn't okay with him taking a break. 

Chase looked happy and took Sean's spot at the desk while their creator went to go get ready. Jackie wanted to punch something. Anything. But he stopped himself. With the little freedom he experienced the last two days, he wanted more. He felt like he was being constricted. It was a new feeling for him and he didn't like it.

'Maybe Anti really was right' he left the room and set to walking around the inside of the house, 'And if yesterday felt so good just sitting around . . what would it be like to just . . . go somewhere without asking permission? To just walk around where ever I wanted?'

His hand instinctively went to his walkie talkie but before he took it from his belt, he hummed to himself, 'Maybe after Sean and Evelien are gone . . and Chase is busy in Sean's office.'

It didn't take long. Evelien was all too excited to get ready after her stream and quickly enough, they were on their way out.

Jackie couldn't help but feel jealous. He had never wanted something so badly. At least Chase got to have some degree of freedom unlike the others. It wasn't really fair but then again, Chase was always Sean's favorite not that he'd ever admit it.

The hero shuffled back into the office, watching Chase work steadily on Sean's videos.

"Hey . . . why'd you out me like that?"

Chase didn't even look away from the screen but shrugged, "You weren't yourself yesterday or the day before. I was just helping you was all. Don't want Sean to get upset." he turned a little around in the chair, "You don't want Anti to jump us unguarded, do ya?"

"Well no, but-"

"I'm sorry if it seemed harsh, bro, but we all gotta do our part"

Jackie risked saying it, "And what if Anti wasn't the bad guy per se?"

Chase clenched the mouse tight  and glared at him, " . . . . you're saying what he did to us was good? It was okay for him to torture us and bring us nothing but pain!?"

"That's not . . ." Jackie wasn't doing this right, "I mean . . . what if something was making him do it out of his control? What if he's actually not so bad?"

Chase shook his head, "Look, I don't know if Marvin saw something and told you or whatever, but Anti's just trying to get under our skin. He's not good. People call him a demon for a reason, Jackie!"

"Wait . . ." Jackie caught something in his words, "What do you mean? What do you think Marvin would have shown me?"

Chase scoffed, "Nothing." he turned back to face the screen, "Forget it. It doesn't matter anyway"

"Does it have anything to do with your new phone?"

Chase shrugged dramatically, "So I saw Anti last week at the store! Big deal! He was only acting like an innocent idiot to get away with buying those fooking chains! He probably used them to chain up that poor girl or something and I did nothing to stop him!"

That was a lot to grasp, "Uh"

"I don't wanna hear it, Jackie! Anti's the bad guy and you won't change my mind on it! So what, he likes the same ice cream as us! So what he bought me a new phone! He also destroyed my last one so I  couldn't call Sean! Bastard was only trying to get away because he couldn't kill me in front of so many people!"

"Chase . . ."

"Get out"

Jackie didn't understand this roller coaster of emotions Chase was feeling but he knew he was being unreasonable, "Chase, I-"

"GET OUT! Go fooking patrol or whatever. Do something fooking useful for once"

That hurt. Jackie felt his heart crack a little, "I . . .yeah . . . because all I am to all of you is a body guard, right? I'm not even worth having my own feelings . . ."

Chase snapped out of his rage a little and was about to apologize but Jackie was already gone.

The father took a deep breathe and leaned his head against the computer screen, "Fuck"

Jackie didn't care. Like hell he was going to patrol anywhere after all of that. He went into the basement to the most remote area of the house and locked the door behind him.

Going down to the finished basement, he turned on the light and wandered over to the couch, turning on the TV. But he wasn't actually going to watch it.

He took out his walkie talkie, "Hey Anti. You there?"

It took a few moments but soon after, another voice sounded on the other end, "Hey! This Jackie?"

The hero snorted, "Of course it is. Who else would it be?"

"Right . . . what's up?"

Jackie groaned lightly, "You were right.  . ..  I stopped exercising for two days and I guess that was a mistake."

"Uh-oh. What happened?"

Meanwhile, Anti was at home in his apartment cooking up some ramen noodles for his dinner.

Jackie chuckled humorlessly, "Oh . .  Chase ratted me out and Sean and him both gave me an ear-full. Stuff about how I should be up on my guard and all that. You could kill us at any moment. You're called a demon for a reason. I'm only good for one thing and it's to fight you"

"Geez. Is that normal? Family-wise, anyway? I'm not well versed in familial fighting" Anti scooped up his noodles into his bowl, "But I don't think it's good either way to talk like that"

"It's not . . . . I think Chase was gonna apologize but I left before he could. What you up to?"

"Nothing much. Just cooking up some ramen. You?"

"Just chilling the basement with the door locked"

"You're out of Sean's head?"

"Yeah. He wanted to take Evelien out on a date. Probably shouldn't have told you that but-"

"Y-you trust me?"

Jackie could tell Anti was getting excited and snorted, "Yeah, I guess a little more than before. Don't freak out on me"

"I won't! I won't!" Anti slurped up some noodles, sitting back on his new chair, "So you're by yourself locked in the basement of Sean's house and Chase probably won't come to get you?"

"Probably not after the fight we just had. Why?" Jackie could tell the glitch was trying to get somewhere with this.

"You wanna come to my place and hang out? In person?"

Jackie was confused at first but it really didn't seem that bad of an idea. It was risky but . . . what was he good for anyway? If anyone could go against him if something went wrong anyway, it was HIM, right?

"Alright. I'll be right over" he finally agreed.

He could barely hear Anti squeak on the other end but he pretended not to hear it and walked on over to the basement windows, "I'll be there in a few minutes"

Anti didn't respond. He was busy all of a sudden cleaning up the apartment before Jackie got there. 

But he didn't have long and pretty soon, Jackie was tapping his fist lightly on the window outside his apartment.

It scared the shit out of Anti and Jackie had the chance to laugh as the glitch spazzed and fell over in complete shock.

But quickly enough, Anti raced back up and opened the window for him, "Hey. That was faster than I thought you'd be"

"Yeah well I was tired of being trapped. What'd you have in mind to pass the time?"

"Uh . . . " Anti tried to be cool, "I have some video games! Or we could watch a movie? Or play a board game? No, never mind. That takes more than two people" he mumbled.

Jackie shrugged, "A video game sounds good. Wh- . . . ." the hero stopped and stared around Anti's living room, "Something's different in here"

Anti smirked, "I got a new chair"

"Ah! That's it!" Jackie snickered, "I said I'd raincheck you on a new one. Couldn't wait?"

"Well actually . . ."

Anti was never that good at keeping secrets and thus told Jackie everything about Marvin and meeting him just the other day at the furniture store and that he could hear them on the walkie talkie.

Jackie sighed after listening to the whole story, "That explains a lot. Marvin's been eying me weirdly lately so it's good to know a reason why."

"I think he wants freed more than you" Anti commented, "But I told him I wanted everyone to be able to trust me first. If Sean feels that one of you were able to get away and figures out how, it might be a lot harder for anyone else to free themselves"

"I understand" Jackie nodded, "So we have me and Marvin. Have you by chance spoken to Henrik or Jameson, too?"

"No, but I did run into Chase. I don't think he's an option yet, though"

"You're right about that. He's stuck to Sean like glue" Jackie flopped onto Anti's couch in front of the TV, motioning for Anti to join him.

Anti was reluctant at first but sat next to him, getting his controllers out. He never got to use the second controller with anyone before.

Jackie took the controller, "I can't promise Chase but I could get Jameson and Henrik to think about it. At least get the idea in their heads. Marvin could help"

"You weren't so adamant about this last time we saw each other" Anti pointed out, starting up the console.

"Yeah well . . . . things change. And if Marvin trusts you . .. then I guess I can, too."

Anti couldn't explain how excited he was. Here Jackie was, his arch 'enemy' and brother actually playing a game with him on HIS TV! And no fighting! He thought he'd blink and wake up or something but it was real.

It seemed as if things were looking up faster than he thought they would.

Anti nodded, "Good . . . I hope we can all be together like this soon. Sean doesn't deserve you guys. No one does. You guys need to be your own people and I just want to help you get there"

"Right" Jackie nodded. He still couldn't believe he was doing this. He was outside Sean's head disobeying orders playing games with the 'enemy' and yet it felt one hundred percent alright.

"Now . . . Resi multiplayer, Phasmophobia or The Forest?"

Jackie knew of the games but unfortunately, he never got to play them like Chase or the other had, "You pick"

All Jackie could do was fascinate himself with how happy Anti seemed.

'This is the right choice . . . isn't it?'

He let his heart decided and so far, it seemed to be doing good.

'I'm not made to fight him . . . . at least that's not how I want things to be'

For once, Jackie let himself go, his guard completely down and the two laughed and played the games together. Anti even made popcorn to snack on. Jackie didn't want it to end.

But it had to.

Sean would be coming home soon with Evelien and Chase might be searching for him as it was.

It was an awkward and short good-bye to Jackie. He pat Anti's shoulder and explained why he had to leave. To Anti, it was better than he expected.

"I'll see ya again soon?"

Jackie smiled, "Yeah . . . you will"