He didn't feel right.

When did he ever?

Anti was laying on the floor.

Where was he?

Was this the attic, again?

Underneath him, he felt something warm and wet and a little sticky. Turning his head to the side, he saw it was something red.

'Oh'

It was like a puddle in the palm of his hand . . . . soaking through his shirt on his back and making his skin itch.

Wasn't the itching supposed to go away?

No, this was a different kind of itch.

Where did this blood come from?

It was starting to get cold . . . . .

Looking up again at the ceiling, someone was on top of him.

A doppelganger of himself.

Just staring down at him, so disappointed.

"Are you ready?"

Anti furrowed his brow, "Wh- . . for what?"

"You're not ready"

"Ready for what?!"

"I don't think you'll ever be ready" the duplicate suddenly smiled down on him, "We both know that . . don't we?"

He gripped Anti's face and forcibly turned his head to the side.

"Uuuhh . ... hhaaaaah!" He tried to get out of his grasp but the grip was too strong.

Marvin's face was next to his . . . if you could even call it a face. It was like a chainsaw shaved his face down from his head to chin but he could barely make out his hair, his mask in pieces stuck in it.

Anti fell onto the floor off his bed, landing on his hands and knees. He couldn't stop shaking, staring at the floor.

There wasn't any blood.

Wait.

Some was leaking . . . dripping on the hardwood underneath him.

It was his from his neck again.

'Dammit. . . . . just another nightmare' getting off the floor, Anti held his throat as he went to the bathroom so no blood would drip down into his clothing.

Hanging over the bathroom counter, he started to clean up and even started stitching himself back together. It wasn't too bad. Not too much blood but enough to make a small mess. One he didn't want to clean up and get lectured for.

After doing his daily routine, Anti walked downstairs.

Usually with everyone there, Chase would be cooking.

Anti couldn't smell anything, though.

'That's weird. . . '

When he got down into the living room, Jackie was there, thankfully . .

Wait. . .

Since when was he thankful for that?

Anyway, Jackie had his arms crossed looking at Anti like he had done something wrong again.

What was it this time?

"The fook you looking at, sidekick?" Anti decided to throw at him.

Jackie snorted, "Nothing much. Looks like you bled again" he nodded to Anti's wrapped up neck, "Dark go too hard last night?"

"Haha. You're so funny. Heard noises in your room last night. You banging Yandere again?"

It was all too clear Jackie wanted to beat him but settled on insults, "You jealous? And here I thought were asexual?"

"What's wrong with that? At least I don't have a mound of STDs unlike YOU"

Marvin burst out in laughter from on the couch, "JAYSUS! Ya gotta admit, he won that one, Jackie"

"Whatever"

Anti smirked, taking the win, "What's for breakfast?"

Henrik wandered in from the kitchen with a mug of coffee, "Chase is cooking now."

Before Anti could try and smell the air again, Henrik strode on over to him, lifting his head up, "Your neck is stitched . . . you do this yourself?"

Anti nodded, "Who else?"

"Tis nothing . . . Just impressed is all. Good vork. Seems my yelling for you to learn has finally gotten through to you"

"Most likely, he was probably just tired of hearing you yell" Marvin chuckled.

Anti shrugged, "You guys were . . .gone for a while . . .had to learn . . . no one else"

"Ah, yeah" Jackie rubbed the back of his head, "For you, it was what? Three months, you said?"

Anti nodded but before anything else could be said, he left them to go into the kitchen.

He smelled the air again and could smell the strong scent of bacon and sausage. How could he not have smelt it before?

Per usual, Anti snuck up behind Chase. The father didn't sense Anti behind him, it seemed.

Anti had half a mind to take out his knife and jump scare him like so many months ago.

Until he remembered the horrid vision he had afterwards the last time-

Anti, instead, came up behind him almost too close, "BOO!" He shouted in his ear.

"AH!" Chase flinched hard but luckily didn't burn himself, "The hell you doing, ya stinky bastard?!" but he couldn't disguise himself laughing along with the glitch.

Anti chuckled, "You're always too easy"

"Yeah, yeah. Well how about someone comes up behind YOU like that? Let's see what happens then, huh!?" Chase pointed his spatula at him.

Anti ignored him in favor of snatching a piece of bacon from the plate he was putting the finished bits on, "HEY!"

He just shrugged, munching on it.

When everyone else came in, Jameson poured himself a mug of coffee and they all had a nice breakfast together.

It was strange. This feeling Anti had.

Almost as if this all was a dream, too.

'Are you ready?'

Anti looked out the kitchen window. He swore he could see someone out there.

That duplicate of him from his nightmare.

For some reason, though, Anti wasn't scared of it. He just . . . sat and watched it. Staring right back at it.

'You'll never be ready, will you?'

'No' he finally answered back.

Anti blinked.

In that instant, he was alone at the table, a spread of food and many plates set out.

It was only him there.

Anti blinked again and they were all at the table once more staring at him like they had just seen a ghost.

"Anti?" Chase nudged him. He looked so concerned, "You okay, bro?"

"What did you just say, Anti?" Henrik asked curiously, "No, what?"

" . . . . nothing. . . . ." Anti muttered, stuffing another forkful of eggs in his mouth, "Don't worry about it."

Outside the window, the duplicate of him was gone.

"Everything's fine"