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Sean's POV
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It's been a few days and Mark has been weird. Sometimes he acts like himself, but then sometimes he'd just be mean. I think the black stain on his arm was doing that to him. Because I've noticed that his eyes would become red when he was mean. So something must be happening to him.

Today Mark has decided to take me to his favorite place from childhood.

"You ready, Sean?" Mark asked as he entered the bedroom, a towel around his waist. I felt my cheeks burning. I lightly nodded. Mark came closer to me. "Well, someone's blushing." He said with a wide smile. Then suddenly his smile faded completely. He had a serious expression on his face. And his eyes turned red.

"Mark?" I asked, scared of what he was about to do.

"You're pathetic." He suddenly said. "I'm not taking you anywhere. You are to stay here the whole day. I am locking you in my room." He continued talking, still with the same serious tone. Then all of a sudden he punched my face. I felt blood coming out of my nose. He never hit me before, so I could easily hide the fact that he was evil. But this time he'd know something's not right for sure. Then Mark snapped out of it and just stood there for a few seconds. When he finally came to his senses he quickly jumped to my side.

"Sean, what happened?" He asked as he grabbed a towel from his closet and wiped away the blood on my face.

"I-It's nothing really." I said, hoping he'd drop the subject.

"It is something. Why is your nose bleeding?" He asked. Then I sighed and took a deep breath, preparing myself for what I was about to say. I grabbed his arm, the one that has the black stain on it.

"It's you Mark." I said and he gave me a questioning look. Then I took another deep breath and started explaining. "It's this, whatever this is that's doing something to you." I said, rubbing my thumb over the black stain on his arm. "One minute you're you and the next you're just mean. I've been trying to figure out how to solve this without you getting involved, but I guess that was inevitable." I explained and his confusing look turned into a sad one.

"I-I don't remember hurting you, Sean. I'm so sorry." He apologized and I gripped his hand.

"You don't have to apologize. It's not you that's doing this. It's someone else. Mark, I am scared, but I also love you a lot and I need to solve this." I reassured him, giving his hand a squeeze. "That's why I'm going back into the ocean tomorrow to solve this. I need to destroy that thing. Who knows what kind of danger the ocean could be in if this spreads a lot."

"Okay. You could also go there today. I don't want to go out with you because I'm scared I'll hurt you. Sean, I love you. I don't want to hurt you. Just go. I'll try to contain myself, maybe there's a way to control it. I'm just gonna stay here." He said. I gave him a sad smile, but then I kissed his cheek and went outside. I started going to the beach when someone grabbed my arm and turned me around to face them. It was Cedric.

"What do you want?" I asked, annoyed.

"Why isn't Mark with you? I know he locked himself in his room. Why? You always go everywhere together." Cedric stated and I just wanted to punch him in the face. Then I thought for a second about my response.

"He didn't feel like coming along. I love the beach, but he's tired. So I just went alone and let him sleep." I lied. He didn't seem to think I was suspicious.

"Weird. He's never like that." He said as he put his chin in his hand. Did he figure out I was lying? As I was overthinking it thankfully he then shrugged. "But I guess he really could be tired. You two are always out all night." He said and looked at me teasingly. What's with him? I thought he hates me. But now he's acting so... calm around me. I cleared my throat before speaking.

"Why are you so... nice to me?" I said with a little pause before the ending, being scared of his reaction. He laughed dryly.

"I don't know really. You're my brother's boyfriend. I guess I have to." He said with a serious look on his face.

"But aren't you against that? You know, two boys being together and kissing." I said, looking for any kind of emotion on his face, but couldn't detect anything. His face just had a blank expression on it.

"I... I don't know. I thought I was, but that would mean I would have to hate my uncle and my brother. And I can't do that. I just can't. I don't really agree with it yet, but I'll figure it out eventually. I can't just go around hating everyone like that. This world is going forward. I guess I should move with it." He confessed. I was shocked. I didn't expect that from him. "Now since my brother isn't here, you mind me keeping you company?" He asked. I pondered on the question for a while. I wanted to go see what's up with the black powder in the ocean, but I also wanted to see what Cedric's about. But I can't tell him that I have a tail. I don't trust him that much.

"Uh, I guess you could. If you won't suddenly turn on me and beat me up."  I said, scared of his reaction to that.

"After all that I just told you? You still think I'd beat you up?!" He got angrier. He raised his hand. I knew he was about to slap me, but then he put his hand down again. "Violence doesn't help me here. Look, I won't beat you up. If that's what you wanna know. I just wanna... talk. Okay? I have no one. I shut everyone out and I just want to talk to someone right now." He confessed and I gave him a light smile.

"We can talk if you want." I said and motioned for him to sit on the sand.

"Thank you. I really need this." He said and I smiled. To be honest, I was warming up to Cedric. Maybe he isn't such a bad guy after all.