'Jaysus! Will ya stop fooking screaming already and eat more!'

Chase tried desperately not to hyperventilate but Anti's voice stopped him from concentrating, "WHY ARE YOU IN MY HEAD!?"

'Not sure.' his voice seemed genuinely confused, 'Perhaps it has something to do with the FUCKING SPELL ON THE FLASHDRIVE!!'

"Fuck you! You had that coming, asshole!"

'I did nothing to you!'

"You really want to go down THAT FOOKING ROAD?!"

Anti fell silent but Chase could hear him grumbling as if he were pouting, 'Can't you just let it go and eat the damn pancakes? Don't you have to go to work soon anyways?'

"Don't change the subject" Chase growled, "Get out of my head and back into my phone or something"

'Thought you didn't want me in your devices?' His voice was snarky.

"Well it's fooking better than having you in my head!"

A sigh was heard and then silence for just a moment.

'I can't'

"What do you mean you can't?!" Chase practically screamed and was hyperventilating again.

'I can't leave your mind' Anti hummed a moment, 'Looks like I'm stuck like this. Oh well. Might as well eat'

"Your fucking with me. That's it. You have to be. You just want the food!"

'Well I mean that's a benefit but no. I really can't leave.' he snorted, 'Man, you really fucked up again, didn't you?'

Chase growled nearly inhumanly before rubbing his eyes and face in resignation, "Fine. But we're gonna set some ground rules"

'Ooo. I don't do good with rules, Brody.'

"I don't care. Either follow the rules or I won't eat."

There was silence and Chase realized he won the argument, "First off, no messing with my head. I know what you can do and you can fuck off with that shit. Second, never tell me how much I can't drink and third, no goading me into killing myself"

'Well I wouldn't want to do that now, anyways!' Anti huffed, 'Odds are if you die, I might die and I'm not about to take that risk! Now is that all?'

"No. I don't want you messing with my daily life so when I'm at work, no talking to me. That goes for when I go to court tomorrow, too and when I get to see my kids"

'IF you do'

"WHEN. Are we clear? Until I can figure out a way to get you out of my head, those are the rules"

Anti sighed dramatically but hummed in agreement, 'Fine, Brody. We have a deal. For now'

"Good" Chase picked up his fork and started eating again, ignoring Anti's weird moaning.

"My god, you're weird"

'Shut up!'

For the most part, Chase was freaking out on the inside. This was not how he wanted things to go but then again, when did ANYTHING ever go how he wanted? 

When he was all ready for his first day, he grabbed his cap and keys and was preparing himself to walk only to halt on himself.

"Ah shit! I can actually drive the fooking car now. Silver lining" he said to himself.

Anti butt in, 'I only fucked with your radio twice. It's not like I drove it around myself and tried to crash it with you in it.'

Chase got in the car and furrowed his brow, "Could you have?"

'If I say no, will you let it be?'

Chase just sighed and turned on his car, driving on his way to work. 

It wasn't a bad first day, really to be honest. For having a creepy demon in your head while trying to work, dealing with indecisive and rude customers, it wasn't too bad. Here and there Anti would make a comment but he let it slide.

Chase briefly reminded himself to check Marvin's voicemail when he got home but he guessed it wasn't important since he hadn't tried calling again.

For a moment, he thought about taking Jackie up on his offer and telling him about the change of the court date but shook his head. He didn't want to even hear Jackie's voice after what happened the other day.

'Someone's guilty and it smells terrible' Anti growled, 'Really, I agree with you. The asshole has always thought himself better than others, hasn't he?'

'Shut up, Anti' Chase replied in his head to ease suspicion, 'I never said that' 

'You were thinking it'

With no rebuttal, Chase just shook his head and continued his work.

When it was time to go, his new boss nicely thanked him for a good day's work before he left. Really, he hadn't expected that, so it was nice to feel appreciated.

Inside, Anti could feel the warmth Chase felt in his chest and it sort of alarmed him.

'Brody, what the hell is wrong with you?'

Chase got into his car but he really didn't know what Anti meant, "What?"

'You might have to go to the hospital. Your chest feels like it's expanding. Like something's gonna burst out'

"Oh. That's just how I'm feeling, Anti. It's nothing."

'Explain'

He sighed, "It's like . . . a prideful feeling, I guess. Happy. My boss felt like I did a good job on my first day and told me and  . . don't know, I just felt good about it is all"

'Hm.'

"Does it hurt you?"

'No. It's odd. I guess I don't hate it but I don't like it either'

"It's a different feeling for you. You're just not used to it"

Chase could hear Anti's whining like a child, 'Maybe you should just go to Marvin and have him exorcise me out. End both our miseries?'

"Yeah well I would but I also bought the usb from his black market site. And if he finds out, he won't be too happy with me. Neither will Henrik, really. Or Jackie or Jameson."

'Why? It's their fault for not believing you.'

Chase sighed again, "I'm not getting into this, glitch. You're not gonna turn me against my brothers"

'I'm actually not even trying to currently.'

"Hm. This must be the most we've ever talked." Chase commented, "I'm surprised you're just not constantly threatening me"

'What would be the point? That's like giving someone's who's suicidal a loaded gun. You'd probably just go through with ending yourself to just get rid of me'

"Maybe. Anyways, I guess you've been pretty good today. I'm gonna get a treat"

'A treat? I'm not a fooking dog, Brody'

Chase merely ignored him and went through a ice cream shoppe's drive thru to get some of his favorite. Chocolate marshmallow soft-serve with hot fudge.

He could feel Anti's curiosity and as he took a lick of the treat, it was like an electric shock running through him!

'OH MY FOOKING- Mmmmm'

"I told ya"

'Shut up and keep eating! This is MILES better than those gross hashbrowns you had at that place!'

"Yeah I know. Those hashbrowns weren't the best."

As Chase ate, the two stayed in a comfortable silence with Anti enjoying the flavors, too. It was pretty comical, really, how Anti could turn from being a blood-thirsty monster to a begging child in a split second.

Suddenly, that thought led him to thinking of his kids and he slowed down on his eating. Anti felt the disturbance and growled in Chase's head but the father didn't mind him.

'Geez, Brody, your emotions are disgusting. You'll see your fooking kids tomorrow. Stop sulking'

"So you know what sadness is, huh? Thought you didn't feel that emotion?"

'I don't. Doesn't mean I'm ignorant to what it IS'

The two fell silent as Chase finished the ice cream. He continued to drive for a while, enjoying the nice breeze and soft music. Thankfully, he hadn't actually broken it.

During the silence, Anti went into his own mind, keeping his thoughts from Chase. Being in the man's head gave him extreme advantages and he couldn't wait to see what those were. He knew he made a deal with Chase on the rules but that didn't mean he couldn't bend some.

He'd find a loophole somewhere.

Right now Chase seemed somewhat alright with him in his head. Which honestly was both appeasing and strange to Anti. Was the man really so lonely he'd accept anyone's company? He even remembered him to the near-full extent so why wasn't Chase just running to Marvin now? 

If he did, it wouldn't matter if he had gone on his black-market site or not. Chase KNEW that Marvin wouldn't punish him for it. Perhaps he'd be disappointed but-

Maybe that was it. Chase was already such a disappointment to everyone. He didn't want to be even more so even if the reasoning was justified.

When Chase finally pulled in the drive-way, he took a few breathes before going in the house, plopping on the couch and stretching a bit. Anti growled at the movement but didn't say anything on the matter. Perhaps he just wasn't used to having a body, either, even they were just sharing for now.

Lazily, Chase took out his phone and sighed, "I guess I better see what he wanted"

He clicked to listen to the voicemail, hearing Marvin's voice.

"Hey, Chase! I just got off the phone with Jackie and he said something about a court date to be able to see your kids. I just wanted to know if you wanted me to come, too? I know we haven't talked much lately, but I want to help. You've suffered a lot and it's not fair for Stacey to keep your kids from you. Just let me know. Oh and if you need any help with those memories, I'm always available. Let me know if your sleeping patterns get better. Bye, man! Love you"

Chase sighed as the voicemail ended. 

'I really should call the both of them I guess. Having two people on my side would be better than going alone.'

'But if you let Marvin come then he might sense me'

"He probably sensed you anyways and was just pretending not to."

'Why's that? He afraid of what I could do if he cast the wrong spell?'

"Probably"

'He should be'

Chase rolled his eyes, "Can you at least TRY to zap yourself back in my phone or something?"

'I tried this morning!'

"Well try again. Maybe you didn't have enough strength this morning."

'Fine. Fine.'

Nothing happened.

'See? I told ya.'

"Try again. Try harder"

'It won't fooking matter, Brody! I can't do it!'

"AND I SAID TRY AGAIN! DON'T SASS ME!"

'Jaysus' Anti muttered softly but did what Chase asked, curious himself.

Anti concentrated hard on the phone. At first he thought he might cause Chase to pass out but suddenly the screen went to static.

Chase raised his brow, "Did it work?" he whispered, "Anti, you in the phone?"

'No.' he responded, making Chase slightly jump.

'But I was able to do that' he said. He made the phone buzz with a message, 'I sent you a text message'

Chase opened the message only to see a middle finger emoji flipping him off.

"Cool" Chase deadpanned, "So you have some sort of weird telepathy power with my phone."

'Technically I did before I was trapped in your body. This is different. Can't go in it but I can control it from a distance.'

"Well that's a little scary now"

'Hey, you wanted me to do it! Don't make me the bad guy because I wasn't able to do EXACTLY what you wanted!'

"Technically you ARE the bad guy" he retorted.

'So are you'

"What was that?"

'Nothing. I'm gonna hibernate in the back of your head for a while.'

"Anti, fooking answer me! What do you mean by that?"

But he wouldn't answer.

'Maybe he's tired from doing that?' he thought to himself, 'He may have used up a lot more energy today than he has had to in a while.'

Shaking his head, Chase groaned and went to the kitchen to fix up some dinner. He expected Anti to come out to taste the food but once again there was just silence.

'Hopefully he didn't hurt hims- what the fuck am I thinking?' he stopped himself, 'He's a fucking murderer. A monster. He doesn't deserve my sympathy after everything's he's done'

There was a part of him that argued for the lack of emotions but it wasn't an excuse.

After eating, he watched some TV for a while before going to bed. It was going to be a long day tomorrow and he wanted to make sure he was ready for it. Hoping he wouldn't have that nightmare again, he took the new pills Henrik gave him.

A lingering thought edged its way to his mind though. 

What if Anti could really fuck up his dreams now? What if he was just able to make everything so much worse?

He knew he probably would but could he? That thought scared him.

Taking a deep breathe, though, Chase let himself relax and fall asleep.

Anti meanwhile had merely stayed quiet the whole time. He watched and listened to Chase's thoughts and movements from the inside. He really loved the dinner but kept himself quiet. He was on a mission of sorts. 

He was somewhat glad for Chase yelling at him, making him try more and harder to reach the device. Now he realized there was so much more he could if he tried hard enough. 

May have been a poor decision on Chase's part.

Anti watched as Chase had those thoughts before bed and smirked to himself. He could TRY and change Chase's nightmares to worse but FIRST he wanted to see what he dreamed of. For so long, he watched Chase writhe and toss and turn in agony, he was curious as to what he was seeing.

It took only a few minutes after he fell asleep.

Anti, it appeared, was in Chase's body while dreaming as well. There was only darkness around at first. A shrill laughter in the distance made Anti feel cold for some reason.

This darkness reminded him of Darkiplier's void. Anti had only been there once before he tried attacking Dark but it was a mistake on his part. The high-pitch ringing, eternal darkness. The lost concept of time overthrowing you. It was enough to even set Anti off edge.

As he walked, he could hear and feel water underneath him, splashing as he went forwards. Suddenly a light appeared above him and he looked down to see it wasn't water. 

It was blood, thick and near-black. 

Children's laughter could be heard suddenly in the distance along with the sound of metal scraping on metal.

Anti looked down again to see bodies in the blood with him. His breathe hitched but Chase's didn't. Was he not worried about this? What was happening in his head?

Loud cracks snapped close to him and Anti recognized the sound to be of gunshots. Followed by screaming.

The screaming was so loud, mixed with crying and begging.

A laugh was heard but it wasn't Anti's. He knew it wasn't his own. 

It was Chase's laugh.

The sound of grinding gears rumbled in the distance and Anti felt the need to run away when suddenly he was pulled underneath the blood!

The corpses grabbed and clawed at him, screaming at him under the liquid, gurgling like sea monsters.

Anti struggled in their grasp and tried pushing them off but they clung on tight.

The laugh could be heard even above him, taunting as the nonexistent being watched him slowly drown.

Anti was fading as was Chase and he only just realized Chase's panicking weren't exactly up to speed with his own.

Then everything went dark.

"Huuuuh!!" Chase shot up in bed from the nightmare, coughing and sputtering as he tried catching his breathe.

'It was just a normal dream. Anti's probably still in the back of my head then. That's good.'

Chase drank a little water, trying to calm down and fell back into the bed to try again.

Meanwhile Anti, having seen and heard everything from his point of view. . . . .  well he was really surprised actually.

'And he thinks I could do worse' Anti let out a breathe, remembering the laugh and the imagery and he shivered involuntarily. And to think it was all normal to Chase!

Was this what fear felt like?