Send good vibes, please :( I lost my job the other day because of covid-19. 

The Chairman of the company shut the business down permanently because he thought we were only losing money anyways. It was a sudden hard hit but I will still keep writing and drawing. I have the time to now, anyways, I guess. 

Wish me luck in finding a new job! Love you guys!💚

Chase shot up, his heart pounding and lungs panicking for air. 

Blinking the light away from his eyes that was bleeding from the curtain, he vaguely remembered what had happened last night. A feeling of dread washed over him.

"A-anti?" he whispered, "What happened?"

Anti's deep chuckle in his head sent a shiver down his spine and Chase closed his eyes, shaking.

"Anti . . .  what did you do?"

'What do you mean, Brody?' he nearly sang teasingly.

"Fucking . . ." Chase scoffed, "You fucking pyschopath, WHAT DID YOU DO!?"

'Easy there. Easy, Brody' he snorted, 'Nothing he didn't deserve'

"The hell does THAT mean!?" he sqeaked higher than he meant to. Now he was scared.

'Might want to check the kitchen before your kids are dropped off. I might have missed some areas'

Without another thought, Chase stormed out of his bed and bolted down the stairs into the kitchen.

Honestly, it was pretty clean and Chase would have felt relieved if it wasn't for the small flecks of red here and there.

"Uh . . . . . Where's the body, Anti?"

'I don't know what you mean. What makes you think he's dead?'

"Because it's YOU, Anti! Now where's the fooking body!?"

'. . . . .  hmhmhmhmh' he giggled lowly in a slight hum, 'Go ahead and follow the trail, puppet'

Chase growled, "Damn you" 

Looking around, heading out of the kitchen into the other room were more flecks and small pools of blood on the hardwood floors and linoleum. Heart racing, Chase followed the blood trail to the guest room where he WAS going to have his kids sleep. 

From there, he could smell it.

It was a dingy and foul smell and he could taste the iron on his tongue. It was so strong, he wanted to puke. Busting open the bathroom, he found the body.

Chase turned abruptly away, not baring to see it, covering his mouth and shaking.

Anti's laughter echoed in his head. He thought it was funny.

There Derek's body was in the bath tub smothered with blood, his dead eyes open.

"Oh fuck" Chase whimpered, "Oh god"

'Oh don't even pretend like he didn't deserve it. You heard everything he said, Brody'

"That doesn't give you the right to just KILL HIM!!"

'Whatever. The way I see it, I did you a service.'

"Of course you'd see it that way." Chase muttered and stoned up his emotions. He took a few deep breathes to try and calm himself.

"Fuck, what am I going to do?"

'Get rid of the body?'

"Why didn't YOU do that!?"

'Well I couldn't stay in control for long, Brody.' Anti snickered, 'That and I wanted to do a bit more for myself while . . . .  temporarily corporeal.'

"Please tell me you didn't. . . ."

Anti caught on, 'Ugh, of course not. If I ever get my OWN body, yes. But not you. Disgusting. No, I tasted your alcohol and passed out not long after'

"Good. You're a lightweight then. Good." Chase shook his head, ignoring Anti's scoff. Every time he looked at the body, he felt himself go faint. He was NOT accustomed to seeing dead bodies, "I got to . . . uh. . .figure this out. My kids will be here this afternoon."

'Better hurry then'

"Fuck off. We're talking about this later. . . . . . I know who can help"

"You're lucky you're my brother" Marvin swung his hands around in a spell and in an instant, the body and the blood was gone.

"Oh thank god. Thank you so much, Marv"

"So. . .  Anti's gotten stronger, I see?"

"Yeah . . .. make up your mind yet?"

Marvin bit his lip and crossed his arms, "Well . . ..  I hate to admit it but I think Anti did us some good for once."

"Excuse me?"

'What!?'

"Well think about it" Marvin conjured a glass of wine out of nowhere in his hand and took a sip, "Derek would have killed you. Probably would have outed all of us, as well, putting Sean in great danger."

'Not what I wanted. Couldn't care less about that cunt'

Chase closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again in disbelief, "You're saying that it's a good thing Anti took control of my body and brutally killed the man?"

"Well I mean, he could have cleaned up a bit more and poured acid over the body to get rid of the evidence but. . . ." Marvin shrugged, "I don't see the problem, really. Guy was a douche"

'I think I'm starting to like him'

"Shut up, Anti. You're NOT out of the woods yet, you son of a bitch"

'Is Sean the bitch in this scenario?'

Chase clenched his fists tight. He wanted to punch something so BAD!

Marvin saw his anger flaring, "Hey easy there, bro. Everything worked out. Everything's fine now."

"For how long?" a tear ran down Chase's cheek, "Anti took control over my body, Marv. He took control over me!!"he screamed at him.

Marvin took a step back, his eyes showing how worried he was but Chase snarled at him nonetheless, "Don't give me that fucking look, Marv. This is YOUR doing! You can get this monster out. . . .  but you choose to do nothing because you're a coward!!"

Marvin swallowed and looked away from Chase. He took a few breathes of his own, "I'm sorry, Chase."

"Unless you can get him out of me this second, I suggest you get out of my house."

"Chase, I-"

"NOW!"

Marvin raised his hands defensively but took Chase's warning, "You're welcome by the way. Good luck. Tell the kids I said hi, will you?" 

With that, Marvin walked out of the room and out of the house.

Chase was hurt, really. 

His brother would rather let him suffer than face Anti himself.

'He has a point, you know'

"FUCK OFF!! Unless you have something important to say to me that's a matter of life or death, then shut the fuck up, Anti!"

The glitch fell silent, suddenly troubled by Chase's rage.

"And don't you EVER take control over me again . . . .  or else we'll both die. Got it?"

Silence. But Chase took that as the answer.

"Good"

Taking a few minutes to calm himself down, Chase finally left the room to find and clean any spots Anti and Marvin missed. It wasn't much, luckily, so it didn't take long. 

Chase found the empty bottle of wine Anti had drank by his living room couch and threw it away deep in the trash so no one would see it.

Prepping himself up, Chase shook off all the bad and tried to get himself motivated to see his kids. He was still excited to see them, but a bit worried now that Anti might hurt them. With this newfound ability of his, Chase could become his doll in a flash.

It was terrifying.

Seeing all the cuts and gashes Anti had made in Derek. 

Chase then suddenly realized something.

"Anti. . . . where's the knife you used?"

Silence.

Chase rolled his eyes, "Dammit, you fucking child, where's the weapon you used!? It can't be found, Anti!"

'. . . . Under your pillow'

Choking down a gag, Chase sprinted up the stairs and sure enough under his pillow was the knife used. Funnily enough, however, there wasn't a speck of blood on it.

Answering his question, Anti spoke up again, 'I cleaned it. Don't want any weapon getting rusted. I'd leave it there just in case, you know?'

Chase wanted to argue but really. . . .  he did have a point.

"Fine . . . but it's not staying under the pillow. My hands go under there too much. Could end up cutting myself" he took it in his hand and stashed it instead in his drawer under his socks and underwear.

'Better?'

"Shut up. I don't forgive you for anything."

'And you shouldn't. Like you said. I'm the monster. And damn, did it feel good to sink that knife in that guy. To see his blood gushing out. The light leave his eyes. Fucking addicting. Delicious. I missed it'

"You're disgusting"

Chase could feel Anti grinning in his head, 'I can't help how I was made, Brody. But you are welcome, by the way. He almost shot you. Your kids wouldn't be coming to see their daddy if it wasn't for me, you know'

"Fuck off." Chase snarled, "You're not going to do a damn thing to them."

'Of course not'

"I MEAN IT!" he started shaking again, his blood pressure raising, "You touch them and we're both dead. I don't give a fuck, Anti! NOTHING is more important to me than them and if you harm them in ANY way, it's all over. Get it?!"

'Fucking hell, Brody. Fine. Although I don't understand your inane fondness for the mini yous. . . it's a deal. I won't intervene. I won't take control over you around them. I won't hurt or kill them. Good enough for you?'

"No. . . .  but it'll have to do."

Chase didn't really know what to do with himself. They would be there any second and the anticipation was killing him.

He swallowed any spit that collected in his mouth out of reflex and licked his lips.

He didn't know how many times he paced his floors, walked up and down the steps needlessly or whistled lowly to himself.

He tapped his foot quickly with his arms crossed, settling on staring at the front door. 

Waiting and watching.

It was coming up to nearly one o'clock when finally he heard a car drive up in the driveway.

He held his breathe, shivering.

Chase heard their high-pitched giggling and laughter.

He didn't know when he started to cry. His heart pounded for a different reason. A smile fluttered on his face.

Anti didn't understand it. The glitch had never felt this before. At first he was worried but the feeling wasn't actually . . . . bad. 

It felt good in away. Aching but . . . nice.

The overwhelming feeling of joy that was running through him. It almost felt just as good as running a blade through someone.

Chase bolted to the door and whipped it open to reveal Stacey and the two children.

The children's eyes lit up when they saw their father and Anti suddenly felt the urge to cry. 

Why? Why did he feel that? 

For some reason, Chase's joy at seeing his offspring was far exceeding that of killing someone. It was all so confusing to Anti. He didn't know what to make of it. He was created to be the exact opposite of Sean. He was made as a monster. A killer.

And yet this feeling. . . .  something he couldn't get from being himself. . . . was so much better.

It was frightening to him.

"KALLIE! SAMMY!" Chase smiled wide and got on his knees as the two children rushed at him to hug him.

"Daddy! Daddy!" Kallie was the first to bounce at him and envelope him with open arms, squeezing him tight.

Anti gasped, grasping his nonexistent heart. The feeling got even stronger. He glitched and shook in Chase's head. He was scared now. He didn't know what to do.

"We missed you!" Sammy bounded to him as well and hugged his crying father.

Chase held them in his arms tightly, refusing to let them go even for a moment, "Kids" he whimpered, "I missed you guys, too. So much"

Stacey watched the scene in shock. Really, she was surprised but felt bad for thinking that way. Of course the kids would miss their father. They asked about him constantly. 

She just didn't realize Chase would miss THEM as much. In her perspective, he had let go of all his potential, uncaring for providing for his family. She was starting to think she had made a mistake. 

Stacey shook off those thoughts, however, and cleared her throat, breaking them all out of the emotional spell.

Chase looked up at her but kissed Kallie and Sammy's heads. The clung to him like baby koalas. 

"Thank you, Stace. I promise they'll have a great time here for the weekend"

She nodded, "Sure. . .  just remember that-"

"I know how to take care of my kids, Stace" he interrupted, "They're in good hands. I swear it"

"Right" she nodded again, "Kids, you be good for your father, now, you hear? No funny-business." she smiled at them.

Kallie nodded vigorously, "Yes mommy!"

Sammy just giggled, bouncing up and down as Chase ruffled their hair.

Stacey bit her lip, "Okay then. . . ." she was reluctant to leave. But they had an agreement. And Chase really looked like he was doing better. . .

"See you Sunday night then. I love you, kids! Have fun!"

They hugged their mother good-bye and Chase brought them inside, listening to them catching him up on their lives animatedly.

Anti still felt that feeling but it was repressing somehow. Oddly enough, however, he didn't want it to go away. It had felt so good. He wanted to cry, he missed it so much.

Why was that? He didn't understand any of it.

Even when he was in control of Chase's body, he hadn't felt that feeling. What was so special about the kids that it would release that?

He wanted to feel it again so badly.

Suddenly a wave of emotions flooded over Anti and he could decipher a few on his own but he was ignorant to the rest.

Why was this happening to him? WHAT was happening? All of a sudden, he was feeling.

So quickly . . . .  was being in Chase's mind like this turning him human? Giving him his own emotions?

Would he slowly turn corporeal on his own?

The emotions confused him. All so many at once. Happiness. Anger. Sadness?

Why, he didn't know.

But only one he couldn't decipher.  . . . . the only one he didn't know what it was . . . .

. . . . Was regret.