Who’s left to trust (Part 11)
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Chase turned back to Andy when he saw Jackie rush to the new stranger’s arm, looking relieved to see him. Andy was looking past Chase, staring at the two man who were laughing and hugging each other not too far away. Chase couldn’t decipher any emotion in his friend’s eyes, but his mouth was pulled into a tight line and his eyebrows were slightly furrowed. Chase wanted to go see the other two, a feeling deep in his gut telling him that he belonged with the joyful men but a small voice in his head kept telling himself that Andy needed someone more than them right now. He got closer to Andy, still in trance, and slowly took his forearm in his hand. The small gesture snapped Andy out of his mind and Chase dragged him toward Jackie and his friend, still smiling at Andy. They soon reached Jackie who turned to look at them, his happy expression rapidly turning into a closed one. Chase removed his hand and stood in front of the new man, a doctor probably by how he was dressed, and extended his hand to greet him. He was trying to keep his shaking under control, his fear of doctor still rooted in his brain.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Chase. I’m a friend of Andy here.”
Jackie choked on his own breath and not a second later, someone gripped Chase’s forearm and made him spin around and push behind someone else.
“Yeah, not gonna happen. We’re done here. It was really nice to see you guys again, but Chase and I are going to leave you alone,” said Andy, still gripping Chase’s arm firmly in his hand.
Chase was still confused by Andy’s actions. He seemed uncomfortable, like he was ready to run away at every opportunity. He started tugging Chase away, the confused man following him more by instinct than anything else.
“What are you running away from, Anti?”
Chase’s head whipped around to look at the doctor at the same time as Andy did, both surprised. While Chase was still trying to process why the doctor had called his friend Anti, Andy released his arm and stalked toward the doctor, only stopping when they were face to face,growling in the doctor's face.
“I’m running away from NO ONE. I’m just SICK of your little mushy-family feeling. It’s disgusting. Even after I’ve tear up your entire family, you still cling to one another, like your fucking life depends on them. But you’re all better than that. You don’t need those useless ties between yourselves. The other can only bring you down, that’s what I’ve been trying to make you realize. You all act like Jack is your savior, like he’s the one who’s going to make everything go back to normal. But it’s not.”
By now, Chase had joined the others, trying to piece together the missing pieces of his mind. Jackie, trying to stop Andy from getting closer to the doctor and maybe injure him, stepped forward and placed a hand on his chest. It only angered Andy more.
“How do you think I was able to mess with you guys in such a short period of time? How is it possible for one person to destroy a so-called ‘family’? It’s easy, Henrik. The ties between you all were weak. It can only hurt you in the future. As of me, I have no one but myself. I have no one to bring myself down. I have no one but myself to trust. There’s nothing people can use against me. Opening up to people only makes you weaker.”
The doctor, which name Chase just learned was Henrik, stepped forward, closing the space Jackie tried desperately to put between the two man.
“Exactly Anti. You have no one. You’re alone. When you learned that Jackie was feeling frustrated, you used that moment to have someone in your life. Even if it was only to play the bad role, you craved the friendship we share between us. When we sent Chase after you, you saw an opportunity to, yes break us apart, but feel like you belong somewhere, even if you forced it on him.”
Static soon filled the room, an even angrier Andy glitching sporadically on place. A second, he was standing in front of Henrik and the second after the two men were pressed against each other, the doctor pinned on the wall by the neck. A yelp escaped Jackie and Chase, both shocked of the force Andy was putting on Henrik’s neck. But weirdly enough, the doctor didn’t seems bothered by the hold on his neck, but by the closeness between them. When Chase saw Jackie take a step toward Andy, he held Jackie back by grabbing his shoulder. It confused Jackie even more, but he didn’t move afterward. The static in the room only got louder, making the discussion between Henrik and Andy muffled, but not enough that the two other men couldn’t hear them.
“I’m sick of playing pretend, Henrik. Sick of it. You think you understand what’s going on in my head. But you don’t because you don’t have to deal with as many shit as me. A lot of things are running around in my head. It looks like I’m the only one here stuck with the fan’s voices in here”, said Andy while pointing to his head.
”It’s really bothersome, you know. Hearing so many voices that you don’t even know which is yours. But now, I found a way to get rid of some of ‘em. It feel like a weight has been lifted. Now, what about Jackie and Chase, the poor souls that I supposedly used to feel loved?”
Andy’s attention turned back to Chase and Jackie standing awkwardly a few feet away from the conversation. His eyes landed on Jackie, a smile creeping on his face, before he beckoned him closer. When Chase looked at Jackie, his breath got stuck in his throat. Jackie’s eyes were black, his face devoid of any emotion. His arms were slack against his side, his head slightly lolling left and right. He slowly approaches Andy and Henrik, who started trashing and yelling to Jackie to stay put, but he kept coming closer. When he got near enough, Andy leaned and whispered something in his ear. There was a small twitch going across Jackie’s body before he got closer to Henrik and slammed his hand on the doctor’s throat, right above where Andy was holding him. A choke erupted for the doctor before Jackie squeezed harder.
“STOP PLEASE!”
All eyes fell on Chase. Henrik had difficulty keeping his eyes open, but Chase could see the pain and desperation in them. He was asking for help. He needed to help him. Jackie twitched a few times before he slowly turned his head to look toward Chase, making him shudder. He was under someone’s control, he knew who, but he didn’t want to admit it. Finally, Chase’s friend turned around, his arms crossed over his chest, looking almost bored and annoyed by him.
“What are you doing, Andy?”
A small huff of air left his mouth before he uncrossed his arms and stalked toward Chase. He started speaking, his voice low and tauting.
“I’m doing what every good friend would do to protect theirs, Chase. They abandoned you like you were useless to them except for being a bait. They got what they deserved. I’m helping you here.”
“Then I don’t want your help.”
Shock appeared on Andy’s face. He didn’t expect this answer.
“You’re better than this Andy. Pain won’t resolve pain. I never wanted people to get hurt. When you told me you were going to show me something about my past, I was ecstatic. I really thought it was going to be a happy reunion, people laughing and hugging each other. Telling anecdotes of things that happened since the last time I saw these people. But I don’t remember them. And you knew it. You used me to make people suffer, Andy. Why?
“That’s what I do best, Chase. Making people suffer”, answered Andy through gritted teeth.
“But you don’t have to! Nothing forces you to be like that! I just don’t understand! I really thought you were my friend, Andy! You seemed so happy to bring me here.”
“Things aren’t always exactly how they seems.”
Andy closed the distance between them and leaned in to whisper something so that Henrik and Jackie couldn’t hear.
“I brought you here because I thought that’ll be the thing that would make Jackie snap. I did all of that, so I could make you all suffer as much as I am. You don’t remember our role in this world, Chase. I always was the bad guy. You always were the depressed one. But you were strong enough to fight against your role. I’m not.”
Andy turned around at the same time as Jackie landed a strong punch to his face. He screamed something to Andy before continuing to punch him, but Chase was too stunned to react or hear anything while he was backing away. He had flashes of images of people, some of them being the men living in this house, going through his head but each of them made his head hurt more and more, like his brain was refusing to acknowledge them as more than illusions. He backed away from the fighting men to go assist the doctor. He looked at the doctor’s neck, trying to the best of his ability to check for big injuries and ignore the throbbing in his head. Chase looked around the room, trying to find a way to get him and the doctor away from the fight happening not far enough from them. But the only way out was the door who was blocked by broken furniture and a very glitchy Andy.
“We should find a way to stop Jackie and Andy from fighting.”
“His name is Anti, Chase. He lied to you. And we should let them fight, maybe then Anti will be stopped. Chase, you have to understand that Anti is our enemy. He makes deal with people then stab them in the back afterward. He’s the last person you should trust.”
“I don’t care what his name is. What I care about is them not hurting each other. Fighting won’t do anything except hurt even more people. Even if he’s the so-called bad guy and enemy, he took care of me and was my friend when I was alone. Even if he forced me into this situation, I might never forgive him, but I believe that people can change and amend for their mistakes. No one is truly a bad person!”
“Then you don’t really know Anti”, snapped Henrik back.
“And I don’t really know you either anymore”, answered Chase back before standing up and going toward the fight after looking the doctor for injuries. He didn’t know who he should trust or believe anymore. Proof were pointing in different direction and when he thought he knew who to trust, something else contradicted it. Anti and Jackie were standing face to face, both in a fighting stance.
“I never should’ve asked for your help! You’re a manipulative fuck, Anti!”
“Don’t beat yourself up Jackie. Jamie also asked for my help to have a voice. You know, if you guys wouldn’t talk nonstop over each other, maybe Jamie wouldn’t have felt like he needed to ask for my help”, said Anti, mockingly.
This comment only angered Jackie even more. The man jumped on Anti and started punching blindly toward his face before Anti glitched out of the way. It was a constant run after the other, one attacking and the other dodging. There was no way their fight would end soon, and Chase didn’t know what to do to stop them. He couldn’t run between them and ask them nicely to stop. He could scream as hard as he wanted, they wouldn’t listen to him. So, he took the only idea that might work. The sound of a glass bottle shattering on the ground snapped them out of their fight.
“Can’t you two STOP FIGHTING FOR ONCE? It looks like the only thing you two know how to do is fight! Why can’t you talk it out?”
“Chase, you don’t understand,” weakly said Jackie.” Anti only cares about messing with people.”
“No. I believe there’s good in him! I won’t change my mind about it! There’s good in everyone!”
Pain was the only thing Chase’s brain could register anymore. He didn’t know how this happened. His entire body started shaking, his vision going away and back repeatedly. His hand went to his stomach, blindly finding the source of this excruciating pain. His fingers lightly came in contact with a cold sharp object. He brought his fingers back toward his fuzzy vision, his brain trying to shut down in pain. He had blood on his hand, deep red blood. He looked up, everything happening in slow motion. In front of him stood Anti, his eyes black and his neck bleeding profusely. He leaned in, a sinister grin spread on his face.
“ 'm sick of hearing you talk. You should learn to keep your mouth shut for once.”
Chase felt the object twist in his stomach before a yell and a crashing sound made him fell backward. He felt a pair of hands pressing on his stomach, trying desperately to keep his blood in. He had difficulties to focus on anything but the pain. His half-closed eyes were fixated on Anti and Jackie fighting and destroying everything around them. Soon enough, the two were face to face, Jackie glaring at Anti furiously while the other was looking at him, an arrogant smile on his face. Through the white noise filling his ears, Chase was able to hear them talk and fight.
“You know Jackie...the thing about your bedroom’s door is...”
A punch landing on Anti’s cheeks made him fall to the floor. He started laughing, harder and harder and more messed-up and glitched out by the second. He looked up at Jackie, his head cocking to the right and smiling at him.
“...it unlocks when there’s no electricity.”
Black out. A single click. A distant laugh echoing through the house.
“Let's finally have some f̫̥u͔̰͚͢n̵͕. “
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Really sorry for the long wait. I really thought I could finish it before going back to school but I guess I was lazy?? I’m sorry. Next part is (supposedly) going to be the last one! After that, I have two ideas for fic (One is a JSE one) so I might come back to you guys with something new. Thank you so much for waiting for this part and I hope you won’t be disappointed!
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