Dangerous Collaboration

The Explaination

Mark braced himself against the door. He had run out of things to place against it to keep it shut, so he had to resort to using the full weight of his body. Every now and then, he was jolted forward by the force of the others slamming against the door. 

It can't be much longer now, Mark thought to himself.

The serum seemed to be lasting longer this time. Mark wasn't sure if that was because it truly was lasting longer, or if it was because he was alone. All he could do was hope it would all be over soon. Either way, he wasn't sure if he could hold on much longer.

Apparently, he wasn't able to do as much as he would have liked. Mark was suddenly launched forward, multiple feet away from the door, as if everyone behind the door slammed into it at once. Before he could even stand, the door burst open.

The other Youtubers came rushing in. Mark craned his neck, but couldn't see a way past them. He jumped back in an effort to get away, but slammed into one of the shelves in the wall. Jack and Tyler were up front, and making a beeline toward him. This was it. There was nothing else Mark could do. He pressed himself against the shelf, and defensively covered his head. All he could do was brace himself for what was about to happen.

But nothing ever did. Everything suddenly went silent. After a moment, Mark uncovered his head and peeked out. Tyler loomed over him, with Jack right in front, extending his hand toward him.  Both were frozen. Their eyes stared at Mark, but they weren't seeing them.

Mark inched to the side and stood. Their eyes didn't follow. They didn't even move. Mark looked around the room. Every other Youtuber was there, even Pentatonix was still there. But none of them were moving. None of them even appeared to be seeing anything. 

Mark ran his hands through his hair. This didn't make any sense, The serum could have been wearing off, but then, no one had ever frozen when that had happened before. They paused, yes, but not to this extent. The sudden silence was enough to send Mark's heart speeding into overdrive. He wondered if the others were even functioning like humans anymore.

"What the heck is going on?" Mark whispered.

"Perhaps I can explain."

Mark whirled around toward the voice, but nothing was there. 

"Over here."

Mark turned again, but still saw nothing. Just as he was beginning to question his sanity, something to his right caught his eye. 

In the midst of the other Youtubers, a cloud of smoke was forming. Mark sucked in a big breath and watched. A silhouette formed, in the shape of a man. With grey skin and a black suit, the man didn't even need to open his eyes for Mark to recognize him. When his eyes did open, revealing nothing but a black hole, a pang of realization shot through Mark, right to his core. The man was a mirror image of Mark himself.

"Darkiplier," Mark said quietly.

Darkiplier didn't say anything, but instead fixed a smile on his face. His eyes morphed into more human looking eyeballs. That only made Mark shudder.

"What are you doing here, Dark?" Mark asked. 

The two didn't interact often, but Mark knew who he was. He had made appearances on the channel before, however, he was very rarely seen with Mark himself. 

"I came to talk to you," Dark said simply.

Mark looked around at the others. "What did you do to my friends?"

"I used them," Dark said simply. He nonchalantly stepped through the group. "What else?"

"Why?"