The Obligatory Egos Swap AU - Jacksepticeye Egos

The First Kill Is Always The Hardest - Part 2

TW: murder :)

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The hallway leading between the bedrooms was eerily quiet. More so since their other roommate—who always blasted heavy bass music in their bedroom—had left suddenly a few weeks prior. Henrik and Jackie had barely gotten to know their name, but even then Jackie was sad to notice they'd one day just disappeared. They seemed to be nice other than the loud music at ungodly hours. The door, though, had been locked from the inside, and the curtains drawn, so Jackie hadn't been able to get himself a peek at what they'd been up to in there.

Henrik stopped them outside of his own room. Jackie's hands were stuffed in his jumper pocket, his pyjama pants sagging slightly too low over his hips, though he barely cared how he looked at this hour. Henrik seemed to, though, telling Jackie to fix his posture and tie the drawstring on his pants. Jackie abided, if only in an exhaustion-induced daze.

As Henrik kept fixing things, Jackie almost had it in him to walk back to his room and go back to sleep, but then Henrik pushed him toward the door and opened it, telling him to step inside.

Inside the bedroom was dark in contrast to the dimly lit hallway they were coming in from. Henrik's curtains were drawn, too, his lamp off. "What's going on?" Jackie asked. "What's the surprise?"

He jumped as he heard someone breathe from deeper into the room.

Even with his glasses, it took his vision a minute to adjust after Henrik closed the door and turned on the light. Once they did though, his legs could barely hold him upright from the shock.

"Professor Herman?" he asked quietly, the man in the chair facing him straight on, voice blocked by a bunched-up scarf that had been haphazardly stuffed in his mouth and tied around the back. Jackie couldn't speak either, but for a different reason.

He felt Henrik touch his back. "Surprise!" Jackie didn't react with anything but a flinch at the shout. "You seem in shock. Do you need a minute to process?" His question sounded genuine, but Jackie couldn't care less about that. He finally let his legs buckle and sat on the ground as tears wracked his body, this time not caring if his old professor saw him.

Henrik in turn let go of Jackie and paced over to the professor, giving him a hefty swat to the head, then grabbed his face and turned it forcefully to stare at Jackie. "Oh, look at what you've done now, Herman. This is your fault." The professor didn't try to say anything in response.

Jackie tried to get back up, but his legs were wobbling too much to hold himself steady so he moved toward the bed, unable to say anything in his distress. His struggling brought Henrik's attention back to him, though.

"Well, this certainly wasn't the intended response. Do I hazard a guess and say you don't like your surprise?" He gripped the professor's shoulders tightly as he moved behind him. "I should tell you it was pretty easy to get him here if I'm honest. Poor bastard felt just enough remorse that he came willingly. I, of course, wasn't going to let him go as easily as he'd come."

"Please," Jackie finally found it in himself to whisper. "Don't hurt him."

Henrik's face twitched into a smile as he let the man's shoulders go to circle to the front once more. "No, of course not. I can make it painless." He stared into Professor Herman's eyes. "You'd like that, too, wouldn't you?"

Professor Herman shook his head, leaning back in his seat to try and get away from the crazed student, though it was entirely pointless.

Jackie shook his head as well, reading the look on Henrik's face carefully. So much had changed so quickly. He couldn't recognise his friend in the man in front of him anymore. He wanted to run out of the room and phone the police, but he knew the moment he stood he wouldn't get anywhere, whether because of his still-shaking legs or because Henrik might go after him.

Henrik turned back to his captive, pulling on his hair so his head tilted back toward him as he calculated something. After a minute, he shifted slightly and hissed in the man's ear, "You won't even have time to regret what you did to my friend."

Jackie blinked, but he didn't have the slightest chance to figure out what Henrik meant before he brought the man's head back up, then down just as quickly so his nose smashed into Henrik's knee. Henrik gagged at the blood on his pants and twisted the professor's neck to the side quickly, his body falling limp.

Henrik breathed slowly and calmly now that the deed was done but continued to keep his focus trained on the man in front of him, as though he somehow expected him to still be alive. It seemed he'd forgotten about Jackie still being in the room. Until his bed squeaked with movement, that was.

"It's all good, Jackie," Henrik said, not even turning to face his friend. "It only gets easier from this point on."

"Wh- what do you mean?" Jackie asked in a frail, barely audible voice. "How many times have you done this? How many people have you killed?"

Henrik started to turn and Jackie finally found the strength to stand, hoping for an easy escape. "The first few times are the most difficult. It's when you learn to find your methods. You never want just one. Makes you easier to track." Henrik faced Jackie straight-on. "I am admitting this to you because I love you. You are like a brother to me."

Jackie's worry only increased with every word. The way Henrik was speaking like he wanted Jackie to join him in his twisted world of killing. 'The first few times?' He'd definitely killed more than three people if Jackie had to guess.

"I don't care what you think of me. You're sick!" he was lucky the house they roomed in actually belonged to Henrik and therefore had no neighbours or anything. Lucky for him, but not for Henrik's hobby. "How many people, Henrik?"

"I've lost count, I promise you that much. About a dozen, as an educated guess. Not all of them have been in this house, though. In fact, just one other." Henrik nodded to the bedroom across the hall that had been their other roommates at one point. "But he-" Henrik pointed at the professor dead in the chair beside his bed, bringing Jackie's attention back- "won't be the last."

Jackie swallowed. He didn't care anymore. He reached for the door handle behind him and bolted back to his room, locking the door. Without wasting a second, he went looking for his phone for several fruitless minutes, only becoming frustrated as more time passed. He hadn't heard Henrik following him as of yet so he didn't think he was in any real trouble, other than the fact his "friend" was a murderer.

He finally remembered he'd fallen asleep on his phone and focused his attention on and around his bed, finding the device under his pillow and fumbled to turn it on and call someone.

"Hello, emergency services. What can I do for you?"

"M-my friend just killed someone right in front of me," Jackie whispered quickly into the receiver. "He's really dangerous, I feel unsafe."

"Okay. Sir, I'm going to need you to stay on the line. We are tracking your location right now. Are you in the building with him still?"

"I'm in my bedroom. We live together. We were both in med school but he recently dropped out. I got out of the room he killed the man in, and I'm not sure where he is now. My bedroom door is locked."

"All right. You keep that door locked no matter what, got it?"

Jackie swallowed his fear, saying a bit louder. "Got it."