Light in the darkness (septiplier)

8

No one had seen Felix since we got back. Jack was a mess, constantly on the verge of tears and clinging to my side. I tried my hardest to help him as best I could, but my mind kept returning to my missing friend. I knew what happened wasn't his fault and I felt awful for what I had said to him.

Monster I called him. He's not a monster. He was just trying to protect us.

"Attention everyone." The Sargent says, causing everyone in the dining hall to go silent and turn to face him. "I'm sorry to announce the death of Felix Kjellberg. He was found to have shot himself through the head within an hour of retrieval. We will be holding a funeral for him...."

The rest of the words turned into background noise as my body stay stiff and unmoving. Felix... dead? No. no he couldn't be. It was a mistake. He was fine. My friend was fine.

Get out of here! You monster!

The words echoed through my mind. I had called him a monster. He had thought himself a monster. It was all my fault.

"Mark?" Jacks voice sounded as if it drifted through water, making it nearly unintelligible. My throat tightens and I feel my face drain of all color. Without thinking, I stand and walk towards the exit. I feel hands tugging at me to make me stay, but I'm gone. I can't stop. The moment I stop, I'll start to think.

I walk for hours. I walk till my legs shake and I can't walk anymore. I slump against the wall and put my head in my hands. I couldn't get the scene out of my head. It haunted me. It always would.

"Mark?" I hear a voice call me. I look up slowly and see jacks legs in front of me. "Are you okay?"

I scoff and shake my head. "What a question."

I hear him sigh and sit next to me. "Mark, he didn't kill himself."

That made me freeze. "What do you mean?"

"He couldn't of shot himself. There was no way for him to get a weapon while on base without alerting someone." He clarified.

I turned this over for a moment, then shook my head. "Of course he could. He did."

"No. All guns are counted and recounted. Someone would be alerted the moment one wasn't in the bay and all of them would be deactivated until they found it."

"Maybe he found a way. You don't know." I growled. I was not in the mood for this. I felt angry at Jack for making this harder. Why couldn't he just let me grieve?

"I do know. Look, if they had said he hung himself or slit his throat or something, I'd believe it. Hell, if they had just said that he killed himself I'd believe it! They're hiding something and doing a shit poor job of it. I know it, Mark."

"You're insane." I hiss. "He's dead. Why would they try to hide it? What could possibly be their motive?"

He pauses. "I don't know. But I think I know how we can find out." He says and stands. "I talked to one of the higher ups and he told me about the recent disappearances around the ship. He told me where to find private data in the Ethernet. There's this room on the top floor of the station. It's supposedly the data dump. I found it in the blueprints. If we just-"

"No Jack." I cut him off. "We aren't sneaking around. I feel just as bad about Felix as you do, that doesn't mean I'm going to make up some crazy fantasy about how he died."

"What are you saying?" He asks, sounding like a wounded puppy.

"I'm saying that we killed him Jack. I know that. Deep down, you know that. Stop kidding yourself with made up stories. It's our fault he's dead." I narrow my eyes at him, feeling nothing but numbness.

His eyes water and he looks away. He turns and puts his hands in his pockets. "I d-didn't kill him." He says quietly. "A-and I'm going to prove that. With or without your help." He sniffles and walks off without another word.