Then *Poof* You Were There: A Markiplier fiction #Wattys2014

Chapter 15: Going the Distance

(Play the music now!)
(Edit 6/1/14: Unfortunately, the only video with the song used has been marked "private" recently. I apologize for any inconvenience.
Edit 7/28/14: So the original video is not available but i spent all night making this lyrics video for you guys so you can still hear the song. This is the only place you can see the video because I marked it as "unlisted" so only if you have the link can you see it. This is the only place you can see the video so have fun listening to the video again!)

Lizzy said she'd go with me if she weren't supposed to stay home and help her family. I told her it was okay, that I needed to go alone anyway. I dropped her off that night and went straight home to pack a bag so I could go to the airport in the morning.

"Lex, what are you doing?" my mom asked as she walked into my room soon after I returned. She had a puzzled look on her face, her long blonde hair in a messy bun and her hazel eyes squinting in the light. We looked nothing alike even when I was a kid, but our hearts were similar. For the most part.

"I'm going on a trip tomorrow. I probably won't be back until Sunday or Monday." It was currently Wednesday seeing as it was past midnight.

"Uh, where exactly? And why do you smell like smoke?"

"I went to Epoch with Lizzy that's why. I have to go to Cincinnati," I hurriedly answered as I went through my drawers and closet and packed enough clothes for a week into a small carry on bag.

"Lex," my mom said as she took me by the shoulders and sat me down softly on my bed. "What's in Cincinnati for you besides heartbreak? After what you told me about Mark, do you really think he's going to want to see you?"

"I don't care if he wants to see me or not I have to go! He's in trouble mom and if I don't go then something bad's gonna happen!"

"Sweetie, what could possibly go wrong? He finds a new girlfriend?" I pushed her away and got off the bed to continue packing my bag. "Alexis, you tell me right now what is so important that you have to go right now."

"Mark is going to die if I don't go right now!" I had been trying to decide whether to wait until morning to go to the airport or to go tonight and get the earliest flight possible, and I just made up my mind.

I went through my bag from that night and pulled out my sketchbook. I rarely ever showed my art to my family because their reactions were never real, not like other people who weren't forced to say nice things but did if they wanted to. My family was supportive but I could never trust their critiques. But this time I wasn't after that.

I flipped to the first picture I drew of the man pulling his hair and gave it to my mom who looked at it and smiled.

"Sweetie this is really good! It's not cartoonish like most of your stuff is."

"Keep flipping through them mom." I was trying to be serious but she just smiled as she flipped the page. Then she gasped and actually dropped the sketchpad. Her face went pale and she didn't do anything but sit there and pant for the longest time.

"Alexis..." she started after a while. "What was that?"

"That's what I've been drawing since January. Since the incident with Mark and Lindsay. That same man, over and over, hurting himself in various ways." My mother picked up the paper again and continued to look through the macabre drawings of the same man. Her face got increasingly paler until she got to the final one where she put it face down on the bed and covered her face with her hands. "Do you see why I have to go now mom? Even if he has moved on and has a new girlfriend and isn't about to die, at least then I'll know that he's safe and that means more to me than him asking for me back."