YouTube: Dream Gamers: Book 3: The Humatronics

Chapter 17

Jack was exhausted. Pain flowed throughout his bloodied face, and there were tear stains on his eyes, streaming down his cheeks. Mark was going to die. What had Jack done? He had let his anger control him, and didn't even bother to find out what was going on first. It wasn't just anger that he let control him, though. It was fear. Fear that Mark had changed for the worst on his own accord.

Just then, Jack heard a familiar voice in his head. Mark? It was definitely Mark, but his voice sounded slow and forced. Was this his voice for Wilford Warfstache?

When did it all go so wrong?! Jack heard. It was that thought that made him realize that he was the one who did wrong, not Mark.

Suddenly, the door swung open. Jack snapped his head up, expecting Mark to have escap/ed and come begging for Jack to stop all of this, but it wasn't. It was Isaac.

"Explain the situation," Jack commanded, shakily.

"We have captured the Purple Guy and have him ready for execution." Isaac explained in a monotone voice. Jack didn't reply, or even make a sound as Isaac untied him. "Jordan thought you'd want to see his last moments."

"Of course," Jack replied quickly. "Take me there now!"

"Despite your injuries?" Isaac asked.

"Don't worry about my injuries," Jack told him. "They're not important."

Jack was lead to the other side of the Safe Room as Cierra and Bethany released Arin and Dan and told them to wait outside. The Grumps sprinted for the door as soon as they were free but looked back to Jack with worried eyes for a moment before exiting.

Isaac opened the door to the Scooping Room, revealing Mark, strapped to the blood-painted wall and the Scooper, folded up on the ceiling, gears churning, preparing for use. Freddy was holding the lever that would activate the Scooper and scrape every last piece of organ from Mark's fleshy body. Jack was horrified, but refused to let it show through to the Humatronics. They wanted Mark dead, and they saw this as the only way to be freed from their miserable lives.

Jack was regretting his decision to attempt to kill Mark, but he knew that the only way that he would have found out there was a creature using him as a slave was to make this attempt, and now, there was no way to stop the Humatronics from getting their revenge on the wrong person. It wasn't really Mark who did this, was it? Was the ghost girl controlling his actions for him? There was truly no good in this world anymore. It had been long lost, and Jack began internally mourning the soon to be loss of a good friend, supporter, and colleague.

After this was over, he was going to call Felix and confess all. He had left another good friend completely in the dark about the situation, and Jack hated himself for not letting Felix know about this before it got too serious. Felix would surely hate him for this, right? Jack was bringing himself down with Mark, and eventually, there would be no hope for him left.

Then, Jack had another thought: Signe. His beloved girlfriend, the love of his life, would never abandon him for making a horrible decision he couldn't avoid making, right? Thinking about this made him miss her presence. It wasn't like she was dead, but she wasn't there.

Jordan's voice made Jack's mind snap from his train of thought back to the present.

"Sean is right here, willingly watching your final moments. Maybe he's watching in his own hatred, maybe he's watching in pity. But it seems he's watching in regret. Maybe he never wanted you dead in the first place, but found no way to escape the truth, so he tried to deny it, failed, and found no other option than violence. How does that make you feel? To know that the reason your friend betrayed you is because he found no other way to make things right? Heartbreaking, isn't it? I would know."