Ego Daycare

Day 2

Mark knocked on the door, surprised when it opened. "Thank you again for-"

"Do you have the list?" Mrs. Bolton asked, eyeing the group of children.

"Oh, yeah!" Mark handed it to her, as Dark glared at him. "I got a few tips from Jack too. He doesn't know how the hell they got here either, and none of them are talking." He glanced down at the egos and Dr. Schneeplestein shrugged at him.

Mrs. Bolton cleared her throat. "Why don't you bring them in."

Mark sighed, nodding slightly and gently guided the boys in. He glanced around, raising an eyebrow. There were heavy duty childproof locks on all of the cabinets that hadn't been there the day before, as well as outlet protectors and a lot of more decorative items had been removed from the room. "This looks..."

"Different." Dark finished his sentence.

Mark glanced down at Dark and swallowed hard, glancing back at Mrs. Bolton. "Well, I guess you're all set then."

"Just wait." She smiled slightly. "Children, go play." The boys slowly dispersed into the room, though Dark stayed rather close. "What exactly are they? You keep calling them monsters... and... one of them becomes... like static."

"I'm guessing you mean either Google or Anti." Mark sighed. "Or maybe Dark. Uh, yeah... they're not really of this world." He looked over the group, shaking his head. "They call them egos."

"They?" Mrs. Bolton frowned.

Mark watched her for a moment. "It sounds silly if I explain it, but the community." He sighed. "Look, they're like alter egos, that split off from us. They take on a life of their own, but a lot of them keep these.... other worldly powers from wherever it is that they come from. They weren't children... they were full grown adults. Dark was practically my double. They usually didn't get in my way, just showing up every now and then and causing trouble." He shrugged. "And then I came home the other day and they were all just in my living room as toddlers." He sighed. "It's really strange, and none of them will tell me anything. None of them really like being helpful."

"Are you sure that you're feeling okay? Do you... need to talk to someone?" Mrs. Bolton asked softly.

Mark groaned. "I'm not crazy, you said you saw one of them glitch! Besides, Dark is fucking grey, the mute one is pure white and Anti is kinda..." Mark glanced over. "Greenish." He looked back at Mrs. Bolton. "It's not normal, but you can see they're moving around seemingly fine. I mean, do you really think if someone, a child especially, was that pale, that they would still be walking around?"

Mrs. Bolton sighed, watching Dapper who was sitting by himself in the corner, playing with some wooden blocks he'd found in the toy chest. "I suppose."

"You'll be safer if you believe me, and pay attention to the warnings on that list! They're serious." Mark sighed, backing up to the door. "Good luck." He shifted, leaving before she could try to ask more questions.

Dark glanced over at her, and it sent a chill down Mrs. Bolton's spine. He offered her a small reassuring smile before letting his face go emotionless again as he made his way over to where Wilford was throwing everything out of the toy box. "What are you doing?"

"Investigating." Wilford muttered.

"It is a toy box, not-"

"I found a sword!" Wilford cried, smashing the foam sword on Dark's head. Dark blinked at the sudden strike, holding his breath as he glared at Wilford, before letting out a long, agitated sigh. He shook his head slightly and turned, walking off to leave Wilford with his find. Wilford waved the foam sword around. "I was only playin'!"