Mine (Unedited) (Discontinued?)

Chapter 44

The rest of the night wasn't productive. They had dinner, Slender told EJ he was to sleep on the couch, and that was the signal for everyone else to go to bed. Now, Jack was staring up at the dark ceiling, not really processing anything he was seeing.

Had he really relived years of trauma in only what? A few days? It seemed a little surreal to him, but considering what little psychology he learned in college he didn't really doubt it. The memories were still fresh in his mind too, which wasn't exactly helping with anything. How did one sleep when his best friend and crush had betrayed him, kidnapped him, and run incredibly painful experiments on him? One doesn't.

EJ sighed, lifting his mask and rubbing a hand over his face. Feeling the inky tar like substance smear against his cheeks made him flinch. God, he hated that shit. The scientists hadn't even figured out what they were dealing with before he broke out of the damn facility.

"That does not look like you're sleeping," said a familiar voice, and EJ jumped, "oh my God, you're jumpy."

Jack huffed, sitting up and shifting to make room for his best friend and biggest pain in his ass.

"You're not exactly sleeping either, Jeff," he muttered, fixing his mask and wiping his hands off on his hoodie.

A snort. "I don't need to sleep dumbass, besides being down here is better than being a creep with Kendra."

EJ looked at Jeff a flat look through his mask, earning a sheepish shrug.

"She uh... she got scared of the shadows in her room and came to mine. She's asleep now, so I figured I didn't need to be there anymore."

"Well, at least your learning from your mistakes," Jack said, snickering when Jeff punched his shoulder.

"Alright, enough about how I'm trying not to be creepy, what's keeping you up?"

Jack sighed at the question, slumping against the back of the couch as his mirth was replaced with exhaustion. He didn't really want to talk about it.

"Ah, trauma huh?" No answer. "Look dude if you want me to help you get some sleep you're gonna have to give me something to work with."

Jack groaned, "Yes, trauma is keeping me up, Jeff. I can't stop thinking about how they ran experiments on my eyes, my intestines, my god damned stomach. How I had to be awake for it all. It was a shit situation, it's only makes sense that having an episode that long would cause some insomnia."

Jeff nodded, shifting so that he was laying down in his friend's lap. "So, how does that make you feel?"

EJ shoved him to the floor, getting a yelp out of the other. He snorted in satisfaction, crossing his arms and watching Jeff just lay face down on the carpet.

"You're an ass, you know that?" he asked, propping his feet on the other's back. He got no reaction aside from a small grunt.

"Yeah, but I'm also your best friend and trying to help you through some bullshit that some bitch forced you through. Plus, you kind of owe since I had to get trapped by creepy shadow shackles to try and save your ass," Jeff pointed out, his voice muffled against the carpet.

Jack sighed at that, his feet slipping off Jeff's back when he shifted to his elbows.

"You know I'm right, Jack. If you won't talk to me, who the hell else are you going to talk to?"

"Ugh, shut up," EJ said, shifting his mask to the side so he could rub just below his eye sockets.

There was silence, and EJ took the opportunity to gather his thoughts. Jeff was right, he did need to talk about some of this shit, but at the same time Jack really didn't want to. He'd already relived it once, he didn't feel like going through it again.

"You think... you think I could've stopped the whole thing from happening? Like... if I'd gotten off work just a little earlier, maybe the whole thing wouldn't have happened. Or maybe I could've fought a little harder during the five minutes I had until the chloroform kicked in?"

Jeff listened as his friend rambled, watching as Jack's expression got more and more perplexed. When the claims were getting a little ridiculous, Jeff stood and hit the top of EJ's head with his knuckles, scowling when he looked up.

"Now you're talking like an idiot. What happened to my super fucking smart best friend who was actually good at this social shit?"

Jack rubbed at his head, gritting his teeth at Jeff's words. The hell did he know anyway?

"Being social is something totally different, asshole--"

"Yeah, this is psychology, which I studied in my free time. You're talking nonsense, dude. You told me they planned this shit, so getting off work earlier only would've made it happen sooner. And you did all you could against that stupid drug, you broke the guys nose didn't you?"

Jack looked away, glaring at an empty spot on the wall. Damn it Jeff, stop being right.

"Yeah, I know it's fucking stupid that you had to go through what you did, but it was not your fault, Jack. The blame goes to Mark and his stupid research, not you. Don't give him the satisfaction of blaming yourself."

Another silence settled over them, this time going unbroken by either. Jeff rolled onto his back, listening as EJ's breathing slowly began to even out. Well, at least one of them got to relax.