Mind Games - Static Noise

Chapter One: Prisoners

Mark felt his back slam into a wall and he crumpled to the ground. It was so cold and so dark. He winces at the sharp breeze that was blowing through somewhere. He blinks, hoping that his eyes will adjust to the dimness, but it doesn't, instead it just gets darker, and darker, and the static in his ears gets louder until it's just white noise.

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Mark knew he must have passed out but he was no longer alone. He had a bag on his head and he sensed that there was at least two other people where he was. He shivers, an icy feeling settling over him. What the hell was going on? He was just about to play a game and he...was he sucked into it?

No of course not, that's impossible, Mark tells himself, you can only be sucked into a game if you're in a movie or some fictional book. Nothing like that is possible in real life.

Or is it?

Mark jumps at the thought in his head. He didn't think the words, it was as if someone was thinking them for him...no...it couldn't be.

He hears footsteps from across the room getting closer and closer. He tries to push himself back but he's tightly bound to a chair. His spontaneous movement just causes the chair to fall backwards and Mark hits his head hard against the floor.

While his head throbs terribly, there are two laughs from in front of him. Both of them sounded eerily familiar, but both of the laughs were so evil that they weren't immediately identifiable.

Mark feels himself being yanked upright again, and he feels their hands pressing tightly on his shoulders, painfully.

He tries to recoil from the grip but he just gets a kick in the shin. Yikes, who the hell were these people?!

Wait maybe he was just dreaming, this sort of thing couldn't be possible, it didn't feel real. Mark inches his left hand to his right arm and punches himself. Nope. No sudden awakening.

This was real. In some crazy way.

He hears the laughs again and finally, the bag is ripped off his head so he can see what is going on.

Mark felt like his heart had dropped into his stomach. There were three people in the room, not two, and they were all familiar. More than familiar actually. But something didn't make sense.

Leaning against the wall examining his cuticles, was Jack, but Jack didn't have green hair anymore...he looks up and Mark catches sight of his eyes. Completely black, even the whites. Okay so this had to be a joke right? Anti wasn't a real person, he was a fictional character made for the purpose of Jack's channel...

He spots the other guy staring at him and he does a visible double take. Because the second guy was so familiar because it was the face he saw every time he looked into the mirror. So Anti and Dark were real...

He felt his heart in his throat as he glanced to the third guy and he'd already knew who it was. Séan was laying in the middle of the room, spread eagled. He didn't think he was dead, but he looked... terrifying.

"What...the fuck?" Mark stammers, his voice trembling with fear.

"Thank you for taking the time to join us Mark," Dark smirks, arms behind his back, his usual stance. Mark glared at him.

"What kind of joke is this?" Mark grumbles, doing his best to not sound afraid, and it worked, surprisingly.

"It isn't any kind of joke. You did this to yourself Mark, I thought you would know by now, I guess not, how disappointing. I thought you were smarter than that," Dark smirks in response, as if he could tell Mark was afraid under his steady voice.

"Well can you at least tell me what the fuck you've done to my friend?!" Mark demands, his voice close to cracking in fear.

"He's not really your friend, more like a YouTube colleague am I right? Or maybe...your boyfriend?" Anti says slowly, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"He is a friend, not a boyfriend. We both have girlfriends and we're both fucking straight," Mark already knew he was trying to get under his skin, and it had worked because Mark was always creeped out by the fact that people ship Jack and himself in a sexual way, even though they both clearly had girlfriends, and we're both obviously straight. He was sure Jack shared this peeve.

Dark and Anti laugh. It was an unnerving sound, the echoes ricocheting around the room, bringing up goosebumps on the back of Mark's neck, and the feeling of impending doom. Mark broke into a cold sweat.

"Aw, are you finally done with your little questions, and cottoned on to where you are?" Dark smirks, leaning over Mark and talking in a tone as if he were talking to a five year old.

Mark noticed he could lift his foot a little, and so he brought his heel up and stamped it right on Dark's foot. With satisfaction, he saw a flash of pain cross Darkiplier's face, and with a sinking feeling he knew that Dark wouldn't let him get away with that.

Mark was unfortunately correct. Dark gave a sharp punch to Mark's stomach and Mark doubled over as it were possible whilst being tied to a chair.

Dark takes a hold of the back of his chair, and Anti begins to drag a comatose Séan towards a door. Dark opens it and slings both Mark and Jack in. They grin maliciously at him for a moment before shutting the door, and with a click, letting him know that he and Jack were locked in.

The ropes binding Mark to the chair seem to slip away from him and he can finally stand. He had friction burns where the rope had rubbed, and his stomach still throbbed from the punch.

"Mmm," he heard a moan come from the comatose Séan.

This reminded Mark where he was and of the situation. "Jack," he rushed to his side, "Séan wake up, wake the fuck up!"

He won't wake up, not until he is needed, Mark thought. No, Mark didn't think that.

Boo, the voice in his head laughed. Right. So Dark could now speak to him in his mind. Well wasn't that fun. Mark thought bitterly. He wanted to know how Jack was needed in this. Hell, he wanted to know why both of them were needed, and how the hell it was possible that Anti and Dark even existed.

All in due time. Now, let's see how you deal with waiting for it. Go to sleep now Markimoo, and who knows, you may wake up in the morning and this would've all been a dream, would you like that?

Mark swore aggressively at the voice in his head, however as soon as he'd uttered the phrase, "go to sleep now", Mark had immediately felt drowsy. He tried to resist but he was sinking lower and lower to the floor.

"No," he murmured, "no I need to know first, what the hellisgoingon?"

However darkness was taking over his vision, he was just hoping that the other kind of Dark wasn't taking it over too...