Anti, he always lived in Seán's head. He would take control and do awful things... The police finally realized a serial killer was slitting people's throats and began to investigate. But eventually, one survived. She was unconscious for quite some t...
I gasp, fingers curling in the sheets as I bolt upright into a sitting position, my eyes wide as they can go.
I had the same terrible nightmare that I'd been having for the last three months. The woman Anti tried to kill. The one that survived.
I felt awful for her. Her terrified face was burned into my brain, into the back of my eyelids. First he chased her. And when he caught her, he said awful things to her, things that I could hear in my waking hours, echoing through my brain, taunting me. He took out his knife, and drug it across her throat in swift fashion. Then he pushed her onto the ground and left.
Just as he was racing off, lights flickered on in a house and an older woman came out, screaming at the body and franticly dialing the police. Anti smirked, sure that she was dead and that they would never get there in time. He fled the scene, rushing away. Then I woke up.
The day after, I saw on the news that she survived and that the doctors were afraid she would slip into a coma. Dread had filled me. I knew he would be after her. He would want to finish the job. And in a coma, she was helpless, ripe for the taking.
After a few weeks, I realized that he probably felt it was too soon to finish her off. He was most likely going to wait a while. After two months, it was announced that she had woken up and they had put her in witness protection. That gave me satisfaction. She was safe. Anti couldn't get her while she was under witness protection.
However, he plagued my dreams with her. I knew what he wanted. He wanted me to find her. But I couldn't exactly do that. No, I could. But I wouldn't. With my influence on the internet, it probably wouldn't be too difficult to find her. But at the same time, her personal information was never leaked (probably so she couldn't be tracked down) so if I released some kind of picture, trying to find this woman, the police would immediately be tipped off if they saw.
So I dealt with the nightmares. I got medicine to help me sleep that really only made me feel worse during the daytime, doing nothing to help my nightmares. I started trying to meditate, but that didn't work. If my mind was blank, that only made it that much easier for Anti to take control. It seemed nothing I tried would work. Eventually, I gave up. I let the dreams beat me down.
It started to show in my videos. How rough I was looking. How often I spaced out, even when I tried to edit all of those moments out. All my friends and fans got worried. Half the fanbase made jokes about Anti being back, the other half genuinely worried for my well being. I tried to reassure them, but I knew I was kidding myself. One look at me and anyone could tell I wasn't alright.
My friends would message me, trying to help me, but nothing they could offer would actually help. Felix suggested I come stay with him and Marzia, assuming it was the serial killer that had me out of sorts. He wasn't entirely wrong, but it's not that I could tell him that. Besides, staying with them would only put them in danger. I didn't know what Anti would do and I couldn't chance anything.
Robin had called me on numerous occasions trying to help me or make me feel better, but there wasn't much he could do either.
Before I knew it, a lot of people were contacting me, trying to figure out what was going on. I reassured them I was alright, that I would be back to myself in no time, but eventually I lost the energy to lie to them all. I just stopped answering emails and texts. I couldn't do it anymore.
And then, a Skype call came in that changed everything. The image of his goofy face pulsed as an image of a phone ringing flashed underneath it. As much as I wanted to decline, we had to discuss our next line coming out in the coming month and I couldn't put it off any longer. I ran a hand exasperatedly over my face before hitting the answer button.
"Hey! It's about time you answered my calls! I was starting to think you'd died or something!" He jokes. If only he knew how true that felt right now.
"Yeah, well, I'm alive," I say half-heartedly.
We launch into business talk, dicussing the line, prices, and when we planned to call the fabric company to make sure we had the supplies we needed. After, the talk began to get more personal.
"Hey, man, look, I know all the shit happening in Brighton right now is super crazy, but are you going to be alright? It seems like you're really taking it to heart. I'm just worried for you."
I open my mouth to reply, but before I can come up with some dumb lie that I probably won't commit to, I see movement in the background. I close my mouth, scrunching my eyebrows together. It was a woman, and not the one I expected.
"Mark, who is that?" He wouldn't cheat on Amy, would he?
He turns around in surprise, then waves at her and turns back with a smile. "Oh, that's just Y/n. She's visiting for a while. We don't quite know how long yet, so get used to her presence." My brows furrow again.
"Oh, okay. May I meet her?" I ask. Something about her didn't feel right.
"That's up to her, I guess. Hey N/n, you wanna meet Seán?" He mumbled something to her I couldn't hear. She seemed to shrug before shyly approaching the computer.
Her face comes into view and I'm stunned into silence. She waves timidly with a small, nervous smile. "Oh right, I should probably tell you she's uh, kinda mute."
After a second, Mark waves at the camera. "Seán? Did this damn computer freeze?"
I snap out of it, still staring at her as I respond, "No, no, sorry, I just... spaced out. Hi." I had nothing else to say. What was I even supposed to say to the woman whose life almost ended at my own hands?
She wore a black turtleneck and blue jeans, but I knew exactly what was hidden beneath that turtleneck, and not because I could see the bandages peaking out under her ear.
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I knew because it was Anti's knife that created the slit those bandages covered. And now Anti knew exactly where she was. And she had no idea how much danger she was in.
