#and woke up this morning and saw a hinge notification where they were like so and so liked you!

[i-think-its-catchy]

.

[the-static-and-i]

⏳ :)

// SO THIS IS A FUCKING LONG ONE, AND UM, OOF AT THE ENDING?? BUT IM P HAPPY WITH HOW THE REST OF IT CAME OUT, SO HERE THE FUCK WE ARE??? 

ITS ALSO A CLOAK BOI, CAUSE IM A FUCKING SLUT FOR THAT SHIT RN, AND ITS KIND OF A CONTINUATION OF THE LAST REQUEST FIC? THIS TIME ITS ~EVERYONE~ GETTING FUCKED ON.

TW: Prison-esque cells, chains, collars, bomb mention, anxiety, anxiety inducing text, drowning, shattered glass, glass shards, cuts, electrocution, character death. Please let me know if i missed anything, this is a big one.

They had been trapped for four days. No word from Sam or Marvin or Anti or even the cult assholes. Jackie had been fruitlessly trying to hack to each of their accounts, hoping for a clue or a location, some physical place he could go and get Marvin and everyone out of.

Finally, as he set his bags onto the bed of their new hotel room, he got five notifications from the server all at once. He glanced at it, assuming it was just casual conversation with weird timing, but saw each one of them was from Two. The preview of every message read "Tick tock. :)...", and Jackie fumbled to unlock his phone, pulling up the server and the first chat he saw, Phaedo. Everyone active was responding negatively at the code underneath the message, but he saw Chance and Alex mentioning getting onto solving it.

Nic rested his hand on Jackie's arm, hugging him from behind. Jackie relaxed a little, leaning back into the hold and turning off his phone, hoping that someone would get the code quick.

He got his wish; by the time he woke up the next morning, all groups had solved the code and JJ had dm'ed him.

"They're taunting you. You know it's probably a trap, right?"

He pulled up the code, seeing a link that led to a picture of Marvin chained up, the caption reading "Better hurry, hero. Your brother's waiting." With some coordinates attached. He sighed, looking over at Nic who had been working on the code late last night while Jackie had been trying to get information on the cult members. He was curling closer to Jackie's side, still asleep.

He sighed quietly, plugging the coordinates into his map app, seeing that they led scarily close to their current hotel. Anxiety chewed at his nerves, but he ignored it as best he could, finally typing a quick message back to JJ, "I know, but we dont have a choice. I'll be careful."

He turned over, wrapping an arm around Nic and hugging him close for a moment, long enough that he slowly starting waking up, before laying a gentle kiss to his forehead.

Nic was giving him a sleepy smile when he pulled away, and he uttered a soft "Hey."

"Hey. That code last night? Leads to more coordinates. They're nearby, so I'm gonna head out. You should try to stay out of the hotel, just in case it's not a coincidence that they're so close."

Nic yawned and nodded, working his way up but pausing to stretch. Jackie followed suit, pulling the sheets up lazily and moving to find his bag and costume.

10 minutes later, they were both outside, Nic heading towards the local mall, Jackie speed-walking over to the destination from the code. There was nothing on the map in the location, but the cultists had confirmed that they had gotten the answer, so he didnt hesitate more in getting going.

It turns out the map was wrong, he realized as he reached the destination. There was a small, beat up shack, the remnants of a burned house or some small fort, on the property. He heaved a sigh, watching his steps closely as he moved toward the building, texting updates to the group chat.

He stepped onto the foundation, breathing a small sigh of relief that nothing had jumped out and attacked him in the 6 yard gap between sidewalk and cement.

He glanced down at the group chat, seeing Two piping in with a simple "tick tock," repeating themself but setting Jackie's nerves on fire. He buried his anger and confusion at how they got into the locked chat, telling them to fuck off and then saying hed be back soon.

He stayed quiet as he looked around again, turning off his phone and slipping it into his pocket as he passed the blackened remains of a doorframe.

In the corner of the next room was a cellar door, metal and grey, with a rusty padlock keeping chains around the handles. He ripped off the chains easily, pulling the doors open and eyeing the steps warily.

This was so a trap. He sighed again, grabbing one door and pulling it off of the hinges so he had less chance of getting trapped in whatever hell was waiting for him, before finally descending.

His vision didnt change the farther down he went, but he could feel the dull throbbing in his temples that meant his night vision had kicked in.

All around him were cells, empty ones that didnt even have food trays or windows, and definitely no bed. His ears perked as he heard shuffling in one of them farther ahead, looking into it and seeing- "Marvin?"

Jackie was quick to pull open the door, his brother looking up at him with weary eyes, but a small smile twitching up his lips.

"Knew you'd make it. Little help?" Marvin rattled the chains around his wrists, Jackie nodding and pulling them out of the walls, then getting to work on unlocking them from around his limbs.

"You look like shit, Marv." Jackie tried to sound playful, but he had been worried as fuck, and he wasnt totally convinced this wasnt a trap.

"Its this new diet I'm trying: not eating or sleeping for a few days? Maybe you should give it a shot." Jackie snorted, successfully pulling both sets of chains off of Marvin's limbs before noticing the big fucking collar.

"Jesus, 's this overkill or what?" He mumbled under his breath.

"Right, that's what I'm saying, it's not like I- ow- not like I punched him in the throat or anything." Jackie gave him a look. "I didnt! I elbowed his nose. Sam punched him in the throat!"

Jackie tensed up, glancing back through the bars but not seeing anybody. "Sam's here? Who else is?"

"She uh, she was? Anti came and dragged her out a bit before you got here, and she didn't look like she was in the best shape.. You're going after them, right?" The collar came off finally, Marvin grabbing it and setting it aside carelessly. He stood up as Jackie moved backwards, his knees protesting at the movement as blood flooded back into them. He wobbled on his feet, leaning hard against Jackie as his numb feet struggled to support him. "Shit.."

When he was stable enough to stand on his own, Jackie finally responded. "Course I'm going after them, he cant hurt anybody else. Who else is here? Can you get them out?" His mind was racing, his eyes flicking between Marvin's dull ones.

"I.. can try? But my magic.." He tried to create a flame at his fingertips, instead getting small sparks that fizzled out. "Yeah, no. Do you even know where he took her?"

Jackie hesitated before shaking his head. "No. So I'll get everyone out, and then we have to find out how to get them home safe.." Jackie tried to ignore that that would be harder than he made it sound, stepping back into the hallway and onto the next cell.

Finally, all five people stood in the hallway, shaking and crying but unharmed. Marvin led them out, following Jackie's shouted directions, since he held the rear.

As they all climbed out, in an almost single-file orderly line, Jackie heard something. He turned his head, his foot still on the bottom step, only seeing the long hallway with an unnatural darkness at the end of it. His fight or flight kicked in, rocking forward on his toes as he turned back to Marvin, who was holding a hand out to him.

"Jackie dont, you dont know what's in there and we have to get these guys safe."

"I know, but-" tick tock. The sound reverberated off the walls, Jackie looked back and saw a shape forming in the darkness.

"Dont you fucking dare, Jackie come on!" Marvin called, but Jackie didnt look at him, instead stepping down and turning towards the hallway.

"Get them out of here, please. Stay safe," he heard Marvin groan in irritation, before he corralled the people together and led them away. Jackie waited until their steps faded away before he moved down the hall, glancing into every cell as he passed. tick tock.

He stopped and listened as the sound came again, hoping to locate its source but no dice. The echoes had faded when he finally moved again, his pace even slower than before, in case the ticking was a bomb or something similar.

ticktock. He flinched, his head ducking to his left as he swore the sound was right in his ear, nothing more than a quick whisper that had his skin crawling. He looked around hastily, ensuring he wasnt about to be jumped, before he picked up his pace again, realizing that the noises were coming from Anti or similar, not anything that would explode.

He glanced into the next set of cells, tick tock tick. It came from in front of him, so he kept moving. Ticktocktick. He started running, the shape at the end of the hallway solidifying the closer he got. ticktockticktock. The hallway seemed to drag on, he stopped checking the cells, nearly sprinting. tick tock tick tock.

He skidded to a stop as everything warbled around him, the cells fading to dirty plastered walls, ticktocktick, the end of the hallway rushing forward to meet him. He backed up, trying to outrun the stone wall, tick tock tick, but it stopped far before it reached him, blending seamlessly into the rest of the wall before he could blink. ticktock.

He looked around the new room in a rush, realizing the sound was slowing down and he had no idea where he was. tick tock. He walked over to where the stone wall had been, banging against it and hoping to find it hollow. It wasnt though, and he huffed an irritated worried sigh, turning and putting his back to the wall, tick. tock. as he reexamined his surroundings. There was no door, no window, no light source, no pillars, nothing. The walls were bare, the floor was wooden, the ceiling was low and empty.

tick. He heard a glitching sound, his eyes having to readjust to the sudden green light of Anti appearing. In front of the glitch was Sam, struggling desperately against the arm around her throat. tock.

Jackie ran and lunged forward, Anti's cackle echoing around the room as he glitched away. He was kicked from behind, a boot to the center of his back that had him stumbling over his own feet. He swiveled midair, landing on his ass and shielding his face against whatever blow might be coming.

There wasnt one. Instead, Anti stood in front of him, flicking open and closed a knife at his side. His leer was cruel, almost illuminating the rest of his face. Jackie didnt look away, pushing himself to his feet as he forced his heartrate down.

"No witty quips or clever catchphrase, hero?" Anti sneered, his body glitching out.

"Nah, you arent worth the effort. But if you want-"

"If I’m not-" tick, "maybe she is." He smiled, glitching Sam back into the room. She shook her head as she saw them both, quickly hugging herself and backing away. "Or maybe him?" tock, Nic glitched in, looking around the room confused. He glared at Anti as soon as he gained his bearings, reaching out for Jackie.

As his hand brushed the fabric of Jackie’s costume, he was thrown back across the room like he had been shocked. He sat up quickly, seeing Jackie was back against the opposite wall, like he had been shocked too. Nic rushed toward his side, hitting a glass wall after only a couple steps. He hit it hard, staggering back but not falling. He pressed his hands against the pane, turning to glance at his side and seeing Sam with her hands pressed against two glass walls of her own, one separating them.

“Sammy, you okay?” He asked, seeing the bags under her eyes and her shaking arms. She stared blankly out through the glass, giving only a small nod in response.

“You?” Her voice was quiet, hoarse, Nic couldnt tell if it was from screaming or not having water in a few days, but he figured he didnt want to know just yet.

“Uh, was good up until now. We’re gonna be oka-” As if on cue, the sound of rushing water cut him off quickly, and he muttered a soft curse. He looked forward again, seeing Jackie standing up again, with Anti between him and the glass cells.

“Tick tock, Jackaboy. Who’ll you save this time?” Anti glitched away, his voice still reverberating as he spoke again, “My money’s on neither.”

“Fuck you, asshole!” Nic shouted, banging on the glass once before stepping back from it. Anti laughed joyfully, either at Nic or at Jackie running full speed at the glass in front of him.

His body slammed into the wall in front of Nic, the box wobbling back and forth, the water at his feet sloshing around in tandem. He backed up, looking over at Sam and seeing her backed against the wall opposite Nic. She ran forward too, her impact rocking both of their boxes a little. She groaned softly and rubbed her shoulder, backing up again anyway.

“Sam dont, dont hurt yourself. I got this, Im getting you both out of here.” He ran forward again, hearing the glass crack as his arm hit the same spot again. The cage rocked back dangerously far, Nic calling out as he pushed himself forward to offset the weight. It worked, the cage stabilized, and Jackie was ready to run again. “Back up.”

Nic complied, and Jackie ran full speed at the cage, successfully breaking through the glass with his shoulder. He pushed himself through the big fucking hole, further shattering the glass until he could reach Nic.

Sam gasped next to them, but Jackie didnt divert his attention yet. “D-dads, if something happens, you two get out, i love you both, tell everyone im so-” her voice was rushed, but her own screams still cut her off.

Jackie looked over quickly, seeing wires laying in the water at her feet. The electricity off of them was visible, and Sam was fighting to not let her legs give out. Jackie cursed, hastily jumping back from Nic’s cage and readying himself to run again, Nic standing next to him. He didnt object, instead cueing Nic to run with him, the two of them rocking the box back. She yelped as the water climbed higher up her bare legs, but bit her lips and leaned forward against the rocking.

The two of them backed up again, barely waiting for the box to stabilize again before taking off. The glass cracked loudly, a small shatter going across the entire front of the pane. Water started spurting out from the cracks, but it kept climbing higher, soaking her shorts and tank top without going past her belly button yet. She cried out as the electricity increased, her body doubling over and accidentally splashing into the water.

Her voice doubled as Jackie and Nic backed up, Ren trying to take over and front so Sam didnt have to suffer any more. The box rocked back as the shatter got bigger, not breaking but getting close, so close, they were so close.

“We love you both, you can do this, we believe in y-” The electricity increased again, and Ren gasped, feeling her heart beat shudder and fuck up, her breath catching in her throat. She couldnt even cough, the water rising up to her throat making her larynx twitch and close up.

The men, her dad, her dads that she rarely talked to, slammed into the glass, but it bounced them off of it instead of breaking. She heard Anti’s laugh, his cruel, sadistic, grating laugh, before the water rose again, covering her ears and eyes and soon her whole head. She couldnt move, her body was so stiff, she had to swim, had to fucking move, come on, please, but she couldnt force her muscles to tense or relax.

On the other side of the glass, she saw the shapes of Jackie and Nic, still throwing themselves at the glass, she tried so desperately hold her breath, to hold out, to keep herself alive so Sam could hug them both again. The electricity, Anti, was so against her determination though, increasing until she could actually feel her heart struggle to keep pumping as all of her muscles froze up.

She screamed out, seeing the shadows on the other side coming closer again, fucking hoping that this was the one. Her vision went dark all at once, but she didnt hear the glass break. She tried to open her eyes, tried to look out at her family, tried so hard to call out to them, but her body wasnt responding, barely even twitching as the electricity increased more. She didnt even feel it happen; she was gone. 

[remembermemorablememories]

Saturday, February 16, 2019

post #404

ha ha 404

main points:

- wake up early to go to philly with mom and sheena

- visit grandparents

- walk around center city with mom

- honeygrow lunch takeout with sheena

- drive back home and eat honeygrow / got my diploma (sort of)

- catch up on thursday/friday blog posts

- call with dimitri, cae, simon and sam

- visit alyssa in philly! dinner and hanging out/talking

- chilling at home / health update

today i:

- woke up at 8:30am to my alarm. dad came in to wake me up and also asked about the lease since it was coming today. we got to the topic of how much i withdrew for checks and he said the broker fee was insanely high... :/ and he was right cause 15% of annual rent is a lot. but i had no other option cause it seems like most landlords work exclusively through brokers now. he lectured to me about spending money and how i should be careful. i felt bad, i hadn’t been lectured like that in a while like since high school. i know he was just trying to watch out/express concern for me though

- sheena mom and i hopped into the car so sheena could go to orchestra rehearsal. i ate half a bagel and a banana. sheena drove us to philly, mom talked to me a lot about her personal experiences searching for real estate / housing early on in her life. once we got there, sheena got dropped off to rehearsal, mom and i found parking and went to visit wai po and wai gong. i hadn’t seen them since christmas!! we got a parking spot that someone gave us with their remaining ticket time (like 30 minutes from 10:20am-10:52am)

we went up and i saw wai po and wai gong, it was really nice. i talked to wai po a bit about my asia trip plans. then wai gong sat me down and talked to me about health and taking care of myself :p and also wanted me to learn chinese (which i’ve sort of been doing trying to watch the chinese tv show). we brought them the poster sized version of the photo we took with our whole family in california which was very nice, they were both excited to put it up on the wall

- mom and i left around 10:50am to go back to our car, and we said good bye :( i’ll see them in a few months though hopefully in NYC. we parked it somewhere else close to sheena’s rehearsal place and then walked around center city. we walked by city hall and the surrounding block while mom took some pictures. while we walked around i was trying to figure out what to do for the day. in the morning i brought my laptop in case i decided to stay in philly for the day to hang out with alyssa later

cause either i could stay in philly for the day, have a call with friends about greece at 3pm then meet up with alyssa or

go home, have call with friends about greece, then drive back down to visit alyssa

- mom and i went to starbucks and she got a latte, then walked back to pick up sheena as she finished rehearsal at 12pm. then mom waited in the car while sheena and i went to get honeygrow takeout

just as we were walking over, marsha told me she got a notification from USPS that the lease wasn’t signed at delivery and needed to be picked up. dad also got the notification but was out at set building for sheena’s musical (i believe) so he may have missed it. but he rushed back and flagged down the USPS driver and got the lease from him, so we fortunately got that sorted all out :D

- i decided to go home so after we got the honeygrow salads, sheena ate hers on the car while mom drove us back home. once we got back around 1pm, i ate the salad. mom made some spicy noodle thing that she said was too spicy. the salad was pretty solid and felt really healthy. when i got back, dad got my diploma for my bachelor’s in the mail. he was unsure where my master’s was so i logged in online to check my student report. it said they were both ordered at the same time so maybe the master’s will come in later in the week

- chilled for a bit on my computer and also finished up thursday and started on friday’s blog posts. sheena went to therapy at 2pm with mom. dad was out at set building. but sheena got back around 2:45pm so she came to my room to play smash

dimitri cae simon sam and i hopped on a snapchat call to discuss tentative dates for greece. dimitri gave us the high level plan and also timeline (early september) depending on what cae and sam find out about grad school. it was nice hanging out with all of them on call again after a long long time :D sheena was playing smash in the background in my room LOL

- wrapped up around 4pm, then talked to mom and dad a bit about logistics. i decided i would just drive to alyssa’s cause it’s a bit far from the train. then talked to mom a bit about what she talked about with the therapist. she’s still concerned for sheena and hopefully we can help her get better soon

- drove down around 4:30pm, getting there around 5:30pm. i parked near her apt and she showed me around her apt. it was MAAAASSIVE. for 3 people 3BR for a very low priced rent. the first thing we did was get tacos at loco pez. it was a nice restaurant

at first it was a bit awkward cause we hadn’t talked in like over a year. but then after catching up briefly on what we’ve been up to (my chicago+seattle trip, her job, my upcoming job/moving to NYC, how our siblings were doing), the awkwardness cleared up. also cause our food came LOL. we both got 3 tacos each, they were pretty solid. walked back to her apt and just hung out in her room

she showed me some music she’s been making in logic pro x, the music had really chill vibes, like what you’d hear in a cafe (it was guitar + synth + bass + other beats). we talked about spotify and music (she saw some of my playlists from the spotify sharing feature which was cool), woman pockets, hinge, family friend food truck endeavor, smash, “now what?” feeling of after graduating

then we went to the living room to hang out / get some water. she turned on the TV and the wedding ringer was on TV. we watched that while talking about a bunch of TV shows (west world, game of thrones, bob’s burgers, legion, a few others, avengers movie). we also looked at some people who had graduated from our high school who now had children, and other friends from high school and where they’re at. it was a pretty fun time. i think i felt happy cause hanging out just felt familiar and nice to talk. lately i’ve realized how hard it is to keep in touch with people and this was another example of that. we meet like once a year but it was cool that we could jump back to where we left off. i think she’s one of the few people i keep in touch with from high school

i left her place around 9:30pm, getting back around 10:30pm. once i got home, dad talked to me again a bit about spending money and needing to be careful, ohio’s story with manufacturing with a company and not being able to find enough workers, GM and the reason they went bankrupt (tried to be too greedy after tariffs on foreign cars)

- came upstairs and took a shower and finished up friday’s blog post

it’s now 12:40am i’m ready to go to sleep. my eyes are barely open as i’m typing this, i’ve been waking up early ish the past few days. overall, a pretty fun day

also health update

i didn’t get a chance to pay too much attention to this while traveling but in seattle around february 7 (like 9 days ago) -- or maybe february 9...? anywho i think i noticed a dull ache in my right abdomen, just below my rib cage. it was kind of on and off for multiple days. and it was totally fine while i was walking around NYC with marsha all day / sprinting all morning so i wonder if the aching pain is just all in my head cause i’ve had that with bluetooth headphones. i’ve been feeling some random chest pains since i got back on tuesday but it’s very infrequent, like once a few days (each just being a few seconds and in different locations). but the dull ache in my right abdomen has been more frequent on and off, so i guess we’ll see where that goes

i looked it up online and all of the results are like severe stuff like appendicitis or something else... idk. i’m kind of concerned but if it still doesn’t go away after a few more days, i’ll try to go to the doc maybe

okay the end i am super tired