Chapter Text
Mark yawned as the sun peaked through his window. He enjoyed these early mornings, he always felt like they gave him more energy in the long run, but god was it hard to start them. His motivation to get out of bed came in the form of a massive headache. Those had been recurring recently, every morning he felt like he had spent the whole night bashing his head into the wall. He rolled out of bed to get some painkillers, stumbling to the kitchen.
As he was making his way there, he walked by his roommate’s room, Jack. His snoring could be the cause of Mark’s headache, with how fucking loud it was. The two of them had grown to be good friends, sharing mutual interests like gaming and content creation. They both had pretty big audiences, and it helped that they could collab whenever they wanted if they ever needed to boost their views a little. It was a good setup that they were both happy with, aside from the occasional creepy art that was made about the two of them.
Mark grabbed the pill bottle and took two of them, dry swallowing. He hoped he wouldn’t have to take a third one this time, but it just kept getting worse. Just a constant pounding in his head. Fuck, how was he supposed to record like this?
He took a seat on his couch and waited for the meds to start working. He heard sudden shouting from Jack’s room. It sounded like he was doing his video intro before breakfast. Jack usually skipped the first meal of the day, opting for coffee instead, but today he didn’t even get that.
Mark closed his eyes and tried desperately to focus on his head to try and will the pain away. After a few minutes, it began to fade, and Mark let out a soft breath of relief.
Only… he thought Jack was recording something? His friend was usually so loud and energetic, it was odd for him to be silent when recording a video.
“Jack?” Mark called out. No response. Mark stood up and made his way to Jack’s room. “Jack…?” He creaked the door open lightly. He still wanted to respect his friend’s privacy, just in case there was nothing to worry about.
Instead, Mark found that the room was empty. The window was open, and there was a short video clip open on his computer.
“What the fuck?” Mark exclaimed, his eyes scanning the room for anything out of the ordinary. Nothing seemed different this morning. What had happened?
Mark quickly made his way to Jack’s computer. The clip was from just a few minutes ago. What the actual fuck? He pressed play, his shock and curiosity mingling to fuel his actions. The video began to play.
It started normal enough. Jack pressed play on his camera, adjusted some settings and the angle, and began his intro with a high five.
“Top of the mornin’ to ya, laddies!” Jack’s voice rang out through the speakers. “My name is–”
Suddenly, Jack stopped talking. His face fell into a completely relaxed, almost entranced state. He stared at nothing. It was like someone had hit a reset button on a robot. As Mark tried to decipher what was happening, the video showed something that sent a jolt of terror down his spine.
Jack’s eyes flickered a bright, glowing green. Then again. Then again. Jack closed his eyes for a few moments, and when he opened them again, they were completely washed with a vibrant green that hurt Mark’s eyes to look at. Jack smiled, chuckled, and turned off the camera.