#don’t trust the seer / celine

[marshmellowtea]

why are so many midland songs markelinecore

[liarinlife]

tags.

[more perhaps to be added!]

[whiskerknittles]

Don’t Trust The Seer - we know who’s really in control sketched to the song “She Wants Me Dead” by Cazzette

[fun-with-colors]

[gay-spaghetti]

Evil Celine | Who Killed Markiplier? AU

evil celine evil celine evil celine evil celine evil celine evi-!!! ----

This is something I’ve been thinking about for a LONNNNG time, way back when WKM came out in 2017. I remember being so sure that Celine was bad. When DAMIEN came out though, I realized she wasn’t heartless, just stoic and strong!

Buuuuuut~~ this gives me the perfect opportunity me to go crazy with an AU! So what if Celine was the dastardly villain in all of this?

Here’s a summary of the AU under the cut! I’m planning to do a MAP in the near future, so keep an eye out! :D

In this AU, Mark is still a famous and wealthy actor, but he is widely beloved and rather charitable. He occasionally gets a big head, and isn’t always very modest, but he’s by no means a wicked or selfish person. He cherishes his career as an actor, and loves bringing joy to his fans. Mark is also head-over-heels for his wife Celine, a mysterious, and seemingly-magical seer. They met through her twin brother Damien, Mark’s good friend and town mayor.

Celine prides herself in her supernatural work, but unlike her husband, she views power and wealth as what’s most important. Manipulative, greedy, narcissistic, power-hungry---all accurate ways to describe her. Being extremely intelligent, she dropped out of college, viewing it as a waste of time. When her, slightly-younger, brother Damien became mayor, he introduced her to his friend Mark, a well-known celebrity. With Mark’s gorgeous looks, wealth, status, and sweet, flirtatious attitude, the two of them hit it off instantly, and got married a few years later.

After a couple of short years into their marriage, Celine realizes she’s unhappy and rather annoyed, knowing that she doesn’t really love Mark. Originally, she was going to divorce him, but she realized she didn’t want to lose all the wealth she shared with Mark---which technically all belonged to him. So to solve this problem, she resorts to killing her husband to collect the insurance money.

Celine figured this would be easy enough, but something rather bizarre and unexpected happens. After killing him, Mark just comes back to life within a few hours! The next few weeks, Celine does everything she can to end his life. She stabs him, drowns him, chokes him, poisons him, shoots him, and much more, but nothing is successful. He just wont stay dead.

During these attempted murders, Mark is scared and extremely confused, having no idea that Celine is the one doing this. He doesn’t even realize that he’s actually dying and repeatedly coming back. He goes to his dear friend and butler, Ben, to vent his fears and frustrations, going to Celine for comfort too, but she just tells him that these are all simple nightmares. Of course, that doesn’t convince him. Cuts, bruises, gunshot wounds, occasionally choking up water, and other sorts of horrible things are not typically symptoms of bad dreams.

Finally, Mark somewhat realizes what’s happening here. At the very least, he recognizes that his beloved wife is the cause. Celine attempts to kill him yet again, but this time, he was expecting it. After a fight and a loud argument, Mark forces her to leave his home. She happily leaves, finally revealing how she truly feels about Mark. Not only that, but just a week or so later, she gets together with Mark’s friend Colonel William, who thinks Celine and Mark just divorced.

Stricken with agonizing grief, anger, horror, and anguish, Mark soon devises a plan to get back at his sickeningly evil wife. This plan....is the poker party plan.... but with a few differences. 

Being corrupted by heartbreak and the dark influences of the manor, Mark’s scheme is cold and twisted. Not wanting an actual officer or detective to be involved in this, he hires a good friend he met in college, a fellow drama student and actor named Abe, to pretend to be a detective. Their plan was to expose Celine's horrid actions to her brother, and all of Mark’s friends. Ultimately, Mark was going to make sure that Celine “died” in that house, so she could feel exactly what he went through.

Things... don’t exactly go the way they were intended though.

Celine, Damien, William, and the DA are all invited to the poker party, with Chef and Butler Ben attending as well (Obviously). The plan kicks off with DA finding Mark’s dead body. Most of the same things occur; tensions rise, accusations are made, weird happenings from the house, and more, but this time, Celine is there from the start, and Abe is in on it. Also, the scene in the wine cellar does not happen. 

When Celine starts getting rightfully accused, William throws a wrench into things by repeatedly standing up for her, to the point where he and Abe start shouting and pointing guns at each other.

After hours of intensity, high tensions, and strange evil from the house, Celine attempts to put a stop to this. She goes into that small room with her brother, finally being able to recognize the dark powers lying within the mansion. She figures out what Mark is trying to do, and she tries to end it with her dark magic. Damien is scared, confused, and beyond worried.

Meanwhile, Abe hurries to the room to prevent Celine from stopping Mark’s plan, but William blocks him, wholeheartedly believing that his love is innocent. A loud and angry argument ensues, which leaves both men dead. William, a soldier of war, shoots Abe in the chest. Abe, a simple actor with not as much experience with guns as the Colonel, shoots William in reaction to being shot, getting him right in the head. Of course, he dies instantly, and Abe dies just a few minutes after, completely horrified by his actions and the overall situation. The DA is just as, if not more, horrified, having just seen two people kill each other.

While that happens, Celine is performing her wicked magic, her goal being to end Mark for good. She realizes though that for this particular spell to work, she needs a sacrifice. So, being the cold-hearted person that she is, she kills Damien---someone who loved and trusted her. This backfires, and the manor’s evil is proven to be more powerful than Celine. She, along with her brother, turn into the entity called Dark (Dark’s appearance more resembles Celine in this AU). In a confrontation between Dark and Mark in a black, endless void, Mark uses Celine’s life energy to heal his broken body, although scars still cover his form. He shames and condemns Celine for what she’s done, expressing his sorrow for Damien, and the rest of his friends, as he only intended for Celine to suffer. With that, Mark escapes his mansion for good.

The dust settles.... and the manor is quiet. The groundskeeper, butler, and chef, are all long gone, and death overcomes the building. Panicked, confused, and traumatized, DA leaves the manor, but is surprised to find Mark outside! Seeing the pain the DA went through, Mark is shocked, and even feels guilty. He apologizes, and comforts and reassures them, offering his friendship. Still wildly baffled, and a little hesitant, DA accepts.

Back inside the manor, around 15 hours after Mark and the DA leave, Abe and William awaken from their death. They are BEYOND puzzled and definitely traumatized. Stricken with uncertainty and insanity, the two leave together. Dark leaves too, but she makes sure she is not seen. Her quest to successfully kill Mark is nowhere near over.

Over the decades, Mark continues his acting career, but also starts directing! DA is along for the ride, and the two of them, now close friends, get into all sorts of shenanigans and strange adventures.

Abe and Will do as well, but this time, as friends, not enemies. They both lean into their insanity in their own way. They both suffer through it, but Will eventually starts to embrace is, and Abe is stuck feeling traumatized and helpless. As shown above, they become performers together to find purpose. Will becomes a joyful clown, and Abe becomes an anxious and sorrowful mime.

This Dark is very similar to canon Dark, but is way more evil and harsh. She’ll occasionally stick around with William (now Wilford), but is more often than not trying to sabotage Mark and DA’s adventures and shows.

-----

@itsjustkyss @smiledog15578 @huffle-puff-ego

So that’s my AU!! I know that’s a LOT of information.... oof :3 I really hope y’all like it! Feel free to ask me questions about it, draw art, and even suggest ideas for it!

Again, I plan to host an animated MAP for this AU, so keep a lookout for that!

[anxious-little-faicye]

Wait, what do you mean Damien wasn’t there? 👀

Okay okay okay, hear me out. So you know how after the Colonel shuts us and we die we get sent to this "limbo" of sorts with Celine, Damien and Mark's body? Well, um, yeah... Those are not actually Celine and Damien, but rather Darkiplier (or a pre-version of him anyways) using Celine's powers to trick us into letting him in. In a frame we can clearly see that Damien isn't even there, is just Celine's essence corrupted by the Manor Entity and Mark's body. "Dark" is just using Damien as a tool because, well- he IS the District Attorney's friend, so of course they would trust him, and by extension trust Celine.

But remember: don't trust the seer.

[crackedegotheories]

Body Count

(Sorry in advance, I think I might have gone a little too long with this one and wandered around a bit. It’s less a cracked theory, and more of a “probably best not to think too hard about the implications” theory. Also, just to make things less confusing, I’m going to call the Mark character Actor Mark/Markiplier and the real Mark just Mark in this one.)

By the end of Who Killed Markiplier, there’s a lot of body-swapping going on as a result of people taking advantage of the house entity’s ability to play fast and loose with the concept of death.

First off, let’s go over who we know died in the course of WKM: Actor Mark, obviously, during a game of Russian Roulette in the cellar with the Colonel according to Mark in the livestream explaining everything; Abe the Detective, shot in the heart by the Colonel (he got better); the District Attorney/the viewer, shot by the Colonel and went over a railing; Celine the Seer (???); and Damien (???).

Those last two have the distinction of being the only victims to not be shot by the Colonel and to have their deaths be entirely off-screen. At least with Actor Mark there was a body, at least long enough to confirm he was dead (again). The only reason we know they apparently died is because the DA sees them in the upside-down post-fall, where Damien confirms the first body swap, and the events of DAMIEN make it pretty clear that our boy isn’t himself anymore.

The last time we saw the twins together, they were walking back toward the same room where Celine held her seance with the DA. The next time we see that room, there’s light spilling out just before Celine possessed by the house entity throws open the door. George the Groundskeeper manages to lock the door with the help of the DA and considers his job done, even though Celine (or whatever is piloting her body) is still inside there.

There’s no sign of Damien or what became of him, and by the time the DA dies, both twins are in the upside-down void with a broken and empty Actor Mark body, and both are very angry and very willing to talk a certain viewer into trusting them. (Plus a house entity, but we’ll get to that in a minute.)

So what happened? Damien tells us Actor Mark is walking around in his body, but it doesn’t seem like his death can be entirely blamed on Actor Mark yoinking his body. Considering the lengths Celine/Damien/the entity go to get the DA to let them in, it seems like there has to be both an available body lying around and some kind of consent on the other end.

It’s possible that Damien did give permission, especially if Actor Mark reached out to him during a second attempt at the seance. Thinking that he’s helping his friend, Damien lets him in only to be kicked into the void with Actor Mark’s old body, which is apparently so broken that neither twin believes it can be used to leave.

It’s also possible that Damien died in that room, and Actor Mark took advantage of his confusion to take his body, just as Celine/Damien/the entity would do with the DA. In DAMIEN, Damien is clearly unaware of the fact that he is dead, much less how he died, and Actor Mark says that Celine really did a number on him. Celine was keeping Damien safe, or at least trying to, and part of that involved keeping him unaware of the truth of his condition or how he got there.

Short of Actor Mark using his old body one last time to kill Damien himself, it doesn’t seem likely that he killed him. Even the entity doesn’t directly kill anyone, instead preying on their minds and twisting them to the point they’re willing to take desperate measures until it can possess a body of its own.

Like Celine’s.

DAMIEN shows us Celine and Damien as they are inside of the DA’s stolen body, how much of a toll staying in control all by herself is taking on Celine and leading up to Damien taking the reins while she gets some rest. The entire timeline of DAMIEN, in which Damien manages to cut down hundreds if not thousands of trees for every single day that passes, seems from what Mark has said to take place in the few seconds from when the DA wakes up on the floor to when we physically see the hand off between Celine and Damien.

Just that little bit of time takes that much of a toll on Celine? Maybe, if time doesn’t seem to flow the same way when you’re in that kind of existence, if trying to use and control the entity’s power is far too much for one person to handle on their own, if it’s enough to overwhelm and destroy its host so quickly that George believes locking Celine away is enough to deal with what’s taken her over (or at least give himself and the others time to leave the house and its influence before it can take a new host).

Maybe it’s enough that, if you don’t know what to expect, how to control it and not let it control you, you could wind up unintentionally hurting or even killing an innocent bystander, a brother who was just trying to help.

...Moving on, that leaves us with five victims and five dead bodies.

We’ve got Actor Mark, who ruined his body to the point it’s apparently unusable.

We’ve got Abe, revived thanks to the house where death doesn’t mean the same thing and still very much in his own body come the events of WMLW.

We’ve got Damien, whose body was hijacked by Actor Mark.

We’ve got the District Attorney, whose body was in turn stolen by Celine/Damien/the entity to make our favorite bad guy, Darkiplier.

And we’ve got Celine.

The fact that the twins need the viewer’s body would suggest that Celine’s body isn’t an option for them. That could be because it’s still locked up in that room, but why would that make a difference? The Colonel’s still running around, and let’s be honest, it wouldn’t take much to convince him to shoot a lock off of a door.

It could be because that possession, as brief as it was, left Celine’s body with so many issues that even one with a bullet hole and a broken neck seemed like a better alternative. Maybe the entity left her body in such a condition that trying again would leave it as broken and useless as Actor Mark’s old body.

Look at Darkiplier: even as a more stable version with two souls taking the burden together, we constantly see him “glitching” in ADWM, MarkiplierTV, and AHWM. Could you imagine the effect that would have on a person?

From the hand picture up above, we can see Dark has some control over his physical appearance, at least early on. Apparently he has enough control to maintain his new appearance in the long run, although it’s possible he could change it in the future. (Mark, please, Dark!Celine, just once, please.) Someone with less control could possibly change basic physical aspects from second to second, sometimes in ways that just wouldn’t make sense for a normal human body like, I don’t know, extra limbs out of nowhere.

We’ve also seen Dark “split” when he’s upset or worked up, or even just while sitting in on a meeting that’s not going so well. Some of this appears to be a side effect of having two people in control who don’t always see eye to eye, but in some of the frames when Dark is screaming, it suggests less anger and more pain. Being shoved into a body that isn’t your own, that even without its previous occupant may still be trying to reject you, can’t be a pleasant experience.

His existence just doesn’t seem to mesh with reality in other ways. In AHWM, Dark makes it clear that he’s aware of how things are looping, that he’s being forced to relive the same moments over and over again.

And he’s not the only one. Both Wilford and Abe are aware that things aren’t quite right with reality (although Abe is still coming to terms with it while Wilford’s just learned to go with the flow and have some fun with it). Neither one seems to be able to remember everything clearly, and we don’t see them try to change things, not on the scale that Dark seems to be able to do.

In both ADWM and AHWM, he twists the “game” Actor Mark is playing and tries to use it to his own advantage, for example by offering his own “choices” and planting hints in every possible ending in AHWM to expose how shallow this reality is.

But imagine someone touched by the same kind of power Dark has, that awareness of things repeating, of being able to relive the same moment again and again and again, but without that same level of control. Not able to rearrange the story or offer new choices, just to go through the same paths in hopes of finding a different ending.

Leaving anyone who took Celine’s body to be a basically faceless entity, questionably human and living with who knows how much pain, and completely aware that they can redo any choice over and over again, so long as they’re allowed to make the choice in the first place.

And who would be desperate enough to choose that kind of existence?

[blueheartedmayor]

Dante Lore

Okay, so I’ve had a few ideas earlier on today, and now I’m getting a chance to write it down. I’ve already nagged the ears off of a few poor friends, so I’m giving the option of a read-more so it can be ignored! :D Also, it’s VERY long, this is your warning. I’ll be covering the following topics:

1. “Dante” as an identity. 2.  Dante breaking character... Mostly. 3. The Younger Seer Twin, and the Consequences of that. 4. Miscellaneous human headcanons!

Note: For the sake of not confusing matters, I’m calling him Dante regardless of whether I’m talking about him as he is now or when he was human.

-

1. “Dante” as an identity.

I’ve already written about Dante calling himself an entity here before. Another option is ‘monster’, and at present he is rather uncomfortable with being referred as one. A lot of this stems from his own trauma of existing without humanity for so long. He is genuinely scared of ‘slipping’ back into that ‘monster’ mindset and never snapping out of it again. Not only that, he has seen how Darks in other timelines act. He doesn’t want to go that far.

(By accurate definition, he’s a ghost trapped in a body, but I’ll come back to that.)

Realistically, he's past the point of being in the 'danger zone' of slipping permanently after a bad day... But that doesn’t alleviate the fear. He’s had bad days where he has ‘slipped’, but he has eventually pulled himself back. It's a big factor in the intrusive thoughts that developed once he became ‘Dante’. I imagine those thoughts that had been at the forefront of his mind over the years had turned against him, tempting him back to better times. No guilt, no stress, no pains - all it would cost is his humanity. What could be better?

So he’s still trying to determine his sense of ‘self’. He isn’t ‘Dark’, he isn’t ‘Damien’. He’s trying to find that middle ground where he feels comfortable being ‘himself’, whatever that is. That will start by himself gradually becoming more comfortable with being in the ‘here and now’. Being in good company is certainly helping. The goal would be that he would stop comparing himself to the ideal self and the dreaded self and find the parts of his personality that he likes separate from both of them. Right now, he only sees himself as an exhausted, grumpy soul who is constantly in pain, so he’s got a long way to go. 

-

2. Dante breaking character... Mostly.

One reason why Dante is a little messy in who he is is because he’s a Dark (that is solely a ‘Damien’ rather than an amalgamation) that has broken out of the role he was forced into... But he still hasn’t broken out of the ‘character’.

Think about it for a second. He wants out of the ‘story’, and his only connection to the mess should be watching over the modern!Mark he accidentally involved and whatever egos he knows, right? So then why does he still hold onto the belief that he’ll find peace if he gets his body back? Why does he feel he has to dress well instead of dressing in warm, comfortable clothes that would help lessen any potential pains? These are ties that still keep him connected to the ‘story’, whether he likes it or not. Breaking from these will help him move on, though he doesn’t realise these hold him back. Not only that, he’s almost replaced the Actor in the original role - fitting when his soul is technically linked to that body. He carries the burden of pains, the desire to be left alone, and the want to pass on and find peace.

-

3. The Younger Seer Twin, and the Consequences of that.

Both Dante and Celine had the magic skills required to interact with the world beyond. For Dante, he could see spirits very clearly. When he and Celine were children, they used to chat with some ghosts they met, as she could hear them better than he could. At first, the parents and staff assumed they were talking to imaginary friends, but the family were unimpressed when they realised the truth. With a bad history of the occult in the family tree, both twins were discouraged from continuing. It was at this point that Dante stopped training. He had natural talent, but it was undeveloped. Why else was he disappointed rather than surprised in his sister confessing her training in the occult? As a result, he has some pros and cons when he aided in the séance later:

Cons: - Untrained. Was not protected from outside influence properly, and would be unable to defend himself. - Vulnerable to possession and outside manipulation/ghostly influence (will clarify)

Pros: - Better vessel to hold the stronger power. Had the entity taken him instead, it would have been able to leave. - Natural talent. He learned to not notice ghosts, but he’d be able to see them if he focused on the idea. - Working with Celine allows them to be a powerful duo (assuming Celine set the required boundaries to keep them both safe).

To focus on one con in particular. Since Dante didn’t have enough training to keep himself grounded and protected, he was a little more susceptible to ghostly influences than he ought to be when he was alive. The presence of an angry ghost could make him more irritable, while a lamenting ghost might have others surprised that tears were falling down his face. You could actually see this affect Dante during WKM. The best example is that he’s easily convinced there’s a storm outside, yet steps out multiple times into a beautiful, sunny day. Not once does he consider the idea of leaving.

On the topic of ‘consequences’, I think I’ve mentioned before that Dante didn’t die in the house. His soul was simply tossed out. That’s why Celine (who had died) had to go to such lengths to protect him. A living soul in the unforgiving place that is the void would have been pounced on by the darker creatures that lived deep within. Not only that, he died in that void, which further complicated matters for him, turning him into a ‘living ghost’, so to speak.

-

4. Miscellaneous human headcanons!

* As a human, Dante had a HORRIBLE temper, but no one knew about it. He grew up seeing Celine snap in frustration and get in trouble for it. As the son, he was encouraged to be courteous and polite, but ultimately it made him bottle up his negative feelings. While the modern cycle (AKA the modern Damien I normally write) has good patience but might briefly snap, Dante’s temper was EXPLOSIVE when it got the best of him. It was a rare sight, but it was truly a moment. If anything, it was almost like he was briefly possessed by a demon. Now doesn’t that sound like a headline in a newspaper that we saw somewhere...? (This also means that modern!Dante struggling with some emotions is a direct consequence of this)

*Another issue with this was that Dante seems ‘closed off’ to those that he didn’t know too well. He keeps his cards close to his chest, but it meant that people who worked with him for months would not know a lot about him. (But those that do know him well know he can be a little bit of a smartass)

* He didn’t trust Abe. During the poker night, he was polite, but couldn’t shake the feeling that something was ‘off’. It was only amplified when the detective began acting strange the next day during the investigation. If the House had let Dante find the investigation room, it would have caused a confrontation, I’m sure of it.

* He came from a very good family, one that had good money and reputation in the city he grew up in. It’s how he was able to learn instruments, dances for social parties, and other important skills. All to be a perfect young man in the eyes of society.

* Dante was essentially trained to be a lawyer to continue the family legacy from when he was a child as the only son of the family. He didn’t have much of a choice growing up about what he wanted to do, especially when they realised at a young age that he was academically bright. Going into politics was also something the family ‘encouraged’ to keep in the good circles. Dante was lucky that he found satisfaction in the career. But if you had asked him what his dream career was when he was a child (or what he would do if he wasn’t a lawyer/mayor), he wouldn’t be able to answer you. He was never allowed the luxury to imagine that possibility.

* He was also encouraged to keep his distance from others. According to his family, it was only good to be physically affectionate with someone when he was married to them, but he was known to hug the ‘gang’ in his younger days. It is partly why modern Dante has such an issue with touch.

* Dante LOVED the snow. Winter was his favourite time of year, but he was always interested in travelling to somewhere with snow. He adored how peaceful the world looked under a blanket of snow.

* He’s sensible when it comes to gambling games, but he’s a little ambitious when it comes to games that don’t have money attached (example, playing poker with poker chips instead of money). His legal training makes it that he’s good at keeping a straight face, but his university friend is better at it.

[falseroar]

Is This Your Card? Part 17: The Groundskeeper

((Abe takes the attorney outside in search of this groundskeeper they claim to have seen, determined to put some distance between his partner and the seer. But the groundskeeper’s warnings come far too late to stop what happens next. (This part includes a few references to Silver and Peppermint and Silent Watch.)

Warning: implied off-screen character deaths and a lot of angst. This post is also on the longer side! I had thought about trying to split it, but there wasn’t a good enough place to split it (plus other reasons).

Link to Part 16: Alone With the Seer))

Abe leaned against the railing in the hallway, eyes locked on the closed door and doing his best to try and ignore the man standing near it. Damien seemed to be doing the same, as the silence stretched on minute after minute with neither one making a move to break it.

Celine. Just what Abe needed, another wildcard to add another unwanted layer to this whole situation. A wildcard who claimed she could figure out what was going on here, after turning the whole house against his partner in the space of seconds.

Abe ran a hand over his face as he recalled that moment at the table when the attorney discovered the second card stuck to the death card. Mark’s card they were forced to claim as their own, if they didn’t want to be outed as a werewolf.

Mirror mirror, on the wall,

Watch as I betray them all.

What the hell was that supposed to mean? Even knowing that it was meant for Mark didn’t help make it any clearer. So far it looked like the only one here who had been betrayed was the actor, who apparently didn’t even get a card to helpfully explain why someone in particular might want him dead.

Still, not hard to see why nearly everyone at the table was so quick to be suspicious of the attorney, to the point he had gone along with the flow and spit out the first thing that came to mind while keeping his own suspicions close to his chest. Now though, Abe winced at the memory of how he had called them gorgeous to their face. What was that supposed to be, an accusation or a confession?

Even with his silent panic over his choice of words, Abe had noticed how both the Colonel and the mayor had failed to speak up in that moment. Why was that?

He glanced at Damien out of the corner of his eye, but the man stood there with his head bowed, cane passing back and forth between his hands in a repetitive, thoughtless motion that suggested his mind was hundreds of miles away at the moment.

Had he been afraid to stand up for the attorney in front of everyone, in front of his sister? Or had he been trying to hide his own doubts and suspicions?

And then there was the Colonel. Abe knew, with every fiber of his being, that the Colonel killed Markiplier. It was the only answer that made any sense, but with Celine’s sudden appearance he felt that certainty surrounded by pits of unknowns.

Celine claimed to know all about the arcane arts, and she certainly seemed familiar enough with those Tarot cards everyone was laying out on the table earlier. Enough to pick and choose the cards that would supposedly fit this little game the sender of those cards had started. And as Mark’s (ex-)wife, she had to have some kind of history with his friends and staff, judging by the way the Colonel and the District Attorney had looked at her when she entered the house.

And if she was half the seer she claimed to be, it would explain how those cards knew things supposedly no one else should know, like the names of all of his partners. She definitely knew about the attorney, Abe hadn’t missed how she hinted as much every other word she said to them, or how his partner kept avoiding her gaze, had flinched away at the first sound of her voice…

Maybe letting them go in there with her alone had been just as bad an idea as Abe suspected. Straining, he could just barely hear their voices, although without the attorney’s hearing he couldn’t make out any individual words.

“But you know what they say: Never trust a seer.”

The memory of those words hit Abe like a delayed ton of bricks, and he must have made some kind of noise judging by the way the mayor suddenly looked up in surprise. But Abe didn’t have time to worry about him, as he remembered the words of the werewolf who had terrorized the city just months ago, lamenting how “her” advice had steered him toward running into Abe instead of the promised DA.

An unknown seer who wanted his partner dead…

Abe was already moving toward the door when the voices on the other side went from a low murmur to shouting, followed by the crash of something falling over, and Damien was right there with him when he wrenched the door open and took in the sight of the District Attorney standing over their fallen chair while Celine slammed her hands down on the table in between them, the sound punctured by the hard thump of something metallic striking into the wood, her next words stopped short by the sound of her brother’s voice.

“Celine? What is all of this?”

“Get out! We are not done here,” Celine said, pointing at the door.

“Celine, I think this is quite enough,” Damien started, but Celine slammed her hands down on the table again, causing one of the lit candles to topple over and promptly go out. And again, Abe heard that metallic sound and followed it to her hands, to the flicker of light reflecting off of the silver medallion hanging around one palm.

“It’s enough when I say it’s enough!”

Damien just stood there, seemingly shocked by his sister’s sudden and unexpected anger, but Abe was already at his partner’s side, quietly urging them to follow with a hand on their elbow as he guided them quickly out of the dark room and into the light of the hallway.

“What did she do to you?” he asked.

They did not resist his pull and let him walk them out despite Celine’s protests, but Abe noticed that their eyes failed to meet his own, their other arm wrapped tight around their middle as though fighting off a chill even though their skin felt warm to the touch even through the fabric of their shirt.

“We need to find the gardener,” they said softly before wincing at the conversation going on in the room behind them, even though Abe could no longer hear what the siblings were saying.

Gardener? That didn’t even start to answer his questions, but right now Abe thought getting his partner as far away from that seer as possible was the priority here, preferably without her realizing he was onto her game.

“Butler! Butler!” he shouted and the man in question appeared at the end of the hall. “What do you know about a gardener?”

“Well, we have a groundskeeper, George,” Benjamin said slowly, baffled by the unexpected question. “But he only works weekdays.”

But his buddy the chef was saying a different story with his not at all casual lean against the wall and blatant attempts to pretend like he wasn’t part of this conversation happening inches away from him.

“Looks like your friend here may disagree with that notion,” Abe said, getting too close to the chef who made the mistake of feigning ignorance.

“Chef!” Benjamin said, “If you know something, for god’s sake spit it out!”

The chef looked between the hunter and the butler before sighing and raising his hands in defeat. “Okay, alright, you’re twisting my arm. George has been living on the grounds for years.”

“What?!” Benjamin exclaimed, apparently just as unaware of this turn of events as Abe.

“And you just now thought to share that information with us?” Abe asked. Another person on the grounds, another member of the staff who could have known about the master keys, yet another wildcard being dropped in Abe’s lap when he already had too much to deal with as it was. “For all we know, he could be the murderer!”

He spoke without thinking, the lash of thunder coming just before Celine caught up with them, Damien uselessly trailing along behind her.

“For the last time, stop saying that word!”

Abe glared at her, noting how the attorney kept their distance and refused to look at either of the twins. Or him, for that matter. What had happened in that room?

Before he could wonder for long, the chef spoke up again. “Look, George…just tends to the grounds, man. He’s a hermit.”

“I don’t care what he is!” Abe snarled, a bit harsher than he meant to at the unintentional reminder of the cards in his pocket.

“Look, all this arguing is getting us nowhere,” Damien interrupted. “Just go outside and talk to this George and be done with it!”

Getting outside of this house sounded like a hell of a good idea right now, but something about Damien’s words made the hunter pause. “Hold on a sec. You’re not coming with us?”

Damien stuttered, looking from him to his sister to the attorney. “I-I need to stay here with Celine.”

“I don’t need help. Especially from you!” Celine shot back, confirming Abe’s suspicion that the twins’ private talk a moment ago hadn’t gone well.

“Our friend is dead!” Damien shouted, and even Celine shrank back at his outburst. “I’m sorry. I just need answers to all of this. I already lost one friend today, I don’t want to lose another.”

Abe watched him closely, but Damien didn’t look at the attorney when he said it, and they didn’t look at him.

“Fine,” Celine said, looking at her brother with something new in her expression. Concern, maybe? “But I need to stay here.”

“Fine with me,” Damien answered.

“Fine, good, yeah, whatever, who cares,” Abe said with a roll of his eyes. Damien wasn’t his concern here, after all. Instead, he turned to the chef and said, “Alright, you’re coming with me. Partner, you too.”

They nodded, even though they watched the twins head back to Celine’s little séance room out of the corner of their eye, which was good because Abe wasn’t in the mood to argue right now. He needed to talk to them, in private if he could swing it, and outside was his best shot at that. After they had questioned this George guy, of course.

“Hold on a sec…” Abe said, slowly realizing his headcount was coming up short. “We’re missing someone. Who had eyes on the Colonel?”

“Well, he appeared tired,” Benjamin explained. “He grabbed a snack and went back to his room.”

“I’m sure he did,” Abe said. Maybe the guilt was finally getting to the man. “And with any luck, he’ll stay there. Come on.”

He started for the stairs and realized that not everyone was following him. He looked back and saw his partner just standing there, one hand still pressed against their side while their eyes were on the closed door between them and Damien and Celine.

“Come on, partner! Come on!”

They lagged behind as the Chef led the way downstairs, his grumbling not pausing for a second as he stopped to pick up a lantern before walking outside.

How was it already dark out? Abe wondered to himself as he stopped at a distance from the door, barely sparing a glimpse at the cloudy and starless night sky overhead as he waited for the attorney to catch up.

“Are you okay?” he asked, and once again their eyes avoided his.

“I’m fine,” they muttered, like he couldn’t see the hand still pressed against their side or hear their labored breath.

“Like hell you are,” Abe said, reaching out to grab their hand only to get a brief, cut off yell of pain from the attorney before he pulled back. “What was that? What did she do to you?”

Reluctantly, perhaps sensing that he wasn’t about to let this go, they reached down and pulled up the side of their shirt, just far enough to reveal an already swelling burn visible even in the darkness outside of the house. A burn roughly the same size as that silver medallion Abe had seen in the seer’s hand.

“I’ll kill her,” Abe growled, and the attorney dropped their shirt in order to grab his arm before he could go back inside.

“Abe. She didn’t—”

“Oh, she knew exactly what she was doing,” Abe snarled, not caring that the chef had stopped up ahead, holding up his lantern and clearly waiting to see what was holding them up. “You can’t tell me she didn’t know!”

“No, there was something going on in that room, like there was something else there.  Something…” they paused, brow knitting as they failed to find the words. Whatever had happened in that room, whether it was ‘something else there’ or the burn of the silver, seemed to have left them confused, disorientated.

Ripe picking for someone who had it out for them.

“As much as she hates me, I’ve never seen Celine lose control like that. It’s like...”

They trail off, the words once again failing them, but Abe finds his eyes drawn toward the bruise on their eye. But that wasn’t the same, he told himself, although the pit in his stomach said otherwise.

“We need to see the groundskeeper,” they said again, gesturing toward the waiting chef. “When I was in that room, I saw—I saw us talking to him, and it felt like he was saying something important.”

“Wait, you saw us?” Abe asked, walking in step with the attorney as they began to move forward. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

They shrugged and then winced, apparently having disturbed their burn with the movement. “Celine asked me to try to see something. This was the only thing that hadn’t happened yet.”

“What else did you see?” Abe asked, but their lips just pressed tight together, their eyes darting away to avoid his stare and instead lingering on the chef, who commented on how slow they were before continuing on, around the outside of the house until they spotted the lone figure standing in the middle of a flowerbed, shovel in hand.

“Hey, buddy! Hands where I can see them!” Abe called ahead as he approached, gun already raised. After how this day had gone so far, he wasn’t about to take any chances.

The groundskeeper paused in his digging and rested his hands on the handle of the shovel, without a trace of concern about the gun pointed his way. He was an older man, the wrinkles and shadows on his face partially hidden by the hat he wore, but his eyes were sharp as they met Abe’s and he said, “Hey, my hands are where they’re supposed to be. Unless, of course, you’d like to dig the hole for yourself.”

“What the hell are you doing here?” Abe asked.

“I’m the groundskeeper, I keep the ground alright?” the groundskeeper, George, answered, a trace of annoyance showing up in his voice. “I’d say look around. The ground is pretty well kept, don’t you think?”

The chef spoke up with, “I’m sorry, man, this hunter made me bring him out here.”

“You shut up!” Abe said, earning a slight hiss from the attorney that he ignored. He was tired, he was scared for himself and his already injured partner, and he just wanted some answers for once. Was that too much to ask for? “How do you not know about the murders going on in this house?”

There it was again, the thunder.

“A hunter, eh?” George asked, not even flinching at the sound that left the other three looking up in case some more might follow. “Well I can tell you, there ain’t much out here to hunt.”

Abe wasn’t sure if it was his imagination or if the groundskeeper placed an extra emphasis on the words “out here,” but he was tired of beating around the bush. “Why exactly are you digging a hole out here? And why shouldn’t we suspect you for taking part in the death of your employer?”

He laughed. George actually laughed at his question before answering with a shake of his head, “Employers come and go! Some die, some don’t, some are murdered, some are not. It’s none of my business! I’m digging this hole for a burst water pipe, if that’s alright with your gracelessness!”

“See I told you,” the chef chimed in. “George didn’t do nothin’!”

“See?” George asked, the blade of his shovel striking the stone of the patio. “I just did nothing.”

The attorney, after a long look at the silent sky overhead, asked, “You said some of your employers are—some are killed? Has something like this happened here before?”

At that, George fixed the attorney with a long, steady stare before he said, “Aye, not that it’s any of my business what goes on in that house. I’ve got enough sense to stay away from what’s in there, and if any of you had sense of your own, you’d do the same.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Abe asked, feeling his grip reflexively tighten on his gun.

“You know, don’t you?” George said, directing the question toward the attorney. “You’ve got the look about you of someone who’s run into one of those things from the other side. They’re like…”

“Powerful entities,” the attorney continued, surprising Abe. Even with the light from the chef’s lantern and the exterior lights around the edge of the house, their expression was difficult to make out as they said, “Not quite part of this reality that sometimes…look for a way in.”

George nodded and pointed at the house behind them. “And that house is one big gaping doorway just waiting to happen.”

The chef looked back at the house uneasily, but Abe couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of his voice as he said, “Forgive me for not taking you at face value. But we’re all gonna come inside, we’re gonna sit down, and have a nice lovely chat. And get to the bottom of this before I lose my mind and start dabbling in murder myself!”

He didn’t know what this George was playing at, or what Celine had been pumping into his partner’s mind, but in all of his years hunting Abe had never heard of these “entities” or whatever these things were supposed to be, and by this point he could care less about the crack of thunder overhead.

“Now you listen to me, sonny,” George said, his voice deadly calm. “It’s been fifteen years since I’ve been in that house, and I am not about to break that winning streak now. I don’t care how many murders there’ve been. I ain’t going near that house!”

He fixed his eyes on the attorney as he added, “However, there is one reason. One incident. One manifestation. That will get me into that mad house.”

He paused, and Abe could see in his partner’s eyes that they knew exactly what he was talking about, their unsteady frame growing stiffer at his words as the breath seemed to catch in their chest.

George nodded. “You had better pray to God that reason never comes to pass.”

A clap of thunder, louder than any that had come before it, broke the silence that followed his words. The lightning seemed to carry on until Abe and the others realized that the light was spilling out of the house, out of every door and window until it lit up the night sky like a supernova.

“That there’s the reason!” George bellowed, his shovel clattering to the ground as he tore off toward the house.

Abe took off after him, but to his surprise the attorney sprinted past both of them, the burn on their side apparently forgotten as they ran full tilt into the house. By the time he and the groundskeeper were inside, the chef huffing and puffing somewhere behind them, the attorney was already halfway up the stairs and showing no signs of slowing.

That is, until they discovered the source of the bizarre light and the roaring sound that accompanied it, like the sound of tornado-force winds trying to push their way out of the single open door at the end of the hall, out of which flooded the blinding light that at first obscured the figure silhouetted in the door frame.

“Celine?”

The District Attorney’s voice was faint, nearly drowned out by the wave of noise, but Abe could hear the disbelief and rising panic as they shouted, “Damien!”

But there was no sign of him, and the woman standing in the door did not visibly react to the sound of her own name. Even from this far away, Abe could feel the sheer wrongness of the figure, as if everything from her stance to the slight, terrifying smile tugging at the corner of her lips to the vacant yet menacing eyes all screamed at his soul to get back. He had faced enough monsters, enough terrible things that should have stayed in nightmares to recognize the body’s instinctive desire to get away and stay alive, but the attorney took another step forward.

“Don’t!” George shouted. “It’s already too late!”

Abe wasn’t sure if they couldn’t hear him or if they just didn’t care, but the second he saw them start to move he surged forward and wrapped his arms around them. It took all of his strength to hold the struggling attorney back while George, together with the chef and the butler who had followed the noise and light, ran to the door.

The attorney screamed Damien’s name, swore at Celine to snap out of it, begging every second while they scratched and pushed at Abe, staring helplessly as Celine—or whatever it was looking out of her eyes—disappeared behind the closing door, which apparently required all three men working together to force it shut.

“The key!” George shouted, but before the chef or the butler could move, Abe reached into his pocket and tossed them one of the master keys, which he immediately used to lock the door.

In that moment, the attorney twisted, and for one, terrible second Abe thought they might transform right here in the middle of the hallway in front of everyone, before a blow to the back of his head sent him and in turn the attorney stumbling forward.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” the Colonel asked, his voice low and dangerous. “What was that, what happened to Celine? To Damien?!”

“Your friends are already dead,” George said, not even looking at him as he drew a string out of his pocket and began making elaborate loops and knots around both the handle and the key still in the lock. “The best we can hope for is to get out of here before it takes the rest of us with them.”

And Abe thought he was bad at breaking bad news.

In front of him, all of the wind seemed to escape from the attorney, and whatever force had been holding up until now seemed to give out as they staggered forward before catching their self. “No…we can’t just—No!”

They looked back over their shoulder at Abe, and he could see the desperation in their eyes as they silently begged him to say something or do something, to prove the groundskeeper was wrong.

“This is bullshit!” the Colonel exclaimed instead, stepping forward to fill the space between the attorney and the groundskeeper, who was still absorbed in what Abe recognized as a binding. “They’re in there, we just have to get rid of whatever that…thing was! A—a spell, or an exorcism maybe!”

George laughed, a short, dry, cracked sound. “You think no one’s tried that before? They carried the last guy who tried out of here in a shoe box. No, I’m getting away from here, and if any of had half a brain you’d do the same!”

With that, George turned away from the door and walked past them all, ignoring the Colonel’s angry sputter and shout of “Don’t walk away from me!” as well as Abe’s attempt to stop him, to ask for some kind of explanation.

The chef was right there behind George with a cry of, “I quit!”, not even bothering to try and not bump into the Colonel on his way out.

The Colonel swore at their retreating backs and sprang toward the door, ignoring Abe’s warning only to draw back his hand with a shout the moment his fingers made contact with the door.

“It’s a binding spell, you can’t just open it that easily,” Abe explained while the Colonel hissed and stuck his fingers in his mouth to cool them. “And what exactly were you planning on doing when you opened that door? We have no idea how to handle that thing!”

The butler, who was still standing near the door, placed a hand on the Colonel’s shoulder and added, “I know things seem far beyond your control right now, but it’s the same for all of us here. Whatever is going on here is beyond any of us to deal with, clearly. I shall take my leave, and I implore you to do the same.”

The Colonel slapped away his hand and snarled the words, “I won’t let…my friends…die in this godforsaken house! And if you all are too much of a coward to the same, you had best leave before I kill you myself!”

He directed his words at all three of those who were left, but Abe suspected most of the anger was directed at him in particular, like he thought the hunter was holding back something, like he had any more of an idea of what was going on here than anyone else.

“Now you hold on a second!” Abe shouted, grabbing his shoulder. He couldn’t let the Colonel get away, not now. “I’ve got more questions—”

“Get your hands off me!” The Colonel pushed him away and continued walking, muttering under his breath about finding his own answers.

“What the hell is going on here?” Abe asked, but the butler had no response to offer and the attorney…

They were leaning heavily against the wall now, one hand to their side and their breath coming in sharp gasps that Abe knew couldn’t be blamed entirely on the desperate run up here.

“Partner,” he said, then when he moved to stand in front of them, hands on their shoulders, “Y/N. Look at me.”

They didn’t. Their eyes were down, but he could see them lingering on the door in their peripheral vision just as easily as he could see the tears welling up and threatening to spill over with every pained breath.

Abe hesitated, aware of the butler standing nearby and the sound of the Colonel’s footsteps getting farther away with every passing second. A hundred things he could say or do ran through his head only to leave nothing, no clue where to even start.

“We can—I’ll make this right, somehow. Just…just take care of yourself until I get back, okay?”

He waited, but there was no response, no sign that they had even heard him. Instead, he just squeezed their shoulders before letting go and backing away, waiting until he was out of their line of sight before he silently gestured for the butler to keep an eye on them. At Benjamin’s nod, he turned and took off down the hall in the direction he last saw the Colonel.

Celine, Damien, this “entity,” whoever or whatever was pulling the strings here, none of it made any sense and Abe had no idea where to even begin unraveling all of it except starting with the one fact he knew for sure: Mark was dead, and he knew who pulled the trigger.

He couldn’t let the Colonel get away, not now.

((End of Part 17. Thank you for reading. We’re officially in Chapter 4 of WKM territory now.

Link to Part 18: Voices in the Halls.

Tagging: @silver-owl413 @skyewardlight @withjust-a-bite @blackaquokat @catgirlwarrior @neverisadork @luna1350 @oh-so-creepy @weirdfoxalley @95fangirl @lilalovesinternet-l @thepoolofthedead @a-bit-dapper @randomartdudette @geekymushroom @cactipresident @hotcocoachia @purple-anxiety-blog @shyinspiredartist @avispate @missksketch ))

[wraithisright]

i don’t usually post discourse, but can we just agree to leave the actor / actor stans alone? we don’t know anything about him, really, all of his supposed  ‘ sins ’  were only told to us. all we had to go by in wkm for how ‘bad’ he was were the words of the colonel, and the words of damien.

the man who shot us, and the man who was puppetted to convince us to let the manor entity in. there are allusions in wkm, if you look at the pinboard, ( ‘local mayor secretly a demon?’ )  if you look around -- that this is a dramatic retelling of a story, anyway, rather than a perfectly accurate one.

it takes place somewhere between 1920 and 1950, as mark said in his explanation stream -- little buddy shouldn’t exist, the jims shouldn’t exist, but they were necessary to show parts of the story you wouldn’t otherwise see.

it’s a story, like everything else. not a perfectly accurate documentary.

and as for the damien short? there’s a good deal of evidence to support the fact that the actor in that isn’t the actor.  but these things stand out the most.

1.) he has damien’s cane. the last hand we see that in is darkiplier’s 2.) damien is the only skit on the channel that has no irl elements to it. not a single one. 3.) it’s called ‘damien’? all of the other skits, again, have mark’s name in them -- except for mother loving warfstache -- 4.) mother loving warfstache doesn’t have mark in it, neither does damien. 5.) the ‘mark’ we see speaks nonsense, basically just says whatever might piss damien off -- “my humble upbringing”? according to wkm, mark and the colonel have been living in this house since they were children, a mansion -- mark isn’t that delusional. 6.) he implies he ‘cursed celine’ somehow, which again, goes against the whole ‘he didn’t want to hurt celine’ established in mark’s explanation of wkm 7.) the actor flickers between red and blue during the entire skit?? like someone else we know?? 8.) ‘who’s the real darkiplier’? later: ‘i just said that to fuck with ya’ll’ ---  this entire thing, was designed to fuck with us.  9.) at some point we have thought, every member of who killed markiplier, was dark. when wkm came out, everyone thought damien was dark. when the end was revealed, people thought dark was celine because of the whole ‘don’t trust the seer’ thing, and her aggression etc. now people think mark is dark. 10.) we’re forgetting entirely about the house entity, this thing that manipulated, everyone into doing it’s bidding, canonically puppeted the souls of damien and celine in order to trick you. 11.) THE TRUE DARKIPLIER IS THE ENTITY OF MARKIPLIER MANOR 12.) dark is a social manipulator --   the manor is a social manipulator. 13.) the mark you see in damien is a puppet created from probably --  a part of the original mark, at Best, and celine and damien’s worst thoughts about him. just like the celine and damien you see at the end of wkm, it wasn’t real. it was designed to trick damien and perhaps celine out. 14.) a huge part of social manipulation? gaslighting.

            if you argue / comment in reblog on this post disagreeing i will literally take a cleaver to your fingers.

[tiredeldritchhorror]

undefined

World Burn - Mean Girls

Full story below

So, I was thinking a while back about Our dear old District Attorney and how awful it mustve been in the mirror. But then I thought about it, Did we (the d/a) figure out after that Actor Mark had planned this, were we just stuck in a mirror after losing all our friends? Did we lose hope when hours past and “Damien” still hadn’t returned? Did we scream and shout and curse out everyone except A!Mark? Do we still consider A!Mark a friend since we don’t figure about his plan? 

We know A!Mark took Damien’s body and left, and Dark took our body. What if A!Mark came back after all those years? What if he wanted to hurt the Colonel and Celine and even Damien more? What if he came back and found us? What if he used our hopelessness and gullibleness to trick us into believing that Damien really left us because he didnt care and that Wilford didnt feel remorse for killing us? (even tho we the audience know he did since he spent all night looking at our body) 

So A!Mark makes us resent and despise Wilford and Dark, and then he says he can get us out, We of course trust him and so he allows a pair of journalists stay the night in the Manor (The Jims) they are able to release us from the mirror, once we’re out he promises revenge against Dark and we agree, not knowing we’re being used. We have the power to make Wilford lose it and cause turmoil within Dark. Im certain Dark would NEVER tell any other ego about this as an ego might use it to find a weakness in Dark, so we spill the story and the way we spin it makes it even farther out of Dark’s favor. Damien is heartbroken to see his old friend so angry at him, while Celine sees right through, shes a seer and can probably see to some extent A!Mark’s influence on us. Maybe she recognizes the way A!Mark tries to make us think? He tells us how awful an action what they did was and how they dont deserve happiness. Dark however is made up of Damien, Celine, and the entity and the feelings Damien has for us means Dark has a soft spot for us as well. Celine may have thought us expendable but she doesnt want anyone to be used by A!Mark so it makes Dark protective. and The entity is made of darkness and temptation, but mixed with Celine and Damien it becomes more human and sees the D/A as theirs to keep. But the D/A is good with words and has so much anger that it stuns Dark to just stand there in slight fear. 

but yeah thats all i got

[mayelamker]

🔮?

Aaaah, Celine~~

I have to admit that I used to have very mixed feelings about her because of how she was presented and introduced. The whole “don’t trust the seer” thing, y’know. I didn’t like the whole cheating thing either and that made me a little sour for a while.

There’s a whole side of the fandom who puts all the blame on her for WKM, which I think is unfair, cause you know, everyone had a part in this. Celine has a manipulative side, yes, but they all do. She’s ambitious, no doubt. She did come off as cold during WKM, but seeing her interact with her brother in DAMIEN was refreshing and she did grow on me. 

All in all:

I love Celine, her character is a complex and very interesting one, far from being all white or all black 

also i lied, REAL first impression was my uselss bi ass making heart eyes

[gemstone9]

Is no one going to talk about...?

“You don’t know what I’ve done... the people I’ve used to keep you alive!” - Celine

Dont Trust the Seer?

Was Celine is the one that kicked the DA out of the body so she could keep Damien alive?

[lamiasluck]

When Faith Breaks

(A story inspired by the game Faith and priestiplier content)

Summary: Damien has accepted God's calling and went to pursue his new role as a humble servant of the Lord. His life as a priest has been a rewarding one thus far, but it hasn't been without its hardships. The Devil taunts him to test his faith, tempting him to fall into darkness. 

His greatest test of faith will soon be upon the priest. The Devil has tempted his sister and made her fall to darkness, and it's up to Damien to save her soul.

Characters: Damien, Celine, and William

Tags: Priest Damien, demons, religion and other religious symbolism, demonic possession, character death, angst

Words: 2372

Read on AO3!

-

My flesh and heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and portion forever.

- Psalm 73:26

Damien clutched his rosary closer to his chest as he stepped through the remnants of what used to be Celine’s house. Unsturdy floorboards creaked beneath his feet, the stone walls cracked and threatened to fall onto the growing piles of rubble. Through the sounds of settling destruction and his laboured breathing, he heard her. He heard Celine.

“En nomine Patris et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti.” He did the sign of the cross as he began his blessings.

He knew he shouldn’t have left her on her own. He knew he shouldn’t have listened to her insistent cries for him to follow his call from God, that he should move out as soon as possible to teach his preachings. He had always discouraged her and her… work. Her blasphemous rituals to a chaotic entity. What she did was dangerous, but he didn’t know it was this dangerous.

It all happened so quickly. At one moment, Damien was conducting his usual ceremonies, then before he knew it, he was being pulled aside to be informed of the unfortunate news of his only family.

The devil works with servants.

To say that the ministry discouraged his mission would be an understatement. This case was so grand, after all. Reports said the house nearly blew up and crumbled completely. Having the church’s youngest priest on the case would surely cause trouble, so they had scheduled their best to work on the house at noon. Damien went by himself at nightfall the day before. He needed to help, this wasn’t just another case. It was his sister, it was Celine.

Why didn’t God heal her?

Damien shook those thoughts out of his head. It wasn’t the Lord’s fault, it was his. He should have guided Celine to the light while he could. He should have prohibited her actions. He should of… he should of…

“I will say of the Lord: He is my refuge and my fortress…” Damien murmured. His knuckles were white as he gripped his rosary tighter, the cross digging into his skin. The very air lingering around the house felt… wrong. Damien breathed in the Devil’s breath, but exhaled the Lord’s blessings. “My God, in Him I will trust.”

Childhood memories began to mix with the Good Book as Damien blessed the remnants of the halls he and Celine used to skip through. Their childhood home, ruined by the Devil’s touch. Though a home is where the family is, and Damien wasn’t going to let the Devil take her too.

“Damien~ I can hear you…” A familiar voice echoed through the house, alluring in its tone. Damien shuddered as an unseen energy rippled through his body. Tempting him to stop, tempting him to give in. He continued to walk closer nonetheless.

“I shall not be afraid of the terror in the night-”

“Your words hurt!” Her voice shrieked as he drew closer. “You’re hurting your big sister, Damien! How dare you?!”

“N-Nor the… the evil that walketh in darkness…” He couldn’t stop his voice from trembling. He bit back the tears that threatened to fall alongside the rumble.

Why her? God, why take everything I have? Is this a test of my faith?

Soon enough, Damien stood before a door that glowed a vibrant shade of red and blue. Celine’s seance chamber. Compared to the rest of the house, the surrounding walls and door stood strong as if they weren’t holding back the wrath of the Devil.

Have I not proven myself worthy thus far?

“Because I have made the Lord my refuge…” Damien hesistanted. He could hear her laughing. As he gripped the doorknob, he could have sworn that it made his skin burn at the touch. “Because I have set my love upon Him… Therefore will He deliver me.”

The second Damien swung open the door, the air was knocked out of his lungs. His eyes instinctively shut closed as he stumbled back at the shear force of magic pushing him back. Eyes slowly blinked open and Damien tried to steady his quicken breathing to no avail. All of the seer’s ritual ingredients were spread out around the room. The mark of the Devil, a pentagram, was neatly drawn onto the ground with chalk. Celine stood in the middle of the circle, tall and proud. Her smile was too wide, predatory eyes staring down Damien like a coyote to a deer. This wasn’t his sister.

May God guide us to the light.

“Celine…” Damien stepped into the room. The golden cross on his rosary made his sister visibly flinch. “Celine… what did you do?”

“I did what I had to do.”

“I shall call upon Him, and He will answer me.” He raised his rosary against the demon with a trembling arm. Various rites clearly agitated the demon, but Celine still stood strong. She hissed a foreign tongue at her brother's cross. “You don’t belong here, demon. Release her!”

“What do you mean, Damien? I’m right here.” Celine sounded like a horrid parody of herself. Alongside her comforting tone was an underlying echo of something primitive. A gravely inhuman voice spoke alongside Celine’s.

The priest’s chest ached as he stared at the shell of his sister. Surely, her pride wasn’t still telling her that she had everything under control? Surely, the wicked smile that dawned on her face was the work of the Devil.

The Lord’s words didn’t seem to be affecting her.

“He will be with me in trouble. He will deliver me and honour me.” Damien touched the sides of his face with his free hand and noticed they were wet with tears. A broken sob made it past his lips as Celine tauntingly laughed at him.

“What’s wrong with my baby brother? Do you still need your sister to coddle you?!”

The door slammed shut behind Damien. He instinctively flinched back at the sound, only for Celine to grab him and throw him into the corner of the room with inhuman strength. Damien clutched the rosary tighter as his back hit the wall. The cross pierced his skin and a small, steady stream of blood dripped from his palm. Celine’s smile only grew wider at the display before her.

“Vade… vade post me, Satana,” Damien spoke the word of the Lord with a shaking voice.

May my blood and tears be a sign to give me strength… please, Lord, give me strength…

“Exaudi Domine Patri.”

“Your God is a false prophet! Just listen to me… listen to me…” Celine swayed like a puppet on a puppetmaster’s strings. “You’ll be powerful, just like your big sister.” Celine stared Damien down with the fires of hell within her eyes, her body glowed a vibrant shade of red. She clenched her fists and her seance materials began to levitate off the floor with the same red glow surrounding each object.

“Ce-Celine…” Damien stared at his sister’s glowing eyes, desperately looking the compassionate emotion she used to look at him with. He found nothing but anger. “Let me help you!” Damien shrieked. He closed his eyes, letting his tears and blood fall onto the floor. Celine stared at the ground where drops of his blood stained in a small pool of red.

For a brief moment, it was quiet.

The objects dropped to the ground with a synchronized thud.

For a brief moment, there wasn’t a horrid glow surrounding Celine.

Damien raised his rosary against his sister once more. Her cruel smile weakened to a puzzled expression.

For a brief moment, Damien saw a warm compassionate look within Celine’s eyes.

But it was only brief.

As quickly as Damien could blink, the anger returned. Celine smiled down at Damien before she started giggling. Soon enough, Celine was laughing hysterically at the priest, clutching her head in her hands as she doubled over in laughter.

“Oh, Damien… of course you can help me.” Were her tears shed because of her laughter? Or were they tears shed by her true self? She stepped closer to Damien, watching as he cowered into the corner in a tight ball. The priest muttered to the Lord frantically. He could beg, but would anyone answer his calls?

The Lord is supposed to answer my call.

Celine grabbed a fistful of Damien’s hair and tugged it harshly, forcing him to look at what she’s become. Damien screamed at the pain, hyperventilating in a silent plead for mercy. The Devil’s breath was suffocating.

“You’ll help me… you’ll help all of us…”

“Celine, what are you doing?!” The seer glowed once more and Damien felt his body burn from within, convulsing with the strength of the deepest pit of hell. “S-Stop-! Please, Celine you’re - It-It hurts! It hurts, it hurts, it hurts - Please stop! I - I, Please God help me-!”

Damien’s screams were never answered.

The Devil works with servants, each soul taken willingly or by force.

The ministry mourned the loss of their youngest prodigy, but they never found his body. However, the twisted seer’s body was found yards away from the house in a forest, assumedly after she took the life of her brother. Having left a trail of mutilated woodland creatures in what looked like a final tribute to the Devil. They arrived too late. There was a scheduled dismantling of the cursed house after they spewed their rites to the Lord.

Unbeknownst to the ministry, the seer breathed life into a new creation. She created a sin against God, only to throw him into the world with his new identity. Soon after, she left the world to join her chaotic deity. Her creation, her brother, wandered aimlessly as the very creature he swore to destroy. Without purpose, without dignity.

Damien felt out of place in his own body.

The Lord blessed him in the light, but the Devil cursed him to be surrounded by monochrome. His body cracked and ached continuously, his eyes fully black with the Devil’s void. Yet, he continued to search for answers through his torment.

God can still save me. I must keep faith in Him.

Even mentioning the Lord’s name added onto his perpetual pain. But he still continued to pray, he still continued to beg. His rosary was still clutched close to his chest, the beads made his skin burn with a dull reminder of his state.

“Vade post me, Satana… Exaudi Domine Patri…” The voice of the Devil echoed alongside his own. Each preaching made his throat sting as the words left his mouth.

He thought about returning to the ministry and begging his former superiors for help. Then he remembered how they treated demons like him. Demons deserved to be killed. Word would spread around quick, he’d rather die in isolation than bring more shame to his family’s name.

He prayed that Celine’s spirit found the light in the afterlife.

For now, Damien wandered without a destination. Spending weeks in what seemed to be an endless cycle of praying and pain. There was no rest for the likes of him, for where would he find peace in? His own family cursed him to an eternal limbo between worlds. Who should he be more afraid of: humans or demons? At this point, Damien was too afraid to learn the answer.

I’m sorry for my cowardice, my Lord. I’m sorry for my blasphemy.

Every so often, Damien would snap and go against God’s teachings. The sheer amount of power he was cursed with was strong enough to destroy villages. A simple priest like him couldn’t control the unsteady aura. His image would flicker between blue and red in a dangerously beautiful pattern, and his image would shake like a venomous snake warning off any life around it. There was barely time to process what was happening before he collapsed onto the ground in a fit of cries and screams. A powerful aura thrashed around him, breaking whatever, or whoever, in its wake. After the carnage, Damien would be forced to realize what he did. Time and time again.

He would leave without any witnesses. Frightened communities have officially began a hunt for his head. He didn’t blame them.

“Forgive me Father, for I am a sin…”

The demon cried tears of obsidian, kneeling before the almighty Lord. He prayed the beads on his rosary through the dull burn. The shine of the golden cross was unaffected by the harsh grey the Devil surrounded Damien in. But the light never purged him of his impurities.

“The Good Word hurts me, yet I beg for the light.”

I beg for mercy.

Quiet, but present footsteps made their way closer to Damien. He let them draw closer as he closed his eyes. Maybe an act of mercy would be to kill him. He wondered if death would hurt, though nothing could hurt more than this torture.

“There you are, Damien. I’ve been looking all over for you.” Damien heard a man speak from behind him. How did he know his name? A gentle hand was placed on his shoulder, but he still gasped and tensed under the touch. Through laboured breaths and closed eyes, he waited for the harsh pain of death. However, the man never hurt him.

“Kill me.” Damien didn’t want sympathy, he was tired. The man hummed with amusement, never removing his hand and instead massaging reassuring circles. Damien shuddered at the touch before an echoed sob rippled through him. “Please… it hurts…”

“Curious little thing.” The man spoke in a chipper tone, with an odd slur to his pronunciation. He has heard about a mysterious demon with the power of twenty men, but he didn’t expect this display of weakness. Razor sharp teeth scowled at the cross Damien was holding, claw-like hands digging into the smaller man’s shoulder. Surely that poisonous object was the reason for the other’s pain. “Why don’t I help you?”

“Please…”

Damien lays within the Devil’s grasp, begging for answers. He begged for a reality where he wasn’t depending on one of the Devil’s servants to help him. He wanted his family back, he wanted his life back.

God never saved his damned soul. He condemned him.

[alive-and-afraid]

Markiplier Lore, notes.

WARNING SPOILERS!! IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN WHO KILLED MARKIPLIER!!

So, I’m re-watching most of Marks lore stuff because of AHWM, and these are a bunch of interesting notes,tidbits and conversations from Who Killed Markiplier? ,that stood out to me. I hope they help! PS;there is a really good Game Theory episode on Marks lore stuff that you should watch if you haven’t already. Click Here!

Markiplier Lore   Who Killed Markipler?

Asshole Mark says-Life is for the living!, and who knows...I could be dea tommorow! (He knows?) Lightning flashes whenever they say "Murder". The butler says-I'll talk to the other guests. With you, Abe, the Mayor and the Chef in the same room. The only one left is the Colonel, one person, one guest. The Colonel doesn't seem that upset about Marks death. It says "KILL" in the top right corner of the "little buddy" camera next to where it says "SECURITY CAM" as if it should say KILL CAM Abe says- it's almost like this whole shindig of a hootnany was a ruse..." From Wilford "motherloving" Warfstache we know everything goes black and white for Abe's inner monologue. Mark was stabbed 37 times as well as being poisened, beaten,strangled, shot and drowned.In that order. Sure as shit wasn't an accident. Mark and Colonel had a falling out. Colonel- "Life needs a bit of madness,eh,chap?" Colonel-"Well,i'm sure I'm not the first to say that our host had a great deal of enemies as of late. My prying eye might suspect that the people who worked for them might have reason to stabe him in the back. God knows he's a tough son of a bitch to work for." Mayor-"...or worse yet...Mayhaps our counting skills aren't as good as we assume them to be.And mayhaps.... in the shadows of this manor, unseen to any of us, lay hidden...a muderer." Colonel- "I will not be called a muderer in my own home!" Wasn't this Asshole Marks house? Celene-" There's more to this world than you could possibly hope to find, My eyes are open to just a small part of it." Celine-" I've never been very comfortable in this house mut now that i've had my eyes opened, something tells me this hous is surrounded by dark forces." The Groundskeeper doesn't want to go into the house. Abe-Madness..wanna talka about madness? Madness is stealing your best friends wife! Then sqeazing him dry to pay for your sexual expliots with that very woman! Madness is plotting the death of you childhood friend because you cant handle the.." Colonel- It was an accident,I swear!" Paper on the type writer in the office says "the colonel did it the colonel did it the colonel did it" etc Post-it notes in the office say- DON'T TRUST THE SEER and SPIRIT WORLD! Asshole's body (with eyeliner on) says- It's nor fair, isn't it? Damien (mayor) and Celine appear surrounded in red and blue Damien-He took everything from us.He trapped us in here with this broken shell and no way out. Celine-its true. this whole time I thought it was the house but..I never thought he'd fall this far. Damien-and we played right into his hands.He'd been planning this for years and noe that son-of-a-bitch is walking around in my body!- Celine-Damien, we CAN'T do this right now. (to us) Look,I know you have questions and I cant answer everything right now. Just know that Mark (Asshole Mark) took everything from us for his twisted quest of vengeance.But death does not mean the same thing here. Damien-What Celine means by that is..this doesnt have to be the end. Your trapped in here just the same as us, but your body..broken as it may be is still out there. Celine-Mark's not the only one who can use this place to his benefit.The same way that I brought you here,is the same way I can send you back. Damien-But you can't survive on your own.You're dead after all. The Colonel saw to that. Celine-You can't blame him. Honestly, he's a good man.But he's...dangerouse now. Damian-I know this all sounds crazy, and honestly I have no idea what the fuck is going on...But i know that I can trust Celine, and if you trust us.. Just...let me in, we can fix this.Together. Celine-I wont force this on you.You have a choice here.Just know that this is the only way that you can escape. (nod) Celine-Just relax. Damian-This'll work.Promise. The colonel has red suspenders on under his coat. Colonel-...I..I..thought you were dead! I-I-I mean,of course your not dead! You're not-how could you be dead?I mean,I-I wouldn't of killed you..I-I didn't kill you. Imean of course I-I.Of course! I didnt kill anybody I didn't-. (laughing) it was all a joke! Of course it was all a joke! Were you in on this?! Did Damian put you up to this? Of course he did! Damian,where are you, you rapscallion!? Where are you? Celine? Ah, its time to come out now! It was good, It was good. You almost had me! Ha! ha,ha...Celine? Our hand reaches towards Damiens cane, flickering between a mans and a womans. Red and Blue. You look up into the mirror and see Damiens body...wearing eyeliner. The figure cracks his neck and the mirror breaks...turning red and blue. He gives you an evil stare and walks away wtith your body leaving you with a view of the mirror. Abe/Detective-Colonel...(coughing) if you can hear this..You better run.

Happy Theorizing!

[tired-college-student-writing]

A Different Tale

Summary- Instead of pulling Celine away to talk, he instead finally cornered the Colonel, leaving the Seer free to join You outside with the staff. How will this small choice change the paths of our story?

“We all know there’s something unnatural in the manor,” Celine hissed, jamming a finger into the Gardener’s chest, “You’re still coming with us and telling me what you know!”

You weren’t sure why Celine drug You, along with Abe and Chef out here yell at the Gardener, but here You were. Damien and the Colonel had stayed back inside, somewhere You longed to be as tensions rose under the icy glares between Celine and the garden worker.  

“You listen here, Young Lady,” George barked at her, batting her hand away, “It’s been fifteen years since I’ve been in that house, and I’m not about to break that winning streak now. I don’t care how many murders there been, I ain’t going near that house!”

“You’re coming!”

“There’s only one reason, one instance, one manifestation that will get me into that madhouse,” George voice was low, a haunted look in his eyes, “And you’d better pray to god that that reason never comes to pass.”

“Manifestation?” Celine asked, “You can’t just throw out that and not explain what manifestation you’re talking about!”

No sooner did the words pass her lips did the loudest crack of thunder sound, leaving a ringing in Your ears with the lighting it had accompanied whiting out Your vision for a split second. The DA whipped around, eyes flying wide as unearthly blue and pink lights swelled inside the manor, flashing in a sickening fashion. A clatter of a shovel being dropped makes them turn in time to see George sprint past, his face pale as freshly fallen snow.

“THAT THERE'S THE REASON!” He shrieks, long legs carrying him towards the manor. You follow, Celine overtaking you both, but the detective waves You ahead on at the top of the staircase with his gun.

“GO! GO!” He urges, wearily pointing his weapon towards the door creaking under the weight of something, the room where the lights were coming from… the Colonel’s room. Before the group could reach the door, it flew open.

The intense light made it had to see the face of the person inside, but it was undeniably Damien.

Your friend stood tall, suit as prim and proper as ever, the colonel’s hat resting under one arm. The light seemed to pulsate around him, making Your skin crawl as a slow smirk twisted his face into a vengeful look. The uncanny size of the smirk and grotesque shadows that echoed across his face were just tricks of the strange blue and pink light, right?

“Somebody help me!” George cried, and the DA realized he was attempting to close the door, to trap Damien inside. He said there was only one manifestation that would bring him back, one terrifying horrible manifestation...

You grabbed the door, throwing Your body weight into it to slam the door shut, the light seeming to retreat as the solid oak shut in Damien’s face.

You reached a shaky hand out to the doorknob only to draw back with a hiss. The metal was scorching hot.

“What the hell is going on!” Celine screeched, breathes coming in quick pants, “Where’s Damien? Where’s William?”

“They’re gone,” George said with an eerily calm voice, “So is everyone else.”

You could hardly keep up with the argument after that, the staff leaving, even as the Seer and Detective roared at them, demanding answers that none could or were willing to give.  Your head was feeling fuzzy now, the days events and residual hangover finally catching up to You, You suppose.

That’s the only explanation You can think off for why Your vision keeps blurring as You wander the house, ending up in odd rooms, and remembering old bits of conversations from earlier as You wander.

Until You find Yourself in a room You hadn’t seen before right off of the sitting room. You blink, Your vision clearing as You take in the small office, littered with papers, all about the people within the manor.

The Colonel...

Mayor Damien...

Celine…

You even saw a few papers about You mixed in. Who had gathered all of this? And why? Had it been the detective?

“There you are!” The call made You jerk from the cracked wedding picture of Mark and Celine that You had been looking at, only to see the women at the doorway.

“Come on, I need Your help for another…” She trailed off as she gazed around, body stiffening as she grabbed a few papers off the desk, “What is this?” She asked as she frantically looked around, “That insolent little man has been keeping tabs on us? On Damien? On me? On William?!” She stopped suddenly, face falling blank, “He orchestrated the party… he knows…”

She turned on her heel marching upstairs, leaving You to scuttle behind her.

“DETECTIVE! Where is he? He knows something, he knows what happened to them,” She kept muttering to herself, hand reaching under the hem of her dress as she climbed the stairs, pulling a sleek black .45 revolver, the gun would almost look comical with its scrolling red flow design and how it looked much too big for her hands if not for the fact that as soon as she reached the top of the stairs she fired a shot at the Detective. The bullet embedding itself into Abe’s left new cap, shattering it audibly even under his howl of pain.

The Seer advanced on where he had fallen to the floor.

“Where are they, Abe? You must know what happened to them?” She demanded.

“You’re a crazy bitch! No wonder that wife stealing bastard ran off with you. You’re a match made in coco loco  heaven!”

The gun was still pointed at the down man’s chest as Celine stalked closer, her heels clicking on the tile.

“I still have five bullets,” She spoke evenly, her blank mask never falling, “and  I know how to place each on into you so that you’ll be in unbelievable amounts of pain, but you won’t die. If you talk, then I end your pitiful existence swiftly, or we can do this for hours, just you and-”

You lunged for the gun, each word that had left her lips felt like swallowing a shard of glass. You couldn’t let her do this, to torture a friend after losing so many.

The gun went off in the struggle, the Detective slumping to the floor. You knew he was dead, the blood blossoming directly over his heart and the vacant look in his eyes was enough to tell You that.

The Seer let out an inhuman scream as she threw You off of her, “How Dare You!”

You could see the moment panic entered her eyes however as You felt Yourself falling backward, the low railing of the balcony not catching You as You tumbled down… down… down…

You managed to blink open Your eyes only to find more darkness. Slowly You edged forward, hoping to find something that might let You know where You were, maybe a light switch even, only to jump as a body rolled out of the shadows.

It was Mark, the same bathroom that he had been wearing when You found him this morning still present, but his eyes were nothing more than vacant holes when he spoke in a low rumbling voice.

“It’s not far, is it?”

You stumbled back only for two more forms to appear, more spectrally then corpses, but their forms were easy to identify.

To Your right stood Damien in swirling blue light, and to Your left stood the Colonel, pink light rippling around him.

“He took everything from us,” The Mayor started, waving a hand down at the body between You as his voice echoed off of unseen walls, “He trapped us in here with this broken shell and no way out.”

“It’s true,” William growled, eyes ablaze with fury, “ Blaming his problems, his shortcoming on others. Taking out his so-called vengeance on us. We trusted him and he left locked us in here to rot.”

“We played right into his hand, he must of been planning this for years! You for ‘taking Celine’,” Damien snapped mockingly, “And me for not denouncing my only sister for escaping the unhappy marriage he trapped her in, and now that son of a bitch is walking around in MY body!”

“Calm down Dames,” William hissed, “We don’t have time for this.”

“You’re right,”

William turned to You, “I know you have questions, questions we can’t answer right now. Just know one thing. Mark took everything from us, from ALL of us trying to seek vengeance that he only had himself to blame for. But death is different here, it doesn’t mean the end in this hell hole.”  

“What Will means is, this doesn’t have to be, isn’t the end. Because while you’re trapped in here like us, your body, broken as it may be, is still out there.”

William’s eyes grew soft, “Celine taught me a bit about this supernatural stuff after I was trapped in Jumanji. So Mark isn’t the only one that can manipulate this place for his own benefit. The same way she sent you here in her seance is the same way I can send you back since she never closed the ritual down. There is however a catch…”

“You can’t survive on your own,” Damien cut in, but his blunt words dripped with anger so unlike his usual manner, “You’re dead after all, Celine saw to that.”

William let out a weak laugh, “We can’t really blame her, now can we. After being forced back into this house? Losing all of us? She’s a kind woman at heart, a little spitfire.”

“But we can’t deny that my sister is dangerous now, with all the grief inside her,” Damien whispered, pain radiating off of him, “I know it sounds crazy, and Honestly? I don’t know what the fuck is going on but I know I trust the Colonel. And if you trust us, let me in, “ He begged, “And We’ll fix this, Together.”

“I’m not going to force you either way!” William interjected, “This is your choice, but… it’s the only way that I can see any of us escaping.”

You stood there for a long second, before nodding, “Together,”

William and Damien rewarded You tired smiles.

“Alright,” William breathed, “Just relax, my friend, it might feel a little weird…”

“This will work,” Damien reassured You, as the lights and their voices began to fade “I promise.”

The next moment You gasped for air, eyes flying open. For a second the world still looked covered in pink and blue before Your eyes adjusted back to normal colors.

Slowly You pushed Yourself up to a sitting position, only to stop as You heard a gasp.

The entire foyer around You was covered in all the materials from the seance earlier, plus several dozen other things You didn’t recognize, just strewn about haphazardly.   In the middle of the mess, not two feet from you was the Seer.

Her dress was a mess, the bottom stars stained red, her hair falling out of place in wispy pieces as her veil slipped down to her ear. Her makeup was stained down her face, signaling along with her bright red eyes that she’s been crying for so long.

“I brought you back to life,” She whispered, You tried to correct her only for her to laugh, “I did it! I did it!”

You watched as her laughter got more and more hysterical, every once in a while an “I DID IT!” sounding off between the giggles. She staggered to her feet.

“If I can bring people back,” She hummed, “I need to find William and Damien. My boys need the assistance greatly to come back to the living world~”

You’re left helpless as she skips off hollering for ‘her boys’ to come out. Left with nothing else you stumble over to the mirror.

Damien had said you had been broken, but how broken? You glance down at the cane that had been placed there, Damien’s favorite that he had been carrying for the Poker night.

As soon as you touched it You felt a painful shift as if You were being stabbed by hundreds of red hot pitchforks. You couldn’t breathe, not even Your lungs would respond to You.

Then as quickly as it happened, it was over, but now You just felt... nothing. You couldn’t even say it was numbness because... that was something. This was nothing.

You glanced up expecting to see Your own wide and terrified eyes reflected back at You. Only instead you met the hard chocolate brown eyes You knew all too well.

In front of you was a man that looked undoubtedly like the fair mayor, only he had a small handlebar mustache, just barely a twist on the end.

“Damien?” You tried reaching out only for Your hand smack a large plane of glass, “Colonel? What’s happening?”

The being in front of you does answer, instead rolling his shoulders and with one fluid movement cracks his neck.

You reel back as the glass shatters but holds its shape as blue and pink light roar to life, all other color from the man fading into shades of grey.

You didn’t even need to ask after this, watching as the man shot one last sorrow-filled look at you before stalking off into the rest of the house.

You didn’t need to ask, because You already knew.

You were trapped, for how long You didn’t know, but one thing was for certain.

You had taken a gamble, and you lost everything.