The Obligatory Egos Swap AU - Jacksepticeye Egos

Pure of Heart, Dark of Mind - Part 3

TW: Talk of a panic attack and scars at the end of the chapter! 

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There was an imaginary pull on Ace as Henrik led him around the back of the houses into a small bit of forest that seemed to grow larger and denser the deeper they went in.

The air carried less and less sounds of people and cars and more of the animals that inhabited the trees and bushes. Ace jumped at every little thing, his time with Henrik having done minimal damage thus far, but still not without any consequences.

"Pardon my directions, I haven't been here in a while," Henrik suddenly turned left and Ace noticed a slightly worn down path in the grass, dirt, and leaves. It was still unclear where it led to as the trees and brush seemed to block them every which way, but Henrik gained more confidence as they went, until he finally shouted, "Ah! Here we are."

In front of Ace was a small metal shed, big enough to fit maybe three grown people. The dark green exterior was decorated with all sorts of wild plant life, including the branches of trees growing overtop it.

Henrik gave him a once-over with his eyes and hummed. "You're tall, but you'll fit. Just have to duck."

Ace nodded. The thing looked secure, but was Henrik really going to lock him up in what was basically a closet in the woods of all things? He felt the man grab his arms and shove him forward, another hand reaching in front of him to open the loud, creaky metal door. Birds flew away from any treetops near them at the unwelcome noise.

Henrik started leading him into the dark building, making sure he ducked, and kept pushing him forward, well past where he figured a wall would be, only to find his foot at the end of a drop.

"Keep your head down and step carefully. There's about 30 steps; count at your own discretion but don't slow down."

Ace breathed. One, two, three, four, five, six...

The door closed above him, a faint whistle along with a metal screeching being the only sounds for a second. He felt Henrik nudge him when he slowed down and kept going even as he heard creature rustling about after the big noise stopped.

...twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen...

...twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven...

On the thirtieth counted step, Ace felt around for more stairs, and found nothing.

"Stay here."

The man pushed past him, and by the way Ace could hear his feet going in a straight line somewhere into the dark room, he really must have known this place well. Then, suddenly, there was light. A bright fluorescent bulb glowed from an overhead lamp right into Ace's eyes, yet he blindly walked forward to join Henrik.

"The mice will hide now that we're down here," Henrik mumbled, looking down at his watch. "Shit, I'm already late home for Jackie. All right, well, I guess I'm at a friends for the night and forgot to charge my phone." Ace finally looked up to see Henrik was turning off his phone and tossing it onto a cot in the corner of the room.

A bunker, Ace realised. There were a few shelves of non-perishable food, but not nearly enough like Henrik was actually planning for an apocalypse, more like this is where he stayed sometimes and just needed some food on hand—that was the most likely guess anyway.

But the rest of the room looked like a typical medical office/surgeon's room. The cot looked well-used, the blankets tucked neatly into the base yet still fluffy, and the cabinets full of medical supplies-

And there was a gurney table directly in front of Ace. He hadn't noticed it, but that seemed to be what the lamp was really for. He let his eyes wander down the length of it nervously, spotting splotches of dried blood all over it. It was completely metal with no padding whatsoever, and the more he looked the more he could see it had been used just this way. Dents, scratches, and more marked the surface.

Henrik watched with curiosity as Ace's eyes widened and he backed away slowly and bumped the cot. His phone was pushed off and crashed to the floor, making the man jump even more until he realised what he'd done. Ace crouched down to retrieve the phone and evaluated the damage. "I'm so sorry, I really didn't mean to."

Henrik ignored the comment and the phone, something far more interesting on his mind. "Why has the table made you so scared?"

Ace closed his mouth tight, putting the phone back down on the bed, his eyes darting between the table and Henrik. "You can do whatever you want to me, but leave the table out of it," he responded, stubbornly shutting his mouth once more.

"That's no fun. The table is where the surgeries take place." Henrik tilted his head a little, sounding completely genuine. Ace only paled.

"No."

Henrik watched Ace's face and body expression carefully. His fingers started twitching by his sides, energy building up at the tips like they'd practiced. "What do you mean? No? I already have a few ideas, it's all for fun."

Ace's eyes widened again, his gaze darting toward the stairs quickly and back, but Henrik caught it. "Because I said no. Anything else, please, I promise I won't give you a hard time."

"I can't be sure you'll keep that, though, can I? You're already trying to use that smart little brain of yours to figure a way out of here. Go ahead, try it." Henrik's own expression grew dark right in front of Ace's eyes. "You talk big, man. Prove it, show me you're a big man."

"I- I don't-"

"That's what I thought." Ace watched the doctor dangerously as he turned away from him, but it felt like all the courage and energy had been sapped out of him. "Sit, why don't you? Make yourself comfortable. This has always been my main location. It's fairly well hidden, can't spot it from above, and it's secure. You won't make it back out without me easily finding you in the forest again."

That energy in his fingertips quickly whiled its way back up, begging to be let out but Ace didn't know if he had it in him to do that. He could see Henrik looking at him, but it felt like a million eyes poking and prodding at him from every direction.

He took a deep breath, but it didn't make the power any less significant. It fact, it felt like it strengthened it as he looked from the doctor to the table once more, head spinning, making him dizzy. The cot under him felt cozy, his hands warm as he grabbed at his head and pulled at his hair and neck. There was blood appearing under the nails of one of his hands but he couldn't tell which one.

Then suddenly it was calm.



Henrik not-so-surprisingly knew how to keep calm during an anxiety meltdown, thanks to his housemate. Normally he would try to help out, if only to keep suspicions off of him and seem like a normal person to his newly autism-diagnosed Irish friend back home, but with Ace... well, something like this was exactly what he wanted.

He felt cruel, for the first time in his months-long spree of kidnapping and killing, but it was exhilarating.

Ace collapsed onto his cot and remained there for a couple minutes until Henrik deemed he was purely unconscious, then he approached.

"Simply fascinating," Henrik muttered out loud as he got near the still body. The power Ace had been emitting before he'd passed out hadn't receded and didn't seem like it would anytime soon.

Henrik reached out, feeling the buzz of electricity as his hand got near Ace's hand in his hair and moved it gently out of the way, then removed the other one off of his neck so he wouldn't twitch and strangle himself accidentally.

The funny thing to Henrik was that with no one consciously in control of the power radiating off the sleeping body, it couldn't actually cause any damage despite the sparks that could normally start a small fire.

He smiled gently, moving Ace's hair out of his face and finally, for the first time in the entire week he'd had him, examined the man up close.

There were scars, big and small, littered all over him, which almost seemed surprising if not given that most were first layer burns on his arms from recent use of his magic. They looked like they'd fade quick. But then there were the others that were more like he'd been in a battle of some sort, long ugly scars down his legs, with smaller ones between them. The hair grew sparsely just because of the sheer number of them.

He had scratches on his neck from when he'd just been panicking, and probably some in his scalp if his fingernails were any sort of giveaway.

Henrik hummed, satisfied with his examination, and leaned over to pick up his newest patient.