Hourglass of Time (Chase Brody/Antisepticeye)

Three

When we arrived at the house, I stepped inside when I saw another figure sitting on the couch.

"AGH!!" I yelled, my knife out when Jackieboy gripped my arm tightly.

"Stop!" He said, forcing my arm down when he sighed. "Marvin...how many times did I tell you NOT to pop in without notice??"
Blinking a couple times, his green hair was a little lighter in color, but again he had the same features, just not as much of a beard. He wore a long sleeve blue shirt, blue pants, a black cape, and a white cat mask with the eyes cut out, the borders of them outlined in black, two lines under each of them. The ears were colored in with a green color, the nose pink with black whiskers coming out of it. On the forehead part, a red heart sat above a red diamond, a black club on the left, and a spade on the right.

"Sorry.." Marvin said, standing up. "But you know me..I like the element of surprise."

Jackieboy rolled his eyes. "Lily, this is Marvin...I guess you can say he's my sidekick."

I looked at him strangely. "And the hits just keep on coming..." I muttered. "Lemme guess..you saw what happened too?"

Marvin nodded. "I want to help, as well."

Running a hand through my hair, I went to the cabinet in the kitchen, grabbing the bottle of Jack Daniel's, taking a drink straight out of the bottle when I saw them standing there. "Okay...not hallucinations.."

"We're as real as you." Jackieboy said. "Judging by how quickly we came back here..I'm gonna go ahead and say there's not much time."

Sighing, I shook my head, drinking some more, that drowsiness from lack of sleep kicking in a little harder. "Nope.."

"How much time?" Marvin asked.

"Twenty-four hours.." I looked at the time on the stove, seeing it was now 12:30am. "Down to nineteen-and-a-half now.."

"Are you okay?" Jackieboy asked, noticing the tired look in my eyes. "You look like you need some sleep.."

I shake my head again, drinking. "No...I'm fine. I wanna figure this out before it's too late."

"Well, first things first, sleep is a thing.." Marvin said. "You don't wanna exhaust yourself--"

"I said I'm fine!" I snapped, even though my vision got slightly blurry. "What do we need to do?"

I heard one of them let out a heavy breath. "Well..we keep researching first." Marvin said.

"I already did that and didn't find shit." I said, drinking again, realizing it was half gone already.

"Okay, stop that.." Jackieboy said, snatching the bottle away from me. "You're just as bad as he was.."

"Who?" I asked.

"Doesn't matter...what does matter is figuring this mess out." He grabbed me by the arm, dragging me upstairs to my room. "Which we will do the research..and you rest."

I yanked my arm back. "Look, buddy..I may have just met you but you're not my fucking boss..I can take care of myself."

"I know you can." He shoved me into my room. "Now sleep..we'll wake you when we find something."

He shut the door, and I huffed, my eyes struggling to stay open. I mean..he was somewhat right...I was tired...but I just want to find Anti and get him out of Chase's body...I want him back so badly..for me to just feel safe in his arms..to get lost in his kiss..I want all of that again.

My feet dragged me over to my bed, and, practically falling on it, the exhaustion kicked in full force, and I drifted off into another world.

***

Chase woke up, his eyes slowly coming into focus. Seeing he was on the ground, he sat up, taking in the sight of his home. Raising an eyebrow, he felt confused. Did Anti not really happen? Was that all a nightmare? Was Lily still here?

Standing, he wiped off some dust on his jeans, looking around. "Lily? Where are you?" He said loudly, only getting an echo when the front door opened, and what he saw was something he never thought of seeing again.

"Hi daddy!" His five-year old daughter, Nicole said, her little legs running her over to him, hugging his leg, her small pink My Little Pony backpack resting on her back. Her messy, curly hair was covering most of it. She wore her favorite outfit: a red plaid button down shirt, a black ruffly skirt that went down to her knees, and her favorite black dress shoes with white socks.

"H-Hi, sweetie." Chase croaked, his eyes shiny with tears. He had no idea if this was real, but right now...he doesn't care. When she backed away, she had the same shocking blue eyes as him, and the same dimples.

"Hi dad!" His son, Jacob said, who was eight years old. He had his black Spider-Man sweatshirt on, a red V-neck shirt underneath. He wore blue jeans and the Airwalks knock-offs of the Chuck Taylor's. His backpack was red, Marvel characters all over it.

"Hey, Jacob." He said, hugging him for a few seconds, ruffling his black hair. He looked more like Stacey, with the brown eyes and similar facial features.

Watching them run up the steps to their room, their familiar giggles filled the silence, a smile on his face as more tears flowed down his face. Again...he had no idea how this was happening...but this is what he wanted: to see his family. To be happier. Maybe the whole Anti thing really did happen...but he wasn't even thinking of that at the moment when another figure stepped in, his heart beating faster, breath caught in his throat.

Her long, blonde hair was pulled back in a braid, hanging over her shoulder. She had her work clothes on: pink blouse with ruffles around the neck, and simple black dress pants with black heels.

"Hey, Chase." She said, taking off her shoes. "How was work?"

"It was fine." He said, hastily wiping his tears away as she approached him.

Stacy lightly kissed him on the lips, like couples do when they say hello. "Would you mind helping the kids with their homework? I gotta start making dinner."

He nodded. "Y-Yeah...sure.."

Stacy tilted her head slightly. "You okay? You look a little spooked about something."

Chase tried to compose himself. "No no..I'm fine."

She smirked at him. "Okay..you know you can talk to me if you need to, honey."

"I know." He said, giving her one more kiss before watching her walk into the kitchen. Staring at her for a few seconds, he walked up to the kids room.