Once again,  all art used in the beginning of the chapters and the book cover is mine that I drew myself. Please don't steal and repost. Thank you.

A few days later after the Septics and Sean realized Anti's condition, a lot of things changed. Marvin stopped tormenting him with nightmares and spells and spoiling his food, Sean stopped avoiding him, Schneep gave him his medication in person and actually talked to him, and even Jameson actually started communicating with him! It wasn't much but it was all a start.

Jackie, however, was still very stand-offish with him but Chase told Anti to just give him time and he'd warm up to him eventually.

They were all getting out the decorations for Halloween and they decided to assign each other different rooms to decorate that weren't their own rooms. Sean assigned them all with partners to help make it go faster and put Jameson and Schneep together to do the kitchen, Marvin and Jackie for the rec room, Chase and himself to do the outside of the house and Anti was on his own but he didn't mind. Anti was in charge of decorating the living room and he was excited about it, getting the box with the fake cobwebs, Halloween lights and other spooky things like fake spiders and tiny bats. After getting everything out, he found something at the bottom of the box.

Reaching in and grabbing it, he pulled out a framed picture that instantly made him sad, 'This is . . .' sighing, Anti stared at the picture for a while longer before taking it to his room and placing it on his end table, 'I wonder how he's doing' he thought.

The picture was of him and Dark on sharing their first Halloween together before the incident four years ago. They were the best of friends back then, or at least the best of friends that they could be without anyone noticing. Everyone else just thought that they were conspiring against them or something. Anti shook himself of the memories and went back downstairs to keep working on the living room. On his way, he ran into Marvin and Jackie who were finishing up putting lights everywhere, "What's wrong, glitch?" Marvin asked.

Anti flinched, "Please don't call me that. I hate that name. And . . .nothing. . .I'm fine"

"Sorry" Marvin coughed awkwardly, "Didn't know that actually made you uncomfortable. I know something's wrong, though. Tell us"

Anti shook his head," You wouldn't understand."

Jackie glared, making Anti gulp a little, "Look just answer the damn question." he softened a little, catching his own tone, "We're trying to be nice, here, alright, Anti?"

Anti shuffled, "Sorry. . . .I know. I found a picture in the box I was unpacking."

"And?" Marvin inquired, "Why did it make you upset?"

Anti looked away, "It was of Dark and I. You guys don't get it. He was my only friend back then. The only one who actually listened and didn't judge me. And then . . ."

"The incident?" Jackie provided. Anti nodded, "After that, Dark wouldn't even let me explain. He just stopped all contact with me. I was all alone then. He still doesn't know the truth. He'd still never listen, either."

Jackie snorted, "Why would you care about being friends with him anyways? Obviously, he's an asshole."

"No he's not!" Anti stood up for him, "Believe it or not, Dark is actually really nice. We had a lot in common. . . then again, it HAS been over three years since I've seen or talked to him ."

Marvin tapped Anti's shoulder and had a teasing look in his eyes, "Do you have a crush on Dark, Anti?"

Anti blushed red, "What!? No! Of course not!"

"I mean I wouldn't blame you. He IS quite attractive in a dark brooding creepy kind of way. Totally your type."

Jackie was trying hard not to laugh at Anti's expression.

"I've never had a crush on Dark! He was my best friend, nothing more! Do YOU have a crush on Host? You've talked about him enough"

Marvin blushed this time, "What!? No! He's a friend!"

Jackie bust out in laughter, "He got ya there, Marv! Haha!"

"Shut up, Jackie! What about you and Yandere?!"

"What!? Ew, no! That's different! They are what's called a 'stalker'. I don't WANT to be around them, there's a difference."

"Didn't you two kiss that one time years ago at the Halloween party?" Anti brought up and Jackie glared at him, albeit not in a threatening way, "I was drunk! I thought they were a chick! They were in a school-girl outfit! Shut up!" he whined.

They laughed a little until they heard a steps, "What's going on over here?" Chase came around the corner to see all of them laughing. Anti decided to play a little, "Do you have a crush on Bing, Chase!?"

Marvin and Jackie about lost their shit when Chase blushed, "W-what?! No! Guh! Oh, get back to work, you little shits!" with that he took off but smiled as soon as he turned away. He was glad they found something to laugh about together.

Marvin pushed Anti lightly, "See ya later, trouble. We got to finish up with the décor."

Anti giggled as he ran off back to the living room to finish.

A few hours later, he was done as was everyone else but none of the other's skills at decorating compared to Anti's. The living room looked like the inside to a haunted house!

"Cool, bro!" Chase swat his shoulder playfully, "Ya did good, man." Anti smiled brightly at the praise as the others hummed in agreement.

Sean grinned, "Sweet! Now to do our own rooms and we'll be set and ready for Spooktober!"

They all agreed before rushing to their rooms, betting on who could do better. Although, they all had an inkling that the winner would be Anti. He had a knack for all things Halloween and spooky-scary. As Anti was decorating, he found himself glancing every once in a while at the picture. In the photo, Anti wore a black and neon-green T-shirt and black skinny jeans whereas Dark wore a dark gray suit. It was a selfy picture with Anti being the one holding the phone. Dark didn't look too pleased in the picture but still smiled anyways which had been rare. Anti remembered that they were at Raspy Hill taking the picture.

Anti let out a sigh. 'Maybe one day I could get a hold of him somehow. Would he listen after all this time?'

He started to glitch a little in his anxieties and left the room. He stormed through the hall not even looking where he was going, frustrated and glitching like crazy. He just needed some air.

He made a turn to go downstairs when suddenly he bumped into someone who shouted in fright. Anti looked up in time to see Schneep but he had bumped into him on the stairs so he was about to fall down. Anti quickly glitched to grab his hand and pulled him up to steady him, "S-sorry, Henrik! Are you all right?!"

Schneep just had a look of fear on his face as if he were remembering something terrible. "D-doc?" Anti tried to reach for him but he just flinched and swat his hand away.

"Hey is everything alright?" Sean was downstairs looking up at them, "What happened? I heard someone shout"

"Doc. Are you okay?" Anti tried again and Schneep had a look of panic, "You glitched."

Suddenly all of the others were around, having heard the commotion and Anti had self-conscious, afraid they'd blame him and things would go back to how they were before.

"I . . .I can't exactly prevent that"

"He was reminded of when you possessed him. Right Doc?" Jackie spoke up and Anti swallowed, taking a step back.

"I. . . I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. . ."

But Schneep wouldn't even look at him, "I'm going to my office" he took off briskly, ignoring the other's trying to stop him. Anti just felt worse and started glitching again. He looked at his hands, watching his body stutter and buzz without control. He felt like he was being choked until a hand gripped his shoulder. Suddenly he stopped glitching and turned his head to see Sean, "It's okay."

Anti started tearing up, "I didn't mean to. I can't control it. The glitching just happens when I'm nervous or scared. I . ."

"You don't need to explain" Sean pat him, "Schneep just had a panic attack is all. He'll come out of it. It's okay"

"But he looked so scared. He thought I was going to hurt him. . . .again"

Chase hummed, "As long as you're on your meds, though, you're fine. We know that now, Anti. Don't worry about it"

Anti rubbed the back of his head, "I guess you're right. I still feel bad though."

There was silence before Marvin had an idea, "How about we carve some pumpkins? You can make one for Schneep, too, if you want?"

Anti brightened a little, "But it's not Halloween YET. Aren't you supposed to carve pumpkins closer to Halloween?"

"Who says?" Sean chuckled, "Do you want to or not?"

Anti softly nodded and Marvin pulled out his wand, "Just say the magic word!"

Not even minutes later, the six of them were in the kitchen with newspaper and pumpkins and pumpkin carving knives getting ready to gut their canvases. They each had a pumpkin in front of them but Anti had two. One for him and one for the doc that he'd gift him. Taking the carving knives carefully, they all started stabbing into the fruit, making a hole at the top so they could gut it.

Anti started gutting his in clumps until suddenly he was hit with a nasty clump. "Ew!" he looked over to see Sean smirking and hiding behind his pumpkin, "Hey!" he took his own clump and threw it at him.

Sean gasped, "Anti!"

"You started it!"

Suddenly two clumps hit both of them, "I'll finish it!" Jackie laughed, "Stop messing around unless you want to clean it up"

Anti giggled before acting like he was going back to work. He took a particular large clump of seeds and pulp and quickly threw it at Jackie, hitting his target dead on all over his chest, "Anti! You little shit!"

Jameson suddenly swung some pulp at Anti and the glitch laughed, "Pumpkin fight!"

After a solid five minutes of throwing and dodging pulp and seeds, they were finally out of ammo and the kitchen floor was covered in the slippery guts.

"Okay" Chase called a cease-fire, "Are we all good now? Calmed down?" spoken like a true parent.

Sean gave Anti a noogie, "Yeah, we're good." "Jack!" Anti whined before wrestling out of s grasp.

They took they're carving knives and set to work but it wasn't a few seconds in that Anti huffed, "This is too hard"

Marvin snorted, "Speak for yourself" he was using his freaking magic wand to cut into the pumpkin perfectly. Anti stuck his tongue out at him, "I'm gonna get me a REAL knife."

He didn't see everyone look up from their pumpkins in worry as he went over to the drawer and grabbed a freaking steak knife, "This will do"

Everyone watched as Anti stabbed into the pumpkin with more ease and just started carving out eyes. Taking a breath, they all set back to work on their own.

Marvin was the first to finish followed by Anti but he still had one more pumpkin to carve for Schneep. Anti hummed to himself, wondering what he could carve for the doctor until he thought of the perfect face. He set to work on his other pumpkin and carved such a goofy face on it but he was proud of it and craved a little heart next to it, "There! I'm gonna name him Gerald!"

Sean chuckled, remembering he had named his pumpkin that years ago. Of course that was when Anti had possessed him but it was still cute to see how happy and proud Anti was of the 'art' he made.

"You want to go give it to him?" Chase asked, "Ask if he wants to come out of his office and put these outside with us for the night"

Anti bit his lip anxiously but nodded and grabbed Gerald before running upstairs to Schneep's office.

Chase laughed to himself, "He's like a little kid"

"Well of course he would be." Sean sighed, "He's missed out on a lot with us. It's only natural he'd be excited by little things like this."

Jackie studied Anti's pumpkin, "Yeah but you have to admit. . . .he's so damn good with a knife, it's scary."

Anti stopped outside the door of Schneep's office and tried to calm down before entering, trying to control his glitching. He didn't want to give Schneep another panic attack. Carefully taking a breath, he placed the pumpkin under his arm and knocked on the door.

"Come in"

Anti opened the door slowly to see the doctor at his desk with is head in his hands, messing up his hair, his glasses off. He looked tired, "Henrik?"

Schneep looked up to see Anti, "A-anti." He sighed and looked away grumbling to himself before standing up, "Look, I apologize. I shouldn't have acted like zhat. You were only trying to help."

Anti shrugged, "It's fine. I'm used to it. . . . . Anyways. . . ." he changed the subject, "W-we were carving pumpkins downstairs and. . ." he lifted up the pumpkin he made for him, "I carved one for you! I named him Gerald. Do you like it? I know you don't like most childish things or Halloween in general but I felt bad and . . .and I wanted to do something for you and" he started to glitch out of his control, "Shit! I'm sorry! I know you hate that. I'm sorry-"

Suddenly he was being hugged but Anti didn't want to drop the pumpkin so he just accepted it awkwardly, "H-henrik?" he didn't answer. He just hugged him for a few more moments before finally parting. Schneep smiled and held his hands on Anti's shoulders, "I love it! Very well done!"

Anti grinned, jumping a little in place, "Do you wanna come out with us and place them outside?! Chase is gonna light them up for the night like Jack-O-Lanterns!"

Henrik smiled sadly and nodded, "Sure. Let us go" he took the pumpkin from him and walked alongside him down with the others.

Henrik had felt bad as soon as he had walked away from Anti earlier. He knew it wasn't his fault. He knew and yet he still walked away like that. As soon as he had gone to his office, he merely sat at his desk in deep thought, beating himself up. It was two years ago! And he shouldn't've been surprised by the glitching! Anti does it all the time! But then again Schneep had always tried his best to avoid Anti as much as possible. For some reason, being so close to him while it happened, brought back those terrible memories of the monster that was inside of Anti being contained by the pills. He couldn't think of what else to do but run.

As they entered the kitchen together, everyone showed off their pumpkins to the doctor and went outside with candles in hand to place in the pumpkins. As it was getting dark, Chase took out of lighter and lit up the candles inside the pumpkins and they stood back to admire they're work, all of the gourds on display on their porch. Anti's was especially creepy and won their little contest when he stuck a butcher knife in the top of his. His pumpkin had X's for eyes and a stupid grin so it looked like a comedic death and he had painted some red dye on it to make it look like it was bleeding.

Schneep's was beside Anti's and Chase's was on the other side of his. Everyone else did more general and easy designs compared to Antis', making theirs look like toddlers did them.

They all stayed outside for a while admiring their works and teasing each other before going back inside for bed. Schneep stopped Anti before he went to his room, "I truly am sorry for how I behaved earlier, Anti. I hope that you can forgive me. It wasn't right for me to panic when you hadn't done anything wrong. Thank you, also for saving me from that fall"

Anti smiled, "Of course doc. And don't worry about it. I forgive ya"

Henrik smiled before hugging him. Anti, still not used to being hugged, awkwardly embraced him back before letting go. Schneep nodded, "Gute Nacht, Anti"

"Good night" Anti replied with a small smile, going into his room and plopping on the bed with his hands behind his head.

He smiled as he eventually fell asleep.

Note: I do not INTEND on making this a Danti (Darkiplier x Anti) story. I don't plan on pairing them together but I guess we'll see as the story goes. They were best friends with a fall-out so we'll see if they eventually see each other again and forgive one another or not.  I really don't plan on making a pairing in this story at all, actually. I plan the story as I write, though, so I don't even know how it's going to end up lol

What do you guys think of the story so far?