Mark's POV

"Who's Jack and why do you need to save him?" Reagan asked.

"Also, why are you coming to the three of us for help?" Nate added.

"We aren't suspects of his disappearance, are we?" Jason questioned.

Anti explained, "Jack is my alter ego and he's Mark's best friend. Mark came all the way down here to save him and the rest of us are going to help. We've come to the three of you for help because you're always finding out information around town and thought you might have heard something about him. To answer Jason's question, none of you are suspects."

"Also," Dan continued from his spot on the counter, "we aren't going to drag Mark into any political things going on, understood?"

"I understand why you're saying that, but what if Jack's in the same situation as–"

"No political stuff!" Phil interrupted Nate.

"Does this have anything to do with the timer in Anti's room?" I asked Nate.

"Well obviously–"

"Shhh!" Phil yelled as he jumped off the counter and walked over to the rest of us. "We're not talking about 'The Thing' until Mark and Jack are back to the human world, got it?"

"What's–"

"Mark, you're going to have to stop asking questions as well," Anti decided. "The kids will spill if you ask them enough times."

"What? We're trustworthy!" Jason defended.

"Getting back on topic, have any of you heard anything about a human coming down here?" Dan asked.

"No. The first I've heard of a human being down here is you guys telling us about Mark," Jason answered. "How did humans even get here?"

Dan and Phil almost seemed to be glaring at Anti for a moment before Dan explained, "Anti brought Mark here. It was never really made clear how Jack got here."

Anti chuckled, "You guys don't know how Jack got here?"

Dan stared at him. "No? You never explained how Jack got here, you just brushed over it."

"In that case, I still won't tell ya. You'll have to find out on your own, I guess," Anti replied.

"You never told me either," I murmured.

"It really isn't that important. However, it is entertaining to see you guys getting stressed out over something like this."

"How do you four plan on keeping Mark a secret from the entire Underworld population?" Jason questioned.

"With a little help from three not-so-talented thirteen-year-olds," Anti stated perkily.

"Gee, thanks," Nate muttered.

"How do you know we won't sell him out to the cops, though?" Reagan asked.

I look of worry flashed on Anti's face, but he regained his composure before anyone else noticed. "Now, would the three of you even consider doing something like that to someone who hasn't done anything wrong?"

I saw sincere pain flash through Reagan's eyes before she stared at the floor regretfully. I couldn't help but wonder if this particular statement had anything to do with the political stuff they had been discussing.

I pushed the thought aside and asked, "So none of you have heard anything about me or Jack?" Immediately after I asked, memories from my conversation with Reagan sped through my mind. She had told me that Jack was locked up somewhere. Was Jack in prison? Possibly receiving torture?

Did Jack have anything to do with the political problem everyone kept bringing up?

Probably not, as everyone so far had seemed clueless as to Jack's existence.

"Mark, are you okay?" Anti asked.

I straightened up. "Yeah? Why? What happened?"

"You just seemed really out of it there for a second."

I laughed nervously, "Sorry, I was just thinking."

Nate, Jason, and Reagan glanced at each other before Reagan spoke up, "We're going to find out where Jack is, so don't worry."

"We need to do it quickly," I murmured, remembering that everyone was still in the orphanage and that Felix might not be alive.

"Why's that?" Nate asked.

"Yeah, you never mentioned anything about a time frame before. What's going on in the human world that's got you so worked up?" Dan questioned.

"Well," I stopped myself. "How about we make a deal. I'll tell you guys about human world drama if you tell me what's going on down here."

"No offense, but we're not really that interested," Phil commented.

"You might want to be considering that when I left, I, along with Jack and literally all of your alter egos, was being either mentally or physically tortured."

Everyone's eyes widened as a chorus of "What?!"s filled the air.

I chuckled sinisterly to myself before asking, "Did I forget to mention that little detail? Oops, my bad. Though, quite a bit more has happened than that. Not to mention that all that has taken place over the past five days or so."

"Tell us everything right now you little–"

"Stop," Anti interrupted Dan. "We aren't fighting and we aren't exchanging information about our worlds. Underworld problems are irrelevant to Mark, just as human world problems are irrelevant to us."

"I don't think that's going to make anyone less interested," I stated, causing Anti to glare at me.

"Can we exchange information right before Mark leaves?" Nate suggested.

"Will you guys focus on this task if I say yes?" Anti asked.

After everyone agreed, we came to the decision that we would talk about our own world's drama once we found Jack. Jack needed to hear about everything that happened in the human world anyway, so this way I only had to explain it once.

Anti's phone buzzing from the counter interrupted our conversation. Dan leaned over and looked at the screen. "It's a text from Dark."

Anti walked to Dan and swiped his phone off the countertop. He stood in silence, reading it for a moment, before explaining, "Dark wants to know if Jason and Reagan are still in town and if they need a ride home. He's going to be home soon. Once I text him back, we need to bring Mark back to my room."

"You two are sharing a room?" Reagan asked, wiggling her eyebrows.

"Don't be gross, Reg," Anti replied while typing on his phone.

Reg?

After a few seconds of silence, Anti tucked his phone into his back pocket and explained, "I'm bringing Mark back to my room because that's one of the only places Dark doesn't go to often. None of you are to tell Dark about Mark being here. Feel free to drop by my room and talk to him, but remember the deal about political stuff. I'll be back out in a few minutes and Dark'll be here with dinner soon."

After everyone acknowledged Anti, we made our way back to his room. "Did you say Dark was coming back with dinner?" I asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"Is it already that late?"

Anti thought for a moment before answering, "Time probably works differently here compared to the human world. I bet days are shorter or we sleep longer."

"I guess that makes sense," I murmured as we approached his bedroom door. He opened it and held it open for me as I flipped on the lights and walked in. I flopped down on my air mattress while Anti chuckled at me from the doorway. "What?" I asked.

"You're such a child," he laughed out.

"Well geez, that's a bit rude," I commented.

He rolled his eyes. "I'll be back with some food in a bit. Stay here for now, and I'll see ya later."

"Yup, bye," I mumbled as I laid back on the air mattress.

I laid there with thoughts of Jack racing through my head for what felt like hours. If no one knew where he was, how was I supposed to find him? What was with the whole political thing happening? How long were those kids going to be able to keep my existence a secret?

The last thought that stuck with me was if I was truly able to trust Anti. He seemed to be keeping a considerable amount of secrets from me.

He stopped by to give me food about an hour later. We talked for a bit, then he left again, telling me that Dark would get suspicious if he was here for too long. I told him I understood and laid back on the air mattress again. It seemed to be several hours later when I heard a conversation taking place outside Anti's door between Anti and someone who sounded an awful lot like me.

I approached the door so that I could hear them better.

"...talking about a human or something," the person, who I assumed was Dark, was speaking.

Anti chuckled, "A human? In the Underworld? Yeah right."

"That's what the rumor was. Apparently, he's locked up in prison. He'll probably be persecuted soon."

"You think he'll be persecuted just for being a human?" Anti asked in a trembling voice.

"Probably. You know how the king is. He won't look kindly upon all of this."

A/N

Do you guys ever get sick of my A/Ns because tbh I feel like I'm just writing random stuff here OOPS

Same goes for whatever the heck my outro is supposed to be.

Anyways, BUH-BYE BROTATOES!