Mark's POV

I silently closed the door behind me and squinted my eyes, trying to see Dark's room. His room was pitch black, so I couldn't see anything clearly. I saw the outline of a few bookcases lining the walls and the shadow of a bed. I heard light snores coming from the bed, which I assumed was Dark sleeping.

I wasn't quite sure what to do. I needed answers, and Dark seemed like the only person I could get them from. Anti just seemed to be dodging my questions.

I slowly approached the bed. I stopped once I had reached it and thought about what I was doing. I could just wait for tomorrow. Anti said he would explain everything to me then.

However, I had a feeling he would just lie his way out of it.

I took a deep breath and carefully reached my arm down to Dark. I touched his shoulder and gripped it with my hand. Hesitantly, I shook his body.

"Dark?" I whispered.

He mumbled something and rolled over. I sighed and continued to shake him. "Dark? Wake up." He rolled back toward me and sleepily opened his eyes.

His eyes were bright red.

I inhaled sharply. I felt my entire body tense up as I stared at him. He slowly blinked his eyes. "What?"

I gulped. "I, uh, have a few questions to ask you."

He sat up in his bed and rubbed his eyes. "Turn on the lights."

I stared at him for a few more seconds before walking back toward the door. I felt around on the wall for a light switch and found one not long after.

I flipped the lights on and spun back around to face Dark. He grunted and closed his eyes from his bed.

He looked exactly like me, other than his sense of style and bright red eyes. My breathing hitched, but I clenched my fists at my sides and took a few steps toward him.

A moment later, he opened his eyes again and blinked them several times. Once his eyes adjusted to the light, he stared at me. I decided that was the best time to explain. "Umm, hi. I'm–"

"Mark?"

My jaw dropped slightly as I stared at Dark. "How–"

"What the hell are you doing here?! You're supposed to be helping your friends! My friends! You're supposed to be at the orphanage saving everyone!"

I stood there in shock. "How do you know about the orphanage? No one else does."

"That's," he took a deep breath, "not really important, I suppose. What the heck are you doing here, though?"

"I came to save Jack–"

"Jack's here too?!" Dark screeched. "Shit! He's the human they were talking about! He's in prison, isn't he?!"

"I think so–"

"How did you get here?!" Dark was fully awake now. He jumped out of his bed and walked toward me, almost threateningly.

"I-It's kind of a long story."

"Spill."

I gulped. This was probably a bad idea. All that happened so far was me having more questions. "Well, I found Anti in the orphanage and he brought me here to help bring Jack back to the human world."

"How long have you been in the Underworld? How long has Jack been here? Wait, did you say that Anti brought you here?!"

"I've been here for a few days, I think. I'm not sure how long Jack's been here, and yes, Anti brought me here."

Dark sighed. "I'll deal with Anti later. How did Jack get here, though?"

"I'm not completely sure. All Anti told me was that he and Jack switched places."

Dark thought for a moment. "Why did you come in my room?"

"I feel like Anti isn't telling me everything that's going on. He said that you'd kill me and that my friend Felix was dead and I heard you two talking outside his door. He didn't tell me anything about Jack's location–"

"We don't know for sure if that's Jack," he mumbled.

"What other human would be down here? Also, who's the king? I heard you guys mention it earlier–"

"It isn't important. Look, I'll help Jack and get the two of you back to the human world, but you have to stay out of it."

"What?" I asked, slightly irritated. "I'm saving my best friend. You can help, but you aren't doing it by yourself."

"Mark, if you die, I die. You're lucky I'm not doing my job and turning you in."

It was that moment when a seemingly brilliant idea struck my mind. "Turn me in."

Dark looked taken aback. "What–"

"If you turn me in, I'll be able to save Jack from the inside."

Dark chuckled, "That wouldn't be a bad idea if there weren't so many things that could go wrong. For example, how do you plan on getting out of your cell to even get to him? Or how do you plan on finding him in the first place?"

"So we can't do that–"

"We aren't doing anything." Dark lowered his voice a bit. "If I turn you in, I won't be faking it. I'll really turn you in because that's my job." He paused. "Actually, I probably should arrest you. If I turn in a human, especially if it's the human version of myself, the king might just let him go."

I ignored his thought and asked, "Let who go?"

Dark laughed sinisterly, "I'm guessing this is another one of those things no one told you about? That's a shame. You'll just have to piece it together for yourself. In the meantime, I have another question for you."

I gulped. "What?"

"A couple minutes ago, you said that Anti told you that I would kill you and that your friend named Felix was dead, right?"

I paused shortly before answering, "Yeah, why? You aren't actually going to kill me, are you?"

He laughed, "I won't be killing you. No, I'm not that soulless. However, that wasn't the fact I was talking about."

I inhaled sharply. "Y-You were talking about Felix?"

"I was indeed!" he replied cheerfully. "I'd probably be killed for giving you the details, but don't worry about him. The human version of your friend is...well, alive." I let out a sigh of relief. At least Felix wasn't dead.

Immediately after, my eyes widened and I straightened up. "How do you know how Felix is doing? You knew about the orphanage, too. How do you know what's going on in the human world?"

"It isn't all that important, is it?"

"It kind of is, actually."

Dark shrugged. "It's part of my job. You humans probably have someone watching the Underworld all the time."

I thought for a moment. "You watch humans for a living?"

"I didn't say it was my job, I said it was part of my job."

"And what exactly is your job?"

"Haven't you caught on by now?"

I shook my head a bit. "No one ever told me–"

"I asked if you caught on. The evidence has been laid out pretty clearly from what I've gathered. No one wanted you to see me, but they didn't explain why. They told you that I would kill you. Just a moment ago, I agreed that I could, in fact, arrest you, though I won't do it. Now, I've told you that watching humans is part of my job. Why do you think Anti didn't want me to know about you?"

I took a deep breath as everything pieced together in my mind. "You're a police officer, aren't you?"

"Right you are! And, as it is my job," Dark walked toward me. With a straight face, he grabbed me by the hand and twisted my arm behind my back. He pulled my other arm behind me as well, and kicked the back of my knees. I fell on my knees, and he grabbed something from one of his tables.

I felt metal wrap around both of my wrists.

"Dark, what are you doing?!" I asked, panicked.

"I'm arresting you. By turning you in, I might be able to save him."

"Save who?!"

Dark pinned me to the ground as he thought. "I won't tell you. That'd make it too easy. However, I will give you two hints. One, it's someone you know. Two, the person I'm trying to save is correlated with the timer in Anti's room."

"What?!" I screamed.

Dark wrapped something around my mouth. I couldn't breathe well with it. I kicked and tried to scream but it had little effect.

Then, Dark's door swung open.

"What's going on in–"

In my last seconds of consciousness, I saw Dark punch Anti across the face.

A/N

OOOOOOOHHHH SHIIIIITTTT

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