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Magicians Don't Need Superheros Pt25

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A quick warning that toward the end of the chapter, there is some discussion of medical trauma, but nothing too graphic in detail

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Marvin was slowly beginning to hate the examination room as he sat on the now fully flat examination chair with Jackie beside him. The mud on his body was drying and flaking, which meant it was doing the same in his hair and that feeling made him want to throw something across the room. Jackie was scratching off the dried mud on his hands, causing it to powder and make it look like he had ash all over his lap. 

“Considering that the redness is only within the iris of the eye, I do not think they have been given a disease,” Henrik said to the audience in the room, crowding it and adding to Marvin's discomfort. 

After word of the Ego being an Iplier got out, a handful of them showed up at the House, demanding answers. Well, Dark was demanding. Wilford, Illinois, Yancy, and Google seemed to just be there since it was expected. Henrik had asked where Edward was and apparently, Host was having, as Dark had put it ‘difficulties’ and was handling him at that moment. Anti and JJ were also in the room but on the other side, Robbie being the only Septiceye missing, playing with CJ and RJ outside. Marvin could see them through the one window of the room, chasing each other and throwing armfuls of leaves. He wished he could be out there right now, playing, not a care in the world. But no. Now he was back to being poked and prodded at to figure out what was wrong with him. 

“Marvin, I am going to prick your finger,” Henrik said, getting Marvin’s attention back to him. 

“Have at it.” Marvin held his hand out, watching Henrik use a similar method he had done with Robbie, taking a drop of blood before turning away to the counter. Marvin stared at the drop of blood that formed after the prick and just blinked when Chase used a tissue to clean it off and applied a small bandaid. 

“You good?” Chase asked.

“I want a shower.” Marvin sighed. 

“Can’t blame ya. Hen’s got this like fancy hair stuff you can borrow.” Chase gestured at his own hair.

“Jackie told me about that.” Marvin softly chuckled.

“That is…odd.” Henrik mused out loud. 

“Odd is not a good word to use after looking into a microscope,” JJ commented. 

“He says it about me all the time.” Anti shrugged.

“He’s looking at Marvin, not you.” JJ reminded.

“Ah, shit.” 

“I am going to need a bigger sample and one from both of them,” Henrik said. “Anti, can you text Madrick that I will need him and the other two? This is more complicated than I expected.”

“On it.” Anti clicked his tongue, pulling out his phone and typing away. 

“Let’s get Jackie done and over with,” Dark stated. “We’re missing Edward, so it will-” 

“No, no, no.” Jackie scrambled off the chair and to his feet. 

“You know how this goes. It’s beyond annoying that we have to, but to ensure the safety of yourself and others we need to follow Henrik’s directions.” Dark slipped off his blazer, as if worried about getting it dirty. 

“We’re not-no-no we’re not.” Jackie fumbled a bit, trying to be as far away from Henrik and Dark at the same time. Henrik held up his hands to show they were empty, but it didn’t help Jackie. 

“Jackie, bro, it’s okay.” Chase put himself between Jackie and Henrik. “Let’s just take some deep breaths.” Marvin noticed that Anti was helping Henrik out of his lab coat. “We can do a lap around the House while Hen takes care of Marvin, alright?” 

“I don’t think he should go outside in this state,” Google stated.

“Then we’ll do the lap inside,” Chase said through gritted teeth, not showing anger but trying to hint at Google to let him handle this. Jackie still looked panicked and tensed up more as Dark got closer. His eyes shifted around the room, trying to focus and he went still when he saw the lab coat in Anti’s arms. 

“Get away!” Jackie suddenly cried out, shoving Chase and Dark away from him. 

Anti yanked Henrik out of the way and caught Chase before he slammed into the counter’s edge and Wilford caught Dark before he hit the wall. Illinois moved in front of Yancy, JJ checked on Henrik and Google just watched everything as Jackie sprinted past him. 

“Jackie!?” Marvin called out and ran off as well. 

“Marvin, wait!” Chase held his sore chest as he tried to get up. He stopped when Wilford snapped his fingers, a puff of pink coming off of them. “You did not.”

“They need a moment,” Wilford said. 

“That’s not what I meant.” Illinois sighed.

x~x~x

Marvin lost his footing for a moment when the surface he was running on changed. The strong scent of bubblegum told him that Wilford had something to do with it. It took a second but Marvin soon discovered he had been sent to the basement of the House, standing in front of the steps. Jackie had seen sent with him and was curled up in a corner of the room. 

“Jackie?” Marvin walked over. “Jackie, are you okay?” 

“Don’t-!” Jackie flinched when Marvin got near, looking up at him and pausing. “I’m…” He swallowed and looked around. 

“It’s just me, Jackie.” Marvin sat down on the ground, crossed his legs, and prepared to wait. Jackie stayed tucked in the corner, almost a full minute of silence hung in the air. “That fear with the drawing blood stuff, it’s a lot more complicated, isn’t it?” Marvin asked when Jackie’s breathing began to even out. 

“Y-Yeah.” Jackie slipped down and sat on the ground, tucking his knees up and hugging them. 

“Have you talked to Henrik about it?”

“No.” 

“Have you talked to anyone about it?” 

“Not really?”

“Does anyone know?”

“Yes.”

“Who?”

“Chase and Anti.” 

“Those nightmares…are they memories?” Marvin moved so he sat right next to Jackie, leaning his back against the wall. 

“Yeah,” Jackie confessed, hugging himself tighter. “It’s from when-before-before they got me to the House. It was months before they could get me.”

“Months? I was out there for only weeks and that was hard as hell even with your care packages.” Marvin heard a light chuckle from Jackie, hoping that meant he was feeling even just a bit better. 

“I didn’t want to risk you doing what I did.” Jackie lifted his head, resting his chin on the top of his knees. 

“What you did?” Marvin echoed. 

“Previous me knew how to scrape by and make money when in desperate need. I was always on the move and kept making messes trying to figure out the world and how things worked and I ended up seeing the whole country several times by the time I got to a point that I knew I needed to settle for more than a few days.”

“Saw the country several times? How did you travel so much and fast without a car? I know you can run but that’s a lot.” 

“Trains, semi-trucks, big vehicles you can like hide on or slip into and just nap for a few hours. Sometimes I made just enough for a bus pass and I slept on there and got off at the last stop. It’s not easy, but I found a way.” 

“And then you decided you wanted to stay somewhere more permanently?” 

“Yeah. I had forgotten everyone by that point and it…it wasn’t fun doing that alone.” Jackie felt a hand on his back and he turned his head, seeing Marvin giving him a soft smile. 

“Thank you for being there for me. I’m sorry you had to do that without anyone.” Marvin could still feel that ache in his heart from that moment. He didn’t know if he could have done that without Jackie there. 

“It let me learn just how far my strength can go when I’m upset. Thankfully the building I found was abandoned so when it fell no one was hurt.” Jackie weakly laughed before clearing his throat. 

“What did you do after that?”

“I went to a city library and…borrowed a card from someone to use the computer. After some research, I found out about the city’s desperate need for blood donations and…other…donations.” Jackie let his legs fall and covered his face with his hands, rubbing at it as if trying to scrub the memories away. 

“You donated blood?” Marvin placed a hand on Jackie’s arm, gently coaxing him to lower it. He wasn’t trying to get Jackie to talk out of curiosity, but out of knowing that talking about the troubles helped process them better than bottling them up. 

“The first time went perfectly. They paid me twenty bucks and gave me a cookie and some apple juice. Then I came back to do it again and there were a lot more people than before. The kind nurse was missing and the doctor wouldn’t look at me while these new people took over and walked me into the back of the hospital. I thought that maybe something went wrong I didn’t hear about and they increased security.” Jackie grabbed Marvin’s hand and squeezed it, using it to ground himself as he just couldn’t stop talking. It felt so nice to finally explain this to someone. “Then they started asking a lot more questions about how I treat my body. What I ate, how I exercised, who my parents and grandparents and great-grandparents were. I tried to answer them but I didn’t know anything. They asked if anyone was waiting for me…I told them no.” 

“That wasn’t a good thing.” Marvin practically whispered.

“No…” Jackie shook his head. “They said-They told me they were going to help me. That I would be a hero by donating more since I could handle more than the average person. So I did. And they took blood. And they took and they took and they took and then they started taking more from my body.” Jackie’s voice cracked. “The bone marrow hurt the worse. They just stuck this massive fucking needle into my arm and there were days I felt so…hollow. They took all they could and left me in a white room for a day to recover and did it all over again.” 

“Holy shit.” Marvin squeezed Jackie’s hand back. 

“I thought I was a hero. That I was helping so many people but I was so empty. I couldn’t use my abilities when I barely had enough blood to breathe so I was trapped even when I wanted to leave. I told them to give me my money and let me go. But they didn’t. Then I begged to be freed, they could have their money, I just wanted to see the sun again.” 

“How did you get out?” 

“Anti and Chase found me. Host got a vision of where I was since I was finally in one place and they went to get me. Chase was assigned, and Anti was there to help.” Jackie was beginning to look tired. “Anti broke in and he…well…he took care of those doctors.” Marvin didn’t need Jackie to give details about what he meant. “Then he burned the place down and made sure everything was destroyed while Chase got me out. He held me while I cried, while I broke down and felt so lost and confused and afraid of everything. Chase told me everything was going to be okay, that he’d keep me safe.”

“Like a parent?” 

“Like a parent.” Jackie blinked away tears that were trying to form. 

“Would you like a hug?” Marvin asked, nearly falling back when Jackie just launched into him. “I said a hug, not a tackle, you dork.” He joked lightly, happy to hear Jackie chuckling at that. Marvin wished there wasn’t anything else going on, knowing Jackie just shared a lot all at once but their eyes were still red. And the mud was getting itchy. “Jackie?”

“Yeah?” 

“We’re going to have to go back to the room soon.”

“Yeah.” 

“And I really want to get this mud out of my hair.” Marvin was now the one chuckling as Jackie broke out into a laugh.