Chapter Text
They watched the videos from the Marble Hornets channel in the car, catching up on everything as Jay drove miles and miles away from what they used to call their home, well.. An empty shell of a home now.
They had no one anyways since Alex left. They contemplated if maybe their relationship with Alex killed their friendships with all their old friends… or if what's been happening since Alex chased them all away. They were a shell of their old self, thinking back to all the college house parties with the laughs and loud music, the outdoor patios and delicious food. Oh, food… they missed eating something other than TV dinners and week old takeaway.
The video on screen ended, flipping over to the next on Jay’s old laptop as the audio blasted in their headphones. They were almost at the end of Jay’s entries up to this point, and they hoped they were almost to wherever they were going so they didn’t have to make awkward conversation after what happened a few days ago.
-
“I’ll just need a few minutes, I just gotta go up and grab the things I have. You can um.. Come up if you want. It’s probably safer if we stay together, right?” They say, scratching their arm and waiting for Jay’s reply.
“Okay. Yeah, I agree. Safety in numbers they say.” Jay says as he turns the car off, locking it as they go up to Y/N’s apartment. They start shoving clothes in bags, grabbing whatever they thought would fit and the rest would be fine. They grab their meds and stuff them in the side pocket, as well as their phone charger, and seeing their Sony digital camera they got for christmas one year, stuffed that in the bag too with the charger, just in case. With Jay filming his every move, they never knew when they’d need it. They hear Jay call out from the living room, seeming anxious.
“Y/N, come here.”
They leave their room, looking at Jay sitting on the couch, pale and his lips white, his eyes frozen on the lit-up small TV screen in Y/N’s living room, seeing the scene on the news in front of them both.
Jay's apartment was up in flames. It was apparently just happening, still burning on the TV, the flames so close to Jay’s room. “I gotta film this,” he says, hurriedly pulling his camcorder out from his bag, getting up close to the TV as Y/N stood back in horror. They were just there.. not even 30 minutes ago. They could’ve both died. But the scarier thing was, someone knew they were together… And was trying to take them out together.
-
After the fire, they didn't feel like Jay wanted to talk at all, having to consider what could’ve been.. had they just stayed at Jay’s. They barely talked the last few days, moving from city to city, motel to motel. They glanced over at Jay, seeing his tired eyes staring the road down. They look back to the laptop, the entry they were currently on had a weird voiceover, as did some of these weird cryptic videos. It was like a weird avante garde horror movie, a lot of these, and the guy with the mask shows up once again. He, Y/N thought, must be helping or running this cryptic channel. The next video starts, and they see this is the last one. They know what happens in this one, since Jay literally uploaded it in their apartment before they left, fearing the people who were looking for them both would find the pair if they uploaded somewhere else, like in the run down motel Jay was currently pulling into.
“I’m tired, thinking we can stop here for the night and move on in the morning.” Jay says, clearly groggy, rubbing his eyes the second he parked in the back of the motel.
“Yeah, for sure. You’re the driver.” They say, closing his laptop. “Oh, and, I finished all the videos.”
“Good, feelings still the same?” He asks, packing his bag back up with the laptop and shoving it over his shoulder.
“Yep. Still scary, still weird, still think the masked guy has something to do with it.” They say, smirking as they put their bookbag on their back, grabbing the other small carry-on they had, a big slouchy side bag with a tie-dye pattern. They made it back in middle school with their friends, tattered and old with memories of other sleepovers. This was like a sleepover, Y/N thought. Just like the good old days. But this one was like, a fucked up, running-away-from-potential-serial-killers sleepover.
Jay smiles back at them, glad they agreed with what he was thinking, going inside and paying for their hotel room, just one night, they can't stay longer than that, ever. He brings the keys out and shows them to Y/N, smirking.
“2nd floor this time.”
“Ah! Thank god,” They sigh in relief, following him up the stairs. “The 1st floor is too open , the 3rd and 4th floor have WAY too many steps. The 2nd floor is just perfect.”
“Okay Goldilocks.” Jay smiles back at them as he unlocks their room, stepping in first, something they set up so Jay would get attacked first, as he insisted, if anything happened.
They were happy that Jay was starting to feel more like himself, smiling and somewhat more optimistic, cracking jokes and sass. This was more like Jay.
“Shut up.” They smile back, looking around the motel, the bedsheets seemed actually somewhat cleaned, the stains on the wall were minimal, and it actually smelled kinda good.
“Good deal too, it isn’t as gross as the last one.” They say, setting their bag down on the furthest bed (again, Jay’s idea that if someone broke in, they’d see him first).
Jay sets up, grabbing stuff from his bag to set up his laptop, mostly so he could tweet and watch for updates. He decides it’s time for a much needed shower, and then some rest. He could actually sleep more than an hour these last couple days, he hoped to catch up a bit tonight.
“I’m gonna go shower, you’re okay out here?” Jay asks, Y/N nods at him, opening up their very cracked phone.
“Yeah, I’m gonna try to see if there’s any good pizza places around here on the ads in the paper.” They hold up the newspaper they grabbed on the way in, smiling at Jay. “I don’t know about you, but I’m starving .”
“Yeah, sounds good. Don’t get delivery to our door though, remember. To the desk.” He says, cautious about their every move. He didn’t want either of them stalked again.
“Got ya.” They salute to him, looking down at the newspaper as the door shuts to the bathroom, the shower loudly starting up and reverberating through the walls. Guess with motels you can't win them all. They huff, laying down on the mediocre bed and flipping through the paper ads, trying to find a place that doesn’t look like it would make either of them hurl.
It felt so messed up to say, but they were enjoying this running around. Even if the beds sucked, at least they were actually sleeping through the night and not sleepwalking. Even if the food was greasy and subpar, it was better than what they had been eating before this. Even if they were jumping from city to city, at least they had someone. Jay. He always had a camera on, and had a whole crowd of people watching him and watching out for him. They felt honestly.. the best they had in a long time. With all the other stuff preoccupying their mind, they didn’t have time to think about Alex.. at least not as much. There was always going to be that nagging voice in the back of their head, wondering where he was, what he was doing, if the same thing was happening to him. If it just got so bad for him… he had to leave.
The shower turns off, interrupting their Alex train of thought, settling on this one small pizza place that had a deal for 2 cans of pop and a medium size pizza for a good price before Jay came out of the shower.
They were glad to have him around. It’s nice to have a friend in this. Whatever this was.