ENTRY ⁽ ᵖˡᵃᶜᵉʰᵒˡᵈᵉʳ ⁾

     He ( IT ) isn’t like the others – there is no CLEAR agenda to his actions, no reason behind why he’s to be like THIS. Terrifying, yet donning the persona of a LOVING, CARING BEING. A sickening  CRACK!  is heard when his head  d r o p p e d  to the side, lips wide to show the toothy grin ( it never falls… ) and green eyes nearly ILLUMINATING within the dark room.

     PREDATOR CORNERING HIS PREY     /     THERE IS HUNGER WITHIN HIS SMILE.

    “ There’s certainly  no one else  in this room except ye an’ me… ” his ( Irish? ) accented voice echoed, BARELY A HINT of static now that it sounded like he’s speaking through a low quality microphone. RUSTED NO MORE, but the fact he is staining more into this reality is all the more HORRIFYING. “ …So I wonder who I’m definitely talkin’ ta~. Yer wastin’ everyone’s time by playin’ right into traps an’ games.      Maybe I should put ye out of yer misery.      I wouldn’t want a  little puppet  tha’ can’t stand on its two feet – apparently, neither does th’ thin fuck. How D̸I̷S̷G̸U̸S̷T̸I̸N̷G̷L̸Y̷ ̷L̵O̸W̴ do ye have ta be if even he isn’t wantin’ ye fer anythin’~? ” 

Everything in his body is telling him to run. But where exactly would he run to? He’d have to unbolt and unchain the door just to leave, and that’s not counting his need to grab his camera. There’s no way, especially if this person ( ? ) just showed up out of nowhere. Who’s to say he wouldn’t follow him out? His choices are grim and few. Jay doesn’t know what to do right now.

The words have panic gripping his chest. He doesn’t trust anything he’s saying, wants to defend himself but how? Fingers grip the armrests of his chair, clearly stressed out. It has to be a hallucination.

“ Maybe--uh--don’t-- ” He stammers, uncertainty heavy on his tongue.

“ I don’t think I’m wasting my time, ” Nerves are shot, Jay is unfortunately very weak in his ability to grasp unnatural phenomenon and keep his head above water. He finds it unsettling that he knows exactly what he’s talking about, however, and it gives him pause.

“ How would you know, anyway? Nobody knows what it wants. It doesn’t matter either. What matters is that I figure this shit out. And... And I’m working on it! ”

{ @diremptus​ }

     LIGHTS FLICKERED.            STATIC DISTORTS THE VIDEO’S AUDIO.                    …but what isn’t common with this is the GIGGLE.     His back is to be turned to YET ANOTHER that may have been involved with this troubling situation. The YOUTHFULNESS is apparent with him, but there is…s o m e t h i n g  ( very, very wrong ) about him. WHERE did he come from? HOW did he arrive in this hotel room? WHAT DID HE WANT? Warm fingers can be felt touching at the back of his neck, and his words are in a LOVING COO.

     “  Are ye tired?  Do ye not want ta finally rest? Hee hee, look at ye – b̴̫̏ā̷̺r̴̨͊e̵̻͒l̵̮̈́y̶̻̒ ̴̱͐e̷̽ͅv̶̗̏é̵̩n̴̖̿ ̸͈̀h̴̨͠ú̷̡m̵̛ͅa̶̠͘n̵̛͍ in which yer lookin’ more an’ more like a waste of space. ”

Who knows what time it is. Jay frequently stays up into the early hours of the morning working on his editing for the entries. This was no different, but a budding sense of overwhelming paranoia serves to keep him on edge. Mix that with the neverending prob- lem of getting roughly five hours of sleep per night, and one can easily tell that Jay is high-strung and stressed out 24/7.

The TV screen (the only source of light in the hotel room aside from his laptop) dims suddenly and his laptop be- gins to buffer in the middle of saving a file. Jay curses to himself under his breath, but he tears his headphones off his head when he hears the crackle of static feedback in the speakers. He barely registers the laughter that comes with it, headphones already on the table.

He doesn’t get a chance to begin his routine scouting for problems in his room--a touch to his neck instantly has his shoulders raised defensively, body curling in but also lean- ing away in an attempt to flee from the contact. He doesn’t move far, shitty hotel chair not moving since it has no wheels.

“ What-- ” Confusion sets in; Jay turns to look at the person (?) who’s there with him. His door had been locked. It’s always locked. How did he get here? He doesn’t look familiar at all.

Panic quickens his heart rate, hands pushing at the desk to free himself of the trapped space. He doesn’t stand, not yet. The voice that greets his ears doesn’t sound right at all. Was he hallucinating again? (Already?)

“ If it makes you feel any better, you can come outside with me. Just no pretending like you aren’t following me and then I see you poking around the corner with you camera. ”

Tim gives him a knowing look, still surprised how Jay managed to make it this far when his stealth skills were, well, bluntly abysmal. 

He sees the tension in his shoulders and knows what’s running  through his head without Jay having to vocalize to him. He didn’t really blame Jay for being as paranoid as he got sometimes, even if it got tiring. Being on high-alert constantly was really doing a toll on both of their nerves. Tim wonders if he’s ever going to be able to enter a building without constantly looking over his shoulder.

He pushes away that train of thought, grabbing the hotel card off the dresser and walking to the door. He undoes the chain and lock, pulling open the door to an empty hallway. 

“ C’mon. Your fine dining experience awaits. ”

“ Hey, ” he starts a retort but it falls short, “ it’s not like I’m following you around without you knowing... anymore. ” There’s an awkward moment where he rubs the back of his neck, clearing his throat before grabbing his camera from the tripod. That was behind them now. At least, Jay would like if Tim didn’t bring it up that he was practically stalking him at one point.

“ Yeah, let’s go. ” 

“ Nah, that’d be too much effort. Not many suppliers carry the high-end stuff. ”

He did like the vending machine that carried microwaveable meals. Though the sandwiches  and soups were still of questionable quality,  it did feel more like a meal than a candy bar and chips did. That was neither here nor there though, and he’s just waiting till they hopped to a new hotel that served complimentary breakfast.

Tim walks over to his own duffel bag, pushing through his clothes in search of his lighter. They should probably  see if the hotel had a washer to borrow; it’d been a while since they’d done laundry and you can only cycle through the same few shirts so many times till they started to stink. He grabs the lighter and his cigarettes, slipping them into his breast pocket.

“ Sure, fine by me. I’ll probably step out for one last smoke while we’re out of the room. ”

Eyes watch idly as Jay set up the camera, long since adjusted and accepting of the third eye always watching them.  It was weird at first, but it did prove its use, and it set Jay’s mind at ease, so… There were worse things to have watching him as he slept.

“ Are you leaving that in the room, or taking it out for a walk with us? ”

As he readies the tripod and watches Tim go through his stuff, Jay realizes that they might actually need to move soon. It’s not something he brings up immediately, of course. That takes a bit of planning and budgeting to figure out where they should go next. He hopes that his efforts of tracking Alex will pay off soon...

“ Okay. ” Jay doesn’t really mind that Tim goes out to smoke. It’s just that... he gets really nervous when he can’t keep eyes on him. Tim was a bit of a wild card at times.

His hand rests on top of the camera gently, and when Tim mentions bringing it along, he looks a little surprised. Right. Not going to bed yet. Maybe he really needs to, though. He wouldn’t have forgotten it either way since he never leaves the room without it, but Tim having to bring it up makes him self-conscious of always having it.

Tim’s eyes drift over to the alarm clock resting on the table between both hotel beds, making a mental note of the time. It is a little early to try and sleep; Tim not looking forward to the inevitable insomnia and tossing around the night would bring.

“ We should probably get some dinner. It’s been a while. ”

He pats down his pockets, fishing out his wallet to count the few crumbled bills he still has left. He misses having an income and eating something other than junk food, but it wasn’t like there was any other options available to them. At least they were still able to afford the various hotels to hide out in. That and still being alive were the only blessings he could count right now.

Well, and maybe not being completely alone.

“ I have a couple bucks we could probably spare to get the premium peanuts from the machine. Should last us till breakfast tomorrow. ”

Dinner. That’s a nice word to hear but he knows they don’t have the means to truly have a decent meal. In fact, he’s ready to laugh when Tim mentions that they can afford premium peanuts instead of the, uh, normal ones? 

“ You would hope they could stock protein shakes or something like that. Man, I wish they did. ”

Just talking about it probably isn’t the best idea. He’s already feeling the effects of hunger set in now that he’s standing up and moving around. Jay pulls his own wallet from his bag, having lost it in the loose pile of tapes. 

“ Look... If you cover the snacks for tonight I might be able to order us takeout tomorrow? ”

The bag gets zipped up and pushed against the frame of the bed. He gets to work on setting up the tripod for his camera, finding the usual spot and lining it up correctly so it catches both of them while they sleep. Hopefully, there won’t be any midnight trips to the bathroom.