Lady Luck

18

Slumped against the wall, Hoody panted a bit as he faced Alex Kralie, his glowering brown-eyed glare completely visible now that his mask was at his feet. He hadn't expected the sneak attack, to be pushed down the stairs from behind. He didn't expect to get into a fist fight. He knew Alex had already freed himself and killed Jay, but he hadn't expected Alex to find him so easily. Clearly he was waiting for him, ready to ambush him the second he arrived. It worked. His entire body was sore and battered now, the fall and subsequent fight having taken its toll on him. As he glared Alex reached into his pocket and pulled out something dark and metal though, making him freeze:

A gun.

A freaking honest-to-god gun.

His entire body locked up at the sight, his muscles tensing. No. This wasn't supposed to happen. He wasn't supposed to be killed by Alex, this wasn't his plan. Who would plan it so they would die!? He might not be as "sane" as he used to be, but he wasn't suicidal! Staring down the seemingly endless barrel of the gun, his entire life flashed before his eyes...

"ALEX, DON'T!"

The panicked yell startled both of them, their heads snapping to the side in shock. Standing in the doorway was none other than Tim, watching wide-eyed with horror. No one moved as they stared each other down, but then Hoody sprung into action. Ignoring his sore muscles he launched forward at Alex, desperate to get the gun away from him. The sound of movement got Alex's attention and he spun back to face it.

At this point time seemed to slow down at this point, one second lasting hours as every movement became painfully clear and visible to Hoody as if in slow motion. He saw Alex's finger tense on the trigger, his hands flinching as they tightened around the gun. Raising the barrel to point towards him at a painfully slow pace, Alex's finger slowly pulled back. The gun recoiled as the bullet shot out, the tip of it heading straight for Hoody.

He instinctively tried to move out of the way, but it was too late. He was too close to dodge. As the bullet pierced his skull his body jolted, stopping midstep. Shock immediately consumed his body and all his nerves shut down, mercifully blocking out the pain as the bullet rocketed through his brain matter before exiting out the back of his head.

Overcome with shock, for a moment he just stood there for a moment, just staring at Alex wide-eyed as smoke rose from the barrel of the gun. Behind him he could see Tim staring at them in horror, his lips quivering as his mouth hung open in disbelief. Blood seeped from the wound, the crimson liquid dripping over Hoody's eyes and tinting his vision red.

Only then did time resume. Unbelievable searing pain suddenly tore through his head following the bullet's path, and his strangled screams mixed with the echoing gunshot. Never in his life had he felt such pain, such awful heart-rending pain. His knees gave way beneath him as he clutched at the ground, screeching in pure agony with his eyes squeezed shut in an attempt to keep the blood out of them.

"BRIAN!" Tim's was barely audible over his screams, but he still heard it. He still heard Tim scream his name-his real name-and he opened his eyes just in time to see a familiar figure next to Tim and Alex.

An all-too familiar headache reared its ugly head at the sight of the tall figure, the dull ache combining with the blinding pain from the shot to create a state of agony he couldn't bear. Vision blurring, as he fell forward he saw Tim and Alex both trying to run, trying to flee the figure. He closed his eyes, his breathing slowing down.

Then... it was gone.

He was somewhere else now, some kind of field. His breathing was labored as he laid there, the headache from the Operator mercifully residing.

Somehow, he was alive and conscious. It hurt like hell, but he could still think clearly... Slowly sitting up, he groaned in pain as he clutched his head, panting heavily as he surveyed his surroundings. The Operator was gone now, and so were Tim and Alex. He was the only one here, now all alone...


His eyes opened at this point, a beam of light hitting them. Groaning softly, Hoody slowly sat up and rubbed his head, instinctively touching his scar. The scar where the bullet entered on the front of his head, the wound he shouldn't have been able to survive. His shoulders sagged as he thought about it, lowering his hands and rubbing his eyes.

Why? Why did he survive that?

For all intents and purposes, that bullet should have killed him. The odds of surviving a gunshot to the head without any lasting damage were next to none, almost impossible, yet here he was. Alive and well-or at least as well as he could be considering the situation. And even before that, he was the only one "taken" by the Operator only to run. The others almost certainly died, even if there were no corpses to prove it, but he returned.

Why him? What made him so special? Special enough to survive? Sighing, he got up and went to the corner with his bag, scrounging around inside it until he found his pills. Popping one into his mouth, he washed it down with a bottle of water and screwed the cap back on before grabbing his mask.

Today was another day. He could think about that stuff later.

~*~

"(Name), come here!"

I perked up as Tim hissed to me for attention, snapping my head towards him.

"Did you find something?" I asked excitedly, pausing the video I was watching.

"I think so! Come on, hurry!" Without hesitation I hurried over and sat on the bed next to him, desperately hoping he HAD found something. An additional day of marathoning footage had turned up no results, so I was getting pretty desperate to find something useful now.

The video Tim had open was pretty average compared to us, paused on another shot of us walking through a forest like so many. However, this time I noticed a familiar-looking gazebo in the background. "Hey, isn't that the park where the first Marble Hornets videos were filmed?"

"Yeah. We were looking for clues on where Hoody might be hiding since Marble Hornets ended."

"We were?" Noting the video was already a decent way in, I asked, "Why didn't you call me over earlier then?"

"Well, I didn't know if there'd be anything useful in it at first. But then this happened." Unplugging his headphones, he rewound the footage a bit and then turned up the volume.

"...round here?" We could hear my voice over the faint crunching of twigs, the audio quality not that good but my words still pretty clear. The Tim on the screen glanced to the camera, nodding.

"Yeah. He hung out in abandoned buildings around here a lot, so maybe he came back to one." With that said he resumed walking, the camera following him. As we walked along, though, the quality of the video suddenly changed, grains of color becoming visible. I perked up at the sight of the video's distortion, my eyes widening.

"That's a sign the Tall Man is nearby, right?" I asked in a hushed tone, and Tim shushed me.

"Yeah, now be quiet!" he hissed, and turned up the volume so we could hear the audio a bit better as I spoke again in the video.

"Maybe... Though if I were him, I'd go to a hospital instead for the bullet to my head."

"If you were him, you'd be a missing person and possibly legally dead, and couldn't go to a hospital."

"...Good point." At this point Tim suddenly stopped, raising a hand so that I would stop too. Looking around, he gestured for me to follow with the camera and we proceeded quietly. After a few moments he paused and peered through some trees, before motioning to take the camera. There was a blur of motion as he took the camera, but when it focused it was focused between the trees on a moving yellow object:

Hoody.

My heart skipped a beat as I watched the blurry figure walking in the distance between the trees, moving away from the camera. However, before anything else could happen the video suddenly ended.

"What!?" I blurted out loud, and groaned. "Oh, come on, it was just getting to the good part!"

"It looks like we ran out of memory," Tim sighed, and exited to pull up the memory card's files. "According to this, these videos were all shot on June 1st-so this must have been right after we met up again."

"Man, we didn't waste any time, huh?" I sighed. "Yeesh, this sucks. It was just getting good. We better hae changed the memory card after that..."

"Don't worry, we probably did. Knowing me, I was probably checking to make sure it was recording the whole time." Exiting the video, he glanced at me. "But at least we have a lead now."

"Right..." I nodded. After days of watching video, we finally had something useful to go on. A smile touched my lips at the thought, and I asked, "Does this mean what I think it does?"

"Yep." Closing his laptop, he stuffed it in its case as he declared, "It's time for a little road trip."