Lady Luck

24

     Towards the very end of Marble Hornets, Tim and Jay got their hands on an address that led them to a college. Only one video actually showing the college was published online, Entry 79. The next entry—Entry 80—was Tim's little speech about how everyone died, meaning Jay almost definitely died there.

And now Tim and I were on our way there ourselves in search of our next clue.

"Where's Alex? Where're you keeping him?"

I frowned slightly as I watched the video of Jay running up a set of stairs, his voice audible off screen. To help refresh my memory about the college I'd decided to watch Entry 79 with headphones during the car ride, having directly downloaded the video to my laptop before setting out. I did feel a little queasy watching it while the car was moving, but I ignored the feeling and focused on the video.

Reaching the top of the stairs, Jay began slowly walking down the hallway, peeking into each door until coughing became audible. Following it to its source, he found Hoody in one of the rooms bent over near the far wall, pressing a hand against it to keep his balance as he coughed violently. Jay approached Hoody at a rather leisurely pace, calling out a small, almost casual, "Hey."

Glancing back at him, Hoody quickly grabbed a large wrench from the table next to him. "Hey—wait, wait, wait, wait!" Jay's words grew increasingly rapid and panicked as Hoody turned and swung the wrench at him, the swings missing as Jay fell to the floor. The camera caught Hoody swinging it a bit more at Jay as he moved towards the door, finally dropping the wrench and running away.

A shudder ran down my spine as I watched the Jay attempt to pursue Hoody, Tim's voice faintly audible as he ran down some stairs. After a moment I then realized that Tim's voice wasn't part of the video, and quickly paused it and lowered my headphones. "You say something?" I asked, glancing at Tim in the driver's seat. He smirked slightly, shaking his head as he kept his eyes on the road.

"I was asking what you think of that place," he replied. Ah. Considering it thoughtfully, I glanced at the screen, the video paused on a frame of Jay turning the camera to look outside.

"Well, so far I don't know enough to really have much of an opinion," I said, and he nodded.

"Figured as much. Well, there's not much footage of the room that matters, though."

"Yeah..." I made a mental note of my current place in the video and skipped ahead to about the eleven-minute mark, where Jay had entered a basement area while following Tim. Photos of Alex covered one of the walls, and there was a metal folding chair with a note on it. I didn't pay much attention to those though, instead focusing on the metal object in the far corner, something like a boiler or furnace, and a series of dirty-looking white pipes on the floor.

My mind flashed back to the video of Tim sleeping that had spawned this trip. Unlike all the other videos where we were in hotels, this one was set in a dark, dank room with barely any lighting, Tim sleeping atop a blue sleeping bag covered by a thin blanket. Pipes ran along the floor in the corner of the image, making it pretty obvious it was some kind of basement—just like the basement from Entry 79.

"Hopefully we'll find some kind of clue when we get there," Tim remarked while I studied the frame in the video. "There had to be a reason I slept there."

"Don't get your hopes up too high," I warned him as I rewound the video to my original place. "Could just be we didn't have the money to stay in a hotel room." Tim snorted at my remark, rolling his eyes.

"Yeah, sure. (Name), even if I couldn't afford a hotel room, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be THAT desperate for a place to sleep."

"Tim, I've slept in multiple places where drug deals were known to go down just to get out of the rain and cold. Don't underestimate the lengths a truly desperate person will go to when looking for shelter." He paused and looked at me in surprise, his jaw hanging open ever so slightly.

"Wait, seriously? You slept in drug dens?!"

"Not drug dens, places where deals were known to happen. There's a difference." Tim just stared at me, clearly wanting to say something, but after a while he appeared to change his mind and just slowly looked back to the road.

"...Anyways," he muttered, tactfully changing the topic, "Since you don't know the layout of the college that well, do you want to wait outside in the car?"

"Huh?" Now it was my turn to look at him in surprise. "Uh... why? I mean, I've only seen one video of the place, but it seems pretty creepy. Wouldn't it be better to have someone else with you?"

"Maybe. But it might also be good to have someone wait outside, just in case something happens. No point risking two lives."

Thinking it over for a few moments, I then declared in a deadpan tone, "Tim, going by that logic, I should be the one going inside. I'm way more likely to escape if something goes wrong. I'm Lady Luck, remember?"

"Yes, and that also means something is more likely to actually happen," he replied smoothly. "You're the one who says bad stuff always happens around you. I'd rather NOT risk you going inside and the building somehow collapsing, thank you very much." Ouch. That stung a bit, but he kind of had a point there.

"...So, what do you want me to do in the car?" I sighed after a moment, resigning myself to my assigned role. "Just sit around and wait?"

"Keep trying to get in your phone while I'm gone, I guess. Maybe watch a couple SD cards before the laptop battery runs out. I don't think I'll be gone too long though."

"Alright, fine. I guess..." By this point we'd reached the college campus and were just cruising along the streets, Tim searching for the building. Quickly pulling into a parking spot, he turned off the engine and opened his door.

"Here," he said, tossing me his key ring as he climbed out. "Lock the car when I'm out. If I'm not back in half an hour, drive back to the hotel." Raising an eyebrow, I opened my mouth to protest but he quickly cut me off with, "Yes, I'm serious. Don't argue with me, just get out before anything else happens."

With that he slammed the door shut and headed off to the building, leaving me to just watch in silence. "Actually, I was going to say I haven't sat behind the wheel of a car since running away," I muttered to myself, rolling my eyes. "But sure, I'll totally drive on a bunch of busy highways for three hours..." Sarcastic remarks to myself out of the way, I pressed the lock button on the key chain before sinking back into my seat, mulling over the current situation.

First, Tim refused to show me the video he took at the Red Tower. Now he wanted to go into the basement alone and make me wait outside. Individually, these events could easily be explained away, but when combined together it was clearer than ever Tim was hiding something from me. Why that was, I didn't know. All I knew was that he only started acting like this after our disastrous trip to the park.

I wasn't really one to judge though—I had plenty of secrets too. Overwhelming curiosity gnawed at me as I looked at the glove box, my mind racing with thoughts of what might be inside. Lately I'd been hesitant to open it but now that I was faced with the glove box itself, any doubts and inhibitions remaining from my talk with Hoody vanished from my mind, replaced by a sweet temptation rivaled only by the sweetest of candy.

Did I have time to look? I glanced at the direction Tim left, my mind racing. If I was lucky he'd find something and hang around a while to investigate it for a while. Worst case scenario, he didn't find anything and came right back, but even if that happened he'd probably still take some time to look around and have at least a five minute walk back to the car.

Just a quick peek. Just quickly unlock and open it for a few seconds. I didn't even have to touch anything or take anything out, just look inside to confirm what was in there and close it. It wouldn't even take a minute, a few seconds at most; I still had plenty of time before Tim came back. Reasoning with myself like this as I retrieved the key from my pocket, my hand shook slightly as I moved it towards the key hole, sucking in a sharp breath.

Sure enough, it slid inside perfectly, and I paused to collect myself before trying to turn it. Click. I immediately abandoned the key and grabbed the latch and pulled, the door falling open towards my lap while a light automatically switched on inside the glove box to illuminate its content. Heart loudly pounding in my ears by this point, I bent forward to peer inside, my mind buzzing with excitement and heavy anticipation.

There were no insurance papers or car ownership deeds inside this glove box, no tissues or napkins or anything like that. Instead I was greeted by a clear plastic bag full of SD cards, the sight making my stomach leap. Without hesitation I snatched the bag from its hiding place, completely forgetting the potential risk of Tim suddenly returning and seeing me like this. Sunlight caught the clear plastic as I placed the bag on my lap, making it shine like the treasure trove it was.

Practically tearing it open, I quickly pulled out several cards to take a closer look at them and immediately knew they were different from the cards we'd been watching. Unlike those cards, these each had labels: "TM:RP2", "H:AH1", "LL:SW4"... Initials for names? Locations? Times? I didn't know what they meant off the top of my head, but that didn't matter. All that mattered was that Hoody was right after all—we DID hide the more important memory cards.

Here it was. Contained inside this plastic bag were the answers to all of our problems, the truth of all of our mysteries. A giant grin filled my face at the thought, but then it vanished as I glanced out the window, looking for any signs of Tim. Good as this turn of events seemed, I couldn't help but recall Hoody's warning to not show Tim the contents of the glove box.

"I know at least one thing that's stored in there... But I don't know if there's anything else stored in there." That particular line from my last conversation with Hoody sprung to mind. He'd said it after speculating that more memory cards might be in the glove box—emphasis on speculating. He had no idea that the cards were in there, which meant there was something else there...

Slowly looking back at the glove box, I peered inside and sure enough, I saw it. A medium-sized brown paper package, shoved far to the back so it wasn't visible without looking directly inside. Moving the bag of SD cards to the driver seat, I reached inside and carefully pulled out the package for a better look. It was wrapped in several layers of brown paper, depending on layers to keep it sealed rather than tape.

Mind racing, I shot a glance at the direction Tim had left. About five minutes had passed since he'd left. For all I knew he could be on his way back now because the door was locked or he was seen by a janitor or something. Did I actually have the time to open this and then rewrap it before he got back? Then again, could I afford to wait? My curiosity was clawing at me, I wouldn't be able to sit still until I knew what it was.

"Just do it really fast (Name)," I whispered to myself as I turned the package over, gripping the edge of one of the paper layer. I didn't need to unwrap it completely, I just had to peel away enough to look inside. With that in mind I carefully tugged on the edge, turning the package over as I gradually unrolled the long sheet of paper hiding the object.

Shooting worried glances out the window the entire time, I felt like hours passed before I finally unwrapped enough to see what it was. As I roll the package over a final time my breath suddenly hitched in my throat, my stomach sinking with a sudden dread. Sticking out from the corner was the rounded edge of something bright white...