Lady Luck

27

      "Well, here it is. What do you think?"

"Well, I guess it's better than nothing."

The sedan's appearance did not conceal its age as the camera panned over it, specks of dirt and dust marring the tinted windows and body. Chips in the paint littered its body almost as numerous as the stars in the sky, but they added no glamour or brilliance to the faded teal paint like how glistening stars lit the night. If anything, they did the opposite, emphasizing all of the neglect that the car endured over the years.

Though presently I held no disdain towards the vehicle, my past self clearly did not feel the same as she carried the camera closer to the car. "When was the last time this thing was washed?" my voice inquired off-camera, zooming in on a dent in the back door with a white splotch in it. "I mean, if you're going to sell a car, you could at least make it look a little nice..."

"Hey, it runs and it's cheap, and that's what matters most." The camera swiveled to face Tim as he spoke, his attention turned to the car. His expression was tired, heavy bags shading the skin beneath his eyes while his eyelids drooped ever so slightly. "My old car barely brought in any money, I'm not sure we could've afforded a car from a dealership. We got really lucky finding this one."

"I know, I know... Anyways, more importantly, does it have an extra key?"

"Of course. That's the whole reason we got a new car."

"And they work?"

"I tested them before signing anything. They both work fine." The camera shook and swung to the ground as we approached each other, briefly catching him rifling through his pockets mid-stride. When it righted itself a few moments later it focused on my open hand, a dull metal key with a black key fob resting in my palm.

This was the main key, not the valet key.

In real time my eyes darted away from the screen to the open notepad sitting on the table next to my laptop. I vaguely listened to our footsteps across the asphalt as I snatched my pencil from its resting place and jotted a quick note:

Card: T/LL:NC1


Tim purchased new car. Cited multiple keys as specific reason. Gave me original key, using valet key for himself?

(Planned to give me main key beforehand? Need to find car discussion)

I could hear the car doors open and close as I wrote the notes, and glanced up just in time to catch a glimpse of Tim sliding the valet key into the ignition. Smirking, I added a check mark next to the note about him using valet key for himself and then continued my fervent note-taking as the drive began.

Today marked the second full day since Tim's departure. If I had to summarize his departure in one word, it would be "uneventful." No balancing act required with the funds in his bank account. No problems with hotel staff when he checked out of his room while paying another week for mine. For once absolutely nothing went wrong, and he was able to leave without any trouble, giving me plenty of time to start my investigations.

Though I'd only watched a few of the memory cards at this point, they'd already provided a slew of relevant information and discoveries. Nothing ground-breaking or jaw-dropping yet, but still relevant to clarifying the situation. One featured us catching up after our initial split back in May. Another was just us pooling our information on Hoody's activities and speculating on his whereabouts since the end of Marble Hornets.

As Tim predicted, a few of the videos featured us visiting locations from the original series, though the memory cards ran out of space before any major discoveries could be filmed and I had yet to find the continuations. Still, I wasn't in any particular rush to find them. As it stood my suspicions about these memory cards containing only crucial information were proven, so I didn't feel a need to rush through every video looking for something useful or specific. I could just take my time.

Sipping from my nice, cool glass of (favorite beverage), I started tuning out the conversation in the video as my video counterpart gushed over the magnificence of a working air conditioning system. My mind wandered instead to the date of the video. If I recalled correctly this card's videos were all dated from early June, around the seventh or eighth. By my estimates, that meant a little over a month had passed since we'd reunited.

Something happened during that time that led to us getting a new car. Tim stated the reason for the new car was to get extra keys, and mentioned that he tested them. At the time we lost our memories, we were using the glove box as a storage place for the memory cards and Tim's mask. Based on this, it was safe to assume we'd gotten the car specifically to have a safe place to stow stuff.

My mind wandered back to the last video I'd watched yesterday. If I remembered the dates right, I had a pretty good feeling that was the inciting incident for getting the new car. I had a strong feeling that the rest of the car conversation wasn't going to be too useful, so I decided to stop the video there and look for the other memory card to double-check the dates. However, as I rifled through the pile of cards from yesterday, I heard a small click from the door.

I immediately snapped my head upwards, just in time to see the door's handle turning. The smirk on my face formed almost instantly, and I quietly closed the laptop and sat back. Soon enough the door opened and a yellow-hooded figure started to enter the room, only to freeze upon seeing me sitting there in all my (h/c)-haired (e/c)-eyed glory, nonchalantly munching on a (breakfast snack).

"Hello, Hoody," I greeted casually with a small wave. He just stared at me in shock for a few moments before glancing down the hall.

"What the—? How did—?"

"Did you know this hotel has a back door?" I asked blissfully. "And if you take a REALLY roundabout way you can get there without anyone seeing you?" He looked back at me as I spoke, falling back into silence. Now more than ever I wished I could see his face, his jaw must be hanging open.

Since I had no way to contact Hoody, that morning I got the idea to leave the hotel and go to a cafe for a bit before sneaking into the back of the hotel. I hoped he might try to sneak into my room while I was gone since he'd done it before, but I didn't expect it to work the very first time I tried it. So naturally, I was feeling pretty smug about myself.

Staring at me in silence for a few extra moments, Hoody started to retreat and close the door, but I didn't give him the chance. Within seconds I was off the chair and rushing towards it, grabbing the handle and yanking it open before grabbing his arm. I felt his muscles tense through the thick fabric of his sweatshirt, and he quickly glanced back at me. "Not this time," I said. "I have questions, and you have answers."

"Haven't we already gone over this?" He cocked his head to the side. "I'm not telling you anything, you need to find out on your own—"

"In early June you stole Tim's medicine," I interrupted, my voice totally flat. "At some point after that his mask reappeared. I haven't been able to confirm it yet, but it's pretty obvious hat he must have relapsed into his 'Masky' personality at some point. Later he and I had to split up after being chased by the Tall Man, and from what I can tell we were apart for two days with no record of what I did during that time."

As I spoke I kept my gaze trained on him with a cool look, my expression unchanging. Hoody just remained silent, his perpetually-frowning mask concealing whatever feelings he might have. "You found the memory cards," he finally said. There was a note of resignation in his voice, prompting me to release his arm, and sure enough he just walked into my room instead of running away.

"They were in the glove box, just like you thought," I replied as I closed the door. "And that wasn't all I found, but I think you know what else was there." Hoody didn't respond, instead turning his attention to the pile of memory cards next to the laptop.

"Does Tim know?" he asked, picking one up to examine it.

"No. I don't think he'd want to know that his freaking mask has been locked in the glove box this entire time." As I spoke I walked over and snatched the memory card from him. "Why the hell didn't you just tell me it was there in the first place? That would've saved me a lot of trouble."

"It wasn't my place," he replied simply, giving a small shrug. "Besides, would you even believe me?" I frowned at his response, but I knew he had a point. For rather obvious reasons I didn't really trust Hoody all that much right now, though apparently I did at some point if he knew about the mask being there.

"Fine. I still have questions though."

"Like what?" Rather than reply, I turned my attention to the laptop and ejected the memory card currently in there and quickly selected another one from the pile to pop in. Clicking through the list of videos, I opened one up and stepped back. Hoody glanced at me curiously before turning his attention to the screen, watching the video play silently. This time Tim played cameraman, taping me as I sat in a hotel room fiddling with a new smartphone.

"So, does it work alright?" he asked.

"So far, I guess."

"I'm still surprised you could afford that," he commented, and video-me glanced at the camera with a small smirk.

"Maybe you should try buying scratch cards sometime. Who knows, you just might get 'lucky.'" I placed a small emphasis on the last word, making Tim audibly snort. No doubt I'd made more than a few jokes about that.

"Yeah, yeah. Anyways, so it works fine, right?"

"Seems like it. I mean, it's brand new. There better NOT be anything wrong with it, or I promise heads will roll. Hold on a sec." I raised the phone so it hovered between our faces, tapping at the screen for a few moments before speaking. "Okay, try saying something real quick."

"Huh? O-oh, uh—" Sounding surprised and slightly confused, Tim trailed off for a moment as he thought about what to say. "Hi, my name is Tim and I am NOT obsessed with cheesecake. Also, my eyes are brown, not baby blue or whatever people like to use in fan art." Video-me smirked slightly as I lowered the phone and looked at the screen.

"Okay, brown-eyed-and- not-obsessed-with-cheesecake Tim, that'll do. " I tapped the phone's screen a few times, and the camera managed to faintly pick up bits of his short speech resonating from the phone. While in the present I had to strain to hear it, the audio was apparently satisfying for my video counterpart. "Okay, it sounds good, and the image's not bad either."

"Wait, are you thinking of using your phone to record stuff?" Tim asked, apparently surprised once again, and I just shrugged.

"Yeah. Cameras can be kinda expensive you know. Figured we might as well try to save some money and buy a phone with an awesome camera since I needed one anyway. I can transfer them to the computer and just save them to SD cards whenever I run out of area."

"Huh. Smart. So, are you going to set a password?" As Tim spoke I noticed Hoody tense ever so slightly, his stoic demeanor faltering for a moment.

"Well, of course I am," video-me replied, not looking up from the phone. "I'm going to be recording the videos on here, and Hoody isn't exactly known to respect people's privacy."

"Mind sharing it with me then? In case I need to see the videos on there and you aren't around." There was a pause on my part before I shrugged.

"Eh, why not? Not like I'd actually have anything to hide with this one. It's 5-8-2-5."

"Uh, that's pretty random, let me get a piece of paper and say them again," Tim said, but my video-counterpart giggled.

"Don't bother. It's really easy to remember as long as you remember how to spell it."

"Wait... Spell it?"

"Yeah. Just look at the keypad on any phone, there's always letters printed under the numbers. You can use them to spell words." Even as I spoke in the video, the real me was already translating the numbers into letters in my mind. 5 for JKL. 8 for TUV. 2 for ABC. And then another 5. What combination of letters could I get out of that?

"Luck," I murmured softly, speaking in unison with my proud-sounding video counterpart, and at that point I pressed the space bar and paused the video. Hoody just sat in silence, seeming to think over it for a while.

"...So then you got into your phone too," he finally said, but I just snorted and rolled my eyes, making him look at me in surprise. "...(Name)?"

"I tried," I said, getting out my phone and typing in the password. Then I showed him the screen. Access denied. "But apparently I changed it."