Entry #12050104001305

All Is Silent

Tim had never been much of a fan of driving in the dark and even less of a fan of driving in the rain, but as he pulled into the driveway of an unfamiliar house, he simply hoped he had arrived at his destination. Upon awakening in the driveway, his crutches and the familiar plastic mask beside him, Tim had immediately gotten into his car, ready to leave his house behind. It wasn't like he had much left anyway. A little folded piece of paper had been set on the dash; the hurried writing contained an address with "Jessica's house" written beneath the location. After searching the address with his GPS, he had arrived at a house, knocking on the front door to quickly find that he had put in the address wrong.

Sitting in the driver's seat, Tim cut the engine, praying he had the right house. It was already after eleven and he was ready to get some proper rest. His body ached from whatever antics he had been up to all day, not to mention the fact that his leg hurt like never before. After getting out of his car the first time, a task that seemed to take forever because of his need for crutches, his clothes were soaked through from the downpour.

Tim only bothered to grab his duffel bag of clothes and basic necessities from the passenger seat, slipping his head and one arm through the strap before grabbing his crutches from the passenger's seat as well and exiting the vehicle. The porch light was off and it seemed like the rest of the lights inside the house were in a similar state, but at that point, Tim was just ready to be able to get out of the rain and change into some dry clothes.

Hurrying as fast as he could across the damp grass, the crutches nearly slipped out from under him more than once before he was finally under the small overhang of the front door. Heaving a tired sigh, Tim raised his fist to knock with the door suddenly swung open, Hoodie standing in the doorway. Tim had the fleeting thought of, Great, three cryptics in one house, but he pushed the thought aside. He wasn't going to get anywhere thinking like that.

Behind Hoodie, the living room was cast into darkness; past that, the dining room was just barely lit by a dim light from the next room, most likely the kitchen. Standing on the flat concrete stone just before the door, Tim shivered. A warm bed and fresh clothes sounded wonderful right about now, as long as the rain hadn't already soaked through his duffel bag.

Once Hoodie had stepped back to allow Tim enough space to enter, the man entered the house. Before he could maneuver himself to push the door closed, it was quietly shut behind him; Tim watched as Hoodie returned to the corner sofa and eased himself down onto it, the soft material giving under his weight. As soon as he was horizontal, a dark shape moved to settle on top of him, resting on his chest; Tim could only guess it was some kind of pet.

Turning his attention to the hallway on the left side of the room, Tim hobbled forward into the dark space. The light from the kitchen at the opposite end of the hall cast just enough light that he could see the three doors, though he had no idea which one was his. Maybe he was supposed to sleep on the couch? That didn't quite fit, considering Jay was missing. He had to be behind one of those doors... Unless he wasn't there at all.

The muffled sound of fingers snapping got Tim's attention and he turned back to face the living room to see Hoodie with his hand raised. Having gained Tim's attention, the masked man pointed toward the end of the hall closest to Tim. Said man turned to see the last door, the darkness surrounding it making it match the other two, and he wasted no more time in turning the handle. Just like the rest of the house, the room was dark, though this room seemed exceptionally so.

Once Tim had pushed the door closed behind him, he blindly felt his way through the dark with his crutches until he bumped into the end of the bed. The quietest of sighs left his mouth as he laid the metal crutches down on the floor at the end of the bed, the items clunking together in the silence. As Tim pulled the duffel bag over his head, he thought he heard the sound of someone moving and he froze. He knew it was most likely Jay, but the small chance that it could have been someone else had the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end.

No, that was improbable. If anyone had gotten in, Hoodie would have known. Unless he was working with them...

Setting the duffel bag on the floor, Tim began unzipping his jacket, dumping it in a wet pile on the floor when he had pulled it off. His shirt was the next to go, his pants and boxers following. It was difficult to remove his clothing from the waist down, but after pulling them past his hips and taking a seat on the end of the bed, he managed to remove the rest of his clothes. Awkwardly fumbling around in the dark, Tim eventually found his duffel bag again and pulled out a handful of clean clothes. In the darkness, he could hardly tell what he'd grabbed, but once he felt a pair of boxers, he only bothered to pull them on before dropping the rest of the clothes he'd grabbed back onto his bag.

The grip he had on the mattress was tight as he leaned over again and picked up his crutches and the pile of wet clothes. Dressed in only his underwear, Tim quietly returned to the hall, his clothes tucked under one of his arms between his skin and the padded cover of the crutch.

"Hoodie," he whispered, and though his voice was barely audible in the silence, Hoodie's head still turned to acknowledge him. "Where's the washer and dryer?"

One of Hoodie's hand lifted to point toward the kitchen and Tim quietly thanked him before heading down the hall. Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw the man petting the dark creature on his chest.

True to his word, there was a small room off of the kitchen that held a washer and dryer. Not wanting to wake up the rest of the house, Tim set his clothes in the dryer and closed the door as quietly as he could (which wasn't as quiet as he would have liked) before returning to his room, closing the door behind him.

The bedroom was pitch black as Tim tentatively felt the way forward with his crutches until he arrived at the far side of the bed. As he took a seat, the man finally let his body relax for the first time in what felt like ages. As gently as he could, Tim set his crutches down beside the bed, pushing them beneath the bed with his right foot so that they wouldn't be in the way.

Tim shuffled back a little on the mattress before lifting his left leg slowly, bringing it to rest on the mattress. He momentarily considered propping it up on a pillow but decided against it. While he couldn't see well enough to confirm his theory, he figured that there would only be two pillows on the bed anyway.

As he shuffled in place just a little more, he heard the sound from before, only this time, it was much closer. The blankets beneath Tim's body shifted slightly as the person beside him, for there was undeniably someone else on the bed, moved in place. Tim's heart began beating faster at the possibility of who it could be though he was almost certain it was Jay.

"Tim?" Jay's tired voice croaked uncertainly, the word coming out as a question.

"Yeah," Tim replied, a quiet, tired chuckle coming after it. His heart began to slow down from its frantic pace as he laid back on the bed. "It's just me."

Immediately, Jay's hand began feeling around in the dark, finding Tim's arm first and traveling to rest across his stomach as he scooted closer. Tim lifted his arm to let Jay get closer and the cameraman inched closer until his head rested against Tim's shoulder.

"Good night," Tim murmured quietly, his voice still sounding loud in the silence of the night that surrounded the house.

"Mm, night," Jay groaned back before his breaths evened out and he was asleep again. With Jay beside him, it didn't take long for Tim to fall asleep as well.

📼 📼 📼 📼 📼 📼

Saw an interesting idea on Tumblr that basically described characters "speaking static" which I think fits really well with what I'm trying to convey in my writing so that might be something I use going forward, especially in the next chapter. Otherwise, it's going to be really hard for Hoodie/Maskie/Skully to speak to each other without their conversations taking forever.