Chapter Text
Three years has passed since Brian went missing. There were no clues, no leads, nothing that can possibly tell you where he is or what could have had happened to him. You have searched endlessly for him yet all attempts were fruitless, you would always come back empty handed. Your friends and family had repeatedly tried to persuade you to stop looking for him, but you will not give up, he was alive and you just know it, you have to find him. You refused to believe he's dead. He cannot be dead.
The gods must have pitied you at some point and decided to give you a possible lead, a possible clue that will help you find him. You had recently just came home from your part-time job, you were exhausted and too tired to drive to possible spots that Brian will likely appear; it was a stupid way of finding leads but its better than nothing. Throwing your tired body on the sofa, you decided to go on your phone a bit and browse, you rarely had time for yourself and you rarely had enough time to do something enjoyable or remotely relaxing. Deciding to go on youtube and watch some funny cat videos to brighten your day, you had accidentally stumbled on a youtube page called Marble Hornets. Something clicked in, you remembered Brian calling you one late afternoon and telling you about how he had auditioned for a film a friend of him is making. You were rather excited and teased him about it which he awkwardly laughed off. A couple days later, he called you again and told you he got the spot and he was the main character.
"So what's the film called?" you asked, gazing outside your window with a smile on your face. You had known Brian since childhood, he was your best friend and your unrequited first love.
"I think it was called Marble Hornets..." he paused and you can hear the quiet shuffling of papers on the other side of the phone,"Yeah it's called Marble Hornets. I'm pretty nervous, I mean what if I'm not good enough for it, you know..." You smiled, you would have slung your arm around his neck if he was next to you.
"You'll do fine, Brian! I know you can do it, you got this." you exclaimed, a small fit of giggles escaping your lips. You can hear him chuckle at the end of the line, a warm feeling bloomed in your chest, you missed his laughter. "You're right, thanks (Y/N)."
You can feel tears pricking at the corner of your eyes, if you can find the creator of the channel, maybe he could give you an inkling as to where Brian is. For the first time for the pass three years, you felt something blooming in your chest, the warm feeling of hope. 'Just wait, I'll find you, you asshole and hit you for making me so worried.' you thought to yourself, a small chuckle escaping your lips as you thought of the possibilities.
You decided to stalk the channel and find any clues as to where the creator might be staying. You were rewarded for your patience, a day after you found the channel, the creator, Jay, had uploaded another entry stating that he was currently occupying a hotel somewhere near Rosswood Park. You eagerly called your workplace and announced that you were talking a week leave, something important came up and you need to attend to it immediately. Your boss simply sighed, "If you weren't such a good worker, I would have fired you a long time (Y/N)." he said, you took that as a yes and thanked him. The next few moments were spent on preparing for your trip to Rosswood Park which was at least a 7 hours drive from your place.
You had finally arrived at your destination after driving for 7 hours with 30 minutes break every so often. You had decided to wait for Jay in the car park, if he doesn't show up in about two hours, you'll look around the hotels located near Rosswood. After almost an hour an a half waiting, another car pulled in just two cars away from you. Hurriedly, you stepped out of your car to check whether it was the person you were waiting for, a sigh of relief escaped your lips, you found Jay! Quickly locking your car, your hurried over to him.
"Wait! excuse me!" you called out, waving your hand frantically at him. Jay turned to face you, confusion written in his face. "um, can I... help you?" he murmured, shifting slightly his weight slightly to his other leg. You gulped and tried to swallow the nervousness you were currently feeling.
"Yes... You're Jay, right?" he nodded, "I'm a friend of Brian and I...I was wondering if you can help me find him..." Awkwardly, you rubbed the back of your neck, you were a stranger to him, why would he help you? At least you tried, right?
"I would, but I don't what I could help you with... I didn't really know him that much but... I could try and help you." He replied, eyes looking anywhere else but at you. You released the breathe you didn't even know you were holding. A smile bloomed on your face, "Thank you."
You accompanied Jay in the forest of Rosswood Park, there was something...off about the place but you decided not to mention it. As you searched the forest for about an hour or more, you decided to call it a day and head back to the car park. The forest was rather deathly still, it was disturbing you to say the least.
"Hey Jay, I don't mean to scare you or anything but did you hear the sound of footsteps while we were snooping about in the forest?" You whispered, glancing around your surrounding. Jay nodded, "I did but I didn't want to scare you so I didn't anything." He mumbled. You both reached the car park, and just before you were ready to head off, Jay called your name.
"Hey, uh, can I get your number just so that I can stay in contact with you if anything happens?" You nodded and you two briefly exchanged numbers before jumping in separate cars and heading off. You decided to stay at a cheap motel, which in your opinion wasn't too bad. You drifted to sleep quickly, you were exhausted after driving for 7 hours and walking around in the forest for almost an hour or two. You didn't notice the hooded man that followed you.
The next morning, Jay called you and told you to check the channel called 'totheark', "Someone was filming us yesterday, whoever it is, they know you." he said, fear seeping in his voice. You could feel shivers down your spine as the phrase 'they know you' repeated in is mind. You quickly hooked yourself up to the wi-fi and searched up the channel. A video was recently uploaded last night by the youtuber, totheark, the title? 'Apologies.'
You clicked on the video. The screen was black for a moment then it blinked to life with a photo of you smiling at the camera, hands both held up to a piece sign. Lines of static interrupted the photo and distorted the audio, a text then surfaced in front of the photo. "I know you." it read and you couldn't help but feel the cold sensation of fear rushing in your veins. The photo vanished in lines of red and gray static, it was then replaced a video of you sleeping, arms carefully tucked under your blanket as you slept on your side. You could see a hooded man leaning against the wall adjacent to your bed, his shadow towering over your figure. Another text appeared on the screen, "You shouldn't have come, only death awaits." He crouched down and gently tucked the hair covering your face behind your ear, chills crawled down your skin.
"I know who you are searching for." the video was cut and then replaced by a grayscale photo of Brian smiling at the camera, a large 'X' was drawn from corner to corner of the picture. "He is gone. He is dead. Don't come looking." The photo then faded in the background, the screen then slowly became corrupted by lines of static, the audio was going haywire before it all stopped and a single text appeared on the black screen. "My apologies."
It took awhile for you to realize you were crying. Putting your phone away, you curled yourself up in a ball and wept. Your body shook and trembled as your sobs became louder and louder until you couldn't contain it anymore. You were afraid, lost, broken but despite all that, you were desperate for answers. Totheark's videos only created more questions, how does totheark know you, how did he die, HOW? You weren't going back without answers, whoever totheark is, they can burn in hell. You're going to find your answers and Brian, there's no way in hell you're backing down now, not when you've spent three years of your life looking for them.