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The trauma of it all, the nightmares, the smell of smoke and blood, the screaming that shook him to his core, all still fresh in Jay’s mind.
It’d only been a month since the last sighting of that thing and since...Alex’s death.
Jay still feels the ache in his side, where surgeons removed a bullet from his abdomen after a stranger found Jay on the side of a road. No, he still doesn’t know how he got there, he doesn’t know fuck all right now. He just remembers Tim being at his side, telling him the horrid outcome to their story, and swearing to never tell anyone.
The two were still finding comfort in moving from motel to motel, comfort in keeping the lights on at night and a couch pressed against the door.
Jay stopped zoning out when he heard the car door open and Tim got back into the driver’s seat.
“You okay?” Tim asked while buckling his belt.
“As okay as I can be.” Jay bluntly responded. Tim looked at him, as if asking to know more, to make sure that Jay was completely here. “Just thinking about-” He paused, taking a shaky breath, as he suddenly felt real and connected to the events that happened. Tim placed a hand on his back, giving a comforting rub.
“It’s alright.” Tim cooed before taking a moment to stare outside. “We should be at the motel in a couple hours, maybe even before it gets dark.” He turned back to Jay, giving a soft half smile.
The drive was uneventful, aside from the odd jokes, a trip to a McDonald's drive-thru, and questions about favourite foods and life and even the past, before all of this had happened. It was rare for them to talk about Jessica, about Seth and Brian and all the others they didn’t have answers about.
The car pulled into the motel car park, just as the streetlights began to turn on, and after checking in, Jay dived on the surprisingly clean bed and then let out a muffled scream. He could hear Tim’s soft chuckle and felt himself laugh at how absurd life was right now, how after everything going on, he still felt like a depressed college student, only now, everything was strange and he was constantly in danger.
The two men relaxed as best as they could, playing cards and telling awful jokes that made the two sound like dads, before moving the armchairs to block the door and settling in for the night.
Jay awoke with a startle, jolting up only to be met with darkness and the smell of damp wood.
His breathing quickening. He grasped at the dirt and sticks beneath him, trying to find the bed he had fallen asleep on.
Panicking, he stood up and stumbled into a run, bashing his shoulders on trees, his clothes catching on thorns which dug into his skin. There was a light in the distance and he stopped in his tracks as the light came closer, revealing Alex, closely followed by that horrid tall and faceless creature.
Alex must have survived, must have hunted him down to try and take the life that Jay had struggled so hard for.
The gunshot echoed in his ears and he opened his eyes, wincing as the bright light of the motel room burned into his vision. Jay sat up, grabbing the quilt and rubbing his hands over it, checking if everything was the same. He heard movement, snapping his head around to see Tim sitting up and rubbing his eyes. Tim’s tiredness and annoyance at being awoken switched to concern when he locked eyes with a terrified Jay.
“Hey, what’s up?” Tim yawned, shifting himself so he was facing his friend.
“Just another nightmare.”
“You wanna talk about it?”
Jay recounted his nightmare, half way through, Tim moved so that he was sitting next to him, putting an arm around him for comfort. Jay spoke of his fears, how he felt like nothing they do will ever get them safe, that one day that thing is gonna kill them, or that one of them might turn out like Alex and that terrifies him. Tears began pouring down Jay’s face and it was like a dam breaking as he broke out into sobs.
Tim pulled him into a hug, soothed his friend by running his fingers through his hair. Jay clung onto Tim, pulling himself as close to him as he possibly could.
“Listen to me” Tim started softly. “Everything is wack and tiring and I know that everything that has happened to us is wearing us down.” He rested his head on top of Jay’s. “But I know that we’ll get through this. We’ve been through so much worse than nightmares, we can get better.” He planted a soft kiss on Jay’s head. “We’re still alive and no matter what happens, I’m here for you.”
It took a while to get Jay to calm down, to get the poor lad to stop shaking. But they settled into the same bed that night, with Jay resting his head on Tim’s chest, feeling safer and nightmare free for the first night in a while.
Jay knew that things were still going to be rough, but he found comfort in knowing that he had been through worse and surprisingly made it out alive.
He could get through this, especially with Tim at his side.