Jack stepped into the kitchen, making a beeline for the sink. Normally he enjoyed getting together with his friends but now he was regretting coming over to Tommy’s house. It felt like he had sandpaper stuck in his throat, scratching away at the drying walls while his head throbbed with dull pain that heralded an oncoming cold. It had lasted for days and nothing seemed to make it better. He picked up a clean glass from the draining board and filled it with cold water. Several painful gulps later, his throat felt a little less horrible.
Above the sink was a window that overlooked onto the vast park outside Tommy’s flat. Although it was dark, he could still make out the densely packed trees. Islands of light broke through the canopy along a meandering path that led to a small playground on the other side, looping around a gnarled oak tree on the way. That tree seemed ancient and gnarled. It sprawled out as though pushing away all the other trees and cast long shadows across the asphalt path. The view was far nicer than anything at Jack’s flat.
Somewhere in the other room he could hear Tommy and Tubbo laughing, but he paid it no mind. A moment of peace was exactly what he needed with this headache. He continued to look out over the park, sipping the cold water to soothe his throat.
Out of the corner he saw something move. He couldn’t tell what, and scanning the boundaries of the park revealed nothing - it was an island of darkness boxed in on all sides by the brightly lit city, one of the last remaining forests in the county. He supposed someone could be walking through it along the dark path, but he thought that unlikely given how late it was. Even he avoided late night walks. Everyone did. An odd prickling sensation grew on the back of his neck as he looked over the tall silhouettes of trees.
It was by the oak tree that he saw it. It stood tall, clad in all black so that it almost dissolved into the shadows of tree branches and leaves, but it was unmistakably a person. His stomach twisted when he noticed its face. There was no face. He leant forwards, breath hitching as the cold water sloshed over the rim of the glass and drenched his hand. The person… That thing. It looked exactly like the figure from that internet series he had watched only a week ago on stream. Marble… Something about Marble, though he couldn’t recall the name in that moment. There was no way it was real, he thought, rubbing his eyes and blinking hard.
The longer he stared the worse he felt. The prickling on the back of his neck felt more like fingernails scratching, digging into his skin as he came to a horrifying realisation. It knew he was watching it. It was watching him. A loud buzzing seemed to fill his mind, blocking out everything else as he continued to gaze upon the unnaturally tall figure. His vision seemed to close in, and no matter how hard he tried he could not look away. Pure hatred emanated through the window, hitting him like a speeding lorry. The buzzing seemed to grow louder and louder until he felt like he had become an electric pylon, and yet he knew with absolute certainty the sound was not real at all. Bile was rising in the back of his throat.
Was this really happening? Jack felt dizzy and he began to sweat as his mind began to spiral out of control. If this was real then it meant the videos were too, it meant that he was in horrible danger. But even as he stared right at it he could not shake the thought that this was just a hallucination, despite the absolute terror he felt. He had to look away. This thing was wrong, it was forbidden - something nobody was ever supposed to witness. Pain exploded through his head as though the figure was searing itself through every single cell in his brain.
Footsteps crept up behind him, “Are you alright? You’ve been here a while.” Tommy asked.
With a jerky sort of flinch, Jack spun and almost sent the water in the glass sloshing over the sides again. They stared for a long moment, not quite in silence for the buzzing still droned on like television static in Jack’s head. He could hear Tubbo laughing in the other room, muffled and distant as though he was underwater. Tommy had started to look concerned and Jack realised they had been silent for a little too long.
“I’m fine!” Jack said, attempting a chuckle which did not feel entirely convincing, “I’m just really thirsty, you know?” He took a large gulp of water to emphasise this.
Tommy continued to stare for a moment, before smiling and nodding. When Jack was alone again, he glanced back out the window at the park. That thing was gone.
The buzzing slowly turned back into an odd prickling until it faded entirely. It was as though all the heat had been sucked from Jack’s body as he stood there in shock. There was no way that could have been real, he knew it had to have been a sick joke by one of his friends who had watched the Marble... Marble Hornets stream. Or maybe he was just freaking out over nothing, he had been struggling to sleep recently.
Jack let out a long sigh and emptied the glass of water into the sink. As he walked back into the living room he could not entirely shake the feeling that something terribly wrong was going to happen.
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