Songbird in a Snowstorm [Yandere! Marble Hornets x Reader]

Bad Idea

Within minutes you had your route planned out. It would be an easy hike, just a straight shot to the next tower over. All you had to do was follow the ridge for fifty miles, give or take. With any luck you would get there in three days' time. Once you got the radio from that tower you could send an sos alert and have a nice little search and rescue team for Jessica. Not to mention someone to help you back to where you belonged. Unless...

"Alright, you got me." A forced smile makes its way onto your face. It was just a joke. She's fucking with you because she has a truly messed up sense of humor, and any moment she's gonna start laughing if she wasn't already. "C'mon Jess, pick up." Nothing, not even static comes from the other end. Birdsong fills the air, leaving you frustrated and more than a little worried. "Seriously, this isn't funny anymore." Desperation crept into your voice upon your last words. You try to swallow the knot that insists on forming at the back of your throat.

One last try. Channeling your inner theater kid, you close your eyes and take a deep breath. "Jessica, I see smoke on the horizon!" The words were blatantly false, but the urgency dripping from every work was real. "I've never seen a fire this big, and it's spreading fast!" You could already feel your throat starting to tighten from the exertion. She wasn't going to answer. No matter how much you wanted her to. "You should really radio me for the details..." Not even a peep.

Defeated, you let your fingers wrap around the strap of an old rucksack, one you so desperately wished to never have to use again. You're on autopilot as you stuff supplies into the bulky bag. Food, water filters, your flashlight, the list goes on. You grab just about everything that you came with. More food than would likely be useful. Every pair of socks that you own.

Before you know it, you're miles away from the place you had spent so many nights in, and getting further away by the second. You had long since stopped paying attention to the forest around you, all the sounds fading into little more than background noise. All that mattered was the path ahead of you. Red clay and gravel lined the way, split up by blades of grass and large rocks scattered throughout.

The forest grows denser ahead, branches reaching down in the way of the path. Underbrush is kicked away as you trod on, the unkempt trail teeming with thick roots in some places and loose gravel in others. Everything thins out, growing sparse again every time you come to another incline. Almost like clockwork, the pattern repeats itself every couple of miles.

Along with each and every step the straps of your rucksack dug into your shoulders and pressed into your back uncomfortably. It couldn't have been more than a few hour, but your steps were already becoming just the slightest bit uneven. You had forgotten just how unbalanced your admittedly borrowed pack could be. Perhaps you should have been just a little less liberal with what you chose to bring along.

You shake off the bitterness and refocus your thoughts on the forest around you. The forest that you had only recently come to know was primarily made up of lodgepole pines with a sprinkling of aspens and a couple spruces. Most people would be wondering why you knew so much about trees, because who the fuck cared that much when it didn't matter in the slightest to your job? Jessica, even if it was only to fill the silence between you.

"They really spruce up the place, don't they?" You couldn't believe that this was the person entrusted with making sure the forest didn't burn down.

Holding back a groan, your voice drips in disappointment as you hum out a, "You really wanna do this?"  Almost as soon as the words leave your mouth you regret them.

"Is that a challenge?" There was a playful undertone in her voice.

Realizing the implications, you hurry to take it back, "Wait, no, please don't." But it was too late.