The Jaybird Flies Free | MH Rewrite

Chapter 4

     Entry #17 goes up later that night. Jay makes sure to express that he can't remember the tape happening. It is a weird feeling to see himself doing something he doesn't recall doing. It is even more jarring when he realizes that things will never be like that again. Brian disappeared and Alex was showing some concerning behavior even before filming ended. Its a depressing thought, but true. Jay moves on and only two days later, ToTheArk posts a new video. 

The name is "Signal", and the entire video has red and blue stereoscopic shading, like it was an old 3-D movie. A creepy male voice speaks over the video. Jay looks at the comments, one of which mentions that the clip is from an old 50s movie called "Silent Snow, Secret Snow". The whole thing sends a shiver down his spine. These videos had always been weird and creepy but this disturbs Jay on a new level, even though it shouldn't.

Slowly, Jay starts to reconsider going back to the house. He has no leads and the house seems likely to have changed in that time. If nothing else, he can make sure he didn't miss anything. He debates over it with a few of his twitter followers and ultimately decides it is for the best to go back. So, a few days later Jay tries to enter the house through the front door, but finds it locked and heads around the side of the house. The sliding door is open.

"Hello?" Jay calls, stepping inside. The living room is still a mess, the same as last time. Jay heads over to the closet with the mattress in it and opens the door, then kicks it and walks towards the front door. He notices the white doll with long limbs lying on the floor next to the door. He bends down to pick it up and observe it. As he is doing so,  He hears a rustling and points the camera at the couch where a figure in a white mask with black details sits.  

"Alex," Jay says, taking a step forward. The figure doesn't move. "Alex?" Suddenly, the person is scrambling off of the couch and towards Jay. The person tries to get Jay on the ground but Jay fights back, dropping the camera in the process. It takes a few seconds to push the person off of him. When he does, they suffer a seizure on the ground. Jay pauses, unsure of what to do. Then, he reaches for the mask. The person shouts, shoving Jay away from them. Jay takes the opportunity to run through the sliding door to his car and drives away.  The next morning, he wakes up on the side of the road. He checks his camera but he had apparently stopped it as he ran out the door. Jay reaches down and pats his pocket, not feeling the knife he brought. He sighs, closing his eyes and leaning his head back. Why had he gotten involved in this? 

Starting the car, Jay drives back to his apartment and uploads the whole thing as Entry #18. He tries to go back to normal but that is easier said than done when he doesn't do much to begin with.  He tries his best to distract himself with Youtube and Twitter, even though it doesn't work. Jay spends a week awkwardly fiddling between things while waiting to see if totheark would respond, which they did.

The video response is titled "Messages" and is a definite break in the pattern of previous totheark videos. The footage is from World War 2. It's also in black and white. Text is on screen throughout the video, baring fragments of a message. "Tell us you have been keeping secrets." Then, at the end of the video, the words "Smile for the camera" appears over a picture of something Jay can't make out. A shiver crawls up his spine. The first thing he had noticed was that it said "us" in the video. Next, he realizes this might be aimed towards him. He has been recording himself pretty similarly to how Alex did. However, he goes on with his day. His thoughts often shift to the video and what he should do about it. 

That night, Jay is in his bedroom checking his camera before setting it on the nightstand. He takes off his jacket and sits on his bed to take his shoes off. Then, he is asleep. When he wakes up the next morning, he decides to check the footage on his hard drive. Most of it is normal footage of him sleeping but the footage dated two days after he came from the house. In the footage, Jay comes into his room and gets ready for bed. Once he falls asleep there is a section of normal video . Then, the Masked man appears, sitting on top of the dresser. In the next frame, he is behind Jay's bed, staring at him. Next, he is in front of the camera, holding a finger to the mouth of his mask, as if to shush someone. When the camera is back to normal, the man is gone and so is Jay. Jay fast forwards the footage and notices that after about three hours, he comes back in and falls asleep instantly.

He is quick to realize that the totheark video was probably aimed towards him. His next move is to admit he had been filming himself to his fans, putting it in a video with the footage. He posts this as Entry #19. It's almost a month of Jay living a very cautious lifestyle before totheark decides to post again, with a video titled "Return". The new video is set inside Brian's house, where Jay is sitting against the wall at the end of the hall. He looks odd, with dark circles under his eyes and his mouth slightly open. The cameraman slowly backs up, revealing the Operator turning the corner and walking in front of Jay, towards the camera. As he watches, Jay is quickly disturbed by the thing that walks in front of the camera. The past totheark videos have named it the Operator, but Jay can barely get himself to think the name. He couldn't remember this happening. He didn't even remember leaving his house. It's obvious that this is where he went during Entry #19 when Jay vanished with the masked man. He's wearing the same shirt he had gone to bed in. Jay tries his best not to panic. 

"Okay, this is salvageable," Jay tries to reason with himself, although talking to himself is almost making him feel worse. He gets out of his seat and starts to pace the length of his room. While he does this, he notices that the stuff he got from Brian's house has been messed with. He makes a decision to record his findings. He grabs the stuff and sits back down with his camcorder, setting it up to record. He takes note of how some items are missing and the note on the back saying "At the tower" that is in the same handwriting as the front. Jay uploads the video as Entry #19.5 and decides to go through some tapes he had found buried deeper in the closet. He watches them on his laptop, past events that he has no recollection of. One video in particular catches his attention.