Look Closer [Countryhumans x Marble Hornets]

PROLOGUE: tapes

May of 2009.

Mal felt pretty eager to finally get off his butt and declutter the mess that littered all around the floor of his apartment. Not to throw shade that this guy is a potentially messy person who cleans his house probably once every year, but he was just feeling happy that the spirit of cleanliness finally decided to pay him a visit and give him a little tip that he should really clean this mess up, even if his parents wouldn't bother to visit him anymore or even if his friends are coming over... it wasn't like he had anything interesting going on during this month anyway, he's graduated, he's free from school, he has a part time job, he keeps in touch with his friends, his life could be considered as how a normal adult life could get without crossing the norm line.

Oh, and he lives alone, so maybe that's an added bonus and an excuse for him to not clean up every month, even if going around the house becomes more and more of a hassle everyday, but at least he's finally getting himself together.

And honestly, it was pretty relaxing for the most part. Just the sound of his computer playing some classic music as he went around the house, trying to find every last bit of mess he could clean up. Once he deduced that the whole living room and his room are done, there was only one place left to check, since he had lots of things to store.

The closet.

He was frankly a bit afraid of opening up the closet, afraid to see what horrors could be in it. He was certain it could be clogged, and that he was gonna be plummeted with so many old stuff that he forgotten he'd place in there, or maybe so much dust has collected on them that it's going to be a sensory and coughing nightmare once he opens up just a crack.

Nevertheless, Mal took a deep breath. He has his cleaning mask on, he was prepared for the dust and cobwebs that were bound to have amassed over the months that he has not opened the closet for.

He opened the door and quickly stepped back, and sighed in utter relief that none of the things in there had fallen upon him. In fact, he was hit with surprise instead; he hadn't huddled as much things in the closet as he had thought he did. Or perhaps it was the closet back in the room of his parents' house was what he remembered instead... it's sometimes hard to remember that you're an adult when you've been treated as a child for so long.

Though, he was right about the dust and cobwebs. So many spiders has made a territory in his closet, but luckily he wasn't too afraid of spiders. He unfortunately has to get rid of their home though, and he has to bring all these stuff out to clean the closet before he could shove more things in there. He has plenty of boxes full of old college files, wasn't he just excited to get them out of his sight and make his rented apartment look more pleasant.

He unstacked all the things that were already in the closet out of it without much of a difficulty, though he was wondering why college has to be an absolute mental purgatory with all these stuff he has to keep on him...

Though, when he had almost cleared out the last of the antiques in his closet, he saw something right sitting in the back corner of the closet that didn't look like college books.

A couple of large hunkered plastic bags with tied openings sat there, and at that second, Mal couldn't process whether or not those were trash bags he must have accidentally thrown in there while he was sleep deprived and had mistaken it for the dumpster.

He set down the box he was holding and carefully walked in there as to not let any cobwebs get stuck in his hair, and he crouched down. He slowly untied the openings albeit how absolutely dusty and slightly disgusting it was, and he saw something that looked like plastic in there, though with how little the light from the outside was penetrating through the aperture, it was at first hard to tell what were those supposed to be.