Chapter Text
He’d fully expected to have killed himself by now. The Marble Hornets mystery was over as far as he was concerned, everyone Tim had cared about was dead.
There was no one left for him when he drove to the crossroads, two friends had died by his hands that week. Even if Tim didn’t want to admit it, Alex was once his friend, once in a distant memory where they played instruments in his basement and took snack breaks during script reviews, Brian on his left and Jay on his right, Alex rambling about some composition and the poetic meaning of a shot.
That moment was gone. Alex was dead, Jay died long before he’d been shot, maybe the moment that disease managed to wrap its claws around his brain. Maybe the second Alex handed him those tapes?
Alex was right maybe he should’ve just died—
“MASKY WE’RE BACK!” his spiraling thoughts were interrupted by the other occupants of the house as the front door opened. Tim took a long drag of his cigarette enjoying the nauseating sensation in his throat before flicking it on the ground of his room. Entry seventy-four became white noise as he put on the mask again while Jay rambled on about not wanting medicine before being cut off abruptly by the TV turning off.
“—You can’t just play Wolf in sheep’s clothing on repeat. It ruins the mood.” Ben was glitching slightly as he yelled at Jeff who ignored him. The blonde faltered for a moment before he noticed Tim coming down stairs; “Masky, Tell him!”
They both looked at him expectantly. The brunette just sighed. “Reborn?” He questioned Jeff who nodded. Tim shrugged, he liked the reborn version of the song too.
“You guys are impossible!” Ben groaned, floating over to the living room and madly turning on his Nintendo, the OST of some niche indie game filling the living room.
The plan was simple really, Tim wanted to buy a gun, get drunk and maybe he could’ve ended the endless guilt that was dragging his every action into the ground, where his bones felt like stone and there was no real reason to get out of bed, he didn’t hate the thought of eternal rest. Except there was Masky, the one who shoved him into the backseat of his own body whenever he tried.
There was no escape from life. His alter ego made sure the body ate, got a job and never ended up homeless. Tim decided somewhere along the sidelines of his life, that he’d be fine like that, to dissolve in a dissociative state for, well, ever.
The front door opened again as the other residents piled in like a raging ocean tide, Sally, Eyeless Jack and Toby all dragged a stench of decay and fresh blood across the floor carrying what Tim liked to pretend wasn’t human remains.
There were six months where he just lived on autopilot, letting Masky do whatever they deemed fit, six months where he watched life flicker by like a TV show, six months before he realised that thing was stalking him again.
Another week before he woke up here—
“Jack showed me a cushion stitch!" Green eyes of Sally were staring up at him as the younger held up a kidney, still squirming and contracting.
“Cushing suture.” The eyeless man corrected as he walked past them to the kitchen. The masked man only winced at the thought.
Tim contemplated cleaning the blood off the floor, or if he could make one of the kids do it, Jeff was really slacking on the basically non-existent chore chart.
“Can I have a tea party with you? Toby got me a new tea set. It'll be great!” There was a slight lisp as the brunette girl spoke, she was still covered in blood.
“He can’t, he’s showing me how to make bourguignon!” Jack’s voice rang from the kitchen,
Her eyes grew heavy with a disappointment the man wasn’t used to handling. Even after living here for what felt like years at this point, Tim couldn’t handle the younger kids, he wouldn’t allow himself to. He liked Sally, she was a delight to have in such a dark place, still clinging onto her nativity despite her past— but god he sometimes wished everything in this house wasn’t covered in blood, painted with decay.
“C’mon Sal, wanna play Mario kart?” Ben called from the sofa tapping the spot next to him, de-escalating the situation in a way Tim hadn’t been able to grasp since he woke up here.
There was a permanent stench in the air of something rotting the brunette man couldn't get rid of. The lights flicked above the two ghosts on the couch as the door slammed open for a final time, a yellow hooded figure stormed in, barely acknowledging Masky with a nod before darting upstairs and slammed presumably the bathroom door shut.
There was a feeling of relief at that, Tim wasn’t the only one who despised this place.
“You comin’?” Jack called out from the kitchen and he sighed.
For a demon, the cannibal had taken up cooking with grace —Jack never properly learnt past the college meals of noodles and hotdogs, that was made abundantly clear the first time the latest proxy made French onion soup with cheese bread, it was a meal he’d made all the time when he lived alone, but suddenly even the dead children claimed to feel hungry as they pilled around the dining table like baby birds— Though the masked man didn’t enjoy the stench of human meat, he breathe a sigh of relief when Jack asked him to teach him to cook, things were already thick with tension the first few months of the arrival of the two new proxies.
Which led to Tim now teaching the only other adult besides him and Brian how to cook.
“How’s work?” He trailed off, accompanying the other at the counter, the older man never knew what to say to Jack, to anyone after they got back from their job, really. it felt criminal to even care about them sometimes, when they had just torn families and lives apart at one stupid command from that thing.
“Yeah. It was fun, the parents were rich and they had a pool. Jeff and Toby tried to teach Sally to swim but Ben got mopey…” The other’s voice was droned out as he pre-heated the oven and got a cutting board out for the man. “…Had to bail after that though because apparently they had a maid, sure she won’t miss this though.” He smirked as he held up two kidneys and a piece of meat.
“You can chop up the…” It was supposed to be chicken. But It was a human. They were cooking human organs, organs and meat, meat from a family that was brutally murdered. “…meat up in chunks, not small.” Tim sighed, though Jack got the hint and began working.
The younger man rambled on about their weekend, occasionally interrupted by cooking instructions, Tim was vaguely aware of what his body was doing; adding oil in the pan, showing Jack a way to peel an onion faster, stirring. Masky must’ve jumped in and taken over allowing him to enjoy the moment without the stench of blood assaulting him.
He liked the moments of domesticity in the mansion. It made him forget the fact he didn’t want to be here; surprisingly enough there was normalcy to be found in a house full of homicidal residents.
Between the dead bodies and bad days they all had, he could pretend to be normal, pretend he actually got to escape the operator, marble hornets, and got his happy ending.
He could pretend Jay cut contact with him, pretend his roommate was still the same Brian he met in college, pretend they never changed. Pretend he never met Alex. He could ignore the voicemails Jessica sent him. Ignoring was easy, definitely when he didn’t get a second to himself when everyone was home, there was always a grocery run, making sure Toby remembered to eat, avoiding the operator whenever it came by, helping Jeff figure out what he was feeling, helping Sally do her hair—
Tim became violently aware of reality again cursing to himself as Masky left as fast as he appeared forcing him to take over whatever task he was supposed to do. There was a loud crash as he dropped the pan in the sink, Jack looked at him in confusion before he continued;
“So we should pick up more food next week.”
“What?” Sometimes it was a blessing to be in a place where no one was mentally stable. No one judged, no one questioned why he zoned out.
“The girls are done with their mission soon.” Tim blinked harshly trying to process the information. “So we need to get more food in the house.”
He just hummed in response, trying to focus on scrubbing the pan, trying to ground himself in his body again. “Jeff will be happy about that.” The sarcasm leaked through his mask
Jack just leaned on the counter in defeat as he waited for Tim to hand him the pan; “Don’t start.” He snatched the pan from his hands “Jane’s calmed down since she bonded with the other girls. The only thing he should worry about is Nina.”
The brunette watched as the pan was scrubbed dry, “I think she’s fine, as long as she y’know…” he swiftly pushed his hands behind the mask, resting his eyes on the palms of his hands. “Teenagers are the worst.” Another week of teenage drama. If Tim hadn’t already hated his life; that thought would do the trick.
Jack barked out a laugh as he shoved the older man,
The dinner table was as busy as always. People slowly filled into the dining room, the clicking of dishes as everyone grabbed at the pan handle and talked over each other, Sally complained as Tim set down a bowl of meatless boeuf bourguignon in front of her, making sure to keep an eye on the two bowls left that didn’t contain flesh,
“I don’t have a fork!” Ben whined the moment he finally sat down,
All the eyes landed on him once again. He just groaned as Jack brought out the water can from the kitchen and immediately flopped down in his chair and began eating with his hands.
“You all seriously gonna make the guy with a limp get up?” The table creaked as he leaned on it for support, only getting agreement in response from the others.
After retrieving the utensil for the ghost, he noticed Hoodie finally coming downstairs to join them in the commotion of the dinner,
He looked less stressed than usual whenever the man had to clean up after a job, he wasn’t wearing the blood stained hoodie anymore instead just a sweater and sweatpants, still the mask stayed. “Saved you a plate.” Tim said as they both walked and nodded to the chair next to his.
When all was done, Tim finally sat down and stabbed the biggest mushroom and ate it. Hoodie pulled up his mask to reveal his mouth and looked up at the meal.
“Meat free.” The masked proxy confirmed. “I checked.” He insisted, talking with his mouth full to prove the point, yet the other inspected the meal for another five painful minutes before trying it.
The one time he hadn’t checked, both Tim and Brian spent the night throwing up before getting something that no one was certain was or wasn’t food poisoning for a week. Both still remembered the stench of vomit and sweat sticking to the walls of their room.
“Pussies!” Jeff called from the other side of the table, taking a big bite and proceeding to chew with his mouth open before Toby smacked him against his head.
“This is why you’re the least favorite child.” Hoody added, Jeff just grumbled in defeat but there was no malice behind it.
“Toby didn’t eat human meat when I first met him.” Sally pointed out looking at him with curiosity and the teen moved his chair back slightly.
“That’s because Toby can’t taste shit.” Jeff filled in,
“It’s called C-Congenital Insensitivity to Pain not—“ he snapped his neck to the left a few times, “—I can still taste I’m- I’m not a robot!”
“All I hear is beep beep boop.” Jeff grimaced in amusement and leaned into the others personal space making robot sounds, the teen rolled his eyes before pushing Jeff’s face away and retaining his own space.
“I can still taste your bullshit!” He shoved the raven-haired teen away and Jeff crashed onto the floor along with his chair which was now definitely broken, again.
The killer got up, towering over Toby, “It’s smell your bullshit smartass!” Tim sighed as the two looked ready to kill each other as the curly haired teen now too stood, both of them neck to neck, one of them clutching a butter knife and the other a fork like their life depended on it.
“C’mon, You’re switching places with me, Rogers.” Jack was now pulling them apart by their hoods, Jeff just crossed his arms, bored once again. “Stop looking for a fight.” Ben mumbled to Jeff smugly, sticking out his tongue and the other flipped him off.
Toby didn’t move as Jack tried to get in his seat, “Tobias.” Jack tried, but the brunette only eyed Tim for a moment.
—Another issue the masked man didn’t expect when he first arrived here was raising serial killer kids. They had survived long enough on their own, they could do it without him or Brian.
Or so they assumed.
Jeff and Toby were constantly at each other's throat. Jack didn’t have much authority as the oldest resident there because he was twenty one (which Tim learnt didn’t mean shit to the both of them after countless arguments about ages), Ben had a screentime both Tim and Brian weren’t able to wrap their heads around with both their phones that still had a keyboard, and Sally just lived in her own world at that point.
Whenever Jane or Clockwork dropped by there was a calm in the eye of the storm that was their household but lately the girls had stopped by less and less.
Which meant it was up to Tim and Brian to make sure these kids didn’t kill themselves, nor each other—
Toby looked at him for agreement, Tim just nodded and pinched the bridge of his nose through the mask. He needed a cigarette. Or pills… or both.
“Well, I’m going out for a smoke.” He announced scraping his chair against the floor.
“You just had one!” Brian noted, clearly not wanting to be left in charge of this shitshow,
“Yeah well I need some air.” air that didn’t reek of decay. His companion just pushed his lips together in a tight line, and though Tim hadn’t seen his full face in months, he could read the discomfort blind.
He got up anyway, it was every man for himself during dinner, anyway.
The conversation faded as he walked through the hall and opened the door.
Only to reveal another lanky masked figure. They stumbled back in surprise at the door opening before they even knocked.
He wasn’t informed of any company this soon, was this another prank?
“Tim?” The person opposite him had a familiar voice.
Why was it familiar? It was filled with static. It couldn’t be familiar.
“Who are you supposed to be?” He flicked his lighter anxiously, he wasn’t kidding about needing a cigarette. “Isn’t halloween over or something?” The mask was a badly drawn… skull?
“I-“ there was a slight headache forming when the other spoke and Tim didn’t know why.
The figure lingered for a moment before clipping off their mask, his eyes meeting a green familiarity he’d only seen chasing whatever dreams he had left.
For a moment time stopped moving, the brunette was convinced the universe collapsed that second as there wasn’t any air left; “…Jay?”