📹Marble Hornets: After Entry 35

Chapter 7

Hoody could not find words to speak. They could not even begin to form coherent thoughts.

There was nothing but the overwhelming energy that shone from Masky. Close. Heat. Rain. Fire. Green. Touch. Absolution. The blazing flood was all-consuming. No one had ever held them like this, yet was so achingly, endlessly familiar. Hoody's reflection wavered in a fiery sea that embraced them. In Masky. In Tim.

From deep in the silent roar, Brian quaked with a growing realization that he'd been trying to avoid. He could not yet allow the concept to front. Could not yet allow himself to name what he still couldn't define. He would not dwell on how Masky looked at Hoody the way Tim had looked at him yesterday, how he wished to stay in this moment of peace forever, how being held this close to his friend made Brian kinda sorta wanna reach up with his own hand, remove both their masks again, and--and... do... something... foolish.

Hoody felt the body's face awash with heat. It seemed to be the fault of muted anxiousness that seeped from Brian. But they hardly noticed his flickering, as their mind was locked on Masky's question.

"Who are we?", Masky had asked, in the same powerful whisper as before. Hoody closed their eyes and let out a long breath. Their lungs were shaky.

"I don't know," Hoody replied in earnest. They felt as if they were tasting air for the first time. How could they explain any of it? They were acutely aware of Masky's warm hand against their head. His bangs, touching the fabric of their covered face. Hoody kept their eyes closed, as if seeing the bright light behind his mask would drown out their thoughts.

"I don't know..." Hoody shook their head slowly, brushing for a moment against smooth plastic.

Then, softly, barely loud enough to be heard, Hoody finally admitted what they had denied for so long: "But... I want to."

Masky--or Tim, at this point, they were so blurred together, he couldn't tell where one ended and the other began--was full of stars. Neither one attempted to tear the headspace away from the other. No struggle for control. Only an all-encompassing calm that cloaked around dizzy elation. I want to know you, too. Where was this waterfall of emotions crashing down from? He didn't know, and the more he thought about it the less he cared.

Masky let Hoody's head go to lift the white mask over his head, letting it clatter on the floor. He pressed his forehead back into theirs, once again locked in their hidden gaze.

"Then," he muttered under his breath, "Show me... who you are."

Having blinked their eyes open when Masky pulled away, Hoody felt a wave of intensity from Brian that made their pulse race. To see Tim's gentle features so close was too much. His brown eyes sparkled with the warm love deep inside him. His voice sang of forgotten dreams, torn from the children they once were. The simplest truths that had been lost in the years between them.

Hoody looked at Masky, and the brightest light that shone from him. Would it be so bad, to see it shine clearer?

Through the window, the sky had turned stormy grey.

Hoody was faintly aware of slipping. Their sense of self mingled with Brian until for the briefest of moments, they had no definition. For once, they surrendered to being one. In unison, Brian and Hoody moved, leaning away--with hesitancy--to reach for the black tank top that hid their identity.

Hoody wondered distantly what Masky would think of what he saw, as together, they and Brian lifted a hand and peeled their shirt away. They dropped it on the floor beside their friend's discarded mask.

The face looking back at Masky sent branching ripples of electricity through him. Masky could only remember brief feelings; memories, from years ago, locked away in the static. But that emotion washed over him, a nostalgic homesickness, from seeing the face that had calmed the storm in Tim's mind all those years ago.