kiss with a fist (on hold)

all the things she missed

A sharp whistle erupted through the early morning as Blanc hailed Marta's car to the little watch house right past the elephant statue.

"Fifty years ago, i worked at this estate," Mr. Proofroc, a nice, yet talkative man said, showing the five a photo of the house on the fridge, "You know, security back then was such that you had to make your rounds with a '94 and keep your ears open," he let out a small chuckle.

"Now, you've got all this modern technology," he said pointing to the row of three staticky TV's , "now, that-that's the video there," the five walked to it, Marta the most hesitant, "I still have the tape from last night, now, normally I erase 'em with a magnetic degausser but in this case, I thought I'd save it y'know? For security."

(Y/N) latched onto Marta's arm, leaning her head on her shoulder, ever so sleepy from the night she spent with Jacob.

"Now, uh, that's a live feed there," Mr. Proofroc pointed to the TV to the very left showing, yes, a live feed.

Marta's breath caught in her throat.

ONE

"To avoid the security cameras, pull off the road after the carved elephant."

"Alright, well can we see the actual tape?" Elliot, ever the gentleman, asked politely.

"Well, of course you can," the older man picked up the VHS tape, "I recorded it SSLP, that's 8 hours on that tape, from 9pm to 5am."

(Y/N) let go of Marta's arm, too sleepy to be aware of her friend's anxious form as Mr. Proofroc gave Marta the tape.

Her gloved hands placed it in the VCR as she looked at it, in hope that it would disintegrate right then, right there, but knowing it would not.

shitshitshitshitshitshit-

"Looks like a Japanese horror movie," Trooper Wagner chuckled as the tape played.

Benoit snuck up from behind, "You think we could scan forward on that?"

"Are we going to die in seven days?' Wagner muttered to Elliot who softly punched his companion in the arm.

"Um - how can we scan forward?" Marta asked the older man

"Oh, yeah, just hold the play button down and press FF until you hear it grind," Marta did what she was instructed, fingers touching lightly on said buttons, wishing they'd explode at the touch.

The TV started to make a soft whirring sound as the five looked back up to the tape, "Alright we should be coming to the time when the party ended," Wagner said

Marta looked back to the VCR, the other four too invested to see the young woman slowly dragging her thumb to the eject button.

Blanc looked at the TV intensely, the change to static knocking him out of his stupor as the VCR ejected the tape, the six looking surprised.

"What happened?" 

She knew exactly what happened.

"You gotta keep holding it down or else it'll eject, that thing eats tapes like popcorn," (Y/N) was staring intently at the smoking tape

Blanc turned to the other two men, "Do you think you guys can digitalize it so we can scan it?"

shitshitshitshit---

"Yeah I think we can do that," Wagner said as Marta took the tape out hastily.

"I got it," Marta said calmly.

*****

Harlan's love for stone creatures could be seen throughout his novels, and his own estate. A stone hippo lay in the middle of the trail, its jaws open, ready for destruction.