#i caught a panic attack around lunch time for no reason. the stray bullet of the blorbos

[worriesndoodles]

finished (re?) listening to the appointment............the most gut wrenching episode in the finale so far related to the main plot. rosie being somewhat relatable and also recalling ALL the key events up to the eyepocalypse is.........doing things to my heart i dont think i like

[aiatiwoyouryrarialv]

“You Are The Ark”

Words: 1,579

Rating: T

Warnings: Violence

Categories: Gen

Characters: Alex Kralie, Jay Merrick, Timothy Wright, Brian Thomas

Relationships: N/A

"Alex?" Jay called loudly through the trees. He had been wandering around the woods for awhile, trying to find some sign of Alex. The two had arranged to meet at Rosswood over an hour before but he had yet to show up. His car was absent from the parking lot and Jay had had no contact with him for over a month. Which, as of lately, was to be expected. Every so often, Jay would receive a call from Alex telling him to meet up with him somewhere. This time, he was instructed to meet Alex at Rosswood. Before Jay could get a word in, Alex had hung up. Still willing to play his game, Jay had arrived at the park early and had waited for almost an hour and a half without a sign of Alex before he had grabbed his camera off the dash of his car and entered the forest via the walking trails.

The sun directly overhead, Jay didn't need to look at his watch to know that it was around noon time. But despite the warm sun shining down on him, the thick jacket pulled over his shoulders, and the lack of wind, the air was still freezing cold. Most of the leaves on the trees surrounding him had already turned orange then brown and were now resting on the floor of the forest.

"Where is he?" Jay mumbled to himself as he wandered deeper through the woods. At first, he had stuck to the trails as he wandered. But the farther in he went, the farther from the trails he strayed until he had no idea where he was.

A noise from ahead of him immediately had the hairs on the back of his neck standing at attention. Picking up the pace, Jay made sure to point his camera in the direction of the disruptance. For the next stretch of time, his surroundings were quiet, save for the occasional bird or squirrel.

By the time Jay reached an unfamiliar (and, for a reason he couldn't quite put his finger on, chilling) tunnel, he was almost certain someone was following him. Though he would normally dismiss it as his paranoia, he knew that he could never be too careful, especially when he was in the middle of an unfamiliar forest and waiting on Alex. Making sure to capture everything on his handheld camera, Jay made his way over halfway down the tunnel before he heard footsteps fast approaching from behind. He turned just in time to be tackled to the ground by the man in the white mask.

"Tim!" Jay yelled as he was pinned under the man on top of him. In his confusion, it only vaguely registered in his brain that a gunshot had gone off. With a surge of adrenaline, Jay managed to push the masked Tim off of him and awkwardly stumbled to his feet. His camera had been abandoned to the concrete but, for once, he wasn't thinking of his camera.

"Alex, what are you doing?!" Jay shouted at the man whose gun was still pointed at him, causing said man to narrow his eyes.

"Whose side are you on, Merrick?" Alex sneered, glancing at the masked man standing behind Jay. Before Jay could answer, something over Alex's shoulder caught his attention. Alex must have noticed the shift in attention because he slowly turned to look over his shoulder, quickly scanning the area before focusing back on the two before him.

"This is the only time I'm saying this, Jay, so listen carefully. That is no longer Tim. Tim is gone. So you need to forget everything you knew about him. He's dead. And that," he said, gesturing with his raised gun toward the silent masked man, "is not on your side. Teaming up with him won't get you anywhere. You need to come to your senses and realize that before it's too late."

"You're wrong, Alex. Tim is still in there. I know it."

"Oh my god," Alex laughed out in a harsh, mocking tone. "You still think you can save him, don't you?" Though phrased as a question, his tone conveyed the statement as more of an accusation. Jay's embarrassed glance off to the side accompanied by his lack of response only added gasoline to the fire.

Cocking his gun back, Alex pointed it directly at Jay's chest. "This is all your fault," he growled as he pulled the trigger. Tim (or whoever Tim now was) tackled Jay to the floor to avoid the bullet. What neither of them were prepared for was the arrival of their savior.

As Alex pulled the trigger, the hooded man rushed him, jerking his arm up to shoot at the concrete ceiling of the tunnel. The echo of the shot alone had Jay's ears ringing, disorienting him for a moment. Once Alex had been wrestled to the ground, Tim abandoned Jay to help his partner in crime. The masked one sat on his chest and pinned Alex's arms beside his head, his iron grip quickly cutting off the blood flow to his hands while the hooded one wrestled the gun from him. Alex squirmed and thrashed, desperately trying to push Tim off of him, but several kicks to the ribs quickly drained the fight from him.

As if in a trance, Jay simply crawl closer to watch what was happening. When he came within Alex's peripheral vision, the man cast him a look through the broken glass of his wire frames. The look on his face was, perhaps, the most surprising thing about the whole ordeal. Though a great  deal of rage and raw hatred still remained in his eyes, it seemed to take a backseat to the fear that was now evident.

"Jay, what have you done?" Alex wheezed from under Tim, a trickle of blood running from his mouth and down the side of his face. His head tilted to the other side, going limp as he closed his eyes. "You've ruined everything," he mumbled, his voice barely over a whisper. After a few silent seconds, his head lolled back to the side to face Jay again. "You've led them to the ark."

Though Jay himself didn't know it was even possible, his heartbeat picked up at that statement.

"Alex, what is the ark?"

Alex and Jay both glanced at the two silent figures who loomed over the both of them but they seemed perfectly content to watch the scene play out. For now.

"You never got it, did you?" Alex rhetorically asked.

Jay's eyes suddenly lit up with realization. "It's you."

Alex chuckled (well, as much as one possibly can while they slowly suffocate under the weight of another) as his head rolled back so he was staring at the masked face that hovered above him. Though it looked like he was addressing Tim, Jay knew he was still talking to him.

"You really are dense."

"Wait, are you saying that... I'm..." Alex turned back to Jay as the hooded man knelt down and pressed the barrel of the gun to his temple. "Game over," Alex mumbled before the trigger was pulled.

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Jay couldn't breathe. He felt like something was wrapped around his throat, extracting every bit of air from his lungs. As his eyes slowly, oh so slowly, adjusted to the darkness around him, Jay realized he was in his motel room. Had it actually happened or was it all a dream? Waking up in a motel room never meant that the things prior to waking up were a dream, a lesson which Jay had learned many times.

Alex wasn't exactly a trustworthy person; another lesson Jay had learned from experience. Regardless, he didn't hesitate to pick up his phone off the nightstand and dial Alex's number. As expected, he didn't answer. Dead or alive, Alex never answered his phone, not for Jay at least. That didn't stop him from dialing the number so many times that he was beginning to suspect that it might not have been a dream.

Nearing a panic attack, Jay was on the seventeenth call attempt when Alex finally answered.

"Goddamn it, Jay! It's three in the morning! You might not work, but some people still do!" Alex shouted on the other end of the call. He was okay. He wasn't dead.

Alex might have been a shitty script writer, control-freak director, short tempered asshole, but he didn't deserve to die.

"Jay, what is so damn important?" Alex asked with unconcealed anger.

"I just needed to make sure you were okay," Jay whispered, a few tears sliding down his face. Why was he so worked up over this? Probably because his slipping sanity made it almost impossible to recognize the difference between his imagination and reality.

Alex let out a loud sigh and remained quiet for a few seconds before replying, "Jay, I'm fine. Alright?" Jay remained silent. "Look, how about we go get coffee or lunch tomorrow? Maybe take your mind off all the shit going on." Jay took a moment to level his breathing before agreeing. "Alright. Well, I'll call you in the morning, okay? Just, try to get some sleep."

After the two hung up, Jay returned his phone to the night side table and burrowed under the covers. Though Alex was a shady character, to put it simply, nothing cheered Jay up more than talking to him. That, Jay suspected, might not be a good thing.