This wasn't supposed to happen.
Those words had repeated in the head of Tim W. since he uploaded entry #80 to the Marble Hornets YouTube channel. He couldn't get away from it, the knowledge of what happened to Jay. He couldn't shake the guilt and despair at thinking that heroic little idiot could be gone forever. No escaping the messages from those who had watched it all, bombarding twitter and tumblr with endless questions and cries of grief. Half of them remained in denial, the other half were left in shock.
A week later and they hadn't stopped. Tim had gone back to his house for now, unsure of what else could be done. Another week went by and he tried his best to act like a normal person, to function and avoid drawing attention to himself. He even decided to go shopping and put up a few Christmas decorations once he'd remembered where they were. Anything to forget the pain for a little while.
December 24th already, and while the sky darkened and the neighbourhood filled with little colourful lights again, Tim had stayed away from the internet. Too many continued to post heart-wrenching reminders even weeks after the entry. He stepped into his dimly lit living room with two mugs of hot chocolate; not something be would often drink, and alcohol would have been more effective, but tonight it gave him the smallest sense of comfort. It was almost possible to believe that none of the last few years of horror had ever happened.
Tim placed the other mug on the windowsill along with a tiny ribbon-wrapped present box, which he opened for just a moment to look into again. He stared at the little silver flashlight inside and smiled sadly.
"Merry Christmas, Jay."
Sitting in a chair by the window, he could do nothing but remain peacefully still, his mind filled with the strange sadness of recent loss, but also a faint, numb recollection of happiness from holiday seasons almost long forgotten. A thick curtain of snow began falling outside.
Some time later Tim had fallen asleep in the chair; really it was the first time that he'd slept so naturally in years. He woke with a start at 3:30 in the morning, Christmas morning, to see Hoody running away from the open window.
His voice escaped him in a panicked tone. "Hey, wait!"
He leapt up and prepared to chase after the hooded man as always, but stopped when he saw that Jay's present and the mug had gone, replaced by another small box. Tim stood confused, staring at it for a moment before carefully pulling it open. Inside lay a little bag of chocolate coins... and a tape. A piece of card fell from inside the box lid and Tim examined it, almost having a heart attack at the sight of his friend's familiar scratchy handwriting.
'Merry Christmas, Tim.'