I don't won Ed Edd n Eddy.
Sorry if you find any grammar mistakes. I'm stil learning English because it's not my first language.
CrescentApple: Hope you will like the chapter! :)
It have been an hour since all of the Eds went into the house of their missing neighbour and explored it, with the intention of finding something that could have tell them something about his current whereabouts, stumbling upon a box which was filled with a lot of mysterious tapes in Andrew's attic at the end of their trip around his house.
The Eds split up shorty after they left Andrew's house, leaving the box in the hands of one of them. It was left in the hands of Ed. He took the tape filled box to his room in the basement and began preparing everything for his friends arrival. The box was given to him, because he was the only one of them who owned the equipment which would allow them to watch the tapes.
Double D and Eddy made sure to prepare themselves fresh meals after they arrived at their houses. Well, mostly Double D did, because Eddy just took out a box of frozen pizza out of his fridge and heated it in the oven. The taste wasn't the best, but it was still tasted much better than anything Eddy would have cooked on his own.
After they ate their meals, Double D and Eddy left their homes and made their way to Ed's home, where their friend was waiting for them. They entered Ed's room and were greeted by the view of their friend sitting on the floor in front of his white TV, with the familiar box of tapes next to him. He turned around to look at his friends and greeted them with his usual friendly smile.
A few moments later they were all gathered in front of the TV. Eddy sat on the white chair, Edd sat on the floor, leaned his shoulder against the same chair and Ed sat on the floor in front of them. He even grabbed himself a pack of chips, wanting to have a snack during their little watching session of Andrew's tapes.
"Hey, Lumpy." Eddy called out for Ed, looking down at his friends, "Which one are we going to watch first?"
Ed reached into the box next to him and pulled out the tape which happened to be nearest to his hand, "How about the one where Andy talks with his friend Jason? Should we start with this one?"
"Why not." Eddy shrugged his shoulders at Ed's choice, "We have plenty of time to watch them. It won't matter in what order we will watch them."
Ed nodded his head before placing the tape in his tape player as Edd shook his head at what he was doing with his friends right now, "I still stand by my decision that we shouldn't watch them."
"Because we will be invading Andrew's privacy by doing so." Eddy cut Double D off as he knew what his friend was going to say, "I doubt that it will be anything too private. I can bet it will be just a compilation of bloopers they had from the set. Like the ones people post on the internet."
"If you say so, Eddy." Edd responded to Eddy's words, though he still was unconvinced if he should be here with his friends to watch Andrew's tapes.
Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of Ed's TV turning on. Their shifted their attention from themselves towards it, waiting for the first tape to start, which they knew was just seconds away at this point.
The Eds were greeted by the view of a few year old younger Andrew when the tape started. He looked to be around their age. Someone off the screen, apparently Jason was holding a video camera in front of him. The two young men were sitting inside of a car, with Jason, who must have been the one who owned it, sitting in the driver seat and Andrew sitting in the passenger seat.
"Dude, what are you doing?" Andrew asked his friend, staring right at the camera pointed directly at his face.
"How does it look like?" Jason answered as if it was the most obvious question he has ever heard.
"Are you seriously recording me sitting next to you?" Andrew asked Jason, wanting to know if his friend was messing with him or not.
"Don't blame for wanting to check if my new camera is working correctly." Jason pointed out, "I want to know if it is a good as my last one which as you know already know stopped working about a week ago."
Andrew leaned in a bit closer towards his friend, "Well, is it?"
The camera moved up and down as Jason nodded, excitement evident in his voice, "Yeah. I wasn't scammed by the people from this pawn shop."
Andrew shook his head with a smile, "Man, you really are excited about this movie project."
"You bet I am." Jason confirmed, "What about that friend of yours, Mike isn't it? Is he going to play Bobby or is still debating it?"
"He will." Andrew confirmed with a nod, "I'm glad he agreed. He's a great guy, that could use some friends. I don't actually think he had any friends before I met him."
"If he is exactly as you described him to be, then I'm sure we'll get along." Jason assured his friend.
"Good." Andrew smiled, "Can you turn this thing off?
"Nope." Jason chuckled, "I think there one more thing to talk about that deserves to be recorded."
"That thing is?" Andrew wanted to know.
The Eds could imagine Jason smirking when he said, "How about we talk about that girl from our classes that works in a local store, Monica, right?"
Andrew bit his botton lip with a small blush starting to form on his cheeks, "Why about her?"
"C'mon, dude." Jason laughed at his friends expense as Andrew turned his gaze away from him, not wanting his friend to see him in such a state, "I, Cory, Charlie and Lucy know that you have a crush on her, but have no idea how to approach her. It became quite obvious to us at one point."
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Andrew pretended to not know what Jason was talking about. He moved his head to the right a bit, with his gaze turned away from the camera, revealing an alleyway between the two buildings behind him. Jason paused as if his words just died in his throat. He gulped and the three Eds could hear him letting out a terrfied sigh. He moved his camera away from Andrew and placed it on his knee. He started up his car right after.
"What? You're done with testing it?" Andrew wanted to know as Jason's camera continue to face it's owners knees.
"Yes." Jason answered, doing his best to hide the fact that he became nervous out of the sudden for no reason at all, but was failing at doing so, "Let's go. We need to show this camera to Cory."
The tape ended right after. Edd and Eddy just stared at Ed's TV in confusion after it ended. This confusion was mostly caused by Jason's sudden change of behaviour seconds before the first tape ended. At first, he was just trying to check if his new camera was working correctly by teasing Andrew about a girl which his friend had a crush on, but everything changed in last seconds of the tape, when he had became nervous for no reason at all.
"The end of this tape was rather strange." Edd broke the silence which formed between him and his friends after the tape started. He tapped his chin, trying to make sense out of Jason's sudden change of behaviour, "I don't understand why Jason changed his behaviour out of the sudden."
"I know, right?" Eddy nodded in agreement, his head resting on his clenched hand, "One second, he was teasing Andrew about this Monica girl and one second later does a completely 180 and starts to sound and act like he has just spotted a ghost."
"What do you think about it, Ed?" Edd asked as as he shifted his gaze from Eddy towards Ed, who remained unresponsive. He just stared at the black screen of his TV.
"Ed?" Eddy called out for Ed after his friend remained unresponsive for the next several seconds which confused him and Double D, "You okay?"
Ed's answer was instant, "Play the tape again, Eddy."
"What?" Eddy asked him another question, not excepting to hear this request from his friends, "Why?"
"I think I saw something on this tape, Eddy." Ed explained to Eddy why he wanted to watch this tape again, "Play it again."
After exchanging confused glances with Double D, Eddy reached out for the remote and grabbed it. He started reviding the tape and proceeed to do so until Ed pointed at the screen and exclaimed, "Stop!"
The screen was frozen on the image of nervous blushing Andrew just a second after he moved his head to the right. Ed pointed at the thing that caught his attention as Edd and Eddy leaned towards the screen of the TV a bit, making sure to eye what was on the screen in front of them carefully. They simply wanted to know if Ed has truly seen something or if it was just his imagination.
Much to their suprise, there was indeed something strange in the background. It was a figure. A tall one at that. It was standing in the alleyway between the two buildings. It was wearing a suit. It's face was pure white, it had no lips, no other features which a normal human would have had. It was completely blank. The figure didn't do anything. It didn't even move an inch. It just stood in the background, watching Andrea and Jason, who completely were unaware of it's presence for most of the tape, at least until the latter spotted it and became terrified by it, as if he had encountered this figure before and knew what it was.
Eddy's eyes snapped open in suprise the moment he set them on this unknown figure. He wasn't afraid to voice how the presence of this figure suprised him, "...What the hell is that?"
"This is what I am asking myself, Eddy." Edd placed his hand on his chin as he tried to make sense out of this figure's sudden appearance, "Perharps it was just a part of the movie Andrew and this Jason were producing and this figure is something which was added later in post production?"
"I don't know, Double D. This guys' reaction said otherwise." Eddy pointed out, "It sounded too genuine to me and this tape was supposed to be about just both of them talking."
"I know, Eddy." Edd nodded his head, knowing that it was one of few times when Eddy was right about something, instead of him, "I'm just trying to make sense out of it. I can see that Jason became genuinely nervous when he spotted this figure. Either he is very a good actor, or maybe there is something wrong about this figure."
Eddy glanced down at Ed, "Put in another tape. Maybe it was just a one time thing."
Ed nodded his head, understanding what he should do now as he was quite curious to know if this figure will appear again just as much as his friends were. He pulled out the tape that he and his friend just watched from his tape player. He placed it aside and on the floor on his other side, before reaching into the box, once again.
He pulled out another tape a few seconds later. He wasted no time and placed it in his tape player. He leaned his head towards his TV after placing the tape in his tape player, waiting for it to start.
The second tape started off with the view of a man who they assumed to be Jason walking through the park as another unseen person, presumably Cory was walking behind him, with the camera pointed right at his friend.
"This is where we're going to shot this small movie project of yours?" Cory asked, making sure to keep the camera pointed at Jason.
"Yes." Jason nodded his head in confirmation, "This park is the location where at least 30% of the scenes is going to take place."
"And our brillant director is going to show us the places from this park which are going to be used in that little project of his?" Cory asked.
Jason smiled at the nicknames Cory started using on him since he came up with this idea and nodded, "Exactly."
"Lead the way to the first place." Cory told him.
Jason nodded his head, once again and increased his sped a bit as he proceeded to walk through the forest, with Cory making sure to follow him and record their surroundings. There wasn't anything about this park that stood out. This park was just like any other park.
"Here." He spoke up again after a few moments of nothing but walking and pointed at one area with two long tree trunks standing in front of each other with a burn out area, appearently for a bonfire in the middle of them, "This is the place where Andy and Lucy are going to met up in a few scenes of the movie and where they will share some scary stories together about local legends of Lemon Brook."
"Spoiler alert!" Cory yelled out to mess with his friend.
Jason shook his head with a smile and continued, "There is also one scene that I'm sure Andy and Lucy are going to enjoy playing. This scene will be recorded during the night and it will about Andy's character telling Lucy's character an urban story about an abandoned mine that is actually not too far from this place."
"Abandoned mine?" Cory cut him off, trying to sound as dramatic as he could, "Is our brave director Jason Green going to take the risk of and live of me Cory Tremblay and take us on a little trip through the mine? Or even the lives of his precious friends and actors?"
"You're crazy, bud?" Jason chuckled, "I'm not stupid enough like some urban explorers who are going there to have some fun to visit this place. I thought about exploring this place when I was younger, but I as I grew up I decided not to after realizing how dangerous urban exploring is. I can understand why people are doing it, but it is just, not for me."
"You said that Andrew is going to tell Lucy about some kind of urban legend to creep her out a bit?" Cory wanted to be sure to which Jason nodded in agreement, "What is the story that you came up with for this scene.."
"Apparently two guys who were interested in urban exploring, Harry Coal and James Warden went there and were never seen again." Jason began, "The last time they were ever heard of was when Harry called his girlfriend and told her about finding some strange drawings on the wall in the mine."
"That's it?" Cory asked in response to Jason's explanation, "You couldn't have think of a more cliche urban legend?"
Jason shrugged, "You were the one who wanted to hear it in the first place."
"I know." Cory admitted, "Is there anything else you want me to show on the camera, or is this little trip of ours over?"
"The former." Jason answered, "There's one place close to the lake that I want to include in our movie..."
The tape ended right after Jason mentioned a lake which he was planning to use in his movie. The end wasn't just as confusing as it was in the previous tape they watched. It was just a tape of the two friends who were discussing locations which they were were going to use in the movie they were planning to film with their friends.
"Well, compared to the end of the first tape, this was actually pretty normal." Edd voiced his thoughts about this tape as soon as it ended, "Nothing unusual happened in it."
"Yeah." Eddy nodded, "It was just about two guys talking with each other about the location which one of them was going to use for his movie."
"What about the ending, guys?" Ed asked as he shifted his gaze between his friends, "Doesn't it seem like the rest of the tape was cut off to you?"
"Hmm." Edd gave it some thought, realizing that there may been something strange related to Ed's recent observation. The ending of this tapedid seem sudden, "Now, that you mention it, the ending does seem sudden. It looked like they was going to be more of the tape, like Jason showing the lake he wanted to include in his movie, but the tape ended, before it could happen."
"They must have ran out of the place on this tape." Eddy pointed out the most obvious reason to the question which his friends started to wonder about, shrugging his shoulders as if it was nothing important, "We will probably find the other part of Jason's trip around this park somewhere in the box."
Edd nodded his head to that, finding this to be quite possible, "Probably. The continuation of this tape is probably burried somewhere within this box."
Ed just nodded his head at his friends words as he pulled out the second tape out from his tape player. After placing it on the floor, he reached into the box and pulled out another tape. Not even paying attention to how it was titled, he put it in his tape player, waiting for it to start.
The third tape begun with the view of the camera pointing at the two people, a man, who the Eds have recognized as Mike and a red haired woman with glasses over her nose, who the Eds haven't seen in the earlier tapes. It wasn't long before they were joined by the third person. This person was Jason. He was holding some papers in his right hand. The Eds assumed it must have been the script for the movie he was filming with his friends.
The Eds noticed one more thing about Jason. His appearence was way more unkept than it was in the earlier tapes. His blond hair was way more unkept than it was earlier and it looked like it wasn't washed in days. He had darkened corners under his eyes as well as if he didn't got a proper sleep in days.
"Lucy." Jason let out a frustated sigh, burrying his face into the papers he was holding. He put the papers away from his face and glared at the girl in front of him, "How could you forget your words again? We had to re-do this scene a few times already!"
"I'm sorry, okay?" Lucy flinched at how angry Jason was. She looked as if it wasn't the first time when he snapped at her or someone else from their little filming crew. Mike who was standing next to her looked at her in pity, "It just flew out of my mind. You know how nervous I can get when I am in front of the camera!"
"If you're so nervous in front of the camera then why did you agreed to participate in this thing in the first place!" Jason shouted, irritation evident in his voice.
"I did it because I wanted to help you out!" Lucy once again flinched at the tone of Jason's voice, "You knew how shy I can get in front of the camera! You promised you will be understanding, because we're friends! You promised you will be understanding when it comes to me messing up a scene and yet all you do in scream at me or someone else whenever they mess up something!"
"I was understanding until you messed the scene up for another time!" Jason shouted, "Everyone have their limits, Lucy! Even me! I'm not higher entiny with the nerves of gold!"
"Jason." Cory's voice sounded from behind the camera. He stepped into the view of the camera shorty after. His hands were raised in the air in the defensive manner as his back faced the camera, "Calm down, man. You know screaming will get you nowhere. We still have plenty of time before the final deadline. We will be able to get this movie before it. We just need to keep working without being at each others throats."
Jason let out another frustated sigh as he calmed down a bit, though, an angered glare remained on his face, "Fine. Let's do try this again."
Cory nodded his head, offering his friend a pat on his friends back, "That's the Jason I know. Let's get this done."
"Wish Andy was here with us today instead of a date with this Monika girl from the store." Mike could be heard muttering to himself which went unnoticed by everyone but Lucy who remained by his side, "He would be able to calm him down."
Lucy just nodded her head in agreement, not wanting to do anything to anger Jason again, as she didn't want to make him scream at her again. She looked down at the ground, a small blush appearing on her cheeks at the mention of Andrew.
"Okay." Jason said, now looking at the pages of the script, "We start the scene in three...two...on..."
His words died in his throat when some dog could be heard barking in the background. Jason titled his head in the direction from which the barking came from. The dog ran into the camera and leaped itself at Cory who turned out to be his owner. Jason let out another sigh as Lucy flinched in her spot for another time, knowing what was coming.
"Okay!" He shouted as he was angry again. This time his anger wasn't directed towards Lucy. It was towards Cory, "This it it! I'm done with you guys for today! I'm completely fucking DONE!"
The Eds had to cover their eyes after those words or rather scream of pure anger left Jason's mouth, because they were taken aback of how loud it was, which was caused by the audio distortion which this tape apparently possessed.
"Are you an idiot or WHAT!" Sound distortion once again caused Jason's scream to be much louder than it should have been. At least this time the Eds weren't taken aback by it as they were already prepared to hear another one sooner or later since the first time they heard it, "I thought I told you about not bringing this stupid fucking animal to our movie set!"
"When did you did that?" Cory's voice was filled with confusion.
"Last time after you brought it!?" Jason shouted as if it was the most obvious question he has heard in his entire life. "I MEAN how stupid are you to forget about it! It was just a few days ago! How many times do I have to reapEAT MYSELF BEFORE IT Will get through your small brain!"
"...Shit." Cory rubbed the back of his head, "I'm sorry, man. I forgot."
"You forgot!" Jason shouted, "How much of an idiot are you if you forgot something I told you ABOUT A FEW DAYS AGO!"
"Jason." Lucy came in Cory's defense, looking at him with a nervous look on her face, "Calm down. It was just a simple mistake. He forgot. It happens to everyone! It happens to you AS WELL!"
"SHUT UP LUCY! This doesn't concern you! This is between me and Cory!" Jason ordered Lucy to shush. The girl flinched at his scream as Mike looked to the side awkwardly. Jason's entire attention returned to Cory as he continued to lecture to him, "I swear to God! You don't want to know what will happen to your animal the next time you'll bring this fucking dog of yours to our movie set! I have a dog of my own and I have never brought it with myself!"
"Okay, okay." Cory was visibly creeped out by Jason's behaviour, "I promise I wonT BRINg him again!"
"Good." Jason said, his angered crowl remaing on his face, "Hopefully this time your small brain will remember it."
"When did you become so mean, Jason!" Lucy shouted as she was on the verge of crying, "You weren't like this before we STARTED FILMING THIS MOVIE OF YOURS!"
Jason turned his glare towards Lucy, "Maybe I wouldn't be so mean if you didn't keep ScreWING EVERYthing up!"
"You know we're doing this on purpose!" Lucy yelled, "We just are here to help you, because you're our friend. If you WANT US GO THEN WE WILL Go!"
"I doubt he will tell us to go. It's not he has anyone else to play his characters" Mike spoke for the first time since the tape started. He set his gaze on Jason and said, "You spend all the money you had for this movie on the tapes. You bought far more of them than you will need to finish this production. You won't even have to use all of them for this movie."
"You shut YOUR MOUTH!" Jason practically roared at Mike. The audio distortion wasn't making it any beter, "YOU'RE ONLY HERE BECAUSE OF ANDREW AND I WOULD KEEP MY MOUTH SHOUT ABOUT AN..."
The tape ended in the middle of Jason's rant. The Eds were thankful that it did. They didn't want to hear Jason's rant, especially with the audio distortion which was becoming more frequent in the tape as it progressed. Even Eddy who was known for his loud screaming when he was younger was thankful for the tape ending when it looked like when Jason was about to go on a loud rant."
"..." Double D didn't know what to say which was suprised not only him but his friends as well, "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I don't know what to say."
"Me either." Eddy agreed, "I wasn't excepting this tape to turn out the way it did. I thought it will be just a blooper from the set."
"I hated the audio distortion, guys." Ed said, "They were making my ears hurt. I hope we won't have to hear them again in the other tapes."
"This is something I can agree on as well." Eddy said as Double D just nodded his head in agreement. Just like Ed just said, they hoped they won't have to hear the audio distortion in the other tapes, "The audio distortion was just the worst and that's something coming from me, considering, you know what. I felt like I was seconds away from going deaf when they were shouting, especially when Jason was screaming."
"Speaking of Jason." Edd said after Jason was brought up by Eddy, "What happened to his behaviour? He was a completely different person in the other tapes."
"It was stress getting the best of him." Eddy replied as if he immediately knew the cause of Jason's behaviour towards his friends, "How would you act if your friends kept messing up something you clearly are passoniate about and want to be the best thing you ever made."
"I would be irritated as well but Jason has crossed the line in this tape." Edd stated, "They were his friends who just wanted to help their friend with his movie project. He shouldn't be as harsh as he was. Poor Lucy was brought to tears because of him."
"I didn't like how Jason treated his friends." Ed voiced his opinion about how Jason behaved in this tape, "They were his friends. No one should treats their friends who want to help them like he did." He thought of Cory's dog and how Jason threatened to hurt him. He imagined how he would react if Jason was threatening to hurt one of his beloved chickens, "He shouldn't have threatened to hurt Cory's dog."
"Okay." Eddy admitted. He sighed internally. The way how Jason treated his friends reminded him of his younger days and how he used to bring Double D and Ed into his scam schemes, "He may have gotten a bit too far."
"Should I put in another tape?" Ed questioned his friends if he should put in another tape in his tape player.
Eddy nodded in response, "Yes."
Ed nodded in return as he followed the routine he will repeat over and over again until they will reach the last tape in the box from Andrew's attic and the fourth tape started playing on his TV shorty after.
The fourth tape started off with a view of Jason and a woman which the Eds haven't seen before. It was Lucy, because this woman unlike her had blond hair instead of a red one and was not wearing glasses. They were standing side by side in the park which the Eds have seen in the other two tapes.
"Here we are." Jason smiled at the camera, his behaviour being a complete opposite of what the Eds have seen in the previous tape, "On the location which will appear in my future movie for the movie contest on the festival which is going to take place in our little town." He gestured to the girl standing next to him. The girl smiled friendly and waved at the camera, "This is my girlfriend Charlotte, or Charlie. It depends if you're her friend or not." He gestured to the person standing behind the camera, "The person behind the camera is Cory. The best cameraman you can get in Lemon Brook."
"There should be another two other people here with us." Charlotte continued from her spot next to Jason, "Andrew and Lucy but they were too occupied with something to come here. Andrew promised to hang out with a friend of his named Mike and Lucy had some studying to do."
"Too bad they couldn't come." Jason stated, "They should have been here for the presentation of the last location I picked for my movie."
"You can't blame them for already having plans, though." Cory said from his spot behind the camera, "You kinda just called this meeting out of nowhere."
"I know." Jason admitted, "This is why I'm not angry at them for not coming." He moved to the side, allowing Cory to take a shot of the area behind him and Charlotte, "This is the spot where Andy and Lucy are going to play the scene in which their characters are going to end up getting together."
"I can already imagine how flustered Lucy is going to be during this scene." Charlotte smiled as Jason smiled as well, knowing to what she was referring to, "With how shy and introverted she is and with her having hots for Andy."
"Poor Lucy." Jason shook his head, smilling, "Andy is crushing on Monica and doesn't know that Lucy has a crush on him."
"This is something straight out of some cliche romantic comedy." Charlotte laughed, "It would be actually quite cute to see Andy and Lucy together. With her being all shy and introverted and him being a complete opposite of it."
"You're telling me." Cory agreed with her as he could be heard letting out a laugh on his own, "Back to the topic, what made your brillant direction choose this location for his movie."
"The answer is actually quite simple." Jason replied, "This place is always beautiful during the night and I always thought it would be a good location for a movie."
"This is something I can personally vouch for." Charlotte added, "Jason took me here during our first date. This place is perfect for the scene between Andy and Lucy he came up with."
Jason and Charlotte continued to explain the location for the movie the former was planning to produce as Cory turned the camera to the right for a brief second. It was when the screen completely froze. The tall white faces figure in a suit could be spotted watching them from the distance, Jason, Charlotte and Cory being completely unaware of it's presence.
Even though, Cory had moved the camera back towards Jason and Charlotte, the camera continued showing the tall figure as the screen was completely frozen on it. The three people were having a conversation with each other but the Eds couldn't understand a single word they said. The sound of the audio distortion, a very loud one at that, started ringing through the ears of the three people watching the tape.
The audio distortion was be the only thing that could be heard after the camera was set on the tall faceless figure in the background.
Silence overcame Ed's entire room after the tape ended. None of the Eds knew what to say. Even Ed was completely stunned, even though he has already seen stuff like this in the various horror movies he has seen in his entire life.
"Holy shit." Eddy broke the silence between him and his friends, trying to hide how another appearence of this figure creeped him out, "It's this guy again."
"It's been watching them this entire time?" Double D asked as he lifted his hand up to his mouth, visibly creeped out by it,
"Why didn't they notice him?" Eddy asked, "In the first tape, Jason noticed him the moment he appeared in the camera and yet in this one, this guy is watching them a few meters away from them and they can't see him."
"Maybe he is only visible for the people whenever he wants them to see him." Ed said as a few characters from his comic books worked in the exact same way, "This tape might be from the time of when Jason wasn't able to spot it."
Edd and Eddy exchanged glances with each other at their friends theory. Neither of them said anything against his theory, because this theory seemed to be actually kind of correct.
There was one more thing the three friends had to note about this tape. Andrew was mentioned to have a complety opposite personality of Lucy who apparently was shy and introverted. This confused the three friends. If Andrew was her completely opposite, then it must have meant he had to be an extrovert.
This is what confused the three friends. Andrew was anything but an extrovert. He was something which Charlotte described Lucy to be. He was not shy, but he was definitely a very introverted person who didn't like to stand out from the others. In fact Andrew didn't really socialize with his neighbours after he moved into their neighbourhood, even though some of the families invited him over for a dinner as a way to greet him in their neighbourhood. There were a few exceptions, though, like when Ed found out that Andrew shared his love of comic books.
The two of them ended up talking about their favourite comic books for hours. Edd and Eddy didn't think much about it until now, because at least Ed found someone to talk about his comic books, but Andrew seemed like a completely different person when he was talking with Ed about comic books. It was like his more extroverted side got a chance to be released after he was hiding somewhere deep within him for months after moving into Peach Creek.
The time, two hours to be exact, passed and the Eds continued to watch the tapes from Andrew's attic, growing more curious by them. Even Double D showed was interested in watching more of them, even though he wasn't showing it to his friends. The rest of the tapes they watched wasn't anything extroadinary. They just showed them the moments Andrew had with his friends on the set of Jason's movie. There was one recurring theme about the tapes they have watched in the past two hours.
This recurring theme was Jason's behaviour. The more tapes they watched, the more they could see how much his behaviour was changing over the course of weeks. They observed in the tapes how Jason went from a very kind person to someone who could get angry easily at their friends and scream at them and call them all kinds of names for the smallest mistakes, or even sometimes for no reason at all.
They couldn't notice the tall figure in any of the tapes they have watched in the past two hours, though. It was as if it got bored of watching Jason from the distance. It all changed when they decided to try to watch one of the unlabeled tapes.
It was when this entire thing became more weird and creepy.
The first unlabeled tape showed Jason driving his car along the road in the middle of the night. The camera was pointed at the darkened road ahead of him.
"...Uh, I don't really know how to explain this." He began, his voice filled with uncertanity, "So I'm going to go straight to the point if that's alright. I was on the walk with my dog and things ended up getting very weird to say the least. We were walking through this playground and he started feeling rather nervous. He just continued to turn around as if he wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. It wasn't the only weird thing which has occured there, though. The swings started swinging by themselves out of the sudden which scared the hell outta of me and my dog. It was when we spotted this strange guy in the distance. I don't know what to say about him, because I have never seen him before. He was also very tall. Taller than any other person I have ever seen. I can easily say it, even though this man was standing several meters away from me and my boy. I took my dog back to the house right after and went out on my own to talk with this guy from the playground. Why am I doing this? I'm not exactly sure. Maybe I just want to know who he is and what was he doing at the playground all by himself this late at night. I know he may not be there anymore, but whatever. I just want to talk with him."
The tape right after Jason gave him reason about going back to the playground to talk with the man who apparently unsettled his dog who he didn't mention the name of to the point of his animal wanting to get out of there and wanting to get home as fast as possible.
"No wonder this tape wasn't labeled just like the other ones." Eddy stated, "It has nothing to do with the tapes we have watched earlier."
"Indeed." Edd agreed with a nod of his head, "I can't help but wonder, though. Who was this man from the playground that Jason was going to see?"
"He mentioned this man being very tall." Eddy pointed out. He paused for a second when the theory of what the unlabeled tapes could have been about popped into his mind. The unlabeled tapes could have been about how Jason encountered the tall faceless figure for the first time, "...Maybe it was the figure we saw in the background of some of the tapes?"
Double D glanced down at the floor, starting to see where the unlabeled tapes were going. He couldn't help but feel like this is when he and his friends should have stopped watching the tapes and bring them to the place where they got them from, but at the same time he couldn't help but feel curious about what caused the sudden change in Jason's behaviour towards everyone around him, because Jason seemed to be the main focus of the tapes, not Andrew. His missing neighbour only had a few brief appearance in the tapes.
The beanie wearing boy sighed, letting the curiosity get the best of him, "It is most likely."
Eddy looked down at Ed from his seat, "Lumpy."
Ed instantly knew what to do, "Okay, Eddy."
The second unlabeled tape showed the three friends Jason in the moment when he was out on the walk with his dog in the playground mentioned in the previous tape. He was recording his time with his dog in this place. The person holding the camera could to himself as his dog happily was running across the playground, simply enjoying it's time it was spending here with it's owner.
It was when the tone of the tape completely changed. Jason's dog stopped dead in it's tracks. It stared at something ahead of itself, as if it was in some sort of trance. It turned away from whatever it was looking at a few seconds and hurried back to it's owner, whimpering as it was obviously stressed out by something it just spotted in the darkness of the night.
"Spike?" He asked his dog as he looked down at it. Spike continued to whimper, gesturing his head behind it as if it was telling it's owner to get outta here, "What's wrong, boy?"
His attention was brought away from Spike by a noise which sounded on his right. He turned himself, along with his camera towards the source of the noise and saw the swings. They were slowly swinging back and forth, by themselves.
"What the hell?" Jason asked himself as Spike let out another terrified whimper. This sight confused him beyond the words. There wasn't a single human in the sight to push them. He was the only person in this area at the moment. He knew it could have been the wind, but the weather was not windy today. The wind today was not strong enough to able to push the swings.
His attention was brought back towards Spike as his dog started barking nervously at something ahead of it and it's owner. Jason turned the camera in the direction his dog was staring at a few seconds before it's behaviour changed. He spotted a single person standing in the distance, watching him and Spike from their spot. It was a man in a suit. A very tall one at that. He couldn't recognize him, though.
The tape ended seconds after Jason set his camera on the faceless figure. Technically, it didn't end and. The tape was still playing and something was definitely happening on it, but the video distortion prevented them from watching the rest of it.
"Shit." Eddy shook his head as this entire situation was starting to creep him out, "The guy from the playground was indeed the figure from the earlier tapes."
"I can understand why Jason's dog felt unnerved by it." Edd said, "It must have sensed something unsettling about this figure and wanted to get away from it, along with it's owner."
"Why would he try to return to the park afterwards." Ed couldn't help but wonder about this thing. The younger him would probably be more excited about it, but now that he was a few years older and a bit smarter from his younger self, even though he was still the least intelligent from his friends, he felt unsettled by it, just like his friends were,"Why would he try to come back to the playground?"
"He must have thought it was a regular man." Double D stated. The completely white face of the tall figure was leading him to believe it wasn't a normal human, even though he was having hard time believing he had such a theory going through his head, "Remember when Rolf told us about the hodded man he saw back in the forest when he was doing something relating the tradition from his country?"
Ed nodded, "I do."
"You see, Rolf tried to make a contact with this man by asking him what was he doing in the forest this late at night, but as you already know, it was no use, as the hodded man just ignored him and walked away." Edd explained, "Jason must have thought the same about this tall figure. He must have thought it was a regular man."
"Regular man?" Eddy said, "Double D. Are you trying to say you believe this figure is not a human? You? Double D. Someone who always tries to justify weird things around him as a perfectly normal things with science and stuff?"
"I tried to find a way how to justify this figure as a normal thing Eddy." Edd let out another sigh as he didn't believe he will ever have to say something like this, "I really did." He paused for a second, figuring out the best way how to justify himself to his friends for thinking like that, "I couldn't find any logical way how to justify this figure as something perfectly normal. This figure seems to be too tall to be a regular person. It's completely white face is another thing which leads to believe it is not a regular person."
Eddy was silent for a second, "...Shit. Double D can't find a way how to justify something strange and leans more towards the option he would normally consider less possible and do everything to explain it as a normal thing. I never thought I would live to see the day."
"Don't let it get into your head, Eddy." Edd said, "I can change my mind anytime I desire. I can think of a possible explanation at any minute." He placed his hand in his chin, trying to think of an example he could use on Eddy, "For example this figure can be a person in a costume."
"Yeah." Eddy rolled his eyes as he knew what kind of mode Double D was about enter after his comment, "Because every person in a strange costume is able to cause audio distortions or make the tape stop everytime he appears on it."
"See?" Edd asked Eddy after giving him an example of why it was hard for him to think of a way how to justifty this strange figure, "This is why I am having trouble with justyfing this figure as something perfectly normal. Every explanation I'm coming up with ends up quickly debunked by something we have already seen on the tapes!"
"Okay." Eddy raised his hands in the defensive manner, "I get it now." He looked down at Ed who remained silent for the entire discussion between him and Edd, "Put in another tape, Lumpy."
Ed just nodded his head and did as he was told.
The third unlabeled tape began with a person, presumably Jason running through the place which must have been his house. The entire place was dark. The lights were turned off as if the person living inside it wanted to show everyone he wasn't home which of course wasn't the truth. The camera was moving from side to side in a rapid manner as if the person holding it was shaking in fear.
The Eds couldn't hear anything in the tape. The entire tape was completely silent. Not a single noise coming out of it. They couldn't even hear Jason's steps as he proceeded to make his way through the house.
Jason reached one of the windows on the other side of the house and stopped in front of it. He looked through it, not even thinking about opening it, waving his camera around as if he was trying to catch something on it. The camera could barely catch anything, because it was night and the darkness was surrounding most of the area surrounding his house.
He found what he was searching for a few seconds later when he moved his camera to the right. He saw the tall faceless figure standing just meters away from the window he was looking at it. He set his camera on the figure, wanting to catch it on the camera. The figure just stood there, staring ahead of itself. It didn't remain this way for long, though.
The figure titled it's head to the side after Jason stared at it for a few seconds, now looking at the person holding the camera, wanting to show him that it was completely aware of his presence. Jason quickly backed away from the window the moment this figure titled it's head towards him, completely terrified, almost falling on the floor after doing so.
The Eds looked more disturbed than they were after the last tape they watched. Even Ed was disturbed. Just the thought of something completely unknown standing meters away from their homes, just staring at their households, watching them from the distance was giving all of them shivers.
"Poor Jason." Edd said as he was completely terrified by what Jason was going through behind the scenes of his movie production, shaking his head in pity for the man from the tapes, starting to understand why Jason's behaviour completely changed, "I can only imagine how terrified he was. I'm terrified by just watching it."
"Yeah." Eddy agreed, "I almost jumped in my seat after this figure titled it's head towards Jason. it just frightened me for some reason. What was this figure doing in front of Jason's house, though? Wasn't it supposed to be at the playground?"
"This tape must be taking place after Jason went back to the playground to confront this figure all by himself." Edd stated, "He must have returned to his home after whatever happened on the playground after he returned there and this figure must have followed him to his home."
"What about the audio?" Ed brought up the matter of the audio from this tape, "I don't think it was't recorded. It feels like it was cut out for me."
"I will have to along with what you said about it, Ed, because you know more about movie cameras than I do." Edd said as Eddy nodded in agreement to Double D's words.
The fourth unlabeled tape showed Jason running away from something through the forest. The Eds couldn't hear anything in this tape as well as the audio was either cut off or muted in it as well. The tape didn't show anything else. It just showed Jason running through the forest for several seconds before ending.
"...Okay." Eddy didn't really knew what to say about this tape, "I think it quite easy to say that this tape takes place before the previous one. He must be running away from this thing towards his house now."
'This is exactly what I was thinking, Eddy." Edd agreed, "Whatever happened on the playground must have terrified him to the point that that he just started running towards his house."
"But, why didn't he use his car to get to his house?" Eddy questioned, "If I was running away from some tall faceless guy I would definitely use a car if I had one."
"He was probably too terrified by something and just started running away from it, forgetting about his car." Ed voiced his theory, using his knowledge from his horror movies to come up with hit, "I saw it happen pretty often in the horror movies."
"If you say so." Eddy said to Ed, "Put in another tape."
Ed reached into the box and pulled out another tape from it. He glanced inside the box, noticing one thing. It was empty, which meant only one thing, "It's the last one guys."
The last tape from the box showed Jason walking through some kind of store. He stopped in front of the shelf which was filled with all kinds of tapes. He focused his attention on only one type of tapes. This type being movie tapes. He began putting all of the movie tapes from the shelf in his shopping cart, not caring he was getting far more tapes than he needed for the movie he was planning to record with his friends. He just wanted to get them. All of them.
It was when the tape was cut straight into Jason's room. The camera showed him sitting on his bed, surrounded by at least two dozens of piece of papers. He looked terrible. His hair was unkept. He looked like he hadn't got a proper sleep in a long time. He quickly was scribbing something down on the paper in front of him. The Eds couldn't exactly say what it was, because of how the camera was place. They could notice only one thing on the paper Jason was scribbing on at the moment. It was a tall figure with in a suit, it's face completely white.
"Remember when Mike mentioned Jason having much more tapes than he needed to make his movie?" Eddy asked his friends right after the tape ended as he recalled Mike mentioning something about Jason having much more tapes than he needed to make his movie, "At least we now know he wasn't kidding. Have you seen how many tapes he put in his shopping cart? Why would he need so many movie tapes for himself?"
Edd felt how his eyes widened upon realization to why Jason bought so many movie tapes just to record himself, "He started recording himself. He must have become more paranoid after he encountered this tall figure in the playground."
Eddy grabbed the remote and revided to tape to the point it showed Jason scribbing something on the piece of paper, "What do you think about this guys? Look at how many papers he has on his bed. Just how many drawings has this guy made?"
"I don't know Eddy." Edd shook his head, "I can't think of an explanation for this Eddy. Perharps this figure was getting more and more into his head."
Eddy shook his head at Double D's words. He pointed at the drawing of the tall man Jason made on the piece of paper he was shown working on this tape, "He even started drawing this tall faceless guy for some reason."
"Look at how he looks like." Ed pointed at Jason shorty after Eddy removed his finger from the screen of his TV, wanting his friends to take a better look at his unkept appearence, "He looks exactly like did on the tape in which he was screaming at his friends for messing up a scene from his movie."
"Good observation, Ed." Edd compliment Ed for noticing it. Ed smiled proudly at the compliment, but his smile faded away from his lips shorty after, "This tape might be taking place the day before or the night after that tape was recorded."
"It may explain Jason's behaviour in this tape." Eddy added, "He could have been exhausted after staying the entire night up."
"Does this mean we just what Jason was doing before going to bed?" Ed asked, "We all saw how he started acting towards everyone in the other tapes."
"I'm not exactly sure if it was something Jason was doing every night, Ed." Edd replied, "Though, I'm certain that he started to record everything he was doing at some point."
"Poor guy." Eddy shook his head at what Double D was suggesting, finding it to be very likely.
"This is something we can agree upon, Eddy." Edd agreed, "I can't imagine what he must have been going through if he felt like he had to record himself and everything he was doing. This entire thing must have been getting into his head which caused his aggressive behaviour towards his friends."
Ed pulled the tape out of his tape player. He placed it back in the now empty box, "This it is, guys. It was the last tape."
"Good." Eddy said, "This wasn't what I was excepting to see from those tapes." He admitted as he rubbed his forehead,, "I was excepting to see some bloopers from the set of the movie they were making, not some creepy some tall guy watching them in the background."
"I knew we shouldn't have watched those tapes." Edd stated, regretting letting his curiosity get the best of him as he won't be able to get what he has seen in the tapes out of his head for a long time, "Not only we were invading privacy of the people in them, but we also saw something unsettling." He placed his hand on his forehead, "Now I understand why Andrew kept the tapes hidden so deep within his attic. I won't be able to get this tall figure out of my head now."
"Then why didn't you do anything to stop us from watching more after this figure appeared in the first tape?" Eddy questioned, irritation evident in his voice, "You always do something whenever we do something you don't think we should do and yet you did nothing to stop us from watching more tapes after Ed spotted this tall figure in the background. You just sat and continued to watch the tapes with us!"
"I just let my curiosity get the best of me." Edd admitted his fault, lowering his head down in shame, "You know what happens whenever I see something which I can't normally explain. I just have to keep paying attention to it until I will find a logical explanation. I simply wanted to make the sense out of what we were watching."
"I know that better than anyone." Eddy folded his arms, "Remember when I got by head shrunk down by Rolf after I got my first zit and you were more interested in how he did this than figuring out how to bring my head back to the way it was?"
"Do you have to bring this up, Eddy?" Edd asked as he was clearly not proud of how he behaved when it happened, "How many times will I have to apologize for it to you?"
Eddy shrugged his shoulders at Double D's question, "I just brought up an example."
"Guys, please." Ed cut into the argument before it could continue, "Don't fight. You know I hate it whenever you two argue about something."
Double D and Eddy stopped their argument stopped their argument after they heard Ed's words. They felt guilt going through their bodies as they knew how much Ed hated to see his friends argue each other about something.
Edd lowered his head at Ed, "I apologize for starting the argument, Ed."
"Yeah." Eddy said, "I'm sorry too."
"It's okay." Ed smiled up at his friends, "Just don't fight about it, again, okay? What happened, already happened and we won't be able to go back in time."
Eddy nodded his head at Ed's words before glancing down at the box on the floor, "What are we going to do with it, now?"
"I suggest we bring it along with the tapes in it back to Andrew's house and forget we ever watched them." Edd suggested as he wished to forget about what happened today.
"I agree." Eddy nodded in agreement, "We should just forget about those tapes."
"What about Andy?" Ed asked as he unlike his friends had second thoughts if he and his friends should forget about thos tapes, "Do we forget about him too? Whatever happened in those tapes might be a reason for why Andrew ended up disappearing. He might be suffering right now, like Jason did on those tapes."
"Ed?" Eddy wanted to be sure if he didn't misheard. Was Ed trying to say they shouldn't just forget about those tapes and what was on them, "Are you serious now?"
"Yes." Ed replied, "Andy is my friend and I care about my friends. You know why I wanted to explore his house." He pointed at the box of tapes on his sides as Eddy and Edd recalled Ed wanting to explore Andrew's house, because he wanted to find something which could have tell him something about Andrew's current whereabouts, "We might be able to find him, thanks to those tapes. What would you do if one of us was in Andy's place and found something which could have lead us to each other? Would you ignore it too?"
Double D and Eddy remained silent, thinking about Ed's words and trying to figure out how they should reply to them. Would they just forget about the tapes and what they have seen on them if one of them was replacing one of the people from the tapes? Would they not look for each other if one of them went missing in the same circumstances as Andrew?
"...I can't answer to this question now." Eddy replied after a moment of staying unresponsive as he wanted to avoid answering to this question right now, "I can't decide my answer now."
"Yes." Edd agreed, "We should discuss it tommorow."
"Okay." Ed nodded, smilling as he was gladdened that his friends were taking it for consideration, "We will talk about it tommorow."
Double D and Eddy left Ed's house shorty after they decided to discuss the matter of the tapes tommorow. They were greeted by the darknes of the night after they walked out of their friends house. The moon was visibly on the sky. It was night. Edd and Eddy exchanged glances. Watching those tapes took them much longer than they thought. They must have lost the track of time.
They parted ways right after exchanging looks and wishing each other goodnight and started walking towards their homes, intending to follow their night routines. They were unaware they were being watched from the distance by an unknown hodded individual. His face wasn't visible because his hood was covering most of it.
The hodded man shook his head as he watched how Double D and Eddy made their way back towards their houses from his spot among the woods. His presence went completely unnoticed by the two of them. He turned away from them a few seconds later, shaking his head as he did so as if he just saw someone who made a terrible mistake.
The hodded man walked into the woods, vanishing in the darkness of the night.
Here we go with the next chapter after almost a year of not updating this story. I started writing this chapter back in January and wrote a few hundreds words, but stopped writing it shorty after. The chapter remained untouched for months until I finally sat down and wrote the entire thing in three days. I'll try to get the third chapter out sooner than this one, but I'm not exactly sure when it will be, because my focus is on my other stories.
The Eds watched all of the tapes from Andrew's attic and but they're not done with them. Some of the tapes, (mostly the ones that were just mentioned) are going to return later in the story as the Eds will start to investigate more and more about them and the events surrounding Jason's movie. More tapes will appear later in the story as well.
At end of this chapter I would like to wish Merry Christmas to you all :)
Hope it wasn't that bad. See you in another chapter.