Tim stares at the blank screen. Jay's alive. He's really alive. He runs his hand over his forehead and licks his dry lips. But where has Jay been for the past two years? That thing had taken him…

The thing.

The creature.

What had it done to Jay after it had taken him? Had it had Jay for the entirety of the past two years? If it did, did it release Jay? Did Jay escape? Did someone rescue him? Tim rubs his forehead vigorously to ease the sharp headache that is now throbbing there. As the image of the suited creature forms in his head, Tim's chest tightens and he lets out a rough cough. Terror shoots through him. No. Not now. Not after all this time. He shoves his hand into his shirt pocket, once again pulling out his pill bottle, and swallows four of the pills. It takes a few seconds, but his chest slowly loosens.

Gasping, Tim grips the edge of the kitchen stool. His mind is reeling, but he forces himself to focus. Jay. Think of Jay. He needs you. He has to get back to Alabama. Jay's there.

But where is "there," exactly? He has no idea where Jay is. Sure, Tim assumes he's somewhere in Rosswood, but if his guess is wrong, he'll lose even more time searching somewhere else if the first attempt is a failure. He has to be sure – he has to know exactly where Jay is before he goes running off after him.

So he starts looking in the only place he can think of that might have some answers for him. Pulling up the totheark video, he resumes his seat on the kitchen stool and clicks play. His body is rigid and his jaw set tightly as the video plays, but he forces down his emotions and focuses on searching for any helpful hints the video might give him. The two buildings might be a clue, but Tim doesn't know where they are or what they could have been used for. The image of the old bell flashes again. Tim frowns and rewinds the video. He slows down the video and lets it replay. The bell comes onscreen and Tim hit the pause button.

The bell looks rather large. Tim can't tell what its exact size could be since there is nothing onscreen to compare it to, but looks like it might be at least over a foot tall. Tim isn't sure, but he thinks it might be made of bronze. It's rather old-looking. Hundreds of years old, if Tim had to make a guess. He studies it for another minute, but can't see anything engraved on it. Except for a few scratches and the natural wear of age, it's completely plain. Behind the bell is a naked wall made of old, broken wood. Tim sighs in annoyance. Guess it was just a useless image. He lets the video play until the two rows of numbers flash onscreen again. Pausing it, Tim copies down the numbers onto a scrap sheet of paper.

27609183612

39570660245754

He stares at them for a moment, wondering if it's even worth trying to decode them. It could take up to hours to crack it, and he just doesn't have that kind of time. But what if it is vital information about where Jay is? What if it's not? It could just be a taunt, or a warning. He makes a soft noise of exasperation. Like he needs any more warnings. He knows exactly what to expect going into those woods. Tim chews the end of his pen, torn between decisions. Finally, he gives a sigh of defeat. Fine. I'll try and crack your stupid code, but I won't work on it for more than half an hour. Jay is out there, and I don't have time to waste on puzzles.

He begins by going through all the various combinations that he and Jay had used while deciphering the older totheark videos. He doesn't remember a lot of them, and the ones he does remember don't work. Ten minutes pass, and frustration grows with each failed attempt.

I shouldn't be wasting time on this. He runs a hand through his hair. Maybe an easier combination would work. I've tried all the stupidly complicated ones Jay and I had come up with.

He begins by trying to simply associate the letters of the alphabet with each individual number, but is quick to see that that's not going to work. He puts the numbers in sets of twos, but can tell that the numerical values are too big to simply line up with numbers 1-26 for the alphabet. He decides to try and divide the numbers to make them smaller. Since some of the numbers end in odd numbers, he starts by dividing by three. It doesn't work.

He taps his pen on the counter in irritation. His eyes fall on the zeros, and he wonders if the double-digit numbers would line up with 0-25 (after being divided by three) rather than 1-26.

This would be embarrassingly simple if it's right, he thinks as he scratches out his new calculations.

Slowly, the numbers start to turn into letters.

J…U…D…

Shit. Now I feel really stupid.

He writes faster. A few seconds later last of the numbers is calculated.

JUDGME

NTAWAITS

Tim squints at the letters for a moment, then hurriedly re-writes them side-by-side.

JUDGMENTAWAITS

JUDGMENT AWAITS

Tim stares at the message in disbelief. He had wasted nearly half an hour for a stupid taunt.

"Thanks for a big fat nothing," he snarls as he chucks his pen across the kitchen. He's back to square one. He still has no idea where Jay could be in Rosswood. Tim lets out a frustrated breath and sits back, trying to remember all the places that he and Jay had gone to in Rosswood Park. Nothing helpful comes to mind.

It's hard to focus. His thinking is clouded by anxiety for Jay, who is unprotected, and probably still unconscious, in…wherever he is. What if something happens to him before Tim can get to him? Well, at least I know Alex can't hurt him anymore. That's one less threat to worry about.

…Alex.

Tim straightens in his seat. What if Jay is at a place that he and Jay hadn't gone to, but Alex and Jay had gone to? Tim's hands fly across the keyboard as he brings up the Marble Hornets YouTube page. He scrolls through the entries until he reaches the ones that contained footage of the seven months Jay had missing from his memory. He vaguely remembers what they were about, but can't remember the specifics of the entries' content. He clicks on the first one he sees that has an image of a forest for its thumbnail: Entry 48. He skims through the video and quickly concludes that it's not going to help him.

Entry 41 is next. Only a few seconds play before Tim remembers what it's about. His hand resting on the counter clenches into a fist as he watches Brian film Rosswood Park. But it's clear to see that the entry isn't useful to him, so he forces himself to close it.

Entry 40 is a possible candidate. The chimney structures Jay found could be near where he is now, but there's no way to prove that. Chills run down Tim's back as the suited creature appears. He ends the video, knowing there's nothing else to see. Tim glances at the laptop's clock. I'm wasting time. I have to work faster. He clicks on next entry with a forest thumbnail: Entry 38.

Tim recognizes the entry almost immediately – it's when Alex had taken Jay into Rosswood and told him the apparent "history" of the place. Tim fast-forwards to when Alex is talking and then lets the video play, listening to the story.

"…They would take their worst criminals, murderers and child molesters, and they would put them on trial before God out here. They would tie them up to the trees and the idea was that they would get stretched out, kind of like a rack…"

Icy coldness runs through Tim as he listens to the story again. After Alex finishes, Tim pauses the video, going over what he had heard in his head. There wasn't any sign of the two buildings from the newest totheark video, but Tim hadn't expected there to be one. It was strange how persistent Alex had been about telling Jay that story…it must have some significance. Tim wonders if he can find anything online relating to it.

He searches, and finds almost nothing for a good ten minutes or so. But then he happens upon a small, poorly-managed website about local paranormal stories and legends in Alabama. To be honest, the site looks like it's run by a group of high school kids. A quick browse thorough the dozens of stories are enough to see that they are probably written by the kids themselves, and then debated over in the stories' comment sections.

There's a search bar, and Tim types in "Rosswood Park." Two results come up. One's about a "confirmed" werewolf sighting (Tim almost laughs out loud at that). The other is titled "Judge's Trail."

Tim clicks the second one. Excitement fills Tim as he reads the article. It's very similar to Alex's story, except that the online site's story goes on to tell about how the criminals' ghosts now haunt the place where the trials had taken place. Tim rolls his eyes at that, but continues to read past the story and into the comments section of the page. Apparently some of the kids who visit the website had gone there at night to try and see the ghosts – their testimonies proudly written out in the comments. They all claim to have found the trial site at the end of a hiking trail appropriately named Judge's Trail. There doesn't seem to be anything else of use, so Tim begins to scroll back up. But then his eyes catch on a word: "bell." He stops and reads the paragraph surrounding the word.

James and I were out there at 10pm. At 10:09 we heard this distant sound of a bell ringing. Kind of like an old church bell. Then, we saw something white move behind a tree. It was a ghost of one of the convicted criminals, I swear it!

Tim doesn't bother to read any further, as it quickly turns into a multi-commenter argument about the validity of the claim. He re-reads the first half of the paragraph, and the image of the old bell from the totheark video flashes across his mind.

He doesn't like the idea of searching for Jay in a place that is backed up by an unreliable kid's ghost story, but he doesn't exactly have anything else to go on at the moment either. Opening up a new tab, he does a search for Rosswood Park hiking trail maps. The most professional-looking ones outline only major trails, none of them labeled "Judge's Trail." But the fifth map he pulls up is a lot more detailed than the others. He studies it carefully, making sure to read every annotation and label.

There. In the southwest corner of the map is a thin blue line labeled with a set of tiny letters: Judge's Trail. It's a short trail, and doesn't look like much. He prints out the map, praying that he's not going on a wild goose chase.

Though Tim doesn't expect there to be anything, he does a quick search for last-minute flights to Alabama. He quickly decides that it wouldn't be worth it to fly there. The closest flight he can find is ten hours away, and it has a one-hour layover on it. From the airport it's a little over an hour drive to the Rosswood Park area. He wouldn't even get to Rosswood until nearly sixteen hours from now if he took the flight. That isn't good enough; he needs to get to Jay faster than that.

The only other option is to drive. It takes about thirteen and an half hours to drive there. It's not that much better than flying, but every hour counts, so it's enough for Tim. Plus, he'd have his own car, and some extra money in his pocket that he would've had to have spent on a plane ticket.

His mode of travel decided, Tim abandons the kitchen and rushes to his bedroom. He's packed in less than two minutes. He pulls out an empty backpack and opens his desk drawer to grab his laptop charger. He pauses, staring. Pushed up against the drawer's back corner is Jay's camera.

Out of all of the camera and recording equipment Tim had destroyed after leaving Alabama, he couldn't bring himself to get rid of Jay's camera. It had meant so much to Jay. So he had kept it.

Tim stares at the old thing, and the familiar image of Jay holding it up to his face and looking at Tim through the lens sparks in Tim's mind. He feels this throat tighten for a moment as he reaches down and picks up the camera that had sat forgotten for over two years. He turns it over in his hands, studying it. A moment passes, and then hHHe reaches into the drawer, pulls out the camera's charger, and slams the drawer shut. Returning to the kitchen, he packs his laptop, Jay's camera, and the corresponding chargers into the backpack, along with all of the food he can stuff into the remaining space.

And finally, finally, he's ready to leave.

/

Tim's head is pounding – courtesy of a vicious headache – for most of the drive. His mind races to sort out all of the questions and thoughts in his head, and the totheark video keeps replaying in his mind, making him all the more anxious and confused.

The totheark video. Who could possibly behind it? Brian is dead, Tim is sure of that. Tim's stomach twists uncomfortably at the thought of Brian, but he knows there's nothing that he can do about what happened now. He tries to make up a list of possible candidates for who could have taken Brian's place, but ends up coming with a grand total of zero. He has absolutely no idea who it could be.

It pisses Tim off. That someone took on Brian's persona and started using it for their own amusement, their own gain (what could they possibly be gaining from this?). It's like they're making a mockery Brian's memory. Tim knows that's stupid thinking; after all, he and Brian weren't exactly friends anymore by the time Brian had fallen from that ledge. Besides, whoever it is is probably being stalked and tormented by that creature too, just like he and Brian were. They're probably not fully in control of what they're doing.

Still. Tim wouldn't mind greeting them with a solid punch to the face. Especially after that stupid coded message that they probably thought was so clever. Tim grinds his teeth at the reminder that he has wasted almost thirty minutes for that message. Judgment awaits. Whatever that's supposed to –

Tim's jaw almost drops open with the suddenness the answer slams into him. Judge's Trail. How could he have been so stupid as to not see the connection sooner? And yet, the revelation does nothing to ease Tim's mind.

Judgment awaits.

Uneasiness pools in Tim's stomach, and he increases his foot's pressure on the gas pedal.

Hold on, Jay.

/

He reaches the town where Rosswood is a little after 9am. It takes him only fifteen more minutes, and then he's pulling into the parking lot for Rosswood Park.

He feels sick. He feels fear. He wants nothing more than to turn around and drive to the ends of the earth. Anything to avoid going back into that cursed place. But he forces himself to think of Jay, and it's the only thing that keeps him in control as he parks the car and steps out of it.

He takes most of the items out of his backpack to make it as light as possible. But he leaves his cell phone, two water bottles, and a handful of granola bars in it. He considers leaving Jay's camera behind too, but Jay's frantic pleas for it from the mysterious phone call fill his head and he puts it back into the backpack. He has no desire to film himself anymore – he won't be uploading any entries anyway. He refuses to. But he won't have Jay panic and become uncooperative just because he doesn't have his stupid camera with him.

The hiking map is folded up and clenched in his hand. He hesitates, staring at the looming tree line. Then he squares his shoulders and walks into the woods of Rosswood Park.