THE FOLLOWING TRANSCRIPT CONTINUES TO TAKE PLACE IN THE FOREST, SOME TIME AFTER THE EVENTS OF THE PREVIOUS TRANSCRIPT.

--File 046: Respite--

When the footage begins anew, there is only silence. For a moment, it hangs, the lens pointed toward the ground, until the light flicks on. It lifts, slowly, to show Blaine, sitting across from the holder of the camera. He is staring, wide-eyed and unseeing, at the ground in front of him. There is a smear of blood across his forehead, and the rest of him is covered in dirt, with significant rips in his clothing.

Emma: "Blaine? You okay?"

It's a moment before he answers, and he looks up slowly at the person holding the camera, which is identified as Emma.

Blaine: "No. Not really. ...Are you?"

Emma: "...No. Not really. Physically, though? You have a cut on your head."

Blaine: "Oh."

Blaine doesn't do anything to check the cut, seemingly uninterested or even unphased by the knowledge that he's been wounded.

Blaine: "I know we've just... casually accepted a lot of the shit going on right now. I feel like we're moving almost automatically, sometimes... and sometimes, I don't know who I am. I feel like I'm playing things out, following steps laid out in front of me, and I fucking hate it. I have no control over anything, and I fucking hate. It."

Emma: "The presence of a glass monster really isn't helping with that sense of being out of control, either."

Blaine: "Neither is the fact that I can see the stupid glow of that demonic bullshit video game behind you."

Emma: "That's a given, at this point. Couldn't lose it if I tried."

Blaine: "Probably shouldn't rely on that. It'll wind up biting us in the ass at some point."

Emma: "I'm glad you're not hurt."

Blaine looks up at her.

Blaine: "Are you? All evidence points to the inevitability of our shit situation, Em. I'm going to kill you. Apparently, it's going to be brutal."

Emma: "We have to have faith and hope in something, Blaine. I want to believe that you won't."

Blaine: "That's because you're looking at me while I'm sane and lucid. Maybe I should leave this place. Maybe I should just go straight back to the lake and let that thing fucking kill me, so I don't kill you."

Emma: "I don't think that's going to solve anything."

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There's the sound of shuffling just behind them, and both Blaine and Emma startle slightly, but then relax a moment later at the sound of a familiar voice.

Alex: "Everyone has a purpose, Blaine. You'll find yours."

Blaine: "Your faith is exhausting sometimes, dude."

Alex: "Like Emma said. We all have to find faith in something. I find it in religion. If you can't do that- and I'm not trying to convert you, or anything- then you have to find somewhere to put your faith. Maybe you should put it in Emma."

Emma: "You okay, Alex?"

Alex: "Got a good gash on my leg, but it's fine. Managed to find my backpack- dropped it in the chaos. I had some bandages in there, so I'm all patched up. I can clean you both up, if you've got anything. Otherwise, I'm... dealing. Somehow."

Blaine: "Faith is a joke. Hope is a joke. We've failed this an unknown number of times, and we're just supposed to... what, keep trying? Keep hoping for a better run?"

Alex: "Yeah, basically. Keep still, I'm going to get that cut."

Blaine: "How the fuck do you keep going like that? It sounds exhausting. What proof is there?"

Alex: "Sometimes, there isn't proof, dude."

Emma: "Except, this time, there is. Proof that there's hope, I mean."

Both of the young men look at Emma in tired confusion.

Blaine: "What proof?"

Emma: "Alex isn't dead."

Alex: "Not last I checked, no."

Emma: "Things are changing."

Emma shifts the camera somewhat, the sound of pages ruffling off-screen. A moment later, she displays the little journal for them to see, before turning it to the camera.

Emma: "It said right there: 'Alex is dead.' But he's not. Not here- and we were at the lake."

Alex: "I have a lot of faith and hope, Emma, but it's too early to be counting that as a win. We could get driven back to the lake, or find ourselves having to get into that house. I'm not out of the woods yet, so to, uh... speak."

Blaine: "For once, I'm on the same page as him. We don't know if this is the same event as that one. We never decided to go to the lake in that version of reality, or that 'iteration'. We only decided that now."

Emma: "Change is hope. Change is change. Things aren't identical. If events can change, if we make different choices... then we can make different choices."

Emma's intended message seems to hit home with both Blaine and Alex, because they fall silent, but seem less haunted.

Alex: "Do we have any idea what the hell that thing was?"

Emma: "I think the journal's got something on it, but honestly, we need to get out of this forest. Sunrise isn't too far off now, and after that..."

Blaine: "Right. Show time."

Alex: "I'm not even 100% sure where we are, anymore. The woods aren't that big, but it can get really easy to get turned around in here."

Blaine: "You got a compass in that backpack of yours?"

Alex: "Yeah."

Emma: "Then we'll pick a direction and start walking, and we'll hope we don't run into any more of... that thing."

Alex: "Deal."

Emma: "You know what?"

Blaine: "What?"

Emma: "If heading back to the motel means getting caught, I'm so seriously willing to risk it for like one hot bath."

Alex: "I would actually kill someone for a hot shower."

Blaine: "I'm starving. You losers can have the bath and shower, I want a fucking steak."

The three of them snicker and chuckle tiredly at this, but it's about all they can muster.

Emma: "All right. I'm going to preserve batteries. You're down to one on this pack, Blaine."

Blaine: "It's all right. My bag is stuffed to bursting with extras."

Alex: "I can't believe how normal that seems to me, that you're just lugging around an entire camera store's worth of charged supplies in there."

Emma: "After seeing whatever the hell that thing was, nothing phases me anymore. Come on. Let's go. I'll grab the stupid game."

The camera shuts off as they begin to stand up.