[ VIDEO ]

[It's dark. Not really true dark, because it's early in the morning and in fact the sun would be shining right through the windows onto Neil, except he's drawn the curtains close and turned off all the lights. There's only an eerie illumination from below, like a kid holding a flashlight under his face.

Because that's what it is.]

When I got up this morning I found this,

[Neil says, the picture lurching as he picks the camera up to turn it, to show the table in front of him. Several hundred small puzzle pieces are scattered there-- some showing their pallid backs, some their dark and indistinct faces. There's no picture, no box, in sight. Two edges and part of a third are assembled, stretching around the pile.

A single piece sits in the emptiest spot, notable because a single, wild eye is printed on it.

Neil's hand comes into the frame, pressing one of the pieces around the edge more firmly against its mate, before he whirls the camera around to his face again. Still lit by the flashlight. Shut up, he's mature.]

It must be a curse, but it's a strange one! It reminded me of a story though-- something from home. This is true, as strange as it sounds.

[There's a pause, and when he begins speaking again it's pretty obvious this is an old favorite, a well-practiced and oft-recited tale.]

It was a dark and rainy night, and this old lady, who had a passion for jigsaw puzzles, sat by herself in her house at her table to complete a new jigsaw puzzle.

[There's a pause for tension, and his eyes slide off the lens; he leans a little to the left, placing another puzzle piece in its proper spot.]

But as she pieced the puzzle together, she realized, to her astonishment, that the image that was formed was her very own room.

And the figure in the center of the puzzle, as she completed it, was herself.

[Another pause, a little longer, Neil's eyes widening as he glances out of frame. There's the slightest waver in his voice when he resumes.]

And with trembling hands, she placed the last four pieces and stared in horror at the face of a demented madman at the window.

The last thing that this old lady ever heard was--

[THE SOUND OF BREAKING GLASS! Neil gasps as something shatters in the background, his attention snapping offscreen... and that, dear friends, is where the video cuts off.]


[ooc; for your listening pleasure, this is canon! :3 spooooky.]

[Community Post]