Chapter Text
“...i’m a goner…”
The voice got closer, a soft voice. Singing in an almost lullaby kind of way.
“...somebody..catch my breath…”
Closer, the girl was frozen, scared to move an inch as the darkness engulfed her.
“..I wanna be known...by…”
She felt a breath on the back of her neck. Her eyes went wide.
“...you…”
SLASH.
She let out a guttural cry as the blood spurted from her neck, clutching it...she fell to her knees.
Darkness.
304 Days.
304 days he’s been locked up in this room. 4 years if you count the number of different Asylum's he's been held in. They say he’s a danger to society. He begs to differ.
Or at least...his other side begs to differ.
He strains against his straightjacket, slumping against the wall. They didn’t even have the decency to make the walls padded, he thinks to himself. He settles for lying on the ground, counting the cracks in the ceiling and even...the blood drops on the floor.
1
2
3
4
4 drops of crimson life, beside the tiny drops is a puddle, a puddle of blood...and next to that is...a body. He grins, using all of his strength to sit upright as best as he can with a straightjacket on, tilting his head at the lifeless lump of human flesh lying across from him. If he was such a danger to society, why did they fuel his destructive desires? Why did they throw the ‘criminals’ into his room, expecting him to finish them off? Not that he was complaining...his other side had a thirst for blood. He shuffles closer to the body, hovering over it with an almost triumphant feeling. He examines the perfect cut in the throat, the horror in the girls eyes. He feels the strange need to close them. She’s dead...she shouldn’t have to be burdened with anything more.
“Too bad, you were a pretty one.” He sighed, slumping against the wall once more.
“Shut up! You did this!” He snapped again, shaking his head.
“We...did this.” He flung his head back in laughter, quickly snapping out of it. He started banging his head against the wall.
“YOU DID THIS, YOU FUCKING MONSTER!” He screamed, letting out cries of pain as he hit his head against the wall harder.
Suddenly, he stopped. Flinging his head back, he started to laugh maniacally.
“Tyler...we did this. Well, your darker side did this, you just had front row seats.”
“Stop. Stop. Stop!” He suddenly had tears streaming down his face, shaking violently against his straightjacket, eyes squeezed shut as he willed his other side to disappear.
knock knock.
knock knock.
The door opened, making a hideous squealing sound in the process, the room filled with light as a man clad in a doctors outfit stood at the door frame. He walked in, Tyler shuffled backwards, cowering into the corner, straining against his straightjacket once more.
“You always make a mess.” The man sighed. Two more men appeared at the doorframe, one holding a body bag, the other wielding a syringe.
Tyler hated seeing those men, he dubbed them as demons, doing their master’s bidding.
One of the men grabbed the girl and dragged her out of the room. Tyler grinned as it left a blood smear across the floor.
“Almost like a painting, so pretty...don’t you think?” He tilted his head at the doctor, his face quickly turning to one of fear.
“Shut up! There’s nothing fucking pretty about this!” He cried, going back to banging his head against the wall.
One of the men quickly grabbed him, looking at him almost apologetically as he stuck the syringe into Tyler’s neck. Tyler felt a feeling of euphoria come over him.
His vision started to go hazy. Beautiful swirls of colour clouding his vision. The men left and the doctor shook his head one last time before following suit, closing the door behind him.
“...i’ve got two faces…..” He started to sing softly as the room was plunged into darkness yet again.
“....blurry’s the one i’m not…”
The rain was beginning to descend upon the forest. Tyler stood in the middle of the glade, head tilted to the sky.
'Tyler,' Josh ground out, rubbing water out of his eyes, 'C'mon, we're getting soaked.'
Tyler looked over his shoulder slowly. His face was blank, but his eyes - they were glinting dangerously, almost like the rain had set them on fire.
Tyler took a step closer. Josh stepped back, hands up. Josh had never really been afraid around Tyler, just.. Aware. Alert. Ready.
But this was different. Tyler was moving as if calculating the impact of every footfall. He looked fragile but his movements were hypnotic, blurring together.
Josh extended a hand, 'C'mon, Tyler-'
It all happened in flashes.
Josh was standing there. And then he was on the ground. And then Tyler was on top of him. Knees pinned to elbows. Heavy breathing. Caustic words. Rain. Earth, Tyler's eyes. Tyler smiling. Tyler.
Tyler.
'I'm not Tyler.'
A smile. Dilated pupils. His voice. Not him.
Through fragmented eyes, Josh saw the body of his friend careen into the forest.
-
Eventually, Josh got up. His vision was convoluted. From the shock of the fall, or the shock of Tyler, who fucking knows.
He wandered into the forest, the darkness draped around him like an all encompassing cloak. His foot hit something. A branch. Shaking, he picked it up and propped it under his arm.
Mission find Tyler and make sure he doesn’t kill someone and/or himself was ago.
He staggered through the forest, aimlessly dandering in the direction Tyler took off.
Minutes passed. Hours passed. The night surrendered to morning. The black slipped below the horizon and the sky bled orange.
Josh was slipping in and out of consciousness, dancing on the blade of a knife between oblivion and here. This. The present.
Here.
He looked down at earthen floor, kicking at the leaves and twigs. Suddenly, something snapped. He whirled around, bringing the branch up level with his shoulders. There was something out there. Maybe Wolves. A bear? Tyler?
Tyler.
He was there, at the edge of Josh’s vision. Slipping between trees.
‘Tyler!’ He called out, ‘Come on! We have to go back!’
Tyler stopped dead. ‘Josh?’ He peered around the tree. ‘You came after me?’
‘Yeah. I don’t think the overseer would have smiled upon me letting you loose in the forest.’
The rain was still beating down. Tyler stepped out from behind the tree, head down. ‘Did I hurt you?’
‘No.’
‘I don’t want to hurt you.’
‘I know.’ Josh sighed, blinking water out of his eyes.
‘Then get away from me.’ Tyler was whispering.
That threw Josh, ‘What?’
‘Look at me, Josh. I attacked you. I flipped out. I’m a monster. Don’t you get it? It will always be me and him. If you’re friends with me, you are allying with Blurry. You’re on the side of the angels, Josh.’
Josh stepped closer, his teeth chattering. ‘Tyler.’ He looked away. ‘Will you listen to me?’
Tyler forced his eyes to meet Josh’s.
‘Don’t you dare tell me how to feel, okay?’ Josh grabbed Tyler’s arm. ‘You are not your demons. You know when he’s coming, don’t you? Then learn control. If you don’t want to hurt me, learn how to fight.’
Tyler stepped back, ‘I have been dealing with this my whole life! Who do you think you are? I can’t control it, can’t you see? We are linked and it’s more than fucking holding hands. He has me. He is all around me. He is everywhere.’
The rain stopped.
The birds were starting to herald the dawn, chirping and singing. Tyler was breathing heavily, his eyes wet with tears. ‘Don’t you see? You can’t fight yourself.’
Josh stepped closer again, ‘Then learn how to control yourself. Stop elevating the matter. What stops Blurry?’
Tyler stood up, ‘Fear.’
Josh shook his head. ‘Blurry is the enforcer of negative emotions. He doesn’t know what it's like to be scared. Terrify him, Tyler. Petrify him. What scares him?’
‘Hope.’