Archive of Our Own

Pt. I

Moving sucked, that was for sure.

Especially when it was halfway through your senior year of high school.

Tyler really hadn’t wanted to move, not in a million gazillion years. He had so many good friends at his high school. He was on the basketball team, had a dime-piece girlfriend, had an awesome job at the music store. Plus, he lived in California. Tyler was living every teenager’s dream.

But then his dad got a new job and they had to move to dreary Ohio.

Ohio.

Ohio sucked. It was freezing cold, for one thing, which was something Tyler was not used too. It was dark and stormy all the time, and it was nothing more than rolling fields. They didn’t even have In N’ Out in Ohio. Totally not worth it.

Everyone else in his family seemed super excited to be moving.

“It’s a great experience for our family!” His mother said.

“We’ll be living in a much nicer house and a much nicer neighbourhood,” Dad added.

“There’s a pool in our neighbourhood Tyler! A pool!” Zack exclaimed.

Tyler only huffed.

You couldn’t use a pool when there was snow on the ground. Snow sucked. Besides, they had the frickin ocean back home. Tyler was still upset that his parents wouldn’t let him stay with Alex until he at least graduated. They claimed they needed to stay together as a family. Tyler found that to be stupid.

So now here he stood outside a two story house at the end of the street. It was dark and dreary, just like everything else in this stupid place.

Tyler and his siblings stood huddled around each other shivering, each covered in at least three layers of clothing. Dad said something to Mom after sliding his phone into his pocket, and walked over to the group with a frown.

“Bad news guys. The movers won’t be here until tomorrow, so we’ll have to bring everything from the cars into our rooms and camp out tonight.”

Tyler groaned. Great. Just great.

“Cheer up Ty. Things aren’t that bad.” Dad grinned. “We can go get some dinner and explore downtown Columbus. It’ll be fun.”

Tyler groaned again.

His father clapped his hands and pointed to the car. “Come on Joseph Fam, back to our car.” Maddy, Jay, and Zack happily obliged, but Tyler stood there for a couple seconds, his eye catching something in the second story window. He thought he saw a flash of red.

But when he blinked, it was nothing but dark and dreary.

“Tyler! Come on!”

“Coming!” Tyler yelled back as he trudged through the snow to the car.

Ohio sucked.

***

Later that night, Tyler laid on top of a sleeping bag on his stomach in the middle of his empty bedroom, phone charging from the outlet behind him. It was a little past midnight, but Tyler was facetiming Alex. California was now three hours behind them.

“Dude, so none of your stuff came? Seriously?” Alex questioned as he pushed his purple fringe out of his face. Tyler nodded his head.

“Get this: there was a mixup and they thought they were supposed to be here by tomorrow night. It’s fucking freezing in this house. We’re lucky the electricity is working.” Tyler scoffed. “We won’t even be able to set up our wifi until next week probably. I’ll be living off data like it’s my lifeline.” Alex joined him in laughter.

“That sucks man. I know it’s only been three days but we miss having you at school. Coach accidently called Jack ‘Tyler’ the other day and the entire team got so sad.”

“Aww. That’s really lame.”

“Fuck you too.” Alex laughed again loudly, craning his head to make sure he wasn’t being too loud. He rolled off the bed and shut the door quietly.

Tyler thought he heard someone knock on his door during that time. “Hold on Alex, I think someone wants me.” he said as he pushed himself off the carpet and tiptoed over to his bedroom door. Tyler yanked it open and stuck his head out, but the hallway was empty.

Except for the flash of red sliding down the handrail.

Tyler rubbed his eyes, and then nothing was there. He scoffed before closing the door and returning back to his lounging position.

“Anyone there?” Alex asked as he opened a bag of potato chips. He grimaced at the loud sound the bag made.

Tyler sighed as Alex shoved a handful of chips into his mouth. “No. Must of been my imagination or something.”

“Maybe its ‘aunted or emthing,” Alex replied with his mouth full. Tyler flipped him off with a groan.

“I didn’t understand a word you said.”

“I said, maybe it’s haunted or something.” He wiggled his eyebrows teasingly, causing Tyler to scowl.

“Hardy har har. Ghosts aren’t real.”

Alex shrugged. “You never know dude. Anyways, Jenna wanted me to tell you hello. Are you guys still dating? Gonna try the long relationship thing or nah?”

“I don’t think it’s gonna last man. She’s great and all, and I love her, but we’re 2000 miles away. Besides, then I got college and stuff.”

“True. Girls aren’t important anyways.”

“You’re gay Alex. You can’t say that.”

He laughed. “Just sayin’. How are you dealing with the snow?”

Tyler groaned. “It’s awful. I hate being cold. I miss California so much. The minute I graduate I’m going back. Ohio sucks ass. Never come here.”

“Noted.” Alex chuckled again. “When do you start school?”

“Next week I think. I’m really not looking forward to it.”

“Why would you?”

“I just don’t want to talk to these people. They’ve got weird midwestern accents and lakes and stuff. I don’t know. I hate it.”

Alex smirked. “You can join the choir Ty.”

“Puh-lease. As if I would subject myself to such humiliation.” He rolled his eyes. “I’ll keep my work in the private of my room.”

“So you’re getting that piano then?”

“Hell yes. That was one of my commitments. That piano is going right up here in my room. I get to personally go to the music store and choose it.” Tyler beamed, overdramatizing his smile.

“Well aren’t you just lucky. If you see any cute boys at your school, please let me know.”

“I thought you were trying to get it on with Jack.”

“Trying. It doesn’t seem to be working. Jack may act gay but I think his no homo levels are fat free at the moment.” Alex shook his head in mock disgust. “What a shame really. It’s gonna take a lot of work to get him to Vitamin D.”

“Jesus Alex, why am I friends with you?”

“Come on Ty, everyone needs a sassy gay friend.” Alex laughed loudly, and someone on his end pushed open his bedroom door.

“Alex, we’re going to Dairy Queen, wanna come?” Mrs. Gaskarth asked, hands placed on her hips. She looked over at Alex’s phone placed on his desk and gasped loudly. “Is that the lovely Tyler Joseph I see?”

“It sure is! Hi Mrs. Gaskarth!” Tyler waved, smile plastered on his face. He missed his friends so much.

“It’s so good to hear your voice. We miss you a lot. Come visit ASAP!”

“I will, don’t worry!”

Alex turned his phone back towards him. “Alright Ty, I’m gonna have to let you go. Keep me updated on the Ohio lifestyle, mmkay?”

“I got you covered on that. News Channel Seven, featuring rolling corn fields and snow. Wait, what’s that? Could it be? No, scratch that. More snow.”

“You’re a dork. Talk to you later.” Alex waved goodbye, and the stream ended with a beep. Tyler rolled over and stared at his now dark ceiling, cell phone light extinguished. He sighed.

Suddenly, something moved out of the corner of his eye.

Tyler sat up, heart rate now beating at a relatively fast pace. He tried to slow his breathing down as he looked around the empty room, but there was nothing lurking in the dark corners. It had to have been his imagination.

“I hate this place,” he muttered before curling back in his sleeping bag.

***

Tyler woke up to the loud sound of moving trucks and the door slamming.

He groaned loudly as he rolled over, pulling the sleeping bag over his head. Tyler shivered, too cold to try and go back to sleep.

“I hate Ohio,” he mumbled into his pillow before climbing out and reaching for his clothes. Tyler put on all the clothes he had brought, layering as much as possible before leaving his room. He rubbed his palms together, trying his hardest to create some friction as he went down the stairs and out the front door.

“Tyler!” Dad called out, waving him over. He was holding a box labeled “Dishes” and grinning ear to ear. “Movers came earlier than expected. Can you take this to the kitchen?”

“Sure.” Tyler really didn’t want to, but the faster they got their stuff into the house the faster they got the internet set up and the faster he got his piano.

So Tyler took the box into the kitchen.

The kitchen looked dull under the natural light of the cloudy grey skies, pockets of dark hiding in the shadows behind corners. He shivered again, this time involuntary, like someone was watching him. With a small chuckle, Tyler shook his head in embarrassment and set the box down on the granite island. It was ridiculous to think someone was watching him. There were people coming in and out of every room; of course someone was looking at him.

“Tyler!” His father called again from the front yard, and Tyler was going back out to get more boxes. He decided to take on the kitchen, as it was nothing more than dishes and cooking utensils he could open and put away later.

On the fifth box, Tyler discovered he was not alone in the kitchen.

In fact, there was a red-haired kid roughly around his age (if he had to bet money) going through a box labeled “silverware,” laying each fork, knife, and spoon carefully on the countertop. Tyler blinked, staring at the stranger in his kitchen.

“Who the hell are you?”

The red-haired boy looked up from his silverware inspection, grinning ear to ear at Tyler’s question. He pushed up the sleeves of his sweater, as they had fallen past his fingertips, and dragged a hand through his unruly mess of dyed hair before offering Tyler a hand.

“Hiya! My name’s Josh. I’m your neighbour.” He jabbed a thumb behind him, pointing out the back door to a forested area backing up to their backyard. Tyler raised an eyebrow in suspicion instead of taking this “Josh’s” hand.

With a sigh, Josh dropped his gesture and went back to sorting silverware. “You guys have a nice set of silverware.”

“What are you doing in our house?” Tyler demanded, grabbing the fork Josh was currently holding straight out of his hand. He gathered all the silverware and dumped it back into the box, causing Josh to frown.

“You’re moving in. I thought I’d help. Nobody has lived in this house in a long long time and I wanted to welcome you guys to the neighbourhood.” Josh reached for Tyler’s hand, and Tyler pulled away in disgust and a little bit of shock. Josh’s hands were freezing. “You aren’t from around here, are you?”

“No,” Tyler muttered, turning around to move the silverware box out of Josh’s reach, “I am not.”

“I thought so. You’re too tan to not be from somewhere else.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Tyler used a fingernail to slit the tape on the box labeled “Cups” and went to work pulling them out. Josh watched him closely as he opened the cabinet next to the refrigerator and began placing them on the shelves.

“People in Ohio don’t exactly get tans. It’s always dark and dreary here.” Josh explained cheerfully. He pointed to the box Tyler had just brought in once Tyler turned around. “You want any help?”

“No, I don’t want any help. And it doesn’t matter where I’m from. I could be from Washington D.C. and still be tan.”

“Nah,” Josh replied playfully, reaching for the box anyways. He lifted it onto the counter, still grinning despite Tyler’s glare. “You aren’t from Washington D.C. You don’t seem political enough to be from there.”

“For someone who wandered into my house, you sure are judgmental.”

He suddenly shook his head, fear crossing his wide eyes. One hand flew up to his nose ring, fingers fumbling with the silver metal. Tyler rolled his eyes and moved on to stacking mugs. Boy, did a hot cup of coffee sure sound nice.

“That’s not what I meant at all. I was just saying-”

“I’m Lebanese,” Tyler interrupted, setting the mug in his hands down on the counter as he turned back around to face the intruder, “And we moved here from California. There. You happy now?”

“Yes.” responded Josh quietly. He pulled the sleeves of his sweater back over his hands and bunched the extra fabric in his fists. “I never got your name.”

“Maybe I don’t want to tell you my name. You did come out of nowhere and trespass on private property.”

“I was just trying to be friendly. I saw you guys arrive last night without any stuff. It must have been uncomfortable to sleep on the floor.”

“Sure was.” Tyler opened up another box and pulled out a rolling pin. He banged it against one hand, trying to look intimidating.

Josh wasn’t fooled. “Do you guys put that in a drawer?”

“Seriously dude. You need to leave.”

“Who needs to leave?” Tyler’s mother asked cheerfully as she brought another box into the kitchen. Tyler used the rolling pin to gesture to Josh behind him, but Mom only tilted her head in confusion. “No one’s there Tyler.”

Tyler immediately pivoted on his heel to discover that yes, Josh was no longer in the kitchen. In fact, he wasn’t anywhere at all. How could he have left that quickly?

“There was this kid,” Tyler started as he set the rolling pin down and leaned against the counter, “with bright red hair shaved into a mohawk right down the center of his head. He had a nose ring too. And gauges. And he was wearing this sweater that was way too big for him.”

His mother chuckled as she used a box cutter to remove the packing tape. “Sounds like he was quite the character.”

Tyler frowned. “I’m not making it up. He said his name was Josh, and that he was our neighbour.”

“The house next door is for sale. We don’t have any neighbours honey.” She maneuvered around her son to put a stack of pans under the oven.

“He pointed to the trees. Are there more houses over there?”

“I don’t think so. Could you go help your father and the movers bring in the heavy stuff? They need another man’s help.” She winked and went back to finding new homes for the rest of her pots and pans.

“Yeah...” Tyler answered absentmindedly, but his thoughts were somewhere else. He stared out the back door, past all the pristine, white snow glistening despite the grey skies, into the snow capped pine trees. He thought he saw a glimpse of red.

But one blink later, every trace of red was gone, leaving only the feeling of despair.

Tyler wondered where this Josh had come from.

He wondered if he would come back.

***

Pt. II

Tyler didn’t see Josh again for a whole other week. And by this time, the furniture was all in its correct place, and Tyler had gotten to go to the music store to pick out his piano. It was a black one with a shiny finish, and every time he looked up from his phone while lounging on his bed, Tyler could see its ashen keys. It was the brightest thing in his room.

His parents had taken him to the school to pick up his schedule and let him look for his classes so he had at least some idea to where he would be going. They also got the parking situation figured out. All of this made Tyler very depressed, because starting a new school was going to be inevitable at this point. Maybe he could ditch. He had done that at his old school quite a few times and was pretty good at it, he thought.

When Tyler did see Josh again, it was the Sunday before he started school. He had walked into his room with his school issued computer in his hand, planning on getting the charger from the case so it would be ready to use the next day. Instead, he dropped the computer in fright when the door opened to reveal none other than Josh sitting in front of Tyler’s piano. Josh looked up at the sudden noise and flashed a loopy smile.

“Hiya!”

“What the hell are you doing?” Tyler quickly rushed over to his piano, his baby, to get Josh as far away from it as possible. That was his. His. Nobody touched it but him. Not even his parents were allowed to touch it.

Josh held his hands up in defense, sliding one leg over the bench so he could stand up. Tyler scowled, using his sleeve to wipe away a smudge off the finish.

“I just wanted to say hi.”

“How did you even get in here anyways? My parents are sitting in the living room watching a movie.”

Josh shrugged. He looked around the room, gently dragging his fingertips across the windowsill and inspecting the basketball trophies Tyler had neatly placed on a shelf above his bed. Tyler noticed Josh was still wearing that same black sweater from last time. “I let myself in through the back door.”

“Okay, well you gotta stop doing that. It’s illegal.”

“Nah.” Josh sat down on Tyler’s bed, pulling his legs up to sit cross-legged. Tyler stared at him like he was stupid.

“Nah? Nah?” Tyler swiveled around on his piano bench and stood up, preparing to shove this stupid kid off his bed. “You can’t decide what’s illegal and what’s not.”

Josh seemed to pick up on what Tyler was going to do and slid off the bed before he could push him off. Instead, he walked over and picked up the abandoned laptop from the doorway. His face fell when he saw the school name engraved on the cover.

“What?”

“Oh, nothing. It’s just that I used to go here.”

Tyler raised an eyebrow. “Used to?”

“Yeah. I don’t go anymore. I’m uh, homeschooled now.” His words all ran together at the end, and he let out an almost hiccup, something that showed he wasn’t being completely honest. Tyler watched him set the computer down on his desk and lean against the wall. “When do you start school?”

“Tomorrow.”

“Ah.” Josh nodded his head and pulled the sleeves of his sweater over his hands.

“Where do you live Josh? Mom says we don’t have any neighbours.”

“I live just down the street is all.”

“Alright.” Tyler stared at Josh, watching him closely through narrowed slits. He was extremely suspicious of him and everything he said. Josh looked sick. His skin was a ghostly pale, clothes dirty and eyes small with dark bags underneath them.

Josh cleared his throat after a while and used a sleeve to wipe his nose. “Do you want me to go?”

“Yeah. Look, you seem like an okay person, but you’re shady and keep breaking into my house and I don’t really like that.”

Josh frowned.

And suddenly, he seemed like a whole other person.

His eyes were dark, eyebrows pulled into some terrifying glare of its own. His mouth twitched, and his hands were curled so tightly it looked like he might kill someone. Josh shoved past Tyler and disappeared down the hallway.

Tyler was quiet for a few minutes after that, listening closely to the shift of the floorboards and his surprisingly heavy breathing. He felt safer with Josh being gone, that was for sure. Hopefully he would take the hint.

***

Tyler couldn’t sleep that night.

He wasn’t sure if it was because it was freezing or because he was dreading school the following morning or because he was some kind of insomniac, but either way he kept tossing and turning and groaning when he finally gave up and stared at the swirls in his cream ceiling. He decided to check his phone, and discovered it was 3 am even. Great.

Tyler pulled the comforter over his head with another groan, curling into a ball to form more heat. He was going to sleep whether his body permitted it or not. It was going to happen. Tyler wasn’t going to go to school on hardly any sleep.

Somebody interrupted his thoughts by kindly slamming down hard on the keys to his piano, and he sat up immediately in a flurry of panic. Tyler’s breathing quickened as he watched his keys move down by themselves in a terrible clash.

And then, Tyler was falling.

Blood red eyes stared at him from the mirror baring a perfect doppelganger. Red-eyed Tyler grinned maleficently before slitting his own throat, and Tyler couldn’t breathe. He raised his hands to his throat, his dark, dark hands covered in tar, soaking them in the ruby molasses spurting out his neck. He was choking as blood poured down his shirt, covering the floor.

Red-eyed Tyler laughed.

He woke up in the middle of the upstairs hallway covered in sweat. His sister stood above him with a look of pure terror on her face.

“Ty? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” he tried to say, but it came out more as “M’ne.” His hands were shaking so badly Tyler didn’t dare try and stand up.

“You were screaming in your sleep,” she said sadly. “I came out to see what was wrong and you were screaming in the middle of the hallway.”

“Mmm,” Tyler rested his hands over his eyes for a few seconds before using the wall to pull himself up. A few deep breaths later, he asked, “What time is it?”

“Time to get ready for school. It’s almost 6. Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah. Just a bad nightmare. I’m fine Mads, trust me.”

She nodded, giving her brother one more nervous look before disappearing behind a closed bathroom door. Tyler really wasn’t sure how he ended up in the middle of the hallway, but he knew that dream had felt so real. He wrapped his hands around his throat, eyes fluttering shut as fingertips lightly pressed against his Adam’s apple. Good. It was just a dream.

Tyler went back into his bedroom to change, shutting his door for privacy. He paused with wide eyes after catching his reflection in the mirror hanging from his bedroom door.

Four evenly spaced red lines trailed down his throat, almost as if someone had dragged their nails down it.

Or maybe, just maybe, he had done it himself.

Tyler swallowed nervously. He rubbed his eyes and turned around, when a flash a red out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. Tyler whipped back around.

Nothing was in the mirror besides him.

“Okay,” he whispered. “School.”

***

He could hear kids whispering about him as he walked through the hallways to his first class, which happened to be environmental science. He wasn’t sure why they were whispering about him. It could have been because he was new, but there were 2,000 kids in this high school so he figured that probably wasn’t it. It could have been the red lines on his neck (As sad as he was to admit it, Tyler had attempted to cover them up with his mother’s foundation. It didn’t work.) or because of the three black bands he had around his right arm. He guessed it was probably that, because nobody in Ohio seemed to have tattoos. It had been kind of a normal thing in Cali.

“Tyler Joseph I presume?” the teacher, Mr. McCarthy asked with a grunt. Tyler nodded his head. “You can sit by Urie over there in the back.”

Tyler followed his teacher’s point to a kid with dark hair in the back of the room who was currently asleep and leaning so far back in his chair that Tyler figured he might fall out if someone was to wake him up. He was quiet as he squeezed behind Urie’s sleeping form and dropped his bag to the ground. Tyler could hear the girls in front of him giggling about how “cute” he was.

“He seems dangerous,” one whispered, raising an eyebrow as a smirk formed on her pastel frosted lips. Her friend giggled behind her hands.

“I wouldn’t mind making out with him for a couple of hours.”

Tyler rolled his eyes. Did they not think he could hear them?

Then the bell rang, jolting the dark-haired boy awake and knocking him out of his chair. The girls in front giggled again at him as he pulled himself off the ground in a huff.

“You alright?” Tyler asked politely, hoping he could make at least one friend before lunch.

“M’fine.” he blinked a couple of times. “Are you new?”

“Uh, yeah. It’s my first day. I moved here from California.”

He snorted. “Why the hell would you do that?”

“I didn’t want to, trust me.” Tyler rolled his eyes. “But Dad got a new job.”

“Mmm. Well, I’m Brendon. Welcome to Ohio ya fuckboy.” With a grin, Brendon held out his hand and Tyler shook it firmly.

“Tyler. By the way, we aren’t all fuckboys.”

Brendon rolled his eyes teasingly. “Oh yeah? Did you have a blonde girlfriend?”

“Well-”

“Did you play a sport? Football or basketball maybe?”

“Okay, but-”

“Did you have a large group of friends?”

“Come on, give me a-”

“Did you have a super nice job?”

“Listen,-”

“Oh, and you lived in California with the palm trees and Pacific Ocean. And you have tattoos. And you’re wearing a short sleeved shirt in winter.”

“I put my coat in my locker!”

“Your point is?”

Tyler gave up. “Fine. Guess I’m a fuckboy.”

“Great! You’ll fit in great with my friends and I.” Brendon grinned, and then Mr. McCarthy was telling everyone class was about to start.

***

“You can sit with us at lunch,” Brendon offered as he led Tyler to the lunchroom. Brendon seemed to be the perfect candidate for somebody to help the new kid; he had practically every class with him. Brendon had introduced some of his friends in other classes, always telling them that this was “Tyler from California.” Then they would ask him if he was liking the concept of winter to which Tyler would reply, “Hell frickin’ no.”

“Thanks.”

“I can take you up there to get your lunch. Unless you brought your own. In that case, kudos to you for not being as lazy as the rest of us.” Brendon grinned, shoving his hands into the pockets of his hoodie as they made a turn into a rather large lunchroom. Give or take, it was still smaller than the one back home, but it was still pretty large.

“Yeah, I uh, brought my lunch.” Tyler replied quietly, fixing his backpack strap from falling off his shoulder. Brendon tugged on his arm and sat him down in a chair right across from a long haired brunette and a dirty blonde wearing glasses.

“Hey guys! This is Tyler from California. He’s new.”

“Woah,” the long haired brunette said as he leaned over the table and grabbed Tyler’s left arm. Tyler swallowed nervously, kind of scared to what was going to happen. “You’ve got tattoos!”

“I thought you had to be 18 to do that!” The dirty blonde exclaimed, pushing his thick frames farther up his nose. Tyler chuckled.

“You have to have parent’s permission. I got ‘em done for my 17 birthday. Parents said if I saved up the money they’d sign the forms.”

“Well aren’t you just a lucky duck?” Brendon added, sliding into the seat next to Tyler. “This is Dallon and Patrick by the way. The others come a little bit later and then we all go get lunch.”

“Well, what’s salvageable from what they give us anyway.” Dallon winked, pulling out a notebook from his backpack. “California huh? That’s cool. I’ve never been there, which is funny because I lived just a state away for ten years of my life.”

“Utah?” Tyler asked, and Dallon nodded his head.

“Yep. It was hot in the summer and freezing in the winter. But California. What’s it like?”

“It’s fine.”

“What part did you live in?”

“Uh, San Diego.”

It was then two more people sat down at the table; A short, dark haired kid and a taller one with broad shoulders who looked like he belonged in college, not high school. Brendon introduced them as Pete and Spencer.

Pete slid his arm around Patrick, and Tyler immediately tried to hide his blush. It wasn’t that their relationship was uncomfortable, it was just that he hadn’t been expecting it, and Tyler was always blushing for the littlest things.

Then three of them got up from the table to go get lunch, leaving Tyler alone with Patrick and Pete. Pete stared at Tyler curiously, eyes flickering to the black bands on his arm.

“Tyler’s from California. He just moved here.” Patrick explained, turning under Pete’s arm. Pete nodded his head.

“Must have sucked moving all the way here.”

“Yeah.”

“I like your tattoos.”

“Thank you.”

“You don’t talk much, do you?” Pete inquired with an eyebrow raise, and Tyler shook his head.

“I mean, uh, I don’t know.” Way to play it cool Ty. Cool as ice.

He really wasn’t sure why he was having a hard time speaking to people. Usually he was an extremely voluble and outgoing person.

“What’d you do back home? Sports? Girlfriend? Boyfriend? Job?”

“I uhm, well, I..” he stumbled over his words, trying to form some kind of coherent sentence under Pete’s smug stare. Fortunately, Brendon and the others were back, letting their green plastic trays clatter to the table with some unrecognizable mush on it. Brendon let out a loud laugh upon noticing Tyler’s grossed out expression.

“That,” he started, pointing to a styrofoam cup, “is supposed to be potatoes. And this is pizza.” He took a bite of what was supposed to be pizza, and Patrick gagged.

“That is gross.”

“Yeah. Not very appetizing,” agreed Dallon as he began doodling in the notebook he took out earlier. Tyler watched him push his tray to the center of the table.

“Why don’t you guys bring your lunch if all you ever do is complain?” Patrick groaned, burying his face into Pete’s shoulder. Brendon laughed again.

“Cause I’m lazy.”

“Point proven.”

Tyler spent the rest of lunch sharing what his old school was like with the rest of the group. He told about his friends back home, Alex, Jack, Mikey, Gerard - and told them about how he used to play basketball but really wasn’t sure if he wanted to do that here. He told them about Jenna, how beautiful she was, but how he wasn’t really sure if it was going to work. (“It won’t work,” Brendon told him. “I had a long distance relationship with somebody named Ryan after he moved to Vegas for about three months before we decided to go our separate ways.” Tyler wasn’t sure how to feel about that.) He told them about how awesome his job was, how he got to work at the music store and be around his favourite things in the entire world.

“You play guitar?” Brendon asked, leaning back in his chair. Tyler shook his head.

“Nah, I’m rubbish at that. But I was looking into string instruments. Bass maybe. Right now it’s just piano.” Both Dallon and Pete perked up at the mention of bass, causing Brendon to roll his eyes.

“Bass players. You seem like a ukulele kind of guy.”

Tyler blinked. “Uhm, thanks?”

“Take it as a compliment,” Patrick whispered with a wink. “Are you in choir?”

Tyler laughed like he had just heard the funniest joke in the world. “No. I am not in choir. Nor will I ever be.”

“Oh come on!” Brendon patted him on the back. “Patrick and I are both in choir. Chamber, 8th period. It’s fun. There’s like ten kids in that class. You’re musically inclined; Mr. Hayes would love you.”

“Eh, it’s really not for me.”

“But-”

“Don’t push him Bren,” Dallon warned, raising an eyebrow. Then the bell rang, and Brendon yawned histrionically, causing the rest of his friends to roll their eyes. After saying goodbye, Tyler jogged alongside Brendon to try and keep up on their way to English.

Suddenly, Tyler remembered Josh, how he said he used to go to this school. He wondered if Brendon knew him. “Hey, do you remember a kid named Josh who used to go here?”

“Hmm... Josh who?”

“M’not sure. He didn’t give me a last name, but he has flame red hair. Oh, and a nose ring. He said he was my neighbour, but it doesn’t look like we have neighbours.”

Brendon narrowed his eyes. “Hmm. Where do you live?”

“Off Fifth street, down by that dead end where all the trees are.”

Brendon suddenly stopped, Tyler and about four other kids slamming into him. The others grumbled insults before moving around him while Tyler rubbed his elbow. “What’s wrong?”

“You don’t know?” He asked, eyes stricken with fear. Tyler frowned.

“Know what?”

“You know what? I got confused. That was something else.” He laughed. “Nevermind.” And then Brendon kept walking, leaving Tyler suspicious and a little terrified.

***

Pt. III

Josh visited again two months later.

It had been late, like 3 am late, when Tyler had arrived home from seeing a movie with Brendon and his friends. Tyler was quiet walking through the halls of his home, trying not to wake anyone up. He stifled a yawn as he pushed into his bedroom and groggily pulled off his shirt and jeans as he prepared to climb into bed.

Three solid notes rang out from his piano, and Tyler froze, only partially under the covers. He didn’t dare breathe as he waited to see if it had been his imagination.

Someone shifted, and it wasn’t him.

Tyler was to the lightswitch in seconds, flipping it on to reveal a dead-looking Josh sitting on his piano bench. His skin was a ghostly pale, hair like celestial fire in contrast, and his eyes looked so heavy with purple he figured they might fall out of his head. Josh wasn’t wearing that sweater, but a plain, long sleeved black t-shirt.

His first impulse was to scream, but nothing came out. Tyler could only stare with a guilty conscience.

In his underwear.

He wasn’t sure why this was the case. It was 3 am and this random kid was in his bedroom. But he looked sick and lonely and Tyler wasn’t about to be rude, even if this random kid was touching his piano.

“Josh?” he whispered instead, voice hoarse.

“Where’d you go?”

“I saw a movie with some friends.”

“You have friends already?” Josh looked even sadder. He dug his nails into the palm of his hands, creating four perfect crescents on either side.

“Uh, yeah.”

“I was waiting for you. I wanted to see you but you weren’t here.”

Tyler swallowed. “Sorry.”

Josh looked at him, eyes wandering across his almost naked body. Tyler felt like he was baring into his very soul.

“I still don’t know your name.”

“Tyler.”

“Tyler,” Josh repeated, and then he stood up, fingers tracing the white keys. “I’ve never met a Tyler.”

“Really? It’s kind of a popular name. Not even one?”

Josh smiled. “No.” his smile was immediately replaced with a frown. “Do you still hate me?”

Tyler avoided the question and went to go sit on his bed. “How old are you?”

“I’m 17.”

“Ah.” A pause. “No. I don’t hate you. I just, well...”

“It’s cause I just walked in, right? ‘Cause I’m sorry about that. It’s just, uh, out of habit.” He joined Tyler on the bed, staring at the wall. He curled his fingers under each other. “No one has lived in this house for a long time. I just thought that maybe I could make a friend.”

There was something nefarious about Josh, something that showed he could do a lot of harm if he wished it upon anyone. But there was also something, well... something attractive about him. Tyler blinked as he let the word he had just described Josh as process in his head.

Attractive.

That couldn’t have been right.

Josh looked over at Tyler whose face currently bore a shade of red. He smiled again, but this time, it felt real.

Tyler felt something move within him, and he turned even more red as he pulled the comforter over his lap.

“Well,” his voice cracked, coming out as a squeak, “It’s fine.”

“I don’t know what it is about you, but you seem different. Definitely better than everyone else in the world. I feel like I can trust you.”

“But I was rude to you.”

“I understand. But now you won’t be, right?” Josh moved closely, pulling his knees up to his chest. Tyler noticed he was barefoot.

“Right.”

“You’ll tell me if you go out again, right?”

Tyler found that to be an odd request, but nodded his head to make him happy. “Yes.”

“Good.” Josh looked at him through his eyelashes, and before Tyler knew it he had crawled next to him. Tyler prayed his boner wasn’t very obvious at the moment.

“Tyler?”

“Hmm?”

Josh didn’t say anything, only pushed his hand under the duvet and rested it on Tyler’s thigh. Tyler banged his head on the headboard. This was wrong, wrong, wrong. He barely knew Josh. Josh was crazy, Josh was shady, Josh was -

Pulling off his boxers.

Stop! Tyler wanted to say, but he didn’t.

I have a girlfriend! Tyler wanted to say, but did he really?

And then he moaned.

Josh finally stopped, satisfied. “I thought you might tell me to stop.”

Tyler couldn’t believe himself.

“I’m not gay,” he whispered, voice still squeaky.

“I never said you were.” Josh was touching him again, straddling him as he moved so his mouth was inches away from Tyler. His breath was warm, and his lips looked so inviting and Tyler was questioning everything he had ever known. “Can I kiss you?”

“Mmrph,” Tyler replied.

And Josh kissed him anyways.

He had lived in Ohio for three months and he was already naked in bed making out with a boy. Tyler didn’t know how it worked, but everything inside of him was one colossal tycoon of confusion and anger and worry and guilt. He wasn’t gay. He had never had feelings for a boy before. It didn’t matter that his best friend was gay, nothing had changed between the two of them even when Alex did come out. He never thought twice about it.

But now that he was thinking about it, it made sense. Sometimes Tyler would find him staring at a particular boy. Dark hair, nice eyes, a heavenly frame: small things. He told himself that didn’t make him gay. But... did it?

Josh’s skin was freezing beyond all compare, but he was gentle, and his hands were soft, and it felt so so so good. Tyler never wanted it to stop.

He let out a gasp. “No, don’t-”

“What’s wrong?”

“N-Nothing... k-keep g-going.”

So Josh did.

***

When Tyler woke up the next morning, the sun was already up. With outstretched arms and a loud yawn, he groggily reached for his phone and saw that it was almost one in the afternoon.

“Good morning beautiful.”

Tyler jumped, his phone clattering to the carpeted floor below. Josh was sitting with one leg over the other on the piano bench, a smirk on his face. His eyes didn’t look as dark, the skin around them not as purple. In fact, he almost looked like he was glowing.

Josh was also fully dressed in the exact same outfit from last night.

Suddenly self-conscious of himself and aware he was completely naked, Tyler pulled the comforter farther over him as he propped himself up with his elbow. “Did you just wake up? Do you need to go home?”

“No and no. Later.” Josh swiveled back around, calloused fingertips brushing piano keys. “Will you play me a song?”

“Well...” Tyler scratched behind his ear with a nervous sigh.

“Please?”

“Sure. Let me uh, get dressed.” As soon as Josh was preoccupied with the piano, Tyler slipped out of bed and disappeared into the closet where he pulled on boxers, sweats, and a white t-shirt before joining Josh back on the bench. Josh moved over, giving him more room.

He cracked his knuckles, and with a deep breath, began playing Canon in D. Josh watched with great indulgence, a huge grin on his face all the way until the end.

And when Tyler finished, Josh clapped loudly. Tyler could only stare at the swirl of black and white placed before him. He raised a hand to his throat.

“That was beautiful Tyler.”

Tyler felt sick. His head was pounding and he was starting to hyperventilate.

“Tyler?”

“Bathroom,” he mumbled before shooting out of Josh’s grasp. The minute he was to the bathroom he dropped to his knees, emptying his stomach’s entire contents until there was nothing left but stomach acid and water. He looked up when the door creaked, Josh leaning against the frame in worry.

“Your family is out running errands,” he whispered sadly. “Are you alright?”

Tyler clawed at his throat and squeezed his eyes shut. Why did he feel so bad? Two seconds ago he hadn’t even -

“Let’s get you back into bed.” Josh took matters into his own hands, helping a wary and disoriented Tyler stand up. Tyler stopped him once he was to the sink, and then he stared at himself in the mirror.

He had broken skin.

Josh appeared next to him, his skin looking translucent against the mirror. “Where’d you get those scratches from?”

“I think, that, uh, I maybe did it,” he replied weakly, leaning all his weight against the palms of his hands, knuckles turning white. Tyler reached forward to turn on the sink and used a nearby washcloth to remove blood from his neck.

“You couldn’t have done that,” Josh said solemnly, face suddenly very dark. Tyler looked up in the mirror, Josh’s face suddenly becoming very warped. His eyes filled to the brim with darkness, and then they were bleeding, dark ruby molasses dripping down like Sunday morning rain.

Tyler took a step backwards, eyes widening in fear as he fell to the ground, head hitting the door frame.

“Tyler? What’s wrong?” Josh was normal again, no trace of anything but worry on his face. And Tyler began to cry.

Josh crouched down and wrapped his arms protectively around him, allowing Tyler to sob into his shoulder. “Shh, it’s okay.”

“I hate it here,” Tyler managed to spit out between gasps for breath. He felt Josh slide a hand under his shirt, resting a freezing cold hand against his abdominals. His hand remained there until Tyler stopped crying, and by that point it was almost like his skin was on fire.

“I hate it here too,” Josh mumbled quietly after they had sat in two minutes of silence. He leaned against the bathroom wall, staring at Tyler curiously. Tyler sniffed, stood up, and went back to scrubbing at his neck like nothing had happened. Then he washed his hands, brushed his teeth, and went back to his bedroom, Josh following.

“Do you have any plans today?”

“No.” Tyler was quiet, his breaths heavy. He pulled out his laptop from under his bed and crawled under his comforter, beckoning for Josh to join him. “You wanna watch a movie?”

“Can I kiss you again?”

“Yeah.”

“Then sure.” He snuggled closer to Tyler, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and pressing a kiss to his cheek. Tyler shivered, eyelids fluttering shut.

“I’m not gay,” he said hoarsely. Josh dug his nails into his arm. It hurt Tyler, but he didn’t say anything about it.

“That’s one of the reasons I left school. People teased me because I was gay. They called me all kinds of names and pushed me around. I couldn’t take it anymore.”

“I’m sorry.”

Josh shrugged. “You’re not gay. It’s fine.” A pause. “I love you Tyler.”

That should have been a sign for Tyler to get out of whatever this was going to be. He had talked to Josh three times and he was already telling Tyler he loved him.

But Tyler brushed it off like it was nothing. Josh was kind to him. Careful with him. Made him feel better than the average person. Josh was just being friendly.

Oh how wrong he was.

***

Pt. IV

On Monday, Tyler woke up to Josh standing over him with a gentle grin. At this point, Tyler was used to Josh coming out of nowhere. He rolled over with a groan, shoving his head under one of his many pillows before getting up. Josh eyed him as Tyler got dressed.

“Can we watch another movie? I’ve heard great things about this one where-”

“I’ve got school. Don’t you have school?” Josh was back to wearing that damn black sweater.

He shook his head. “Sure, but I can do it whenever I want. I’m not really invested in my future.”

Tyler scoffed. “Well I am. I’m gonna go to college and graduate in music. I want that to be my vocation.”

“Can’t you just ditch school?” whined Josh as he sat down on the edge of Tyler’s bed. Tyler shook his head.

“I can’t ditch school, my parents would kill me.” Even though Tyler had done it several times back home, he really did want to go to school today. Brendon and him were partners for a lab in environmental science he had been looking forward to doing for months.

“Why don’t you want to stay with me? Is there someone at school?” Josh inquired, pushing himself off the bed with a threatening glance. His eyes were dark again.

“No Josh, that isn’t it at all. I just have to go. It’s the law.” Suddenly Tyler doubled over, his stomach erupting into flames. Josh let out a growl.

“You aren’t allowed to leave,” he sneered, slamming Tyler into the wall. His hands pressed tightly over Tyler’s biceps, pinning him and stranding him helplessly. Tyler let out a cough.

“Josh-”

“You said you’d talk to me about these things.”

“Josh-”

“You can’t leave me.”

“It’s just school!”

Josh released him, letting Tyler fall to the floor. He took a few steps backwards, eyes widening when he realized what he had just done. “I... I’m sorry Tyler, I don’t know what came over me. I...”

The two looked up at the opening of Tyler’s bedroom door, and Josh was darting into the closet and out of sight. His mother stood in the doorway, staring with worry at her son crouched over on the floor.

“Honey? Everything okay?”

“I’m fine,” Tyler lied, pushing himself up from the ground with the doorknob. “I just felt lightheaded for a second.”

She pressed her lips into a thin line, and it looked like she didn’t believe him, but the subject was dropped. “Alright. I need you to take your brothers to school today. I have to take Maddy to a dentist appointment.”

“That’s fine.”

A smile. “Thanks honey. Have a good day at school today!” When she shut the door, Tyler called out for Josh.

“She’s gone dude.”

But he didn’t reply.

And when Tyler went to pull open the closet door, nobody was in there.

***

“You look like you had a rough morning,” Brendon commented when Tyler sat down in class. Tyler only sighed.

“It wasn’t the best.”

“Sorry man. The dudes and I are going to the record store after school if you wanna come. It might help get your mind off of things.”

He forced a smile. “Yeah, that would be nice.”

Tyler’s day was slow, and he felt like a zombie. He also kept having sharp pains in his abdominals, and finally decided to check at lunch. “I’ll only be a second,” he said to Brendon before making his way into the men’s restroom. Fortunately, nobody was in there.

So Tyler yanked up his shirt, and stifled a gasp.

There was a thick grey rash across a good part of his stomach, and it looked like it was spreading. He pressed a finger against it, breath becoming short when he noted it felt rougher than the rest of his skin. It was leathery, like rotting flesh, engraved with tiny lines and notches.

“Oh my god,” he mumbled, pressing a hand to his forehead. What was going on with him?

And then, to make matters worse, Tyler heard someone clear their throat, and he dropped his shirt immediately. The kid bore a disgusted look as he turned on his heel and exited the restroom. Tyler banged his head on the wall in embarrassment before turning on the sink. Had he been bitten by anything? Was he turning into a zombie?

Fingertips tingling, he ran them under water, scrubbing with soap. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Everything was so frickin’ wrong.

Was he going crazy?

“I hate this place.” Tyler couldn’t wait to get out, that was for sure. He looked up in the mirror as he scrubbed his hands, watching his eyes twitch. They flickered between red and brown every time he blinked, so Tyler looked down.

His right hand was turning that same rotten grey.

Tyler stumbled backwards, breathing quickening. The room seemed to be getting smaller, fixated on a pulsing beat with an extenuating flame. He took off running out of the bathroom, down the hallway, and all the way out to the student parking lot. In fact, Tyler half-expected Josh to be sitting in the car when he climbed in. He didn’t know what was going on with him. Should he tell someone?

He finally decided to just call his mother. When she answered, Tyler broke down into tears. Nothing good had happened since he moved to this godforsaken place.

“What’s wrong baby?”

“C-can you p-please c-call me out? I don’t feel g-good,” he choked, staring at his greying hand in anguish. How the hell was he supposed to explain this to somebody? “Hey there Doctor, do you think you can help me out? I seem to be rotting.” Nobody would believe him if he did tell them that.

“Of course I can. Are you in class right now?”

“N-no, lunch.” He sniffled. “I’m sitting in my car.”

“Okay, I’m going to call the office. You can leave, okay baby? Go home and get some rest. I’ll come check on you.”

“Thank you Mom.”

“Anytime sweetie. Love you.”

“Love you too.” When their phone call ended, Tyler texted Brendon that he went home sick, and prepared himself for the journey home. He tried to focus on the road and not the fact that one of his hands was rotting and both were shaking a mile a minute.

Josh was standing on the porch when Tyler pulled into the driveway. He approached Tyler right as he climbed out, a flashy grin on his face.

“You’re home early!”

“I don’t feel good,” he explained,  pushing past Josh so he could go inside. Tyler fumbled with the house key, mind too focused on the fact that he was going to be a rotting corpse in the next hour or so. Just to check, he lifted up his shirt once more, and groaned when he realized the rash had spread even more. His keys slipped out of his shaking hands and fell to the concrete below.

Josh leaned over to pick them up, gently laying his hand over Tyler’s shivering ones. He helped him lower his shirt back down. “You don’t have a coat. Aren’t you freezing?”

“I forgot to grab it.”

“Tyler,” Josh said sternly, “What’s wrong?”

“I’m rotting!” he yelled out, yanking himself out of Josh’s grasp. Tyler banged a fist on the door. “I don’t know what happened, but I’m rotting and I’m going to die.”

“Tyler.”

“I know you won’t believe me, but I have proof. Look.” he thrusted his hand out so Josh could observe, the grey looking even more ominous under the shadows of the front porch.

“That’s just your hand Ty.”

“No, it’s right-” He paused, blinking a couple times. There was no sign of rotting flesh, just his normal tanned skin. “there.”

“Maybe you are sick.” Josh stuck the key in the lock and twisted it, pushing the door open with one palm. “Let’s get you into bed, okay?”

“No,” Tyler whispered. “It makes no sense. My hand was grey, my stomach was grey,” he yanked up on the hem of his shirt, but once again, it was nothing but normal skin. “I was rotting.”

“It was just a bad dream babe. Come on, I’ll make you some hot chocolate. We need to get you some warmth, okay?”

Tyler was still skeptical. “Yeah, okay.”

Josh led Tyler upstairs and carefully helped him change into more comfortable clothes before tucking him into bed. He kissed the top of his head before promising to return with hot chocolate in five minutes.

The minute Josh left, Tyler was staring at his right hand again.

Grey, rotting flesh, and more of it.

Tyler screamed.

***

Pt. V

His hallucinations were off and on for the next two months.

With winter finally over and spring approaching, Tyler was being invited out with his friends to go and do things a lot more. They were getting closer and closer to graduation, and he had already started applying to colleges.

His relationship with Josh was still kept secret, and they got more intimate. Josh never wanted to Tyler to leave his side. He snuck into Tyler’s house late every night and climbed into bed with him, trying to rough Tyler up. He’d kiss him, bite him, touch him, beg for sex. And Tyler would give it to him.

Because when Josh got mad, Tyler got hurt. Josh would try to make him feel guilty. He’d throw Tyler around carelessly. He’d scratch him.

Tyler’s hallucinations would get worse when Josh got angry.

And Tyler was confused, because every time he invited his friends to come over, they would decline or ask to go somewhere else. They never explained why that was the case. Tyler wondered if his friends hated him.

Josh certainly hated Tyler’s friends. “They take you away from me,” he said, and Tyler would laugh like Josh was joking. But with how aggressive and possessive Josh was getting, Tyler was beginning to think that maybe he was being serious.

Tyler looked like a corpse most days. He hardly got any sleep, what with Josh wanting to mess around every night, and when Josh wasn’t bothering him, Tyler was seeing himself with red eyes slitting his throat, or his dead body on the ground in front of him. Tyler would wake up with more scratches on his skin, would find that the grey “rash” had spread to more parts of his body, would find that some days he had horns or dark eyes or weird hieroglyphics engraved into his skin.

“It’s just a dream,” he would tell himself, but more and more than didn’t seem to be the case.

One day, Tyler was out picking up some groceries for his dinner. The rest of his family was on a trip to Michigan, and Tyler had begged to stay home. It was mostly because Josh threw a fit about him leaving, so Tyler promised he would get out of it.

Tonight he was making tacos. So with a wad of cash in his wallet, Tyler scanned the aisles for lettuce and tomatoes and sour cream and cheese.

“Did you hear about the old house off of Fifth Street?” Tyler heard an middle aged woman whisper rather loudly to her companion. Interested in a house off his own street, Tyler busied himself and pretended to be very interested in his salsa selections.

“The Dun one? I thought nobody lived there.”

“Yes, seven months ago a poor clueless family moved in there. I doubt their realtor told them what really happened there. No way they would have moved in if they did know.”

Tyler forgot how to breathe.

Salsa forgotten, he quickly grabbed the first item he saw out of the ones on the list, bought them quickly, and drove home as quickly as possible. What had happened in his house that was so bad? First his friends, then some strangers in a Walmart. He was going to get to the bottom of it.

After dropping the groceries off in the kitchen, Tyler shot upstairs and ran into Josh.

“There you are. I was wondering where you went. You wanna watch a movie?”

“I got some stuff to do Josh, sorry.” Tyler shoved past him and kept walking. With a frown, Josh matched his pace and slid back in front.

“Can’t you just do that later?”

“Can I please have some alone time? I’m with you like twenty-four seven. I need a break for once.”

Josh stopped, lips twitching up into a snarl. It looked like he might hit Tyler before he was slamming him into the wall and sulking off down the hallway. Tyler felt bad, but he needed to find out what was going on.

So he went into his bedroom and opened up his computer, sighing impatiently as it booted up. When it finally did, Tyler typed in his address.

A couple of news articles shot up, the top one catching Tyler’s attention. His eyes widened, hands trembling as he clicked on the link.

December 14, 2004 - local teen found dead in his own home.

Joshua Dun, age 17, was found dead in the bathtub of his household last night, wrists slashed and blood drained. Reports are calling it a suicide.

Tyler stopped there, feeling bile burning the back of his throat. This couldn’t be Josh. There was no way. This had happened over ten years ago, and Josh was obviously alive.

But he couldn’t deny that the picture with the article, the smiling red-haired boy with a silver nose ring, was in fact, Josh.

He keep reading.

Upon arriving home from running errands, Dun’s mother discovered her son in the bathroom later that night after being suspicious of where her son had gone.

She declined to be interviewed.

“So this is what stuff you have to do, huh?”

Tyler slammed his laptop lid shut, heartbeat fluttering irregularly as he slowly looked up at Josh standing in the middle of the room. His hair was wild, a thousand shades of crimson reflecting off the curls, and his eyes were dark with more red rimmed around them. He was wearing dark jeans, and for the first time since Tyler had seen him, a short sleeved shirt.

Which made sense, because on the inside of his arms were two deep, vertical cuts dripping with blood and pooling on the carpet below.

Tyler’s tongue was nothing more than a useless lump in his mouth at the moment.

Josh scoffed, raising an eyebrow as he paced the room, fingertips tracing the raised edge of the piano. Tyler watched tiny blood drops fall to the white carpet below. “I figured you’d find out eventually. I just didn’t want it to happen like this.”

Tyler still couldn’t speak. He could feel tears brimming his eyes, fear burning his insides.

“I hated everything about my life. People at school hated me. They laughed at me, shoved me in the hallways, tripped me, called me names. My parents ignored me and left me alone. I was a failure at school, at life. I didn’t think I had anything to live for. But I was fascinated with blood Tyler. I loved the way it looked, dark in contrast with my pale skin. So I figured, what better way to go?

“But God punished me for killing myself, and I wasn’t allowed in heaven. I was stuck in this damn house for the rest of my miserable life. I had to watch my mother find my body, watch her cry over her son’s life. God, she was so fake. And then they moved away, and I was left here by myself. I couldn’t leave the property. They put the house back on the market, but nobody wanted to live in a house where a boy killed himself.” He laughed mockingly, sending chills through Tyler’s entire body. “And eleven years later, they finally found a family clueless enough to move in. They only had to tell the residents about catastrophes within three years, and I’ve been dead a long time. I was happy I wasn’t alone anymore. I was so happy, and then I saw you and I got even more excited. You were my age, and you were beautiful, and I was going to make you mine.”

“Josh,” Tyler finally managed to speak, but his own voice was foreign and heavy on his tongue, dragged down with fear of the ghost sitting in his bedroom.

“What’s wrong Tyler?” You’re looking a little pale.” Josh laughed again, piercing the air with shrill malice. He had never looked more evil than he did right now.

The rooms looked like they were melting. Tyler couldn’t breathe. All he could see was blood and rotten skin falling into oblivion underneath him. With a heavy attempt for oxygen he tripped off his bed, crawling across the carpet of ruins to the door.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Tyler ignored Josh and pulled himself up with the door, shaking off the warped illusion as he darted down the stairs and grabbed his car keys from the bowl by the door. He took off across his front lawn, slamming the door shut before bolting to his car and jamming his keys in the ignition as fast as humanly possible. When he looked up into his rearview mirror, his eyes were bright yellow, skin grey and a huge chunk sliding down his face, blood dripping down his unhinged jaw at a painstaking pace. Josh stood on the porch, eyes still gleaming with that same nefarious tone Tyler always knew he had in him.

He pulled out of the driveway and hit the accelerator, ignoring the horrible sounds his car was making as he sped out of the neighbourhood.

And then Tyler was crying.

He couldn’t believe it. The man he had fallen in love with, despite all his problems, was dead, and had been dead for eleven years. Tyler felt horrible Josh had lived a life so terrible he had committed suicide, but he doubted Josh had actually been like this when he was alive. Being dead, it did stuff to you. It changed you.

Tyler drove to Brendon’s house, hoping with all his heart and soul they were home and willing to have him crash until he could get things set straight. Tyler’s family came back tomorrow; what the hell was he supposed to tell them? They couldn’t live in a house haunted by something that evil.

Brendon’s mother answered the door when Tyler knocked, and a frown instantly made its way onto her face. “Tyler sweetie? What’s wrong?”

Tyler could barely think straight he was sobbing so hard. “M-Mrs. Urie? C-Can I p-please c-come in?”

“Of course honey,” she ushered him in, wrapping an arm around his shoulders as she brought him into the kitchen. Tyler sat down at the table, his whole body shaking as he tried to calm himself down.

“Brendon! Get down here now!” She yelled, before turning towards Tyler. “I’m gonna make you some tea, okay sweetheart?”

Tyler nodded, wrapping his arms around himself. Josh couldn’t hurt him here. He was safe.

“What’s up Mom?” Brendon asked as he walked into the kitchen. When he noticed Tyler with a tear stained face and blood on his clothes, his eyes widened. “Tyler, holy shit.”

“Language,” Mrs. Urie warned.

Brendon sat down next to his friend. “What happened?”

“I g-got attacked,” Tyler lied. He couldn’t claim a ghost had almost killed him.

“You’ve been home alone this week, having you?”

“Y-yes.”

“When do your parents come back?”

“Tomorrow.”

“Then you’re staying with us tonight. I’ll have to call your mother and tell her what happened. Attacked. Honestly, the nerve of some people.” Mrs. Urie shook her head in disgust and set the tea kettle on the stove top. “You can borrow some of Brendon’s clothes tonight and the two of you can go back over tomorrow. Did someone break in?”

“Yeah.”

“You poor child.” She shook her head. “Brendon, go get a shower going for him and get him some fresh clothes. I’ll have tea ready for you when you get out, okay honey?”

Tyler nodded. “Thank you.”

“You know you’re welcome here anytime Tyler.”

Brendon patted his knee. “Come on Ty-Guy, let’s go get you cleaned up.”

He took Tyler upstairs and got a shower started for him, but Tyler could only stand there. Brendon frowned. “You okay?”

“No,” Tyler’s voice cracked, and then he was crying all over again. Brendon pulled him into a hug, rubbing small circles into his back.

“It’s gonna be okay Ty, I promise.”

Tyler didn’t believe him.

***

Pt. VI

Tyler hadn’t gotten a lick of sleep that night.

Every single time he closed his goddamn eyes, Josh was there, face dark and blood dripping down his arms. Tyler was too afraid Josh was going to murder him in the middle of the night.

The next morning, when Brendon woke up, Tyler stared at him before clearing his throat.

“Thank you for letting me stay with you.” his face burned with pink, embarrassed that he was acting like a little kid.

“You’re my best friend man, no problem.” He tilted his head sideways. “But I have a feeling you’re not being completely honest with me.”

“You wouldn’t believe me even if I told you the truth.”

“Try me.”

Tyler took a deep breath. “Okay. You remember when I talked to you about somebody named Josh?”

“Yes.”

“Well, what some people didn’t tell me was that at a particular house someone killed themselves.”

Brendon looked guilty. “I didn’t want to freak you out.”

“Too late. Turns out my Josh is Joshua Dun of the 2004 suicide.”

His eyes widened. “You’re joking. He died eleven years ago Tyler. How can you-”

“His spirit never left the house or something, I don’t know. But we...” Tyler trailed off, unsure if he wanted to share this information with someone. “I uh, we uhm, had a relationship going on.”

“No way! Are you making this up? Because I swear to God if-”

“I didn’t think I was gay Brendon, but it seems that was unfactual information.” Tyler shook his head. “He wouldn’t let me leave to hang out with anyone else. All he ever wanted to do was have sex with me, and God,” Tyler choked, shoving his head into his hands. “I slept with a ghost! A psychopathic ghost at that.”

“Okay Ty, but-”

“I know you don’t believe me, but it’s all true okay? I don’t know what I’m going to do. I can’t go back there. What am I supposed to tell my family?”

Brendon paused, thinking. “What if I go with you? Do you think he’ll bother you if you’re not alone?”

“He won’t bother me if I’m with other people. Josh was a secret.”

“Okay then.” Brendon stood up. “Let’s go.”

“Now?”

“Better now than never. You need to show him who’s boss.”

“I...” Tyler didn’t finish.

He didn’t know what to say.

***

Three hours later Tyler and Brendon sat in Tyler’s car outside of his house, but on the opposite side of the street.

Tyler could see Josh in his bedroom window, but he didn’t point him out to Brendon.

“You ready?” Brendon whispered, and Tyler shakily nodded his head.

Together, they exited the car and made their way across the yard where Tyler quickly put in his garage code and gestured for Brendon to follow.

Tyler opened the back door quietly, peering around to see that the coast was clear. He walked in, waving his hand so Brendon would come in.

And the minute Brendon had entered the kitchen, Josh was shoving a knife into his stomach.

Brendon stared with wide eyes at Josh before he looked down at the crimson spreading outward in a dirty ring on his white shirt. Tyler screamed.

“You SON OF A BITCH!” He yelled at Josh, who stood there smiling, blood soaked knife still in hand. Tyler threw an arm around Brendon’s shoulders, dragging his limping friend out the door. Brendon gripped his wound, tears already rolling down his face as Tyler moved as fast as possible. He knew this was a terrible idea; he knew they shouldn’t have come here.

“You aren’t leaving again,” Josh called cheerfully from behind them. He was still smiling.

“You’re a sick, twisted asshole!” Tyler replied angrily, his focus on getting Brendon to safety. They just had to get off the property, and then they could be safe. Josh had stabbed his friend. His fucking friend.

They had almost made it when Josh yanked on Tyler’s arm, his freezing cold touch no longer comforting as it had been in the past. No, this time it sent chills through his body as he gave Brendon one last shove. His friend tumbled to the ground, and with Tyler in his grasp, Josh hurdled the kitchen knife at Brendon’s broken form. Josh shoved his hand over Tyler’s mouth as he screamed, muffling it so no one would hear him.

Tyler had just watched his best friend die a horrible and painful way.

His loud sobs were masked by Josh’s hand as he was pulled back into the house, Brendon’s blood still on the floor. Josh moved his hand away from Tyler’s mouth, but still didn’t let go.

“You’re just gonna leave him there?” Tyler cried, causing Josh to chuckle.

“I would have gotten rid of all your friends eventually. They were in the way. They distracted. They had you leave me.”

“You’re insane!”

“You’re never going to leave me again, are you Tyler? Because you love me just as much as I love you.”

“I fucking HATE YOU! LET ME GO!” Tyler tried to kick him, tried to move out of Josh’s grasp, but he couldn’t budge. It looked like the undead were stronger than he had thought.

“Let you go? I can’t do that. So I’m going to give you two options. Either you can go upstairs and take all those pills in the medicine cabinet, or I can kill you.”

Tyler sobbed even louder.

“Don’t be afraid Tyler. Once you’re dead, you’ll be able to be with me forever.”

“Please, I’m begging you. I don’t want to die. I’ll do whatever you want. I won’t leave.”

Josh laughed harshly. “Do you think I’m stupid? People are always going to get in the way. Your friends, your family, everyone. Then you’ll go off to college, and I’ll still be stuck here. Or your family will move away, and I’ll be all alone again. I can’t have that. So our last option is to have you join me.”

“Please Josh, don’t do this!” Tyler continued to struggle, whimpering when Josh elbowed him in the face.

“Shut up. You’re making yourself look pathetic.” Then a smirk rose to his face. His moved his hand to Tyler’s arm, skin turning grey where his fingers came in contact. Tyler watched in horror. “Even if you refuse, you’ll still die. Look, it seems like your body is already starting to rot.”

Tyler tried to move again, but the dirty rotting grey of his skin spread farther up and down his arm, moving to his torso and the tips of his fingers. He could barely move his arm it hurt so badly.

“Does this feel good to you Tyler? I wouldn’t think it would.”

“Josh, please-”

He twisted one of Tyler’s fingers, completely tearing it off. Tyler screamed louder than he ever had in his entire life.

“Imagine your parents coming home to an undead son. What a shame that would be.”

Tyler’s breathing was too heavy for him to answer. He only squeezed his eyes shut and tried to stop crying.

“Come on Tyler, make your decision. We don’t have all day.”

“I love you Josh,” Tyler finally managed to spit out. “I love you so much.”

Josh smiled in triumph. “I knew you did. I love you too.”

Tyler prayed Josh wouldn’t catch onto his plan. “I want the pills. Take me upstairs.”

“Good boy.” Josh led Tyler upstairs, blood staining the carpet each inch of the way there. Tyler continued to cry, still in unbelief he was about to die. He hoped he could get away with this, and escape the house alive. One amputated arm could be worth it if he escaped.

Josh let Tyler go and pulled several pill containers out from the medicine cabinet. He unscrewed the caps, pouring the small white pills into his hands.

“Open your mouth,” he demanded, and with a shaky breath Tyler obeyed. He swallowed, staring at Josh with so much contempt and rancor it burned his very soul.

Or what was left of it, anyways.

And then he was dropping to his knees and using his good arm to shove his fingers down his throat, completely removing all the traces of overdose from his body. Josh screamed loudly, grabbing Tyler by the hair. He dug his nails into Tyler’s rotten arm, separating dead bone from muscle and causing the brunette to yell out in pain again. Josh did the same thing to Tyler’s other arm before shoving his translucent fist into Tyler’s chest, wrapping it tightly around his beating heart. With glassy eyes, Tyler took his last breath.

Satisfied, Josh gathered Tyler’s body in one broken heap and laid it in the bathtub. Finally, Tyler would be his forever. And it was a good way to go.

Similar to his.

They’d be twins with matching scars.

Tyler stood next to him, staring at his corpse with a heavy heart. He was still crying, staring at his dead body. Scars marked his arms as a ghost just as Josh’s did, and he felt the devil himself wrap an arm around his shoulders.

“It’s okay Tyler. You’ll be with me forever now.”

Tyler cried harder.