Øverturning the lies (a twenty one pilots fanfiction)

~Jøsh~

He doesn't know for certain that something is wrong, but when he wakes up and Tyler isn't there, he starts to worry.

He immediately asks Jenna if she's seen him at all.

She shakes her head. "I'm sorry."

"Do you think something happened?" he asks.

"I can't say for sure," Jenna says, biting her lip. "But-"

Josh doesn't listen.

His heart is racing.

He's afraid.

Afraid the worst has happened, despite the improvements he's seen in his fren's behavior since he was rescued from the bishops' iron grip.

Before Jenna can stop him, he rushes out of the tent and into the world of Trench, hoping, hoping.

Several moments later, he sees him.

His fren is sitting on the ground, absently playing with the yellow flowers in the grass near him.

Once he sees Tyler, he briefly calms down.

Then he feels something.

"Something's wrong," he says quietly to himself..

He hurries over to his fren.

"Is everything-"

Then he notices.

Instead of his usual brown, his fren's eyes are red.

The same color as Nico's.

Josh doesn't doesn't think. He can't think.

"T-Tyler?" Josh asks, barely able to contain his fear. "I-"

He lets out a sigh of relief when his fren's eyes turn back to their normal color.

But Tyler's staring at him, wide-eyed.

And then Josh realizes what he had done without even thinking about it.

He'd rushed over to his fren, desperate as he was to make sure he was safe, put his arms gently around him.

"I'm sorry," Tyler whispers. "I-I don't know what happened-it felt like he was there..."

"It's okay," Josh says, "You didn't ask to feel like that."

Tyler nods. "I-right. It's just..."

His hands were shaking.

"Let's go back," Josh urges his fren.

Tyler just stares. "This feels like the end, can't you feel it?"

"What are you talking about?" Josh asks.

Tyler points at the ege of the cliff several yards away from where they are now.

"Can't you see the outline of the city from here?"

Josh squints, and his heart feels heavy when he realizes he can.

Tyler's hands go to his neck and Josh knows, because he's heard him talk about it before, that he's trying to get rid of the feeling that something has icy fingers wrapped around his neck, suffocating him.

"It feels like a reminder," Tyler says.

"Of what?" Josh asks.

"Of how it feels to try and survive every single day," Tyler says, shivering slightly. I would never want to hurt you, but..."

"Part of you feels like it's buried there," Josh guesses. "Like it's calling you back."

"Yes," Tyler says, "And-something inside of me is just saying, look, there's the edge, look how far down it is, look at-and I hate it, I just-that's a-"