Øverturning the lies (a twenty one pilots fanfiction)

~Tyler~

He doesn't know how he got here, doesn't even know if he's truly here, in a real place. 

But what he does know is this: 

It's dark. 

Too dark. 

And he can't see anything.

Not even his hand in front of his face. 

Is he dreaming?

Or just lost, wandering forever in a place with no end and no beginning, just endless pain? 

When he starts to wonder that the doubt he thought-he hoped-he'd abandoned, begins to creep in. 

Is anyone here? he wonders. Or is this just me? 

Neither option, if he's being completely honest, sounds very appealing. 

Time's going by, he's sure of it, but he doesn't know how much time, how long he's been wandering, wondering, afraid. 

And then...

"Tyler?"

"J-Josh?" he asks, well aware that this is probably some sort of trick or trap or-

"You're alive?" Josh's voice asks, sounding so concerned that for a moment, he forgets it all.

But-

Why does he feel suspicious of this?

He pushes the feeling away.

"I was so worried," Josh says, and he certainly sounds it.

For a moment, Tyler finds himself relaxing. 

And then-

What happens next is so unexpected, so terrible-he knows it has to be a bizarre, twisted dream.

One he can't wake from.

"I missed you," Josh says, and something in his voice-

But-

Let go of me.

Why can't he speak what he wants to say?

Josh no stop it you're hurting me...

Let me go.

No. Stop it. 

Stop it!

And then:

Josh wouldn't do this to me. 

He knows it. 

Somehow, somehow, he finds his voice. 

"This isn't real." 

He doesn't know what happens next. 

It's just an overwhelming, confusing mess. 

He thinks he sees Nico's face, but he isn't sure.

He isn't sure if it's him there, causing him all this pain...

Or if someone he trusts is. 

Why can't I wake up why can't I wake up?

He half-expects himself to open his eyes and find himself back in Dema, somehow.

As if he never left.

But no. 

His eyes open suddenly, and as he stares down at the sleeping form of his best friend, he realizes. 

He realizes what he's truly afraid of. 

Trusting someone, then having them take advantage of him. 

And as he rolls over, trying to calm his racing heart, searching for sleep that never comes, he wonders. 

He wonders if his friend ever feels the same way.