Signs

Friends

For anyone who came here bc of the musical Hamilton or just doesn't know who Tench Tilghman is, he was an officer in the continental army during the american revolution and served under George Washington and was apparently pretty close with Washington, as well as the other aides (which is reasonable), including Laurens, Hamilton and Richard Kidder Meade, who in this VERY FICTIONAL fanfiction took his life. This is a brief chapter about how Tench reacted to Richard's death, though I might include him in the future.

Also might headcanon Tench with problems I myself have (mostly because this fic was originally supposed to be more of a vent and I didn't expect people to read it so... here we are... Also because I ain't doing research on how Tench acted rn,), but with a small twist. EVERYTHING you read in this one is 100% fiction.

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It was Saturday morning, and Tench sat on the edge of his bed, staring blankly at the email from Richard's mother.

Richard was dead.

His best friend, his ride-or-die, the one who promised to stand by him through thick and thin, was gone.

Four days had passed since that email.

Four excruciatingly silent days.

Tench cursed himself for isolating himself. Maybe it was his fault. Richard always worried about him when he disappeared like this, ignoring everyone.

Tears blurred his vision as he opened his unread messages. 253 notifications from Richard.

27 missed calls. 226 unread messages.

God.

Richard's messages began with concern, asking where Tench was, how he was doing, sending pictures to cheer him up. But the recent ones were dark, full of angst and hints of despair.

Tench's heart sank as he read through them, each word a knife of regret.

Then he saw the last message.

"Hey."

Two days ago.

How was that possible? Richard died four days ago.

A chill ran down Tench's spine, and his heartbeat quickened. This had to be some cruel joke. Someone must have Richard's phone

The feeling of a cold hand against Tench's back interrupted his thoughts and made his skin crawl. His breathing stopped, leaving only him and the quiet sound of the AC... And the icy hand on his back.

Tench sat there for what felt like hours, just waiting... The silence was unbearable. He wanted to scream, he wanted to cry, he wanted to run and hide.

He bit his lip to try and ground himself before quickly standing up and turning around, revealing the empty bed.

Tench furrowed his brows. He could have sworn something was there, something must have been there. And the message, who sent that?

Tench quickly unlocked his phone to read the message once again, only to find that it was gone.

Tench let his body flop down on the bed like a pancake being tossed on a plate. He couldn't believe it, this was unreal. Was any of this even real?

He stared up at the ceiling, feeling his conscience stall. His thoughts wandered all around his head, like a lost child running around in the woods looking for some kind of escape.