Until Dawn: Tyrants {Josh Washington}

13//famous last words

^MCR^
A/N feels.

I don't feel anything at first, nothing but a voice in my head saying "you should be very afraid right now".
Snow is getting caught in my jeans and my sneakers as I am dragged through the snow. Did I hear something snap? What's pulling me? I think I'm in shock...
I only start screaming when I feel the sharp pain in my arm. My head tilts so I can look at it, and it's deformed shape is being grasped by this creature. The pain is excruciating and deep, a feeling like my bone has been replaced with a sword. It wouldn't be as unbearable if it wasn't the arm that whatever this monster is decided to drag along me with.
My throat hurts from the unstoppable screams I'm letting out.
I've never experienced pain like this before. The pulling and the stabbing inside my flesh feels like my forearm is going to be torn in two. I claw at the long bony fingers around my wrist, trying to get free. I can't take it.
I pass out, the pain dulling and becoming a mere background to this nightmare.
A scene appears in my mind, like a movie. A dream.
•
I yell the lyrics in the Washington's basement, parading around on top of the chairs in the room.
"So many, bright lights, they cast a shadow. But can I speak? Well is it hard understanding, I'm incomplete. A life that's so demanding. I get so weak. A love that's so demanding, I can't speak!"
It is summer, and Hannah, Beth, and Josh invited everyone over to their house for a Fourth of July party.
Everyone has gone outside to watch the fireworks that the football stadium down the road sets off every year, but I'm still in the house with Josh. We're both slightly drunk and shouting lyrics to the songs I'm playing off my phone.
"I am not afraid to keep on living, I am not afraid to walk this world alone! Honey, if you stay, I'll be forgiven. Nothing you can say can stop me going home!"
I'm moving my cup in the air up and down and marching on the path of chairs lined up, feeling like the Black Parade cover itself. Josh is dancing around as well, air guitaring the song.
I step down from the chair after the song ends, out of breath and feeling sleepy.
A slower song starts playing, Can't Help Falling in Love by Elvis Presley. I go to shut it off, knowing that this song will just make things awkward.
"Wait, what are you doing?" Josh asks, walking over to me.
"Changing the song...?" I reply, reaching down to my phone.
He grabs my hand.
"I happen to be a big Elvis fan," He smiles. "Madam, may I have this dance?"
He bows while I giggle nervously.
"My pleasure, kind sir," I play along. He rises and pulls me into his arms, rocking back and forth. His hand is on my waist and the other is wrapping around my own hand. The heat under my cheeks could start a fire.
Why watch the fireworks down the street when there are plenty down here, in the Washington's old basement?
•
"Because you couldn't lift a god damn finger to help someone else!" A voice says. It doesn't sound real.
I can't open my eyes, I'm in some kind of blackness, listening to the whispering in my mind.
"Remember last year?" A man's gravelly voice says. "How you left your poor sisters to die? You did nothing to help them!"
I think this is Josh's nightmare that I'm listening to somehow...
"Paralyzed by your own self-centered fear while the real threat was closing in. No, it's all about you, Josh! It's always all about you,"
Josh... Is this in his head? Am I imagining this?
"Your game has gone terribly wrong. And your friends, like your sisters, have deserted you. Hell, not even Alora is safe around you, and you're supposed to be in love with her! You're all alone,"
"Can you feel how cold your loneliness has become?"
This man's voice is startling, deteriorating whatever's left of my unstable brain.
"Why did you hurt them? It's yourself that you despise. You've already admitted as much,"
There's silence for a moment.
"Oh but of course you did! They were your friends. You mislead them. You lied to them. You put them through a night of genuine horror,"
Is Josh talking with this man, and I'm just a listener, here to let it torture me?
"Just a game? Look at her. She's right next to you, arm broken, heart broken, spirit broken, and you can't even collect yourself enough to help her? I hope for your sake, Joshua, that you can find redemption,"
I see you lying next to me.
With words I thought I'd never speak.
Awake, and unafraid.
Asleep or dead.