a/n: i hope the previous chapters reminds y'all not to mess with the dead...srsly leave the dead be...(sorry for any typos btw lol)
Josh opens his eyes slowly, getting up from the ground. His hands fell on dead leaves, their crunching sound waking him up a bit more. He looked around tiredly, noticing that he wasn't in Frank's house anymore. He stood up slowly. "Where am I?" he asked himself aloud. Josh didn't panic though, he felt as if this were completely normal, that this was suppose to be happening. Without much thought, he began walking straight forward.
He began to slowly recognize where he was, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. He was still a bit groggy, so that would explain. He felt dead, but alive at the same time, which was pretty normal. What was not normal was how dead the trees around him were, how they appeared like dark shadows rather than what they really were, and how red the sky looked. It looked like an awful nightmare, but Josh was not scared; he felt fine, as if this was just a normal day of his everyday life.
Josh continued walking until he found the end of the forest, and in front of him a road was stretched out horizontally. At the other side of the road was a wooden house painted in white. The only thing that really shed some light in such a dark day. Josh, droopily and groggily, continues walking towards the house. He recognizes it, he's familiar with the antique structure, but he can't quite tell why. Deep inside of him is the answer, but he can't find it. He walks up the porch steps and stands in front of the door for a moment. He stares at it intently, and suddenly memories start flooding into his head. His eyes grow wide as he whispers, "Tyler". He doesn't know why the phantom's name came up into his head, because this is his grandparents' house, but all he knows is that there's something inside that has to do with him and his case.
Josh puts his hand on the doorknob and twists it, opening the wooden front door. He swallows hard, and walks inside. Everything is dark, but he can still see the inside of the house. Red light streaks in through the windows in the living room. The silence is unbearable, though. It's as if something or someone were waiting for Josh in the dark corners where the red light doesn't reach; in the shadows that cannot be only but pure darkness. He shudders at the thought, and slowly walks into the kitchen. There, sitting atop the counter, is Tyler's late-sister's head. Josh stares at it with wide eyes, and gags, putting a hand over his mouth. What the fuck is that doing here?
He thinks of getting close to it, touching it even, but he's too shocked and slightly grossed out to do so. Instead, he rushes out of the kitchen with a fast beating hard, and shudders again. He rests his back against the wall, taking deep breaths. The thought of his grandfather being a murderer gives him more fright than any demon could. Knowing that there is a murdered sharing his last name, and being a part of his family, makes him retch in disgust. Trying to calm down, he hears voices within the silence, and they come from down the hall. Josh finds him composure, and begins to walk down the hall.
The voices become louder and clearer, and Josh recognized one of them: his grandfather's. He swallows hard, and continues walking until he reaches the place where the voices are coming from. He stops in front of a closed wooden door, where he can hear three men talking amongst each other in hushed voices. Josh pressed his ear against the door to listen better.
"—You don't understand! We need to get rid of..of...of all of this! We can't keep hiding this for much longer!" he heard his grandfather exclaim, making Josh's eyes go wide. "We can and we will. We'll dispose of the bodies later on when the time is right," another man, with a very deep and threatening voice, stated. "And when will that be, huh? It's been a decade or two already, Gerald. I'm sick and tired of this. We're old and we're still dealing with this."
"When the time is right! I don't care how much longer it'll take, but right now is not the time. And you have absolutely no right to complain when you're the one who got himself into this mess in the first place," the man with the deep voice, Gerald, replied. Josh's eyes widened, and his mouth hung open slightly. "It was because of Bri that I got sucked into this mess, and I'm only telling you this because I fear that my grandson knows something." Josh's breath hitched in his throat, and his heart began to beat rapidly against his chest, as if threatening to escape.
"Well, you better keep a good eye on him, or else he'll end up like that boy from the Joseph family. Hung up and mutilated. You don't want that, now do you?"
Josh couldn't take it anymore, he needed to leave. Now. Without any more thought, he sprinted down the hall and out of the house, almost tripping and falling down the porch steps. He kept running as fast as he could. He wasn't going to stop, no way in hell. He needed to keep running, he needed to escape. Escape whatever was chasing him right now.
Suddenly, just when his legs were about to give out, just when he was about to collapse on the ground, a strong hand grabbed his arm. "Josh!" he could hear Tyler yell.
Josh woke up abruptly, his breathing heavy, and covered in cold sweat. He looked around realizing that he was still at Frank's house, comfortable in the purple-sheeted bed in the white room with a red wall. He sighed in relief, and ran a hand through his hair. Josh was going to lay back down, but something stopped him from doing so. A strong hand, the same from his nightmare, grabbed his arm. Josh turned to Tyler with wide eyes. "Tyler...Tyler, oh my God," Josh muttered in shock, quickly draping his arms over the taller male. For a moment, he didn't realize he was crying until he heard his own sobs. "It's okay...I'm here...I'm sorry I was gone," Tyler muttered, hugging him back.
"Why did you leave me like that?" Josh muttered against Tyler's shoulder. "I didn't mean to, I don't even know how it happened...But luckily, I think I found out about something that might help us solve my case," Tyler replied in a soft voice, filled with warmth. Almost human. Josh nodded and pulled away after a moment. He wiped his eyes with his fist, and sniffled. Smiling up at Tyler he says, "Me too. And I think it's going to help us get to the bottom of this quicker." The phantom smiles. "Good," he says, but his smile quickly turns into a frown. "You're sick...Are you okay?" He asks, full of concern. Josh shakes his head. "No, I'm not. I—" before he can continue, a sudden flash of images course through Josh's head.
His eyes widen in shock seeing images of his friends lying in a room, dead. They're covered in blood and cuts litter their bodies. Their mouths are hanging open in frozen screams and their eyes are wide with horror. But the only one alive is Frank, and he's sitting in a corner, trembling in fear.
Josh snaps out of his trance, breathing heavily. Tyler furrows his eyes in concern and takes Josh's cold hand in his. "Josh? Josh are you okay?" Josh shakes his head quickly, stumbling out of the bed. "No, no...My friends, they're—" Tyler's eyes grow wide. "They're in danger," he finishes for him.
"I need to help them."
"We'll help them."
