sequel to Stay in Place (Sing a Chorus). the Forest fic. i'm not the original author by the way. this is a fanfiction of a fanfiction.
trigger warning: self-harm, suicide, depression, child abuse, death
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Josh...
Josh ditches school the next day. He doesn't even walk on the campus, just heads straight to the forest after taking Jordan to school.
He wanders around for a while, then remembers Tyler has an appointment with Dr. Paulson today. He doesn't know when Tyler will be done, but he goes to Tyler's house to wait. Tyler's window is unlocked, so Josh goes in. He looks around the room. He hasn't been in here for a while. It's always been the forest or Josh's house.
Josh wonders for a second how Tyler knows where he lives. Then he realizes Tyler probably followed him home at one point. That's how Josh found Tyler's house.
Josh hears someone coming and moves into the closet. It smells... green-blue-fuchsia.
The door is opened and closed. The bed squeaks like someone sat down on it.
Josh pokes his head out.
The woman on the bed is not Tyler. She stares at him, shocked, with blue-orange-red eyes.
He stares at her as well.
"Who are you?" she demands.
Josh recognizes her voice to be that of Tyler's mother. "Where is Tyler?"
Her eyes turn black-blue-white, something he recognizes. "You're that boy from the funeral," she realizes.
The funeral was so long ago. It's almost as if Josh had forgotten it. Josh steps out of the closet. "Where is Tyler?"
"Josh?" she asks.
"Where is Tyler?" Josh's voice rises in volume.
"What?"
"Where is Tyler?" Josh demands.
"You were at the funeral..." she protests, confused. Her face is too purple-blue.
"Where is Tyler?" Josh repeats, feeling blacker-than-black take over his brain.
"You were at his funeral. He's dead."
Josh knows she's wrong. He talked to Tyler last night. Tyler isn't dead. Tyler wasn't in the coffin. Tyler is alive. "YOU'RE WRONG," Josh screams at her. She looks fearfully at him. All orange-green-purple-blue. "TYLER IS STILL ALIVE!"
He clambers back out the window and runs into the forest. He runs straight to his house and into his room. Maybe that's where Tyler is. He throws the sheets on his bed around, then checks the closet, looks under the bed, all around his room. Tyler isn't there.
Josh glances at the window.
A lighter sits there. A lighter with the plastic slightly blackened and melted. A lighter that should be black-purple-green-red-grass-treehouse-fire.
He gave the lighter to Tyler. Tyler wouldn't have left it there. Why is it there?
Josh grabs the lighter and jumps back out. He goes to the treehouse tree and sits under it, waiting. He's going to wait forever and ever until Tyler comes.
He stares at the ground, remembering how Tyler would rip up the leaves. He remembers the tone of Tyler's voice. It holds so many colors Josh can't name them all.
Josh checks his watch absentmindedly.
S***. He should have picked Jordan up two hours ago.
He jumps up. As an afterthought, he drops the lighter to the ground. If Tyler comes and sees it, he'll know Josh was there. He'll know. Tyler always knows.
Josh runs for his brother's school. He doesn't see him, so he goes to the office. "Where's my brother?"
The lady recognizes him, giving a yellow-blue smile that's not green. "We had to call your mother to come get him. Were you kept at school for a little extra time?"
"Yeah. Sorry." He runs out of the building and back home.
His dad is there. He immediately moves between his dad and Jordan without even thinking about it. It gets his dad angry, just like everything else does. Josh takes it all. Tears pouring down; red-purple curses, green insults, and black fists flying at him; white and black mixing with grey; blue screaming from every pore; but over everything sits the blacker-than-black.
Josh has lost all his tears. Lost all the colors. Lost his sanity. White means insane. Blacker-than-black for the pain.
Josh doesn't know what he's saying, what he's doing, until there is blood under his fingernails and in his mouth. His dad throws him into the door, ordering him out of the house. Josh obeys, abandoning everything. He reaches the forest and lies there, the lighter beside him.
"Tyler," he wheezes to the sky.
"Tyler," he breathes.
"Tyler," he whispers.
"Tyler," he chokes.
"Tyler," he says.
"Tyler," he says to the ground
"Tyler," he says to the tree.
"TYLER," he says to the forest.
"TYLER," he calls.
"TYLER," he yells.
"TYLER," he screams. "TYLER!"
He doesn't wait for an answer. "TYLER! TYLER! TYLER! TYLER!" It's all he can scream. "TYLER!" He knows he needs to tell Tyler why. "TYLER, I NEED YOU! I NEED YOU TO BE REAL! I NEED YOU TO BE ALIVE! I NEED YOU RIGHT NOW!" Josh hears no response and keeps screaming. "I KNOW YOU'RE REAL! YOU'RE REAL! I NEED YOU RIGHT NOW! PLEASE COME HERE! PLEASE! I NEED YOU!" His voice cracks. "Tyler."
He spends the night, occasionally screaming for Tyler until his voice is hoarse and his eyes feel swollen. His body aches. His heart aches.
Everything is empty-white and blacker-than-black. Tyler isn't there. He's gone. He's gone.
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