Sincerely, Tyler ▸ (Sequel to Dear, Rosemary)

8

Rose stirred in the sheets beside me, a matter of getting comfortable.

My eyes darted to the clock, '3:57 a.m'

I was afraid to sleep. If he'd come back into my dreams I wouldn't know what to do, especially after our talk last night about Rose.

He knew I wouldn't do it, resulting in him keeping me up instead, but I had given up this fight to sleep.

I needed some fresh air.

Carefully grabbing the corner of the comforter, I slipped out of the bed and towards the door. Rose was a light sleeper, but it was because of me that she had become like that.

When we first met, a tornado sweeping up the old flat wouldn't even wake her. Now, however, with my nightly outbursts and nightmares, she's up as quick as the speed of light. Maybe Rose was too good for me...

As my fingers gently turned the metal door knob, I sneakily crept out of the room and into the kitchen. Pouring myself a glass of water, the treehouse outside had caught my attention.

"It's a good distraction for you," Rose had said.

Leaving the glass in the sink, I maneuvered my way towards the front door where my Vans laid messily. I needed a distraction.

The tools were already sitting outside and nobody was awake, which would allow me some time to really try and overcome him. I couldn't let him run me. Josh was right, if I gave in, it would be the end for me.

Last time...last time was just too much for me to bare. The amount of times I would be caught - never mind, I couldn't think about the last time. I needed to think about this moment, right now, and how I was going to be strong.

Josh and I had left off installing the walls, so I decided to continue with that.

"You couldn't possibly think it would be this easy to get rid of me, could you?"

I chose to ignore him, nailing the walls to the frame work. Perhaps if I said nothing, he would understand that I couldn't care less about his words. Either way, he'd still remain incredulous.

As I climbed further up onto the platform to get a steady view of the walls, I'd dropped hammer tucked away into my arm, onto the grass.

I sighed, feeling my once content energy for this being drained. I slowly reached my arm out to try and retrieve it.

"You can't do anything right. Without Josh's help, you're just a good-for-nothing, selfish being."

I'd retrieve the hammer and roughly began to nail in the rest of the boards. Don't let him get to you Tyler.

"You're a fool, Tyler. Thinking I won't get to you is naive and reckless."

I hammered harder.

"Although this is quite entertaining, giving up would be the best solution for me to leave."

My arm ached as I continued to hammer and hammer.

"GIVE UP TYLER!"

And the hammer hit my fingers forcibly, the corners of my nails bleeding out.

I threw the tool away from me, across the backyard in anger, "Fuck!"

I cursed at him, and began to fling more of the tools away from me, "I hate you! I hate you so fucking much!" I cried out.

During my outburst, I'd just kicked a wooden board down from the platform, and in the midst I had lost footing of my own. I tumbled down to the ground, landing harshly onto my back.