S L O W T O W N

Alone

The deck had been all but smoked and Josh was left with one cigarette, knowing he had to go buy more today.

He makes a trip to the local corner store before starting his daily mail route, wondering if he could get away with a few hours spent with Tyler.

Before he can even leave his house he feels his mothers presence and knows he's not going to get away with anything.

She firmly tells him to be back before dark and with a heavy sigh and no argument, Josh complies and begins his journey in the outside world, head filled with determination that he won't be asked for ID today and Tyler.

He's stopped a few times by his old  deliverees and makes light conversation from what they try to strike up.

With a fresh packet of cigarettes in his pocket, Josh makes his way to Tyler's, and once he gets there, Tyler is no where to be found.

The sun burns bright at midday so Josh is confused, Tyler isn't the type to sleep in, so where could be?

Tyler had waited for Josh for the past couple of days, and the joy Josh felt everytime he saw Tyler sitting on the wooden veranda flooded his body.

But today, Tyler was not there, so Josh turns tail and decides to head home, like his mother wanted.

Tyler however, was there and watching intently as Josh skated quickly away from his house, standing on the toilet looking out the upstairs bathroom window. He waited until Josh had finally left the street before he let out a breath he was unaware he was holding and jumped down off the toilet lid.

With a quick glance in the mirror, Tyler does a double take. One completely bloodshot eye surrounded by a bruise.

"Probably shouldn't slam your head into things when you get frustrated," they whisper and Tyler growls, ignoring whatever they tell him.

He heads downstairs and walks out the front to get the mail, stopping to check what was what and who it was for.

One for his mother, a bill, another bill, Tyler sighed.

With a quick spin on his heel Tyler skips back up into the house, stopping to throw the letter for his mother into the garden.

"You'll have to pay them, people will know,"

"Yeah Tyler they'll be suspicious,"

"We know you know they're not coming back,"

Being bombarded by threats was not something Tyler expected as soon as he stepped foot in his front door.

Why were they yelling? He could pay a bill, there was no need.

He wished they would stop yet all he could do was ignore them, they would never stop.

Tyler flops down on the couch on the spot where Josh had sat, and he curls up, and he cries.

He lived his whole life listening to the walls, Tyler wished for once they would be quite. Being trapped here and never officially seeing what it was like beyond his garden had drove him into a sort of madness, one Tyler wished would leave him alone.

Tyler was never sure when He had come into play, when he had officially come and stayed. Memory fragments of Him only played in his strange head.

He would always come and go, his parents concerned when they would walk in on Tyler speaking to the walls, playing ukulele for someone who wasn't there.

Over the years Tyler became more and more eccentric with his art, an the way he spoke. He became quieter, fearing he wouldn't even be heard over the screaming.

He drew what he saw everyday, the shapes, the colours, Him.

When Tyler has started to draw Him that was when his parents took him from a regular school and bound him to the house.

And so with these memories dancing on his conscious, Tyler dreams of a spaceship, and a strange person coming to take him away, he looks like an astronaut, he sees what it's like outside of his four walls, there were so many lights, all different colours and Tyler is smiling now, he's happy now. He wonders who this strange person was until he hears a knock on his door. He bolts up, hair tousled, eyes drowsy.

One painfully obviously blackened now.

He heads towards it and when he looks through the peep hole, Josh is standing and waiting for him.

He had slept an entire day not realising but he didn't even care, Josh was here.

Josh was here to save him again.

He swings open the front door with a tiny smile.

"Hello Josh,"