Just A Chemical || Joshler //

Chapter 4 ~ Hurt

||Tyler||

My cheek, where he hit me, stings warmly. 

I want to ask him to slap me again, harder. The pain feels good.

"Tyler, we've talked about this. You can't do that anymore, not after last time!"

The man shoves me against the wall hard. My arms lash out, saving me from hitting my head against the wall. My legs tremble. I didn't want to upset him, not after last time. Last time, there was pain everywhere. In my bones, in my head, and I hurt everyone around me too. I didn't want to hurt more people. I deserved the pain. Only me.

"I-I'm sorry Keons, just-" 

"Just WHAT?!" The man in the red cloak screams. "Tell me Tyler, what do you want me to say to the other Bishops? There's no excuse, NO EXCUSE!"

Keons pushes over a vase of roses. It shatters on the ground. The petals wash up against my feet.

A knock on the door interrupts the conversation between Keons and I. Another red cloaked man appears in the doorway.

Nico.

"Hello Tyler," he says calmly, spitting out my name like it's fire. He steps over the broken pottery, ignoring it as if it was never there.

"I've heard you've been bad lately, and you very well know what we do to bad people here, don't you?"

Nico stepped closer to me. I could feel his power, taste it in my mouth. It tasted like blood, tears, sadness, misery, the very definition of pain. 

"You...you make them feel bad, right?" I whimpered.

"Why don't you show me your friend, Tyler?" Nico said, tilting his head, observing every bit about me.

My eyes widened. I didn't want Josh to be on the Bishop's watch list. They would hurt him, leave scars on the inside, scars you can't hide. He would be marked out from society forever.

I walked to my bedroom door, pushing it open to reveal Josh, snoring quietly under the collapsed blankets and pillows. His chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm. I seriously wanted to cuddle him, he looked so cute.

Nico closed it, leaving it open a crack. He rubbed his fingers, snapped them a few times, clapped once. He was warming up.  "Now you know what comes next, right?" he said with a sinister grin. 

I nodded once. My heart felt like running to Josh, yelling, leaving this awful place, and having a life free of pain. My head made me stay in place, stay in my apartment, stay in Dema, stay with the Bishops. Stay here.

Nico's fingertips went dark.

"Stay with me" a voice in my head shouted desperately. My voice, shouting desprately.

n i co wra pped his fing ers a r ou nd m y ne c k