NOTE:
This chapter is rather explicit, be careful, take care of yourself!
TRIGGER WARNINGS: mentions of suicide, graphic violence and vomit.
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"Breaking news; two bodies have been found in a lake in Columbus, Ohio, They have been identified as Chris Salih and Mark Eshlemen. They were discovered early this morning as a local dog walker found a burning car nearby the lake, the car was owned by Mark."
Tyler's mother turned off the TV and turned to him "Oh, Tyler, I'm so sorry." Tyler gulps and grips his throat "It's fine." His voice cracks. He turns to see his younger sister and brothers staring at him, he can feel their sympathetic eyes stab into him. "I need to be by myself, I'm sorry." He grips his throat, the lump in his throat makes him choke and his voice weakens.
He drops onto his bed and grips onto the covers, using them to lower the sound of his crying. Suddenly it feels as if the whole world is against him, they will soon find out it was him and everyone will leave him for the monster he is. At the moment it will be constant sympathy for him, to which he despises, he doesn't want the sympathy for his friends, especially the friends he killed.
"I don't deserve the sympathy." He sighs, wiping his tears and taking a deep breath.
"They know it was you."
"I know."
"They know it was you, they know it was you, THEY KNOW IT WAS YOU!"
"Can you just sto-" He's interrupted by his phone ringing.
"Tyler?" It's Mark's girlfriend, Ruby, she's crying.
"Good."
Tyler shakes his head violently.
"Hi, Ruby, I'm sorry about Mark." He sighs. "How are you doing? I figured you must be taking this quite badly, I wanted to check up on you." She laughs awkwardly; it made Tyler cringe, more sympathy.
"It's been a rough morning, I guess, I was going to come over later and check up on you." Tyler cringed at his lie.
"You can come over anytime; I guess we could both use the company today?"
-
Tyler decided to go to Ruby's and at least act like he's going to give some form of sympathy. As soon as she opens the door she throws herself into a hug, Tyler hesitantly wraps his arms around her. "I've been trying to work it out." She says, still buried in Tyler's neck. "Work out what?" He pulls away "The case!" Tyler grips his neck "Why? The police are doing the best they can, we shouldn't interfere."
Ruby runs up to her room to grab the scrapbook of memories she made a while ago, Tyler helps himself to the couch. She comes back with a messy scrapbook filled with photos, movie tickets, concert tickets, plane tickets and Disney passes from the time they all went to Florida for a week in the summer. Tyler hovers his hand over a photo of him and Chris, they looked so much happier. Tyler was happier then, his head wasn't infested, he could think a little more clearly. "I just don't understand why it had to be them two." She sighs, Tyler felt the lump in his throat.
"They said it could be a murder suicide, like, Mark killed Chris then eventually himself."
Tyler gulps.
"I know that's not true, Mark would never hurt anyone or himself, it's just not him."
Tyler tries to swallow the lump in his throat "So, they think it's Mark?"
