A FRACTURE IN THE CONSCIOUSNESS ✓

TYLER

Tyler couldn't see nor breathe when he made it out of the police station. All he remembered was the plan he and Spencer had created if he were ever captured, and as his mind tried to catch up with his body, muscle memory took over.

Spencer was supposed to turn himself in after twenty four hours, which was when Tyler knew he'd be put in the holding cells. After they were both arrested, Spencer would inject Tyler with a non fatal dose of demerol to send him into cardiac arrest. Tyler was responsible for getting himself out of the hospital while Spencer escaped from the police station.

Unfortunately, he didn't calculate just how pissed off his team would be, as they held him in the interrogation room a lot longer than he'd anticipated. And he surely didn't think there'd send Josh out to be the one to interrogate him.

So he went with their badly established plan b: Tyler would break himself out of the prison while Spencer distracted the guards, and he'd get himself out of the hospital. They could do that. It wasn't the hardest ruse they'd pulled off together.

But that didn't matter now. All that Tyler could do was get himself somewhere safe from the police while he tried to justify why Jenna could've choked him out that easily.

He couldn't even imagine how embarrassed he would've been if he'd been conscious. There was nothing to be embarrassed about really. She'd always been stronger than him, but he was smarter and shouldn't have let her get the jump on him.

Tyler went into a sketchy grocery store and bought a pack of cigarettes, a pack of water bottles, chips ahoys, and two bars of dark chocolate. He stole a bottle of hair bleach, scissors, and a shaving razor so it didn't look too suspicious.

The clerk, who as sixteen at the oldest, didn't even bat an eye at him until Tyler approached the counter, setting down his shopping basket down with a heavy thud. His face, which was mostly disinterest and annoyance, went pale when he saw saw Tyler's.

Most strangers got spooked from his scarred and somewhat aggressive appearance. Or maybe he just radiated hostility wherever he went now. Either way, Tyler liked people being afraid of him. It made him feel powerful.

"That, uh, that'll be 15.47," the boy's voice shook as he spoke, bug eyed and nervous.

Tyler pulled out a twenty from the wallet he'd stolen off a pair bench, tossed it to the boy, and grabbed the plastic bag that held what he bought. "Keep the change, pal." He sent the boy the cruelest smile he could muster, leaving without another word.

Somewhere off the main roads was an abandoned motel that Tyler and Spencer had planned to meet at once they escaped. When he found it hidden under vines and overgrown grass, he wriggled through the half boarded front doors, landing in what must've once been the main lobby. Tyler pulled himself to his hands and knees, not having the strength to stand, and and stumbled behind the counter. He blindly tore open the cookie package and beginning to chomp down.

Hopefully by the time the search party started, he would be nowhere near them. Tyler just needed to get his strength up and wait for Spencer. Once he got three, they'd hop from abandoned building to abandoned building until their grand escape to Canada. Cliche, he knew, but effective nonetheless. And the only plan they came up with that didn't end with someone else dying.

Something clinked down the hall. He looked out the corner of his eye, seeing nothing.

"Brendon?" Tyler called out, have expecting him to answer.

All he heard was small whirs of a drill and the pops of electric sparks, but nothing more. No more whispers, no more voices. Just silence in his head, the only voice bouncing around being his own.

For some reason, that was scarier.

Tyler sighed when no one answered and opened one of the water bottles, staring blankly at the rotting wallpaper in front of him while he chugged. He could see something that he couldn't quite make out, like small handprints on the walls. If he just reached forward, he could touch them-

The emergency phone he stored under the counter rang. The number was unknown. Tyler picked it up, expecting it to be Spencer.

"Ty?"

Josh's voice cut through Tyler like a serrated blade, making him lose his breathe for a moment. He crushed the empty water bottle in his hand.

"Ty, what are you doing?" He sounded upset, more upset than he had in the interrogation room. "Why are you running?"

"Joshie, you don't understand. I have no choice. I need to keep going. I need to make them pay. They have done nothing but hurt others, it's what they deserve. They're monsters."

"But you're a killer now. You enjoy killing. You love the feeling of blood on your hands. What does that make you?"

Josh was right. Tyler was a killer, and that meant he was just as evil as the ones he killed. His wheezing breath started to take form of a cackle. "I'm a monster too. I always had a feeling that there was something wrong with me, something rotten, even as a kid, and now I know why. I'm just as bad. I'm just as evil."

"So why are you running from us? Don't all monsters deserve to be killed?"

"They do." Tyler started to laugh louder. "But I'm just too clever."

When there was no response, he looked down at the phone. The screen was black, like he never turned it on. Curiously, Tyler turned it over. No batteries.

He set the phone down beside him, still laughing, and let his exhaustion take him over.