Found

Chapter Ten: The Darkside of Joshua

Josh couldn't have helped with this attack. He wouldn't do this. Or would he? I think to myself, still unconscious. Josh does have a dark side, I remember it from when we were in my house, his eyes looked exactly like they did then in that room. I don't want to believe that Josh has gone bad. Everyone has a dark side, I'm hoping that this is Josh's and that it will go away. With my help, hopefully, he'll let me.

I wake with a huge headache. I'm strapped to a chair in a glass cell. The room that I can see through the glass is black. I hear a door open and close in the distance.

"Whose there?" I ask. A figure appears in the light of the cage. It's Josh. "Josh! Are you okay? Who's doing this to you?"

Josh still has soulless eyes. "Nobody's doing this to me. I have my own free will."

"Josh, I know you're in there. Please help me out of this chair."

"Stop talking, I was sent in here to ask you some questions. So, let's get started."

"I'm not talking to you, I'm talking to the good Josh, the one I fell in love with, the one I would do anything for."

"STOP TALKING!" Josh yells. "Question number one: What is your name?"

"You know my name." I say, annoyed.

"I'm not afraid to hurt you to get answers. Now answer the question, or we can do this the hard way... What is your name?" Josh asks again.

I stay speechless, I'm not doing this. The next thing I know he presses a button on a podium full of buttons and the straps around my body send a shock through me. It feels like someone just stuck a thousand needles into my body.

"Raven Harper, my name is Raven Harper!" I shout wanting the pain to stop.

"Good, we're getting somewhere." Josh says. "Why do you stay with Joshua, what made you stay with him after all you've been through?"

"Because after a little while, I learned to trust him, and I fell in love. He has such a great soul and is such a great person. He stayed with me through the toughest of times. The least I can do is stick with him." I say emotionally. I start to tear up thinking of all Josh has done for me, how many times he's saved my life. Now he's shocking the answers out of me with torture. I'm struggling very hard to keep the thought that this is not Josh in my mind. That this is his dark side and that he can be saved. The only problem is, he doesn't seem to want to be saved.

For a split second, I get a glimpse of Josh's eyes and I see something I never imagine I would be so happy to see, humanity. Color instead of a soulless black pit. I see Joshua, my Joshua. His hands shake and tremor while on the buttons that are controlling the contraption that is torturing the love of his life.

"Josh!" I shout, trying to reach out to the deepest parts of him. But he turns back, back into the part of him that I'm afraid of.

"Question number three: When you were brought here, where did we take you from, where were you headed?"

"We were headed back to our camp when we were put into the simulation, but we were just having fun with each other when you turned into the you you are now."

Josh shocks me again and I beg for the pain to stop.

"Why are you doing this?! I answered the question(s)!" I scream.

"You didn't answer them honestly." Josh says.

"I did, honest! Please stop the torture! I'm begging you!" I shout in pain.

"I'll stop the torture when you give me the answers I need."

"Fine. What else do you want to know?" I ask, scared of the pain that he could inflict on me. I'm still struggling to keep the thought that this isn't Josh. But I still love him with all my heart like I always will, no matter how bad his dark side is.