this message is to the four people that read my story
I appreciate u <3

🧚‍♂️

The next day, Josh wakes up differently.

He had another dream, it was worse than the other.

Josh was in Tylers room, except it was already pink and everything seemed fine and put together. Josh was standing at the doorway. Tyler walks through him, with tape and candles in his thin little arms.

Josh watches Tyler place all the items on the floor of his bedroom, smiling as he hummed a song, picking up the tape he starts creating a circle in his bedroom. It's large too. Then Tyler puts lines in the middle, Josh can't make out what it is but then the small boy is lighting six candles and placing them neatly around the circle.

Josh's eyes widen, before he can even get really scared, Tylers little fingers are placing the planchette on the board. It frantically moves around the ouija board, without any of Tylers fingers on it, at such a fast pace Josh can't figure out what it spelled. The flames grow large and the candles begin to shake, the tape catches on fire but it doesn't burn Tyler, Tyler doesn't even budge as he whispers over and over something he doesn't understand.

"Vindicta, vindicta, vindicta..." (Revenge, revenge, revenge...)

Everything stops suddenly. There's a smog of cloud that appears on one of Tylers walls. What josh sees next makes him scream.

It's his father, but hes missing limbs, he's bleeding and screaming and it looks like he's being tortured over and over. Josh screams so loud Tylers head turns suddenly, his eyes dark and angry.

"Tibi." (For you.)

He wakes up suddenly, and catches himself before he can fly off his bed. His heart races and feels like it's begging to break past his ribs.

"Fuck." He mumbles. "Shit."
Josh knows, maybe he doesn't accept it, but he knows something is fucked up with Tyler. He knows something is wrong and something bad is going to happen to him. Or maybe to Tyler. Josh just knows he needs to talk to him. He can't keep having dreams, or whatever the fuck they are, he can't keep having them.

What makes him feel sick, is when Josh goes into the bathroom and looks in the mirror, no damage on his nose. He touches it too, rubs it, there's no pain. Josh starts hyperventilating. Grips the edge of the sink so hard his fingers might break. He splashed water in his face until he feels like he washed away the truth, washed away every thought of Tyler being something peculiar, different, evil.

Little innocent cute Tyler? Evil?

Josh can't believe it.

Pushing the image of his father bloodied up, he pulls himself out of the bathroom and throws on some jeans and a breezy Hawaiian shirt Marie brought him from her trip to Hawaii.

When josh is in the kitchen he eats his cereal quickly, in a rush to be extra early to Tylers house, he hoped they could talk a little before leaving. There's so many questions and so many answers that are going to be fucked up. The flying? What was that about? The petals? His healing hands? The fact that Josh suddenly "passed out"? Yeah that was bullshit. Josh passed out as a kid because he never ate shit, he's better now, this is different. He knows he looks like an idiot but he isn't, Josh is observant and he notices things.

He's going to ask him.

"G'mornin Joooosh." Marie yawns, opens the fridge and bends over while she searches for orange juice. "You have any plans for toda-"

"Can I have ten dollars?" Josh interrupts, quickly washing his bowl of cereal.

"Uh." Marie clears her throat. "I mean, sure, you can have twenty if you-"

"Thanks!" Josh shouts and grabs Marie's wallet from the counter, pulls out a twenty, and runs downstairs and out the door.

"Josh! Christ!"

The sun is scorching by the time he gets to Tylers big pink home, his bike takes a few second to haul, noticing the numerous flowers growing in the front lawn, some overgrown and cluttered. Josh swears they weren't there before.

Pulling his blue bike to lean against the wooden gate, Josh looks up at the second floor where Tylers bedroom is suppose to be.

Josh thinks, what's he gonna say when he sees him? Should he be sweet? Tylers probably going to end up hearing some rumor sooner or later about josh being a troubled child. Or maybe about his parents... Josh shakes his head, he knows Nancy is going to say some shit to Tyler that's gonna be either mean or ruin his chances with the boy. The last time josh had a decent friend was probably third grade, it was the damn lunch lady too! That's pathetic.

"Are ya just gonna stand there like a weirdo? I swear Josh. This weirdo phase is getting out of hand."
There's a delightful giggle, like an angelic harmony in the clouds. Josh looks around and doesn't see Tyler, nearly trips over the wheel of his bike he hears the giggle again.
"Up here, silly!"

Josh looks up. There is his, the window is pushed open as Tyler leans over the edge, he has a T-shirt on and he looks like he just got up. It nearly angers josh, how beautiful he can be all while looking sleepy.

"It's nine fifteen Josh."

Shit.  Embarrassment fills josh's chest, his enthusiasm to hang out with Tyler and smell his lavender perfume was mushed when he realized he was a while forty five minutes early. It makes him look too determined, too eager and clingy it makes him wish the world just snapped his neck. He should've just came late and that would've felt a lot better than Tyler giggling at him and making him feel like a loser with a crush.

"Josh?"

Josh looks up, he's about to apologize and explain he was just happy to see him. But instead he chokes up and stutters over his words, Tyler giggles and says one last thing before shutting his two glass windows.

"I'll be down in ten minutes."

Josh's mind goes ultra-panic-mode because one, is this a date? It's not. But is it? They're just hanging out and josh thinks he's going to hold his hand if they pay a visit to the creek, you know, safety purposes right? Not that Josh wants to feel Tylers cute little hand in his scarred up bigger ones. And he only brought the money for snacks, Incase Tyler gets hungry, Josh would buy him anything he wanted. As long as Tyler sits in his lap and just looks at him the way he did yesterday. That's enough to kill josh, that's enough to break him and leave him pink with fondness and adoration for such a adorable human being.

For a moment he doesn't think about the bad things Tyler might be.

When Tyler walks out with a yellow bike, Josh's soul nearly leaves his body. He concludes that Tyler wearing feminine clothes was going to be a regular thing. Josh has to get used to this, especially since he was planning on making Tyler his best friend, and not get so sweaty and awkward whenever he sees him, but Jesus Christ he wants to cry.

Josh stares, it's rude, or it looks rude but it's more like I'll die if I look away. Tylers body looks so perfect and it makes him afraid, especially for his safety and the fact that the whole town got pissed when josh wore pink converse in fifth grade. Tyler wearing this was something different, it was bold and different, new, something people hated in this town. Josh knows he'd be despised, looked down on, hurt, tormented.

Josh doesn't want that. He's not going to allow that. Especially since Tyler has this huge smile on his face outlines by the cutest pink hue of blush on his cheeks.

"Ya ready?"

"'M ready!"

"Then follow me."

Josh plans to take Tyler to three places. First, guide him through town and show him which stores were the best for what, explain spots and people to avoid since not everyone was so nice. He mainly wanted to show him the arcade.

Next he'd take him to the abandoned greenhouse amour two miles into the forest, Josh discovered it a long time ago and it's magical. He just knows Tyler would be the type of person to appreciate things like that. Josh can't name anyone else that would.

Lastly he was going to take him to the creek. Where daisies followed the streams of water infinitely.

"Joshua?" Tyler whines. "I'm tired already!"

"We're almost into town! Y-you're going to love it."

"Are you known for your perviness?"

"Tyler I'm going to push you off your bike."

"No you won't." Tyler smiles and speeds up. "If you do that then I'll just have to break your nose again!"

Josh glares. "You're impossible."

All Tyler does is laugh. It soon becomes a race, which leads to Tyler just giggling and josh having to reach over and grab one of Tylers handles to avoid him from falling. Tyler would roll his eyes and say he's fine. He feels like he knows why.

They stop and hide their bikes in a bush, Josh grabs Tylers hand because he knows it's the safest thing to do when people are ignorant and close minded. When josh looks big and tough, when he puts on his troubled self demeanor then people usually leave him alone.

"Whyre ya walking so dang fast!" Tyler hugs josh's arm and tries to keep up. People are looking at Tyler. Josh hears a lady call him a disgrace and he prays the angel didn't hear it.

"Because people like to snatch the peaches up. I want one, I don't know about you but I'm starving." Putting on a pained smile, he turns and walks into the tiny market. "You want anything? I'll buy it for you."

"Okay." Tyler crosses his arms over his chest and starts walking around curiously.

It's a few minutes later and Nancy walks in, just like she always does, she ruins everything and kills the moment of Josh trying to lift Tyler high enough to grab the marshmallows.
His skins is soft, like silk, and his laugh makes josh's arms burn and shake.

"Josh? I didn't know you had a sister!"

Nancy laughs, Tyler turns around, and he laughs but in a different way.

"Don't be silly, do me and josh look alike? He's white as heck and I'm probably the darkest tone in this tow-"

"I'm not that white!" Josh glares and pokes Tylers side, who squeaks and smacks him with the bag of marshmallows. Josh smiles again, wider, he looks so happy and infatuated with Tyler that it made Nancy angry.

"Are you a girl?"

Tyler stops laughing, but he's still smiling and blushing.

"Sure."

"I don't believe you." Nancy laughs, Tylers whole mood changes and his eyes don't look green and happy anymore, his cheeks lose color and there's this weird scary look in his pupils.

"Nancy." Josh interrupts while he stares at Tyler. "Why don't you-"

"Why don't you believe me?" Tyler cuts in.

Nancy rolls her eyes and looks Tyler up and down very obviously.
"You clearly are one of those gender freaks that has something going on. You don't look like a girl. You're a boy aren't you?"

"I guess." Tyler shrugs and squints. "I don't care if you call me a girl or a boy. I'm okay with either, that stuff doesn't matter to me."

Nancy grimaces. "What the hell is in between your legs?"

"Nancy!" Josh fumes. "What the hell has gotten into you?"

"I'm just saying, I mean, what the hell are you wearing? You do know you look ridiculous? I'm embarrassed for you, really."

Tyler drops the marshmallows into the basket beside his feet.
"You're obviously another one of those ignorant, miserable people that I've met in this town. So you're probably really stupid and slow, so let me break this down for you where you can understand. This is all probably really confusing to you and you think you're so superior and above me that you get to "humiliate" me, when in reality you just look stupid. Don't patronize me. You're not better than me because I'm different and new, clearly something you have a hard time accepting. And frankly, why should I tell you what's in between my legs? Do you really want to know that bad? Because Nancy, I'm really not interested, and ugly girls aren't my type, sorry."

Nancy's jaw drops, her face burns red and she watches Tyler pick up their basket and grab josh's hand. Taking him straight to the cash register where they pay.

Nancy says something angrily to josh, he doesn't remember since he was too concerned about Tylers little rant than to listen, but it was something along the lines of not defending her.

When they leave Tyler doesn't say a word, he just stuffs marshmallows in his face and looks at the ground. He knew he shouldn't have put it on. He should've just put on some jeans and a T-shirt or something. He should've thought it through and now he has one girl hating him, who obviously has a ginormous crush on josh, which is bad because Tyler can not let that happen.

Tylers about to cry and he doesn't even know it, there's tears clouding his visions and he suddenly wants to go home and never come out of his room again. This was a bad idea, he's probably embarrassing josh by dressing this way. Josh probably hates him now, he's such an idiot.

"Ty?" Josh whispers, an pulls him into a phone booth. "Whyre you crying?"

"Am i embarrassing you?" Tylers eyes are dark green, they're fading back to his normal color. "Do I look ridiculous?"

"Jesus Christ. No. You look wonderful. I think you look amazing!" Josh says, he wants to wipe the tears off his cheeks with his thumbs.

"I'm sorry I was so quiet, I was just shocked at what you said really. I didn't expect that from you. Nancy is a bitch. She's always been the worst girl in school and she's honestly the devil. I hate her. She shouldn't have said all of that shit to you." Josh thinks for a second before what he says next. "She's probably just jealous you're so beautiful."

Tyler laughs, wipes his tears on josh's shirt, Josh doesn't mind. He likes it.
When Tyler looks up at Josh, for a second he thinks he might kiss him, but instead Tyler nudges josh's lips with a pink marshmallow.
"They're tasty." He sniffs.

They end up skipping the arcade. Tyler has enough judgement for the day, Josh didn't want to risk having more people make him feel bad about who he is. And josh refused to let Tyler have a bad day, so they head straight to the creek where Tyler complains about being tired halfway there.

They find their souls during sunset, by a small creek of yellow and white daisies, outlining the soft streaming water of fish and birds and rabbits in tall grass.

They ride their bicycles alongside the creek for a while, josh explaining there was an abandoned canoe somewhere in the water he wanted them to sit on. Tyler though that was pretty sweet, so they biked for another minute or two and found the plastic red canoe.

"Ain't no way in hell im touching that shit-water, Josh."

"Ty! There's no crap in here! Come on, gimme your hand." Josh puts his hand out as he makes his way downhill to the creek. Tyler shrugs and takes his warm hand.

Josh tells him to step on the rocks he steps on so he won't slip, Tyler nods and clings onto him. He could use his powers to help them but Sam wanted him to practice not using them. She thought if he used them for everything he'd be corrupted by evil.

"Come on, sit here, hopefully there's no rats livin in here yet."

"What?" Tyler squeaks as josh pushes him down to sit, on the cobwebbed canoe.

"I'm kidding! You can't be scared of rats and bugs if you're gonna live here, those assholes are everywhere." Josh giggles and sits down. Admiring Tylers peachy sun kissed skin.

"I know, especially the rat part, since I'm looking right at one." Tyler giggles, and josh takes a moment to think before realizing he is the rodent.

"You're mean."

"And you're a pervy white boy."

"Suck it."

"Suck what?" Tyler bats his eyelashes and makes a face.

Josh glares at him and blushes. "You-you know what I m-mea- shut up!"

Tyler laughs loudly and leans over to graze his fingers in the water. He sees little shells and rocks in the water, lightly touching a brown leaf stuck in between two rocks, it turns a soft green.

"Hey josh?"

"Yeah?" Josh says.

"How dirty is this water? Like on a scale from chlamydia to Mr. Clean."

Josh snorts so hard it hurts, thinking for a moment. "It's like dog piss dirty."

"Hm." Tyler stands up and puts his feet in the water, with his shoes and everything, it's colder than he expected it to be. He then turns around to look at josh's shocked expression.

"Dog piss you say?" Tyler kicks his leg up, splashing water all over josh's face. And of course, some land in his mouth.

Josh coughs it up while Tyler holds his tummy and laughs, walking backwards from josh.

"You're dead!"

Tyler squeals and runs further down the creek, into the deeper end where it's hard moving fast when it was so cold and the water was streaming in the opposite direction.

Josh catches up and tackles Tyler, having them both fall over into the water on top of each other. Josh scrambled to get back up, onto for Tyler to push his head under water with a giggle.

They play around for a while. Tyler constantly pushing josh in the water and josh grabbing his waist and threatening to throw him in the mud. They laugh loudly, so loud that josh doesn't think about his mother.

"You're a motherfucker!" Tyler squeals, running out of the creek and up the grassy hill, shouting when three rabbits run out of a bush and into the grass fields.

"Says the boy that made me swallow ass water! What the dick was that about?!"

"Josh."

Josh stops walking and looks at Tyler, who's wide eyed and staring down the long road. He turns his head to look, and they see their bikes being taken away by two boys who are laughing.

"Fuck." He puts his hands in his hair.

It was Brad and Terran, obviously, since they hate josh's fucking guts.

"Do you know them?"

"Yup. And I know they're probably going to pop the tires and leave them in a ditch."

"That's lame." Tyler giggles and starts walking. "They should at least set them on fire."

Josh laughs at Tyler's oddity.

Their shoes make squishy noises as they walk, and Tyler tries catching bunnies but it's no use. Most of their walk Tyler talks about what the city was like, big and bright and boring. Josh thinks it weird that Tyler likes it here.

They're making their way to the abandoned greenhouse of amour, something that used to thrive, and now it's dead. Josh explains that he wishes the plants were all alive and well because his mother wanted to see the roses bloom so badly inside.

"I-is that it?" Tyler gapes at the view.

(A/n: pretend the roses + plants are dead thank u )

"Y-yeah. Do you like it?"

"I love it!" Tyler starts running towards the greenhouse.

"Tyler! Wait! You don't even know where the entrance is!"

"Catch me if ya can!"

Josh can only laugh and chase after Tyler, who's skinny enough to fit in between some of the poles which leads to josh having to run all the way around the greenhouse and inside.

Oddly, everything looks beautiful, the last time josh came here everything was brown and left to rot even more. Now it was slightly greener and flourishing with vines but all the flowers were still dead.

Josh walks up to one of the dead rose bushes, his eyes widening as he watched it bloom.

That's not normal.

"Josh?"

He spins so fast he nearly falls, Tylers standing there with an innocent look on his face, small petals in his hair, behind him he could see a blur of vines growing quickly, he can see fruit growing on trees and falling off their stems so quickly a small pile begins to form, and flowers overflowing in their pots.

"I... what's happening?"

Tyler doesn't answer him, instead he giggles.

"Ya look scared Josh. Whyre ya scared of a couple a flowers?"

Josh doesn't answer, a vine wraps around his ankle he jumps and nearly falls over, but there's a large succulent that grows far enough to help josh regain his balance.

"Tyler we need to talk about... this."

"I don't wanna talk." He pouts, gets down on his tummy as rolls on the grass. "Talking is boring."

"You said something to me and I blacked out and had a dream. You were there, so was your mom and your sister. You guys were in this room, and you had these powers. You made these roots grow so much and your eyes were black, you were so different and I just... i know it meant something. And then you fixed my nose! How did you do that? And I had another dream where you- you did something. M-my dad and you-"

"Shut up Josh." Tyler sits up, Josh moves so he's sitting next to him. "I'm sorry."

"No, no don't be I just, i need you to explain something to me."

"Okay." Tyler kisses josh's cheek. "I can do crazy stuff."

"I'm serious."

Tyler falls on his back, pouts, little miniature petals appear on his cheeks like freckles.

"I'm a witch, something like that, but don't be scared because I'm not a bad one. And I'll fix your dreams don't worry. I don't like talking about it. Can we play tag now?"

Josh is about to say something, but Tyler looks like he really doesn't want to talk about it. Somethings bothering him, it's obvious.

"Tag!"

"No! I don't wanna be it!"

"Too bad cutie pie!" Josh beams, runs from Tyler into a garden of roses.

There's a part of Tyler that wants to keep running towards josh, there's a part of him that feels like he doesn't have to chase the dream of being the most powerful thing on the planet. The way josh lets the unfamiliarities in his life in like a box of chocolates is enough to make Tyler want him, it's enough to have Tyler feeling like for once in his life, things could be good. He doesn't have to run away but instead he can run toward something. Maybe josh wasn't so bad. Maybe living here would be better than anything else in the world, better than become satans favorite, better than that stupid spell book he stole, better than anything tyler has ever wanted before.

Tylers heart, the second one, beats at the same rhythm as the first, and for a small second he feels like he's just a normal boy with another normal boy and he's having a normal day. He doesn't think about his murdered family, he doesn't think about how Samantha stares at walls and cries st night thinking about hell, he doesn't think about how people want him dead. He just thinks about josh, how he makes him feel on top of this world.

Hours later they find themselves laying on their backs, Tyler discarded his chunky sweater, his soft shoulders on display, while he begins showing josh how he can kill a flower and revive it.

"Ya see and if I do this." Tyler twirls his fingers in perfect circles. The rose petals start falling off and land on Tylers chest and neck. "They fall off, but if I do this."
He bends two fingers, the rose petals float up and back onto the rose, just like how it was before.

"Holy shit." Josh says, it makes Tyler giggle and roll over so he's laying on his chest. The boy really didn't understand boundaries or personal space, Josh wasn't going to complain though.

Tyler smiles at josh's interest in his abilities. "I'm practicing so I don't have to use my hands anymore."

"That's sweet." Josh says. "Can you do that with people?"

Tyler freezes a little, places the little flower down and sighs.

"S-sort of." He scoots up further so he's able to see josh's freckles. "Reviving a person has only been done once."

"O-oh, well, what happened?" Josh tilts his head and noticed the little pink petal blooding out of Tylers curl.

Tyler looks at him in his eyes, his green bulbs turn turquoise almost as his eyebrows sink down, something bothered him, some type of unwelcoming feeling in his stomach formed. The story of resurrecting a dead person had to do with his biological mother and his biological father, a story about fire and flowers and the want for tylers little second heart.

"Ill tell you another day." Tyler kisses josh's cheek. "How long do you think it'll take to count your freckles?"

Josh doesn't want to push him about it.
"Hm, maybe.. forever."

Tyler giggles and shrugs his shoulders, Josh likes how feminine and tiny he looked.

"M okay with that."

🌱

hope you all liked this chapter :)