Hey, everybody, sorry it's been a while. It's been a rather interesting week.

Anyway. Here's the chapter, I hope you like it! We're letting Tyler out for the first time, and things are about to change...

Day 132:

"Hey," Tyler whispers, shaking. The glass opens, separating the only barrier between the two of you.

"Okay," he says, moving slowly with his hands up. Your whole world seems to turn a shade of blue, your body shaking so hard you think you're going to fall over.

Is this the part where he kills you? Your eyes dart over his face for any sign of the gray, stretching skin.

He walks over slowly, holding his hands up still, crossing the barrier into the concrete room. His eyes flick up to the door, then back to you.

He stands just in front of you, so close you think he must hear your hummingbird-fast heart or the breath that snags on the raw terror in your throat.

His hand slips into yours, a warm brush of his skin on yours, and his other comes to rest on the silk covering your hip, warmth bleeding through to your thigh.

"This was a mistake," he says, and it's like your worst fears are confirmed, crashing down like dystopian nightmare fuel.

Your breath shudders in your throat, and you back up against the wall. "Then get it over with, then," you whisper, the words barely escaping your frozen throat. You think of his claws, and you think about running, about sprinting away.

"USOAT won't forgive you for this," he says, guiding you back, closer to him, hips bumping into each other. You stumble off balance, hands catching on his shoulders for balance, eyes flicking in terror around the room.

He squints at you. "Are you okay?" He asks, and you can't respond, the panic crushing you in deep, ocean waves.

A thumb brushes back your hair. "I'm not going to kill you, if that's what you're thinking," he says softly.

At least not until we're on the deck and he can escape, you can't help but think.

He's so close to you for the first time in months, but you barely notice as you take his warm hand, leading him through your living room, past the door, and the stairs leading to the deck.

He stops as you open the door to the outside, the metal creaking on his hinges. His eyes widen as light spills across his face, and then he closes them with a smile. "Sunlight," he says, the word filled with awe and craving.

You feel a pang of sadness in your chest. He hasn't been outside or seen any nonsterile light in months.

"There's more up there," you tell him softly, pointing up the stairs to the small square of sky that will explode into the Bubble's deck and the view of the infinite sea.

"I know," he mumbles, eyes opening again. "And you're... you're sure you want to bring me up there?"

You don't answer, putting his hand to your chest. "Come on."

The two of you hike up the stairs, and then there, at the top, your head bursts through the square of sky into the marvelous purple sunset, clouds dappled with fiery orange and royal purple in every shade imaginable. The ocean runs for miles and miles in dark blue waves, sparkling with reflections of the light like stars upon its coat.

There's a gasp behind you, and you turn to find Tyler staring ahead, eyes wide as he takes it all in, breathless. He turns around slowly, and you drop his hand so he can see it all.

A gentle wind rushes by, salty fingers of it combing through your hair and his. He lifts his hands to his hair, stretching out out to catch the wind flying through his outstretched fingers.

"Y/N," he says, turning to you. Then he walks over to you, picking you up and swinging you around. "Y/N!" You land, giggling with shock, in his arms, and his lips hook onto the little scars in your neck. "Thank you. Thank you, Warden."

You breathe in his coffee scent, and the two of you stay there like that for a while, his arms wrapped around you from behind as you watch the golden sunset fading to lavender.

"I had forgotten what the sky looked like," he confesses to you in words barely a breath, his arms still wrapped around you. "It's beautiful, Warden."

"I wanted you to see it," you say, and it kind of sounds lame when you say it like that, but Tyler puts his lips to your neck again, and, if anything, holds you tighter.

The night grows colder, the chilly wind sending goose bumps up your legs, and you lean into Tyler, watching the midnight ocean and it's choppy black foam, the first few stars winking into existence as the night falls.

Tyler sighs, a deep sound. "I should go back," he says, like the words tear his very skin. "I don't want you to get in trouble, and we've been out for a while."

"Don't worry about me," you say softly. "This is for you, Tyler."

You carefully disentangle yourself from him, walking over to the edge of the Bubble and dipping your hand into the sleek, cold waves. "Here," you say. "Touch the ocean. Feel how cold it is."

He comes up beside you and slips his hand under the waves, then the other, a disbelieving smile coming to his lips. "It's freezing," he says, then bursts out laughing. "It's so cold."

You stay there like that for a while, laughing and talking in the birth of the clear, northern night, until it's dark and the two of you go back inside.

You light your candles, the air that usually seemed hot and repressive suddenly romantic. "They have cameras here," you tell him as we walk back down to his cage. "I looped them on yours, so we'll be good."

He takes your hand before you lock him in, twining his fingers around yours. "I can't believe how soon you're going to Paris," he exhales.

"Me neither," you confess, blushing a little under the candlelight. You can't say too much- you don't want the bodycam to pick it up, after all- but you want more than anything for him to know that you care. "I'll beg them to let me come visit you. And I'll let you out again, before I have to go."

His arms snake around your body and pull you close. "Thanks, Y/N," he says quietly. Then: "I... I love you."

The words are heavy, like he's been carrying them for a while, and you find yourself, smiling, beaming, giddy to be alive and to be loved by your monster, by your beautiful Hyde, your Tyler.

You lean into him- and you'll edit this part out, you assure yourself- and he kisses you, slow and sweet, on the lips. You kiss back, holding onto him, and his hands hold your back, heat from them slipping into your silk pajamas. I smile, eyes still closed, and he pulls back, stepping back into his cage with a laughing smile.

"Goodnight, Y/N," he says, smiling at you as you hit the button that seals him back in again.

"Goodnight, Tyler," you say back, signing at the memory of his soft lips on yours. Once the glass is fully closed, you take off the body cam and hit the button that stops it recording. "And I have good news."

"What's that?" Tyler asks, squinting.

"It's a body cam," you tell him, flushing. "And I just got concrete evidence that you weren't going to attack me to escape. It's evidence that you're safe now. It's... it's evidence my father died trying to collect."

But you didn't die. The smile comes across your face, giddy. "It means I'm going to edit it, show it to USOAT, and under the Outsider Act, they have to-"

"Let me go," Tyler repeated, breathing out the words, stunned. "They're going to let me go," he repeats, exhaling, letting out a small laugh.

I nodded, beaming. "We're going to get you free. You're going to be safe."

"We're going to be safe," Tyler says, and he pushes his forehead to the glass like he can barely believe it. "I'll get to see my father again." He looks up at you. "I'm going to apologize," he says, eyes darting like he has all these plans to make. "And... and I'm going to visit Mom's grave."

You nod, smiling at him, and the two of you spend the rest of the night laughing.

It will be good, you are sure, heat swelling in your chest. You and Tyler will be free.

***

The next morning, you text Aliyah all about it, and she can barely believe her ears. She thinks you're crazy, but maybe you were right, and you splice together the footage, minus all the romantic parts.

Then you find the right board member to target. Then you send it in, along with your father's words.

According to the 2011 Outsider Act...