day 360

3 months ago, tyler killed. he and josh killed a woman together. they kidnapped her, held her captive, and then butchered her. they cleaned her body and dumped her at the sign. they felt powerful.

3 months ago, a woman found the body and reported it to the authorities. they responded and identified the body to be a young woman named olivia elsher.

forensics examined her body. they routinely inspected her, down to every little detail to find anything to connect them to their killer.

there was nothing on her.

nothing on her body, that is. it was when the medical examiner absentmindedly shined his pen light behind her ear that something caught his eye.

the dark, almost brownish coating on the back of her earring. it was most likely rust he thought, as he gently collected the sample.

just in case.

now, 3 months later, after many sleepless nights for forensics, the homicide department, and the fbi the DNA sample for the blood scrapings taken from the back of Olivia Elshers earring came back;

as a match for 32 year old tyler robert joseph

this was big. this was something they needed to play smart, and take slowly.

they had their guy.

-

tyler's stomach dropped, his face turning hot as he listened to his police radio. he shut down, his eyes staring blankly as the sound of the lead detectives voice faded away.

"we are confident we have our killer. we are taking every step to ensure we do this right. joseph is our guy. if you have seen him recently or came in contact we ask that you please call......"

"tyler, t-tyler they cant know can they? we did everything right, we cleaned everything. tyler!" josh rambled and shook tyler, attempting to get his attention.

tyler slowly snapped out of his gaze, his hearing fading back in.

"hmm?" tyler asked.

"what are we gonna do?" josh asked quietly, tears filling his eyes.

"i don't know." tyler said blankly. josh's felt sick to his stomach. tyler always knew what to do.

"what do you mean? how do they have dna? it's not possible! how can they be so sure it's you? and how come they don't have mine?" josh said. his breathing picked up rapidly.

"we cleaned her. we cleaned her good. she shouldn't of had any dna on her. she didn't." tyler clenched his fists, nails digging into his palms. "we cleaned her." he kept repeating.

"we cleaned her. he cleaned her," tyler continued to mumble, staring at the coffee table in front of him as he thought. he clenched his teeth together. he wracked his brain through the night, remembering every detail.

he closed his eyes, able to rewatch the memories of killing, cleaning, and dumping her.

josh sat and cried, watching tyler and waiting for some type of response. he was scared.

tyler clenched his eyes shut harder, trying not to lose the picture in his mind.

tyler came around to his side and opened the back door. he grabbed the bag, grunting as he pulled it from the car and dropped it onto the ground.
he unzipped it, revealing the lifeless body of the young woman. he reached in to pick her up.
"ow," he yanked his hand back. "here, grab her feet." he said.

josh grabbed onto tyler's hand, gently squeezing it and tilting tyler's face towards him.

"please say something." josh whimpered.

tyler opened his eyes and looked into joshs. he gave a small smile before he leaned in to press a kiss to his lips.

"i love you joshua. no matter what happens." tyler says.

"tyler what is it!? you're scaring me." josh cried.

"her earring." tyler said.

"huh?" josh tilted his head.

"i reached in to pick her up and her earring poked my finger." tyler said.

"okay?" josh asked.

"her earring poked my finger, it fucking stabbed it and my finger bled. it was one fucking drop." tyler dropped his head in his hands. "it was just a drop! FUCK!"

"a stupid fucking mistake," tyler mumbled, grabbing his hair and pulling on the strands. "fuck!" he yelled, throwing his wine glass across the house.

"what's gonna happen?" josh screamed, scared at what tyler might do. tyler paced around.

in tyler's mind, this was it. he didn't want to be caught. he wasn't going to be on the run. he didn't have a back up plan. he didn't think he'd ever get caught.

josh made him sloppy.

he could assume the police had already blocked off airports, interstates, even backroads. they were locked in.

tyler liked killing, and he wanted to do it for as long as possible. that's why he took the extra time and effort into cleaning up thoroughly after every victim.

"we go to the lake house." tyler said. he breathed heavily and quickly through his nose, his hands shaking.

"will they find us?" josh asked.

"yes." tyler nodded.

"w-what do we do?"

tyler sat back down on the couch and grabbed his glass of water. he took a long chug. he looked at josh and smiled.

"i love you," tyler scooted over next to josh. he cupped his jaw.

"so now i'm gonna give you choice."