breathe

3 • talk

[trigger warning: self harm]

•.•.•.•

Previously:

Josh

He took my hand, dragging me to the couch, sitting me down. He sighed, "it's back."

•.•.•.•

Dallon

Josh's eyes furrowed, he seemed to pale more. He seemed to dive deeper into his thoughts, he did that often.

"You don't mean.." He shook his head, scanning my face, searching for any sign of humor.

"There's no way I'd joke about this, Josh." He shrunk, defeated.

"What can we do?" He asked quietly.

"I- I don't know."

"There has to be something, anything!" He begged.

"It's already starting to consume Brendon."

"We can't just- just give up!" He exclaimed, closing his eyes, exhaling slowly, and continuing with a calmer demeanor, "I told you about Tyler, didn't I?"

I hummed in response, rubbing my temples.

Josh stared at me, eyes saddening. He let a small tear stroll down his cheek before violently wiping it away with his hand. He stayed silent for a while, regaining composure before shakily breathing out, "remember when I had that.. demon-thing?"

"No way.." My eyes widened, catching onto what he was trying to say.

"So they can migrate from one person to another? That is possible?" He panicked, "mine's back too?"

"I'm so sorry, Josh." I pulled him in for a warm embrace.

  •.•.•.• 

"Dal?" Josh asked quietly. We were currently watching a movie, I wanted to take his mind off everything for a while. He untangled his legs from mine and sat up, he faced me with weary eyes.

"Hmm?" I hummed back lazily, slowly sitting up to face him, "you tired?"

"N-no, I just- we'll be okay, won't we? We can help Tyler and Brendon and ourselves and- and we'll be okay, right?" He mumbled.

I thought for a moment, how are we supposed to get rid of demons? How did we even get rid of them last time? How are we supposed to help them when we've only just healed? What if it consumes all of Brendon? What if Josh's old demon becomes one with Tyler?

Millions of thoughts filled my mind, spiraling around and around. I felt light headed, my chest tightened. I gripped the couch with sweaty palms, breathing in Josh's vanilla scent. I mustered out a quick, "Mhmm, absolutely," before running into the kitchen and pouring a glass of water with shaky hands, spilling water next to the sink. I downed the water quickly, recomposing myself before walking back into the room with a confused Josh and a quiet movie playing in the background.

Josh raised his eyebrows, "You don't know the answer. That's okay, we'll figure it out."

I frowned. That was the thing, we might not be able to figure it out. If our demons make a return they're probably stronger than they were before. They'd make us all more dangerous but also more in danger too. "Yeah. We can try, of course. I can't guarantee we can fix this though." I ran my hands through my hair repeatedly, processing that I had just agreed to attempting to defeat literal crazy demons.

"We can do this." He nodded, trying to convince himself more than anything.

I nodded, not agreeing one, single bit. We barely made it out alive last time, how in the world are we supposed to save Tyler and Brendon without getting Josh hurt? The demon consuming Brendon is already getting to me, we don't have long. I don't even know where to start, am I supposed to go see an exorcist?

Well, going to an exorcist wouldn't solve anything. These types of demons aren't like ghosts and all that. They target people who are mentally unstable and mix with the illness to make it worse, eventually leading the person toward death. How I previously escaped the mess? I have no idea, I guess I was just lucky. Though, there haven't been many lucky people and it's very rare. Sometimes the demons get bored and leave, but every time they leave a human, it makes them weaker- making it uncommon for them to do so. That's all from what Pete told me, anyway.

"I know what you're thinking, but we have to try." Josh mumbled.

"I know. We will." I felt like screaming until my lungs burst, how in the world can I fix this? I'm just a person! I need everyone to be safe if we do this, and I wasn't sure if I could maintain everyone's safety, I was just one person, after all. Thoughts clouded my mind again and I got lost in them. I tugged at my hair, I wasn't sure how I hadn't gone bald since I always pulled my hair when I was thinking.

I was dragged away from my racing thoughts when Josh pulled my hands out of my hair, "breathe, Dal." I inhaled the sweet smelling home. His home was pretty much mine too, I was always around in his house. But lately I've had to stop hanging around because Brendon was getting worse, I had to take care of him. His anxiety was through the roof and he was getting really violent.

I remember when I had that same demon, it made me think and do really violent things. I ran my finger over the faded white lines on my forearm, looking over at the holes in Josh's couch. The dents in his walls everywhere I looked, and I couldn't believe I did that.

I thought about what Brendon could be doing, since I was alone. My brain wandered off to the unnecessary, bad scenarios it always created. I shook my head, I was not letting myself get caught up in my thoughts before I even got to see him.

"We need to meet up again tomorrow. I- I need to check on Brendon.. I'm sorry, thank you."

"Of course. Does my place sound good?" He looked directly into my eyes while talking, I hated when he did that, it meant he was concerned. I didn't want him to feel concerned. I didn't want any human, in fact, to feel any negative emotion. I knew I couldn't control that, but it still bugged me.

"I'll come over whenever you wake up." I smiled, pulling him in for a hug.

"I honestly don't know how we're going to fix this.." He sighed into my chest.

"We just need to get Tyler and Brendon together with us and talk."

•.•.•.•

A/N:
I'M SORRY THERE'S SO MUCH DIALOGUE??? UH, IF YOU LIKE THIS SO FAR, COMMENT OR VOTE?

DO YOU GUYS LIKE LONGER CHAPTERS OR SHORTER?

ALSO IF YOU COULDN'T TELL, ALL THESE CHAPTER TITLES ARE SONG TITLES

DALLON AND JOSH ARE NOT TOGETHER OKAY
I feel like this is so bad idk hELP

song- talk by against the current

stayalive

U N E D I T E D