Chapter Text
Josh was an idiot.
He hadn’t planned on spending his Saturday night running away from two very scary looking large men - he was sure nobody planned on doing that. Who wanted to be chased by two very scary looking large men on a Saturday night? Certainly not Joshua Dun.
Josh was an idiot because he had left his apartment late that afternoon to go to the music store downtown because he just had to look at that drumset he knew he would never be able to afford, the one that sat in the back coated in a sleek black finish, the one that Josh wanted to play so badly. Josh was an idiot because he had been in such a rush to see this stupid expensive drumset he totally forgot to lock his door. Josh was an idiot because he walked into his house to find two very scary looking large men sitting on his cheap, ripped couch, smoking what was certainly not a normal cigarette, and all he had said was “I wasn’t expecting company.”
Josh was an idiot for being a stupid, naive young adult wanting to defy his parents by getting involved in something he really shouldn’t have gotten involved in. Josh did drugs once. Josh hauled drugs from Ohio all the way to California once. He thought he had escaped from that life five years later.
Josh was an idiot for thinking that.
So now Josh was running down alleyways and shoving trash cans and whatever else he could find behind him to block the path, jumping every time he heard yelling or a gun shot. He was shimmying between cars and jaywalking across streets and all he could think was I am so so so screwed I am going to die why did I not lock my door I am an idiot I’m going to die.
He was tired and his feet hurt and he wanted to stop but he kept going, because he was scared for his life and Josh was an idiot and couldn’t go back home. He ran faster than he had ever ran, adrenaline coursing through his veins as he left the outskirts of the city and darted into a forest he had never paid any attention too. How long had those stupid trees been growing out of the ground? How long had this stupid forest been right next to the city? Josh couldn’t tell you.
It was dark and he had to focus on not tripping over tree roots or running into poisonous plants as well as not getting killed. His breathing was too loud and his eyes weren’t working properly. What had he done wrong? How had they found him?
Josh prayed there were only two very scary looking large men and not others waiting for him in this dark something-out-of-a-horror-movie forest. He didn’t stop until he reached what looked to be an abandoned building. Josh was confused to why it sat in the middle of this forest, covered in vines and God knows what else, when there was nothing else around.
He figured it was God telling him to “get inside and hide before you get killed.”
So Josh did just that. He rested a hand on the rough finishing of the building and felt his way around to a part that was almost completely submerged in the ground, complete with equally vine covered steps to a metal door. Josh bit his lip as he tugged on the door handle, almost fainting with relief when it opened. He figured it would be just his luck to have it not open, and instead of being killed by thugs he’d get eaten by some animal making loud noises in the dark.
It was pitch black when he stepped inside. The heavy door slammed shut loudly, causing an already scared Josh to jump. He really wished he would have grabbed a lighter, a flashlight, his cell phone, anything, because it was really dark and Josh did not like that one bit.
He felt his way around the room, trying to figure out what it was or had been. The walls were cool and slick, like the same material of the door, and he was surprised when he felt cold air on his face. Did this place have working air conditioning? How long ago did it go under?
Josh’s already uneven breath became more uneven, if possible.
And he really should have been paying attention to his surroundings when a fist hit him square in the nose, completely knocking him out cold.
---
Josh hurt everywhere.
His eyes were still shut, but he could feel his aching body. His nose hurt, first off, but his arms and legs hurt as well. And he felt cold.
Josh attempted to move an arm, but was stopped short by something digging into his wrist. His eyes shot open.
His mind was suddenly flooded with thoughts, the loudest ones being no no no no no no. This was the end of Joshua Dun. He was going to die alone in this weird building covered in vines that he thought was abandoned and was definitely not abandoned. Maybe those two very scary looking large men had actually been several very scary looking large men and this building was a trap. A trap Josh had walked right in to.
Josh was an idiot.
He craned his neck to see the outline of a door, a strip of light coming from underneath. The room itself was the same slick metal he had felt before; the floor was the same as well. He wondered if this place had used to be a prison. It wouldn’t be surprising, considering the room had no windows.
Josh attempted to move again - this time a leg. But nope, his legs were zip-tied around his ankles and he could feel where they had been rubbed raw. He wondered what time it was. He wondered how long he had been unconscious.
After five more minutes of useless struggling, Josh let out a defeated sigh. He was so screwed.
He heard footsteps then; Josh didn’t even dare to breathe as the noise got louder.
Then they stopped, right in front of his door.
Josh didn’t want to look. This was the end.
The door opened with a loud creak and light flooded the room, causing Josh to squint and duck his head. He struggled to get out again. The shadow of the figure appeared on the wall in front of Josh, along with the whisper of a faint ringing noise in his right ear. He shook his head, attempting to get rid of it, but nothing happened. It was almost as if there was a fly making a home in his head.
The minute the door slammed shut and the room was submerged in darkness, the figure talked.
“So you’re the fucker that tried to steal from us, huh?” The room once again exploded with light as the man pulled the chain of a single lightbulb. Cliche, but Josh had to admit: it added to the effect.
The man was wearing a black leather jacket and skinny jeans, his hair chocolate brown and his face flawless. Not very intimidating, but there was something...off about this guy.
“I wasn’t trying to steal anything,” Josh started, surprised at how raw his voice sounded. He attempted to clear it before continuing, “The door was unlocked and I let myself in. I thought it was abandoned.” The ringing in Josh’s ear seemed to increase in volume. He winced.
“Yeah buddy, I don’t think so. You see, you chose the wrong place to break into.” The man took a step closer towards Josh, and he tried to refrain from pushing himself farther down into the chair. “The people here can do a lot more than the average shiner and broken nose.” He gestured to his own face, which instantly let Josh know that his face was a broken, bloody, purple and blue mess, which you know, he sort of already assumed that was the case. “You’re only human,” The man leaned down until he was inches away from Josh’s face, his breath warm against Josh’s cheek. He wiggled in his chair, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable. “And I’m a God.”
And the ringing in Josh’s ear exploded, a thumping squeal that made his brain pound against his skull, and he couldn’t help but to let out a yelp in pain. He didn’t know how the guy was doing this, but all he did know was that he wanted it to stop.
“Please,” Josh’s voice was coming out in ragged breaths and he knew he sounded pathetic. “Please stop.”
The man’s laugh was loud and bitter. “Why should I stop? You’re obviously an idiot.”
Finally. Something Josh could agree with.
The ringing increased until Josh honestly thought his brain was going to explode inside his head. It didn’t sound like a very pleasant way to die.
“Brendon!” a new voice entered the mix, one that sounded like a pretentious college professor who thought he knew everything. Surprisingly, the voice sounded comforting. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” It was funny, Josh hadn’t even noticed the door opening.
Brendon seemed to shrink in his spot. “I was just messing with the guy, he’s a criminal, I was just teaching him a lesson.”
There was a brief moment of silence before college professor was sighing. “Get out.”
“But Dal-”
“I said get out!”
Brendon shoved his hands in his pockets and sulked out the door. Josh watched him leave, thankful the ringing was back to the annoying buzz at the back of his head. He locked eyes with the light brown haired man clad in a button up and jeans, his face full of sympathy.
“Thank you,” Josh breathed, leaning back in his chair.
“Don’t thank me yet.” the door banged shut and once again Josh was by himself, scared out of his mind.
At least the light was on.
---
Josh focused on his breathing as the minutes ticked by. What he didn’t focus on was the fact that he really had to pee and his stomach was growling because he hadn’t eaten since eleven o’clock yesterday. Instead he tried to wrap his mind around what Brendon had said about the people here being able to hurt him more than the average one. About Josh being human and Brendon being a God. He had to have been screwing around right? Brendon had to be human. What else could he be? An alien?
“Too much X-Files,” Josh muttered as he attempted to come up with another theory. Only that didn’t last long because the door was being thrown open and another guy was entering the room. Josh prayed this guy didn’t try to melt his brain.
The guy was shorter than Josh, but he was decked out in tattoos (a thousand times more than Josh was) and had a permanent scowl on his face. His hair was blonde, which was quite a change from the other two tall lanky men, and he looked like someone that could beat the living daylights out of him in one hit. When he raised his hand to rub his chin, Josh noticed blood on his knuckles. Was this the guy that had knocked him out?
“Uh, Hi.” Josh tried to make himself sit up straighter than before, to show this guy he was taller than him and not afraid (Even though Josh was more afraid of this guy than he had been of Brendon.) “I’d wave but I’m a little tied up at the moment.”
The blonde guy didn’t hesitate to punch Josh in the jaw.
“Alright then,” Josh replied to silence, moving his now extremely aching jaw around. “No puns. Got it.”
“I’m gonna be as straightforward with you as your simple mind can handle.You answer my questions and you don’t get hurt. You act like a smart ass and say something stupid like that again, I won’t hesitate to do something even worse to you.” He leaned closer to Josh’s face, close enough that Josh could see the scars on his skin. He wondered if this guy had ever killed anyone. “And I can do a hell of a lot worse. Got it?”
Josh nodded his head. He could feel his leg shaking but made no attempt to stop it.
“Who sent you here?” Josh blinked.
“No one sent me here.” The blonde guy clenched his jaw and nodded his head.
“Alright, whatever you say.” Suddenly Josh’s left arm exploded with pain, like his bones were cracking and shifting under his skin. He screamed. “I’m gonna ask one last time. Who sent you here?”
“No one,” Josh managed to spit out in a sputtered breath. His eyes were watering and he just wanted it to stop. This pain was a million times worse than the one Brendon had caused. “Running...away...s-saw...this...p-place...” Josh let out another scream and the pain subsided. He blinked back another set of tears.
“Alright, start over. Running away from who?” Blonde guy crossed his arms and leaned against the wall.
Josh took a few seconds to catch his breath, trying his hardest to not take too much time and piss the guy off. He had no clue how the guy was doing this and he wasn’t sure if he really wanted to know.
“Hurry up before I rip your fucking arm in half.”
Josh started talking. “Five years ago I got caught up in some bad business and it was only once but I tried to get away and I guess I failed at that so I was running away from these two extremely large terrifying men quite like yourself, not that you’re large, or terrifying, no, you’re just a normal average guy -”
“Get with the program. And for the love of God, slow down.”
Josh took a breath. “I was trying to get away from them and I happened to find this strange building submerged in the ground covered in vegetation and I figured, ‘Hey, what a good place to hide and avoid getting murdered,’ so I pulled on the door and it was unlocked so I went in. I wasn’t sent by anyone, I wasn’t trying to steal or blow your cover, I was only trying to avoid getting killed. I’m sorry.” The blonde guy was silent and Josh debated on whether or not he should beg the guy not to kill him yet.
Finally, after what seemed like years of silence, he spoke. “The door was unlocked?”
“The door was unlocked.” Josh closed his eyes, afraid of the man’s reaction to those four words. He prayed he hadn’t said the wrong thing.
An extremely loud noise sent Josh jolting in his seat, and he watched in horror as a crack spider webbed across the cell walls and crisscrossed through the floor. Blonde guy stood with his fists clenched, wearing a look that could kill.
“Fucking Mikey Way is dead. I’m going to kill him myself. He doesn’t even need to use the fucking door. But he does it anyways! Why? ‘Because I need to make sure my brother gets out ok!’ Fuck your brother!” He continued muttering to himself and Josh stared in confusion. What the hell had just happened?
The blonde guy pulled a knife from his pocket and Josh was sure his blood pressure shot through the roof. DANGER DANGER was flashing in his brain along with red lights and he resisted the urge to start bawling like a little kid. Eyes squeezed shut, he felt the guy slide the knife under his zipties and slit them one by one. When he finished, Josh opened his eyes.
“What are you doing?” Josh asked, his voice cracking at the end.
Josh was an idiot.
“Well I’m assuming you probably have to piss or something, considering it’s almost 8 am and you’ve been here since ten last night.” Josh’s eyes widened in surprise. He hadn’t realized he had been here that long! “And we can get you some food. They can hear your fucking stomach in Canada for Christ’s sake.” He paused briefly. “And kid, calm down. I can hear your heart beating out of your chest. Danger is over now, for you at least. Don’t know if I can say the same for Mikey.” He rubbed at his eyes with the heel of his hand. “Fucking idiot.”
Josh didn’t attempt to move; he knew that if he did he would break down into tears from the amount of pain he was in. Come to think of it, he was surprised he hadn’t peed himself. “I think, that, uh, you uhm, broke my arm.”
Blonde guy sighed loudly. “I’ll go find Dallon. Stay there.” Josh watched him leave, the guy still muttering to himself about Mikey being a moron. Josh wondered what Mikey looked like.
Josh also wondered if every single person in this place was going to break a part of him.
Minutes later the blonde guy was back with the college professor tall guy who Josh immediately connected as Dallon. He wondered what this guy was going to do to him. Boil his blood with his mind? Freeze his arm and chop it off with an axe? Cut his tongue out?
Dallon interrupted Josh’s thoughts with a sigh. He ran a hand through his hair as he inspected the room and the broken redhead sitting the middle. “Tough time huh?”
The blonde guy grunted. “Just fix him. We have stuff to do.”
“Very well,” Dallon replied, crouching down next to Josh’s chair. He pointed towards Josh’s arm. “I’m going to put my hand on the place where it’s broken, ok? It’s going to hurt for a few seconds but then it should feel alright.”
“Are you a doctor?” Josh asked bluntly. He wasn’t sure why he asked that when the guy didn’t have any tools or anything.
Dallon chuckled softly. “You could say that I guess. May I?” He gestured towards Josh’s very obviously broken left arm and Josh nodded. He wasn’t sure what this guy was going to do.
The minute Dallon’s fingers brushed Josh’s broken bone he let out a hiss of pain, and then he felt nothing. It felt like he didn’t even have an arm, like it was floating away in space. Then Dallon’s other hand was gently pressing on Josh’s broken nose and the same sensation followed. Josh stared at Dallon, dumbfounded. He didn’t understand what was going on. First a guy who could make someone’s brain explode, then a guy who could shatter bones and run cracks up walls, and now a guy who could heal injuries with direct contact. What had Josh gotten himself into?
“Done! You’re good as new.” Dallon declared minutes later. He stood up, wiped Josh’s blood on his jeans and offered Josh himself a hand. Josh graciously accepted.
“Thank you,” Josh said quietly, still confused out of his mind.
“Welcome!” Dallon grinned. “Take a breather Joshua. You don’t need to be so anxious and full of fear. People will be kind to you here.”
“How do you know my name?” Josh asked, but by the time he finished his sentence Dallon had already left the room. Josh looked over at blonde guy, who raised an eyebrow.
“Humans are such idiots.” He said with a sigh.
Josh agreed.
“Alright, lets go.” He waved Josh over with a hand and Josh followed, not wanting to piss this guy off again. He pulled a zip tie from his pocket and pulled Josh’s wrists behind him. Josh winced at the tightness before he was getting shoved out the door. He tried to avoid looking around as he was led down the hallway, but he couldn’t help it. There were people there, some chatting, but most were staring holes into Josh. He never had liked attention.
Then Blonde Guy was shoving him roughly into a wall, snipping away his constraints and shoving him into a restroom. He heard a lock click behind him.
Great. Just frickin’ fantastic.
Josh sighed as he inspected the bathroom. No windows, no way out. He was stuck.
But at least there was a toilet. Josh really had to pee.
When he finished his business, he stared at himself in the mirror. Dallon hadn’t healed his black eye, or the thick bags that showed Josh didn’t sleep much. He hoped it made him look tough.
Josh wished he would have thought to grab a hat before taking off into the woods.
“Hurry the fuck up! We don’t got all day for you to fuck around in the bathroom!” Blonde guy called from the other side. He yanked the door open and Josh turned to face him, holding out his wrists. Without changing his facial expression, he said completely monotone “take me away officer.”
He saw a flicker of amusement in blonde guy’s eyes.
Once again Josh started getting shoved down the hallway - this time a different hallway. He tried to memorize where they were going, in case he could manage to find a way to escape.
He hoped that would be soon.
“So do I get to know your name or do I have to keep calling you Blonde Guy in my head?” Blonde guy grunted.
“That’s none of your fucking business.”
Josh clucked his tongue. “Alright then.”
“I should break your fucking neck smartass,” he said with a twinge of anger in his voice. Josh’s breathing hitched. He needed to stop being so free with his words. That had always earned him scars back during his time in the drug business.
The hallway opened up to a wide room complete with a kitchen and several tables scattered around, almost like a school cafeteria. There were a lot of people in this room, all chatting and eating. He caught sight of a guy with blue hair laughing, and at another table a guy with sunglasses on waving his hands about. They looked at home.
Josh liked that.
Blonde guy shoved him down at an empty table. “I’ll be right back. You try to run and I won’t hesitate to break every bone in your body. Got it?” Josh nodded his head. “Good.”
Josh watched him go over to one of the kitchen counters and grab a plate. He dumped something on it from a pan sitting on the stove and walked back over to where Josh was sitting. It landed with a plop on the table in front of Josh.
Eggs. A lot of eggs.
Josh’s mouth watered. He stared at it like he hadn’t eaten in days.
“Eat quickly so I can put you back in that cell.” Blonde guy glared at him. Josh lifted up his hands slightly.
“Can you cut these maybe?”
He sighed, but reached over with his pocket knife and flicked it upwards with one solid motion, splitting the tie in half. Josh nodded and started eating his eggs with his hands. He shoveled them into his mouth quickly and was about halfway done when a short guy with dirty blonde hair and thick framed glasses sat across from him. He was wearing a black fedora and had the sleeves of his cardigan pulled over his hands. He also had the biggest grin Josh was pretty sure he had ever seen on his face.
"Hi Pete!”
Pete, Josh repeated in his head as Pete cursed loudly. “Son of a bitch!” Josh couldn’t help but smirk.
Glasses guy ignored Pete and turned towards Josh. “Who’s your friend? No. Not friend. ‘Prisoner.’” He put air quotes around the word prisoner and rolled his eyes. “He’s human.”
“Why does everyone keep saying that?” the words were out of Josh’s mouth before he could comprehend what exactly he had just said. Pete and glasses guy stared at him.
“You haven’t told him yet?” glasses guy said worriedly, a sleeve covered hand rising to his lips. Pete sighed.
“I figured he realized something was up. Forgot he was an idiot though.”
Josh shrugged. “I’ve seen a lot of weird stuff. Today beats everything I’ve previously seen. My name’s Josh by the way. Nice to meet you.” he held out a hand and glasses guy shook it firmly.
“I’m Patrick.” he paused, his eyes flickering around the room. “We’re different. Freaks I guess.”
Pete rolled his eyes. “We aren’t freaks. We’re better than the average human is all. ‘Cause we can do things and shit.”
“Oh.” Josh replied, nodding his head but not really understanding what ‘Cause we can do things and shit’ meant exactly.
“You saw what Pete can do I assume?” Patrick grinned. “I think it’s pretty cool. It’s not pretty cool when he terrorizes the shit out of some poor human kid though.”
“Whatever,” Pete muttered under his breath.
“He does cool earthquake stuff. He could destroy an entire city with a wave of his hand.”
“That’s cool,” Josh said, but it wasn’t what he was thinking. What he was thinking was Wow that's pretty freaking terrifying. “What can you do?” Josh figured the guy could make butterflies and flowers appear out of nowhere with how optimistic he was.
Patrick’s grin grew even bigger. He tugged on the sleeve of a passing stranger, a guy with crazy curly brown hair and giant eyes. “Joe, how about fetching Josh and I a drink?” The stranger, Joe, nodded his head.
“You got it man, I’ll do that right now.” then he was practically running to the kitchen, and Patrick was turning back around to reveal that his eyes were glowing gold.
Josh was attempting not to freak out.
“Power of persuasion,” Patrick said, crossing his arms across his chest. Pete snorted.
“Whatever dude. You think you’re so cool because you can ask and somebody will do it. Anyone can do that.” Pete shifted his body towards Joe who was pulling soda out of the fridge. “Hey Joe! Can you grab me one too?”
“You got legs, do it yourself dumbass!” Joe yelled back, causing Patrick to burst into laughter and Pete to start pouting. Josh bit his tongue.
“Yeah Pete. Anyone can do that.” Patrick smirked and Pete muttered something under his breath. “Let me take care of Josh.”
Pete raised an eyebrow. “I don’t think so.”
“Please! I’ll take him off your hands! He doesn’t need to be treated like a criminal. He isn’t one.” Josh agreed with that statement, but he wasn’t about to say anything about it.
After a few seconds of staring at one another, Pete sighed. “Alright. Whatever. Fine. Do whatever you want with him.” There was a flash of blonde, a lighter more pastel blonde, and Pete was gone, yelling after “Mikey, the fucking idiot who left the door unlocked.”
Patrick smiled at Josh as soon as Pete left.
“Did you use your power right there?” Josh asked. His answer was delayed for Joe was handing them the drinks Patrick had asked for, and Patrick was popping the tab on his soda, a smug look on his face. He took a long drink before answering Josh’s question.
“I don’t have to use my powers on Pete because he loves me.”
Josh’s jaw dropped and he closed it right away because that was rude and Josh did not want to piss off these people with superpowers who could kill him. He realized that if Patrick told Josh to go kill himself, Josh would probably pull out one of the kitchen knives and slit his throat right then and there.
And that scared the shit out of Josh.
“Pete likes to come across as scary and badass, but he’s actually a giant teddy bear. Once you get to know him he’ll follow you around like a puppy. The guy followed me around for weeks before I finally agreed to go on a date with him.” Patrick rolled his eyes. “Pete’s a good guy, trust me.” He opened his mouth, like he had more to say, but a blood curdling scream erupted from far down the hallway that sent shivers down Josh’s spine.
“Oh shit.” Patrick whispered, his chair scraping the floor loudly as he stood up. Josh copied him, unsure of what was going on. Everybody in the dining area was leaving in a rush down the hallway. Patrick grabbed Josh’s hand and started pulling him down the hall with the rest of the crowd. “Stay close to me,” he said firmly, all the friendliness in his voice gone.
“What’s going on?” Josh said, his eyes darting in every direction possible. He could feel his heart getting ready to beat out of his chest.
“Tyler is not well,” Patrick murmured as they rushed farther down the hallway, until they were turning a corner onto oncoming commotion. Josh spotted Pete.
“I need Jack, Brendon, and Andy right now!” He was yelling, pushing past the people in the crowd. Josh maneuvered his way through as well, pushing himself up against the wall. He spotted a body hunched over in the corner, his hands pushed over his ears and his body shaking.
What was going on?
“Jack, do your thing.” Pete was throwing commands, and Josh realized that this was a serious matter. Something was very, very, very wrong.
A tall man with a strip of blonde in his dark hair (Josh thought it made him look like a skunk) pushed out of the crowd. Jack stood still, and suddenly the hallway was dropping quickly in temperature and thick fog-like darkness was clouding Josh’s vision. He couldn’t even see his hand two inches in front of him.
“Brendon!” Pete’s voice boomed over the darkness and the ringing Josh despised was back. It wasn’t too terrible, but he figured for someone else it was. “Tyler, we need you to stay calm. Everything is going to be alright.”
“My name...is...NOT TYLER!” a voice screamed loudly from the darkness, and Josh was shaking. He was shivering and terrified beyond belief.
Then there was a pair of blood red eyes staring directly at him.
Josh couldn’t see the body. He couldn’t see the outline of this person’s face, or mouth, or anything.
Just their eyes.
“I’ve never seen you before,” they spoke, and it clicked that this must be Tyler.
Tyler, the one who was screaming in the corner about not being Tyler.
His voice was crackly, and it was different from any other voice Josh had ever heard. He continued speaking. “All this nonsense they try with, the frequency and darkness shit, it’s a bit overkill, don’t you think? I can see through this facade.” Josh could feel the eyes looking him up and down. “You’re a human. A pretty decent looking one at that. No, even better. I’d fuck you.” He, more like an it if he really thought about it, let out a shrill laugh that made Josh shiver all over again. “Tyler hasn’t let me see humans since I killed hundreds of them three years ago.” It laughed again.
Josh was pretty sure this was the most evil thing he had ever come in contact with.
“Their deaths were painless, don’t worry. I just reach out, and touch them. Simple as that. I could make it a thousand times more worse, but I don’t see the hassel. Why would I want to get blood on my hands? Human blood is one of the most filthy things in the world you know.
“The police were so certain it was some cunning thief murdering for sport. But it’s much more than that. I know the thoughts and feelings of all these people. I can feel it when I’m holding them and they’re dying in my hands.” Josh felt sick to his stomach.
And then he - it - started singing. It was slow and off tune, like a broken music box playing a child’s lullaby, cracked and creepy.
“My name’s Blurryface and I care what you think...”
There was a sudden flash of white-hot electricity, and it was falling to the ground, the darkness evaporating in clumps around the body.
Josh couldn’t breathe. Josh couldn’t feel. Josh didn’t know where he was or who he was or what was happening.
He was unconscious before he hit the tiled floor.