Work Text:
The first thing Tyler feels is the cold wet ground beneath him, followed by a dull pain in his ankle. Groaning, he tries to sit up as he realizes the pain in his ankle can follow up his back- just great.
The snow continues to fall around him soaking into his clothes, it’s hard to tell if he’s bleeding in the dark so he slowly pulls himself up with caution. Tyler pulls himself up with a nearby tree and leans his bad weight on it while he takes in his surroundings. The snow coming down in the dead of night makes it almost impossible to make out anything, but from what he can tell, he’s in a forrest of some kind. Squinting behind him he can see lines in the snow leading to his spot on the forest floor- almost like he was dragged somehow?
But how did I get here?
Tyler can’t shake the feeling he was being watched somehow so he decided to get moving. He followed the lines in the snow the best he could, pulling himself along as more and more flurries threatened to wash away his path.
After what feels like an eternity mindless wandering, he makes it to what looks like the edge of the forrest. Any hope Tyler had of finding- anything at all diminishes as he looks out to miles of a field of snow. Defeated and in pain, he slowly props his back up against a tree in the edge line. He closes his eyes, resting for a moment when he hears it.
Music.
Someone is playing music in the distance but, how? He strains his ears trying, listening for any hint of what it could be when it hits him. But no one knows that song. No one should know that song because he wrote it.
The air around him feels colder all of the sudden, his limbs feel heavier. How easy would it be to stay here, listening to the soft piano in the distance of a song nobody wrote. He can feel his breathing get shallower and he feels- at peace. Maybe he was never meant to know what happened to him. He feels safe here anyways.
A moment passes
And another
Tyler hasn’t quiet fallen asleep when suddenly someone is shaking his arms. He scrunches up in pain while he tries to get his heavy limbs to move out of the way.
“Tyler. Tyler” the shaking continues “come on man you have to open your eyes for me. Please” the man tries to pull Tyler up doing anything to keep him awake but Tyler feels so at peace on the ground, why would anyone disturb that?
“You need to keep moving before he comes back. Come on I’ll help you” Tyler feels himself get pulled up, his arm around the man’s shoulder as he’s standing up again. He’s so sleep, and his eyes feel like glue.
“Who…” he tries slurring in his tired state.
“Doesn’t matter come on just a little further away from the trees” The mystery man takes most of his weight as he pulls them further and further away from the dark forest. As they move Tyler starts to feel more and more. Gaining control of his limbs again but also the pain he was in. They make it a good 20 minutes before the pain is too much and mystery man sets him down.
Coming to his senses, Tyler realizes the snow has stopped falling and watches as the other man pulls a lighter out of his backpack. Had he always had that on him? “Who are you?” Tyler asks but the man ignores him as he examines Tyler’s injuries and under the light he starts to see the wet he felt was blood not just snow. Lovely
He watches as the man with black hair? Red? Slowly wraps his leg in some kind of cloth. He talks as he works “listen Tyler we’re gonna be separated soon so it’s important you listen to me”
Nothing in this whole day makes sense to him. He’s starting to think he’s offically gone crazy “separated? What do you mean?” For the fist time the other man looks Tyler right in the eye and he can’t help but shutter away from the eye contact.
“They don’t want me finding you in here. They wanted to keep you alone. I don’t have much time to explain, I took too long to find you this time. But when you wake up you have to find me” he grips Tyler’s hands in his forcing eye contact between the two. “Remember that. Can you find me?”
So many thoughts are running through his head. Who is they? What does he mean by wake up? Can he hold my hands forever? Wait what was that last one?
However he starts to feel a pull, like someone wrapped invisible rope around his middle and all he says is “I don’t even know your name” and as th world around him gets blurry he just barley makes out the word
Josh
Tyler opens his eyes to his bedroom ceiling