Øverturning the lies (a twenty one pilots fanfiction)

~Tyler~

Where is he? What is he?

He's here but he's not...

He blinks his eyes shut, hoping that when he opens them he will somehow be presented with a different reality. 

Because he can't face the one he finds himself in. 

That isn't very surprisng. 

But.

It's the truth. 

Yet, nothing is different. 

Those lights are still burning into him. 

Into his soul. 

He shakes his head at himself, hating how dramatic that sounds. 

But its the truth. 

They are so bright and it hurts his eyes.

Makes it hard to see. 

Somehow...hard to breathe. 

It's almost as though... because of the lights he's more open to suggestions. 

To persuasions. 

Because he's disoriented. 

Confused. 

"Why are you confused?"

Tyler turns toward him. 

"The truth is right here, if only you will accept it," Nico says.

And part of him wants to. 

Partof him really, truly, wants to. 

It would be easier. 

So why does he continue to fight?

And then he knows. 

Because they can hand him these lies, hand him these lies on a silver platter and pretend they are the answer to everything. 

They can fake and pretend and cover themselves in nothing but glittering promises, but in the end, that results in everything that is artificial ad false. 

Nothing lasting. 

The truth is missing. 

The truth is missing. 

He thinks. 

Thinks and thinks. 

And wonders. 

He always has believed, at least partially, the teachings of the bishops.

Found himself leaning towards their claims and hopes because deep down he knows some deep, dark part of his soul always has and has always wanted to find a way out of all the pain. 

But life-life was pain. 

It was pain but surely-surely there were things that made it worth the hardship. 

Surely there were. 

Maybe...

Maybe. 

But as he stares at the neon lights and his vision grows hazy and then hazier-he knows whatever purpose, whatever meaning there was in life, he wasn't going to find it here. 

If not here, among those who have done nothing but support him-support and care for him-then where? 

But have they truly always cared for him? 

Truly? 

He touches his neck where the black paint is still there, faded from time but still there. 

How long has it been since the bishop, the opposite side of the same coin that is him, how long has it been since he made that marking? 

Time seems to be slipping away from him alarmingly fast, especially of late. 

Too fast, but also too slow. 

Somehow deep down he feels as though there is so much more waiting-

Somehwere. 

But it doesn't matter because he's caught in the middle of too much and too little and afraid and-

And deep down, what he really, really wants, is for the pain to go away.

The pain and the hurt and the confusion of it all. 

Why has it plauged him for so long? Why will it never leave? 

And that leaves him doubting, doubting again. 

Doubting his willpower, doubting the trueness, the solidness of anything. 

Anything at all. 

For when it all starts to crumble is anything truly left?

Or are there just fragmented pieces where there was once a heart? A soul?

The pain deepens and Tyler is afraid. 

He takes comfort in the bishop's presence. 

Are they enemies? Allies? 

It doesn't matter, not now. 

For he is simply there. 

Constant. 

And that's something Tyler hasn't felt in a long time. 

Stability. 

Being able to depend on something to stay the same...

Well. 

Is it wrong he knows no matter what happens, Nico will still remain strong, remain there, a part of him. 

Unbending. 

Devoted. 

Devoted to making him unhappy.

The tears begin to burn, they burn and they don't go away and he hates it-hates the feeling of being watched, hates it all. 

Hates it all.