Ghost Whispers |-/ Joshler

ten·e·bros·i·ty |-/

/tenəˈbräsitē/
noun
the quality of being dark or shadowy.

The Josephs have lived in their new home for two weeks. Everything is put in its place, where it would stay.

School, for the Joseph kids, has been a little bit of an issue. They're teased for living across from the cursed house, which they had no idea about until that one girl screamed it at them from across the lunchroom.

Normally the siblings would be disbanded by their groups of friends, but now they must stick together. No-one else will talk to them except for each other.

They walk to school in a group, attend the classes that they share together, eat lunch together, and walk home together.

Tyler hated it. He's always yearned to be an individual, and this situation was quite the opposite.

He wished to be free from the aggregation of his own flesh and blood--he wanted to be alone. Sure, he'd be picked on even more, but sometimes his thoughts are blocked by his brothers and sisters talking to him nonstop.

And when Tyler's thoughts are stopped, when they plug up his mind, he becomes agitated. He feels trapped in his own brain.

Today has been a particularly nasty case of thoughts being caught on the way out and stuffed back into a locked chest.

He briskly walked ahead of his siblings on the way home with his hands gripping his backpack straps tightly. Joshua had been following him all day with a countenance of concern.

Inside, he ran up the stairs, taking two at a time, up into his room. He slammed the still-squeaky door after him, throwing his bag across the room.

He collapsed onto his bed. The blankets felt comforting as they seemed to wrap around his small body like two arms.

"Hey Tyler..." Joshua breathed.

Nothing.

"Are you feeling okay?"

Then, a quiet sob.

Joshua climbed up onto the bed as well, sitting at the foot of it with his hands folded gently in his lap.

"Are you angry?"

Tyler's hands slowly made their way up to his head, where they clawed at his short hair. He pulled out short shaven brunette fibers, which stuck to his fingers.

"Sad, maybe?"

A low moan escaped Tyler's lips. It was tortured; Tyler's brain was attacking itself at this very moment. And all Joshua could do was watch.

"Please, listen to me. Hear me. I'm tired of being a whisper in the back of your mind." Joshua was begging him now, pleading that the boy unlock something inside him so he would be aware of his presence.

It was getting dark out already. The mid-fall sun had begun to hide behind the Ohio hills. Its vibrant rays bathed the floor of Tyler's room in a cool colored-pallet of crimsons and oranges. The darkness would soon take up his entire room completely and his consciousness would be swallowed in his own murky thoughts.

Joshua's eyes flitted up to the small window whose glass had been fragmented by the intense beams of dying sun. He too knew that Tyler would be going to a bad place when the sun set.

"Do something to wake up your mind, Tyler. Anything. Play some basketball, eat, anything." said Joshua.

Tyler didn't feel like playing basketball or eating. All he wanted to do was hide behind his overpowering emotions until he fell away.