thanatophobia // joshler [✓]

a new life

my breathing hitched when he said that, and after he did he stopped pinning me against the wall.

"let me introduce you to your family." he held out his arms towards everyone.

"this is patrick, he's our medic," he pointed at the guy i met earlier, "he's a softy so he's not in for the killing, so he heals the booboos instead."

patrick stared at me and half smiled.

"this is dallon, he's one of our killers." he said, patting the tall mans back.

"this is brendon," he said pointing at the guy with the cold dead brown eyes, "he's one hell of a killer too."

"this is good old ryan," he said pointing at one of the taller guys, "he's our stealth and distraction guy, but man can this guy be sneaky ."

"this is pete," he said pointing at a tanner guy with faded blond hair, "he's out arson, the guy marks our territory when the job is done."

"and i'm tyler joseph but people call me blurryface," he smirked,

"i'm the leader of the roadshow."

i looked at him emotionless, yet there was so much emotion flooding through me.

tyler walked a few inches closer to me,

"you're now apart of my skeleton clique, joshua."

this is when i showed emotion, pure fear. he knew my name. how did he know my name?

"you scared now baby boy?" he chuckled.

i gulped, clearly shaken up in fear.

"when you're ready to talk, come and find me." he winked.

he and his 'skeleton clique' left the room but only patrick stayed.

once they left patrick made sure the coast was clear and he shut the door.

i stare at him confused, but he quickly shuffled around in his drawers for something.

patrick pulled out what looked to be a little piece of paper. he walked over to me and handed me something that left my heart in permanent disparity.

it was the family photo my dad kept in his wallet at all times. it was all of us on chirstmas and we were in the ugly yet traditional sweaters for the holiday.

that picture played that moment over again in my head.

it was december 25, 2014 and the day was just beginning to snow. my sisters got really excited because the loved taking artsy snow pictures.

i mean so did jordan and i, but let's not point fingers here.

my dad went into the basement and got out a camera we haven't used in months, but i can clearly remember him gathering us in front of our heavily decorated christmas tree and our unopened presents.

but there was one thing i can remember and it still hurts my heart to this day.

instead of saying cheese before the camera captured the photo, my dad had us say 'family'.

the painful memory was interrupted when patrick spoke up,

"when they were raiding the corpses, they found this, i thought you'd might want it..."

corpses.

my family weren't anything to these guys. they were merely corpses.

i took the photo and nodded my head in approval, trying hard not to burst out into tears.

i carefully put the photo in my back pocket and took a deep breath. patrick half smiled and patted my shoulder.

"you should probably go and find tyler, he wants you to look for him." patrick admitted.

i nodded, and thanked him quietly as i walked now.

i couldn't help but think, though. my entire family was killed,

but why am i the only one they bothered to keep alive?