sillage {joshler}

iv

They placed him in the same grey cold metallic room as two days prior. Josh had no idea how long they'd sat him in there, it felt like it could've been minutes or it could've been days he'd have no clue either way. Suddenly a man was entering the room, in a sleek blue suit with a brief case. He sat opposite Josh.

"Hello Joshua, my name is Dallon Weekes, I'll be your attorney if that's okay?"

Josh nodded shyly, hunching over the table to rest on his forearms.

"Now, we only have about ten minutes." Dallon checked his watch before pulling out a notepad and pen from his case. He placed them on the table. "Let's get this sorted okay?" He said gently and Josh nodded, with a weak thank you. "They're not going to lay out the charges first, they'll just ask you questions, I'll instruct you on whether or not you can answer them, you're young so they might try to manipulate your responses to deal with this. It's a time-sensitive case so they'll be feeling pressure to close it, but I will make sure they don't charge you with anything you didn't do."

Josh nodded again before letting him brief Josh on what do in the interview, Josh assuring him that he was innocent and Dallon simply nodding, eyes warm with assurance.

The door opened ten minutes later and two detectives entered the room. Dallon moved from his seat opposite Josh to sit beside him. They handed Josh and Dallon cups of water as they sat down, Josh gulped half of it down immediately, dehydrated from all the crying he'd done before he arrived.

"Hello Joshua, we're going to record this interrogation as protocol okay?" The female said calmly and he nodded, she smiled before pressing the tapes and saying the date and time.

"Interviewers present are DI Williams and DI Wentz. Suspect's name is Joshua Dun, represented by Dallon Weekes."

"Okay, now first things first can you simply state your name age and where you live please?" DI Wentz asked, Josh's gaze flickered to Dallon who nodded.

"Joshua William Dun, 19, Columbus Ohio." He couldn't stop shaking and he knew that the adults surrounding him could see it too.

"Perfect, so before I get into why you're here Joshua, can you just tell us, for the purpose of the tapes, what your connection to Tyler Joseph was?"

Dallon nodded so Josh spoke. "He was my best friend, I guess."

"You guess?" Wentz pressed and Josh shied away from his gaze. "Can you elaborate on that for me?"

"I- The last time I saw him we-he told me that." Josh's voice broke as a slow tear ran down his cheek. "that he loved me and I thought he meant it but I guess not." Josh wiped at the tear bitterly, sitting back in his chair.

"So you were in love with him?" Williams said cautiously, obviously feeling sorry for him. Josh nodded weakly. "For the purpose of the tapes; Joshua just nodded." She added.