to all the glowing eyes ✎ joshler

december 22

2:52 am

the clearing stood far.
an army of tree trunks surrounding it.
their leaves have fallen off their branches,
leaving the skeletons of beautiful beings naked.

the smell of freshly cutten bark filled the air
leading me to the clearing.
bright shined my oh so dear moon,
and there i stood, calling out to her asking,
"why oh why is my forest barren?
has a tragedy occurred? or have i let go of
my very soul?"

she did not answer, her light shining quietly
on what was left of my beloved forest.
with her silence, i stood there angry at her.
"how dare you not enlighten me?
how dare you shine a light on my sadness without a second thought?"

out of the corner of my eye stood the shadow of a man. the moon made him constrast
with the otherwise lit forest.
he stood there, chopping at my cherished friends with a metal axe.
i tried to move, but my feet were stuck on the ground.

he stopped and looked at me, an evil grin adorning his face.
"why are you doing this?" i demanded,
anger and confusion boiling in my veins.

he did not answer. he kept chopping away at my soul, my heart trembling with fear
of what he might do next.
all i can do is sit and watch as my brain
cut away at my being.

- tyler

„"„

"tyler? why are you up?" josh asks, his sleepy, raspy voice taking the younger boy by surprise. he slowly gets up from the pullout bed and walks to the kitchen, where a terrified tyler stands hugging a cereal box and his eyes linger on the dropped spoon.

"sorry i woke you up. i was working on a poem and got hungry."

"at 3 in the morning?"

"you've never had cereal at 3 am?" tyler tries to whisper so he doesn't wake neither jenna nor brendon up. to be honest, nothing can wake brendon up aside from josh and food, but that's not important. he continues to make himself the cereal bowl, putting the spoon that got dropped on the floor on the sink to wash later.

"i've had pizza and hot pockets. brendon always had something to eat when i slept over at his place," the older of the two chuckles, taking a look back at his sleep friend. he knows that things haven't gone back to normal, not completely at least. still, he has some kind of nostalgic feeling towards every little memory of brendon he has in his brain.

"oh. you slept over a lot?"

while tyler pours milk on the cereal, mentally prepares himself for utter heartache that feels so unfamiliar yet deserved at the same time. he can't escape it now.

"a bit. we've been friends forever, y'know? after games i slept over. on his birthday i slept over. on my birthday i slept over. whenever my parents went out i slept over, and whenever his parents went out i slept over. i guess i spent 80% of the year at his house."

a weird sensation took over tyler's stomach. the feeling like a blade was stuck on his torso, and it only kept going deeper as the seconds pass by. "huh. that's interesting.. you guys really have been together for a long time.. you haven't thought about going your own way?" he keeps taking spoonful after spoonful of cereal to keep his mouth occupied and not ruin everything by saying the wrong things.

"a few times. he's just been there all this time, it's weird for me to not have him around. honestly, if i stay here like mrs. smith asked me to, i doubt he'll come with me. he wants to leave ohio in general."