The blackout happened on a Tuesday.
Tyler remembered leaving the house in a daze. He remembered the cold air burning his lungs, the sidewalk tilting slightly under his feet. He remembered Jackson calling his name from the porch, voice lined with worry.
Then nothing.
When he came back to himself, he was standing in an alley downtown. His knuckles were raw again, bruises blossoming purple. His mouth tasted of copper. A trash bin lay overturned, its contents scattered. Across the bricks of the alley wall, words had been scratched in deep gouges:
SET ME FREE.
His chest heaved, panic pressing down like a weight. He staggered backward, bumping into the damp wall. His mind raced, trying to fill in the blank space—what he'd done, what the other voice had done—but the harder he tried, the more his head split with pain.
A low laugh echoed between the walls. Not from outside. From inside.
You see now? You're weak. I keep you alive. I make you strong.
Tyler pressed his palms to his ears, but it didn't stop. The voice reverberated through his skull. He could feel it in his teeth, in the marrow of his spine.
"I'm not—" His voice broke. "I'm not letting you take me."
The chuckle coiled around him, intimate and certain.
You already did.
---
When Tyler stumbled back into the house that night, Jackson was waiting. He was pacing the living room, running a hand through his hair in agitation. When he saw Tyler, relief and anger warred across his face.
"Where the hell have you been? I called you a dozen times."
Tyler's throat closed. His phone was gone. He hadn't even noticed until now.
"I… I needed air," he muttered, hollow.
Jackson stared at him, taking in his bloodied knuckles, his shaking frame. For a heartbeat, Tyler thought he'd push, demand answers. But instead, Jackson just swallowed hard and whispered, "You're scaring me, Ty."
The words gutted him. Tyler wanted to reach out, wanted to apologize, to promise he'd explain. But the whisper curled in his skull, venomous:
He'll never understand. He'll run. It's better to keep him away.
So, Tyler turned and locked himself in his room, leaving Jackson alone with his worry.
And in the silence, the voice purred like a satisfied predator.