Tyler rushed of the stage, Josh close behind him. The crowd roared in the background and Tyler let out a giddy laugh. "Dude that was sick!"
Josh caught up to him, smiling broadly. "Yeah, dude, I think that might have been our best show yet!"
The two performers slowed to a walk so they could catch their breath and made their way down the hall towards their dressing room. Tyler opened the door and let Josh close it behind them. The lead singer flopped onto their couch and let out a sigh of relief, the cool air conditioning washing over him. Josh opened the mini fridge and, after taking some time to decide between water and Red Bull, decided to grab two water bottles. He threw one over to the couch, Tyler easily catching it, and then settled down onto the red cushions himself.
The duo sat in a comfortable silence, sipping their cold water and giving themselves time to slow their heart rates and breathing. When he had drank about half of his bottle, Tyler glanced across the room. He instantly came to regret that decision. As his dark eyes glanced across the mirror on the other side of the room, he saw his reflection. But it wasn't him.
This Tyler, although sitting on a couch just like the original one was, had dark black paint on his neck and hands. Tyler glanced down at his own hands. The paint had rubbed almost completely off. He looked back up and was met with an intense red glare. Blurryface was scowling at him through the reflection, obviously not happy.
Tyler sighed. He should have known he'd show up. He always did when Tyler was on a high.
Josh glanced up from his drink, quickly trying to read Tyler's face for anything that was wrong. And if Tyler could imagine it, he could almost see his friend's eyes flick over to the mirror. But that wasn't true, of course, because only Tyler could see Blurry.
"So you labeled that show as 'one of your best' did you?" Blurry sneered.
Tyler ignored the harsh toned words and went back to sipping his water, avoiding eye contact with his reflection.
"You think the fans would have called that a good show?"
Tyler might have sunk down lower into his seat.
"You think they enjoyed watching your mistakes?" Blurry added emphasis on the last word.
Tyler began to recite the words he always filled his head with at moments like these. He's here to make you feel bad. What he says isn't true. You don't have to listen.
"Remember the G chord? Screwed that one up didn't you? You let your fingers slip and hit the wrong notes. And that horrible sound was amplified all throughout the arena. Everyone heard your mistake."
Tyler did remember. His hands had been sweaty from holding his mic a little to tight. His fingers had slipped just the slightest amount on the smooth keys of his piano and had landed on the wrong notes. And it had sounded awful. But Tyler thought no one had noticed.
"Oh they did notice. Everyone noticed. Everyone saw the 'Great Tyler Joseph' screw up."
Tyler could feel Blurry's red gaze boring into him. He shifted a bit, trying to escape the pressure. He did screw up. In front of thousands.
"And let's not forget when you tripped over that cord. I thought you were better than that."
He had tripped over a cord that he couldn't see in the dark light. But he only tripped. He hadn't fallen.
"Does that make it any better? You still missed a beat. You missed a couple lyrics. And everyone saw it happen. Hundreds of them were filming. They got your screw up on tape from all different angles. It'll be all over the Internet by Saturday."
Blurry was right. He can't afford to mess up like that. Tyler was a professional. But now his mess up would be all over the Internet and everyone would see it and people would think he's a joke and-
"They already see you as a joke, Tyler. Now they will just see you as a fool.
Tyler, if even possible, sank back even further into the couch, wrapping his arms around himself, looking smaller than he already did.
"But not just the fans."
Tyler stiffened.
"Josh sees all of it too. He's on stage with you. He gets the front row seat to all of your mistakes. He's seen them all. He thinks your a screw up. He doesn't even know why he puts up with yo-"
"Hey!" Josh sprang off the couch. "Shut up! That's not true!"
Tyler looked over at the drummer, eyes wide. Was he talking to him? Certainly not Blurry, because only he can see Blurry.
Josh took a step over to the mirror, pointing at the reflections. "You're lying, you know you are."
Blurry seemed, for once, taken aback. And that's when he saw it. As Josh's reflection came into Tyler's view, he saw him. It was Josh, but it wasn't. The reflection's hair was a bright shade of red where as the original Josh's hair was faded. The reflection had bold red paint around his eyes and some of the red ran in tiny streams down his face. The real Josh's face paint was worn, dull, and slightly smeared. And the most noticeable difference was the eyes. The reflection had piercing black eyes.
Josh turned towards Tyler. "You did nothing wrong, you hear me? I didn't even see you trip, let alone the people in the pit and the rest of the stadium." Josh's tone softened a bit, "No one thinks you're a joke, Tyler. The fans love you, your family loves you... Dude, I love you. No homo."
But Tyler was barely paying attention. Josh could see Blurry. Josh had his own person in the mirror. Tyler could see Josh's person in the mirror. "Josh..."
"What?"
"You... you can see Blurry?"
Josh turned back aroundand looked at the mirror. Blurry sat in silence, glaring daggers at the both of them. "Yeah," he said turning back around. "And you can see him?"
Tyler didn't know whether to be relieved or worried. "I thought I was the only one."
Josh sighed and sat down next to Tyler. "I thought I was the only one that could see them. That's why I never said anything before," he answered the unspoken question. "I should have known you could see them too once you started to use the black paint, but I never spoke up until now." The pink haired man rubbed a hand across his face and sighed once more. "I was afraid you would think I was crazy, but I couldn't stand letting him say those things anymore."
Tyler watched the mirror. Josh's reflection was studying them with calculating, dark, eyes. "How come I've never seen your's before?"
"What?" Josh looked up at the mirror as well. "Spooky? He doesn't seem to come around as much as your Blurryface does. Over the years I've learned how to avoid certain ways of thinking. But if he ever does come around it's usually when I'm alone." Josh tilted his head at his reflection. "I think he's just curious right now."
Spooky finally moved his intense gaze over to study Blurry. Blurry met his black eyes with red and they seemed to hold a staring contest.
The two musicians quietly watched their reflections. After all, it wasn't often that they were there and not spitting out harsh words. "You think anyone else can see them?" Tyler asked softly.
Josh shrugged. "I don't know man. If they can, they sure are good at hiding it."
Tyler nodded.
They once again fell into silence. Finally one of the reflections spoke. Blurry pointed at Spooky. "You got a little something, uh, right here," the reflection gestured a hand over the entirety of his face.
Spooky scowled and slapped Blurry's hand away and Tyler couldn't help the smirk the upturned the corner of his mouth.
"At least they might spend more time annoying each other than messing with us," Josh voiced.
"That's just what I was thinking." Tyler looked over at Josh and received a reassuring smile. Tyler gave a soft smile back and looked to the mirror. Black and red paint had vanished. Eyes were sparkling brown. Blurry and Spooky were gone.