JOSH POV
Most people don't know how to ask for help. I'm one of those people, it's bad enough that I get the poor guy look people always ask me, how are you doing? How do you even answer that questions anymore with a huge chunk of my life just…gone. I rub my eyes with my hand and lean back in my computer chair editing some old footage of a prank Mike and I had pulled. I notice the beginning of a headache coming on, I try to refocus on the screen but it's becoming more difficult as it suddenly seems too bright. I save and close out the window as I try to get my bearings. I stare at the black screen with a handful of icons it's almost as if the icons seem as if they're shaking. I blink quickly a few times trying to adjust my focus. I can faintly see the outline of the photo that use to be on my desktop, it was a picture of the gang altogether. After coming back from the mountain it took week's heck even months for me to even be able to get on the computer, every time I would see it, it would trigger an episode. I spin around in my chair as I felt a presence behind me, but see nothing there. "Joshua it's time" I stood up and started looking around, "no no not now" the headache that started to build feels like it burst and is flooding all over my mind. I CAN'T DO THIS! My thoughts involuntarily drift to Hannah and Beth; raw emotions start to flood my mind, I was supposed to be there for them, protecting them. "But you weren't" I turn and look at my chair behind me as I just heard someone. I clutch my head as I can feel it throbbing almost painfully. It's starting again I try to fight it I can feel my heart starting to race, Breath…inhale….exhale I try to do a breathing exercise but it has little effect. I go to lie in my bed hoping that I can just sleep it off but by the time I did, I felt it….
"Hello Mr. Washington, it's been quite awhile since I've seen you last. You see Time is what we want most, but what we use worst." I open my eyes and see Dr. Hill seated in his chair flippantly. He stands and walks behind his chair and leans on it and says "Your face is troubling, is there a problem?" I could do nothing as I am paralyzed in my own hallucination, it feels so real. I shut my eyes tightly, NO THIS IS NOT REAL I AM LYING IN MY BED SLEEPING THIS IS JUST A DREAM. I open my eyes and look up he changed positions, now sitting on the edge of the desk. He places a photo on the table face down. "Now let's see… How are we feeling today?" He sees me look at the photo wondering what it could be "In due time Joshua. Now I can see it on your face that you are not well, something is troubling you" my gaze falls to the floor. "It must be love issues?" …. "Not love issues? Friends? Oh wait I got it!" He leans forward and says "This is about the twins, isn't it?" I look him in his face but my gaze quickly drops back to the floor in shame. Almost as if I still can't face it mentally, I open my mouth to speak but no words come out. "Joshua" he shakes his head and gets off the table and starts walking toward the window. "It's not your fault, it was all your friends who played that prank on Hannah, and Beth being a good sister went after her" I glance at the picture again and my mind is starting to wonder. I look up and Dr. Hill is standing directly in front of me with a psychotic grin on his face, and asked "Why didn't you wake up?" I must've made a confused look because he asked me again slowly. He lifts the picture and shows me.
It's a picture of me laying on the kitchen counter passed out drunk, the picture starts to move and I see Beth shaking me to wake me up "JOSH"…"JOSH".."FUCK", to no avail and runs after Hannah. I look at it in disbelief it keeps playing over and over on a loop I can feel myself start crying but I can't look away. It's all my fault she tried to wake me up but I didn't budge and she had to run out alone in the storm. "Watching that footage now, tell me Joshua how does that make you feel?" To be honest I really don't want to answer but he persists the question over and over. How do I feel? Do I even feel anything anymore? He suddenly changes his question and it catches my ear "If you were to see Hannah and Beth now for a moment what would you say." To be honest I think for these few months I've asked myself that question every day. "Now…that you are gone….I only wish I can turn back time and change our story….because I know it's all my fault…and I don't blame my faults on other people" He looks intrigued that I'm now able to respond, he nods and smiles "So you don't blame any of your friends? That if they had never antagonized Hannah she would've never run out upset and would still be with you today" I decline to answer, I just continue looking at the ground hoping that this will end soon. But it doesn't he keeps poking and prodding with each question, each one felt like it was digging into an open wound. I start to hear knocking and look up and see Dr. Hill look at his watch "it seems like our session is over for now."
I jolt up and I realize I'm soaked from sweating so much, I glance outside and see that it's dark and notice my parents cars aren't in the driveway yet. I start to hear the faint knocking again and stand and walk out my room and realize it's the front door; I walk over slowly as my head is still fuzzy from my headache. "Come on Josh I know you're in there. OPEN UP" I smile inside, it's harder now a day's for me to bring it to the surface. I open up the door, Chris is standing in the doorway turning telling Sam to hurry up, and Sam is walking up behind him smiling. I can feel my shirt clinging to my chest and start to feel self conscious. I should've showered or changed clothes at least.
Chris starts to walk in the house and says "What's up Josh?" with his arms wide looking like he was going to hug me and then puts his arms down suddenly with a confused look. I asked "what?" and he says "Why are you all wet?" as he pokes my shirt as if testing how moist it is. I try to brush it off as nothing "I was sweating because I was just working out" I flex to show off my muscles even though I'm lying. Sam walks in and says "Don't hurt yourself now" she says sarcastically while walking in the house. I close the door behind her and I start to shiver slightly as the cold air mixing with my wet shirt, starts to get to me. After taking off their jackets Chris immediately starts walking toward the kitchen and Sam places her bag down and follows, I start to head toward the stairs and Sam asks "Where you going?" I grab the bottom of my shirt and pull it forward so it's not clinging to my skin "Well as much as I know you guys love seeing my shirt cling to me, I must shower and change" Sam makes her classic Hardy Har face and says "Ok we'll be down here waiting" as she continues on her way to the kitchen.
SAM POV
Walking through the house I can see all the family pictures on the walls, and start to feel sentimental. Keep it together Sam you're here to help Josh get through this, not fall apart yourself. I see Chris is in the middle of creating a concoction of a sandwich; I snicker and ask "What is that?" Chris grabs the sandwich and holds it up and a few different color sauces start to drip from the edges and I wince at the thought of what the combination of flavors might be. "It is my greatest master piece" and holds it up in the air as if he can hear the angelic music playing because of its sheer existence. He looks behind me and asks "Where'd Josh go?" I pointed up and said "He went upstairs to shower" he nodded his head as he took a big bite out of his sandwich. I grimace as the sides of his face start to get stained with yellow and white and green? UGH disgusting. I walk over to toward the living room, I had a thought maybe we can watch a movie together. It's practically impossible to get josh out the house anymore, so I think it's fun if we find some cool stuff to do together in the house. I look through the movie collection, and you can definitely tell which ones are his favorites. I'm not really into horror movies but if it will make Josh happy I'll watch it. I start to go through a variety of them and pick a few I find somewhat interesting, I'll have Josh choose one when he comes down.
Chris finishes up his sandwich and comes out to the living room and starts to add to the pile I created. We both jump as we hear a thud come from upstairs; we look at each other with concern. I immediately start walking toward the stairs to make sure Josh is okay, "Josh?" I say looking down both sides of the hallway once I was at the top of the stairs; I walk over toward the bathroom and go to knock on the door when it flies open. I froze Josh stood in the doorway towel wrapped around his waist and he's gripping his head in pain. Looking at him, you can immediately tell he's lost some weight, but right now that's the least of my concern. "Oh my- Josh are you okay?" I grab his free arm and lead him to his room as he protests and have him sit in his chair, "Sam I'm fine really" he tries to push me away. I give him a stern look "Josh Tell me what happened did you slip getting out the shower or something?" I'm trying to look at his head but his hand is still covering it. He continues to try to brush it off "It's nothing really" I narrow my eyes at him and simply say "Joshua" and he slowly moves his hand and blood starts to drip from the cut on his head onto the towel and I can see a small lump has already formed from the impact from some sort of fall. "Josh what the hell!" I run out the room before he can respond and go to the water closet and grab a wash cloth and wet it with some cold water from the bathroom. By looking around I can see some specks of blood on the floor near the toilet, I don't see a lot of water on the floor so he couldn't have slipped. I rush back to the room and he's up pulling on some sweat pants and he sits back in the chair with the blood now dripping down the side of his head. I walk over and wipe the side of his head till it's clean and have him put pressure on it with the cold wash cloth to help with the swelling till we can get some ice. But first "What happened Josh?" He looks down at the ground and doesn't answer right away, but I don't want to be too persistent, but I make the concern apparent on my face. He looks at me and he looks like he's going to say something but nothing comes out but a sigh. He gets up and walks over to his dresser to grab a shirt still holding the cloth to his head and said "I just slipped on some water, nothing to go bat shit crazy over" he says simply. I go over to him and place my hand on his that's on his dresser, "Josh… I-"
"Is everything okay in here?" Chris says poking his head in the room he sees Josh holding the cloth to his head and he looks concerned "What happened?" I turn to him so he can answer and he repeats the story of him slipping on water which I don't buy but I can't force him to tell me if he's not ready. He insists on that he will be fine, he grabs a shirt and tosses it over his shoulder and we all head downstairs together. "Well I picked a movie for us to watch" Chris says tossing himself on the lounger and popping the recliner up to get comfortable. I grab my bag from by the door and head to the kitchen with Josh, he starts rummaging through the kitchen drawers looking for a first aid kit. "I brought popcorn!" I say taking the package out of my bag; Josh fakes a smile and continues looking quietly. I ignore it for now and start the popcorn in the microwave. Once I notice he finds the kit I grab it from him and motion for him to have a seat, surprisingly he does without a snarky remark or any sign of resisting. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing just yet. I grab some square gauze and some tape, when he moves the wash cloth I can tell the bleeding slowed which is a good sign but that knot on his head is definitely going to be a bruise tomorrow. As I'm prepping a few pieces of tape on the side of the table, without looking at him I ask "So….what really happened?" he pauses for a moment but says "I already told you" I place the gauze on his wound and he winces slightly. I start to tape around the square making sure that it's secure but not trying to hurt him any further "Josh I've known you long enough to know when you're lying. But I'm going to let it slide for now, since you obviously don't want to tell me the truth. Just know that when you're ready I'm here for you" He looks up at me and grabs my wrist as I finished, which made my heart feel like it skipped a beat, he looks up at me with those green eyes "Thanks, Sammy…for everything". I felt like the wind was knocked out me for some reason he always has this affect on me, I don't know what it is.
We stared at each other for what felt like a lifetime but couldn't have been more than a minute as we were snapped back to reality when *BEEP BEEP BEEP* the smell of popcorn filled the air. Chris walks in toward the microwave to take the popcorn out "What's taking you guys so long?" I take a couple steps away from Josh since I was really close for no reason since I was done patching him up. "Dammit man put on your shirt, your making me jealous" Chris says shunning his eyes as if Josh was blinding him. Josh grins and he grabs his shirt off his shoulder and stands and puts it on as he's walking toward the living room with Chris asking which movie he picked. "Chris that was my popcorn!" I yell walking behind them, he takes a handful and stuffs it in his mouth and hands me the rest of the bag. "Oh gee thanks" He tosses himself on the recliner where he has the movie pulled up paused since he was waiting for us. Josh sits in the middle of the couch and I sat on the right side of the couch next to him eating my popcorn, "so what are we watching?" and Chris holds up a movie case that's mostly white and it says The Last Winter. I knew it was going to be some sort of horror movie; this is going to be a long night.