INTERLUDE

"I'll take these ones." He grinned widely at me, dropping a stack of CDs on to the counter. His dark eyes were sparkling with child-like innocence. "I love her songs. They're my favourite. I think they're on sale."

I looked at the woman smiling softly on the cover. These CDs had been on sale shortly after they were released and were left to collect dust with no one to buy them. I scanned the barcode and slid the item to the side.

"I really love her," he said, laughing loudly. "I already have a few copies, but I need more." He took the scanned case and held it against his chest, smiling dreamily with his eyes closed.

I scanned the next one and the next one. They were all the same. "That'll be thirty-nine forty," I told him, watching him playing with the shrink wrap, completely oblivious to anything around him as he hummed a song from the album. I waited a moment, allowing him to enjoy himself.

When he opened his eyes again, he turned to the lineup behind him. "Have you heard of her?" He got right up to the closest woman's face who smiled uncomfortably back at him. "She's the best. I'd give you a copy, but I need these. You can get them over there."

I bit my lips when I felt the first tremours hit me. Blinking furiously, I continued to watch as he went down the line, announcing his delight to anyone who would listen.

Over the years, I had watched him descend. The daily medication used to help and he had always greeted me with a small smile whenever he came by to pick them up. Sometimes, he'd visit just to see me and wait until I was on my break where we both grabbed a coffee next door. It wasn't long before it became a ritual for us and it was obvious to everyone at work that we were dating.

...

"Josh," I gently called out to him. "Josh, did you want these?"

He turned to me with a wide grin. "Yeah!" He immediately turned back to the other customers who all looked disturbed by his obnoxiously loud voice. Some had left, waiting just outside of the glass doors, glancing nervously at him.

"Why don't we pay for these first?" I waved one of the CDs, hoping that it would capture his attention long enough to finish the transaction and help him out of the pharmacy before the crowd accumulate anymore.

"Okay!" He walked back over to me, leaning on the counter. His body extended forward and his face was a mere foot away. "Are these on sale?"

I nodded. "Yes. Your total is thirty-nine forty," I told him, again.

He laughed as if I had said something funny and turned his head to the lineup again. Everyone else had turned away, hoping that he wouldn't engage them into another awkward conversation. "Can you believe the deal? I should get some more. She's my favourite. Feels like she's singing to me."

I swallowed. "C-cash?" I asked, spotting the bills he had clutched in his fists.

"Huh?" He looked at me confused as if he had only just realised that I was speaking to him.

"Would you like to pay with cash?" I managed to say in the steadiest voice I could muster.

"Oh, yeah!" He threw down the money, looking at them as if he was trying to decipher how much to give me.

At the moment, I believed that there could no one else who would understand how I felt. After everything we went through. It was the internal battles that I couldn't help him with. The fight had started before I met him and I hadn't realised until it was too late. By then, we had some of the happiest days together, but it was never going to be enough. He lost himself in his head, talking to his sister; talking to strangers and assuming they were people he knew; talking to me as if I wasn't really there - as if I had died on the mountains all those years ago.

It didn't take much to snap him out of it at first. He'd come back to me with a touch or a kiss, but that quickly became ineffective. Even then, I was alright with it because I knew he was still physically with me.

And then, one morning, I woke up and he was gone. He was gone in the afternoon, he was gone in the evening, he was gone for the days to come. I contacted everyone he knew. I even called them.

Mike recognised my voice and immediately hung up, but Sam called back to ask what was wrong. I was frantic and the words came out in a jumble. She understood enough of it to tell me that she hadn't seen him since our last meeting together. That had been nearly a year ago.

My next call was to Chris who became as concerned as I was. We met up and searched around the entire town, but we didn't so much as catch a glimpse of him anywhere. It didn't help that his parents were impossible to contact. There was really no one else to turn to.

For months I was left wondering where he had gone and whether he was even still alive. I couldn't wrap my head around how I had just lost my baby and now I was losing the love of my life. Hadn't it been bad enough that I went through all that supernatural shit? What more did they want from me? What more could I possibly lose?

It wasn't until Dr. Hill called me one early morning, saying that he found Josh wandering the parking lot, did I finally breathe easy.

I rushed over immediately. My heart broke as I saw him pacing and muttering to himself. Every once in a while, he'd shout into the air. "You can't take her away from me!" In another moment, he'd be on his knees, crying. "I love her… I'm so sorry, Clara… I didn't mean to kill you…"

After that, I rushed to him and held him in my arms, but no matter what I said to him, he wasn't there. He was murmuring his sorrowful goodbyes. With Dr. Hill's help, we moved him into his office, away from prying eyes and nosy ears.

By that time, Josh had been off his medication for too long. Dr. Hill had prescribed him a list of new drugs and I helped fill it at the pharmacy I had volunteered at. It was a trial period with both Dr. Morrison and Dr. Hill vouching for me. If I did well enough, they were going to hire me for real. I was getting close to the end of my probationary period.

When they think I wasn't listening, I could hear my coworkers murmuring behind my back, wondering about Josh and I. They knew that the both of us were crazy. It wasn't something I was going to deny. I just wanted them to be upfront about it instead of pretending that I didn't have ears. Couldn't they have at least waited until I was on my break?

...

"Clara?" My heart skipped a beat, seeing his eyes stare into mine with concern. As quickly as it appeared, the clarity disappeared again and he was playing around with the notes on the counter.

"Here, I'll help you." I counted the money in front of him and gave him the correct change. After handing the bag of CDs to him, he beamed at me. "Take care, okay? Go straight home."

"Okay!" He nodded his head, holding the bag close to him and began to engage the other customers as soon as he turned around. They all stepped away from him, but he wasn't detoured. He spoke to anyone and everyone until he was out of the story and I heard a very audible collection of sighs when he was gone.

None of the customers said anything about him, but I could tell by the way they looked at me that they were judging him for things he couldn't control. It wasn't his fault how things turned out. Fate was cruel.

Once my shift was over, I grabbed his medication and hurried home. The music was loud enough to disturb the neighbours, but they were used to it. They knew who lived here and no one wanted to make Bob Washington their enemy here. His reputation preceded him. And although he was never present, they didn't need to know how negligent he was of his remaining child. It also helped that word had spread that Josh was a bit of a psychopath. I suspected Ashley or Mike, but who knows?

"Josh?" I called out, hoping that he was still alright. Every day was stressful. After finding him with his wrists slit wide open, once, I was always terrified to one day come home to his dead body.

This time, I spotted him on the couch with his eyes closed and a smile on his face. His head was swaying to the melody. On his chest was the copy of the CD that was booming from the old stereo.

"Josh…" I sat beside him, stroking his face gently.

He opened his eyes and smiled dreamily at me. He picked up the album and stared fondly at the picture. "I love her," he told me, again.

"I know…" I whispered, looking down at myself staring back at me. No, I had been looking at him during the photo shoot. I had been thinking of him when I smiled. I had been dreaming of him when I sang. He was my inspiration for everything and even though no one else would ever understand it, it was enough that he did.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

This is heavily inspired by what I experienced in person, but not so much on a very personal level and although I didn't know the person that well, it pained me so much that I really wanted to just break down and cry. I'm not going to go into specifics with this. I just had to get it out.

Whether you want to take this as foreshadowing for what may or may not happen in the future is up to you. I know I haven't been updating regularly on this story and I really wanted to, but the inspiration really hadn't hit until this point. Even then, the chapters for this story are much shorter than what I usually write. I hope you guys don't mind.

I also do plan to continue this story, so please be patient with me. I will try to get more chapters out, soon.

I'm also in need of a title for this story, so I'm completely open for suggestions.

Thank you MyNameIsMordecai, HerOverYonder, orianawtf, guest (Lurker) for reviewing!

MyNameIsMordecai: Sorry it's been so long since the last update! I'll try my best to put up another chapter, soon. Thank you so much for reviewing!

Lurker: I'm glad you've enjoyed the story, so far. I was really hoping that no one expected the twist to happen! There will most likely be a twist in this too… Maybe? I don't know. I like my twists. I just haven't figured out this one quite yet.

HerOverYonder: This is a slower adventure to my AHS once, but it'll trudge on!

orianawtf: Everyone survived in my story… Kind of? In the happy ending, everyone survives, which leads to this story. In the alternate ending, Clara dies and Josh turns into a Wendigo. In a way, I actually hate Ashley more than Emily and Jess, just because she tries to be that demure maiden, but she hadn't bat an eyelash telling Mike to kill Emily. She's very subtle in her manipulation, while Emily is very outspoken and Jess is just… naively mean? I actually felt really bad for her ever since she woke up in the mines.

Thank you as well to everyone who has favourited and followed this story.

Please leave a review if you enjoyed this story, so far and I'll try my best to get back to you as soon as possible.