heathen:machine [Joshler AU] ?

"No! No, I didn't mean to!"

"Stop – stop it! Let me hold him!"

"He's still there! I need to talk to him, I need to hold him! Please! Let me – "

"Calm down. You've done enough damage."

"I can fix him! Please – "

Thoughts flooded Tyler's mind. Very specific thoughts, but thoughts all the same. He didn't remember much after that. He remembered the police man dragging him away and telling him that he had done enough, but the rest of his mind was blank. He didn't remember how he ended up in this dark room. He didn't remember how the clothes he had been wearing had been switched to an orange jumpsuit.

He looked down at his hands. One was cuffed to the arm of the wooden chair he was sitting in. The palms of each were stained with a red-orange color. It had dried now, so if he picked at it with his nail, bits of it would scrape off. He didn't remember how that had gotten there either.

There was a knock and he looked up. A man with bright red hair was standing by the now open door, flanked by two other people whom he didn't recognize, a woman holding a briefcase and a man holding a clipboard. He did, in fact, recognize the red-haired man. He was the police officer that took him here.

The policeman didn't say anything. He crossed to the table that was placed in front of Tyler and set down a folder with lots of paper sticking out of it. He kicked the chair aside and took off his sunglasses, his hazel eyes bearing deep into Tyler's. "So," he began in a thick New Jersey accent, "Tyler Joseph."

Tyler didn't know if that was a statement or an address for him to speak, so he kept quiet. He watched as the policeman opened the folder and picked up a piece of paper, examined it, then either place it back in the folder or on the table. He did that with a couple other papers, then spoke again. "Do you know why you're here, Joseph?"

Tyler shook his head 'no'.

"Do you know where 'here' is?"

Tyler shook his head again. He had just realized that he didn't know so many things. It was scaring him. He liked to know things. He liked to know what time it was, he liked to know what the weather was like, he liked to know what was for lunch, he liked to know a person's name –

Which reminded him – he didn't know the police officer's name. He reached for the rubber band that was on his wrist and pulled it back just a little, releasing it so it made a soft snapping sound on his skin. He did this whenever he didn't know something he wanted to. It made him feel anxious, and Josh had promised him that it would help him stop cutting, and he trusted Josh. "What's your name?" He asked the officer.

He raised an eyebrow. "Pardon?"

"Can you tell me your name?" Tyler asked again.

The officer glanced at the man with clipboard, who gave a small shrug. "Uh, sure. I'm Officer Way. I took you here."

"I know that," Tyler said, like it was obvious. He pointed at the other man with his handcuff-free hand. "What's your name?"

"That's not important," Officer Way interrupted.

"He has the right to know," a feminine voice said suddenly, causing Tyler to jump in surprise. His lips parted as he spotted the woman with the briefcase standing behind him. He didn't notice her standing there. He wondered who she was.

Officer Way sighed. "Fine. This is Iero – " he jabbed a thump in the shorter man's direction. "He's an intern. Now, since our little introduction is over, why don't we – "