Johnny Boy
The train did, indeed, stop in Mountain View, Arkansas. Unluckily for everyone, it was in broad daylight.
"Shit." Tyler cursed. He transformed into someone who looked completely different. Dan turned into a shadow. Shane disappeared.
"We'll just have to hope nobody can see us." Ben said, hopping off on the opposite side of the train so that instead of facing the station, they were facing a forest.
"Anthony," Ben said in a whisper-y voice.
"This way," Anthony said surely, "We're going to the Folk Center, right?"
"Not gonna question how you know where that is, but yeah. Their cabin is close to there." Ben nodded. Anthony lead them down winding foresty routes and across rocks the size of people and fields of tall grass. Mark put Cecil on his shoulder to bask in the sunlight. There was a happiness that made the group keep going, a determination to get to where they wanted to be. The scenery was gorgeous, if it was anything to go by. The woods were dappled with light and there were clear rivers with cold water that they trusted enough to drink from. The meadows were warm and sunny, with does and fawns prancing around in the spring air. The fields were golden in the sunlight and the rocks gray and constant. Everyone was too scared of discovery to talk.
"How do you know they won't be there?" Mark asked Ben curiously in regards to the cabin.
"I don't." Ben replied grimly. He didn't know what he'd do if they were there.
.o0o.
A gravel road that went on for a mile was the last hurdle to the cabin.
Well, cabin was a bit of an understatement. It was more of a big house, with guest rooms and a pool and manicured gardens and a huge, wraparound porch and a closet with all sorts of instruments.
"Think there's internet in there?" Troye asked hopefully. Dan and Phil were, as usual, pressed closely together. Joey ran ahead and back in two seconds.
"Nobody's home." He said happily.
"Okay, Anthony, one more thing," Ben said, "I'll need you to crack the security code."
"Should be easy." Anthony shrugged. And, sure enough, it was. Some science mumbo-jumbo about the oils in our skin and birthdays and whatever later and everyone was inside and enjoying the air conditioning.
.o0o.
Troye was the first to discover the Instrument Closet.
"Jon!" Troye yelled. The other musician popped his head around the corner.
"Yeah?" Jon asked.
"Instruments..." Troye sounded like he was going to drool. Or cry. Or both.
"Oh my lord." Jon said, gaping at the walk-in closet. It contained a banjo, ukulele, string bass, violin, mandolin, an accordion, and two different kinds of dulcimers.
"I love it." Jon said, "I'm just gonna stay here for a while, if that's alright with everyone."
There was Internet, which eventually drew them away.
"Um, guys?" Dan said, voice sounding like he was about to break some horrible news. He was sat at the computer and staring at something on the screen.
"What?" Everyone replied in unison.
"It's not 2013." Dan gulped, "We've been in that prison for three years."
.o0o.
After the initial panic of Oh my God that's three years of my life thrown away, Phil pointed something else out.
"That means we've been 'dead' for that long."
Was this better or worse?
.o0o.
The phandom had not shrunk. If anything, it had grown in size with the "Mysterious Disappearances of 14 YouTubers" being the title of so many articles three years ago. So many things had happened in the three years. Gay marriage was legalized in so many places, including all of the US, and the Orlando massacre had happened. Christina Grimme was dead, and with that news, Shane had to leave the room for a while. Joey followed, as did Hannah and Tyler and Dan. They wanted to comfort their friend.
"I'm twenty-one." Troye said suddenly, "I just turned twenty-one, and my parents think I'm dead."
"And they'll keep believing that. They can't know. Ever." Anthony said dangerously.
"We're in hiding." Troye's voice was watery, "We're not dead. My EP was released. I want to release something else."
"How?" Anthony raised an eyebrow at Troye.
"I... don't know! I just have to make sure people know I'm not dead!" Troye huffed in frustration and walked into a guest room, flopping down on the bed.
"Hey, I'm getting everyone's clothing sized so I can run out and get some stuff." Joey said, poking his head into the door. Troye gave him his sizes and Joey wrote them down.
"K bye." Joey said quickly, zooming out of the room. Troye sighed and laid back down on the bed. He stayed like that until it was dark outside and Tyler wandered into the room.
"G'night, Tilly." Troye grinned, pecking Tyler on the forehead.
"'Night, Troye." Tyler nearly groaned at Troye's cheesiness, letting his thoughts drift away as he laid his head down on the pillow.
.o0o.
There were five rooms and one of them had bunk beds. It was between Smosh and Mark and Jon who got the room with the bunk beds, and they did rock, paper, scissors to see who got it (Smosh won). Mark volunteered to sleep on a couch and Jon on the floor instead. Dan and Phil shared a room, as did Tyler and Troye. Hannah and Ingrid, of course, shared one as well. Ben knew that the closets had some cots in them, and so he and Louise got two. Shane and Joey decided that it wouldn't be too torturous to share a bed (especially since it was king-sized).
Everything was peaceful as everyone drifted off, the only one with some pent-up energy left being Joey, who was running (literally) to go get them actual clothes.
.o0o.
Everything was peaceful, that is, until Tyler woke up screaming bloody murder.
"Shhh," Troye brought Tyler into a hug.
"Black clouds are behind me, I now can see ahead." Troye sang softly. Tyler's screams had turned into sobs, which lessened when Troye sang.
"Often I wondered why I tried, hoping for an end. Sorrow weighs my shoulders down, and pain is in my heart. But I know the present will not last, and tomorrow will be kinder." Tyler stopped making any noise and just hiccupped into Troye's shoulder.
"What'd you dream about, Ty?" Troye questioned.
"S-solitary." Tyler stuttered, lisp making its way into every syllable.
"Oh. What'd they do?" Troye didn't want to pry, but... maybe it'd be good for him to talk about it.
"Pain." The single word broke Troye's heart. Well, it broke him to think that such a happy-go-lucky person could be reduced to screaming for help and crying at... what time was it... four in the morning?
"I'm sorry." Troye didn't probe any further. He didn't want to, it wouldn't help Tyler, he didn't want to be even more heartbroken over what had happened.
"Nothing's going to be the same ever again." Tyler said.
"Nope. And it seems there's no getting our old lives back, either." Troye sighed, "I'll never get my second album out."
A creak signified a certain Louise poking her head into the room.
"You okay?" She asked softly. Troye nodded, still rocking Tyler back and forth a bit and rubbing circles into his back. Tyler let himself be soothed. He was safe. He wasn't going back there ever again. In fact, just the thought of being pent up in a single room for that long made his head spin.
"We all went through a horrible trauma," Louise said, using what Troye dubbed her 'soothing mom' voice, "We can't have expected to come out of it unscathed, physically or mentally."
"That's right. And you're doing so well." Troye smiled, kissing Tyler's forehead, "Do you think you can go back to sleep?"
"Yeah." Tyler sighed.
"I remember tears streaming down your face, when I said I'd never let you go. When all those shadows almost killed your light." Troye sang Tyler to sleep and Louise closed the door softly behind her as she left to try to get some more sleep too.
"I remember you said; don't leave me here alone." Troye sang the rest of the song out loud.
With all that's dead and gone and past, tonight.
Just close you eyes,
The sun is going down,
You'll be alright,
No-one can hurt you now,
Come morning light,
You and I'll be safe,
And,
Sound.
Don't you dare look out your window,
Darling, everything's on fire.
The war outside our door keeps raging on.
Hold on, to this, lullaby.
Even when music's gone.
Just close your eyes,
The sun is going down,
You'll be alright,
No-one can hurt you now,
Come morning light,
You and I'll be safe,
And,
Sound.
Troye sure hoped that they'd never be found out. He had already lost Connor, there was no way in hell he was losing this one too.