"Ryan..."
Ryan heard a clear voice, standing in a distance. Sounding like a thrilled 6-year-old throwing a wincing tantrum.
"Ryan! Bud! Hey!"
He heard it again, along with two soft and enchanting hands squeezing and shaking Ryan's body, madly.
"Dude...are you alright?"
When he heard it again, he connected the dots inside his head. The bright joyous and the content of the person's voice remarked him of Rin. As his eyes fluttered open a smidgen bit, he viewed a delightful silly smirk of a tiny speck with brown shiny bangs.
"Rin!" Ryan pondered, before gently shutting his eyes once more.
"Yeah, Rin. He's clearly alright. I wondered what gave it away?" another high voice, although not so flattering like Rin's voice, uttered. Clearly sounding irritated with its saracastic tone.
"Was it the pale skin? Or his extremely chapped lips, Jesus Christ! Look at those devils!"
"Hey! Now hold on, lips could be chapped!" Rin retorted back, still sounding like the sweetest thing to ever exist.
Ryan's eyes flickered open, giving him another glimpse of Rin's uneaten face. Crouching next to her, was Darren. Her older arrogant teasing sister. Darren's face was squinted as she was trying to get a better view at Ryan from above. His skin was as pale as a wedding dress and it seemed very nauseous and sick. His lips were parched as a blazing desert, looking like they were dying for some thirst. Ryan's overall body just looked very ill and concerning.
As Ryan grunted and drawl his eyes open. He saw the inside of the house. It was entirely untouched and admirable. Like how it was right before the incident. He recalled the walls being rotten and blunted. Now, they were perfectly robust and flourishing. As if he awakened in an upside down version of his own original world.
"Oh! Hush! Look, he's waking up!" Darren declared and immediately hopped away around Ryan.
Ryan rose from the floor, still looking like a total disaster with his ruffled hair, dancing all over the place. While he was struggling to stand up, he glanced at Rin. Her clothes were completely untethered and was entirely pleasing to look at. Her bangs were straight and her eyes shown deep optimism and wisdom.
In deep bewilderment, Ryan croaked with a raspy dry tone. "R-Rin?"
Ryan was beyond stunned. He never expected to ever see Rin or Darren ever again. At least in the flesh with all of their undamaged limbs attached.
"Yeah, are you okay?" Rin questioned, with her enchanting eyes twinkling directly at Ryan.
As he shivered, he stammered and exploded from his weaken position, in a very reckless manner. Darting all over the place, he grasped Darren's gloved hand, stunning her completely. While he scurried her into the distant bright kitchen. Leaving Rin, utterly by herself in the tethered living room.
"Argh! dude, the hell's your problem?" Darren grunted and grimaced at Ryan. All with her sassy tone and her irritated expression, as Ryan shoved her by the uncleansed countertops.
"What happened? The hell's going on, Darren?" Ryan uttered with clear and complete anxiety wrenching down his throat.
Ryan's face was sweaty and extremely moist, seeming as if he had jogged in the Olympics. His chest kept inhaling in and exhaling very rapidly like someone inflating a balloon in a rushed manner. His fingers went absolute berserk in his sweater pockets as he lost his lugging breath.
"What? What are you talking about? You only just came in, acting all crazy. I almost thought you've been boozed on the way here. You sincerely seemed like you were, that's for certain. And then you came in the living room, slapping your hands completely everywhere on the floor, and then just went unconscious," Darren answered with her rushed voice, springing her hands all over in the air to indicate of what she was saying.
Ryan shot her a look. A look indicating her that there was more. There was more, deep under the surface in a broken voice. There was voices wandering and stroking innocuously, however there was way more to it than just a puny prey.
Ryan trembled as his hands latched themselves on top of Darren's bitter shoulders. With his face being paler than the white titled floor, tears descended down his face while Ryan strangled himself to speak.
Darren scoffed as she demanded, "Ryan, what happened?"
The tears dropping down his face trembled her with suspense as her heart began pounding. She never seen Ryan cry before. Usually it'll just be his departed eyes and his downcast behavior, just roaming the empty halls at night. Searching for a valley to rest in, but tears was something he'll never do. At least not in front of people he knew dearly.
"Ryan, what happened?" She repeated, with an impatient tone, after hearing absolutely nothing in response from him.
Ryan swallowed his throat, cleansing all of the words and the lumps that were stiffly stuck inside his throat. His pale skin faded away a bit as he stopped pondering all about the whole horrid situation.
He gazed at Darren with squeaky eyes and clenched his quaking hands together.
"Look," he started. "I....Please, just....just can you look out tonight? Like...have a stakeout? A stakeout in the living room? I don't wanna talk about what happened. Just....have a stakeout, so I could be careful," Ryan explained, caressing the back of his creaking neck. His voice kept plummeting down to a bare whisper.
Darren scanned around the room. Getting a glance at every sloppy detail the kitchen had. The floors were smeady and unswept, as balls of elongated dirt danced heavenly on it. She suspired, thinking what Ryan had said. What did he mean to be careful? Was he avoiding someone? Dodging a thing he doesn't want to deal with? Whatever it was, she didn't wanna decline his offer and give him way more anxiety than what he already has. If that something made him this much tore and wounded, then she should probably do as he says.
She sighed, closing her eyes and sprouting them out again. "*Sigh*, Alright. Whatever, I'll just sleep in the living room, I suppose. After I finished "staking out."
Ryan's skin completely dissipated back into the gray shade it was originally was. Releasing out some of the anxiety that was painfully creasing and trimming him inside. His lips were still very chapped, though. Making him excruciating thirsty for some fresh water.
"But," Darren drawled out, shuddering Ryan a tiny bit. "Listen. Whatever happened, don't believe it all. When people are dealing with grief of a dead parent or so. It can mess with your head. Make you see illusions, have nightmares, okay? I'm not saying that whatever happened wasn't real or anything. Just...like you said..be careful. You can't always trust yourself when your handling too much pressure. Okay, bud?"
Ryan nodded. Barely understanding half what Darren had said. He wanted to ask her what she had meant by that, to elaborate more. However, his mouth was sealed shut. It wouldn't and it couldn't move an inch. No matter how much he demanded to, his whole body went numb and paralyzed in the same position.
Darren grinned pridefully and lugged Ryan forward, catching him into a welcoming squeeze. She endlessly stroked the back of his dark hair with a heart-warming smile. It was familiar to him. The hug and the comforting smile, it recalled of him of his past life. His forgotten past life. The life he desired to leave behind him. At least well he's still here.
Ryan replied back with the same warm squeeze. His tears clouded his eyes, but they never left them and glide down his cold skin. They only remained motionless and still, as Darren and Ryan did the absolute same.
He wanted to stay like this for only a few more seconds, feeling very protected and guarded like this made his adrenaline lessen. But, Darren soon shifted away. With the same smile on her face.
"Better?" she spoke to him.
He was infinitely silent and indistinct. He didn't knew exactly what to say in response. With the feeling and the incidence lurking inside of him, he wasn't sure how to feel. He knows what Darren is capable of. Even if she may be an 11-year-old, her punches holds devastating power and might. Nobody would want to step in her way. But is she really strong enough to protect him? Protect him from the darkness?
He soon began changing his mind whether he should let Darren watch out tonight. What if something goes wrong? And he's the blame for it. He doesn't want anything bad to happen to them. But then, how should he make sure he doesn't see it again. He knows that they won't believe him if he told the whole story. Even if they did, what can they do about it? They're only kids. And he's only a kid as well. What can he do?
After a few awkward seconds, Ryan finally winced and nodded his head.
"hmh, yeah," he said, stepping away from Darren in a shy manner.
"Okay. That's good. Um...we should head back. You know how Rin is when she's by herself," Darren declared. Already steadily hiking back to the living room.
This time, instead floating away back into his thoughts. He autmoctically replied back, "Yeah, yeah....Yeah, you're right."
A grin set its way along Darren's face. "Let's go."
SOMEWHERE AROUND KENDALL STREET
Miranda, infuriated with rage and disgust, bulldozed out of the color-filled house with two enlarged suitcases chuckling at her kneecaps. Her face was tearful and hurt. Yet it was also infused with disappointment and it intensified once she heard the alarming high pitched voice of her dependent boyfriend trotting behind her. Wailing in pain for forgiveness, and endlessly screeching her name.
"Miranda! Miranda! Wait! Please! I-I love you. Please, forgive me. M.... M-M-Miranda!" her boyfriend, or her ex-boyfriend, Ross, implored her. Rapidly gaining up to her..
"Ross, just stay away! Don't touch me!" Miranda retorted back at him, with thick fury stinging deep within her lady-like tone.
"But I love you!" Ross exclaimed to her. "I'm so sorry, I don't know what happened to me that night! It wasn't me! I....I wasn't in control of what I was doing, just please. Please don't leave me. I can't go on without you."
The more Ross implored Miranda, the more his tears dominated his being. His legs felt suddenly wounded and destroyed. As if they have been brutally shot. His arms twitched nonstop as his high voice pitched voice shattered. He gallopped in front of Miranda's path. Quivering like a total earthquake, he blocked her path towards her distant car.
As she glanced at him, her face clinched and faded away to monstrosity and became the perfect eyesore. Her hands tightened and razored like piercing, clawing knives on their already firm grip on the bulky suitcase. He anticipated her to at least grant him a chance. A chance to reason with her and explain his previous monstorous actions. Or even redeem himself to her. Especially given her open-hearted and optimistic behavior towards him all before the whole incidence. But, all she gave him was a threatening hiss and a ruthless shove while she entered her silver metallic car royally.
As Ross went completely emotional and into ultimate terror. His arms cradled onto Miranda. They crawled around her neck, absolutely not allowing her to do anything. Not even defend herself against Ross's loving brawl.
"Please, just give me another chance. We can fix it, we can do it! But only together. I'm begging you, don't leave me behind," Ross told her innocuouly. Squishing his tight grip, way over the limit needlessly.
Miranda stared at him hauntingly. Ross imagined her darting away from him. Not even snatching a second to glimpse back at him as she sped off into her new life. A new life without him.
She grunted and exhaled as her head shifted away from his mandled face. With the same hate trudged inside her eyes. It was like her great burning red love for him was instantly distinguished and was replaced with a hateful repungance of his very own existence.
"You know!" she begun, "if I stay now, then I'll just become another weak victim of yours!"
With that, she struggled out of his tenderous clutches, rammed his trembling figure away from the vehicle. And tgen punched on it as she bolted away from his area. Stripping of his bright joy and his very reason to go on in the state he's in. His face have been flooded with mass nerving tears, but now, he felt his heart burst and explode while he collapsed onto the dark, sharp grass in great agony and regret.