All Night

Part 5

"We need better weapons" Ashlyn looked at us. "So we raid the gun shop" Tyler pointed at the whiteboard. "Yes, but first we need to fortify the walls and bring the Jeep here" she said. "I have my drivers permit so I can at least do that much" I said. "That's a start, but since the phantom was able to get over the wall, we'll have to figure out how to stop it from happening again" Ashlyn stated as she thought. "Then phantoms could get in when we move the Jeep" I sat there. Ben seemed to have gotten an idea and then he walked over and grabbed his sketchbook and drew something. He showed us a drawing of the wall with barbed wire on top. He had a small smile on his face. "Maybe if they were normal humans but I feel like it wouldn't bother them" Tyler said. Ben looked at his drawing with a sad face. I patted his back to reassure him. "It was a good try" I told the boy. "We could use lights since they don't react well to that" Aiden suggested. "I don't think the generator has enough power to keep the lights on" Ashlyn said. "We could use solar powered lights" Logan pitched in. "How would we get them?" Tyler asked. "I could get them, I haven't been using my allowance recently so it's got a bit in it" Aiden chimed. "How much do you have?" Taylor asked. Once Aiden told us, we looked at him. He's rich. Of course it'd be him. Then we discussed how he would order them online and have them shipped to the graveyard. Ashlyn then asked to borrow Aidens knife and he let her. Then she cut off her braids.

Me, Ashlyn, Ben, Aiden, and the twins walked down the hall together. "You'll be able to order the lights during lunch, right?" Ashlyn asked Aiden. "I should, yea" the boy replied. "Won't your parents be confused when the lights arrive?" Taylor asked. "They're away on a trip for a few months" the blonde answered. Tyler looked up from his phone. "I was wondering where the nerd was" the brunette said. I looked in front of me and saw Logan being bullied. This pissed me off. "Is he being bullied?" Ashlyn questioned. "It's him again" Taylor said. "Yea, I'm on it" Tyler made his way over. "Whoa, hey bud, calm down, the half-wit is taking care of it" Aiden got in front of Ben, who looked mad pissed. "Barron, what are you doing?" Tyler asked the boy as he walked over. "Oh great" the boy mumbled. "I'm just talking to my science partner about our project" he added. Tyler crossed his arms and glanced at Logan, who was trembling. "I'm not an idiot Barron, I could hear you yelling from the end of the hallway, you're already on thin ice with coach, so buzz off before he finds out about how you're treating your science 'partner'" Tyler looked at him. "Fine" Barron turned and walked away as Tyler glared at him. I quickly ran over to Logan. "Thanks Tyler" Logan looked up. Tyler looked at Logan. "You're seriously scared of him, after fighting those things every night, pathetic" Tyler spat. "Tyler! That's not cool" Taylor said as she stood by me. I hit Tyler upside the head. "What is wrong with you?! The kid is getting bullied! You need to help him not make him feel worse!" I glared at him. I turned to Logan and grabbed his chin and turned his head. He had a bruise on his cheek. "What was that about?" Taylor asked Logan. "I forgot to do his part of the project" Logan answered. "How is he supposed to survive if he can't stand up for himself?" Tyler asked. "Oh yea, calling him pathetic will definitely help him" I glared at Tyler. "Tyler's right though, the way he said it was uncalled for, but Logan could use some strength training, we all do" Ashlyn said. "That's why I'm thinking about asking my parents to teach us self defense" she added. "I think that's a good idea" I looked at her. "And what are we gonna tell them so we don't get sent to a psyche ward?" Tyler asked. "We could use the fact that Logan is being bullied" I suggested. I looked at Logan. "I'll punch the dude next time, you just let me know" I stated. He nodded. "Where's the psycho and big guy?" Tyler asked, his arms still crossed. "I think Ben started acting weird so Aiden said they'd go to the vending machine and see us in class" Taylor replied. We walked to class. Aiden and Ben never showed up. I looked at the group chat.

Psycho: Sorry we'll see you guys at lunch 😁

Lunch came around and I turned my paper in as I walked out of the class. We waited for Ashlyn and when she came over, we went to lunch. We got our food and went to the table. We all stood as Ashlyn leaned over the table. Her braids were there, but her shadow didn't show them. "That's weird" Tyler said as we sat down. Aiden held onto Ashlyn's braid and Ashlyn threatened to break his arm. "This could also be like how injuries in the phantom dimension, doesn't transfer over into this world" Logan said. "Speaking of injuries, how's yours?" Ashlyn asked. They all looked over. "It's alright, just a little sore" I answered. "And what happened to you guys?" She asked Aiden and Ben. Aiden looked at Ben. "You sure you want me to tell them?" He asked his cousin. Ben typed on his phone. It said that he thought it would be best to have these things in the open since we're a team. Then he put his ear buds in and they would stay in until Aiden was done. "This conversation doesn't go outside of this group" Aiden looked at us as if he'd do something if we told anybody else. Aiden explained that Ben loved to sing, but his appearance didn't match his personality, so he was bullied, however it didn't start out as bullying, some kids offered to "fix" him, but Ben refused and that's when it turned to bullying. Ben would get beaten up and the leader of the group would ask for Ben to join his group, but Ben always said no. The kid, named Shane, strangled Ben. He didn't want to kill Ben, he just wanted to damage his voice box because he knew Ben loved to sing. This caused Ben to become depressed that eventually turned to rage. Ben beat the kids up once he got back to school but he didn't feel any better. Because he didn't know what to do, he picked fights, he stopped going to school and would go home late. Ben refused to go to therapy and his parents didn't know what to do. One of the kids Ben got into a fight with had an older brother who had gang connections, this older brother set their house on fire and his family had to move. Ben felt bad and so he moved in with Aiden and started going to therapy. I sat there, stunned. Ben took his ear buds out. It was silent for a moment. "Thank you Ben, for sharing it with us" Taylor smiled. I got up and hugged Ben. He was surprised. "You remind me of Jaeyoon" I said. "How does he remind you of your friend?" Tyler asked. "Jaeyoon used to a trainee for a huge agency in Korea, he got in because he was an amazing dancer and he loved dancing, he was so close to debuting in a group but then he hurt his ankle, he ignored his doctors orders and thought that after a few weeks of resting, he could dance again, but it only damaged his ankle more and now he can't dance anymore" I explained. They stared. "You two are similar but different, I think you guys would get along" I looked up at Ben and he smiled. I let him go and sat back down. "This is a little off topic but I have a theory about what happened, well not what happened but how we went from Savanah to Alto" Logan said. "That is something that we've been stuck on" I said. "After we left Savanah, instead of us returning to the motels on the second night, we woke up at home, it didn't make sense when we learned that we start where we left off, we had to hide as best we could until it was safe again, it was brutal the first few days" Logan explained. "So what's the theory?" Tyler asked. "Because of how our injuries work in relation in each dimension, I think the bodies we use here and use in the phantom world are separated but connected and IF they are connected somehow, what if there's a distance limit? If you travel too far from one body, then the other resets it's position instead of going back to where we were previously" Logan said. "That makes sense" I said. We continued discussing the topic as it went through Aidens head. Aidens head hit the table and we looked at him. "I get we need to learn about the phantom dimension but can we talk about something more exciting?" The blonde asked. Tyler raised his hand but Taylor stopped him. Ashlyn looked at Aiden like she was about to hit him. She sighed and asked Aiden about her self defense idea. Then Aiden got this idea of showing Ashlyn's parents her hair and how her shadow didn't have her braids. Ashlyn punched Aiden to have him let go of her. "That's not a bad idea" I said. "He actually has a brain" Tyler stated. "Be nice" I said to the brunette.