𝐚 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐬 | Tyler Hernandez x Reader

| Ep 23 |

"Its entire body reacted to Aiden's flashlight, which is not a reflex." I explain further, now standing in between Tyler and Aiden.

We were all huddled around the body, inspecting it closely. It just didn't make sense for it to react like it was still alive, let alone melt into goo.

"That's just so..." Taylor tries to find the right word, "peculiar."

"Disgusting is more like it." Tyler adds, which I nod to.

A groan is followed by Logan's voice from the back of the bus, "What...?"

I shoot my head up at him and lightly push past Aiden to get to him. I hear Taylor ask, "Are you feeling any better?"

I crouch down beside him and place my hands on his shoulders, "You really scared us back there, Logan."

He does not return the smile I gave him, instead shamefully looking down, "I'm sorry..."

"Sorry?" I chuckle a bit, "Why are you sorry? We're all just happy you're awake!"

I give him a gentle hug, not wanting to accidentally bump into his rib. He then tenses under my hold and I pull away to see his face. He was looking over at the body by the window.

"What happened to it?!"

Aiden decides to explain for us, "Turns out if these things are exposed to light for too long, they start to wig out and turn to goop."

Ah, that's what it was. Of course.

"Like, their body starts to twist, and bubble, and spaz-" He goes on and I watch the color on Logan's face slowly slip away.

"Okay, stop," Tyler butts in, noticing Logan's horrified face too, "I think he gets the picture. Now quit before you make him sick. And since he's awake now, let's talk about Savannah."

I groan, knowing how this conversation is going to end up. We've tried to discuss this matter several times already and it always ends up with the same two people-

"We can't keep hoping that things will go back to normal on their own." Tyler argues, making a fairly realistic point.

"And we can't risk getting stuck here permanently." Ashlyn also makes a good point.

They both glare at each other, face-to-face, ready to pounce at any given moment. The rest of us are all silently spectating, sat in a circle.

Taylor stutters from my right, a little hesitant to intervene in whatever was going on in front of us,

"Um...going back doesn't mean we have to go back to the house again or interact with the phantom, right?"

"Well, how else are we supposed to go back?" I ask her.

"Maybe we can just search around for someone who might know something? The locals are bound to know something," She props up onto her knees and continues, "We've been reading myths, lore, and have watched who-knows-how-many investigations about Savannah for the past two weeks, and still haven't found anything useful..."

She was right, since Savannah, we've been working our asses off on trying to pull some clues. We just needed any lead to assure us that we weren't going crazy.

With his arms crossed over his chest, Tyler says, "I'll agree to avoiding that place and only searching for local information. That way we don't have to risk anything."

"Exactly, we don't know what to expect if we go back to the house. This is our safest bet yet." I add in agreement to the twins, which Logan hums and nods to.

With most of us on the same page, Ashlyn asks for Ben's opinion. He begins to swiftly type onto his phone screen, turning it around to show us,

I'll go with whatever Aiden decides.

"Hm?" Aiden glances up from his cousin's phone, "I don't care either way. Both options seem fun."

I let out a sigh and pinch the bridge of my nose.

"I don't think this was an accident," Ashlyn speaks slowly, as if still forming a theory in her head, "There's the possibility that lady did this on purpose and we could run into her again. There might even be others like her."

I purse my lips at this, completely forgetting about how that woman tied into all this. I sense Tyler tense up from beside me, clenching his fists,

"So you're still against going?!"

If that were the case, then Ashlyn would be the only one against the idea. So, logically, we would still end up going since she's outnumbered.

"No," She responds, "I'll go. But only if we wait a year."

I raise a brow at this, "Hold on-"

"A year?! You want to be stuck here for a year?!" Tyler raises his voice in disbelief.

"Calm down. There's no guarantee that even if we go back, we'll find a way out of here," Ashlyn assures him, which doesn't do much to calm him down, "Plus, none of us have a car or a license."

"Y/N has her license." Taylor chirps up, pointing right at me. I blush in embarrassment at this and wave my hands up frantically,

"Well- I mean...yeah, but I borrow my mom's car. I don't even have my own so it wouldn't work out very well."

Everyone sighs in disappointment and Ashlyn continues, "And aside from finding a way down there, I think a year would give us time to prepare for the worst outcome."

"...Worst outcome?" Logan repeats.

I look over at him and nod, "It's best to be prepared for whatever comes at us, don't you think?"

"Even with all our precautions, we could still somehow get stuck here permanently or have another encounter with that woman. So for a year, we should train ourselves, research, and turn this place into a reliable stronghold to survive in."

We all nod, not a single person in disagreement with her right now,

"It's about time we start taking this seriously."

---

We are now all bunched up together, staring cluelessly at a whiteboard Ashlyn dug out of a junk pile. She stood before us, spinning a dry erase marker in her hand. I gave her an unamused gaze, feeling this wasn't necessary at all.

"Did we really need this?" Tyler asks, sounding just as unimpressed as I did.

Ashlyn walks up to the board, "Alright, so...This should be our first goal."

She jots down onto the whiteboard and we all share the same dumbfounded expression. Tyler's the first to voice his thoughts, per usual,

"How are we going to do that?"