𝓐𝓲𝓭𝓮𝓷 𝔁 𝓡𝓮𝓪𝓭𝓮𝓻 (but you're Ashlyn) 𝕊𝔹𝔾

Episode 61

>>>><Taking it All for Us><<<<

I grabbed Aiden's arm, yanking him down with me as I dove under a nearby table. Taylor followed, scrambling to squeeze in beside us. Dust filled the air, choking me, blinding me.
 I wrapped my arms around Aiden, trying to shield him from the falling debris. Then came the impact. A deafening crash, followed by a sickening silence. It's okay. He's okay. He wasn't dead. I tried to convince myself.

 I didn't want to open my eyes, didn't want to see what had happened. But I had to. I loosened my grip on Aiden, my heart hammering against my ribs, and looked down.
He was still. Too still. 

And then I saw it.
The smile.

 It wasn't Aiden's smile. It wasn't the goofy, charming grin that always managed to make my stomach flip. This was something else entirely. His lips were stretched wide, too wide, revealing his teeth in a grotesque, unnatural expression. It was a smile that belonged to one of the Phantom monsters, a smile that promised nothing but pain and death.

 It was wrong. So horribly, irrevocably wrong. There was an immediate scream that quite possibly came from my own throat as I turned to see Aiden lying on the ground, his body convulsing. I noticed Taylor back away as the adults quickly crowded around his body.

 I couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. Couldn't tear my gaze away from that awful smile. It was him, but it wasn't. The Phantom Dimension had taken him, twisted him, turned him into something...else. He had fallen, impaled, survived, but now...he was gone. Really gone. And I was left here, trapped beneath a table, with the ghost of Aiden Clark and the memory of that terrifying, inhuman smile burned into my mind. 

It was like Tyler all over again, except this time, there was no Ben to bring him back. This time, there was only death. A death grinning back at me with the face of my best friend.

****BACK IN REALITY****

I hurriedly back away from Aiden's body. My thoughts were a tangled mess, a whirlwind of fear and confusion. Aiden was dead, then he wasn't. That smile...that horrible, unnatural smile...it couldn't have been him. It just couldn't.

 But if it wasn't Aiden, then what was it? What had we brought back from the Phantom Dimension? My head swam, the room tilting around me. I stumbled backward, away from the table, away from the lingering scent of dust and death.

"Aiden!" Taylor's shriek cut through the chaos in my mind. I snapped my head up to see Aiden's body jerking violently on the floor. His limbs flailed, his back arched, and a guttural sound escaped his throat. It was like watching a puppet controlled by invisible strings, a grotesque parody of life. Then, as suddenly as it began, the convulsing stopped.

The door burst open, and the room flooded with adults. His parent, faces etched with concern, rushed forward, followed by Ben and Lily, Logan came and asked if I was okay, I was so focused on Aiden I barely even heard him.
"Y-yeah I'm fine.." I was anything but fine.

Aiden who was now sitting himself up, brushing everyone off claim he was fine.

Aiden's mom started rambling a whole hunch of questions. His dad placed his hand on his knee in a reassuring way, but he flinched away from his touch, shoving his arm off with surprising force. 

"-m fine," he rasped, his voice a harsh, unfamiliar sound that sent a shiver down my spine. He finally sat all the way up, swaying slightly, and his eyes, when they met mine, were too bright, too intense. Without thinking, I launched myself at him, wrapping my arms around him as tightly as I could. I was terrified to let go, terrified that if I did, he would disappear, or worse, turn into that monster again.

Aiden stiffened at first, clearly taken back by my sudden outburst (And honestly I was too..). But then, slowly, hesitantly, he wrapped his arms around me, pulling me close. His hug was warm, familiar, and for a moment, the fear receded, replaced by a surge of something else...something like hope. I realized, with a clarity that startled me, how much I cared about him. About all of them. Ben, Taylor, Lily, Logan...even Tyler. 

We had been through so much together, faced so many horrors. We were a team, a family forged in the fires of the Phantom Dimension. We were in this together now, and no phantom, no monster, would ever take us away from each other.

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