Recall

Rhys

He could hear his parents arguing before he even opened the door. Rhys leant his back against the door and just listened, he wasn't ready to deal with them yet.

"I told you to bring it with us," his mother yelled. "You never listen to me."

Rhys sighed and opened the door. "I'm home," he called, interrupting his dad mid sentence. His dad froze at the sound of his son's voice, and then spun around. His hair was all standing up straight from him running his hands through it on repeat. This was what Rhys' father did was he was agitated. His mother on the other hand was never not in the mood for a fight. She could probably fight him all day if Rhys and his siblings weren't there. They tried their best to stop when the kids got home, and that was all Rhys' could ask for.

"I thought I told you to rest today," his mother said. "I was worried."

His father scoffed, "You didn't even know he left."

Rhys shook his head and headed to the staircase. There he saw his three siblings all seated on the bottom step. "Well go get it then," he heard his mom whisper angrily from the other room. Alexis looked up at him with wide eyes. He knew they weren't as use to this as he was. So instead of following his first instinct to get them out of the house, he walked back into the family room.

"What's going on?" He asked his mom.

She sighed in annoyance. "Nothing, Rhys. Why don't you go do the homework Alexis brought home for you."

"Maybe I could be doing that if you weren't yelling," Rhys said, surprising himself and his mom in the process. Him standing up to them was a rare occurrence. He couldn't even believe what had come out of his own mouth. "They can all hear you," he said quieter.

"Rhys we're not fighting, we're having a discussion. Please go upstairs with your siblings," she replied seriously. When she used that voice, no one would usually fight back. With her eyes narrowed and the quiet anger, it was a deal weapon. Not even his father would mess with her at this point.

"So back in Seattle, we got kicked out of the apartment because of the amount of discussions you two had?" Rhys challenged. He just couldn't take it anymore, their arguing was nonstop. After the numerous noise complaints, their landlord had no choice but to make them leave. Yet his mother insisted that it was Rhys' fault, that he and Jason were always too loud.

"I didn't ground you two for that because I know you didn't mean to. But blaming it on me, Rhys," She shook her head. "Go upstairs."

"I'm sorry mom," Rhys said. He walked back over to the staircase, but instead of going up, he motioned his siblings to follow him. With confused expressions covering their faces, they followed him to the front door. One by one they all left the house, leaving their mother with his fists clenched in anger.

"Have you guys been to the beach yet?" Rhys asked his siblings, in an attempt to lighten the mood.

Alexis quickly joined him in this, "Not yet, can we go now?"

Rhys nodded and took the three down the dirt path on the side of the road, that he had learned lead down to the beach. The path was clearly not supposed to be there, it had just become a path over the years. Branches of tree's hung low, and bushes stuck out in front of them, but they still made their way down it. When they finally got to the sand, Rhys sat down next to Gabe and the twins sat next to him.

"Why do they always fight?" Gabe asked.

Rhys shrugged and stared out at the sea. Oceanside was beautiful, but he missed Seattle. He had lived there his entire life after all.

Then suddenly it started again. This was not the time for it, but by now Rhys learned it came at those times anyways. The ocean blurred, and then turned to darkness. He could hear a ringing in the silence, and he just let himself relax and wait for the vision to start. There was no use fighting it at this point.

"You have to let me go," she cried. He was standing in the doorway of a house and the girl was on the porch. Tears were streaming down her face and he had this odd urge to wipe them away.

"What are you talking about, Ivey?" He asked. "What did he do to you?" Rhys could feel the pain in his chest, he loved this girl. He didn't know what this was or who he was, but he knew he loved this girl.

Her blond hair had a splash of red at the top, and the wet hairs were wavy. Rhys felt his eyes widen and his fists clenched. His hands went to her shoulders, and he pulled closer to him. "He didn't mean to," she whispered. "He apologized."

Rhys wrapped his arms around the girl, and felt her tears immediately stain his shirt. "What did he do?" Rhys begged. He could feel the fear in his question, as if he didn't really want to know. Being in this vision, Rhys was consumed with the boys sadness, it was almost too much to handle. It felt like it was his own pain, and he had to keep telling himself that it was a hallucination.

"H—he," she stuttered. "He threw me down the stairs."

Rhys stepped back, but kept his hands on her shoulders. "He did what?" Rhys gasped. Then in that moment Rhys knew what the boy in this vision was thinking. How could he do that to his own daughter?

"He didn't mean it," she repeated. "I swear."

Then just like that, she was gone and Rhys found himself wishing he could go back. He wanted to see the rest. He wanted to make sure the girl was okay.

But his siblings came back into focus, with Alexis kneeling in the sand in front of him. "What happened, Rhys?" She exclaimed, a worried look covering her face.

"I'm fine," he said, dusting the sand that had gotten into his hair away. He sat back up and nodded at her in in reassurance. 

Though he didn't feel fine.

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Hope you enjoyed the chapter! If you did please consider leaving a vote and comment telling me what you thought.

As this is a short story, there is only one part left! I don't know when it will be finished, but I'm hoping to have it done for Monday.

If you want to read more, you can all check out my new book titled The Criminal Project! I'm very excited about that book, and other things that you'll all know more about soon. So you can go check out the first three chapters if you'd like.