Scars And Stories

Chapter 6

Ryan led Mark to his car, where he began to fix it while Ryan wandered around.

He put his hood on, as always, and slid his hands in his jeans' pockets. He walked in the desert for a few minutes, kicking rocks here and there and seeing how far they could go. He stopped after a moment, growing bored with the activity, and turned around on his heels to look at the motel that was standing feet from him; what happened the night before came back to his mind.

He was sitting on the bed, his legs moving nervously, his eyes shut tightly, and his hands gripping his jeans. His breathing grew heavier as he tried to focus solely on the sound of the TV - without success. Instead, a deep voice formed in his head, repeating a sentence that he couldn't understand at first, but after a moment, he could clearly make out the phrase being screamed at him, "Silence the noise". His eyes shot open, the yellow of them glowing in the lightly lit room. He brought his shaky hands up and a noise echoed in the room, accompanied with a sudden change of light. He spun his head to the TV that was now on fire.

He rose up from the bed and approached the television. He quickly threw it on the ground, careful not to catch on fire himself. The noise of breaking glass echoed in the room as the TV's screen hit the floor. The noise emanating from the television came to a stop and now, only the muffled music could be heard.

He darted to the bathroom and turned the water of the bath on. He picked up a towel, dampened it, and ran to the TV to stop the fire. As he tried to put the flames out, the sleeve of his hoodie caught on fire. Ryan draped the towel atop the fire, stopping it, and ran to the bathroom again. He jumped in the tub, still fully clothed, and let the water cover him completely. He put his head under the water and kept his eyes open, repeating "stop" in his head to try to stop the Novocaine.

The sound of the music was completely muffled and soon became inaudible. Ryan brought his head out of the water to breathe and didn't hear anything - the music had stopped. His eyes returned to their normal color and Ryan felt like all strength had left his body. He got out of the tub, water dripping from his wet clothes as he dragged himself to the bed, collapsing on it and blacking out.

"Hey." Mark's voice rang in Ryan's ears as he put his hand on his shoulder. Ryan shook his head and faced the man that was on his right. "Your car's ready," He announced, pointing to the dark grey car on the side of the road.

Ryan nodded his head in understanding and started walking toward his car, followed by Mark. Once in front of the car, he turned to face the man and shook his hand. "Thank you, again."

"No problem. I put some gas in it too."

Ryan muttered another thank you and slipped into the car. He put the key in the ignition and started the engine, waving goodbye to Mark as he started driving away.

About thirty minutes later, a black van pulled up in front of the motel. One man, dressed completely in black, got out of the passenger seat, followed by three other men coming out of the back, adorned in black with helmets on their heads. They walked to the front door, the guy without helmet and just a black bandana covering the bottom of his face, in front. He pushed the door in aggressively and approached the counter.

"The list of the people that came this past twenty-four hours," He ordered with his deep, inhuman voice.

The woman behind the counter hurried to take the register and placed in front of the man. She backed up in fear.

The man turned the pages and stopped when he saw the name of Ryan Tedder. He put his finger next to the name, asking, "When did he leave?"

The woman swallowed the lump in her throat and got closer to see the name. "Him? About thirty minutes ago, maybe forty."

He looked at her with his black eyes before leaving the room like he entered it, just as aggressively and without even muttering a goodbye. He got in the vehicle again and ordered the driver to take them in the only direction possible.