Better with you-Shyland Fanfiction

25-The Body

WARNING: GRAPHIC AND GORY DESCRIPTION

Shane woke up early, the sun still rising. He got off the bench, cradling his arm, which had basically lost all feeling, and had started to turn blue. He decided to go for a walk to wake himself up before continuing his journey to who knows where.

He saw a forest in the distance, and decided to go there, since there wouldn't be any chance of running into anyone. When he arrived, he decided to just walk around, since there was no one else in sight. So he walked around, occasionally seeing a squirrel or deer. 

After a few minutes, he was about to head back, when he noticed something on the ground. Blood. As he looked closer, he saw more of it, and it was leading deeper into the forest. He touched it, and it was wet, so it was obviously fresh. Against his better judgment, he decided to follow the trail. When he reached the end of the trail, he was horrified at what he saw. 

A man, who seemed to be about his age, was lying there, dead. His face was bashed in, so there was no chance of identifying him. His hands and feet were chopped off, and they were no where in sight.

 He had the same haircut as Shane, and was also wearing a blue shirt with capris. There was blood spattered everywhere, and Shane had to be careful not to get any on him.

On the ground beside him, miraculously not covered in blood, was a wallet. Shane picked it up, hesitantly, and opened it up. Inside was money, about $1000 dollars in cash, and a drivers license, identifying the man as Preston Scott. Shane frowned, he knew that name. This was the man who had disappeared earlier this week.

Then Shane got an idea. It was a terrible one, but he was desperate. He took off his watch, and careful not to touch the body, put it on Preston. Then, he emptied out all of his pockets, and transferred the small bits into the body's pockets. 

He stepped back, and took a look at the body. It was scary how much Preston could actually pass off as Shane. This might just work, he thought, and got a stab of guilt, thinking about how Ryland would feel if he thought he was dead. But he had to do it.

He took the money out of the wallet, and put it in his pocket. He then walked for about 10 minutes, until finally finding a good spot to bury the wallet. He dug a hole about 3 feet deep with a stick, and placed the wallet inside, burying it.

Expressionless, he walked out of the forest, knowing they would discover the body soon. He hoped they would think it was Shane, he did think it looked pretty convincing. Before going back into town, he double checked to make sure that there was no blood on him.

There were several people out now, and the sun was all the way up. He made his way to the nearest bus stop, and went inside, hoping no one recognized him. Surprisingly, no one did, or if they did, they didn't say anything.

He looked at the map, and saw a bus was leaving for Boise, Idaho in 15 minutes. He shrugged, not having any better plan, so he bought a ticket with Preston's money, and went outside to wait.

15 minutes later, the bus arrived, and Shane hopped on, ready to leave California behind.

Ryland on the other hand, was not ready to leave anything, especially his bed. When the sun came up, he got up to feed Uno, then went back to bed. He left only to make a sandwich for dinner, and go to the bathroom. He didn't bother taking a shower, brushing his teeth, or brushing his hair, since he knew he wouldn't be leaving the house any time soon.

He repeated this process for the next few days, never leaving the house except for twice a day when he takes Uno out, but that's only to the backyard. He stayed inside, and didn't go to work.

His phone was constantly blowing up with notifications from all of his social media, with fans asking where him and Shane were. It got so annoying, he eventually shut all notifications off, except for his messaging app, just in case.

One day, while Ryland was laying in bed, he heard his phone ring. He reached over, and picked it up, looking at who it was. It was Garrett. Ryland immediately got nervous. Whenever Garrett called, it was always to bad news.

"Hello?" he asked, bracing himself for the worst.

"Ryland," Garrett said, his voice grim. Tears already began to swim in Ryland's eyes.

"What is it?"

"You need to get down to the police station," Garrett said, and Ryland's breath hitched.

"Why?" he asked, his voice breaking, even though he was pretty sure he already knew the answer.

"They found a body Ryland," Garrett said, sounding like he was on the verge of tears as well. "They think it's Shane."