Mind Games

Chapter 53 - Ryan

Ryan walked up the stairs of what used to be his home.

Now it felt like a void, without the presence of his parents.

The electricity was off. That was the first thing he did. Turned off the main fuse.

No matter how powerful Amy had become, she needed electricity, she needed technology. Without that, she was powerless.

He walked into his empty bedroom and flopped on to his bed.

A vague part of his mind thought about Ned's parents. May be he should tell them where he was.

But would they care? They had just lost their son. They probably blamed him. They probably resented him. They would want to know what happened. The cops would want to know what happened.

What would he tell them? That he left his best friend and turned tail to 'get help'?

That Amy turned into the ghost of an old woman and trapped him in that house? That the ghost of his dad finally let him go? But wait, that ghost too was Amy.

Inexplicably, he started laughing.

He laughed loudly. He laughed even as his tummy hurt and tears flowed down his eyes.

His haunted laughter echoed through the empty house where he once happily rode his tricycle while his parents chased him, laughing.

They were all happy together back then. Even his parents seemed to care about each other then, before resentment took over.

His laughter eventually died down and he stared blankly at the ceiling.

Cassie's face flittered through his mind, but he consciously pushed it away. He hated her. She took away the one friend who had cared unconditionally for him.

He felt tired.

He just wanted to drift into sleep again.

He turned on to his side and curled into a ball.

The girl and her grandmother survived.

An echo of the paramedic's voice woke him up.

His room was dark. He had slept through the day. He was also really hungry.

He dragged himself down to the kitchen. Luckily there were still a few boxes of cereal left.

He poured himself a bowl and munched them dry.

As much as he tried to push the thought away, his mind brought him back to Cassie.

The girl and her grandmother survived.

"So did her grandmother also trample my friend?" He thought bitterly.

Except that something was wrong with this image.

Cassie was not like that. She could've run off and left her grandparents behind. She hadn't. She had waited right until he and Ned had got there.

"You never know what people do when their life is on the line." A cold voice in him whispered.

But Ryan was a logical boy. And despite his anger, his logic refused to buy this story.

Amy couldn't physically hurt someone on a stairway.

Sure, she could give you an electric shock through a metal doorknob, he thought, wryly. But on a stairway? What could she physically do to scare Cassie enough to push her friend to death?

There was something else that nagged him. Something about his last conversation with Cassie.

She was standing under that hedge. The early morning sun was streaming into his eyes. He couldn't really see her too clearly. But there was something. Something that his tired mind had registered and ignored.

He put away his bowl of cereal and walked back into his bedroom.

He wasn't really sleepy but there was nothing else to do.

He lay back on his bed and watched the shadows creep into his room as night took over.

His exhausted mind started drifting to sleep again.

He was almost asleep when the image of Cassie flashed through his mind again.

He snapped awake and jumped out of bed.

Holy shit!

The girl under the tree. She was wearing polka dotted shoes!