Hidden In The Attic: An AJR Fanfiction

Chapter Nine

↤↤↤↤↤ Danny ↦↦↦↦↦

I sit on one of the big velvet chairs in the living room, my eyes on Jack, who's still on the couch. We all agreed to take hour-long shifts watching him in case he wakes up. I'm on the one-to-two A.M shift, which is incredibly enjoyable. My eyes are sagging, but I can't fall asleep, even if the rain pounding on the roof is trying to lull me into unconsciousness. I have to make sure he's okay.
I take out my phone and look at the time. 1:22. Great. I put it away and stare at Jack again, but nothing's new. He's still lying on his back, breathing shallowly. His right arm is hanging off the side of the cushion so I stand up and pick it up gingerly to cross it back over his chest. It slips a bit at first, but I reposition it and it stays up.
Well, while I'm standing, I might as well get something to eat. I've been hungry since my shift started.
I look once more at Jack and walk into the kitchen, unsure of where everything is. We haven't been here for long, and I've never really been in the kitchen before. After a few minutes of digging around, I find some bread and some peanut butter, so I make a sandwich. It's kind of lame, but it's my only option at the moment.
I walk back into the living room, sandwich in hand and in mouth, to see Jack on the couch. Not unusual, but this time, his eyes are wide open and he's gripping the cushion underneath him as if it were a lifeboat on a sinking ship. He's breathing heavily, his gaze darting around the room quickly. It stops, though, when it lands on me.
"Da- Danny," he whispers. I drop my sandwich onto the floor, almost choking on the piece in my mouth before swallowing, and run to the couch.
"You're awake," I greet, relieved.
He tries to sit up, but cringes and flops back onto the couch. "God, my ribs hurt. And my head. Fuck. What did I do?" He presses the heel of his palm into his ribcage, wincing.
I hesitate, not sure if I should answer him. Does he not remember?
I put up one finger, instructing him to hold on for a second. "Guys!" I yell, jogging to the stairs. "Jack's awake!" I pause there for a second, not sure anyone heard me, but my doubts are disproven as I hear footsteps and Ryan runs first down the stairs, followed by Adam, Kib, Jay, Julie, and Hanna all asking incoherent questions.
I back up and return to the couch to see Ryan already there, on his knees and trying his best to hug his brother. Jack's smiling slightly, his head sinking into Ryan's shoulder.
"Oh, my God," Ryan breathes. His body seems to relax for a moment before he tenses again and recoils from Jack with a bit of a shove.
"Ow!" Jack winces, squinting in pain and crossing his arms gingerly over his chest. "What the hell?"
Ryan sits on his knees, his hands fidgeting in his lap. "What is wrong with you? Why would you jump off of the fucking roof?"
Jack stares at Ryan for a while, his mind obviously churning. "What... What do you mean? I jumped off a roof?"
"Yeah, you jumped off of the fucking roof," he repeats angrily. "What's wrong with you?"
Jack tries to shrug but stops with a wince of pain. "All I remember from last night is dinner. You-- you said Shay was seventy pounds, and I was about to correct you, but I kind of..." He pauses, looking around the room as if it held the answer, or if he were hiding the truth. "I don't know. That's all I remember."
I curl up in one of the big velvet chairs, feeling too shocked and weak to stand. We all share confused glances, then look back to Ryan when he speaks again.
"You got up from dinner, like- like you were a robot, or something. And you went up to the roof and, like, fell off." He pauses, clearing his throat, as his voice cracked near the end of his sentence. "You wouldn't respond to us. You didn't hear us."
Jack finally glances up at all of the rest of us. His eyes have a look to them that they didn't have last night. It's a sad and pained look; but he looks real. Like there's actually a living brain behind his eyes. I can't help but think back to the newspapers that Kib showed me last night. I got the same vibe from Jack on the roof as I did reading those papers, and standing on that pentagram. I suppress a shudder and look at Kib, who is looking back at me, seemingly thinking the same thing.
"Uh, Jack?" Kib asks, quietly, looking away.
Jack's eyes are closed now, his brow furrowed. "Yeah?" He sinks down into the couch.
"Do you believe in ghosts?"
Jack opens his eyes slightly, his eyebrows creasing. He gulps. "What?" he asks, putting one hand on his forehead with a grunt of pain.
"Don't call me crazy," they begin, looking at Adam first before sweeping their gaze across the rest of us. "But I did some research on the cabin, and I think it's haunted, or something. Remember that pentagram in the attic?" they add, gesturing to Jay. "That's a part of it too. And what happened to me at the lake."
"What happened at the lake?" Jack asks hoarsely. "Didn't you just fall in?"
"It was nothing," Adam says quickly.
Kib shoots him an annoyed glance and sits on the arm of the couch nearest to Jack's feet. "I reached into the water and a phantom hand or something pulled me in," they say. "Adam and Ryan don't believe me. But maybe something happened to you to make you do that and lose your memory."
Ryan looks like he's about to object, but he stops himself, adjusting his glasses. The room is silent for a few seconds, everyone staring at Kib.
"I believe in ghosts," Jack finally answers quietly. "Maybe something blocked my memory and made me j-jump off of the roof."
I stare at him speculatively. Since when does he believe in ghosts? He laughed at me when I brought it up on the hike, so what happened to make him change his mind so quickly? Maybe he knew he was possessed, and the memory is returning to him. Or he just needed a reason to make fun of me earlier.
Ryan stares at all of us in confusion, but says nothing. He looks defeated. I feel the same.
"Ghosts and demons and shit aren't real," Adam insists. "There should be, like, a normal explanation for this."
Hanna pipes up sarcastically from one of the stools at the kitchen counter. "Yes, I believe that something in the books you brought might prove that. Like, Jack thought it was quite hot in the cabin and just walking outside wasn't gonna do much for him; he needed more of a breeze."
Ryan and I both shudder before she continues.
"Ghosts are real, actually, and if you want a 'logical' explanation then we can say gravity was not the nicest today and decided to have more of a pull," she says, she looks incredibly fed up. I nod, and so does Julie. Jay just looks confused.
"Where's your proof?" Ryan asks.
Hanna and Kib look at each other for a bit.
"Oh, my God. Wait here." Kib gets up from the couch and sprints up the stairs, returning a short while later with their laptop under one arm and a stack of papers under the other.
Everyone sits down on the floor in front of the couch, allowing Jack to see too. We turn the lights on and give him a pair of sunglasses, assuming he has a concussion.
"So, I read in these somewhere that a man drowned his daughter in the lake. And I looked it up," Kib continues, opening up their laptop and typing something into it, "and found this." They wait a bit for the page to load before turning the computer so that the screen is facing the inside of the circle. Everyone piles around Julie, who is sitting directly across from Kib, to read the article that Kib, Hanna and I read last night.
Ryan finishes first. "Whoa," he breathes, meriting a slap and a shush from Jay. Everyone finishes reading in about half a minute, looking back at Kib as they take their laptop back
"So someone fucking died here," Julie says. Not as a question, but as a statement. As if she were trying to get herself to believe it.
I shift my position on the floor, crossing my legs. "It's a demon," I say.
Ryan looks at me with a look that I have trouble deciphering while Jack looks in my direction as well. Maybe. I can't see behind the sunglasses.
"So there's a demon in our cabin?" Jack asks quietly. Most of us just nod, rather than using our words to give him approval.
He speaks again. "That's fucking insane. Let's just leave."
Adam stands up and sits on one of the chairs behind the group. "We can't leave. You're concussed— you can't handle a long car ride."
Jack turns his head so that it's facing upward again, giving a small sigh. "I'd rather have a headache in the car than stay here and get killed by a demon."
"No one's getting killed by a demon," Adam sighs.
Jack turns his head back to face Adam, wincing as he turns his neck a bit too fast. "I almost did! Come on, we have to leave."
Adam sighs. "Alright," he says. "We can leave tomorrow morning."
"No," Jay protests. "I don't wanna sleep here knowing that there's a demon."
"Well, we aren't driving home so late."
Kib stands, holding their laptop under their arm. "We should," they say definitively. "Is anyone even tired?"
Jack raises his hand slightly, but no one takes it as a yes. Ryan stands and returns to his brother to help him off of the couch.
"You good?" he asks.
Jack grunts uncomfortably, his arm wrapped around Ryan's shoulders. "Yeah."
So, reluctantly, Adam lets us all go upstairs and pack up the small amount of stuff that we'd unpacked earlier, and we load it into the car quietly before all piling into our seats. Ryan gets all of Jack's stuff for him, and sits next to him in the backseat while Jay takes shotgun in his place.
"Alright," Adam says. "Jack, are you okay?"
Jack nods quickly, then winces in pain. "Yeah."
"Okay." Adam goes to start the car and I turn around to look at Jack. His eyes are closed tightly, his hands on the sides of his head and rubbing his temples. He's slouched down in his seat, with Ryan and Kib also staring at him in concern. I kind of hate this demon right now for making him feel like this when he hasn't done anything.
I'm taken out of my sympathetic pondering by Adam talking again up front.
"Shit," he hisses, the car keys jingling in the ignition. "It won't start."
"Oh, my God!" Jay exclaims. "Are you kidding me?"
"We have to get out of here!" I say urgently.
"Guys, calm down." Adam leaves the keys in the ignition and puts his hands out in front of him to quiet the clamor. "It's fine. We can try again in the morning. Let's just go back inside and get some sleep."
I don't like the change of subject. "Wait, so are we stuck here?"
Jay reaches behind his seat and slaps my leg. "Danny, shut up."
"Everyone, shut up!" Jack groans. "My head hurts. Let's just go back inside so I can go back to sleep."
Kib smirks. "Okay, loser."
Adam just sighs frustratedly and climbs out of the car, followed by Jay, Hanna, Julie and I. Kib, Jack and Ryan follow, Jack leaning on Ryan still. We all go inside, leaving our luggage in the trunk, and head upstairs to sleep. Well, not all of us. Jack returns to the couch and I stay with him. It's still my shift, after all.