Hidden In The Attic: An AJR Fanfiction

Chapter Nineteen

↤↤↤↤↤ Ryan ↦↦↦↦↦

My senses are returning. Kind of. My sight is still dark and my hearing is muffled and broken, but at least I can hear. I can feel carpet on my hand, my legs, my face.
The cabin. I'm on the floor of the cabin.
I flinch as there's the loud sound of a door swinging open and footsteps ahead of me. A person stumbles and comes to a stop. I hear a voice.
"Fuck!" the voice curses. "What the fuck was that?"
There's another voice. A shaky, quiet voice on the other side of me. "I- I don't know. What happened to you?"
The first voice— Danny, I remember now— sighs, moving somewhere I cant see. "I- the closet was filled with water. And I was fucking drowning. I- I can't really remember, or, I remember, but I can't really, e- explain it."
That question— what happened to you— is sinking into my body and brain. I'm remembering what happened to me. The faces of my brothers appear in my mind and my eyes flash open to see Danny's feet and the grey carpet stretching out in front of me. I'm on my side in the fetal position on the living room floor, my body stiff and aching.
"Where are Kib and Hanns and Adam?" the second voice asks. No one answers.
I sit up slowly, my joints cracking and my stomach nauseous.
"Oh, my God. Ryan," a different voice behind me says this time. "Are you okay? Ryan?"
I don't turn to see them and instead stare straight in front of me, my mind not really taking in what I'm seeing. I adjust my glasses, blinking a few tears down my face.
Where are Adam and Jack?
I can feel the heartbeat on my shoulder again as I look around the room wildly, not seeing my brothers anywhere. My stomach churns and I blink a few tears down my face, turning my head to the staircase. I hear nothing up there, either.
Oh, my God. They're dead. They're actually dead. I killed them.
I stand with shaking legs and start racing for the staircase, everyone else in the room shouting in protest and confusion, but they don't make an effort to stop me.
But as it turns out, they don't have to stop me because I stop in my tracks when I hear footsteps coming down the stairs. I see Hanna and Kib walking slowly towards me, supporting someone in between them.
My brain takes a few seconds to process that it's Adam.
Oh my God. There's no stab wounds in his stomach, and he's walking. He's alive. I want to hug him but I can't move. Tears start flowing down my cheeks and I put my hands on my face, slipping my fingers under my glasses and sobbing.
"Ryan?" His voice. The last time I heard his voice he was fearing for his life and begging me not to kill him. I shudder, his dying heartbeat in my ear.
"Oh, my God, Adam!" Everyone else joins me in front of him, asking questions and trying to explain everything. A futile attempt, since we don't even know what happened.
"Why're you bleeding?" Danny asks.
Adam doesn't reply. "Wh- Ry?" he repeats. He steps forward and puts his hands on my shoulders. I flinch, but they remain, and I open my eyes to see him looking at me with concern, rather than fear. I smile weakly.
"Let's, uh, get to the living room and sit down," Kib suggests. "Adam is still kinda weak."
"Not really," he responds, but everyone is already migrating to the living room and sitting down.
So, Adam's okay. But I'm still uneasy.
Jack wasn't with them.
Once more, I break away from the group and charge up the stairs. I can hear everyone asking each other what I'm doing, but no one follows me.
I get up the stairs and turn the corner into the hallway, pausing for a second. My mind is skewed and it takes a moment to remember which room is ours. The light flickers above me as I swing open the closest door on the right side to see Jack on his bed, his pillow on the floor next to it. His phone is in his hand but he's not looking at it— he's staring at me with fear. A similar look in his eyes from before. I feel nauseous and look down at my hands, but there's nothing there.
"Oh, it's you," he says, letting out his breath as the fear leaves his expression. "Where's Adam?"
I'm overwhelmed with relief and joy and I smile at him, swallowing the lump in my throat. "He's downstairs. Everything's okay now." I want to hug Jack as hard as I can, but he's still injured. And I'm honestly kind of afraid that if I touch him I might end up hurting him again.
His face is somber. "What happened?"
I put my hands in my pockets, rocking back and forth on my feet. "Uh, we don't know. I think they're trying to figure it out."
Jack sighs and glances sideways for a second before meeting my eyes again. He shrugs. "Well, you should probably go help them."
I nod. "Yeah, I will. I just wanted to make sure you're okay."
Jack pauses for a second before answering. His eyes momentarily flicker to the pillow on the floor, then to his phone, then to me again. He gives a half-smile and nods slightly.
"I am."

We all recollect in the living room. Adam and Kib are on the couch, with Danny on one of the arms and Julie on the other, while Jay and I each occupy one big chair. Jack's still upstairs, as he couldn't find the energy to get out of bed and come down to join us.
"Okay, I found some gauze and band-aids," Hanna says, walking back into the room from the bathroom. "But there wasn't much." She gives a handful of bandages to Adam, who takes them with a small smile.
"I'm not hurt that badly," he insists. But he winces in pain as he places a band-aid on his still-bleeding forehead.
Hanna sits down with a sigh next to Adam. No one speaks for a while while Kib helps him bandage up, but once they're done, they break the silence.
"Is everyone okay?" they ask quietly.
The responses they earn are not quiet.
"No, you fucking idiot!" Everyone's voices overlap, yelling about how awful what just happened was. Whatever it was.
Kib throws their hands up in front of them in defense. "Okay! God, sorry. What even happened?"
This time, no one talks. We all glance among each other, falling silent, but no one wants to relive out loud what we experienced. I mean, I'm assuming. I don't know what happened to everyone else. Adam and I lock eyes momentarily and my throat seems to close up. I quickly look back down at my hands. I couldn't even explain if I wanted to.
Kib leans back on the couch. "Alright, now none of you want to talk."
"Why don't you explain what happened?" Danny prompts. "You seem to have an idea."
They glare at him in agitation but don't elaborate.
"Okay, so, what I think happened," Hanna begins, "is that some demon thing possessed Adam and somehow fucked with all of your minds except me, Kib and Jack. I don't know why."
"All we saw with you guys was you freaking out over nothing," Kib adds. "Danny thought he was drowning, Jay and Jukie were having seizures in the corner, and I don't even know what happened with Ryan."
I shudder, as does everyone else when their name is said. "It's not important."
Hanna shifts the focus from me by speaking again, which I'm thankful for. "So, what I've found out about this place is that there was this guy who lived in a cabin years ago and killed his daughter. And we're in that same cabin right now. He probably did some satanic shit, or something, so the cabin is haunted."
Adam's brow is furrowed in confusion. "So, that guy's ghost possessed me? Or, the daughter?"
She shrugs. "I don't know. Probably the daughter. Anyway, Kib saw a fucking demon, too, with that weird hand thing in the lake."
Adam turns to look at Kib. They share a glance before they both look back to Hanna.
"And, Jack was probably possessed when he jumped off of the roof. Adam was definitely possessed tonight, since he tried to kill me and Kib. And Jack."
Adam crosses his arms. "I what?"
Hanna moves her hands in a shoulderless shrug in her lap. "Yeah, you were a demon, or whatever, and you tried to kill me and Kib. You also punched through the fucking window," she says, gesturing to the broken window at the front of the house then to Adam's scratched-up hand. "Then later Kib and I found you trying to suffocate Jack."
Adam nods, pressing his knees together and hunching over, reducing the amount of space he's taking up on the couch. "Right." He looks up at her. "Is he okay?"
Hanna nods, while Kib just shrugs, and my stomach leaps in fear once more. I remind myself that I just saw him and that he's okay, but I don't think I'll ever stop being worried.
Silence falls over us. Everyone is staring off into nothing, encapsulated by their own thoughts. It seems like forever that we sit there in terrible silence. My mind is reeling and I need someone to speak to distract me from reliving the day. Someone, please, just say something.
"I kind of wanna find out what happened here," Hanna says, breaking the silence once more. "Maybe there's some stuff in the attic and the bedrooms we can find."
Jay's sitting sideways on the big velvet chair, his legs over one arm and his back resting on the other. He pulls his hood over his head and tightens the drawstrings, completely hiding his neck. "Are you fucking insane?" he asks in response. "You want to go back up to the attic? Why don't we just pack up our shit and leave?"
"Yeah," Danny agrees. "If the demon is, like, out, or whatever, can we just..." He points to the front door with his thumb and clicks his tongue. "Go home?"
Hanna rolls her eyes. "Oh, my God, both of you shut the fuck up! If we don't do anything about the demon thing, it could follow us home. Do you want that? You wanna live like this?"
Jay tips his head back to rest on the arm of the chair. "Jesus, fine. But we should split up so we can do it quicker."
"Are you guys forgetting that the car isn't working?" Adam asks. "We probably won't be able to leave yet."
Jay sighs. "Whatever. We can try, at least."
Hanna stands. "Fine, we can try the car again. But first, we split up and search the cabin. Kib and, uh, Ryan can go look through the attic. And Jay can go with them because he's being a little bitch about it."
He exhales sharply, smiling a bit and lifting his head back up.
"Me, Jukie and Danny can go look through rooms and shit. And Adam, you're injured, so you can go keep Jack company."
Adam gives a tiny smile. "Alright."